Courageous Living in an Inclusive Culture

1:04We can't even answer simple questions, factual statements. What on earth happens when we can't even answer basic questions about simple facts of life? Recently, my wife was on a jury. Twelve members in a jury, just like you have here, we have in Texas. By the way, people say you're from Texas. I say, you know, the United States is a suburb of Texas. I'm from Texas. We do things different there, but we do have 12-member juries. Well, she's sitting on this jury, and they're trying a person who bit a police officer on his hand.

1:40And so she's under trial, and they go through the whole process. The jury deliberates, and there's two members of the jury that just couldn't seem to admit all the facts were right. They're like, well, something else must have happened for that officer to deserve getting bit. And so she might be okay. Well, at the end of it, they did convict her. But I got to thinking, what happens when we have a 12-member jury in this inclusive culture, and they can't even, out of those 12, convict somebody or pronounce somebody not guilty?

2:19Because they can't do something as simple as tell the difference between a man and a woman. Where do we go with that as a culture? Where are we heading? No one will be convicted of a crime unless, of course, you can, with courage and conviction, courageously tell the difference between a man and a woman and articulate it to somebody else. As a believer in Jesus Christ, if you claim Christ, then you must have conviction that his word is authoritative in your life with no apologies. Proclaim it clearly. Why? So that you can. Can act courageous in this politically correct culture. It's so important for us not to jettison God's word. So I asked the question: why?

3:15Why must Christians live courageously? And in my notes, I have an anti-God culture, but you know what? This is not an anti-God culture. Everybody has their God. So I changed the slide. And why should we live courageously in an anti-Christ culture? It's Jesus they don't like. No surprise, Jesus said it would be that way. They love the darkness rather than the light. John 3:19. So what do we see here is that we must act courageously so that others can turn from their sin. We call that repentance, don't we? And embrace Christ.

3:54And we're a part of that plan. And if you're not a part of that plan, then you're not in the game. You're not taking Scripture seriously. Let me give you three requirements that I want to talk about, about acting courageous in this culture. First of all, we're going to look at John 16. Hopefully you're there in your scriptures. And we're going to talk about, just as you see, preparation. Courage requires preparation, but preparation through what? How are we prepared? These kids are going to a school. They're getting prepared for a career. We need to be prepared. For our culture. Number two, courageous living. You see, courage requires a godly reputation. You must have a godly reputation as we enter this new world.

4:43Third, courage requires implementation of God's plan. We have been given a crystal clear plan directly from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And we're going to see that in John 16 and in John 15. They're going to find out how to implement it in the book of Ephesians. So here's what the first requirement for godly living is. Let's drill into it. Courage requires preparation. I asked you to turn to John 16. I'm going to start reading from verse 7 in a moment, but as you're acclimating yourself to the text, I want you to think about what's going on in John 16. Jesus is preparing his disciples, and they're gathered around him, and he is teaching them. We know them as the apostles. They're the ones that are going to write the New Testament that we now hold in our hands. And he says to them, I'm going to die. I'm going away. Let's pick up the narrative in verse 7.

5:42And if you are those who like to underline things in your Bible or highlight them, I want you to underline the word you and your. It appears four times in the text, and I'm reading out of the New American Standard. Your Holman Christian version may be a little bit different, but I'm reading out of the New American Standard. So if you underline it's this you. It's a plural you. In Texas, we use the Greek language clearly there. It's y'all. Right?

6:08Y'all are Californians, you don't know that. And I grew up here, so I always thought they were all ignorant back there. But you know what? They know Greek. So, y'all. He says to you in verse 7, but I tell y'all the truth. It's to your advantage that I go away. If I do not go away, the helper, the Holy Spirit, the paraclete, will not come to you. But if I go, I'll send him to you. So what is he saying here? It's pretty clear. He's got the apostles gathered around him. And he's telling them, I'm leaving, but I'm going to send the Holy Spirit to you. And he uses this word. He says, it's an advantage that I go away to you. Now, mind you, he's been preparing them for his death. Think about it. What he's saying is, it's to your advantage that I'm going to be crucified in a few hours.

