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Last week we discussed being sound in our doctrine and in our theology. We will continue with that theme as there is a reason this must be emphasised.

Many famous christians are often put on the spot to answer questions and some answeres the world is deeming as culturally insensative.

Lets just think about the culture for a second. And look at the state we are in.

Let's just look At what is in affect with the media. Media in general, movies, TV, music, Internet; the media in general. DC comics launched a new comic line called new 52.

They do this around the year 2011 and they took some of the classic characters and gave them a modern day update. Now whenever you hear companies say we're gonna take something classic and make it modern date you should be worried already.

What they want to be introducing was a whole bunch of sexuality with comic book characters. 2 well known characters were reintroduced as homosexuals. The Green Lantern and batwoman.

Well the CW has a line of DC shows this includes the green arrow, The flash, super girl, and they just introduced batwoman in their hero lineup. The actress they got to play batwoman is a woman who professes to be bisexual but believes she is more gender fluid, at least that's what I think they're calling it.

This is the idea that a person feels like an mail some days and a female other days. Maybe it's not days but moments I feel like a male one moment and then a female another.

Using comic books as a way to attract children and using television is the way too put it out on a larger scale. These are characters where sexuality is irrelevant to who they are or their plots yet these writers deem it necessary to add that in in order to further propagate sinful actions.

In the ironic twist of it all, the left has turned on itself. It is my opinion the sexuality is the new Golden calf of America. And when people heard that bat woman was going to be played by a bisexual or gender fluid person they protested. What was their protest? That the actress was not gay enough.

Then they further complained that the character was not gay enough. So they're kind of turning on themselves. I don't know what they're doing is they're playing this weird game of who can be the gayest. But DC comics , Warner brothers, and the CW are not the only ones doing this.

Nickelodeon has a show a cartoon where children have 2 fathers. Am TV has been propagating the homosexual agenda , really just a sexual revolution in general, 2 young minds since the 1980s.

Except in the 1980s MTV which gets its name from music television was actually music television. Today I don't know what to call it. But one thing is for certain it is no longer music television. The Hallmark Channel even has characters like this.

One of the band members of a band call every day Sunday came out publicly as a homosexual man. This man was married and had children and after 8 years of marriage said he was homosexual. A man named Rob Bell was an up and coming pastor who took a radical left turn.

Not only did he begin to teach universalism it began to embrace inevitable embrace that comes from universalism which is the welcoming of all sexual immorality. Amy Grant is another one who is openly welcomed all forms of sexual immorality.

But beyond those Who have openly, publicly , and proudly embraced what Christians should not embrace; there is a handful of wishy washy Christians who are just too afraid to speak up and speak truth.

For example, Larry King had a well known pastor on his show any asked that pastor if it was this sin to be a homosexual. That pastor danced around the question , he refused to answer. He said it was not up to him to judge. And that he does not know.

Christian Music singer Lauren deagle did the same thing last week. Lauren appeared on the Ellen show and many Christians were upset about that. I did not see the performance on the Ellen show tamah but my first reaction when I heard she was on there singing was people are blowing this way out of proportion.

That woman is a Christian is she has an opportunity to give gospel truth to Alan and everybody in there then she is obligated to do so. You're not guilty of a sin because you went to speak to sinners. So there were a lot of Christians who were upset with her presence on that show.

In just a few days after that she was doing an interview on a radio show and the radio host Flat out asked her, Is homosexuality a sin? Her response; I don't know. She then went on to say it's not for her to say.

And that she just tells people what does the Bible say about it because I don't know what it says about it. And whenever you find out , let me know. And as you can imagine many Christian people went huh.

This tells us that we have misled Christian leaders. And if the Christian leaders are misled then they are misleading. But beyond those who professed faith in the public eye, there are the dark things that we see come to light and it really gives the church a very negative view.

Ted haggard for example. It was the lead pastor of new life church in Colorado Springs. This was a and still is a mega church. Ted haggard was a preacher who was asked to speak at many big events, to make many news appearances and television appearances.

And then one day out of nowhere suddenly was discovered let Ted haggard was using church funds to pay for a male prostitute and to pay for meth. Ted haggard resigned with a 6 figure severance package from new life church.

Even faded away for awhile then started up the ministry embracing homosexuality. This was a huge scandal that everybody was watching. Scandal does not just happened to the Catholic Church. This week a major investigation report was released by the Fort worth star telegram.

And they uncovered a shocking amount of sexual abuse is within the independent fundamental Baptist movement.

They have evidence of over 400 allegations within just 200 ministries. This is across the United States. The majority of this taking place on the East half of the United States. But a large amount also happening in California Texas Colorado and Arizona.

Just a little side note, out of this specific investigation there was not one allegation made in the state of South Dakota within the independent fundamentalist Baptist movement. One of the report's Brittany and I are little familiar with.

Involved in ministry that one of my good friends was involved with and I was surprised about it all as I knew the whole pastoral staff of that ministry. But there was a church somewhere in like Tennessee around that area called Trinity Baptist Church.

