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Many think we are living in the time of the end, and a lot of us want to talk about it. There's a place for the bowls and the trumpets and the beasts and the ten horns, thirty-plus years of studying it will do that to a person. But if this is the time of the end, then how should we be? Really. How should we act? What are our real priorities, actually lived out, not just professed?
Because if we miss salt and light, who cares what season the rapture is going to happen in? Why does it even matter, really?
Did you know that every New Testament book except Philemon has a warning about false teachers and false Christs? Wonder why that is. Wonder if there's a clue there.
Do not take pieces of the message out of context, consider the whole. And carry this question with you over the next few weeks: do you think you can spot false teaching and false Christs? And if so, from what, and from where, do you derive your discernment?
An Astounding Deceiver
Straight up, our enemy is an astounding deceiver, so crafty it is hard for people to understand how slick he really is. We picture a red guy in a suit with horns and a tail and a pitchfork, and that is so far from what's really going down.
When Jesus really gives you eyes to see and ears to hear, it'll blow your hair back, and you can't unsee what you saw. Those moments will come that make you wonder about your moral stance on this or that, and you'll start to wobble. You know something is wrong, but it seems everyone around you is saying it's okay now, and you'll start to question yourself. It happens.
That's when the subtle truth you have seen, the subtle truth you have heard, dare I say the subtle truth you have tasted, will win the day.
But then there are those who feel so strongly that they could never be deceived that they have to move the goalposts to accommodate their own delusion. Their fortified pride becomes part of the problem. Once the enemy has convinced enough of these folks that this or that is right and not wrong anymore, it starts to coalesce. It starts to solidify in their spirit, and folks wall themselves in within their own delusions, and false teachers who peddle a fake gospel are the worst offenders of this travesty. That, in a nutshell, is what the slide into global chaos actually is.
Which is why we hold out hope for every delusional person we've encountered. My true hope for them is rescue by the Savior, and an ongoing discernment for God's people in this dark culture.
Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong, it is knowing the difference between right and almost right. (Charles Spurgeon)
Sometimes error sticks out like an ugly duckling, you can't miss it. But even then, because of our beat-down society, because of the non-stop grooming you and I have been put under to become people who will not take any kind of stand, because we've been told that to take a stand about anything is unloving or wrong, it's difficult not to give up. To toss in the towel and say, at least we have almost right, so let's not get too bummed out. You follow what I'm saying?
Our Mission
Here is the Fresh Encounter Church mission statement, I read it at least once a month, and I never come to the pulpit without it in my book:
At FEC, our mission is to explore the Word and solidify our faith, to find, follow, and face the absolute truth, and to encounter Christ in a real and relevant way, to help those who choose to follow Christ find their calling, connect to others, reach people far from God, and restore them to a place of freedom in Christ, so that they can make a difference in our community and around the world.
Notice and focus on that phrase, restore them to freedom in Christ. There are some of the most sound, sold-out believers you will know, and they will wobble, and they will stumble. That includes your leaders, your pastor, your women's leaders, the Christian in your office you look up to. All of them will still struggle from time to time. It's part of the fight. The Bible says His mercies are new every morning, in keeping with repentance, and that's what restores you, daily, to your place of freedom in Christ.
What the Cross Actually Is
Let me take a second to explain what the cross actually is, because our society seems to have lost touch with that.
You were born into sin. You are a sinful creature. We've all broken God's law. Not one of us is good enough, no matter how good we are. And that old lie Satan tells, well, at least you're not like the worst people in history, so surely God is loving, He's forgiving, He's just going to give you a pass, is not true. God demands a blood sacrifice for sin. Why? Because that's the only thing that satisfies His holiness in front of a fallen, evil world. God is holy, and He wants to make sure that holiness does not get corrupted.
Life is in the blood. How come man can do just about everything but cannot replicate blood? We have to donate it for transfusions, because there's life in that blood that can't be manufactured in a lab. So a blood sacrifice is required, because sin came through one man, Adam, which means one man could take away the sins of the world, if he was worthy to break those scrolls, and no one was worthy (Revelation 5).
Genesis 3:15 tells us it will be the seed of the woman who crushes the head of the serpent, the seed of the woman, born of a virgin. It was God coming to earth as the Son of God, the spotless Lamb, to take away the sins of the world. He lived a perfect life that you and I couldn't live, and then He chose willingly to be nailed to a cross, to be a blood sacrifice, to be crushed for our sins. He was put there as a substitute. Just as Moses had the people look to the bronze serpent on a pole in the wilderness, we look to the cross, because Jesus Christ is our substitute. He takes on Himself the punishment that was due to us. He is our sacrifice. He is our substitute.
