11. Stand UP!

Welcome to the podcast where we prod the sheep and beat the wolf. This is episode 11. Stand up when you fight a menacing bully.

The worst thing in the world that you could ever do is cower. That sort of behavior only encourages the bully to continue pulverizing you comforted by the fact that he has a psychological advantage over you.

As long as you are going to continue to whimper to defeat that kind of bully, you have to take a courage filled stand and you have to hold your ground until he backs down.

That's the only way that you're going to do it. Well, as I think about that notion this morning, I've realized that the

Christian church has all but forgotten what it means to stand up and fight. We no longer stand up for truth and contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

That's Jude three. We cave, we cower, we capitulate, and then we hide in the corners hoping that all the boogeymen are going to leave us alone.

As the unambiguous Dr. House once mused, the world doesn't work that way, even if we want it to.

This world that you and I woke up into this morning is now a glim, pitiful shadow of the world that most of us grew up in.

Why? Because we've cowered. We've stopped fighting for truth. We've thrown in the white flag of surrender and we've given up like thoroughgoing pansies.

And now the world without restraint flies headlong into the windshield of depravity.

The whole impending crash could have been avoided. Well, if we would have done something about it.

See, the world has not always been this way. The world I grew up in even in the 1980s was not like the one before me today.

Sure. It had its problems like every generation before that, especially when it comes to glamour shots, big hair, and parachute pants, which should never by the

Lord's grace be repeated. But at least that generation had the moral fortitude and good sense to recognize that men alone have penises and only women have vaginas, which is about as far down the common sense pole as you can go before smacking your face into the concrete.

I grew up knowing that my generation would not stand idly by, for example, while sick and demented perverts wondered into a woman's bathroom, exposing themselves to our mothers and daughters.

That was common sense. Men just a few decades ago would not have stood for that. And they would have met that kind of perversion with such swift and masculine force that the next kinky dullard would think twice before even making the same mistake.

But now that kind of heinous, God hating and woman despising crime is celebrated in society.

Today, vile and obscene men can identify as a woman and they can find housing in a women's prison, allowing them to rape and pillage their cell mates to their despicable delight under the guise of some sort of newfound feminine identity.

The whole thing is madness. Who is going to protect these women? That's a question. Aren't they worth protecting?

And maybe you say, well, they're in prison, but they're still worth protecting as human beings. They're obviously not going to be protected by the perverts who sneak into their beds at night.

They're obviously not being protected by the wardens who are virtually signaling to get more of a budget while they keep this sort of debauchery in place.

They're obviously not being protected by spineless, feckless governors, like Gavin Newsom, whose weak policies destroy women and families.

These kinds of things exist in the 2020s because somewhere along the way, the church have let the bullies gain ascendancy and culture while we are crying, locked away in a bathroom stall.

But it's not just true in the prisons. Men are now allowed to thoroughly dominate females in sports, shattering real girls records like swimming records that you pin blowing out real female competition and gloating naked in the female locker room while uncomfortable, logically, and obviously uncomfortable girls have to disrobe in front of a biological man named

Leah. Who's standing up for these girls? Obviously it's not the university that's subjecting them to this sort of unthinkable cruelty.

Obviously it's not the college staff that's letting miscreant weirdos like this into women's locker rooms without so much as a peep of protest.

I don't hear the politicians championing the rights of women here. Do you? Oh sure.

They'll protect the rights of women when they're murdering women in the womb, literal baby girls, but they won't protect college age girls from predators, which is sick.

And sadly the poor girls, the true victims in this scenario are usually too afraid to speak up for fear that they're going to lose their scholarships because some enlightened male liberal sitting on a college scholarship board is going to oust them for being a

Neanderthalian bigot. What in the actual world is going on here? We are at the epicenter of insanity, right in the very center of it.

A moment in culture that's so wretched that we're inventing brand new kinds of evil and debauchery to put forward because the old ways of evil weren't good enough.

