Allen Jackson - They Soon Forgot - Part 2
For all of our talk about abortion, the abortion numbers have not diminished. It really wasn’t a legal issue. It wasn’t because it was the law of the land. It was the condition of our hearts. How abortions are performed changes dramatically, the same way so much of our lives changes dramatically. Technology changes it. Now you can have a pill in the privacy of your home. You can live in a state where abortion is not legal, but they’ll ship the pills to your home. We’re losing as many children as we’ve ever lost. We are told frequently, loudly, boldly, creatively, persistently, that it’s my body and my choice, that an unborn child is just a mass of cells, a blob of protoplasm. We’re very reluctant to say anything about it. We are not frequently reminded and certainly not with the intensity that we’re told that it’s our body and our choice.
I mean, it wasn’t our body and our choice when it was about a vaccination. We are not reminded that there are frequently, regularly, as a matter of medical practice, surgeries performed on unborn children, fetal procedures for a whole variety of physical problems. It’s not just a mass of cells. There’s a human being there that our health care community acknowledges can be treated and helped. We all understand, every mom understands, that their diet and their health is important during pregnancy, because the impact upon the developing child. Simple things like abstaining from alcohol or drugs or tobacco because they all can affect the development of a child. It’s not just a blob of cells.
How can we be silent? Illicit books in our schools for young children. And we are told we should avoid censorship, the banning of books. We’re limiting education. If you require us to remove these wicked books from the library, it’ll lead to the removal of the Bible from public places. We are not reminded. See, the arguments they want to obfuscate, muddy, confuse. They’ll push for something as a distraction that isn’t dealing with the real reality. We’re not reminded of things like age-appropriate learning. We don’t sell cigarettes in our elementary schools. You don’t get a beer with the school lunch program. And I’m not suggesting we should. They don’t talk about the parental role in the training of their children, that they don’t want strangers making decisions about sexualizing their young children.
The sexualization of children is an elaborate framing of grooming. It’s inappropriate. It’s evil. I don’t think school boards should argue about it incessantly. Once the books are identified, once the nature of that discussion is clearly articulated, they need to choose. And if you think that’s good for our children, in my opinion, you forfeited your right to lead. It’s destructive. Illegal immigration. We’re told regularly that deportation will be unfair. I heard this week some sober-minded person looking in a camera trying to convince me of their intellectual prowess that if these deportations of people who are here illegally is more than a million people already identified, informed that they should leave the country because of criminal records, acts of violence.
This person is looking at a lens with sobriety saying to us on the other side, if you persist, when removing these million people, there will be a doctor or a nurse or a health care worker deported. They proceeded. I mean, they had a whole little litany. They said children will suffer if the border is closed, that an open border is an expression of compassion. What they weren’t saying, I mean, it’s like a smoke bomb, it’s a distraction. And most of us are busy enough, we don’t wanna think about it. It’s not my problem. That’s why we send somebody else to do something. Millions of illegal immigrants, multiplied millions, have placed an enormous demand upon the health care system of our nation, every day, all across the nation, diminishing the quality of care that’s available for the citizens. And they’re searching to find some health care professional that will be caught up in addressing this.
Children in the migrant caravans are subjected to horrible things. They’re being trafficked at our border in numbers never seen in the United States of America. Tens of thousands of them regularly sold into slavery, sexual slavery. And we’ve stayed silent. Antisemitism, we’re told. Israel is an apartheid state. The attacks of October 7th by Hamas, a terrorist organization funded by Iran, should be given moral equivalency with the state of Israel when their military in uniform goes to search for those terrorists. The elite schools in our nation, we are told frequently, are appropriate when they support antisemitic demonstrations.
This week, the International Criminal Court, the ICC, issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister and former defense minister as well as the head of Hamas, Ibrahim Al-Masri. As if there was an equivalency between the prime minister of Israel and the head of Hamas. Folks, this stuff washes over us day in and day out. It cascades over us. We’re not reminded of the innocent women, children, and families that were murdered and slaughtered and brutalized in the most awful ways on October the 7th. The list could go on and on. It did in my notes. But underlying it all, if you’ll allow me to bring it back to your outlines and to the biblical perspective, it has to do with the existence of evil.
I believe you have to understand evil exists to process what we are watching. Secular culture avoids the reality of spiritual forces. They don’t want to talk about it. They don’t want to acknowledge it. If you say you believe in those things, they discount you. You lack sophistication to speak into the current world. But the reality is the church of Jesus Christ exists because of spiritual power. We have to lead with our faith. We don’t just lead with generosity and kindness and good deeds and expressions of material possessions to people in need. All of those things are appropriate. I’m not saying we should stop them, but they’re not the fullest expression of what we’ve been called to do. We are salt and light. We hold out the eternal truth of a living God.
