Marxism is a cancer that has always threatened the truth of God's word and his church. It destroys individuals, families, and entire cultures. This final sermon of this two-part series explores one of the most serious issues facing the church, as well as the culture, and that is Marxism. Our World Country reading coming from Deuteronomy and chapter 4, the first 10 verses, Deuteronomy and chapter 4, by inspiration of God, Moses, in his final sermon to the church, to the final sermon to Israel, by inspiration of God, he says this. Now therefore, hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it. that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal Peor. For all the men that followed Baal Peor, the Lord thy God had destroyed them from among you. But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive, every one of you this day. Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me that you should do so in the land where you go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them. For this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law? which I said before you this day. Only take heed to yourself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thine heart all the days of thy life. But teach them, thy sons and thy sons' sons, especially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb. When the Lord said unto me, gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children. The Apostle Paul writing to the church at Rome, the Christians that were settled in Rome at that time, chapter three, beginning in verse 10 through verse 18, by the same spirit that moved Moses So does the Apostle Paul write, as it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of the way. They're all together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. Where their tongues have used deceit, the poison of asps is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, in the way of peace. Have they not known? There is no fear of God before their eyes. Thus far as the reading of God's most holy and inerrant and finally authoritative word, the grass withers, the flower thereof fades away. But the word of God stands forever and by his holy word, is the gospel presented unto us again this day with all of its lessons and all of its admonitions and all of its warnings as we navigate the world around us. Now, the European Reformation of the 16th century during the days of Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, V. Ray, and Knox, and so many others, was primarily a reformation of the church. Its major function was upon doctrine, ecclesiology, and the place of Christianity in the church, but it was also teaching the place of Christianity in the world, in the culture. But because the Church is the driving force of culture, the European Reformation, particularly as it developed in Geneva under Calvin, Vire and Beza, and not so much in Germany under Luther, the Reformation began to reconfigure culture and redefine culture by defining it biblically. It was during the Reformation that a political and cultural theology began to solidify. And while there was always an interest in what the Bible said about politics, economics, and the culture, the Reformation further solidified those ideas by crystallizing them further. In fact, if it wasn't for the Reformation of the 16th century, we would not have Western civilization as we know it today. This included a reconfiguring of every element of civilization and every institution known to man. This meant that nothing Because God is the sovereign king of the universe and his law is comprehensive and universal, this meant for the reformers that nothing was to be left to humanistic definitions or humanistic ideologies. All things were then to be defined by the Bible. They were to be defined biblically and have every element of civilization to come under the Lord Christ, the sovereign king of the universe and his righteous law. They understood what so many churches today don't understand of the umbrella of the sovereignty of God. All things were to be defined by His word. And while seeking to address the ecclesiastical tyranny of the Roman church and their heretical doctrine of salvation by works, the Reformation had to also address tyranny in the civil realm, because the kings at that point, the emperors, and the magistrates believed that they were sovereign. As a result of the fall, from the very beginning when Adam destroyed the world by his rebellion, there became now two competing forces at work for supremacy. So when Adam fell, there became a rebellion of two forces competing for sovereignty, man against God. Man, in conjunction with his faulty ideologies, continues, even to this day, to construct the culture according to his own wicked presuppositions, since he believes that he is the source of truth and that he has the right to define the culture, and he will defend the culture according to his ideologies. Those ideologies, for the most part, because he seeks to be sovereign, are heretical. Man's rebellious quest is found in his determination to create a utopian society apart from God and apart from his law, word, his truth. In other words, man, unbelieving man, unrighteous man, sinful man, fallen man, he is bent upon revolution. And the purpose of that revolution is ultimately to be his God. Destroy God's