6:55Why is that? Because he's going to send the helper. He's going to send the Holy Spirit in verse 7. So what happens when the Holy Spirit arrives and he's there to help y'all, Christians, right? Notice the twist in his language in verse 8. This is Jesus. And it says this, and when he, literally that one, when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. I poured over this text and I'm saying, Jesus, why would you say that? You're sending the Holy Spirit to y'all, Christians, when you're going to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Wouldn't you send the Holy Spirit to the world to convict them of sin, righteousness, and judgment? Why did he say y'all?

7:42Why did he do that? We're going to answer that question in a minute, but I just want you to be thinking about it. And that word convict there, we're going to see it again twice in the book of Ephesians, but for now, that word convict means to scrutinize. It means to expose. It means to bring to light. It means to bring shame. So if you're guilty in court, there is a shame that's handed down to you, and you will go away to the prison cell, right? There's a shame that goes on, and so the Holy Spirit is going to come into the world, and there will be this conviction. In verse 9, he says, concerning sin. There's going to be conviction concerning sin. Why? Well, he says, because they don't believe in me. You're thinking to yourself, whew, I believe in him. I'm okay. It's all good. And I would remind you of John chapter 2. You remember this. Jesus cleared the temple, right? He made a handmade whip, and he beat the smelling, stinking animals out of the temple. He refers to it as his father's house. He drove away the money changers, thousands of people, and they said to him, Give us a sign for your authority to do this.

8:56And what's interesting is, at the end of the chapter, It says they believed in him. You think, and I believe in him. But what they believed in was really Jesus' facts and God trivia. They didn't really know Jesus. And how do we know that? Because the very next verse in verse 24, it says that Jesus didn't entrust himself to them. In other words, Jesus didn't have faith in their kind of faith. It wasn't a saving faith. They just knew some facts that he was who he said he was.

9:29In verse 11, before I get to verse 11, let me just remind you that in chapter 3, just after that incident, Nicodemus is a part of that crowd. Isn't that fascinating? He was a part of that crowd that believed something about him, but they didn't have saving faith. What kind of faith is this? What do we know about God's will? From 2 Peter 3:9, we read about God's will as it relates to faith. Let me just read it to you. You don't have to turn there. He says, The Lord is not slow about his promises. He keeps his promises. The Lord's not slow about his promises as some count slowness, but is patient toward you. And he says he's not wanting, think, not wishing, literally not counseling anybody to perish themselves, but what? To come to repentance, to turn from sin and trust Christ. That's God's will. And so when we read about people that believe in him and don't embrace what he actually says, there's two different kinds of belief. Which one is yours?

10:30He's not wanting you to perish yourself. Again, in verse 10, and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father. So he cleared the temple, the animals, the people. And they said, Show us a sign as to why you should have authority to do this. He says, You want a sign? I'll give you a sign. That wasn't good enough. The changing water into wine at the wedding wasn't good enough. Here's a sign. You destroy this temple, and I'll raise it again on the third day.

11:03That's going to be belief. They're going to see that he's not there anymore, but he's going to raise from the dead, destroy this temple, and you'll no longer see me. And that should be convicting to the world. In verse 11, concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. Do you realize that our enemy, Satan, the devil, has already been judged? He's not living out his sentence yet, but he will. He's been judged. They're going to see that. Drop down to verse 13.

11:38And I want you to see that in verse 13, in the next few verses, we talk about this is the Trinity working in us to prepare us. Verse 13, but when he, the Holy Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide who? Y'all. Help me out here, California. He's going to guide y'all into truth, for he will not. Speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will disclose it to y'all, you believers.

