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I was in Scotland when I heard the news of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. There was very little news over there about all of it, and I was trying to get information from my dear wife, Nancy and others. And I have to say, I wasn't shocked, even though I was profoundly disappointed. Our hearts are heavy with grief. We pray for his wife, for his children, for his family; and I must remind you that God's saving purposes are always concealed in calamity. You must never forget that. And make no mistake, this tragedy did not catch God by surprise. I want you to remember that it is the clear testimony of scripture that God ordained to allow evil to enter into his perfect universe through the voluntary choices of moral creatures in order to dramatically display his glory through his holiness, through His wrath, through his mercy, his grace, his love, his power; and whatever he allows is ultimately for our good and his glory. He is a sovereign God. He is not a contingent God that tries to figure things out after they happen, and he is not distant. He is not indifferent. And those of us who know, and love Christ understand these things, but it's always good to be reminded of them afresh.

We read in Isaiah 46:10, that he is the one who declares, "the end from the beginning and from ancient time things which have not been done, saying, 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.'" And you remember Ephesians 1:11 that says that he "works all things after the counsel of His will" and whenever we are confronted with senseless violence and irrational ideologies, sheer evil, we must see these things, as Christians, through the lens of divine revelation.

I want to begin by just helping you clear away any dirt that might be on those lenses so that you can understand at least three perspectives that I'm not going to elaborate on, but I want to begin with this, because when you look at these types of tragedies, they will never make any sense until you understand these biblical perspectives. And I might also add that what I'm about to say will be hideously offensive to most people outside of the realm of Christianity, and you will never hear these things in the public square. You must remember first of all, that we live in a fallen sin-cursed world that is temporarily ruled by Satan. Three times in John's Gospel, Jesus referred to Satan as, quote, "the ruler of this world", and in Ephesians six, verse 12, the apostle Paul reminds us that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."

And secondly, we must remember that all humans are born with a sin nature, and we are ruled by the selfish lusts of our hearts in rebellion against God. As we look at Scripture, we see that sin is man's innate inability to conform to the moral character and desires of God. It has penetrated and corrupted the whole of man's being, including his body, his mind, his will, his heart; and every man is capable of committing the very worst sins. And apart from the transforming grace of God in salvation, even when the unsaved man does right, it is for motives other than to bring glory to God, making his actions ultimately displeasing to him. Worse yet, the unsaved are utterly bereft of that love for God necessary to fulfill the most basic requirement of God's moral law, and that is to love him supremely. God has made it clear that the unsaved man will continue to spiral downward in morality, and that he has absolutely no possible means of salvation or recovery within himself. We all need a Savior, and we have that in Christ.

And thirdly, I want you to understand that our nation is under God's judgment - the wrath of divine abandonment. When you reject him, he rejects you and leaves you to the consequences of your iniquity. In Romans one beginning in verse 18, we read, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them." That text goes on to talk about how that through creation and through conscience, man knows that God exists and that we are under, ultimately, his authority. But it goes on to say how that we, professing to be wise, become fools. We worship the creature rather than the Creator, and as a result of that, we are without excuse before a holy God. And then he describes a three-stage progression of what he does to a culture - to a society - that lives this way. A progression of divine abandonment that's not necessarily found in every individual, but in the collective whole of the culture that magnifies individual wickedness; and each stage becomes progressively worse in its evil and in its consequence.

I'll just mention them to you. The first stage is that of sordid immorality. The second stage is shameless homosexuality. And then finally, once that is a part of the culture, he gives man over to shocking depravity in every area of life and society. And this explains the wickedness and the sheer insanity that we see in our culture today. My friends, ours is a spiritual, not a political problem, and the remedy is found only in the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ and obedience to his Word and his will.