And where's the church in the middle of this? Where is she at? She's hiding away in the bathroom stall, still trying to play footsie with the world who has beaten her mercilessly into submission, but she still thinks that that strategy might work one day.

That strategy of being nice, inoffensive, sugary sweet is not working.

Worldly people are not coming to Christ in droves because a few weak -kneed Christians appear to be sugar and spice and everything nice.

That kind of feminization of the church has empowered pagan bullies and has led to the actual objectification of women in culture, actual abuse, and the actual murder of babies.

And few are actually turning to Jesus Christ as a result of that weak, sickly, impotent

Christianity. The church has forgotten how to fight. We've forgotten how to engage the bully.

And now the bully has all the confidence in the world that it can continue its reign of playground terror while we do nothing.

Why do you think cancel culture exists? Why do you think laws like C4 pass in Canada without a single vote in opposition?

It's because secular governments have a pile of bodies underneath proverbial buses to show that Christians will roll over and die whenever the fight gets hard.

Somewhere along the way, we've bought into the notion that if we can just be sweet and nice, then the world's going to come to Jesus.

And if we, and if we're ever offensive, we are the ones that's going to literally push someone towards hell because we've offended them.

We've dishonored God. Now they're going to go to hell because we've said something they don't like. So we overlook sin because focusing on that makes us really nasty and makes us look really mean spirited.

And we water down the gospel so that no one could ever get offended by God's truth.

And we backed so far away from culture and we've given it so much space to be whoever it wants to be.

Why should we now be surprised when the gangrene has festered to the point of irrepute, irrepair?

Are we kidding ourselves? Honestly? Doesn't the mold grow best in the comfort of darkness?

Of course it does. Doesn't an infection grow more quickly without the aggressive application of strategic medicine?

Of course it does. We have removed and cloaked the only cure that the world could ever hear and need, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And we've traded it in for silly, stupid smiles, rock shows on Sunday that impress a few goats, placid affirmations of sin promising that God is going to love you just the way that you are.

No repentance needed. And we wonder, we have the audacity to wonder why the world is so sick.

Could a doctor inject syringes full of sugar water into the veins of a diabetic and then have the audacity to say,

I wonder why he's in a diabetic coma. That doctor would lose his license.

And I think many churches and pastors ought to lose their license if there were such a thing. We cannot be kidding ourselves.

We must realize that we are the ones that are responsible for this. The salt has literally left the carcass and now the meat is decayed.

Matthew 5 13, the light ran away and hid under a basket and the world inevitably grew dark.

Matthew 5 15, the tree that was supposed to bear fruit and share that fruit with the nations has been doling out the literal fruit of Sodom.

And we wonder why the nations are so desperately sick. The church has fallen asleep on her mission and we have to wake up.

We have to wake up. But that doesn't mean more smiling, clapping, shrinking back, and slithering away like cowards.

It can't mean that. We cannot like the wicked prophet

Jonah in the old Testament continue to abandon the godless city because we, we hate the pagans and sit idly by under the shade of a nice gourd tree waiting for God to destroy the world.

That is the most unloving thing that we could ever do. And that is the thing that we have been doing for 50 years.

We meet in churches and we complain about how bad the world is, but we do nothing about it except grumble.

We sit in Bible studies and we salivate over, is this the mark of the beast? Is this the one world government?

Is this the antichrist? When is Jesus going to return? All while being wicked and lazy servants who neglect the great commission.

While we hope, we want Jesus to return. Have we gone out into the world and made disciples?

Have we preached the gospel to all the nations? Have we translated the scriptures into every language while we're navel gazing?

Have we baptized converted pagans? Have we taught new converts, everything from Genesis to Revelation on how they're supposed to think about the world and think about God and think about themselves?

Have we done that? While we've been grumbling and complaining and watching the world go to hell in a handbasket, have we done that?