The deacon of the church have one of the youth as a babysitter for his kids she was 13 years old. He was molesting her. She got pregnant. When It came out what had happened, The pastor made 13 year old apologize to the deacons wife or tempting her husband, apologize to the entire church tamah and was forced to repent before the church.

The deacon was a victim who is 40 years old by the way. But that wasn't good enough, this girl was way out of control she must be relocated. So they gave this girl up to another family in Colorado and this family was involved with another fundamental independent Baptist Church of the same name, Trinity Baptist Church.

She was not allowed to hang out with the other youth and her baby was taken away from her. that girl is now grown with a family.

And since that report came out that deacon was sentence to 48 years in jail. Not only did this ministry support this pedophile in Tennessee but a ministry in Colorado help support that pedophile as well. And a pastor who was connected with that ministry, who was disciple by the ministry, and was present during all these things, was a pastor who led the other Baptist Church in Leadville Colorado where Brittany and I used to minister.

Now aside from scandal within the church mama you have a culture that is highly aggressive in its political advancement. And the same people who are highly aggressive with their political advancements they all have anti Christ political advancements. And they are gaining ground. How is it that they are able to gain such footing?

The teacher to your children. Some places are worse than others. For example South Dakota is not experiencing it like California. But it is moving. This type of indoctrination has made its way to Colorado which is considered middle America.

And now Colorado for the next few years is gonna have all eyes focused on it as it progresses to expand homosexual ideology. I say this because they have already been on the forefront of it all when they legalized same sex marriage. But they have now elected an openly homosexual governor who has been adopted child in this household.

We're talking about a place that is going to be leading gender confusion. If we wanna see the chaos of gender confusion we will just have to look to Colorado in California. This means that Christian families will have a much harder time raising their children in an environment like that.

You may try to provide yourself comfort by saying I am their parents I have the greatest influence in their life but Every Christian parents must come to the realization even though they are a great influence in their childs life that doesn't necessarily mean that they are the greatest influence in a childs life.

18 years and I left wing system is a long time. Now I am only scratching the surface the chaos we live in. And we think about this, This evil that is taking over; some creatures best tool to offer is well just think positive.

Maybe you are not in this sappy positive style ministry. Maybe it's a charismatic ministry , or wealth and prosperity ministry. The best advice they have for you is too tith more so you will receive more blessings.

Let's go ahead and unpack our verses for today and then I can go ahead and drive the point home.

Romans 8:33 NASB95

Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies;

Romans

Last week we seen Paul begin to ask a series of questions. The questions are meant to get you thinking. The questions are meant to get you thinking about truth. In the first question for today we see is who will bring a charge against god's elect.

Not right there we have the word elect which is why it is sometimes called the doctrine of election. Now believe it or not, Paul does not use the word elect very often. He teaches on it a lot but that specific word is not used often by Paul.

The word means the chosen those who were chosen. Those who were picked. And the question Paul is asking who will bring a charge against those God has picked. Or who will bring a charge against the chosen one. Followed by the answer it is God who justifies.

See Christian some of you already know this but we must be reminded that we are under attack daily. There is a warfare that is taking place that the simple human eye just cannot see apart from god's grace. The very name Satan means accuser. And in the court of God we will have this accuser.

Not only will he claim accusations towards us in the court of God but he is constantly accusing us daily in our own head. Satan is always On the attack. And there is no better attack then to attack truth. This has always been his strategy.

To twist the word of God, to twist the teachings of God. In other words , his strategy is to attack doctrine. Not only will he attack doctrine but he will also have the goal take keep you from hearing sound doctrine or excepting sound doctrine.

It is either distort the truth in some way in some form and somehow, or keep you from the truth. This is more evident now in our culture than it ever has been before. The decline of Christianity is not because we have competing religions out there. Contrary to what some conservative commentators might think.

Islam is not mightier than God and Islam Is not in competition with Christianity. Therefore Christians are not persuaded That Islam is true. Rather sinners are persuaded of that because Satan distorts gods truth. Mormonism is not in competition with Christianity.

None of these religious systems are mightier than God. but What does happen, Is one of 2 things. And when I say what does happen I mean to those who have been redeemed. To those who have received this divine transformation. One of 2 things happens. Satan will remind you of your past.

Whatever that may be, some past guilt And regret. Or he will use confusion. Things like, you know you're really not forgiven. Or maybe worse, you know maybe this isn't true. Whatever the attack is it is always some type of accusation.

It is you are guilty of this and you should be reminded of this guilt and this guilt shall overcome you. Or he will lay the accusation that something is not true or something is not true of you. And that can get to a person sometimes. Anybody in here who is ever been mad , been angry, been depressed, grieving, just and over whelming sensation of sadness knows that the right accusation can get to you.

Anyone who has ever felt that way knows but it's hard to feel the love of God. Or it's hard to feel like a Christian in the midst of those kind of emotions. And sound doctrine is the only cure and correction of such things. Let's turn to Matthew chapter 4.