And to do that, we have to recognize that good and evil exist, that they are expressions of spiritual realities. They’re not political classifications. We’ve been bullied into silence for too long. There are different dimensions which exist. I find it a bit amusing that if you believe there are aliens from other planets that are frequenting our world, you are enlightened and sophisticated. It’s okay with me, but then if you believe in an almighty God who created the heavens and the earth, you are backwards. You can call me all the names you want. I’m not gonna give up my belief.
In Ephesians 6 and verse 12, it says: «Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms». That the church is called to take a stand against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. We have to become more aware of kingdoms and authorities and less occupied with politicians and parties. In Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1, it says: «You were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who’s now at work in those who are disobedient».
I believe that the spiritual world is every bit as real as the material physical world in which we live. It does not offend my intellect whatsoever to believe in dimensions that exist, that coexist. In fact, it’s impossible to say you believe your Bible and not to believe in spiritual things. The significance of those kingdoms, look at Revelation 5 and verse 11. John said, «I looked and I heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousands time ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders».
John has a vision of the throne room of God and he sees this enormous gathering of angels, and he said there were 10,000 times 10,000. Some of you are good with numbers. It’s 100 million angels. That’s a lot. Angels, we’re told, are ministering spirits, messengers. We’re told in scripture that there are mighty angels, powerful angels, angels with great strength, angels assigned to people groups, angels assigned to nations. They have authority to see the purposes of God and the will of God brought forward in the earth. They’re here to help the people of God living in time. More than 100 million of them.
Now, it’s not terribly difficult to get people to believe in angels. Even secularists like to believe in angels. It’s kind of polite and chic. I would remind you of what most of you know from scripture, that a third of the angels joined with Satan in his rebellion against God. If we have 100 million of them in this one scene, it’s safe to say there are tens of millions of angels that joined Satan in his attempt to oppose the purposes of God. So if you say, «Well, I don’t believe, you know, spiritual conflict stuff. You know, that’s just a lot of hocus pocus».
Let me help you restate that: «I don’t believe my Bible. I reject Jesus». Get clarity on what you’re saying. I don’t endorse it. I don’t think it’s the appropriate way to go. But to imagine that politicians and parties determine our world more than the involvement of the angelic beings that God has created to help us requires a lack of spiritual awareness that we can no longer afford. In 1 Peter 5, we’re told that we have an adversary: «Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings». He didn’t offer a suggestion. He gave a direction.
This is the fisherman that Jesus recruited as a teenager. When he writes this letter, he’s an old man, his strength is diminished. He stood many years as an unrelenting advocate for Jesus of Nazareth, after Jesus ascended back to heaven. He’s been arrested, imprisoned, condemned to death, narrowly escaped. And he says, «You have an adversary that searches the earth like a roaring lion. Resist him. Stand firm in your faith». «Well, now, wait a minute, Pastor. I thought that’s what we just did. We voted. Can’t I just go back to my routine»? Our routines is what got us in this fine mess. I know we wanna blame everybody else. And I’m not saying that all of us are engaged in gross immorality and ungodliness. I pray you’re not. If you are, stop. It’ll destroy you. But I’m very confident that those things have touched all of our lives.
And in far too many instances, we’ve been quiet. And in our silence, we’ve added an endorsement, a sublime blessing, and it ripples out to children and generationally. And you do that for very long, and then you realize that all of a sudden that notion of a biblical worldview has been so diminished, so turned down, that it’s no longer welcome in the corporate setting or the public square, and it has very little to do with laws. It has to do with the will of the people. Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6: «Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one». Jesus said, «You better pray that you’ll be delivered from the evil one». We’ve adopted a different stance: «I’m not sure I believe in an evil one. Well, you know, I know some people believe in that, but my people, the church I go to, the tradition I belong to, the denomination I grew up, you know, we didn’t lead with that. We led with grace».
I’m an advocate for grace. I’m the poster child. You look up grace, you’ll probably find my picture. I have needed grace and mercy. But we better be asking the Lord to deliver us from the evil one. We face evil within. It’s not just external. Matthew 9, Jesus is speaking: «Some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, 'This fellow is blaspheming! ' Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, 'Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? '» These are biblical experts, they’re keeping all the rules, and he said, «You’re entertaining evil thoughts in your hearts»: what you watch, what you listen to, what you think about, the jokes you tell, the conversations you’ll entertain, the gossip you’ll listen to.
