Will We be Intimidated by Collective Demonization?

Intro:

- As you may know we started a new book last week called “ No reason to hide”. By Erwin Lutzer

- And the premise of this book is helping Christians to stand for Christ in a collapsing culture.

- Pastor Lance gave us the introduction to this book along with chp. 1 last week. And what we have started to look at is the Dangers of the culture around us. The different human philosophies, practices and believes that have shaped the narrative of the current culture.

- This narrative has many different aspects of it from CRT, intersectionality, Gender Fluidty, abortion, Covid etc…. Many would describe this as “wokeness”.

- The author of this book describes “wokeness”

Wokeness- “speaks of a radical leftist interpretation of human and civil rights that results in extreme political correctness”.

- This philosophy of “wokeness” may seem new but the underlining message and foundation that makes this up has a long history. The philosophy in society that there is always “ The Oppressor” & and “The Oppressed”

- This train of thought is behind the “class struggle” in Marxism and Marxism being the underlining of Communism.

- These are the underlining human philosophies that have overtaken our current culture today. This narrative is pushed heavily by what we call the left, celebrities , social media platforms & colleges or universities. This is why you see a huge push from our young culture to “deconstruct”.

- The word “deconstruction” speaks of critically thinking about specific established institutions, group, beliefs or practices and rejecting those in authorities in these established institutions.

- The thought process is …. Our society is not balanced and has many injustices taking place, the Oppressor is taking advantage of oppressed, whether it’s….

- Men taking advantage of women in the work place

- Straight people taking advantage of the LGTBQ community

- Religious are taking advantage of the non religious community

- The rich always oppress the poor

- White people are oppressing anyone who is not white

- and the thought is, the only way to fix those injustices ….. is to tear down the institutions and rebuild them. This is why we see the defund the police, why we see the attempt to remove anything biblical from schools or from government.

Marxism promotes the belief that the exploitation of the oppressed will only end if they take total control of government.

- This is the thought process we see.

Transition

- now this is what is taking place in our culture around us and what we have began to see is that this narrative in the culture is not satisfied until everyone is affirming this narrative.

- And this is one of the big problems that we as the Church of Christ are facing now. The culture is pushing and expecting us to follow their lead on these beliefs and practices. And Erwin Lutzer put it well in speaking about the church facing these challenges….

“Some will be Complicit, participating in the culture without standing against it; some will be Complacent , disagreeing with the culture but not actively opposing it; then there are those that will be Courageous, saying what needs to be said and doing what needs to be done, and accepting the consequences without self-pity or anger”.

- And I strongly believe that the Lord has been stirring up our church for the latter, stirring us up to be instructed, prepared, and encouraged to be “Courageous” in the midst of the current culture we find ourselves in.

- With that in mind we are going to look at Chp. 2 today. The name of this chapter is “Will we be Intimidated by Collective Demonization?”

- And what I would like to do today is to go through chapter 2 of “No Reason to Hide” and to go through a piece of scripture at the same time in order to get a full picture.

- We will see that the tactics of the enemy are not new at all and has been implementing a forceful Intimidation tactic for thousands of years.

I. Utilizing Power and Authority for Worship

A. Who has the Power and Authority

Erwin Lutzer starts Chp. 2 with this insight.

“ There are two things evil leaders crave: power and worship; even grudging worship on the part of the populace is better than no worship at all”.

this is a true statement that has been proven throughout history. Men like Hitler , Stalin, North Korea’s Kim Jung Um, Saddam Hussein.... just to look at a few..... have been men who have desired power and worship. Men who have used their power and authority to force the masses to worship them and go along with their ideologies.

now while these men were the face of their particular party or movement..... the bible tells us that there is actually a different person who is in charge.

Ephesians 2:1–2 NKJV

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,

Paul making it clear that while the culture may be all going a certain direction , following and affirming certain narratives and believes, the one who is actually in control and who is directing this culture.... is Satan.

this absolutely true in our culture today. While we are seeing the human philosophies and narratives that are being pushing in our culture today by certain groups or parties… we have to understand that this is really a spiritual battle. There is a spiritual agenda if you will by the enemy to undermine the work of God and the people of God.

B. A Desire for Worship

With that in mind we see that one of the tactics of the enemy is to use those in positions of authority and power to use their influence to push certain ideologies. To push ideologies with the desire to receive worship.

in our culture today , worship comes in the form of “Affirmation” .

