How Jesus Picked Fights | Doug Wilson

so if you listen to lectures like we just listened to on the state of the church the state of the world how much of a threat how much of an unrecognized threat we are facing it gets you if you're anything like me it gets you all churned up and you want to go hit something oh but what do I hit where you know what are we supposed to do and I'm a Christian we're not supposed to hit we're supposed to be nice and that is the bisetta ng sin of evangelicals is niceness being nice now there is a way of not being nice which is of the devil there's also a way of not being nice which is very much like Jesus was Jesus was frequently impolite Jesus was frequently at odds with the religious religious establishment of his day you have to recognize that Jesus was not the original flower child he was not wandering through Palestine preaching a simple message of love and peace and then they crucified him that's not what happened Jesus was a troublemaker Jesus was a troublemaker and he made all kinds of trouble for the establishment he made all kinds of trouble for the crowds he made all kinds of trouble and the fact that we can look at we can read through the Gospels we can be Bible readers and read the Gospels again and again and again and not see how much of a troublemaker jesus was is is a wonderful instance of how powerful paradigmatic blinders are Jesus was nice Jesus was sweet Jesus loves everybody and that's why he made a court of whips and cleansed the temple and you have to realize that the temple complex the court of the Gentiles that that Jesus cleared was roughly 30 acres in size right he did he didn't clear the narthex of a small country chapel there's a 30 acre it was a 30 acre parcel there was a temple in one section the court of the Gentiles was this large court that had been taken over by money changers and by sellers of sacrificial animals the sacrificial animals were all clean the animals right they were in order to be sacrificed they had to be clean but it was the court of the Gentiles that court was dedicated to Gentiles the Gentiles could approach God they were supposed to approach God and worship God from that proximity and that was their space and it was filled up with all these animals representing Jews all right the the the Gentiles were excluded and Jesus expressly says that when he says my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations but you have made it a den of robbers all right you made it a den of robbers and so he clears that he clears the temple 30 acres it would take me a couple of days to clear 30 acres right and Jesus and pastored him he just preached first Palm Sunday a few weeks ago and I noticed something I just hadn't noticed before about the the kids in the in the triumphal entry you know the Hosanna to the son of David kids cheering in the triumphal entry it's clear in the Gospels that they followed him into the temple and they continued their cheerleading activities when he was turning tables over so you just imagine if you're a sad you seeing priests and Jesus is flipping tables and junior high kids are whooping it up there goes another one Hosanna that would that would rub your fur the wrong way right it's not a surprise it should not be a surprise to us that Jesus wound up being crucified it wasn't a big mistake Jesus knew that he was at odds with the establishment and the establishment knew that they were at odds with him they everybody knew okay except for us reading our Bibles diligently we think we have this operating assumption that Jesus would never ruffle any feathers anywhere for any reason now before I get into this I want to say that there are Christians with bad attitudes there are snarky people there are people who have it all wrong and they they will point this they would point to some of the things I'm about to point out in order to justify their own bad attitudes I'm not I'm not talking about mr. cult Buster I'm not talking about the person who snarls at people and thinking that that's a gift of the Spirit that's not what I'm talking about but I am saying that our automatic assumption that if the culture is enraged that if you do something to enrage the culture then you must have done something wrong is simply wrongheaded I you have to start with the assumption that if you're not enraging the culture you're probably doing something wrong jesus said beware when all men speak well of you all right that's the treatment that false prophets get beware when all men speak well of you that's the treatment false prophets game so let's begin with this in the sixth chapter of John Jesus came to the Sea of Galilee and it says a great multitude followed him John 6 - if your biblical thinker great multitude following the Son of God you should think if you're if you're pastoral instincts are all operating a great multitude following Jesus what should you think uh-oh that's what you should think is uh-oh now this is there's a obviously there's a wrong way to be cynical there's a right way to be I call it sunny Calvinistic cynicism Robus sunny I should tell you a story one time a number of years ago Rory who is was my grandson who was about 2 at the time we had a Sabbath dinner and some people were from visiting us from out of town and and they were sitting around our living room and I remember Nate was standing by the the mantle and I was sitting in the chair and Rory came running down the hallway out of the back of the house and he ran up to his dad and said I love Jesus and all the guests were oh yeah and Nate with and I ate and I thought the same thing at the same moment what did he do back there yes he may love Jesus but why does he love