Braid Your Whip

Welcome to God First with Brian C. Thomas, a program committed to encouraging you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, let's join Brian C. Thomas for today's message. As always, it is a joy and honor and a privilege to join you each week.

I want to thank you for tuning in. This is a great and wonderful day that our Lord has made. Lord God, we are just rejoicing and we are glad in it. We thank you, Lord God, for this time of Bible fellowship that we can hear a word from you. And we just ask Holy Spirit that you would guide the way, guide our hearts, our minds, our speech, so that all things that are spoken that it will be nothing but sound doctrine, Lord, that is glorifying and honoring to you. Our Lord King, we pray all these things in your name, Jesus.

Amen. Well, today, folks, I want to talk to you about the truth and I am a lover of the truth. And I encourage people that if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you should be a lover of the truth as well, because when we look at society today, the truth is becoming harder and harder to come by. There are so many agendas that are being pushed in society and so many things that really is propaganda and propaganda is trying to get people to buy into a narrative that is really not based in truth. And so in light of that, I want to share with you a soundbite from a recent incident that happened just two weeks ago, and this is in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, is somewhat of a lengthy clip.

But I want you to hear it in its entirety because I want you to pay very, very close attention. Listen very carefully to how this news report is presented, and then I'm going to speak with you about the truth. We start with this breaking news out of Jefferson Parish.

The sheriff's office has arrested two of its own accused of shooting a man killing him last week. This happened last Wednesday morning along Wilson Street. WDSU reporter Shai O'Connor joins us live from Jefferson Parish, where that news conference was just held. Shai, what are the charges here? Well, Angita, now both officers actually turned themselves in and I'm told that they will be charged with manslaughter.

Now we're just going to take you to some video that we were able to shoot for you last week of the scene. Now their names Isaac Hughes, age 30 or 29 rather. He's been with JPSO for nine years and Jonathan Lewis, age 35.

He's been employed with JPSO for about two years. Now both officers were also terminated from the force. Sheriff Joe Lopinto says Daniel Valley was shot and killed by the deputies while inside of a car last Wednesday. Before it happened, deputies had received reports from a neighbor about a noise at a home that officers are referring to as a crack house. Now Sheriff Joe Lopinto says that's the house where Valley was actually parked in front of. Apparently officers tried to get Valley to get out of the car and surrender for a little over 12 minutes. At some point, Valley turns on his engine inside of the car, eventually raising his hands and placing them on the steering wheel where he hit the horn, in which case two officers began firing shots.

We're told Valley died from his injuries. I can tell you their perception was that their life was in danger at that point in time. Unfortunately, the use of force in this situation was not justified. As much as I would love to be able to defend them, I don't believe there was any criminal intent at this point in time.

We've had numerous discussions with our office, with our investigators, in order to try to figure out what is the appropriate charge. Now Lopinto says Valley's car hadn't moved when officers fired shots. He was also not armed at the time of the shooting. Now officers do point out that Valley was wanted in connection with other crimes, including theft in Plaquemines Parish. And I mean, this is very much so a developing story. So please stay with WDSU for more details.

Reporting live from Jefferson Parish, Shay O'Connor, WDSU News. So what we have here is yet another incident of two police officers shooting and killing a civilian. Now, I asked you to listen very closely, very carefully to the report, because there was something that was missing from it that we normally hear. And the thing that was missing was there was no mention of race. The police officers and the civilian, their race was not identified in the report. Now, there's a reason for that, because you cannot see the video, of course, we're on radio, but in the video news report, they actually showed the pictures of the individuals involved.

And guess what? The two police officers are black. The civilian is white. So I point that out because how many times have we seen over the last at least decade of the headlines, which read white police officer shoots and kills unarmed black man? We've seen that time and time again. And what happens is that people rush to judgment. People go ahead and convict the officers of being racist. And there's this outcry, there's protesting and there's rioting.

And oftentimes what we find is that the the civilian was was often committing a crime and or resisting arrest at the time of the shooting. But we didn't see that here. And you have to ask yourself the question, why is that?

Well, I can tell you why. Because it is about a narrative. And this incident does not fit the narrative. So you haven't seen this on the headline of the news, mainstream media all over the country. You haven't seen this on CNN and you haven't seen it broadcast widely because it again does not fit the narrative.

You you heard it on this local report and I had to dig to find this. And and again, you may not have picked up on it and listening, because if you're like me, you don't view things in life through the lens of race. I just don't view life that way. I'm not always looking to see what is someone's color when an incident happens.

