Prevailing Righteousness

Revelation 12:7–12 NKJV

7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. 12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

Introduction:

There is a pervasive mindset currently in our society, that the church needs to be publically vocal about social injustice. But this tends to be a trendy decision to protect the church’s reputation.

I believe much of it is about perception!

And mostly everyone is concerned about perception today, which results in political correctness.

I will say this, as a shepherd of the flock of God -

The church must always be concerned with social injustice, racism, inequality, and prejudice, as well as every kind of sin!

But, New Hope will not jump on the politically correct bandwagon! Because my firm belief is that, if the church is being the church, then it will be a sanctuary for all people who will find no partiality within.

The church must be the expression of heaven in fellowship and love.

And so:

We will continue to pursue the preaching and teaching of the whole counsel of God!

We will stand with the unborn, the marginalized, the downtrodden, the persecuted, regardless of ethnicity, culture, or social standing.

We will not turn a blind eye to sin nor sugar coat it, and we will speak the truth in love, but we will speak the truth .

The sin of society as defined by God in His Holy Word, will be reveled by the light of Christ which we are commanded to shine.

We will not allow people to believe that they can simply add Jesus to their worldly, sinful, life without repentance (turning to God from sin).

Now, you might be asking yourself what prompted this statement?

The better question might be, what didn’t prompt it!

The list is certainly shorter!

But I find, especially on social media (the medium that affects us all), that their is much mis-information and confusion as to what we as Christians are to be in this present world.

And I for one, will not allow Satan to dictate what the church should be.

Our text in Revelation today reveals an age old problem that has not gone away, or is antiquated and some how not relevant today!

War broke out in Heaven!

Let that sink in for a second.

Yes war, in Heaven!

I have a question for you this morning -

Does God have double standards for His creation on earth and His creation in Heaven?

I’ll let you wrestle with that one.

I. The Battle is the Lords.

A. There is one looser - Evil.

B. There is one winner - Righteousness.

C. There is one outcome - Prophesy.

D. There is one source - The Bible.

II. Rejoicing is the delight of the righteous.

A. There is nothing that can diminish the joy we have in Christ.

Not here

Not in Heaven

B. We delight in the Holiness and Character of God, as manifested in Christ.

And we live it out here on earth!

Matthew 5:20 NKJV

20 For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

1 Peter 1:15 NKJV

15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,

We cannot afford to ignore the mandate for righteousness or holiness.

Conclusion:

I quite frankly am tired of the excuses Christians make for behaving out of character.

I tire of the laziness that misrepresents scripture.

I tire of the pseudo love that is propagated in Christian circles that dismisses holiness and righteousness, as well as the love that masquerades the malice and bigotry within.

Our God given job is to make disciples.

But, before we can make a proper disciple we must lead them to salvation, which requires a life surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ.

No perfect people here, just works in progress!