Jesus without saying anything Nate just turned around to walk the other into the house I thought what did he do and Nate just headed back and turned out happy ending it turned out he really did love Jesus yeah but Jesus says when all men are when all men are saying yay hurray you're the best you should have little blinking lights going off on the in the dashboard your pastoral dashboard that you should say something something's not right a great multitude followed him John six to lots of people a great company came to him John six five a great company came to him there were about 5,000 people there and Jesus fed them all John six eleven five thousand men came Jesus fed them all their natural conclusion was that he was the Prophet who was supposed to come into the world which is true Deuteronomy he's the great prophet he's the fulfillment of Moses prophecy that's true they came to a right conclusion but there's still something off he's the Prophet who's supposed to come into the world john 6:14 Jesus escaped from their plans to make him a king 6:15 Jesus crossed the sea during the night but they were diligent followers of Jesus and they caught up with him at Capernaum 6:25 Jesus identifies their problem they were chasing loaves not salvation they were chasing loaves not salvation what it's called me eased missionaries called rice Christians so Bob you're just here for the rice here's Jesus fires the first shots so he is this great company following him and Jesus followed fires the first shots at people who were assiduously following him he then starts giving them hard sayings and they start grumbling 6:43 he starts giving them tough things to deal with and a number of it says his disciples kicked at the hard sayings why can't you why can't you make it more palatable why can't you make it more user-friendly why can't you make it more accessible he was making it difficult on purpose he fed them loaves that part was easy right that was accessible the loaves were accessible and Jesus did feed them but he immediately sets up some hard sayings and they complained about it who can bear it they said in chapter 6 verse 60 from that time it says a number of the disciples decided to go find another church 666 they wanted to go find another church where Christ was preached more winsome Lee I want you to think about that well his demeanor just isn't christ-like because I well who is it that's Jesus I have a paradigm of Christlikeness I have a thought in my head which for convenience sake let us call it an idol right an idea of Jesus is not the same thing as Jesus an idea of Jesus is not the same thing as Jesus Jesus is revealed to us in his word by the spirit okay so a number of people decided that they weren't being fed anymore by this Jesus and they wanted to go find Jesus and this is another thing I'll just throw this and realize that we we are we are democratized to a shameful degree where we want we want to establish truth by means of counting noses how persuasive was it how was the crowd overwhelmed was the crowd persuaded I want you to remember that Jesus late raised Lazarus from the dead Lazarus had been in the grave for four days and Jesus comes down late on purpose so that the glory of God might be manifested there was a crowd that followed them they come to the the tomb he tells them to move the stone he's been dead for days no didn't I said did I tell you and so they roll the stone away and then Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead in front of a crowd and didn't win them all right a bunch of a bunch of them believed and the rest of them went off to to conspire on killing him okay you you don't establish truth by counting noses that's not how its established it's the Word of God what is the word of God say and and you don't establish the the righteousness or the effectiveness of someone by whether or not he persuades everybody Jesus says this if if they don't believe Moses and the probably forgot Moses and the prophets if they don't believe Moses in the prophets they will not believe if someone comes back from the dead and they didn't with Lazarus and they didn't with Jesus who were the first people to know that Jesus rose from the dead the guards who lied about it who are the second people to know the people who paid them to lie about it the third people to know were the women who testified truly and we're not believed it there's a whole cascading this we determine truth according to what God has said so consider the Lord's behavior just a few chapters later in in chapter 8 consider the Lord's counterproductive counterproductive behavior there What did he say and 8:31 what did Jesus say to those Jews it says who had believed in him Jews who had believed in him that exchange starts with their faith in Him and ends with him saying that they are sons of the devil and them countering that he was a Samaritan and a devil himself oh yeah right so that that's an exchange that went badly or was it 848 they're saying were we not right years some year Samaritans and a devil and Jesus and but it starts just a few verses above saying that they believed in and and Jesus deliberately made it difficult he didn't make it arbitrarily difficult right it's not like someone wants to join your church and you say give me 50 right give me give me 50 pushups or we'll create an obstacle course you don't cook up arbitrary difficulties there are enough real difficulties at the very center of what it means to be a Christian right and if you take those difficulties at the very center of what it means to be a Christian and place them there right where they belong that's going to have that's going to have its intended effect the Lord's