It's not enough to say we should just follow His teachings, WWJD. Do you see how weak that is? We are made in God's image, and we are to be reflections of Jesus, made more like Christ every day. But that concept gets twisted into a Jesus who is not the real Jesus, not the Lord of Lords, not the King of Kings that we come to worship today.
The Four Points
Let's review the four points that undergird the whole Salt and Light series:
- We need to be salt and light in our homes.
- We need salt and light in our churches.
- We must tear down false gods.
- We must build up that which honors God.
Salt and light represents a lot of what Jesus tells His true followers to be about.
Gideon in Judges 6
The Old Testament and New Testament are connected, separated by four hundred years, but everything in the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New. Read the Old Testament not with Jewish eyes, but with Christian eyes; not with behavior-modification eyes, but with freedom-in-Christ eyes; not with "I'm lost and I have to earn my salvation, I have to sacrifice bulls to get there", but Jesus paid it all, He's my sacrifice, He's my substitute. Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22, it comes together in the most harmonious way. It's beautiful.
Once your eyes are open to the ways of God, once you pass from milk to solid food, dare I say chewing on some steak, you'll find there is nothing on planet earth that will give you satisfaction and deep peace to your core like knowing Jesus and seeing Him fulfilled in all the Scriptures. It's a beautiful thing.
Earlier in Judges 6, the Israelites were worshiping false gods. They still worshiped the one true God, but they'd been mixing it with the idols of the Midianites and the Amalekites. And they got hit with a severe smack-down, the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the people of the East swarmed them like locusts, without number, too many to count. They took all the crops, loaded them on their camels, entered the land, and laid waste to it.
The Lord had told the Israelites, don't worship any other gods. But they didn't listen. So God allowed them to be oppressed. Sound familiar? Judges 6:6 says Israel became poverty-stricken and cried out to the Lord.
So now Gideon is hiding in a wine press, threshing wheat to keep it from the Midianites. If he'd done it out in public, they'd have swarmed him and taken all his food. And then an incredible exchange happens between Gideon and the Angel of the Lord.
Tear It Down
Judges 6:25–26, that night, the Lord said, "Gideon, take the second bull from your father's herd, the one that is seven years old, pull down your father's altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it."
Do you see it? The old ways are being addressed straight up. Take the seven-year-old bull of your father, that represents part of his father's sin, part of the generation that decided not to worship the one true God. One explanation: the invaders had been in the land for seven years, and God meant to clean the land. Tear it down! Oh, that sounds harsh.
Tear it down.
Use the bull that's been around since all this idol worship started, and rip that sucker down. Then build up something better, something more appropriate, something to worship the one true God. Verse 26 continues: build an altar to the Lord your God on this hilltop sanctuary, lay the stones down carefully, and sacrifice the bull as a burnt offering, using as fuel the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down. How's that for in your face? That pole that was an affront to Me in worship, that glory-stealing pole, is now the fuel for a sacrifice to Me and My glory, says the Lord of Hosts. I love it.
Judges 6:27, so Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord had commanded, but he did it at night, because he was afraid of the other members of his father's household and the people of the town.
Destroying Strongholds
Let's talk strongholds today. Let's destroy some arguments today. Like Gideon in verse 27, some are afraid, so they work for Jesus undercover, in the night. I want to lift some of that fear today. Let's tackle some incredible lies, breathtaking lies that are so easily refutable it makes my heart a little sick that so many are deceived by them.
Liberal Christianity Isn't Christianity
Let's be honest, it is not Christianity at all. Using the term "Christianity" for it is a little more than a tiny bit insulting to those of us who are sold out to the Savior. It's closer to Baal worship than to authentic Christianity, mixing false gods with the real God, and that Asherah pole needs to be torn down.
Here's what you'll hear from these folks: Chris, don't you know Jesus came across loving? Do you even know the fruit of the Spirit, gentleness? I'm just telling you this in love, you're doing more harm than good by standing so abrasively against people who need mercy and grace.