truth, he believes, and you could establish your own truth. Destroy righteousness, and you can establish your own righteousness. Redefine good and evil, and you can establish your own definition of good and evil. Destroy the natural anthropological nature of man as an image-bearer of God, and you can establish mutants as image-bearers of rebellious man. In other words, destroy God, and you can be God. Man will be because of his nature, his fallen nature. Man in his fallen nature will be lawgiver, judge, and king so as to deliver mankind from God into a humanistic utopia apart from God. And what is his strategy to bring this about? Chaos and rebellion, which has as its goal ultimately the death of God, which is ridiculous because you can't kill God. But because he cannot kill God, he'll seek to destroy the church, which is the body of Christ. And then he will reinvent the culture according to his rebellious rationalism, the rationalism of fallen man. Now to combat this insidious quest to destroy the truth of God, at times the Reformers, particularly during the days of the Puritan era in England, had to resort to revolutionary conflict. And so their Reformation took upon the characteristics of a revolution. The marked difference between the Reformation's revolution and let's say the French Revolution or the Marxist Revolution or the Russian Revolution is that it did not use chaos, nor did it use violence as a tool to achieve its goals. The Puritan revolt of the 1600s was called the English Revolution. It was a justifiable response to the tyranny that the kings were bringing upon the church. It was not a move to bring about tyranny, but it was a defense against tyranny. Now, the Glorious Revolution of 1688 was a bloodless revolution which routed the murderous tyrannical James II's reign of terror against God's people and against God's church. That just happened to be a bloodless revolution. William of Orange comes in, and James runs away. It's the best kind of revolution. Now, these historical moments of Christian revolution, as they were called, were defensive in nature. In order for the church to navigate The world in which it lives, first and foremost, it cannot hide in the four walls of the ghetto church. Nor can it hide in the family. Nor can it just hide, it cannot hide under a bushel. In order to navigate the world around us, we need to understand what our forefathers, and I don't mean Washington, Jefferson, and Adams. I mean the Puritans of old, the reformers of old. We need to know how they dealt with these issues because there's nothing new under the sun. So we learn from our fathers of the faith. These men were righteous and their responses to wickedness was righteous. And as a result, these godly men who were men of peace, men of wisdom, men of resolve, these men were forced sometimes even into armed conflict. revolution in their minds because they were men of peace and men of God. It was the last resort. But because peaceful reform was no longer possible in order to survive, the godly, at times, as we see from the Old Testament as well, had to take up arms. Otherwise, they would have been destroyed, along with many generations following. And their purpose was for a generational continuity of God-fearing individuals. But the tyranny of men would destroy the continuity of the faithful. Now, these conflicts historically were entered into as a means to restore liberty under God and not as a means to deprive the liberty of the people under tyranny and oppression. And since God had been replaced with a tyrant, a legitimate ruler, in other words, was replaced with an illegitimate ruler, and his righteous law was replaced with authoritarian rule, they sought to turn the tables and bring back righteous rule to the land. They understood that only a righteous law based upon divine truth could bring about peace. And while the foundation of the revolution's cause was theological and philosophical, physical confrontation sometimes had to be met. It had to take place if God's people were to survive. After exhausting every possible venue to bring about a peaceful end, sometimes that was not possible. If the people then therefore, under tyranny, submitted, simply submitted, without taking action, the consequences were just too terrible to contemplate. The distinction between these biblical revolutions, so-called, and the revolutions of the wicked humanists, particularly the Marxists of our day, is that when biblical revolution is forced upon people, it is to bring order out of chaos, not chaos out of order. And if you look around, even in our America today, what we have is chaos. Marxism, And every other system that seeks to bring about chaos is anti-Christ. It is anti-Christian. It's an anti-Christian system which always resorts to violence. The wicked are bent on violence. And every group that supports such behavior, be it private, political, international, institutional, or even ecclesiastic, is culpable and will be ultimately held responsible by God. So if you support any of these anti-Christian philosophical precepts, you will be held culpable before God. And as the scripture says, even for the wicked, which is an encouragement to us, their foot shall slide in due time. So what is the goal of Marxism and socialism in particular? Why is it so dangerous to Christianity? Why