No, no we haven't. Why? Why did we trade in that glorious work given to us by our risen

Lord for cowardice and social niceties? Why have we cared more about what the world thinks about us instead of what

God thinks about us? Why have we buried our talents in the sand or in thick handkerchiefs expecting a holy and terrifying

Lord to excuse us? Luke 19, 20 through 26. Don't we know that in the parable of the talents, that it's the wicked and lazy slave that is thrown away?

Matthew 25, 30. Why do we tempt the grace of God when such clear mandates exist for His elect bride?

Where is the church? And you say, well, the church is trying to be loving.

Love at a time like this looks like engagement, not apathy. Love looks like courage and not cowardice.

Love looks like repentance instead of making excuses. Love looks like the church growing a backbone for the first time in a century and heralding the magnificent and glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's the only cure. To not do that is unloving.

To preach that is loving. If we do that, I believe that the rot actually can be reversed. If we are salt, then the meat's not going to spoil.

If we're light without hiding it in a basket, then the darkness is not going to prevail. If we're faithful slaves, we will enter into His rest.

But if not, if we refuse to preach this gospel, our children are going to preside over the death of America and the destruction of the world.

Our grandchildren are going to have nowhere to go and worship. Our great grandchildren are not even going to know the glorious name of Jesus Christ, and we will be left explaining to God why we chose niceness over faithfulness.

When we fight a menacing bully like the world, our flesh, or the devil, the worst thing that we could ever do is cower and play nice.

That is why I'm calling the church to stand up. To stand up and herald the gospel of Christ in culture and to repent from our inactivity.

Let them kick us out of their colleges and off of social media and out of the halls of society.

Who cares? Declare the gospel anyway. Isn't it good news? Doesn't the world need to hear it?

Even if they don't want to hear it, don't they need to hear it? Sometimes we don't want to take the medicine, but the medicine's the only thing that will save us.

Why in the world do we care if they want to hear it or not? They need it.

They need to hear the gospel of Christ or they're going to die and go to hell. Why do we care what they think when we know the truth?

We've got to stand up and make disciples teach men and women how to think in biblical ways, send them out as missionaries into culture and to teach the world biblical ethics, even if they call us backwards brutish or they outlaw it.

Who cares? This is what is needed. We can, we can do things.

We don't have to be pastors or seminary professors or whatever else. We can do things right now.

We can stand outside of abortion clinics and plead for women not to murder their babies. And if you have room in your home, tell them you'll adopt their child.

We can stand for biblical fidelity by not compromising at work or by not compromising in our marriage or by not cheating on our taxes.

We can stand up by raising up faithful pastors to serve and plant more churches. We can stand up by sending men and women into the workforce as Christians.

Think about that. If we discipled all the Christians in this nation and sent them to do their jobs, not as people, but to do their jobs as Christians to the glory of God, think about what the world would see.

They would see doctors who refused to medically transition a seven year old because it violates the law of God. They would see lawyers who are going to represent future generations of Christians who will be arrested for hate speech because they simply declared what the

Bible says. We would see college professors who won't teach godless ideologies like critical theory.

We would see mothers who leave their jobs and who pour their lives into their children and raise up the next generation of warriors and mothers.

We would see university presidents who won't allow boys to go into women's bathrooms. We would see women prison wardens who won't allow rapists in a female housing.

We'd see politicians who won't bend over backwards to accommodate culture like the gutless wonders that we have in Washington or in every state capital.

We need a Christian revolution, a spirit filled spine stiffened

Christian men and women who are not afraid of culture, not in love with culture, but ready to work to see culture redeemed and bowing the knee to Jesus Christ.

And before you get all uncomfortable with how post -millennial my vibes are right now and how

I'm throwing them out to my heart's content, you might want to ask yourself the question, would the world be freer and safer in the hands of Christians?

And I mean true, faithful, Bible believing, spirit led, Christ honored gospel centered, loving

Christians who are rooted in the truth of God's word and have a fundamental care for all of humanity.

Even those who oppose us, would the world be freer and safer under that kind of leadership or would the world be better under the leadership of people who allow men to disrobe in women's bathrooms?