sense of mission and the Lord's sense of mission effectiveness does not appear to follow our metrics does not appear to two key off of things that we tend to look for did Jeremiah have a successful ministry well that says maybe but he had a faithful one would you rather have a faithful ministry or successful ministry right you what do you want what do you want a faithful ministry or a successful ministry what do you want the applause of the crowd now or the well done good and faithful at the end of history what what do you want what do you actually want and are you prepared to go to the word to find out what it is you're supposed to be doing to get that wonderful welcome well done good and faithful servant and and you remember that the Lord it's the worst job to say that not you your job is to say I'm an unworthy servant I only did what I was told so every set let's push this into some corners this is not every corner that can be pushed into but it's pushed it into some corners every Saturday night at our in our family we have a Sabbath dinner we observed the Lord's Day from Saturday night 6 p.m. to Sunday night 6 p.m. and so we kick it off with a Sabbath dinner the whole family comes in company and whatnot and we we have a round of catechism questions for the kids there are 17 grandkids and and other kids and for their 28 plus kids the last question the one I asked I asked all of the kids together is this kids what's the point of the whole Bible the answer is kill the dragon get the girl alright that's the point of the whole Bible that's the that's biblical redemptive theology in a nutshell what's the point of the whole Bible kill the dragon get the girl this was the point of the biblical story before the fall and it has remained the point of the narrative ever since before Adam ever sinned before he ever sinned he still had a dragon to fight you know it had Adam done anything wrong no he was perfect perfect world had God had given him perfect everything everything perfect wife perfect family perfect garden and a very imperfect dragon he gave he gave Adam a perfect fight he gave Adam a perfect opportunity to fight and the first Adam did not do what the second Adam did in fact do the second Adam fought the dragon overcame the dragon the first Adam was supposed to intervene with the first day God doesn't give us things that we there's where there's absolutely nothing to do Adam should have done something other than what he did and he should have intervened on behalf of his bride he should have protected his bride he should have stepped in between he should have done something somehow and God would have given him something to do it with before Adam ever sinned he still had a dragon to fight after he sinned the task became much more arduous the task of dragon fighting became much more arduous and extended over centuries and could only be fulfilled when than when the seed of the woman finally was given but that remained the mission always and for us now as Christians this remains the point this is why we're here this is why God has not whisked us all off to heaven we are here to fight the dragon that's the point the god of peace Romans 624 the is V the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you that statement the God a peaceful student crush Satan under your feet identifies Satan with the serpent in Genesis we're not told that the serpent is Satan but in Romans were told that Satan was the serpent the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet so the promise in Genesis 3 of Satan being crushed is applied the Lord Jesus is the one who applies it fundamentally but Christians in and through him are privileged to crush Satan under their feet the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you and here we have yet another glorious gospel juxtaposition alright there's a tension here but I want you to think about the God of peace does things what does the God of peace do the God of peace crushes the God of peace crushes heads read that again the God of peace will soon crush the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet here let me give you an application this is I'm going to share something from one of my daughters Facebook posts from a few years ago about some of the protests of Planned Parenthood that that erupted after david delayed ins videos of their merchandising of baby parts went public this is from rachel as our kids were getting ready to go finding their product of conception shirts grabbing water bottles etc shadrach realized that he didn't have a protest shirt this is because i made him one that said another boy on it for the last protest but threw it away afterwards because it was an old undershirt so I grabbed some sharpies instead I would make him a new one for from another old undershirt he watched me as I wrote life is a good choice on his shirt and we talked about what was going on I told him there I told him there were people who thought it was okay to kill babies while they were in their Mama's tummy I told him that we were going to we were going to say no he asked me some insightful three-year-old questions there are people killing babies is God there people are killing babies they is killing babies later thinking he had gotten in the van already I found him in the garage rummaging around I asked him what he was up to and he said mama I need to find my sword the real question for me and this is this is really a puzzler is how we will have stories in the resurrection I know that we will but how will we have stories in the resurrection when the Lord finally removes every grief and puts everything to rights will we be reduced to just telling stories from back in the old