are we even talking about this? Why don't we just talk about justification by faith? Why don't we talk about examining ourselves or the atonement of Christ, which is all valid, but we still need to navigate the world around us, do we not? Otherwise we will be singing the song of Asaph when the wicked come in to destroy the congregation. So what is the goal of this Marxism, which is now so prevalent? And this idea of tyranny, which is now so prevalent, we could just shotgun through laws that are anti-Christ and to bring the church into submission to the tyranny. Well, it's simply this. The mindset of rebellious man is destroy Christianity and the social order of Christendom's Western civilization through cunning, subversion, violent revolution, chaos, and mayhem. That's what it's all about. Destroy this church. Or, as they tried in the past, shut it down. Vladimir Lenin. Clearly stated it this way, he said, the goal of socialism is communism, a takeover of everything by the wicked state. According to a report by the Epoch Times, the columnist there, he writes this, quote, like a cancer, communism metastasizes, eliminating other beliefs, including the belief in God. As it spreads, in turn, it destroys national sovereignty and identity, and humanity's moral and cultural traditions, thus leading man to destruction. Everything that is wholesome, in other words, everything that is just, everything that is of a good report, everything that is righteous is targeted for destruction by these Marxists. And that includes especially the family as well as the church. But it extends into the political and economic realm in order to make all flesh slaves to the state. The end of Marxism and all of the other isms always results in tyranny and misery for the masses. The tool of Marxists, unlike the tools of the Christian, is violence, not doctrine. We try to fight with doctrine, or as Gary North describes it, guns, not dogmas. That's their tool. The liberal anti-communist John P. Roche explains it this way. And the reason why, and perhaps you might wonder, why is this topic in the pulpits of Jesus Christ, because God is the sovereign king of all the culture. If we do not discuss and set forth an examination of what's happening around us, we then will be destroyed by lack of knowledge. And so we seek to understand what is happening around us, that we might navigate this biblically. Now the liberal anti-communist John P. Roach says this, he says, Most scholars analyze the Marxist-Leninist movements as philosophical exercises conducted in the intellectual stratosphere. This approach has a limited utility, but it is based upon a deeply flawed premise that Marxism-Leninism is a form of high theory rather than an operational code for a new style mafia, far more interested in finding a rationale for seizing or wielding power than in liberating prisoners of starvation or of the wretched of the earth. While conservative and liberal oracles often agree that we are engaged in a war of ideas with the Marxist-Leninist, the hard reality is that we confront a Moscow-supported apparatus which utilizes AK-47s, T-72 tanks, and assorted ordnance, not copies of the Communist Manifesto or Lenin's State and Revolution. It is their evangelical mission. No South Vietnamese, Salvadorian, Israeli, or American soldier has ever been killed by stepping on a copy of Marx's Das Kapital. That's the problem of the church. We think that we can just debate theology, eschatology, or the culture. But there has to be action. Remember what the apostle says No man outside of Christ will do good. He is bent on evil. Moses tells Israel, notice what he says, you shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish art from it that you may keep the commandments of the Lord, which I command you and do them. So there's an aspect of application to the things of God. Okay. So what is Marxism? We're hearing it all over the news. We're seeing it even in our own America. Well, let's have Marx's partner and benefactor, Frederick Engels, introduce us to Marx's ideas. Notice what he says. For Marx, he was before all else a revolutionist. His real mission in life was to contribute in one way or another to the overthrow of capitalist society and of the state institutions which it had brought into being. You see, that was his religion. Marxism is a religion. It's an anti-Christian religion, but it's a religion. Marxism is the religion of revolution and the overthrowing of all that God had providentially established in the world. In 1986, political analyst and author David Horowitz wrote this. He says, Marxism is religion, but it is a religion in which the promise is not in the next world, but in this world. Then you look and see what the radicals do and what the actual record is, and you see that in the name of some future paradise, they create hell on earth. We're going to give you all these things. We can do all these things for you. Don't worry. The government is here to help you. And by doing that, they create what Horowitz is saying, hell on earth. You see Marx believed that this man, this, this man, Marx, he believed that man, fallen man is his own highest good. which means that he not only is the measure of all things, but his desire, man's fallen desire, must be met no matter what the price or by whatever means necessary. For