The word “worship” means to “ascribe worth”. This is literally what our society is looking for today, to feel a sense of worth.

For the world and culture we are in, this feeling of worth is not found within the context of scripture or within what God says about them..... but their sense of worth is found by feeling affirmed by the culture around them. Notice i said “feeling”. Their sense of worth is found within their feelings and not facts.

and so what we end up seeing even today , is people in our culture including in positions of power and authority, using their influence to push their narrative and expecting everyone around them to “worship” them or “ascribe worth”, or to “Affirm them”.

Erwin gives us a story from a speech given praising Stalin in 1937.

Illustration - read story on page 34.

that story is a perfect picture of those in authority using their power and influence to force the masses to worship them, or to affirm their narrative.

and what you find is the pressure to “keep clapping”, the pressure to affirm or not stand up against the culture’s narrative because of “repercussions”

II. Putting Pressure with Repercussions ( Dan. 3:1-7)

Read Dan. 3:1-7

This story is taking place during Israel’s captivity in Babylon. In chp. 1 we see that part of the plan of the Babylonians was to take young men from the children of Israel who were good looking, who were gifted in wisdom, who possessed knowledge and were quick to understand, who had the ability to serve in the king’s palace.

and the plan was to take these young men and begin to teach them the language and the literature of the Babylonians. They were basically taking young smart minds with the hope of having them assimilate and adopt the language, philosophies and practices of this foreign land they were in.

Does that sound familiar ?

Daniel, Shadrah, Meshach and Abed-Nego were some of these young men.

so here in Chp. 3 we see King Nebuchadnezzar had a large 90’ Gold statue created in his image. And we see that he called those in positions of authority to come to the dedication of this statue.

The plan was when the people heard the music coming from the orchrasta , they were to fall down and worship this image.

Nebuchadnezzar was causing the people including those in his leadership, to prove their loyalty by following suit and ascribing worth to the king. And we are told that anyone who did not show loyalty , anyone who did not fall down to worship the statue, or anyone who would “stop clapping” to use the previous illustration, would be cast into the burning furnace.

in other words, there were direct repercussions for failing to follow the direction of the culture. These repercussions were meant to create pressure to follow suit.

Transition

This is exactly what we see in our culture today. We no longer live in a culture where differences are accepted or where there is room for conversations or tolerance. We live in a world where there are direct repercussions if you and i do not follow suit and “affirm” the narrative of the culture.

Erwin Lutzer gave us some examples of these repercussions that we may experience in our current culture.

Repercussions

We may face repercussion.....

At work

Lutzer described what is called “woke-washing”.

“A term used to describe companies or stores that take a radical leftist position on radical or political issues as a pretense that they are “all in”, standing in solidarity with the leftists’ agenda to remake society”.

in other words companies jump on the band wagon with the current culture’s agenda in order to show that they affirm or agree with what they stand for. Now one of the big problems that we see happen is not only that companies want to affirm these narratives but they force their employees to follow suit as well by implementing different company policies .

you and i may have to face different policies or training requirements that we force us alter how we perform our work, or limit what we can say or not say in order to be “affirming” to the culture. And that can create pressure in employees to feel like they have to go along with this in order to keep their jobs.

one big way we saw this take place recently was with the Covid vaccine. Now regardless of where you stand on this issue, the point i am making is that there were some companies that made the vaccine a requirement regardless of your thoughts or beliefs.

and many people were put under the pressure to follow suit. Many police officers, fire fighters , military personal, teachers, those in the medical industry and many others , lost there jobs because they would not follow the change of policies in their respected professions.

now it is not only the vaccine, sometimes we are affected directly at our work because we are Christians. And there can be an understanding that we don’t approve of certain lifestyles or we don’t seem to follow the direction everyone else is going.

we can lose opportunities or promotions simply because of our believes, sometimes it may cost us landing a job because of our beliefs.

“ Do you remember the days when committed Christians were welcome in our Universities and business as long as they served with integrity and competence? Those days are largely over because such credentials now take a back seat to whether one is committed to all the values of woke culture”.

On Social Media

Lutzer spoke about the marriage of big teach and the big government. Big tech uses their platforms to push the narrative of the Government.

This is not a new tactic. We saw Hitler do the same thing in Germany , using the radio, newspapers and television to push his narrative about the Jewish people. This was a huge way he was able to desensitize the people into being a part of the inhuman treatment of the Jewish people.

and part of pushing a certain narrative is to control the opposing side. What we know as censorship.