days when there was sin when we've been there ten thousand years will we be tired of standing around when every tear will have been dried will this signal the end of all stories revelation 21:4 says and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there should be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away now I can't imagine how this is so or how God will do it beyond my comprehension in the last battle Lewis says this the thing of the resurrection of the of of heaven the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them and for us this is the end of all the stories and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after but for them it was only the beginning of the real story the real the the reason it's hard for us to imagine this is because conflict appears to us to be an essential ingredient in all story right suppose Tolkien had been persuaded by some sensitive editors to remember to remove the nazgûl to remove Sauron and that eye thing to remove to remove Gollum once upon a time there were some hobbits who lived in the Shire and they liked to eat a lot the end it fails to grip right and the thing and this also incidentally is related to our solution to the problem of evil you don't improve the Lord of the Rings by taking Gollum out you don't improve the Lord of the Rings by taking the nazgûl out you're not solving the problem of evil you're wrecking a story you're wrecking a story now how God is going to have beautiful stories and wonderful stories in the resurrection is frankly beyond me but it helps it does help me to understand that we're supposed to we certainly are supposed to have stories here now finding an antagonist in this world is not all that hard finding a robust antagonist in this sinful world is not that hard all you need to do is try to live like a decent Christian for five or six days in a row and you will have your antagonist you will find yourself in the thick of it but that is because there's something truly wrong with this world conflict when it is most stark is with those who are simply evil but conflict can also arise as a result of misunderstandings between those who ought to be at peace with each other right those are the worst kind in either case it's the result it is the result of real sin real evil real problems in the resurrection how will we have real stories without real problems I'm happy to confess beats me but what we are facing now is real preparation for what we will face then fighting now is preparation for whatever will be given to us then courage is necessary now and it will be the foundation for whatever for whatever will be necessary then you know I I don't I don't believe that there's gonna be sin or evil in the resurrection I think it's going to perhaps be Ripley this is my speculation I think it's going to be perhaps replaced by difficulty difficulty challenge I'd like you Wilson to grow giant turnips on Jupiter go but that sounds hard yeah okay so without adversaries without danger without conflict why will we need this trans courage I'll conclude this as I just did a moment ago beats me but at the same time we are taught that our Labour's our conflicts our sacrifices now in the here now are not futile everything connects and what we learned before the resurrection connects to what we're gonna have to do after it therefore in first Corinthians 15:58 therefore my beloved brethren be steadfast immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord your labor now is not in vain this is the conclusion of the great resurrection chapter it's there are things that you do there are things that you can invest in now the word of God and your neighbor there are things that you deal with in this transient world that are forever the grass withers the flower fades the word of the Lord endures forever right that lasts forever and your neighbor will live forever forever so invest in that which is going to last forever your neighbor and the Word of God we do not flee from our conflicts and sufferings to the refuge of the Resurrection rather we fight through them using them as God's appointed ladder to clamber up to the Resurrection they are all part of the same story Philippians 3:10 and 11 says this that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings becoming like him in his death that by any means possible I may attain to the resurrection from the dead our goal is to share in Christ's sufferings share in the sufferings as we strive to attain to the resurrection of the dead now since real believers are all predestined to be conformed the image of Christ the likeness of Christ in the resurrection this means that real believers may rest in the fact that all things work together for good for those who love God and are the call according to his purpose you know that passage Romans 8:28 through 30 the reason we have to be reassured of this is that in the midst of the story we are easily distracted by things present things to come Heights and depths and anything else in all creation wherever we go in this world stories erupt insurmountable challenges present themselves and we go oh no there are giants in the land you know we're we're like the ten spies who come back we're not like Joshua and Caleb we're like the 10 spies and say they're big I'm telling you frankly the the grapes are big but so are they so are the guys growing them and so these grapes from the valley vesicle they're you know this it's really something but no we can't they're giants in the land no we can't no we can't now there are two kinds of well this is what David David did and I so david's uh if if david had had a personal manager when he went out to fight Goliath you know a