Marx, the Marxists, and the socialists, man is his ultimate concern. Not God. Man. And so instead of the Reformation's slogan, Soli Della Gloria, all for the glory of God, the Marxist slogan, the anti-Christian slogan, is Soli Hominis Gloria, all for the glory of man. According to Engels, Marx believed that man no longer merely purposes, but also disposes, thus claiming as man's right that which belongs to God alone. You know, it's interesting when Adam was told in the garden, take dominion, he was to take dominion Godward. He was to cultivate the garden Godward. He was to cultivate where we get our word culture from. He was to bring the culture to bring fruit Godward. When he fell, That dominion mindset continued, but it was now perverted. Now fallen man continues not to take dominion Godward, but to take domination over men, manward. And that's the problem we face. Maurice Confort has defined Marxism and humanism as the totality of a commitment to man in opposition to God. Notice what he says. In Marxist thought, humanism takes the view that man is the measure of all things. Everything is to be judged in accordance with how it affects men and can be used by men. Men are not to regard themselves as existing for the service of anything else. Men were not created to serve God, that's what he thinks, but their purpose is to make other things serve men. Then Gary North weighs in. Dr. Gary North, he says this, Marx's humanistic theology necessarily excludes the Christian conception of creation, one of the fundamental pillars of the Christian philosophy of history. Man must be his own creator in the Marxist framework, and Marx made that quite clear. Marx's whole perspective was based upon the idea that human creative activity is the ultimate foundation of all human existence. In other words, man produces man. This is entirely antithetical to Christianity. Now, I know sometimes within the Christian realm, We analyze different faiths. Mormonism, Shintoism, Buddhism, this faith, that faith, the other faith, the New Age faith. But Marxism is a faith. Marxism is a religion that we must come to terms with because it is active. We don't have to deal with Mormons. We certainly don't have to deal with the Buddhists. But we need to deal with the Marxists because they are actively pursuing the church. This was Marx's cosmology. He believed in chaos. He believed that chaos would bring about order. This man-centered narcissism. He held to an evolutionary idea that Darwin promoted. He believed that the order of the world came out of chaos. He believed that if he could replicate that chaos, he could bring about the order of a new culture. But instead of God at the center, it would be man at the center of this utopian society. For Marx, this utopia would be void of all human alienation. Everyone would be equal. Alex de Tocqueville explains it this way. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference. While democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude. Now, depending on how old you are, you will remember the immortal words, the apostate words, and the anti-Christian words of the now dead and deceased John Lennon. Imagine there is no heaven. It's easy if you try. No hell below us, above us only sky. Imagine all the people living for today. Imagine there's no country. It isn't hard to do, nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too. Well, that's a religion. Imagine all the people living life in peace. You see, for Marx, in order to have utopian peace, you had to first do away with religion, particularly the idea of God, because that was in the way. The idea of his justice, the idea of his law, the idea of the Messiah being the only way for peace and salvation. You had to get rid of all of that. You also had to do away with private enterprise, possessions, social class, nations. Open borders is what the Marxists desire. But the one thing that we should be very concerned about is Marxism wants to destroy the family. This was spelled out very clearly in his Communist Manifesto of 1848. For Marx, the only way to achieve such an end was through violent revolutionary chaos. For the Marxist, the goal of the good society could only be brought into being through the rational use of irrational revolution. He saw the irrational revolution as a rational response to achieve his goal. For Marx, the revolution was not a means to bring about an ethical reconciliation with God for the nation that the Puritan revolution sought, but rather it was a metaphysical chaos that would bring man into the position of God and have the power of God. And you think about why is this concept and why is this kind of a sermon so important? Because all of you young people will be voting one day. Gary North again explains. All roads in Marx's works lead to the revolution. For Marx, all society's contradictions and difficulties are to be resolved by the coming of the revolution. The Christian says, no, everything will be resolved because Christ has come. We should be promoting the Christian faith. He continues. It is the beginning of a truly human history. It is the end of fettered production and exploited labor. It is the discovery of human freedom combined with absolute omnipotence and total control over nature. No more conflict between men or within man. Without the ideal of the