Really? So it's more harmful to speak out against the true madness than to stay silent, or lie to people and tell them it's all okay? Push back on that, as nicely as possible: would you have marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in Birmingham during the civil rights movement? Would you have stood up against Hitler if you were a German in 1939? Without fail, the progressive Christian says, well, of course I would have.
Really? If you can't see and stand against an obvious demonic, totalitarian system today that is plainly evil, if you can't stand against the madness of teaching kids to change their gender or make up their gender, can't stand against drag queen story hour, can't stand against half-naked men gyrating in front of kids, or the mass murder of the unborn in this country, then you need to stop lying to yourself. You would not have been standing for any of those things, because you're afraid. You would not have been standing with Bonhoeffer or cheering him on as he opposed Hitler. You wouldn't have. The most loving thing we can do is show you another way, so you can break your own breathtaking self-delusion.
What Nazi Germany Teaches Us
We face an America today that is a stronghold of insanely delusional people. Who's ready to destroy some arguments and tear down some strongholds?
Here are some stats about the church in Hitler's Germany, from 1935: 18,000 pastors in Germany. 3,000 of them stood with the Confessing Church. 3,000 of them joined Hitler in his propaganda machine. And here's the real problem, the one America shares, 12,000 said nothing. They said, Jesus is still on the throne, we'll pray for him, maybe God will break through, let the Spirit do the work. They did not stand up to destroy strongholds, because their own life was more important.
Our King is looking right now for who He can count on in this dark, twisted generation. Staying silent is not an option for those He calls. Trying to find the right words is one thing. Staying silent is another. And when that happens, even the true warriors will wobble, they'll struggle if left to stand alone. We need brothers and sisters who are not afraid.
Fear of Man vs. Fear of God
Many are not living that lifestyle themselves but defend it as if their own righteousness depends on it. Notice they always resort to name-calling those who disagree, homophobic, transphobic. I'm going to be called those things just for speaking the truth. Why not?
Here's the true response, especially to those who aren't even living that lifestyle themselves, who are the majority of the rainbow-flag wavers, trying to make that a replacement for righteousness, because the God-void in their life needs something, and they think this is righteousness when it's deception, delusion, and fake. You are allies of the ungodly because you fear them.
It is those of us who speak truth and stand firm who do not fear them. The fear of the Lord is a healthy fear, respecting His position over us. Fear of man, and the capitulation that follows, is fear of losing our position and status, and that stems from pride. I've checked myself many times. I've sheathed my tongue and not said what I wanted to say. Sometimes I think that was appropriate. Other times, I think I let the Lord down, wasn't strong enough, and my pride got in the way.
Critical Theory and the Victim Lie
What we see clear as day in America is so many Christians in name only, openly aligning with demonic doctrines. Instead of openly defying God's authority through straight-up idol worship like the Israelites in Gideon's time, Americans indirectly defy God's authority by rejecting family authority, rejecting the patriarchy, rejecting government authority, and for sure rejecting church authority.
This is all part of critical theory, rooted in Marxism, which puts every relationship in the framework of oppressor and victim. If you know Jesus, God tells you that you're more than a conqueror, you're not a victim, you're victorious because of Jesus' substitutionary death. God told Gideon, while he was hiding, that he was in fact a mighty warrior. The demonic ideology of critical theory tells you that you are a victim, you will always be a victim, and you will always be oppressed. That creates tribalism and division, whereas the authentic gospel unites us under one banner, which makes unity among authentic believers paramount in our journey.
These are the same demon-gods at work in our world today, the same fallen angels cast down, eternal and still corrupting our society just as they corrupted ancient Israel. They've been churning at it, just wearing different faces, different looks, different vibes. And what does the Lord ask of us in the times we live in? To be salt and light to the world. None of this is rocket surgery.
We are not meant to be a wet noodle, meant to just be nice. The eleventh commandment, blessed be the nice. I don't think it's nice to leave people in their sins, headed for destruction. That's just me.
America, Israel, and the Hand of God
God wants to use His church to rescue people, and how our country goes will be directly related to how the authentic church, not those who merely call themselves the church, but the bride of Christ, carries out the mission of being salt and light. The only reason America has not faced wrath-type judgment on these shores is that there has been enough salt and light in this nation to, for whatever reason, stay the hand of God. There's no other explanation. Praying people. Sacrificing people. United people. Salt and light believers, and since the great COVID division, I'm wondering if these folks are going extinct. It feels lonely sometimes.
