You Threaten Christians, THIS Happens | Voddie Baucham

I don't think that religion has anything useful to teach us.

The whole thing's so stupid, just stop and think how f***ing stupid that is.

In many ways we are, regardless of our levels of education, considered the untrained, uneducated men, the common men of our day.

And Bill C -16 is actually not about cisgender people, it's about protections for transgender people. He could just get over learning to program a few pronouns into his phone.

And if what they say contradicts the plumbing, you believe them, and not your lying eyes. Stop preaching in the name of Jesus, or we'll kill you. In many ways we are, regardless of our levels of education, considered the untrained, uneducated men, the common men of our day.

The World’s Rejection of Christian Truth

And it's been that way for a while, although things are ratcheting up. It used to just be based on a few issues, like for example our understanding of the way the world came to be.

It's hard to see how you could fail to be persuaded of it. The evidence is just absolutely packed. There's no doubt about it, it's not a controversial issue. It's completely certain, it's as certain as the fact that the Earth and the other planets orbit the Sun.

More than 40 of the American population, if opinion polls are to be believed, think that the world is less than 10 ,000 years old. And that's a shocking figure. It shows deep, profound ignorance. There aren't two theories, there's only one theory around, there's only one game in town as far as serious science is concerned.

Of course you get negative reactions from creationists, but who cares about creationists, they don't know anything.

Genesis, Creation, and Public Mockery of Belief

I have the privilege from time to time of speaking on public university campuses, and I love when I'm on public university campuses to camp out or at least spend some time in the book of Genesis. I love it because it astonishes people there.

And they hear me talk about the book of Genesis, and oftentimes they'll come, and I've had on a number of occasions a conversation that goes something like this. People don't want to just come straight out with it, but they'll say something like, you know, it's interesting the way you were talking about that, it's almost like you, you're one of those people who, you know, takes the Genesis account literally, as if to say, you seem like such a smart man.

On one occasion, I had somebody just sort of walk right into it. You know, you're one of these people who believes that God created the world in a week? Of course not! Did it in six days and took the last day off, brother.

The point there is an obvious one. Sophisticated and educated men know better. And in fact, even those who are Christians in the public sphere have learned better. Have you not learned better? Are you not aware of the towering theological intellects out there who don't hold to your small-minded belief in the way that the world came to be?

But it's not just that. Other issues about who's supposed to occupy the position of pastor. Amen. About whether or not the Board of Education is supposed to be applied to the backside of an unruly, disobedient child.

You love them, right?

I mean, you tell them you love them, right? And then all of a sudden, you jump up and inflict physical pain on them. That is confusing to a two-, three-, four-, five-year-old child. They're like, I don't know.

I trusted you. You said you loved me. You were my soft place to fall. I went to you when I was hurt. And then all of a sudden, bang! You're inflicting pain on me. It is not an effective discipline. It is not an effective game-changer for the child.

Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Cultural Pressure

But today, there's even more. Today, there are things like, you know, do you really not understand that sexual orientation is just that sexual orientation? Are you really that ignorant? If you watched any of Amy Coney Barrett's hearings, you saw that moment where she used the phrase sexual preference, and senators pounced because the term sexual preference is an offensive one.

And anyone who is anyone worth knowing realizes and recognizes that there is no preference involved. The educated among us know that you don't say preference. You say orientation. And they scolded her.

One of the finest legal minds of our day.

This morning, Senator Feinstein asked you a question about the Supreme Court's 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, a case in which the court recognized the constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

And I was disappointed that you wouldn't give a direct answer on whether you agreed with the majority in that case or if you instead agree with your mentor, Justice Scalia, that no such right exists in the Constitution.

So even though you didn't give a direct answer, I think your response did speak volumes. Not once, but twice. You used the term sexual preference to describe those in the LGBTQ community. And let me make clear, sexual preference is an offensive and outdated term.

It is used by anti-LGBTQ activists to suggest that sexual orientation is a choice. It is not. Sexual orientation is a key part of a person's identity. That sexual orientation is both a normal expression of human sexuality and immutable was a key part of the majority's opinion in Obergefell, which, by the way, Scalia did not agree with.