revolution as its goal, Marxism would be little more than a huge mass of economic and historical material. Interesting, perhaps, but hardly the basis for a mass movement. When combined with the idea of total revolution, It becomes a new religion, or more accurately, a very ancient religion in new pseudo-scientific garb." So Marx's revolution seeks to create a new society and a new humanity created in the image of man. Marx stated this, he said, in revolutionary activity, the changing of oneself coincides with the changing of circumstances, not the changing of your heart, but the changing of circumstances. So today we have our politicians trying to change circumstances when they need to changed the heart. The only way you do that is through Christianity. And yet, for the Christian, the changing of oneself is never through violent revolution. It's through regeneration. It's through repentance. It's through confession, which fundamentally, at the very, very core of the being, it fundamentally changes an individual, and in turn, that individual being changed then changes the circumstances surrounding that individual. Martin Sobredi, my dear friend, rightly asserts that revolution is fueled by man's faith in metaphysical determination. And yet that metaphysics has nothing to do with the good of the universe or the God of the universe, since metaphysical determinism teaches that man cannot be held responsible for his actions since they are determined for him. We hear that all the time. The devil made me do it. The state made me do it. My brother made me do it. My sister made me do it. Eve made me do it. No, it was you, God, that made me do it, said Adam. Oh, it was the serpent. It was whatever. No one wants to take responsibility anymore for their actions. Oh, it's the circumstances. Dr. Sobredi explains, he says, when metaphysics dominates our horizons, reconciliation is inaccessible and peace is impossible. We need reconciliation as a result of our moral rebellion. The future of this world is being driven by this moral reconciliation between God and man, and as a result, between man and man. Only regeneration, notice that phrase, only regeneration alone delivers true transformation that will abide, one that has an actual future. Marxism, Socialism, Shintoism, Buddhism, all of these isms, they do not have a future. Only Christianity has a future. Today, Those Marxists, they embrace revolution and overturning of everything that was orderly as a necessity, because the Marxist believes that the only way to overthrow the ruling class is through revolution. And what they're really trying to overthrow, not so much the ruling class, but the Church of Jesus Christ. This revolution doesn't always have to be violent. It can be a revolt against the morals of a society. or an overturning of traditional values or an overturning of accepted truths. We're in the midst of that now. Whatever the method is, it's still revolution. They're trying to tell us that men could be women, women could be men, that this is okay, that's okay, that's not okay, this is good, this is bad. They're redefining the world around us. The Marxist also believes that only by a revolution can the rebellious godless class rid itself of the past which he believes has oppressed him throughout history so he may reconstruct a new society in his own image. And this is why there's such a passion to remove all remnants of American history, the history of the church, theological history, by pulling down the historical statues. They want to change things. Don't look at that statue because that will ask you about history and you'll want to be interested in history. Think about the changing of the government school curriculums. and the reinterpretation of reality by the media. This is revolution. The next step is the destruction of the declaration of independence and the constitution, the bill of rights, then the scripture itself. And so the Marxist message is a call to revolution. And you think how many people flock to it in the church, in the church. For the revolution, those who believe in it. The revolutionaries, they believe that the society, they believe that the society must be turned upside down in order for it to be made right side up. The problem here is that this new society will quickly break down into totalitarianism, which will in effect simply breed another revolutionary conflict with destruction, death, and generational misery. So what do we do? Well, first. Before Reformation, because that's what we want, we don't want revolution. We want Reformation. But before Reformation, there needs to be repentance. There needs to be repentance on all levels. The Christian needs to first and foremost repent. Individual men, particularly those within the churches who have unwittingly embraced the Marxist religion must repent. Unless we provide a path away from destruction through repentance, we will suffer greatly for years to come. But that repentance has to also be impressed upon the magistrates when they embrace Marxism or anything like Marxism. But repentance cannot begin without seeing the problem. You've got to see the problem. So many people don't even see the problem. They say, oh, free stuff. That's great. I'll take free stuff. But that's because they're thieves. They're covetous. There is nothing that's free. Everything