Matthew 4:1–11 NASB95

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’ ” Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning You’; and ‘On their hands they will bear You up, So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’ ” Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’ ” Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.

How did Jesus resist Satan? He spoke the words of God , he quoted scripture. In other words he relied on the teachings of scripture. Another way to say that is that Jesus relied on the doctrine, the very doctor in that is the revelation of himself.

Sound doctrine is essential in the life of the Christian if you ever want a defense against the forces of evil. You cannot be equipped to fight Satan with false teaching. You cannot be equipped to fight the world with false teaching.

Now we can walk through what doctrines are under attack but we just do not have the time for such a conversation. There are many ways Satan attacks sound doctrine. And if I can just give you a glimpse of what I think has been the most damaging attack is that it is always in attack on the church.

Whether that's convincing you, that you do not need to be involved in a sound theological ministry or convincing you that's all ministries are corrupt, I think the most successful attack has been an attack on the assembly of the Saints. And it makes the most sense keep the people from here and sound doctrine.

Who can lay a charge against those who belong to God? It is God who justifies. So while these accusations you might have in your head and in the court of God Satan may accuse you of being guilty of this or that, it is God who justifies therefore there is no one who can lay blame on those whom God has justified.

Now this justification that we see in the page the scripture is a once and for all. I'm not saying once and for everybody. But I am saying once you have been justified you been justified for all time. How can I make such a claim? Because it is God who justifies. And it is God who sees the end , and it is God who wrote the end , therefore when the pages of scripture speak of the justified it is speaking about those who are written in the book of life.

Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is not talking about wishy washy people that you have seen all your life growing up in the ministry. Is not talking about that one cousin you have who has been in and out of the ministry in and out of jail and in and out of his relationship with God.

When we talk about the justified it is because God is the author of this book and he is the authority of this book and he knows who are his he knows who he is called and when it speaks of justification he is speaking of those he sees until the end. We're looking at Salvation from god's point of view not from our point of view. And God is not confused about who is his or who will be his.

And this is the reason why Paul can use a word such as elect. Now We have discussed justification quite a bit over the last few months. And it could be are you were sitting here now Doing all he does is talk about justification by faith.

And let me just state that is that is a thought in your head that is another one of those accusations by Satan. I am repetitive because the scriptures are repetitive and I am repetitive because Paul is being repetitive.

And the reason why you see a repetitive nature in the pages of scripture is because we are people who will walk away in a moment without even realizing it. You will abandon the faith super quick is you allow sinful thoughts to take over. You will allow Satan to have his way if you are not on guard.

But folks, if the scriptures are repetitive on a specific doctrine that means pay attention. That means you better learn this. That means you better understand this. And justification by faith is a major theme in the pages of scripture.

Justification is the legal declaration that you have been made righteous though you are not righteous , you have been declared righteous through your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Make no mistake about it justification by faith is a major and fundamental doctrine of scripture.

And it should not be taken as lightly as I just stated it. And it is of my firmest conviction that every Christian should study on justification by faith alone. Absorb everything you can about that doctor and.

Because it is that very doctor in that states the sinless savior will take the sins of the world upon himself so he can give his righteousness to sinners who don't deserve it.

If we are not on guard and if we do not get our theological act together, then the culture that I discussed in our introduction will dominate and take over. Your attitude in this is to never and I mean ever surrender biblical truth. Your attitude is to never be well that's the way it's gonna go.

Be prepared to make a defense for the faith that you have. Be prepared to have this battle within your own family , some of you may already have. Be prepared to have the feeling of daughters separated from mothers and fathers separated from sons. Coz this is a truth that will divide a family.

Be prepared to wage a culture war at the clear to the world we will not bow to your ways. And if you were not prepared for that it is because you do not have the theological backbone to defend yourself and you do not have that solid foundation that Christians need in order to stand. And that is the issue of the modern church age the foundation is not solid.

There may be some truth in what they have there may be some foundation but is a solid foundation. If true persecution came tomorrow how many people would be back in the church? If you knew your life was in danger coming to worship God would you still do it?.

Or would you come up with with some type of self justification and surrender that right and surrender that essential need? We is the whole body of Christ in need to get it together. We as the whole body of Christ need to get it together. People souls are at stake. The souls of your very loved ones are at risk.

Do not Leave your loved ones to the depths of hell for your own comfort. Do not allow your loved ones to enter the Lake of fire because you wants whatever it is you want. I don't know the motives of everyone who is withholding the gospel.

But real people are really perishing and real people are in a real hell right now with a regret and torment that they can never escape.

And we have people who dont know if whatever is a sin,.. they dont know,

Get off the stage, get off the platform and give us people who know and are not afraid to make that truth known.

In the very culture that we live in is a culture of people on the highway to hell with the pedal to the metal and they are all fighting for the front seat to get there first. The unfortunate thing is that they do not know that. So let's make it known to them let's pray