Today China controls all of media and the information it puts out. China has successfully censored an entire country. They keep the opposing narrative shut out of the eyes of the masses in order to keep control over the people.

we have seen the beginning of the censorship of our speech on social media platforms. One of the tactics has been to call the opposing side, “Misinformation”.

Anything that is not in accordance with our views is misinformation and has to be canceled. And we have see that happen right. People who have had opposing views have been banned from social media platforms or have been demonized by the media.

i just saw that Turning point USA put out a cease and desist again MSNBC because they were calling Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA “white supermisists”

“their rule is simple, Amplify the voices we agree with and silence those with whom we disagree. And we get to decide who speaks and who doesn’t” Lutzer

Other Area We may face Repercussions ....

with our families/ being left out or isolated

unable to play on a sports team - we have seen people get kicked off of teams

people, including small business may be sued.

In Recap-

“What is Collective Demonization? IT is the punishment of all who dare to disagree with those in power, it is the erasure of individualism by stigmatizing and punishing dissenters.” Lutzer

Question

So what are we to do in the midst of this culture ?

III. It is time to take a stand ( Dan. 3:8-18)

Read Dan.3:8-18- if time permits.

This is a beautiful picture of young men taking a stand in complete faith in God to sustain them in the midst of oppression.

What you are i are to do is to take a “Stand”. And i will give you a few practical ways to take a stand.

1. Take a Stand and be awake

1 Peter 5:8–9 NKJV

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

We need to be awake to the realities of what is happening around us today. This is part of what we are doing in our church during this season. We are trying to bring an awareness to these things and trying to equip you for these things.

2. Take a Stand in Prayer

Ephesians 6:18–19 NKJV

praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel,

praying is a great tool that God has given us. It is spending time with God that He will give us understanding to the things taking place, time with God will make us sensitive to the dark things of this world, prayer is a weapon against the enemy. Through prayer we can seek God’s strength to stand in the midst of pressure.

3. Take a Stand and Preach the Gospel

take advantage of every opportunity that God will gives us to preach Jesus. In our work place, in our homes, with our families and friends.

2 Timothy 4:2 NKJV

Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.

4. Take a Stand Above the Culture

“We must stand against the culture but also above it because we stand for Christ, His Gospel and His Cross”. Lutzer

if i am honest, i think one of the greatest downfalls of the church as a whole is our inability to be different. We often act more like the world than like Christ. And this failure only leaves the world wanting nothing to do with what we preach.

Martyn Loyld Jones

“We will attract the world, when we are unlike the world, and when we are pure and holy in our character, we will attract the world because we are different from the world”.

Conclusion

we are to take a stand and not be moved by the pressure of this culture .

1 Corinthians 15:58 NKJV

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Charles Spurgen

i. They might have said, “There is nothing to gain by resisting; wouldn’t we do more good by living?” It is easy to say, “We must live,” but in reality, we all must die – so why not die making a stand for God?

ii. They might have said, “We are in a different place; in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Yet they knew that God has unlimited jurisdiction. We must do more than “perform” acts of religious obedience when we have an audience.

iii. They might have said, “We will lose our jobs and our standard of living.” Often when God blesses us, we make the blessing an idol and compromise God to keep what we have.

iv. They might have said, “After all, we are not being called to renounce our God.” They did not have a super-elastic conscience that said, “We are not bowing down to the idol, but only bowing down in respect for the king, or in honor of the music.” Excuses like this are common but prove the principle that anything will serve as an excuse, when the heart is bent on compromise.

v. They might have said, “Everybody else is doing it.” Instead they cultivated brave personalities, willing to stand alone with God.

vi. They might have said, “It is only for once, and not for very long. Ten minutes, just for the king. It is stupid to throw our lives away for ten minutes.” These men knew that ten minutes could change an entire life. Ten minutes can chart the course for your eternity.

vii. They might have said, “This is more than can be expected of us; God will understand just this once.” It is true that God understands our struggle with sin – that is why He loves the sinner and made provision at the cross for freedom from the penalty, power, and presence of sin. Knowing that “God understands” should be a spur to obedience, not a license to sin.

viii. “I am glad that the three holy children were not ‘careful to answer,’ or they might have fallen upon some crooked policy or lame excuse for compromise. What have we to do with consequences? It is ours to do the right, and leave results with the Lord.” (Spurgeon)