Hey, podcast listeners. Thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. You know, Pathway to Victory is a non-profit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. And right now, your generous gift will have twice the impact thanks to the In God We Trust $1.5 million matching challenge, active now through July 5th.
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Now, here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Hi, this is Robert Jeffers, and I'm glad to study God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory, Jesus is no longer here, He's in heaven. kind of like Elvis has left the building, Jesus has left the building temporarily. The light of the world is gone.
Jesus is gone. But you know what? He has installed an auxiliary lighting system in the world, it's called the Church of Jesus Christ. You and I are the lighting system in this world to point people to Christ. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr.
Robert Jeffers. For more than 200 years, America has stood as the greatest of all nations. But our country's glory has started to wane, and one day she'll eventually crumble. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffers teaches that while Christians can't prevent the collapse of our beloved nation, we can delay it.
But first, let's take a moment to hear some important ministry updates. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. I don't have to remind you that America is at a crossroad right now. There's no question that our liberties as Christians are in the crosshairs of those who oppose our values.
So, all this month, I intend to focus my complete attention on a special series called America and the Bible. We've been preparing this series in light of Independence Day, and this time, we're celebrating 250 years. As we prayed about this milestone and as we thought about our role in speaking truth into our culture, several Friends of Pathway to Victory established the In God We Trust matching challenge. Because of their generosity of $1.5 million, every dollar you give during this season will be doubled in impact. Your gift to the Matching Challenge will expand our reach to millions and continue to strengthen, equip, and encourage the faith of our servicemen and women through the American Forces Network.
On receiving your gift today, I'm eager to send an exclusive Keepsake. It's a coffee table book we're calling the 250th Commemorative Edition of America is a Christian Nation. This stunning full-color celebration of the faith that built this country is filled with powerful reminders of our Christian heritage and the answered prayers that shaped our history. In a culture that is working overtime to erase that heritage, this volume Volume stands as a permanent, beautiful reminder of the truth. We'll have more information later, but right now let's give our full attention to the study of God's Word.
Our primary passage is Philippians chapter 2. I've titled today's message, The Beginning of the End.
Well today I have some bad news and some good news for you. The bad news is America's demise is inevitable. I realize that such a statement seems fatalistic, if not downright unpatriotic, to many of you. To say that America's collapse is inevitable, and yet, Just a simple, superficial reading of God's word tells us that America's days are numbered. because this world's days are numbered.
Although we cannot prevent the ultimate collapse of our nation, we can postpone it. We have both the ability and the responsibility to delay the decay of our country, even though we can't ultimately reverse it. The reason that we want to work to delay the decay of our nation is to buy time for our nation so that we can share the good news of Jesus Christ with as many people as possible. You know, I'm convinced, ladies and gentlemen, that one reason so many Christians are discouraged about the condition of our country right now is that they have a wrong focus in their life. And when we are fearful and depressed about our current national situation, and that's what drives our life.
It's a strong indication that we have built our life around the temporal rather than the eternal. When Paul says that we are to appear as lights in the world, he is simply echoing the words of Jesus Christ. Turn over to Matthew chapter 5, verses 14 to 16. Listen to what Jesus said. He said, You are the light of the world, a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden.
Nor do men light a lamp and put it under the peck measure, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all of those who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they might see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. We are lights in the world. Imagine that you go out to dinner with your mate and you come home and you walk into your house and it is absolutely dark, no light at all. What's your response to the darkness?
Do you say to your mate, Oh, I'm so fearful of the darkness. There may be a criminal lurking in the corner. What are we going to do? What are we going to do? Or do you say to your mate, you know, I just hate the darkness in this house.
We need to sell this house and find a house with more light in it. Do you allow the darkness to make you fearful? Do you allow the darkness to make you run? Of course not. What you do is you displace the darkness with the light.
Just simply turn on the light. Light displaces darkness. And Jesus was saying to all of us: instead of allowing the darkness to cause us to fear or cause us to run, our action should be, we should be to displace the darkness with the light of Jesus Christ.
Now remember, Jesus said, I am the light of the world. But guess what? Jesus is no longer here. He's in heaven. Kind of like Elvis has left the building, Jesus has left the building temporarily.
The light of the world is gone. Jesus is gone. But you know what? He has installed an auxiliary lighting system in the world, it's called the Church of Jesus Christ. You and I are the lighting system in this world to point people to Christ.
Now, I want you to hear me. All of this talk about you and I being light in the world is not some warm, fuzzy, devotional thought to make us feel better. It answers the question about our real purpose here in life. You know, if you ask the average Christian, what is your purpose for living? Most of them will look at you like a deer caught in the headlights.
They don't have a clue of what their purpose is. A few more well-taught Christians might say, Well, my purpose in life is to have fellowship with God. You know, to enjoy God forever. That's my purpose in life.