And so that is you. You may not have picked up on it, but someone actually brought this incident to my attention. And so I actually had to dig to find this news report. But I did find it find it in this this local news outlet did report on it.

But from a from a nationwide standpoint, you didn't you didn't hear about it. And you and I both know that if the tables were turned and if the officers were white and the the civilian was black, we would already have have seen the rioting and the protesting and it would be all over the news throughout the nation. But it does not fit the narrative. And that is why I said in the opening that I am a lover of the truth. But there is so much deception and propaganda that is being pushed today. And when it comes to honesty and the truth, it's not always about what you say, but it's sometimes about what you do not say. Because if you're constantly reporting only the incidents in which the officers are white, the civilian is black, but you don't report the incidents in which the officers are black and the civilian is white, you are pushing a narrative.

You are painting a picture. That's propaganda of giving people an idea that is just this one sided thing. And then the statistics actually show that more whites get shot and killed by police than blacks in our nation. But you will be hard pressed to find anyone that believes that because it's not what the media pushes. So the media does this. We cannot.

And it pains me to say this. We simply cannot trust the mainstream media. I encourage people to to when you hear about stories, incidents to verify it through Christian outlets like here on the Truth Network that you can trust to to report things in a truthful manner, not in a biased way, because the mainstream media has agendas and the news outlets is multiple layers as to why they do it. But one of the things is it drives up ratings. And so they know that it will cause people to get emotional. It will cause people to protest. And that gets more people watching and gets more people talking. And so that means more money in their pocket.

So that's that's one side of the coin. Now, there's also a group of people who who want this narrative push in our country because they want the way that our nation is governed to be overturned. There are people out there who are Marxists and they believe in socialism. So they push this this narrative of that there is unfair, unjust treatment of people of a certain group. And that is their emo in which they try to create class warfare or in the case of the United States of America, race warfare. And they do it to stir up so much turmoil that in their mind it can cause an overthrow of the system to bring in socialism. So that is what we have going on.

But the thing about it, though, folks, is that as Abraham Hamilton III says, the world is going to world. They're not guided by the Holy Spirit. So you expect them to go along with lying and deceptive practices. But the thing that really troubles me is what I see happening in the church, because I have seen have seen so many pastors, church leaders that are also jumping on the bandwagon of these deceptive narratives. I have seen so many pastors that will post videos to Facebook and YouTube as soon as there's an incident reported where it is stated, white officer shoots and kills unarmed black man and they get up and say this is racism only to find out later that once the facts come out, as is often the case, again, the civilian is probably committing a crime or and or resisting arrest that has been been revealed in numerous incidents. And so it's just simply not wise, though, to rush to judgment when you don't know the facts. And so we should step back. It looks like in this case in Louisiana that the officers were in the wrong. It seemed to be that the sheriff said that it was an unlawful use of force. And so he's already saying that they should not have taken the actions that they did.

You know, I just step back and say I'm not going to rush to judgment regardless of the race and let the judicial system investigation work its way out. But I again have seen so many church leaders that will stand up and start claiming racism when in actuality, that is not the case. What we find is that our Lord Jesus, during his time on Earth, there was an incident in which our Lord Jesus braided a whip. When the people were in the temple doing things that were defiling the temple, Jesus meticulously took his time as they were going about their corruption. He braided a whip, of course, and when he finished braiding that whip, he drove out the things that had defiled his father's temple. It says in John chapter two, verse 15, when he had made a whip of cords, he drove them out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen and poured out the changer's money and overturned the tables.

You see, our Lord knew that the temple was for worship of our great Lord and they had made it a place of trade. And so Jesus, again, meticulously braided a whip and drove them out. So the question that I have today is, do we have any whip braiders in the church that are willing to drive out doctrines of demons?

Because that is what this is. When we look at critical race theory, when we look at the Black Lives Matter movement, when we look at the social justice gospel, the entertainment in the church, these are doctrines of demons that the Bible said would be in place in the last days because anything that says a person is automatically a racist based on their skin color, how they were born is a doctrine of demons. Anything like the Black Lives Matter movement, which says it does not want fathers in the home, which advocates for all of these things that are in direct contradiction to the Bible. Those are doctrines of demons.

The social justice gospel, which takes the focus off of the true gospel of Jesus Christ, which preaches the social justice gospel, preaches to not forgive, but instead get even, which is also what the Black Lives Matter movement, they're all tied together, they're married together. That is antithetical to the Christian faith because Christianity says forgive your enemies and love them. But these movements, these doctrines of demons say no, get even, hate your enemy.