12:08At that time, the apostles, but now to us, he's going to disclose it to us. Verse 14, he will glorify me, and he will take of mine and disclose it to you. That's the second time we've seen that he will disclose it to you. Verse 15, all things that the Father has are mine, therefore I said to you, He takes of mine and will disclose it to you. To you believers. Do you have a New Testament in your hand? Are you looking at a New Testament on your iPhone? Did you turn it on? Right? You have that because the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, disclosed it to the apostles to write it 2,000 years ago. You'd be fascinated to know, perhaps, that this book of John that we're reading right now wasn't even penned until about 50 years after Jesus was resurrected from the dead. Watch this in John 14, 25, just one page over.

13:03Let me tell you what I mean about that. These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you, but the helper, that's again the paraclete, the Holy Spirit, the comforter, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things. Why? To prepare you for this kind of a culture. He'll teach you all things, to bring to your remembrance all that I've said to you. This New Testament that you have in your hands comes as a result of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity disclosing. It to the apostles that they could write it so that we have an authoritative document. We call it inerrant because it is. We can trust it because it's God's word.

13:43It's preparing us. Talk about preparation. Do you realize that the average college education right now costs $50,000? The average. Some are much higher. And out of that $50,000, $33,000 of it is on loan. These kids are going to be paying on that for 10 years, at least. And I pound my head and I go, but they can't even answer the question. They can't even tell the difference between a man and a woman. And they're spending $50,000 plus interest for 10 years on an education where they can't answer simple facts. You need to be prepared.

14:24Your preparation is God's word. It's right here. The Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and John 14, 26, works together to prepare us to live biblically in a counter-biblical culture. Doesn't he? He prepares us. So here's what we know for sure in our preparation. You can see it. Letter A, we have an advantage because Jesus is about to be crucified. He goes to the Father. Our advantage is that the Holy Spirit is communicating to us everything that we need to know is true. Right here in the pages of Scripture, do you read it?

15:04Does it sit on your shelf and collect dust? Perhaps it just sits in a drawer. You don't even know where your Bible is. Why would you not want to know what God's Word says? This is our preparation. Letter B. We have an advantage because the Holy Spirit convicts the sin of the world, convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. We don't have to do that. We're the y'all. All we have to do is articulate it, point him to the scripture. Why would we not want to do that? This is a sacred trust to you and to me to take what the Holy Spirit has given and not to hide it, but to share it.

15:41The question I have for you is: how are you applying what the Holy Spirit has given to you? Tomorrow's Monday morning when you wake up, what are you going to read? What are you going to focus on? Who are you going to pray to? The second question I have is: How does what you know to be true, in other words, what's been entrusted to you, bring conviction of sin and righteousness and judgment to others that God has brought into your life? Are you holding the sacred trust and living it and proclaiming it?

16:16Right here from the Trinity. What are you praying about every day? Health? Wealth? Prosperity? Or significance for God's? Glory. To be prepared with his word, preparation for courage. So the first requirement for courageous living is courage requires preparation. Turn over to Ephesians chapter 2 because it's here, excuse me, chapter 5. It's here that we're going to see that courage requires a godly reputation. Courage requires a godly reputation. And as you're turning to the book of Ephesians, I just want to remind you that the first three chapters of Ephesians is a masterpiece of telling you, if you're a believer in Christ, who you are. The Father chose you, the Son redeemed you, the Holy Spirit sealed you, and he gives us direction and life. And there's only one command in that entire section of chapters 1 through 3. It's 2.11. And he says, remember. He commands them, remember what? Remember where you came from. We're going to talk more about that in a minute.

17:27So we're in Ephesians 5, verse 1. Just follow along with me. If you're in the New American Standard, you don't see this, but the word y'all is there again. He says, therefore, y'all, he's talking to the church, right? He's talking to those who have been redeemed and sealed. He says, therefore, be imitators of who? God. As beloved children. What does it mean to imitate God? That word imitators means to mimic. It means to have, look on the scripture. God's reputation in your life as beloved children.