Now, having established just a biblical theological foundation, I want to turn our attention to the issues at hand. Certainly, people with a moral compass are shocked and they're angry at what has happened with Charlie Kirk. To know that a shockingly depraved homosexual and transactivist leftist would assassinate Charlie Kirk is absolutely despicable. It's reprehensible, and yet people with no moral compass even celebrate that kind of a man, celebrate what he did; and they're even now scheming how to defeat those who would in any way hold to his conservative values, much less Christianity. They want to defeat us, to subjugate us and to eliminate us. And I am often asked how we are to relate to the extremists that we have in our culture. How are we to relate to the progressive left that makes up most of the Democratic Party, and sadly, many in the Republican Party? How are we to relate to family and to friends and to teachers, to doctors, to pastors, to politicians and authority over us who believe these things? How in the world are we to find common ground and to somehow have unity and solidarity with people who want to silence free speech, who cancel those who differ with them; who would flood our country with illegal immigrants and seek to protect violent felons? How do you deal with people that seek to defund police and take away our right to bear arms while they advocate violence, those people who would turn our cities into violent hell holes ruled by criminals? How are we to find unity with people that celebrate sexual perversions, the support the mutilation of self-loathing, damaged confused kids who think they can be happy if they pretend to be the opposite sex? Kids who, in many cases, believe they are animals. Absolutely incomprehensible.

How do we find common ground for those who fight for a woman's right to kill her unborn and unwanted baby even up to full term? How do you relate to people who get so angry when you don't agree with them politically that they will loot and burn down their own cities while the authorities watch and refuse to intervene. How do you find common ground with those who would blame the savagery of Hamas against Israel on October 7? Blame that on Israel. Blame the shooting of our President, on the president? Blame the shooting of Charlie Kirk, on Charlie Kirk? I mean, this is a level of insanity that begs language. Folks, this is not a mental health crisis, this is a satanic deception crisis. America is in a satanically induced ideological civil war that threatens the very survival of the church and Western civilization. In the providence of God, Charlie Kirk's political assassination is, frankly, an inflection point in our country's history that will produce major long-term changes, both good and bad.

So the question I want to address is, how can we as Christians move forward? How do you deal with this level of godlessness, this level of irrational, insane ideology? And before I answer that from scripture, I want to briefly summarize kind of what's going on with Satan's scheme, and I've written about this in my last two books, but I'm going to quote one of them out of my book, "Why America hates Biblical Christianity." But I want you to bear in mind that liberals believe the individualism inherent in capitalism empowers the rich to oppress the poor in a white, patriarchal society where white men enjoy power and privilege other disenfranchised groups do not possess. That's the mentality, and certainly they hate white guys like me more than all the rest. In my book Why America hates Biblical Christianity, I say this,

"The democratic socialists envision an egalitarian utopia that requires all social, gender, economic and political inequities to be eradicated. Practically speaking, this means the government must be in charge of defining what is fair and unfair. The government must determine what is morally and socially acceptable. Then the government must equally distribute wealth, opportunities, outcomes and privileges for the citizens; a subjective and arbitrary system of justice based solely upon the moral authority of man, not God. Obviously, Republicans, who are capitalists, and Christians believe this political ideology will not only infringe upon the rights of those the state deems morally and socially unacceptable and oppressive, it will also continue an aggressive 'cancel culture' and legal campaign to silence and eradicate all who oppose them. Especially those people who oppose a woman's right to dismember her inconvenient baby in her womb, those who find the LGBTQ agenda morally reprehensible, and those who believe gender is based upon biology rather than personal preference."

End quote.

I might add that Jesus fought for none of this. None of this is part of the gospel - which must be our priority. Jesus didn't march around with his disciples, with a "Jews Lives Matter" banner. Who would have thought that a nation founded on Judeo Christian ethics would stray so far that by the year 2020 only 6% of Americans would possess a biblical worldview. I'm not sure what the stats are now, but I can assure you, they haven't gone up. They've gone down. How did we get here? There are many reasons why we got here, but the one I want to address, and one of the most important ones, can be answered this way. We got here because of spiritual compromise in the church, and that still plagues the church today. This is where we must change. Even as we just read a few minutes ago in First Peter 4 judgment begins with the household of God. And I want to take you right now to Second Corinthians 6:14. We're going to look at several passages, but primarily this passage. And here's what the Apostle Paul tells us and what we must take to heart moving forward after Charlie Kirk's assassination, it says,

"Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?

"Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?

"Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,

'I WILLL DWELLIN THEM AND WALK AMONGH THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.

"'THEREFORE, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,' says the Lord.

"'And DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; and I will welcome you.

"'And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,' says the Lord Almighty.

"Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."