personal is a PR assistant or somebody he said you know he's stupid you know he's so big he's huge he's a giant and David would say yes I don't know how I could miss look at that size of a barn we think Oh Goliath too big to fight David thinks Goliath too big to miss too big to miss it reminds me of a story told of a marine general in the Korean War when the Chinese had flooded into the war and and there was a marine detachment and they were completely surrounded by the Chinese and the Marine general looked every direction said well they can't get away now that is faith right that is that's the kind of faith that we're talking about so wherever we go in this world seeking to serve Christ stories erupt which means conflict has arisen you can't have stories erupt without conflict not in this world how God's going to do in the next world is a mystery but in this world it's certainly the case you can't have any decent story you can't have a decent missionary biography you can't have a decent history of Western civilization you cannot have any record of faithfulness over time in this world without conflict without martyrdoms without collisions without treacheries without betrayals is simply not going to happen and if you try to have a program of church growth that excludes by definition those things from happening a priori guess what you're on the other side you you've already a band you've already turned coat so wherever we go in this world stories erupt not the ineffable stories for we're still in this world I'm not talking about the ones that do not yet appear but rather our kind of story these are the stories that contain all the characters that we find in Scripture remember if you want to understand your life you want to understand it in the mirror of the word hold the mirror hold the word up to your life and say what's going on in your life what's what's happening here what's happening there the stories are going to contain all the characters that we find in Scripture and all the elements that tempt us to think that God has some God has somehow lost the thread in our stories and our stories down here we have friends who desert us like Dimas we have co-workers who betray like Judas we have dear friends who collapse on us like Peter we have noble adversaries as David had with Abner some guy on the other side who you can't figure out what's he doing aside he's a good man he's a good man what's he doing over there we have skunks on our side as David head with Joab Joe abs on David side Abner's on the other side what do you do with this we have friends dear to us who fall out with each other like Euodia and syndicate we have false brothers who Steve all their way into presbytery in order to spy out our Liberty I know they're never Baptists here and you don't have presbytery but that does not make you safe false false brothers snivel into somewhere right we have relatives who try to rip us off like Laban we have protests of protectors who turn on us like Saul we have Church growth Church plants Church splits and Church slants a church splint is a combo planting and splitting it's like landing your Cessna on the freeway you're glad for it and it all worked out but it's just not done that way so as we stand back and look at the inglorious mess we should thank God for his predestined and grace glance at our watch and murmur that this looks like we're right on schedule alright this do not be dismayed do not be outraged do not be upset to use the words of Peter as though something strange were happening to you this conflict is this is baked in this is part of the system when you have a relative peace a relative period of peace and prosperity I felt like the middle of the 20th century in North America right you have this we just take it like it's our birthright well this is the way life is no read a history book read a book somebody read that's not the way life is that's a weird little aberration and the the history of the human race is a history of conflict after conflict after conflict and the introduction of the gospel into the world was intended to eliminate that conflict at the end when the God of peace crushes the head of the one who instigates wars but God's got strategy is peace through superior firepower all right that's what God is doing this the Christian faith is a message of world conquest disciple the nations preach the gospel to every creature go out and tell everybody this is what fan out over the whole globe and get it done and and I want you to think for a moment how ludicrous it was Jesus talking to his disciples on the Mount of Olives Bethany right before he ascended into heaven largely mostly unarmed retired fishermen and he said okay all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me therefore go disciple the nations ready set go I'll I'll send you power from on high go and 2,000 years later here we are on the other side of the world there are hundreds of millions of professing Christians and and the world and that professing church is a ragtag II mess in all kinds of ways right the kingdom of God grows in messy convoluted ways someone some general once said that no plant well not some general I'm gonna give you two close eisenhower once said that he found the the act of planning for warfare the act of planning for battle absolutely essential and once the conflict started he found the plans absolutely useless the plans are useless but it's essential that you have that you will have planned you just don't trust in your plans another general there's one when I first thought said no plan survives first contact with the enemy everything starts going sideways and because the enemy has countered counter-attacks