18:06And verse 2. As we mimic God's love, we have an example. He gives him a command, and what he says is, you must walk in love. You must be those who have a reputation for love. You see, love that does not expose sin in one's own life and in the lives of those loved ones that are around you is not biblical love at all. It is not biblical love. The Holy Spirit will come and convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. You're the mouthpiece. Point them to the scripture, see what it says. And there's a standard for this kind of love, and you see that in the words, just as. The standard of behavior is what he's driving at. What is the standard of behavior? Just as Christ loved you, and what?

18:53Gave himself up for us. You see that same language in Ephesians 5:25. Husbands, you should know this very well. Love your wives, how? The standard is, just as Christ loved the church. How did he love the church? He gave himself up for her. So, those of you who aren't husbands, you're not off the hook because you have verse 2. Love as Christ loves and gave himself up as a fragrant aroma. I want to prepare you for verses 3 through 5.

19:30This is where it might get a little uncomfortable. You see, verses 3 through 5 are the foundation for why the church has been persecuted for 2,000 years. What does 3 through 5 tell us? Watch this. Follow along with me. He says, But immorality or impurity or greed must not even be named among you. That's your reputation, as is proper among the saints. Now, that word immorality, let me teach you another Greek word. If you don't already know it, I think you do. That word immorality there is pornea.

20:05Sound familiar? What is pornea? Well, I want you to glance over to another text right there in chapter 5, and let's define a little bit about what pornea is. Chapter 5, verse 31. And as you follow along in chapter 5, verse 31, I'm actually going to read, not from there, but out of Genesis 2.24. In the New American Standard, it's word for word. It says the same thing. I'm reading from Genesis. You're following along in Ephesians 5.31. This is the opposite of pornea, and he says this, For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother, and the two shall become one flesh. He shall be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. What is pornea?

20:48It's anything that's not that. One woman, born a female, one man, born a female, given to one another for an Entire lifetime. That is biblical marriage. There is no other marriage to be defined any other way. God invented marriage. And that's how he defines immorality. And he says, don't let immorality, don't let pornea or impurity or greed. So I'm not immoral. I say within my marriage. Are you greedy? Is that named among you? Don't let it be named among you. It's your reputation.

21:32And it's proper among the saints. It's appropriate. Those are the actions that he convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Now let's look at the speech that is condemned in verse 4. He says, and this, he says, and filthiness and silly talk and coarse jesting. And when he says, and, what he's referring to is, and don't let this be your reputation. Don't let it be named among you that you have a mouth of filthiness, silly talk, coarse jesting, which means sarcastic ridicule. I used to drive the freeways here a lot back and forth down Highway 14, up and back. And I'd listen to the John and Ken show, and when I was preparing this message, I thought to myself, that is sarcastic ridicule.

22:17He says it's not fitting for a believer, but rather, let this be your reputation. Let this be named among you. Do you see it in the text? Verse 4? Giving of thanks. Let the world around you know. That you are one who has given over to giving thanks. Well, why would he say that in this context? Wouldn't he say, don't do these things? Well, he does, but wouldn't he say, let that be your reputation? No, he gives a positive. Your reputation is one of giving thanks. Now, think about it. In chapter 2, verses 1 through 5, he says to this church, he says to each individual, you were once dead, a corpse, in your sins and transgressions. But God made you alive in Christ Jesus. Isn't that something to be thankful about?

23:03As we live in this crazy culture, be thankful. You were once like them, is the idea, but God has forgiven you. By grace, you have been saved. So that's not your reputation anymore. You're thankful now, and that's your reputation. Verse 5. Verse 5, boy, this is heavy, and this is the persecution part. For this you know with certainty that no immoral pornos or impure or covenant man has an who is an idolater, literally is having an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

23:45There's two action words he uses here right at the very beginning. He says, you know with certainty, and what's fascinating about this word in the Greek language is it was a command that you know it. It's a command that you've always known it, and you continue to know it. With certainty, here's what he says: that no immoral, you say, I'm not that, and he uses the word or, get that, you know, check that off, or impure person, or a covetous man, or an idolater.