Let me give you a bit of context, and it certainly has parallels with our country. If you were to take all of the most depraved and immoral cities of the world and mix them together, you would have ancient Corinth. I've been there and seen the ruins. They had temple prostitutes that roamed to the streets at night. Sexually transmitted diseases, especially syphilis, were killing 1000s of people. Idol worship was part of the trade guild. You had to be a part of one of those idol worshiping groups in order to work in your particular chosen way of earning a living. It was rampant paganism, just like we see in the United States, and they had their own version of cancel culture. They would do everything possible, even kill you, to silence opposition. This is where the apostle Paul comes to preach the gospel, and this is where the gospel transformed many people. And here, Paul is warning believers to avoid any public or private partnerships with unbelievers that would somehow compromise your Christian standards; those whose beliefs are hostile to Christianity.

He's telling us here, to avoid partnering with unbelievers in areas where their ungodliness will influence us and our families in a profound way. Practically speaking, you don't marry an unbeliever, you don't date an unbeliever, you don't get involved in business with them. You don't form political alliances with them, and in our culture, you don't join in with interfaith alliances or ecumenical associations. You don't attend a liberal church that rejects the authority of Scripture. You don't contract with ungodly teachers to indoctrinate your children in their classrooms.

In this context, you must bear in mind this passage is not demanding believers to be completely separated from ungodly people of the world and have no social contact with them. That is not at all the case. Here, they are our mission field. We must love them for the sake of the gospel, but we are not to form any kind of intimate partnerships with them and allow ourselves to be influenced by them. Certainly, we are warned in Scripture, for example, in Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world"  - literally in the original language, it carries the idea of, "do not allow the world to unwittingly cause you to become like it," - but rather, "be transformed by the renewing of your mind." James four, and verse four, we read that "friendship with the world is hostility toward God. Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." First John 2:15, "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

Now bear in mind, Jesus was, according to Luke 7:34, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. But as you will see, in that context, they were people that were interested in the gospel. They were under some form of conviction. And these were people whose daily occupations really rendered them ceremonially unclean. Pharisees would not associate with them. But Jesus was fulfilling the Great Commission, as we should do, to go into all the world and make disciples.

And if I can digress for a moment, we are forbidden to have fellowship with phony Christians. Let me say that again, we are commanded not to have fellowship with phony, ungodly people who name the name of Christ. First Corinthians 5:9, Paul says, "I wrote you in my letter not to associate..." The term in the original means "to keep intimate company with" or "close company with." "I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people." And I might add that this command is utterly ignored in most of the precincts of evangelicalism; we have churches filled with immoral people.

Verse 10, "I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world." Evidently, some of them must have broken off all contact with unbelievers. That's not what he's talking about here. I mean, there's a place to even interact with these people, as Charlie Kirk did, and as we should do, for the sake of the Gospel.

Verse 11, "But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler (which means just an angry, verbally abusive person), or a drunkard or a swindler - not to even eat with such a one." And by the way, this is just a representative list, not an exhaustive one. And in verse 12, "For what have I to do with judging outsiders?" The point is: nothing. I mean, we evangelize the lost, we don't judge them for the purpose of purifying the church. They're not a part of the church. He says, "Do you not judge those who are within the church?" And the answer is, of course, we do. We should. You cannot allow persistent, egregious, unrepentant patterns of sin and heresy to infect the entire church. That's why there should never be anyone who names the name of Christ, who is a part of the church that embraces the LGBTQ agenda that God finds to be an absolute abomination. This is why there should never be a person in a church that embraces the woke ideology that is being crammed down our throats. This is why no one in the church, or no one should be allowed in a church with this leftist, progressive ideology. Beloved, remember a little leaven, leavens the whole lump; and we live in a day today where basically the whole lump has been leavened with sin.

Verse 13, he goes on to say, "But those who are outside, God judges." And he says, "remove the wicked man from among yourselves." I might add as well, in Titus 3:10, it says, "Reject a factious man." Reject literally means, have nothing to do with - a "hairetikos"; a heretic - and you have to cast the net broader than just a heresy in terms of what they're teaching, but just the whole lifestyle that is in opposition to God. You don't have anything to do with those people, it says, after a first and second warning. why? "...knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned." We've had many people, probably in the realm of hundreds of people, who have left Calvary Bible Church because of some heresy or some godless political ideology that they believe that they want to somehow proclaim within the church.

Now, as we come to Second Corinthians six, Paul helps us see the damning consequences of partnering with the world, which has opened the door to the wickedness that we see destroying our nation today; and when you ignore the Lord's command, it's going to lead to five frightening consequences that I want to explain to you. It's going to lead to a depraved mind, a dead faith, a defiant heart, a divisive spirit and a defiling religion. Now this is a very instructive and important passage of scripture, and I hope that that simple little outline will help you in your understanding.