Honestly, it's a pretty obvious answer and it's not too difficult to think about if we just actually think about it.

Now I don't want to pretend that Christians always get it right. There's a lot of wicked people who've done a lot of wicked things in the name of Jesus.

And there's no excuse for that. There are many girls who are molested by Christian uncles or pastors.

There's many altar boys who've been permanently damaged and scarred by demonic priests. That is not the kind of revolution that I'm envisioning and that sort of scourge upon the name of Christ is abhorrent to him.

I'm talking about real Christians who love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and who love their neighbor.

Even those who hate God and who hate the church as vigorously as they love themselves. I'm not talking about perfection, but I am not talking about Christian perversion either.

I'm simply asking if that kind of Christian would be better for the school board of our kids, or would you adopt or would you say that the

Loudoun County school board that allowed a teenage pervert to rape a young girl would be better for our kids? I, again,

I think the answer is pretty obvious. Today Christians is not the day for us to be nice.

It's not to double down on our pleasantries. Today is the day to be faithful to Christ, to love the

Lord, our God, and to love this broken world enough to actually declare the gospel, to love it enough to raise up thoughtful Christians in Christ centered homes, where mom is there and where dad is there and where children are being catechized according to the good old truth of the word of God.

Where they grow up and they use their minds and their education to glorify their father in heaven. Today's the day for us to raise up gospel heralding ministers who are going to send forth gospel heralding

Christians back into the world to make laws, create jobs, enact decisions and to work to subdue the rampant wickedness that we have allowed to fester for the last 50 years.

Today's the day that the bully no longer sees us cowering, but sees us with courage standing our ground for Jesus.

Remember, this world belongs to us. This world doesn't belong to the secularist.

This world doesn't belong to the progressives. This world doesn't belong to the Democrats or Republicans or anyone else. This world belongs to the church.

And how can I make a statement like that? Because Jesus said all authority in heaven on earth is his. He owns it all.

And it says in Romans 8, 17, that he is pleased to make us co -heirs with him so long as we're willing to suffer for him.

If you want to sit on the bench, then you're not a co -heir with Christ. If you want to get into the game and the blood and the sweat and the tears of what it means to advance

Jesus's kingdom, you're a co -heir with Christ. You already own the world. It's yours. You're taking it back now from those who've squatted in it.

Remember, the Bible says everyone who wants to live a godly life is going to suffer.

Remember, it says it's God's gracious gift that we suffer, Philippians 1, 19. We know that when we suffer, these present troubles are not even worth comparing to the glory that is going to one day be revealed to us as Romans 8, 18.

And we know that we can have confidence in that because Jesus has said, and we know that by his resurrection, he already has overcome the world.

John 16, 33. Jesus promised the church that the one who conquers will one day sit upon his throne,

Revelation 3, 21 with him. And that whatever the church binds on earth is going to be bound in heaven.

That's a promise Jesus made in Matthew 16, 19. We have to remember that Jesus has promised that he's going to put all of his enemies under his feet,

Psalm 110, and that God is going to put the enemies under the feet of the church,

Romans 16, 20. If we think that the church has no role in crushing the ongoing resistance of Satan, read

Romans 16, 20, and tell me how you come to that conclusion. We know that the church has a role, and we know that the gates of hell are going to cower and fall down at the presence of the church because Jesus promised it in Matthew 16, 18.

Now's not the time for passive, cowardly Christians. Now's the time for men to stand up, like Paul says in 1

Corinthians 16, 13 through 14, to be on the alert, to stand firm in the faith, to act like men, to be strong, and to let everything that we do be done in love.

It is loving for us to declare the gospel. It is not loving for us to cower in fear and wait for our heavenly elevator to take us out of here.

The church is in the situation that it's in in the West because we have fallen asleep at the wheel and we woke up and wondered why the car crashed.

We have to stand up church. Today's the day that we take our stand. Today's the day that we stand firm for Christ.

Today church is the day that we stand up. God bless you.

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