comes with a price. The only thing that's free, and it's not even free, is the grace of God. But that, too, came with a price. So we have to be able to see the problem. And when people cannot see the problem, we need to show them the problem. We cannot vote our way out of the problem. We must begin by educating and calling out the evil that is now infecting our nation, our commonwealth, and nations of the world at large. Today's population, including many within the churches, they don't even see it. That's because God has blinded their eyes for the most part. We need to call them out to see the evil and then repent and then begin rebuilding. So what are some of the practical, tactical measures that need to be taken at this time? Because whether you like it or not, you're in it. Whether you like it or not, you can hide out all you want. You're in it. We're in it. You go to church, your church is going to be targeted. This church will be targeted. So whether or not you want to be in it, it's not up to you. So what do we have to do? Well, the pulpits need to fuel the people of God with the truths of the gospel of the kingdom and explain how critical it is to be proactive in the advance of the kingdom of God. This means that every single Christian and every Christian church must be culturally relevant with the message of the crown rites of King Jesus and the doctrine of His supremacy over all flesh." That's the one doctrine that is being eviscerated within the Church. Today, you go to so many churches, who's in control? Oh, the devil's in control. Oh, the world belongs to the devil. No, the world belongs to Christ. He's the King. Ron Krohn, our dear friend, explains it this way. He says, quote, there is a direct correlation between the retreat of believers and the downfall of a culture. This cycle will not end with another prayer group or Bible study unless it has with it the biblical model of meeting the darkness where it is. Bringing the world to Christ must involve the church invading the world. And that will come with bringing the world into conflict with Christ's sovereign reign. We need more advancing and less inviting. It is an absurd proposition to try to take the nations for Christ Jesus by inviting others to join us in our retreat from the affairs of the world. He says, can you imagine David saying to the Israelites, follow me while I run away from Goliath? And that's why it's kind of funny when you hear, oh, I'm going to a church retreat. No, no, don't go. Don't go. We read. the words of those famous hymns onward Christian soldiers while we retreat. Maybe we should change the title to backwards Christian soldiers. So it has been, in my estimation, my opinion, it has been the failure of the church to faithfully engage in the culture war which has brought us to this critical mass. Because everyone is waiting for Jesus. Oh, it's so bad now Jesus is coming. So hide under the bed and don't be part of the solution. The armchair Monday morning quarterbacks in the Christian realm that criticize and judge while they refuse to lift a finger in the battle against the forces of evil. We need to do something concrete. We need to do something concrete to advance the kingdom of God. Too many simply talk about advancing the kingdom without lifting a finger to advance it. And there's an epidemic of laxity from most Christians today, especially in some of the Reformed churches. Even when it comes to worship and a diligent study of the word, Christianity has become an individualized religion. It's become a Christian Buddhism, instead of an active, passionate community of believers interacting with one another and advancing the kingdom of Christ through the preaching of the gospel. Secondly, above all else, even in Asaph's day, when he was so so bothered because of the destruction of the nation and of the church. He had to trust God. We need to trust God. My go-to verse is Psalm 56, 3, when David says, when I am afraid, I will trust in thee. And we're often afraid. Even mommies and daddies are afraid. And that's when we go to our Heavenly Father. We trust God. We don't trust the outcome of the election. We don't trust a political party or any man that aligns himself with a political party because that is not the answer. You can't vote your way out of something that you send your way into. Not the Supreme Court nominations, not the presidency or the economic international domestic policies. And while the right people in positions of power are important, it is ultimately God whom we must trust. We must trust God alone. While we deserve the outpouring of his wrath because of all the things that have happened in our nation. And because of the church's apostasy, for the most part, we pray that he might still show us mercy, even as the prophet said, Oh Lord, in thy wrath, remember mercy, remember mercy. Thirdly, we may need to be ready for our own conflict. I hate to say that, especially if the enemy draws first blood by attempting confiscation of our children or our property or our freedom or our conscience. Enslavement cannot be an option for those who are liberated by the spirit of the creator of the universe. And you think about this. Today, this lecture would, this sermon might be something that bristles men and say, oh, so revolutionary. Well, then you don't know your