he does things and you didn't anticipate and then you have to recover and then someone betrays you and then someone else flakes and then someone does the wrong thing so we have to we have to acknowledge the messiness acknowledge the messiness and embrace it as a feature not a bug now we don't want to add to the cut we don't want to be the one who flakes and say oh well there are people who do that in the Bible we don't want to be the one who betrays and say oh well Judas betrayed the Lord after all it's in the Bible we want to be the faithful son we wants to be the one who stands we want to take the lesson from Scripture and apply it rightly but there is nothing there's no conflict there's no mess there's no snarl in your church that can arise that isn't reflective of how government God governs the world and how he's told us in his word that he governs the world it's all this nothing is new there's nothing new Under the Sun so we need to lean into conflict we want to say we don't want to generate mindless stupid conflict but we want to accept it and lean into it this is what God is assigned for us when he wants I saw coffee you know you drink coffee you can sleep when you're dead alright you you can rest when you're dead we're now here for the faithless Cotton Mather said for the faithful Wars will never cease that's just we're in a battle that we're in a war and we should reconcile ourselves to that fact and we don't want to be conflict free warriors we want to be faithful warriors and faithful warriors will sometimes stand down when they're told to stand down you know faithful warriors don't have to be fighting every minute faithful warriors can sleep faithful warriors can rest they can they can do what they're told to do but they ought not to take that that period of peace or that period of quiet as the reason we're here it's not the reason we're here this is something this is the way I put it a few years ago speaking of conflict with fellow Christians so this means that I'm willing to fight fellow Christians when the analogue iya scripture I demands that when the analogy of scripture demands it I'm unwilling to fight faithful Baptists Methodists charismatic and so on even though we have marked differences David and Jonathan I'm more than willing to fight with Bishop Spong with Bishop Robinson at all like Elisha fights where they have I don't fight with them because they are not in the Covenant I fight with them because they are you can't represent Christ that way yeah you're you're representing Christ and no you can't do that and last I am reluctantly willing to fight defensively with conservative believers who've taken it into their heads to launch an unnecessary attack on us eg David and Saul all right David didn't want to be fighting with Saul but Saul was chasing David okay the world is a messy place and so we do the best that we can to sort it out so we should take the lead in standing we should take the lead in standing against the evils of our generation like our to pray like our depraved understanding of life and marriage which will bring us into conflict with multitudes outside the church and with many within the church now there have been many believers prophesying for a long time this has gone in a bad place this is heading in a bad place things are going south on us we need to we need to oh no no no you know we need to just be concerned for religious liberty maintain that as though that's going to remain after all everything else goes right a culture a culture well and what can you get what can you get fired for saying now like girls are sweet I think girls are sweet or you can let's be even more radical you could get fired from your job as a network broadcaster for saying I think girls are girls Amen so if if pastors are involved in conflict they should know what the point is right all right why why do we protest abortion why do we protest things like obergefell why don't we just live and let live because it was said as was noted earlier we are protesting the establishment of the sacrament of monism right we're this this whole thing is Sacramento it's it we are kidding ourselves if we think if we believe the propaganda of the other side that this is all just a place at the table everybody everybody gets a place at the table everybody even you Christians don't believe it it came the Bunyan said it came pressing and hot into my mind however he flattered when he got me to his house he would sell me for a slave and that is exactly what's happening the illustration that makes this point I'm not picking on Walmart but this illustration makes the point suppose Walmart announced that they were that Monday's were now for now on Mondays were Islam Day and Tuesdays were Hindu day and Wednesdays were Buddhist day and Thursdays were Christian day and and 10% off for your respective religion or whatever you day most most Christians would be excited that they got a day and they would say well let's shop on Thursdays then let's get the church bus out and and make and they say see they're being even-handed they're being either different religions and we're included and it's all it's all good and I'd say no there's a there's a God of the system it's not just it's not they're not being neutral about God if there's a God of the system because if they're doing this every day is money day every there's a god of the system that unites the whole thing and Christians need to learn how to recognize the hidden network that is driving the whole program so why are we protesting abortion why are we fighting a burger fell do I believe that we've accomplished anything for the kingdom if we succeed in passing some righteous legislation