24:16That's the tough one. The idolater. They won't see the kingdom of heaven. You know this for certainty. How? Because the Holy Spirit tells us so. What's an idolater? It's somebody who has something in their lives that is more important than God. And they give more time to that thing or that person or that object. It's not a piece of wood, necessarily. Could be. It's something that's more important than the Lord. More important than sitting here and learning from God's word is to do something else. That's idolatry.

24:52And it's present. They're not having an inheritance in Christ's kingdom. And you say, yeah, but I keep hearing people say that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality. Shouldn't we just dismiss this whole argument and the end of the day we all go home? Did he ever say anything about homosexuality? Turn over to Revelation chapter 2, and you'll want to remember Revelation chapter 2. It's a fact that Jesus did address this issue. The internet's ablaze saying that he didn't. It's right here in Revelation 2. Jesus. Jesus is talking to the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2, and he's complimenting them for being a church that has outstanding doctrine, outstanding teaching. Nobody surpasses their expository preacher. But then he compliments them, and then he says to them, verse 4, but I have this against you, that you've left your first love.

25:53And then he tells them, look, I'm going to take away your church unless you repent and go back to what you did before. What is their first love? Jesus tells us that you love God and you love people. They had great teaching, but they weren't loving to the people. But then an amazing twist takes place. He tells them to love people. It's a command. And then he says this in verse 6: Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans. You say, Jesus, what are you talking about? You said to love, right? He compliments them for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans. And then he says, which I also hate.

26:34Do you know that there's only one time that the words are used, I hate, by Jesus in the New Testament? I hate is only used right here. He hates the deeds of the Nicolaitans. You say, well, what do these guys do? Well, let's go to a different church, the church of Pergamum. Glance over to verse 14. He says to the church of Pergamum, but I have a few things against you because you have there some people. Some who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit acts of pornea, immorality. What is Jesus talking about? He's talking about what he hates, the deeds of the Nicolaitans. He's talking about their teaching, the teaching of immorality, of pornea. Verse 16. Therefore, he says, repent. In other words, stop doing what you're doing, trust Christ, or else I'm coming to you and will quickly make war with them with the sword of my mouth. What's the sword of his mouth? You're holding it in your hands if you have a Bible.

27:44The Holy Spirit has disclosed to them the truth of God's word, and he will make war to them. It doesn't sound like the Jesus that we see on TV these days, does it? This loving Jesus? He's going to make war with them? Look at verse 20. He's addressing the church of Thyatira. He's telling us more about the Nicolaitans, more about what he hates. He says, but I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and she leads my bondservants astray, so that they commit acts of pornea, immorality, and eat things sacrificed to idols. Now, notice this in verse 21. Jesus says, I gave her time to repent. I gave her time to repent. To turn from her sin, but you know what?

28:33She doesn't want to. John 3.19. Jesus, right after John 3.16 says, They loved the darkness, not more than the light. They loved the darkness rather than the light, so they don't want to come to Christ. They don't want to come to God. And that's what's going on here. They don't want to repent of their immorality. Verse 22: Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, those who commit adultery with her, into great tribulation unless they turn, unless they repent of those deeds.

29:14So the next time someone says to you, Jesus has never said anything about homosexuality, homosexuality is found in the word pornea. It's all-encompassing. He didn't just pick on one, he picked on them all. Anything outside a husband and wife relationship for a lifetime. So what have we seen about the importance of a godly reputation? The importance of bearing God's image. You see it here. First of all, we're supposed to mimic God's love in the church. Second, we must have a reputation, not have a reputation for inappropriate behaviors and speech. Our reputation must be that of thankfulness. You see, we were dead in our sins and transgressions, and he made us. Alive together with Christ. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 5.