Now, I want you to think about this. If God's purpose for your life is to have fellowship with Him, Why didn't he go ahead and take you to heaven the moment he saves you? Why would He leave you here on earth? I mean, God will have much better fellowship with us in heaven than He has with us here. We'll be with Him forever.
All sin will be removed. If God's goal for your life was simply to have fellowship with Him, He'd take you to heaven the moment He saved you. But He doesn't do that, does He? He leaves you here on earth for a purpose. And that purpose for the 70 or 80 years God gives you is not to build a bulging portfolio.
It's not to eke out as much pleasure in the world as you can. It's not even to build a strong family. His reason for leaving you here on earth is to accomplish the Lord's mission, to seek and to save those who are lost. Jesus was clear about his reason for leaving you here. He said, go into all the world and make disciples.
Now If that is God's purpose in leaving you here, to point people to Christ. What is your strategy for fulfilling that purpose? What strategy have you developed to do the one thing? God left you here to do. You know, most of us had a strategy for getting through school.
Many of you have a strategy for succeeding in your career. You have a strategy for helping your children fulfill their purpose. You have a strategy for ensuring that you have enough money when you retire. Isn't it interesting that we all have strategies for just about every area of our life except the one thing that God has asked us to do? Pastor, are you saying then that the only reason we're here on earth, the only thing we're to do?
Is to evangelize to win people to faith in Jesus Christ? Not at all. You know, I mentioned one extreme to the deteriorating culture, and that is political activism, trying to elect the people and enact the right laws. But the other extreme that Christians tend to go is that of cultural pacifism. There are Christians out there who say, my only job as a Christian is to share the gospel with people, to preach the word, and I'm going to leave everything else to other people to do.
My only purpose is to share the gospel. cultural pacifism, and many Christians have fallen into it. God has called us to be both salt and light in the world. It's not either or, it's both. Listen to Matthew 5:13.
Jesus said, Not only are you the light of the world, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
Now when Jesus wrote this, this was in the day before frigid air refrigerators, okay? And the only way you could preserve meat was by putting salt next to it. Salt was a preservative.
Now listen to this. Salt did not prevent the decay of the meat. It only delayed the decay of the meat. Eventually, the meat would rot and it would have to be thrown out. But salt gave the meat a longer shelf life.
And what Jesus is saying is, we are the salt of the world. While we can't reverse the decay in our country, we can delay the decay. We can buy more time for our country so that we can share the gospel with people. In describing the final world leader of the Antichrist, the Apostle Paul writes these words in 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 6 and 7. He says, and you know what restrains him, the Antichrist now, so that in his time he may be revealed.
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who restrains Will do so until he is taken out of the way.
Now, who is restraining the Antichrist right now? It is the Holy Spirit of God in the lives of individual Christians. You and I are the restrainer of a flood of evil that is about to be poured out upon this world. To help you picture what the Apostle Paul is saying, I want you to imagine Hoover Dam. How many of you have ever been to Hoover Dam in Nevada before?
I want you to imagine that massive dam. You're standing there looking at it, and all of a sudden you see water starting to leak out of the bricks in that massive concrete structure. And so you and about 50,000 other people decide you want to do something to protect the residents that are downstream from Hoover Dan.
So 50,000 of you form a giant shield and you press your backs up against Hoover Dam.
Now are you going to be able to prevent the collapse of Hoover Dam? No. You can't reverse the destruction of that dam, but you can retard it. You can delay it for a little while. And your purpose in trying to slow down that collapse is to give people in the valley below an opportunity to escape.
Now I know what some of you are thinking. You're thinking, delay God's judgment. Pastor, don't you know anything about the Bible? I mean, don't you know anything about the sovereignty of God? Don't you know that the day of America's fall, if it is inevitable, that it is etched on God's calendar and nothing you do is ever going to change that date at all?
Don't you know that, Pastor? I know that. I believe that. Until I read the book of Jonah. Remember the story of Jonah?
God sent Jonah to the wicked city of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. He was a reluctant prophet, but he ended up going. God had said, I am going to destroy Nineveh. But then Jonah preached. He preached righteousness.
And lo and behold, the residents of Nineveh repented. And what did God do about his judgment against Nineveh? Listen to Jonah 4, verse 10. When God saw their deeds, that is, that they turned from their wicked ways, God relented. Concerning the calamity which he had declared he would bring upon them, and he did not do it.
God had said, I'm going to destroy this city for its wickedness. Jonah preached righteousness, the people repented, and God relented of his decision.
Now, here's what's interesting. God ultimately did destroy Nineveh in 612 BC. The judgment ultimately came. Jonah's preaching did not. prevent God's judgment.
but it did delay God's judgment. And what that story reminds me is that you and I can make a difference in this country. I don't understand how that works out theologically, but I understand we are not to sit with folded hands and wait for the end to come. You and I can make a difference in our country by acting as salt and preserving righteousness in our nation. Many of you know Johnny Erickson Tada.