Notice verse 14, "Do not be bound together with unbelievers." "Bound together" translates the participial form of a Greek verb that means to be unequally yoked, okay? In other words, do not be harnessed in an alien yoke with unbelievers. And he drew his analogy from Deuteronomy 22 and verse 10, where we read, "You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together." You see, such a mismatch of disparate species would be disastrous. The temperament, the natural instincts, their gait, everything about their physical characteristics would prevent them from working together. Moreover, according to the dietary laws of the Old Testament, we see that the ox was a clean animal, and the donkey was an unclean animal. And the distinctions between that which was considered clean and unclean was God's way of teaching the great spiritual truths pertaining to how we need to be set apart from whatever God rejects. That which is clean would be that which would be holy - set apart unto God - something from which we can enjoy blessing.  That which is unclean or defiled speaks of a state or a condition of being unholy and separated from God. I have to smile, the unclean donkey is a fitting mascot for the Democratic Party, is it not? That embraces virtually everything that God abhors? I mean, no discerning Christian would ever vote for these people and become a co-conspirator in their evil schemes. And I might add that the Republicans are not far behind.

So Paul's point is simple, believers and unbelievers are two radically different species, and any kind of intimate binding or partnering or collaboration with them will prove disastrous. So do not be bound together with unbelievers. Now, Satan wants just the opposite. You've seen those coexist signs on the back of cars; that somehow, we're to coexist with other religions in a unified global spirituality. You see, you must remember that Satan doesn't care what you believe, as long as it's not the truth, for example. And this is the big danger right now that I see with what's happening with Turning Point USA, and you know, all the things that are going forward. Satan would love to see millions of people turn to Jesus, but not the true Jesus. Satan would love to see many people embrace the gospel, but not the true gospel. He would love to see millions of Americans live moral lives, attend their favorite church, embrace conservative values, as long as they never come to a place of genuine, repentant faith in Jesus Christ and are born again and live for the praise of the glory of Christ and manifest his righteousness.

 In an article by John MacArthur entitled, "Is the Evangelical Movement Really Evangelical?" He writes this quote,

"Recent surveys reveal that a large percentage of people who self-identify as evangelical do not understand even the most basic principles of gospel truth. In a recent poll of self-styled evangelicals, 52% said they reject the concept of absolute truth. 61% do not read the Bible daily. 75% believe people are basically good. 48% believe salvation can be earned by good works. 44% believe the Bible does not condemn abortion. 43% believe Jesus may have sinned. 78% believe Jesus is the first being created by God. 46% believe the Holy Spirit is a force rather than a person. 40% believe lying is morally acceptable in certain circumstances. 34% accept same sex marriage is consistent with biblical teaching. 26% reject Scripture as God's word, and 50% say church attendance is not necessary."

Dear friends, we are not to be bound together with those kinds of people, those so-called Christians who hold those kinds of heretical views; and to do so makes you a coconspirator with them and provides them with a false sense of assurance that all is well between them and God. We are not to join together with unbelievers in any kind of a partnership, a cause, a union that requires shared values, that would require us to compromise doctrinally. Now I want you to notice just briefly here, as we look over this passage, that this kind of disobedience would betray five frightening characteristics. First of all, people that will embrace this stuff, it betrays, number one, a depraved mind. Let me remind you in Romans 1:28 we read that those that do not see fit to acknowledge God are given over, it says, "to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper." A depraved mind, a worthless mind, an irrational mind, one that is morally reprehensible and despicable.

Now here's why, and it's revealed in a series of questions. The first question is, "for what partnership," in other words, what fellowship, "have righteousness and lawlessness?" And the point is, absolutely none. They're total opposites. You see, righteousness is the mark of a believer, lawlessness is the mark of an unbeliever. Remember, Christ has imputed his righteousness to believers solely by his grace. And when we're born again, we're given a new nature. Therefore, we read in First John three, beginning in verse nine, "No one who was born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin" - in terms of being a practice of sin - "because He is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil were obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother." We read in Romans six and verse 19 that unbelievers are, quote, "slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness."

You see, they will one day stand before the Lord Jesus Christ in judgment, and they will hear that dreadful sentence "I never knew you" (Matthew 7:23). "I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness." So I ask you, why would anyone partner or form an alliance with a person who, in reality, rejects Christ; one who is therefore spiritually dead, at enmity with God, whose mind and whose heart, scripture says, is darkened in their understanding. What kind of depraved mind even considers something so irrational?