30:04We have an unyielding confidence, according to the text, that people living in an ongoing rebellious lifestyle, it's indicative of who they are, and they will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. He says, you know it with certainty. You've always known it, and you'll continue to always know it. I'm sorry, I got ahead of myself. Lastly, Jesus hates immoral deeds, and he compliments the church of Ephesus for hating those immoral deeds. So Jesus indicates in John 16 that the Holy Spirit will come to us, right? He's going to come to us through the church, and he will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. But I have a few questions for you.

30:56How is God using you individually to convict anybody in your life of sin, righteousness, and judgment? We just don't talk, we don't say anything, or do we love them with a biblical kind of love? Jesus says, return to your first love, or I'm going to take your church away. Do you have confidence in his method? What is his method? His method is the New Testament. He gave it to those writers, and it is perfect because he gave it to them. And it's ours now to proclaim. So we disclose scripture.

31:31Or can we say, are we like the inclusiveness, the inclusivist, who can't give a definitive answer about anything, even how to tell the difference between a man and a woman? So the first requirement requires preparation for courage, or courage requires preparation. The second is a godly reputation, a godly reputation through exposing the sin of others and ourselves, and, of course, living in our lives. The second requirement for courageous living is a godly reputation that bears God's image. Now, the third one, the third requirement for a courageous living in an anti-Christian culture is back in Ephesians chapter 5, and it's courage requires implementation of God's plan. We start with that in verse 6: implementation of God's plan. And he says this in verse 6. He says, Let no one deceive you. And it's a command. He says, you must not let anybody deceive you. Deceive me about what? With empty words. Saying that those in verses 3 and 4 do have an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven. Don't let anybody deceive you. Jesus did say something about this.

32:45And they would do it with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. You say, well, everybody's a son of God, right? No. There are those who are sons of disobedience who refuse. They would love. The darkness rather than the light, they won't come to Christ. He says, if I say to yourself, if I call in the name of Christ and I'm bearing his image, then you mustn't allow anybody to convince you otherwise. In verse 5, that people will see God's kingdom if they fall in these categories. And in verse 7, he says, don't be partakers with them. What does that mean? Don't be their accomplices in the things that they do. Don't act like them.

33:34If you're a believer in Christ, you've been raised in Ephesians 2, and God has made you alive. You've been saved by grace through faith. Why would you go back to those things that you were dead to sin in? That's what he's saying here. He says, for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. He says, therefore, walk as children of the light. In other words, behave like you're a believer in Christ. That's all. Do I get saved because I behave this way? No.

34:01You are a Christian because God has saved you by grace through faith. The idea here is that we were never good people. Never. We were dead in our sins and transgressions, but God made us alive in Christ. Isn't that fascinating? Drop down to verse 11. He says, don't participate. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness. Instead, expose them. Now, this is interesting. That word participate, maybe you've heard in the Greek language before the word koinonia means fellowship. That's kind of what this word is like. Do not be koinonia. Do not fellowship with them. Do not have a close association with their activities. Don't behave like them in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead expose them.

34:54If you circle things, underline that word. Circle that word. Expose. It's very important. Expose what? The unfruitful deeds of darkness. What are they? Well, the unfruitful deeds of darkness are found in verses 3 through 5. We just considered them. But what we didn't consider was in chapter 4. Let me just throw out a few of them. Callousness, greediness, anger, theft, bitterness, and slander lying about people. It's all there. But that word expose bothers me. The word expose and the word exposed, verse 11 and verse 13, is the same word that we find in John 16, 8 about convict. Isn't that fascinating? He's giving the Holy Spirit to the church, to God's people, to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. We're involved in this, you see. In John 16, 8, he, that one, when he comes, will convict, scrutinize, expose, bring to light a sense of shame on who? The world. But you know what? He's talking to the church here in Ephesians. There were people in the church.