or perhaps and what is more likely legislation to this perhaps less unrighteous not at all the point is always in everywhere gospel America is not going to be saved by legislation no matter how pro life or Prohm Eretz the legislation might be it will not be saved by law we cannot be saved by law we can be saved to law all right the law is going to be the result of gospel preaching hot gospel preaching if the people are not given a spirit of repentance such legislation would simply be rejected or if we're clever enough to impose such legislation on an unrepentant people they will simply vomit it up at the first opportunity Josiah was was a good king but his Reformation was not exactly long-lasting he was a good king he did good things and if the President Congress if they come to Christ that they should do good things they should pass good legislation but without a transformation of the hearts of the people without a massive Reformation and revival there's no way to sustain it so what is the point proclamations of the gospel in Scripture overwhelmingly come in this format repent and believe the gospel repent and believe law and grace repent of what sin what sin well the sins being committed sins being committed believe in what the fact that Jesus is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world the one who rose from the dead and who as a consequence was given universal authority over all the nations of men Jesus was crucified in accordance with Scripture Psalm 2 1 through 3 he was raised from the dead as the first begotten from the grave in accordance with Scripture Psalm 2:7 as the direct vindication as a direct result of that vindication that we call Easter he was invited to make a request which he did in fact make ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession Psalm 2 a Jesus did not ask for the I he Jesus did not die on the cross rise from the dead ascended into heaven and asked for all the nations of men until 1964 and then 1 ISM is going to take over that's not what he asked for that's not a score all the nations of men and we we are charged to go get them to gather them in to collect them there are Christians who say that we ought not to protest abortion alright because do we should just preach the gospel we ought not to oppose the official degradation of marriage but rather preach the gospel that's like training lifeguards to rescue people without any references to water that is like watching millions of people drowning in the same ocean and holding pep rallies on the beach now you need to go into the water and get these people out of the water that they're drowning it that's repentance so the law addresses what the people are doing that's wrong all right Jonathan all the people of Judea didn't go out to hear John the Baptist and have him repent he says repent of your sins there's a repent of what he says well that's let's not get too specific that would get into politics I actually read a Christian author who said that John kind of promised a Christian author who said John cut a promising ministry short by getting involved in politics by rebuking Herod and holding pep rallies on the beach is just gospel gospel gospel on the beach now Jesus Jesus saves sinners God saves sinners and he saves them from the sins they're committing and the sins that were committing today in North America are all manifest manifest results of this this pantheistic oneness mentality that's what's happening and we can't preach the gospel unless we preach the sinfulness of that God is the creator we are the creature not only that but we are fallen creation we are rebellious creation so we must repent and and and turn from our sin and return to the God who is utterly distinct from what we are and so this brings us back to the point about story and I want to conclude with this the old stories the old stories train us to recognize we should recognize and recognize to the glance scribes who speak with no authority lifeguards who never swim out to anybody cancer surgeons who are afraid of scalpels firemen who never jump on a truck jet pilots who never scramble Guardians who will not guard and gospel preachers who keep muttering peace peace when there is no peace anyone who can look at the current state of American cultural life abortion same-sex Mirage hookups no-fault divorce porn everywhere Mammon chasing and more cannot see us and and and not see a straight lead-in to a repent and believe gospel message is someone who's not qualified to preach the gospel at all all right we need we need men who preach the gospel and I'm talking about when I say preach the gospel I'm talking about being a preacher who comes straight out of a Flannery O'Connor short story you know the fundamentalist throws the necktie over shoulder and spits on his hands before he starts to preach I'm talking about a preacher who preaches a hot gospel repent and believe there's a hell below us contrary to John Lennon's Imagine there is a heaven above us Christ went there Christ offers to take you there but you have to repent of the sins you're currently commitee you have to turn you have to turn from this way and go that way it's the ultimate by theiry gospel father we thank you we praise you we commit this all to you Jesus [Applause]

Channel: Canon Press

Views: 71,073

Keywords: canonpress, graceagenda, christchurch, dougwilson, canon press, douglas wilson, doug wilson, how jesus picked fights, pastor doug wilson, grace agenda, men, manhood, how to be a man, Q&A, fight, serrated edge, Christian, Jesus, fighting, moscow idaho, christ church, bible, theology, satire, bite

Id: PPLVY_7yAhI

Length: 48min 49sec (2929 seconds)

Published: Wed May 30 2018