history. Because during the time of the American War for Independence, the pulpits were aflame. They were aflame with the hope of liberty. the hope of Christian liberty, the liberty of conscience, and people would flock to hear the preachers expound the word of God and apply it to their day. Enslavement cannot be an option for those who are liberated by the spirit of the creator of the universe. Only those that are already enslaved psychologically and spiritually By the spirit of Egyptian bondage, they will submit to tyranny and slavery. I'm afraid that many of those churches today are filled with those kinds of people. We can no longer deceive ourselves as if the enemy will go away. The enemy is not going to go away all by itself. It needs to have pushback. We're in a battle. And you know, we read, on with Christian soldiers. We read, put on the whole armor of God. Well, what does that all mean? Does it only mean individually? We put on the armor of God, and we wait for Jesus. That's not how it should be. The leftist anti-Christians are emboldened, but the children of the kingdom, not very emboldened. The leftist anti-Christians are ready for chaos and combat. The Christians, well, we can't judge. Gotta be nice. Was Joshua nice when he tore down the walls of Jericho? Was David nice? Goliath, come on, can we talk about it? Let's just talk about it. Come on, we can come to some arrangement, Val. He called him an uncircumcised Philistine. How dare you? How dare you blaspheme my God? Even Calvin said, he said, even a dog barks when his master is threatened. Would we not confront the blasphemers. If we fail to take action, there may never be another opportunity, not for many generations. But I do want to leave you with this glimmer of hope. From some of the most reliable world data, that we may actually be on the precipice of a resurgence of a new Christendom, perhaps even the beginnings of a post-millennial hope. Philip Jenkins, in his very interesting and enlightening work, The Next Christendom, he says this. Notice what he says. And I know I can vouch for this truth, and I know Pastor Church can vouch for this as well. He says, over the past century, the center of gravity in the Christian world has shifted southward to Africa, to Asia, and to Latin America. Already today, the largest Christian communities on the planet are to be found in Africa and Latin America. I have people that I teach in Rwanda and Ethiopia. We've established seminaries there. I know pastors go out to Germany and even to Iraq, and there are communities there. God is moving his realm into these areas. Jenkins continues, he says this, if we want to visualize a typical contemporary Christian, we should think of a woman living in a village in Nigeria or in a Brazilian favela. Whatever Europeans or North Americans may believe, Christianity is doing very well indeed in the global South, not just surviving, but exploding. Kenyan scholar John Mobiti also has something very interesting to say when he observes this trend. He says, quote, the centers of the church's universality are no longer in Geneva, Rome, Athens, Paris, London, New York, but in Kinshaya, Buenos Aires, Adib Ababa, which is where one of our seminaries is, Kilgali, which is another seminary that we have, and Manila. Christianity should enjoy a worldwide boom in this new century, but the vast majority of believers will neither be white European nor Euro-American. God will have his witness. May not be in America, but he will have his witness. But I would have it to be in America. What Jenkins and so many others believe is not the death of Christendom, but a reestablishment of Christendom on the global theater. And we don't even use that term anymore. We talk about this denomination, that denomination, this church, that church. Christendom is the word we need to start using. What they see is not necessarily resurgence of the Reformed faith or Calvinism per se, but a return to a universal understanding of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity and a unification of various denominations under the banner of Christendom, where faithful denominations will get together and begin to bring the truth of God to bear down upon the antichrists. That will at least be a beginning, where future reformation then can take place. What we need to understand going forward is that the kingdom of God is not America, nor is it dependent upon any nation-state construct. In fact, the kingdom of God is the people of God. It supersedes all nations, since it itself is the city of God, which will one day be the dominant force throughout the entire global order, so that one day the knowledge of the Lord will certainly cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, and where every knee will finally bow and where every tongue will finally confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And when that day comes, the Lord will finally deliver His purified bride to the Father. Then the end shall come when Christ totally shows forth His victory on earth in time and in history. May God have mercy upon us and grant us much faith, hope, wisdom, skill, and courage so that when we face the Antichrist, we will face that Antichrist victoriously. according to the will of God. In this we shall do God helping us unto the praise of the glory of His grace. Amen.