36:00That proclaimed Christ. They believed in some Jesus facts and some God trivia, but they weren't living it. Jesus didn't have faith in their faith. The Trinity does his faithful, convicting work through the Word of God as articulated by you. Wow. As given 2,000 years ago in the text. In verse 12, for it's disgraceful to even speak about these things that are done by them in secret. You know what? What they do is so bad, you don't even want to talk about it, much less participate with it, be in fellowship with it. Verse 13. But all things become visible when they are exposed, when they are convicted by what? The light. For everything that becomes visible is light.

36:50I'm not sure I like where this is heading. Is Paul through the Trinity telling me I need to go out and picket organizations that don't behave like what we see here? Do I need to be boycotting businesses? I'm not an advocate of that. What is he telling us here? What does he want us to do with this information? Here's what God wants: it's pretty simple: he wants you to bear his image by loving the way that he loved us.

37:19We do that by not participating, by not fellowshiping in the deeds of darkness, but by exposing them for what they are. Watch this: conviction of sin and righteousness and judgment. Comes to the world as we obediently bear God's image through faithfulness, through thankfulness. Have that be your reputation, thankfulness, and through a Christ-honoring marriages, husbands loving their wives like Christ loved the church, wives submitting to their husbands and respecting their husbands, children obeying their parents and the Lord, employees and employers being honoring in your work ethic. That's all in chapter 5 and chapter 6. You see, the Holy Spirit exposes the deeds of darkness and he convicts the world with clear, sound teaching from his authoritative word, backed up by biblical living.

38:19It's one thing to say this stuff, it's another thing to live it. You say, well, I'm sweating here. What if I function this way in this culture? What happens if I really act like what God is telling me here? If I function in this culture in this way and people are convicted of sin and righteousness and judgment, they won't like me. Turn back to John 16. You say, if I believe this and I act it out, you're thinking, well, I may lose my marriage. Yeah?

38:56My family may never speak to me again. I don't want that. My employer might fire me, or I may lose my business. Let me tell you something. It's happening right now. Have you heard of the Brush and Nib studio? A couple of young ladies, 21, 22 years old, fantastic artists. And they came up with a business model that is very successful, and they're making money on it in Phoenix, Arizona. They do this painting and custom artworks, business logos. They do wedding invitations.

39:32Soon after they launched, the Brush and Nib Company, Brianna and Joanna, learned about this Phoenix, Arizona law that requires them to create artwork promoting events and messages that go against their faith, including homosexual marriages. They have to, with their hand, with their artwork, draw something that would be pleasing to something that is something God hates. You say, well, what if they don't do it? Well, young Brianna and Joanna will face $2,500 a day in fines or six months in prison. That's in our country. You say, I thought we had religious freedom. Get something straight here.

40:15The only thing Jesus promised us was not religious freedom. It was persecution for our faith. We don't have that right in this country. It's been a great ride, hasn't it, for a little over 200 years? Watch this. John 16, verses 1 through 4, These things I have spoken to you, Jesus says, so that you may be kept from stumbling. They will make you outcasts from the synagogues, churches in our context. But an hour is coming, this is amazing, for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.

40:53What? This is 2016. And yet he's telling his disciples, you know what, you're going to die because you're going to proclaim this message and you're going to die. Why? Verse 3. These things they will do because they have not known the Father or me. Why not? In our culture, maybe nobody told them. Maybe it's you that need to tell them who Christ is so that they will discontinue loving the darkness rather than the light. Verse 4. But these things I've spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, when they come to kill you, you remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you in the beginning because I was with you. And then he says a chapter later, I'm sending the paraclete, the Holy Spirit, to comfort you. And he's going to tell you what you need to know. And you have it in the New Testament. Live it.

41:51History tells us that, with the exception of the Apostle John, that every one of these apostles were murdered for their faith. They were martyred for bringing conviction of what? Of sin, righteousness, and judgment. And we say, but people are losing their jobs here in the United States. We still have our heads, right? Millions of people have been tortured, brutalized, and raped, and killed because they took their heads out of the sand. And they took their faith in Christ beyond something that was Jesus trivia and God facts and said, I'm going to live it no matter the danger, cost, or consequences.