Matthew 15: «Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. This is what makes a man 'unclean'; not eating with unwashed hands». Jesus said out of the hearts of his covenant people. Our heart is our carnal self, that selfish part of us. The biblical prescription for that carnal part of every one of us, we all have it, is we have to execute it. We have to put it to death. Every thought we have, every emotion we have, is not godly. And there’s this overwhelming notion amongst us that says, «Well, you can’t tell me what to feel». No, I can’t, but I can tell you some feelings are ungodly. «Well, it’s my feeling».
Duly noted. But if you pursue something that is fueled by evil, ungodliness, immorality, that stands in opposition to the purposes of God, it will bring you to destruction. We’re reading Lamentations. Matthew 12, Jesus again: «You brood of vipers». In case you didn’t know, that’s not a compliment. Good old Tennessee language: «You bunch of snakes». «How can you who are evil say anything good? Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him». We can’t tolerate ungodliness. We can no longer afford the luxury. God has shown us mercy and grace.
There are people reorienting their lives saying they wanna stand up for principles that will bring freedom and liberty. The only hope they have, the only opportunity, is if the people of God will repent. The spiritual authority that will make change possible, will begin in the hearts of God’s people. I’m out of time. I’ll read Matthew 13. Jesus again said, «The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they’ll weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil». It’s the parable of the wheat and the tares, the wheat and the weeds. And the question is put to the owner of the field: «Do you want us to go out and pull the weeds»? And he said, «No, let them grow so that the wheat and the weeds, the good and the evil, the true and the false, are going to flourish. The same climactic conditions that cause the wheat to ripen will let the weeds ripen».
So I believe we will see ungodliness flourish and godliness flourish, which means we’re all very vulnerable 'cause they’re all growing around us and we’ve got access to it and we’re gonna be told it’s normal and we should compromise and we should yield. Folks, this isn’t something new. We read about Josiah a session or two ago on the temple, next to the temple where they offer daily sacrifices, they built places for prostitution. There were priests that presided over it, people that benefited from it, and infrastructure that supported it. It was profitable and pleasurable, and it existed for a long time. And when Josiah said, «Tear it down,» I promise you there were people that said, «We will remove you from power». Jesus said, «The wheat and the weeds are gonna grow together».
We have to guard our hearts. I believe we have an unprecedented opportunity, nothing like it in my lifetime, to see the values of the kingdom of God brought forward again in our schools, on our college campuses, in our courtrooms, the corridors of our hospitals. Doctors should be able to pray with patients without fear of attorneys. How did we get to a place if a person of faith wants to pray a prayer for someone who says they would like a prayer that there is fear involved? And why would we tolerate it? What has happened to us, church?
I brought you a hymn of thanksgiving. I wanna close with this. I took it from that same scene where all the angels were gathered, kind of a heavenly party. But there were statements being made by angels and statements being made by people of significance in the purposes of God. And I borrowed two of them and I put them in this declaration of thanksgiving. I thought it was a good week to do this. Why don’t you stand with me? It’s really short. I’d like to make this statement to all four points of the compass. I don’t wanna leave anything out. If you’re in Three Crosses with us, which is gonna be my point of orientation. If you’re someplace else, you’re gonna have to know the compass. I know for some of you that requires a cell phone. But we’re, in Three Crosses, you’re facing North.
So we’ll start with the North. And I want us to say this hymn together. We’re gonna echo what has been said in the halls of heaven. That makes me smile. Let the praises of God fill the earth. Let the praises of God fill our homes. Let the praises of God fill our schools and our college campuses and our courtrooms and the operating suites of our hospitals. Doesn’t mean everybody in all those places have to praise the Lord. But it’s appropriate that the praises of God break forth in those places. We’ll tolerate profanity in those places. We’ll tolerate ungodly music in all those places. We’ll tolerate all sorts of things. But as people of faith, people who said, «We’ve chosen Jesus as Lord,» we haven’t been willing to use our voice. We’re changing. We are changing.
To the North: «Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise! And to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever, amen».
To the East. Let’s turn physically. Come on, if you don’t know where that is, I’m sorry. Let’s read it again: «Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise! And to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever, amen».
To the South. That’s the back, for those of you directionally challenged. «Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise! To him who sits on the throne… and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever»! Amen.
And to the West: «Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise… sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power for ever and ever, amen,» hallelujah.