And we see these things have they have infiltrated and corrupted the church, our father's house. So I'm asking how many whip braiders do we have that are willing to stand up and drive these things out? Now, hear me well when I say this, folks, I am speaking figuratively, OK? I'm not asking you or advocating you to to take a physical whip and drive out your pastor if he's promoting critical race theory. Now, our Lord did use a physical whip, but Jesus is God and he has a license to do things that we don't have a license to always do. But what I am advocating is that you speak up, you stand against evil. And I'm not even saying to speak up during the service if your pastor gets up and he starts promoting these things that are, again, antithetical to the faith.

I'm not saying to disrupt the service and to make a scene. But but what I am asking is go to him privately and speak to him about these matters and do your part to to bring a stop to these things that have infiltrated the church. Again, these doctrines of demons.

So so that is my question. How many today are willing to drive out these things that are corrupting? These things that have infiltrated these things that have defiled our father's house, the church, because they should not be there. And we should be willing to do just what our Lord said to get rid of these things that are defiling his father's temple. We are lovers of the truth. Jesus Christ is the truth, and we should always be willing to stand up and to stand for our Lord. We're going to pause for a short break, but please don't go away.

We'll be back with more on the other side. You are tuned into the God first program. You are listening to Brian C. Thomas on God First. For more of Brian's teachings, please visit Godfirst.org to browse our extensive library of material. There you will find devotionals, blogs, articles and audio messages available as MP3 downloads on various topics such as salvation, Bible prophecy, marriage and the significance of Lesson Israel.

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Welcome back to the program. My name is Brian Thomas, and today we are speaking about the truth. If you're just now joining us, I am sharing with you an incident in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, in which there were two black police officers that shot and killed a white unarmed civilian. And well, where's the outcry? Where are the headlines all across CNN and all the major news outlets? You don't see it and you don't hear it because it does not fit the narrative. The narrative is that blacks are being hunted down and killed in the streets for no reason by white police officers. And folks, these are doctrines of demons. It's propaganda to try to bring about division, to try to bring about lawlessness, which the Bible says would be the spirit of Antichrist.

And we see that spirit that is moving and moving throughout the world. Now, for me, I as a man of color, when I speak about these matters, I have taken heat backlash from a lot of people within my race. And they will accuse me of being a sellout. They will accuse me of turning my back on our people.

They will call me brainwashed, all kinds of things. But my response to them is that the truth is what I love. The truth is what I'm always going to stand for. The color of the skin does not matter to me. I just want justice to be done regardless of the person's skin color.

Doesn't matter whether the person is black or white or whatever. I want justice because I am a lover of the truth. My faith, my allegiance to Jesus Christ comes before my allegiance to any color of skin. My faith, my allegiance to Jesus Christ comes before any allegiance to a political party. My faith and my allegiance to Jesus Christ comes before all things.

And it should be that way with all of us. But what I find so often today is that there are so many that will profess and claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Until it means taking sides when it comes to these matters and then you see where their true allegiance lies. Folks, we have to stand for the truth. We have to be willing to drive out these things that are corrupting the church. And again, as I said in the opening, that we expect the world to do these things.

The world is going to world. But when I see this happening in the church and it is becoming more and more common. And as someone, a friend of mine said, I guess, you know, we probably should put a clarification on it to say, I guess this is helping us to see what really is the true church, because the true church is going to be a lover of the truth. I don't I'm not saying that if you get deceived by something or if you're tricked by the devil, then that means you're not of the true church.

I'm not saying that at all. Anybody can be tricked and deceived, but it should not happen continuously over and over and over and over. Not when you are being led and guided by the Holy Spirit, when you are truly submitted to the Holy Spirit and letting him be the discerner for you.

You should not continually get tripped up on these matters. But as I said, I am a lover of the truth. Jesus Christ said he is the truth. Before Buddha died, he said, I am still searching for truth. But Jesus, speaking of himself, declared that he was the truth. He said in John 14, six, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. Folks, if you are a lover of Jesus Christ, that means you are a lover of the truth.

You can't go along with doctrines of demons. You can't go along with the deception of that blacks are being unjustly treated by white police officers all across the board with this broad brush. Now, I know there are incidents in which there are things that are happening that are wrong. I am not here want one here to say that racism does not exist in any capacity. There is racism on both sides of the aisle.

There are black races, there are white races, there are Hispanic races, there are races all over the world in all ethnic groups. And the reason is because of sin. There is sin that is in the world. And until Jesus comes and makes everything new again, there is going to continue to be sin.

We're not going to get rid of it until Jesus does so. But what I am trying to get people to understand is that the devil is playing on this idea of racism to get people distracted, to get people divided, to make people think something is there when it's really not. And that is what I try to get people understand the deceptions that the devil is doing transcended.