42:35Why should we be any different? Have you heard of Dr. Eric Walsh? Man has two doctorates. He was the former director, I say former director, of the Georgia Department of Public Health. Why was he fired from his job? Well, because the day before his firing, they asked him to provide, he was a part-time pastor, right? They wanted four of his sermons. Next day, they called him up and fired him, and they left the record, they left it on a recording machine at his house, only they forgot to hang up, and they were laughing at him on this recording.

43:14You ever heard of Atlanta Fire Chief Calvin Cochran? He's becoming quite notorious these days. This is a man who grew up in the projects, a poor man whose mother worked three jobs to raise him, chief of the fire department. He actually worked directly for. President Obama, highest firefighter in the land. He wrote a book, a Bible study book, for his own men's group, and in that 160-page book was a brief mention of a biblical marriage. Let me read to you what the city officials said about his case. He says, When you're an employee, a city employee, and those thoughts and beliefs and opinions are different from the city's, you have to check them at the door. In other words, if you don't think like the government, you're fired. This is America. Wake up. What are we doing? Mozilla Firefox, CEO, is fired, Brendan Eich, for supporting Prop 8 here in California. Forced out of his job.

44:14If you self-identify, I'm using that word very calculatingly here. If you self-identify as a Christian and no one else in your circle of influence is convicted of sin, righteousness, and judgment, then perhaps your faith in Jesus is not the kind of faith that he wants you to have. Perhaps he doesn't entrust himself to your faith like he did with those in John 2, 23 and 24. What have we seen here? We've seen that the answer to our question: why must Christians live courageously in this anti-God culture, anti-Christian culture? Well, so that others can know of their sin. There was a point in my life I didn't know of it, and somebody said, Hey, This doesn't align with Scripture. How do you know that tonight, if you were to die and you were to stand before God and you were to say, Why should I let you into heaven? I didn't have an answer. Do you?

45:11This is what it's about. This is why we're here. We looked at three categories of this. Courage requires a preparation. Know God's Word. Be exposed to His Word. Be a part of the expository preaching that you get here each and every week. It requires a reputation, not of immoral things, but of thanksgiving. You were once dead in your transgressions, but made alive together in Christ. Be thankful for that. Courage requires an implementation of God's plan, certainly.

45:44We must implement His plan. There's no other way around it. Your life and proclamation of God's Word will produce two results. Follow him here. You will either be used by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the truth and draw people to God, or your gospel presentation, which is right on, biblical, will push people away. They won't want to talk to you. They'll run from you. They'll kill you. It'll have those two consequences, one good, one bad, because the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But there's really two other options. Your life and refusal to proclaim God's word will ensure that people aren't convicted of sin.

46:30Righteousness and judgment, your refusal. And you will not have the joy of leading them to the Lord and seeing them come to Christ and serving Him. Number two, because people aren't drawn to Christ through your life, may indicate that you don't know Him and He doesn't know you. John 2:23 and 24. Go back and read it. But what's God's will here? I want to read it again. 2 Peter 3:9. The Lord is not slow to His promises, as some count slowness, but He's not willing that any should perish. He's not wanting or counseling people to perish themselves, but to come to repentance. And you say to yourself, You know what? In my lifetime, I'm guilty of everything you said. Am I done? Am I going to hell? Salvation is by grace through faith, not of works. It's a free gift. You can serve Christ if you've been a part of any of this activity in your life. We all have. We were all dead in our sins and transgressions, but Christ made us alive in Christ.

47:33Father, we give you praise for your word. We give you thanks that through the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, you have given us this message, this New Testament of 27 books, that you revealed to the authors what you wanted us to know, and so therefore we can trust it. And Lord, there was a time in my life where I recognized. That I was not that person that you're identifying here. And I pray, Father, even for those of us here who have repented of sin and called on Christ, that we would be about telling others the truth so that they too might exalt Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.