And then a second question in verse 14, "or what fellowship is light with darkness?" I mean light is the absence of darkness. Darkness the absence of light. The two cannot coexist. And light, in Scripture, is a metaphor for divine truth. It depicts holiness. John eight, verse 12, Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life." First Thessalonians five, beginning in verse five, we are "sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober." You see, darkness is a metaphor, in scripture, of deception. It's used to depict evil and the kingdom of darkness. And yet we are warned that Satan disguises himself as an angel of, what? An angel of light. That's how deceptive he is; so that he can deceive pastors so that he can deceive seminary professors, so that he can deceive churches, colleges, universities, politicians and every other influential system in the world he currently rules. In fact, Jesus said in Luke 22, verse 53 that Satan has quote, "the power of darkness." And that's what we're seeing in our culture. And tragically, sinners love the darkness, right? They love it. John three, beginning in verse 19, "'This is the judgment that the Light," referring to Christ, "'has come into the world, and men love the darkness rather than the Light.'" Why? "'For their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.'"

So I ask you, are we really supposed to dialog with other faiths that reject Christ, to try to find some kind of common ground? Are we to join together in interfaith initiatives for global peace, for climate change, for social justice, same sex marriage, transgender rights, radical feminism? Are we really supposed to welcome them, to teach and indoctrinate our children? Ephesians 5:11, we read, "Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them."

Paul gives us a third question, "Or what harmony has Christ with Belial..."; "what harmony",  it means "agreement." The Greek term "symphōnēsis."  We get our word "symphony" from that; to agree with. "What harmony has Christ with Belial." Belial, by the way, was an ancient name for Satan. You see, we serve Christ. We don't serve Satan. There's two opposing kingdoms at work in the world. In Colossians, one and verse 13, you remember that it reads that "He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." And this causes us, according to Acts 26 verse 18, to "turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God." And I would ask you, as a minister of the gospel, to which kingdom do you belong? The kingdom of light or the kingdom of darkness? The kingdom of God that's only accessed by repentant faith in the living Christ, or the kingdom of Satan that opposes God and seeks your eternal destruction.

Oh, dear friend, don't be deceived. One day we will all bow before King Jesus, and you will either do it in humble adoration or defiant trepidation. Either with great joy or with unimaginable terror.

You have a fourth question in verse 15, "...or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?" Have you ever heard people say, "You know, you Christians act like you from another planet?" I can identify with that. And really, in a lot of ways, it's true. I mean, we're aliens here. We're citizens of another kingdom. God, in his grace, has saved us from this world that is passing away. We have a totally different world view than those without Christ. Jesus said in John 17:14, "they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world," referring to believers. We're not of this world. Jesus said in John 15, verse 19, "'If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this, the world hates you.'" So beloved to partner with unbelievers is irrational.

God asked apostate Israel in Amos 3:3 "Can two walk together unless they are agreed?" Obviously not. So, partnering with unbelievers betrays a depraved mind. Secondly, it betrays a dead faith. Notice verse 16,

"Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, 'I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM, AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.' And here, Paul hearkens back to the numerous examples when Israel mixed pagan, idolatrous practices with the worship of the one true and living God, with Yahweh. And they would even do this at times inside the temple. You may recall that the kings of Judah, according to Jeremiah 7:31 erected quote "the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom. That's an east/west valley at the south end of Jerusalem. And the term "Topheth" comes from the Hebrew word "tof", which is the word for drum; and it was in the valley of Hinnom where the ancient people of Judah sacrificed their children to the idol of Molech, by throwing them alive into the burning fire while drums pounded loudly to drown out their screams. In Jesus' day, the valley of Hinnom was called Gehenna; a garbage dump where fires burned continually. It was a place of massacre. It was a place of perpetual flames that actually became a symbol of the eternal flames of hell. In fact, Jesus described it as "pyr geenna" which means f"iery hell" (Matthew 5:22).

