They Threaten Christians, then THIS Happens | Voddie Baucham

Persecution has always been a reality in the church since the book of Acts, always.

The Apostles Are Ordered to Stop Preaching Jesus

I called him in and said, do not speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus anymore. That first phrase, and when they had further threatened them, they let them go. Don't preach in the name of Jesus. Do you understand me?

Stop preaching in the name of Jesus, or we'll take everything you own.

The day before, when Antifa pelted the Christians with eggs and sprayed mace in their faces, one activist shouted, where is your God now? My answer? He was right there, even though the police were not.

Stop preaching in the name of Jesus. This is an abortion something.

Are you praying? I might be praying in my head. So I'll ask you once more. Will you voluntarily come with us now to the police station for me to ask you some questions about today and other days where there are allegations that you've broken public space protection orders?

If I've got a choice, then no. Okay. Well, then you're under arrest. You're under suspicion of failing to comply with the public space protection order.

Stop preaching in the name of Jesus, or we'll kill you.

Today a proposed new bill in Israel that would make it a criminal offense to persuade anyone to convert to another religion, including Christianity. The measure would apply to all religions, but it specifically singles out Christians.

How do you threaten a dead man?

A man who truly believes for me to live as Christ and to die as gain? How do you threaten that man? The answer is you can't.

But prohibiting things like prayer, counseling. And as we can see in my case, it's got even further than this. It's not just vocal prayer or prayer that's manifested, but silent prayer inside my own head.

So my own thoughts are now being censored.

The True Church Is Hated by the World

Persecution has always been against the true church. The true church, the true gospel, the true Lord is hated by the ruler of this world, and he is the ruler of this world system, and all men who don't belong to him are part of that system.

They are of their father the devil, and consequently the true church is always under attack. This is no surprise.

Indeed, Christians should not be surprised that the world hates them. The Bible, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the God they worship. Of course, some Christians are loved by the world because they present a Christianity that is devoid of the gospel.

The nature of our boldness has nothing to do with feeding the poor.

As I've stated in my lane, in my lane is lifting people's spirits. Nothing.

It has nothing to do with caring for the orphan. He chose her, called her. He made her a promise to protect her under the penance of his mighty wings. You don't need Christian boldness to do that.

Do you believe that only Christians can be in relationship with God?

No, I believe that when Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life in the way I read that, Jesus said, he is the, he's the road marker. He's the map.

Pagans do that, and they're loved for it. They're given awards for it. There are ceremonies in their honor for it.

However, there is a reason why Christians, both in the New Testament and throughout history, have been persecuted because of what they believe. In short, Christians are persecuted around the world simply for the exact same reason that Jesus was persecuted.

And persecution today is just as bad as it was for the first century Christians.

Now I'm leaving. Persecution is to be expected. Persecution of Christians is global. It has always been a reality wherever the church has been planted, wherever the gospel has gone. And now persecution of Christians, of course, is global.

It is escalating mostly in the modern era. We might think at the hands of Muslims.

Well, imagine seeing your husband, brother, or father brutally killed by religious fanatics. That's what happened to many families when ISIS executed 21 Egyptian Christians in February.

We read about that all the time in the news. And by the way, they are doing that because they think they are pleasing God. The very same confused motive that the Jews in the book of Acts who persecuted the Christians had as well.

But it's not just other religions that are hostile to the Christian faith. Western cultures also hate Christianity and are persecuting Christians more and more.

But persecution is coming from a lot of other quarters beyond just Islam or forms of false religion. In the country in which we live, in the Western world, devotees of immorality persecute the church.

Devotees of homosexuality persecute the church.

There were days where my wife was afraid, actually afraid to come to the shop. We've had death threats, harassing phone calls, been forced by the government to give up 40 of my business, half of my employees.

It's been emotional on our side as well.

Those who are advocates of godless freedom to sin hate biblical Christianity. They hate scripture. They hate those who hold to scripture.

Well, the reason is that they have Christ being depicted as part of the alphabet community. We'll say that. And he comes with his partner, Orlando, right? The story is like, I believe I read somewhere where the story is Jesus comes to Orlando, discovers that, hey, Joseph isn't his father because God lets him know that I'm actually your father.

And then he has to choose between being with Orlando or dying on the cross for our sins.

This persecution comes from individuals. It comes from groups. It comes from governments. Even our own government has engaged in persecuting Christians who do not acknowledge certain immoral behaviors.

Today, I sign the Respect for Marriage Act into law.

That persecution will continue. Certainly, there's been individual persecution. There's been maybe group persecution. But to have the government now joining the persecution of the church is kind of a new era for us.

Government Pressure on Churches and Public Worship

Tonight, a California church is fighting back against a cease and desist order. Harvest Rock Church in Pasadena is requesting a preliminary injunction against California Governor Gavin Newsom over his COVID -19 orders, which church attorneys call unconstitutional.

On Sunday, Harvest Rock Church joined other California houses of worship, violating Golden State restrictions on singing, chanting, and indoor attendance. Another church defying those state orders, Grace Community Church near Los Angeles.

And joining us now, the Reverend John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley near L .A.

We don't know how far it's going to go. Persecution of Christians is widespread all over the world.