Another reason we haven't been throttled from heaven with the wrath rightfully due us is our support for the nation of Israel. In 1948, Harry Truman signed a document in the face of stiff opposition from what was then called the League of Nations, and just as the Bible prophesied, a nation was born in a day, May 14–15, 1948. Since then, we have been the most blessed nation in the history of the world. Israel doesn't happen if Harry Truman doesn't sign that document. Even revisionist historians can't change that fact. Look at all the modern advances that have come since 1948, the first computer, and on and on. Something happened when Israel became a nation again in a day.
Scripture says, I bless those who bless you, and I curse those who curse you. And yet we continue to fall further and further away, the great falling away is underway. If this current administration turns its back completely on Israel, which is reportedly their goal, then watch out and look up, because our destruction, and, for those of us who know the Lord, our redemption, is drawn near, at the door.
The Religion of Evolution
Let's move on to the next stronghold, the lie of the religion of evolution and its high priest, Charles Darwin. It's sad how many people, some who even profess Christ, have bent the knee to this pathetic excuse for science, this outright deception that continues as the common-sense law of the land. There's about as much science in evolution as there is pork in pork and beans. It is a belief system, one with little to no evidence. For 165 years, Darwinian evolution has been undermining scientific research, education, and the faith of billions of people.
In real science, if you observe facts that refute an idea, the idea gets rejected. So why does Darwinism live on despite these four things?
- The law of biogenesis holds, it never began.
- It conflicts with the first and second laws of thermodynamics.
- And this is the big one, the fossil record and living creatures actually observed reveal no transitional beings. Even Darwin himself said reject my theory if you can't find transitional beings in the fossil record.
- Gene depletion plus natural selection renders Darwinism genetically impossible.
But it lives on because Darwinism is a religious belief system about origins, not actual scientific theory, so its followers defend it with blind zealotry. Why do they defend it so passionately against the facts and against common sense? Listen to atheist George Wald, Harvard University professor and Nobel laureate: "Modern biologists, having reviewed the downfall of spontaneous generation, yet unwilling to accept special creation, are now left with nothing." Another atheist admitted essentially the same thing, we know spontaneous generation resulting in Darwinian evolution is impossible, but we must continue on in our pursuits, or the result is being accountable to a Creator God.
How do they keep going? First, it's found in how much people actually hate the truth, especially the truth of a Creator God they'll be accountable to one day. Have you ever heard of punctuated equilibrium? It's the theory that says evolution happens so fast that when it does, it leaves no trace of evidence behind. What a grift. How convenient. Poof, a fish is not a squirrel, and there's no evidence left behind. That's why there's nowhere in the fossil record that we find intermediate species. Yet I'm the fool for believing "in the beginning, God."
So the evil one continues to ask: how can we get Christians to go soft, stay soft, and be safe for every demonic activity, and not be salt and light? One way is to appeal falsely to our own virtues. Another way is to shame us with malevolent compassion. Another way is to bring just enough of a slight semblance of truth and righteousness, mixed with enough falsehood, to have Christians miss the point and miss the mark. Here's an example most of you have probably touched this week.
"He Gets Us" and a Jesus Without a Cross
I witnessed something from Satan that's so slick, so brilliant a way to knock Christians back a few steps, make Christians feel bad while simultaneously having believers subconsciously reconsider whether sin is really sinful. And let's throw in something to divide ourselves over while we're at it.
It's called the He Gets Us campaign. I understand there have been more Google searches for Jesus than at Christmastime because of it. I understand it creates conversation in the marketplace about Jesus. But is it sending us toward the real Jesus? During the Super Bowl, a group with a hundred million dollars to spend dropped fourteen million on an ad that ended with the words: Jesus didn't teach hate. He washed feet. He gets us.
See the problem? Remember the Spurgeon quote from the start, right and wrong versus right and almost right. One pastor put it this way: the biggest problem with the He Gets Us ads is that they ultimately reinforce the cultural stigma that Christians are hateful if we do anything other than wash feet. The culture will allow our demonstrations of love, but won't allow us to speak the truth in love. Wash the feet, sure, but don't you dare tell us we're sinful, don't you dare tell us we need a Savior.
The He Gets Us website says the campaign exists to remind us of the example Jesus set while inviting all to explore His teachings, so we can follow His example of confounding, unconditional love, because He gets us, all of us. Do you see it? Do you have discernment? Are we really supposed to explore His teachings and follow His example, or is that a lame substitute for being our sacrificial substitute? Do you see how inadequate that is compared to the resurrected, rescued, forgiven, made-new life? Once again, the cross is robbed of its glory.