Oh, dear Christian, this is where spiritual compromise - where being unequally yoked - will take you. It betrays a depraved mind, a dead faith, and thirdly, it betrays a defiant heart. He says in verse 17, "Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,' says the Lord. "'DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN.'" In other words, make a make a fresh break from all that defiles the temple of the living God; all the perverse garbage that you see on YouTube and all the Hollywood entertainment that is just blasphemous to the Lord our God; all the false religion, false teaching doctrines of demons. It's called woke ideology, progressive Christianity. You got to come out from all that stuff. And if I can make it real practical, if you're part of a church that has embraced evangelical pragmatism that essentially says we need to become more like the world in order to win it, you need to run, not walk, from that kind of a church; churches that remove anything that people who are spiritually dead might find offensive; churches that avoid sound biblical doctrine because it's too divisive, churches where they dumb down the Word of God to the point that it bears no resemblance to what God is saying, and as a result, becomes nothing more than a religious country club. And when you look at the lives and the marriages and the families of those people, they are dumpster fires. And I have had to deal with this for 40 years in ministry. People who are empty, people are looking for the truth, and yet they're drowning in an ocean of lies; ear tickling preachers that have banished their congregations to an island of spiritual infancy at best, or spiritual bankruptcy at worst. Avoid being in close fellowship with those kind of people, as nice and as kind, as wonderful as they might be, because their lies are like an opiate that will cloud the mind and corrupt the soul. Dear friends, never underestimate the genius of Satan to deceive and to plant the snares of temptation in the well-worn paths of your own iniquities; the lusts of your heart that typically rule you.

Jude 23, we are warned about dealing with those that promote error, lest you be contaminated by their deception. It says, "snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh."  In other words, false teachers. They are demonic, and their counterfeit truths are both brilliant, they are compelling to the naive and to the ignorant. Often they will have letters after their name, but they know error better than most Christians know truth, and Satan will use that to deceive you. How many of you know of kids that have been sent off to college and after a couple of years, you don't even know them. Dear church family, you young people in particular, please hear me. You need to guard your heart and your mind, and you need to fill your heart and your mind with God's wisdom, not man's. First Peter one, verse 14, "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, 'YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.'

Partnering with unbelievers also betrays a divisive spirit. Notice in verse 17, it says God says, "'and I will welcome you.'" I will welcome you - "eisdechomai." A term which carries the idea of "I am going to grant you favor"; it speaks of favor that comes from God, and this only happens when you avoid these types of things, when you don't allow these things to influence your mind, your children, your family, your wife, your husband, your church. You see disobedience proves a disobedient spirit, a divisive spirit, and it cuts one off from the intimacy and blessings that God wants to lavish upon you, like wounding a father. I can tell you, as a father and as a grandfather, there is absolutely nothing I wouldn't do for my children, nothing I wouldn't do to protect them. I crave their fellowship. I love to bless them in every way I can, but I wouldn't be able to do that if they lived wicked lives.

And the text goes on to say, "I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,' says the Lord Almighty." Isn't that what you want? Dear friends, God wants intimate communion and fellowship with you. But if you spurn his commandments and you refuse to separate yourselves from those things, those people that are an abomination to you and to him, he will chasten you, and you will forfeit blessing in your life. And notice how he closes this passionate section of admonition, he says in chapter seven, verse one, "Therefore, having these promises..." what promises? What's he talking about? Well, the promise is described in verses 16 through 18 in chapter six, "I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God. They shall be my people. I will welcome you. I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me." In other words, mature believers that are obedient to me are going to experience that wonderful intimacy, that soul satisfying, joy of the Spirit's presence in their lives. Isn't that what you want? I do. "Therefore come out from their midst to be separate,' says the Lord.

Those who fail to take this seriously know little the joy of his presence. They grieve the spirits, they have no power in their life because they have chosen division over unity, estrangement over fellowship, and then finally, to disregard these things not only betrays a depraved mind, a dead faith, a defiant heart, a divisive spirit, but also a defiling religion. You see, any religious alliance with unbelievers is an insult to the Most High God, because what is being taught will corrupt, i will pollute both you and your church. For example, lies embracing theological and political liberalism - which, by the way, have destroyed everything they have ever touched - or fellowshipping with people that are closely acquainted with those types of things, that will result in a defiling religion. This betrays that which is a stench into the nostrils of God.

"Therefore having these promises," he says in 7:1, "beloved, let us cleanse ourselves." Let us cleanse ourselves. "Ourselves" here, its technical, but it's important for me to say this. This is in Greek, its a reflexive pronoun in Greek grammar, and in this context, it acknowledges God as the one who does the cleansing, but it also requires effort on the part of the believer. "Cleanse yourselves"; Let us cleanse ourselves. "Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit." In other words, both inside and out; "...perfecting" or it can be translated completing or finishing, "...holiness in the fear of God." You do these things because you have a reverential awe of the glory of the person and the work of Christ in your life.