Or those who believe that your chromosomes determine your sex. Amen, somebody. Are you so common and uneducated that you don't recognize that if you want to know whether a five-year-old is a boy or a girl, you don't check plumbing, you ask a question?

Are you a boy or a girl? Who do you think you are? And if what they say contradicts the plumbing, you believe them and not your lying eyes. These are just a few of the areas right now where we're being referred to as uneducated common men in our day.

Boldness in the Face of Threats to Preach Jesus

And so the nature of their boldness had to do not with their action in this healing process, but in the message that accompanied the healing. Just don't use the name. Do the same work. 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. 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.

This is where we live. I know there are many of you who on your jobs, you've been told, don't use that name. Some of you may have even been reprimanded for using that name. And here you are, you're forced supposedly to choose between your job and your sustenance and feeding your family and using that name and the temptation in that moment is to say, listen, I will do the same thing.

I will say the same thing. I will just tiptoe around the name. Earlier on, Peter has a word that we need to hear. Beginning there in verse eight. Remember the question in verse seven, by what power and by what name did you do this?

Verse eight. Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them, rulers of the people and elders, if we're being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.

By the way, all he asked for was a name. Amen. That's all he 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 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. So that's the context here of verse 18. So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. Notice what they didn't say. They didn't say stop healing people.

They didn't say stop doing good to people. They didn't say, and they wouldn't say, shut down the soup kitchen, close the orphanage, stop the recovery meetings. They didn't say that and they wouldn't say that because all of that is fine.

Verse 19, but Peter and John answered them. Well, we'll just witness with our lifestyle. Oh, I'm sorry. But Peter and John answered them, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than God, you must judge.

Submission to authority, submission to authority. You do what you got to do for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. Let me translate that for you. They called him in and said, do not speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus anymore.

And Peter said, nah. What do you do with that kind of boldness? Verse 21, I love, I just, this is like my favorite. This makes the text for me. And when they had further threatened them, they let them go.

Finding no way to punish them because of the people. For all we're praising God for it happened for the man on whom the sign of healing was performed was more than 40 years old. 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?

Nah, they said no. Okay, all right.

Stop preaching in the name of Jesus or we'll take everything you own. Like this. We already gave away all our stuff and shared it among the brethren. They stopped preaching in the name of Jesus. Put you in jail.

Peter was in jail and the angel got him out. Preaching in the name of Jesus. Mean like you did him before he rose again on the third day. How do you threaten a dead man? A man who truly believes for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

How do you threaten that man? The answer is you can't. The problem with most of us is we're not dead yet. Died to self. We haven't died to the world. And so we desperately desire and we desperately want and we desperately need to be liked and applauded.

And so when they threaten to take our stuff, we say, okay, we'll find a way. We'll find a way to comply. And then it slips out and we come back again and they threaten to take our freedom and we say, no, no, no, no, please.

I promise I'll do better this time. And then again, it slips out and they say, we'll take your life. And you say, no, no, please. Please don't. Please don't. But when we get a hold of the fact that we have been crucified with Christ and yet we live.

Not I, but Christ who lives in me. Listen, when we get a hold of that, it changes everything and we can't be threatened anymore because no one can take what you've gladly given away already. It is only then that we can rightly exercise this boldness.

But you know how you get there? Peter and John didn't get there because they tried hard enough. Peter and John didn't get there because they were made of the right stuff. Uh-uh, no. We know they weren't.

Peter. Peter. Night of the crucifixion. Peter. Ah, you, uh-uh. I don't know him three times. That Peter. This didn't happen because they were made of the right stuff. This boldness didn't come from them being made of the right stock.

This boldness was a byproduct of their genuine, legitimate, life-changing encounter with the risen Christ. And that same risen Christ is as real and as alive to those who placed their faith in him today as he was to those who saw him after his resurrection.

You want to be bold? Flee to Christ. Run to Christ. Cling to Christ. Because in and of ourselves, we have no boldness. But in Christ, we have only boldness. Because in Christ, the spirit who raised him from the dead abides and resides in us.

And he is the spirit.