A pastor friend in North Dakota wrote: if you want to be like Jesus, most definitely go and wash the feet of others, however, you should also take up a cross and die for them as well. That's the problem with seeing Jesus only as a moral example, the cross always gets forgotten. That He Gets Us ad stripped Christ of His sacrificial death and made Him nothing more than a peddler of soft, sentimental love. And when we make Jesus a soft peddler of pious love, people divide into two camps: those who supposedly love the way Jesus loves, and those who don't. If you want division, that's exactly how you manufacture it, and I've already seen it play out on Facebook, people taking sides.
None of us is capable of washing the feet of our neighbors with pure hearts, let alone bleeding and dying for them on a cross, which is exactly why Christ needs to be the one who washes and the one who bleeds, for every person, of every tribe, of every background. These ads are nonsense. Peace and unity are not found when we set our ideological differences aside and wash one another's feet. Peace and unity happen when our ideologies are crucified into Christ, and we find ourselves united together in Him and in His Word alone. Tragically, the He Gets Us ads are made by people who do not get Him. They rob the cross of its glory. Jesus doesn't just "get" us, He bleeds and dies for us. Much different message.
Cowboy Fake Love
One more thing to show you, and then two Scriptures, and we're done.
Here's a popular sentiment making the rounds: when we die, God isn't going to ask us about the two men down the street who got married. He won't ask us about the girl who had an abortion. He won't ask us about the atheist who lives on the corner. He won't ask us about the woman who feels more comfortable as a man. He will ask us how we loved those people. He's called us to do that, and some of us didn't.
Do you see it? I call this cowboy fake love. Somebody responded to that and said this is honestly the equivalent of lowering the difficulty level of the game because you found the tutorial too hard. Apparently, real love for others is now ignoring them, or condoning them in their sin, because that's supposed love. Is that really what we're called to do?
God isn't going to ask you any of those questions. The only question awaiting us on the other side is this: what did you do with My Son, and His sacrificial death, in your place, as your substitute? That's it. And as the great white throne judgment continues on us, if there's a question about loving our neighbor as ourselves, it'll be framed by being authentic salt and light, not this cowboy fake love garbage. It's nonsense. "Leave them in their sin if you really love them" is not cool in the eyes of the righteous King of Kings. Salt and light is not showing fake love by condoning or ignoring every evil in our midst. It is loving by sharing the One who can save from all evil.
For those who wanted to bait me about abortion, I would always say: what about rape and incest? Let's set that aside for a second, will you agree with me that abortion on demand is wrong, fundamentally, before we talk about that other thing?
The Charge of Second Timothy
So what if there was a Scripture that told us directly what to do, directly how to be salt and light, directly how to be light in this generation? Let me show it to you.
2 Timothy 4:1–5. Paul doesn't mince words. Paul is intense. He says, "I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom." This is real. It's about to get real up in here, is what Paul is saying.
- Verse 2: Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
- Verse 3: For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.
- Verse 4: And will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
- Verse 5: As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Who's "the you" in verse 5? It's the authentic Christian who has laid down their life, left their whole life behind, to follow Jesus, because He's the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, our sacrificial substitute, and everything comes out of that. Everything in life comes out of that.
John 3:16. Why not close with it? "For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
Be Salt and Light
Let's go back through those four points one more time: we need salt and light in our homes, it starts in our homes, people, it starts in our homes. We need salt and light in our church. We must tear down false gods, which is what we've talked about the last two weeks. And we must build up that which honors God, part of building up is sharing, from this platform, things society has told you that you're not supposed to say in public anymore.
Do you realize that saying marriage is between one biological man and one biological woman is now treated as an affront to our culture? There's legislation in state houses right now to make that a legal statement. What about the First Amendment? What about it?
There's one takeaway. That is: repent. Repent. His mercies are renewed each day, and if you've not been baptized, or you need to be baptized, come see about it. It's repent and be baptized, and then walk forward together.
As long as breath is drawn, this fellowship will do all it can to be salt and light, and we want you to be part of it with us. Be salt and light. And if God takes you away from this fellowship, we want to cheer you on to be salt and light wherever you go. It was never about building a church, it's about being the church, with whoever God sends us.