The inevitable result of boldly and unashamedly proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ is that the world will not tolerate what we are doing because it clashes with everything the world holds dear.

Essentially, what they're saying is neutrality is not an option. These people can't be ignored. These people have to be dealt with. And that's the fruit of our boldness. We can't be ignored. We have to be dealt with.

In the midst of a culture that hates our God and that hates the Lord Jesus Christ, those who preach Jesus and who do so boldly and publicly and bear fruit from that preaching cannot be ignored. Something has to be done.

There is a clash that takes place.

The Cost of Bold Gospel Witness

Listen, man, I know your father is a Christian. Okay. Are you a Christian? Am I a Christian? Okay. See, that's a very, you know, great question, you know what I'm saying? But let me ask you this. No, no, no.

Answer the question first. It's a great question because a Christian is someone that's repented of their sins. That doesn't support sexual immorality. That's not walking for fame, for living for Jesus.

Someone who's denied themselves pick up their cross daily and follow them. I want to know. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let me tell you this.

Stop talking to me, sir. Have a nice day. However, because confronting the world with the true gospel of Jesus Christ is offensive to many, some Christians have chosen to simply not proclaim the full gospel of Jesus Christ.

And this is why it's so easy not to preach the gospel because you can avoid the clash. You can avoid the opposition. You can avoid the hatred. You can avoid the name calling. In fact, you can be on the other end of the spectrum.

You can have people love you and applaud you if you just stop.

But do you feel like, you know, there, you have a moral imperative to, to speak publicly about some of these more controversial issues?

No, because we try to be like Jesus. Very rarely did Jesus ever talk about morality or social issues. He was about the deeper things of the heart.

But when we proclaim the true full gospel of Jesus Christ, we will be hated and attacked by the world.

The fruit of our boldness is opposition, marginalization. It's inevitable. We will be called names, we will be shunned, we will be passed over, we will be accused.

I don't care about your religion. I'm so tired of having nonstop conversations about what the Bible says.

Refusing to Compromise the Name of Jesus

Popular Christian music artist John Cooper was once faced with a very important decision.

I heard a testimony recently of one of the biggest, most successful Christian bands of the 90s, I believe, maybe the early 2000s.

Somebody said, hey, John, I want to talk to you. And I didn't know they even knew who I was. And it was a fairly big mover and shaker in the industry. And basically, the story goes him saying, hey, you guys could be the biggest next biggest band in the world, but you have to stop talking about Jesus.

And he kind of went through a spiel of why. And then he's like, hey, I'm not telling you to not be a Christian. I'm not saying to like not believe in Jesus. Stop talking about it. Don't do Christian interviews.

Don't say you are a Christian band. You need to dissociate from that because people don't take it seriously. I slept on it, woke up the next day and I was like, that is so not what God is saying to me.

It was so clear, it was so clearly evident that it kind of sounded like the truth, but it is not the truth.

And they talked about how, you know, this leader of the band talked about how, you know, their star was on the rise and an industry leader came to him and basically said, listen, you guys have everything.

I mean, you've got it all. Your sound, your look, your this, your that. You guys have got it all. If you would just slightly change your lyrics, essentially, if you would just not use the name, sing about the same stuff.

Just don't use the name. Do the same work. Just just don't just don't use the name. And it's yours. And the fact of the matter is he was telling the absolute truth. And there are many, there are many who've done it in the name of advancing the gospel.

Do you feel that homosexuality is a sin? You know, I can't honestly answer on that. I have too many people that I love that they are homosexual. I don't know. I can't say one way or the other. I'm not God.

So when people ask questions like that, that's what my go to is. I just say, read the Bible and find out for yourself. And when you find out, let me know because I'm learning.

Let's say one of your male sons comes to you at 20, 23 years old and says, hey, dad, this is my husband. We're engaged. We're going to get married next month and I want you to be in the wedding.

If anything, we will dialogue so that I can have a better understanding because I don't profess to be like, I got this all figured out and I know the way this should be.

But the truth is that this kind of compromise obscures the gospel more than it helps the gospel reach more people.

We don't want to be a stumbling block and we don't want to offend people. So what we will do is we will keep talking about the same thing. We just won't directly refer to Jesus, but everybody who's a Christian will know exactly who and what we're talking about until they don't, until they don't.

So Christians, let's proclaim the true full gospel with boldness, knowing that it's only this gospel that can change the hearts of lost sinners. And let's make sure we proclaim the true Jesus of the Bible and not a false, non-offensive version of Jesus that we have created to please the culture.

The Only Name That Saves

By the way, all they asked for was a name. Amen. That's all. That's all.

That's all they asked. So we just asked for a name. We just asked for a name. But Peter says, I want to make sure you get the right one because he's not the only person named Jesus. I want to make sure that you know which Jesus I'm talking about.

And I want to make sure that you understand why, why this name is significant. Why Jesus' name is significant, because here's the thing, you can use the name without using the name. You can use the name in the midst of this culture that just sees Jesus as a good man and good teacher and good prophet, and is glad to hear the sayings of Jesus next to the sayings of Gandhi, next to the sayings of Muhammad or whomever else.

That's fine if you use it that way. Uh-uh. Peter says, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well.

He's not done. This Jesus, not another Jesus, this Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

That's the name.

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