I want to close with just a couple of final brief thoughts. Number one, don't try to dialogue or evangelize extreme Christ haters who mock him and demonstrate violent aggression and persistently reject the gospel. Jesus warned about this. Matthew seven, verse six, "'Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.'" You see, folks, there is no common ground with these people. There is no solidarity. Antifa, BLM, trans activists, Marxist Muslims that live to kill Jews and Christians, leftist politicians that hate Charlie Kirk. You know those types of people. Now, you know, if they're not violent in your face, then yes, you can have a conversation; try to give them the gospel. But if they're just there to absolutely do violence to you, you need to move away from that. In fact, I even pray that God will silence them, like the imprecations of David in the Psalms. An imprecation is a curse or an invocation of judgment upon an enemy. I pray that God will pour out his wrath on their unholy heads. David called upon the Lord for justice, for deliverance from wicked oppression. His motive is not some pet of human vindictiveness. You know, some people will say, "Well, yeah, but the Bible says we're told to love our enemies. We're told to turn the other cheek or to return good for evil and forgive those who mistreat us." Well, that's true, but those commands, beloved, are aimed at the mortification of personal pride, not the abdication of justice and the vindication of righteousness. You don't bake an apple pie for Hitler.

Jesus commands, with respect to loving our enemies, must be balanced with his role of avenger, the one who will judge those who remain in obstinate rebellion with him. You see, when we pray for tyrants to be overthrown, to free innocent people from oppression and for righteousness to prevail, we give glory to God; and it is right to pray for God to avenge wickedness. It is right to pray "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." And when he returns, he will avenge all wrongs, and vengeance certainly is his, not ours.

And secondly, don't confuse the sudden interest in Christianity, that we see in our culture right now, with a genuine spiritual revival. Be careful with that. Genuine revivals are very rare. I could speak for several hours on this. What you'll find historically is when true revivals come, they are always unexpected works of God, and they're always a result of expository preaching and a robust reformed soteriology. They are never conjured up by man. They are always brought down by God, unexpectedly. Most people who suddenly get religion because of some great tragedy will abandon it just as fast as they embraced it. We've seen this so many times. Hurricanes come churches fill up. 9/11 comes churches fill up. Covid comes, churches fill up, and then it all peters out.

And I will say this, if what we're seeing today is a true revival, then the true gospel will be preached. A gospel of repentance; a gospel that tells people that they are so morally depraved that all that they are, and all that they do, is fundamentally offensive to a holy God, and you have no remedy in yourself, and all you can do is come to a holy God and cry out for him to have mercy on you and to save you by his grace alone, through faith alone. And when that genuinely happens, people will be born again, and you'll see a radical change in their life. Moreover, the true gospel will speak directly to the exclusivity of Christianity that it mixes with absolutely no other religion; that all other religions are doctrines of demons. They are false religions. If this is a true gospel and this is a genuine revival, you will, for example, see the Mormons, who make up two thirds of Turning Point USA's workforce, you will see them turn from that wicked cult to the living Christ. Wouldn't that be wonderful? And I pray that God will do a mighty work in this regard.

And I pray that you will take heed to all that you've heard this morning, because I want all of you to know and to love Christ to enjoy the fullness of His blessings in your life. This is what we must do going forward after this hideous assassination of Charlie Kirk in this transitional period in history; and may we continue to pray for his dear wife and children and family. Let's pray together.

Father, we are so thankful for the many ways you reveal yourself to us. Certainly, your word penetrates the very core of our being. I pray that by the power of your Spirit; the seeds of truth that have been planted here today will find lodging that they will begin to grow and produce the fruit of righteousness in the hearts of many. Lord, we pray for Charlie Kirk's wife, his children, his family, once again, and for all that are a part of Turning Point USA. We pray that those people will truly come to faith in the living Christ. Lord, I pray that there would be a great revival that would break out. But Lord, we know that that is always what you decide to do, and yet we pray for it with all of our heart and may that revival, May the flames of truth burn forth with great power and fervency in the heart of your redeemed, even those here at Calvary Bible Church, we thank you. We give you praise in all things for the glory of Christ. Amen.