Don't allow him to divide us from one another. And I know there are some parents out there and you have been trying to reach your children and your children have have bought into these deceptions. Your children are going along with the critical race theory and the Black Lives Matter and the social justice gospel. And you're heartbroken by it.

You're you're trying to get through to them, but they won't listen. But I want to encourage you to never stop praying because your children can escape your presence, but they can never escape your prayers. Don't give up on that child. Just like in the prodigal son in which he went away and he he went away from his father and he did wrong and he was living this lifestyle of a prodigal. But eventually he realizes wrong and he repented and he came back and there was rejoicing. And so likewise, your child can repent and come back where they would be rejoicing not only in your home, but in the heavenly home.

The heavenly host will rejoice when they turn and come back. So don't give up. Don't stop praying for them. They they may be deceived, but don't allow it to frustrate you.

Don't allow it to sever your relationship. Continue to try to keep a connection with them. But even if they shun you, if they don't want to have a relationship with you, never, ever stop praying because there's power in prayer.

That is why I'm advocating for intercessory prayer, because I know the power that happens when we intercede for one another. And there are people who, again, within families, because of these issues that I'm talking about today, you have been rejected by your family. You've been pushed out of the family circle because you are not willing to embrace critical race theory. And so they've pushed you out. They say you're old fashioned.

You just simply don't understand. They may have even accused you of being a racist. But if that's you, I want you to dry your eyes. There are a lot of people that are carrying the hurt from that kind of rejection from their family. But I want you to dry your eyes because our Lord said he will never reject those who receive him.

He said in Hebrews 13 five for he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. And in Revelation 21 four and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. I know it hurts. I know it's painful because you know the truth and you see some who have been deceived. But yet they think that you are the one that's in the wrong.

And so they are making your life miserable as a result. But I am encouraging you. Jesus will never leave you. He's there with you. Keep your hands in his hands and allow him to lead the way because there is power in the hands of our almighty Lord. If Jesus could make it so that Peter could walk on water. You remember when Peter in the midst of the storm and they thought that Jesus, when they saw him, they didn't know that it was Jesus.

They thought it was a ghost because they saw him walking on the water. And when they realized that it was our Lord, Jesus asked that he could Peter asked that he could come to Jesus. And so Jesus bid Peter to do what?

To come to him. And so Peter then stepped out and he began to walk on the water in the midst of the storm. But what happened, though, once Peter got out there and he took his eyes off Jesus for a moment and he started to pay attention to the storm all around him.

And he began to sink because he took his eyes off the Lord. But I am encouraging you do not take your eyes off of Jesus Christ. Do not focus on the storm that's around you. And, folks, there's a storm that is around us today.

These spirits that are in the world, these doctrines of demons are creating storms all around us. Don't get distracted. Do not doubt.

Stay focused. Don't lose faith. We have to stay focused on our Lord. He will see us through to the end. If we keep our focus on him, because in the storm in the story of Peter, you know, when when when Peter began to sink, Jesus immediately reached out his hand and called him and he said, you of little faith, why did you doubt? So I'm asking asking you today, do not doubt. But if you do begin to have some moments of weakness in your doubt, still trusting the Lord that he will reach down and pull you up and stay focused on our great Lord. You know, folks, these are not easy subjects to talk about, I'll be honest with you.

And I know that it is not popular. There are a lot of church leaders who choose to stay away from these issues because they say they're too controversial. But as I said earlier, I am a lover of the truth because I am a lover of Jesus Christ with all my heart. Because I love him, I have to speak his truth. I cannot just sit by while people are being lied to and deceived in and not say anything.

Because the thing about it is I don't want you to see because I love you as well. And if I don't warn you, Jesus Christ said in his word that if he tells the watchman to look out for the people in the watchman does not warn the people. He is going to hold the watchman accountable. And all of us as believers in Jesus Christ are watching.

We should all be warning people throughout our family, our friends, throughout the world that deception is out there. The devil is out there to steal, to kill and to destroy. But thanks be to our Lord God that he has the power over the storms. He has the power over the doctrines of demons.

He has power over all things. And he will see us through if we keep our faith and our trust in him. Well folks we are all out of time so that is going to do it for this week but I want to thank you for tuning in. Please come back and join us again next week as we continue to encourage you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Until then remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel and to the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever.

Amen. You've been listening to the Bible teacher Brian C. Thomas founder and president of God First. Brian and God First reserve all copyright protection under applicable law. Our copyright policy is available at our website GodFirst.org. Until next time remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God.