Johnny has spent 40 years as a quadriplegic in a wheelchair as a result of a diving accident when she was 17 years old. I read an interview with her last year in Time magazine, and the interviewer asked Johnny the question. Why do you think God allows you to suffer? Aren't you ready for God to put an end to your suffering? And Johnny's response was classic.
She said, for God to end my suffering, he would have to put an end to sin in the world. And for God to put an end to sin in the world means he would have to draw the curtain shut on earth's history, meaning there would be no more chance to repent. The reason God hasn't ended sin and my suffering is to give people one more chance to repent. What a remarkable response. I thought as I read that.
If Johnny Erickson is willing to delay her ultimate healing, If she says, I am willing to sit in this wheelchair a little bit longer, if it means more people will come to know Christ as Savior, if Johnny Erickson is willing to sit in that wheelchair so that people can be saved, How much more should you and I be willing to get up out of our chairs? To do something to buy time for this country, to push back against the tide of unrighteousness that is about to engulf us. Unfortunately, many Christians have adopted an attitude of passivity toward those sins in our country that God has labeled abominations. Homosexuality. Abortion, the murder of the unborn.
The elevation of false gods in our country at the expense of worshiping the true God. And what disturbs me so much, ladies and gentlemen, is how passive Christians are, and they excuse their passivity. With their piety, oh, I'm just going to worship God and not get involved in those other things. Or they excuse their lack of action with their theology, oh, I can't change God's sovereign plan. Or they even excuse their passivity with misplaced patriotism.
Oh, I shouldn't impose my morality on other people in a free country. Yet, whenever God's people refuse to be salt and stand up against unrighteousness, God's judgment always comes. All we have to do, ladies and gentlemen, is look back 65 years in history. To see the end result of passivity that is covered in a thin veneer of theology, piety, and misplaced patriotism. Many German Christians used all of those excuses.
As a rationale for staying silent during the rise of Adolf Hitler. They said, we're not going to get involved in politics. We're not going to try to push back against Hitler. We're not going to threaten our own peace and prosperity and freedom from pain. We're not going to do anything.
My friend Erwin Lutzer recounts a testimony from a Christian living in Germany about the end result of that kind of passivity. Listen to what he recounts from this German Christian. I lived in Germany during the Nazi Holocaust. I considered myself a Christian. We heard stories of what was happening to the Jews, but we tried to distance ourselves from it because what could anyone do to stop it?
A railroad track ran behind our small church, and each Sunday morning we could hear the whistle in the distance. And then the wheels coming over the tracks. We became disturbed when we heard the cries coming from the train as it passed by. We realized that it was carrying Jews like cattle in the cars. Week after week the whistle would blow.
We dreaded to hear the sound of those wheels because we knew that we would hear the cries of the Jews en route to the death camp. Their screams tormented us. We knew the time the crane was coming, and when we heard the whistle blow, we began singing hymns. By the time the train came past our church, we were singing at the top of our lungs. If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly.
and soon we heard them no more. Years have passed. And no one talks about it anymore. But I still hear that train whistle in my sleep. God, forgive me.
Forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians. yet did nothing to intervene. It is time for Christians to intervene. It's time for Christians to stand up against the tide of unrighteousness that threatens to engulf our country. But in doing so, we must never lose sight of the ultimate aim of standing up for unrighteousness.
God has not called us to save our country. God has called us to save people in our country. from the coming judgment of God. That is our mission. Let me be very blunt, and this is going to surprise some of you when I say this.
Outlawing same-sex marriages. Reducing the number of abortions in America today. Allowing for the displaying of the Ten Commandments in our courts and our classrooms, doing those things will not add one single person to the population of heaven. Unless those activities are combined with sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. I mean, after all, think about it.
In heaven, there will be no abortions because there'll be no death in heaven. In heaven, there will be no homosexual marriages. Because there will be no heterosexual marriages or any other kind of marriage in heaven. The culture war will eventually be won. But right now there is a war going on.
Between God and the people of this world and Satan, and the war has to do with the eternal souls of every human being. The enemy's goal, Satan's goal in this war is very clear. In 2 Corinthians 4, verses 3 and 4, Paul says, And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they may not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. CURING SHORT TEM Social Ills. Must never take precedence over our primary mission of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And in the weeks ahead, We're going to discover how to find that balance between being salt, pushing back against unrighteousness, and being the light that God commanded us to be. But when I use the word balance, please, please do not confuse that with passivity. While it's true that in Germany far too many German Christians remained passive and did nothing, there was a remnant of believers who stood tall against the tide of evil with the never compromising message of Jesus Christ. Albert Einstein was an exiled Jew from Germany, and he made this startling confession about how a small group of Christians interested him in Christianity. Einstein said that when Hitler began to rise to power, the intellectuals said absolutely nothing.
They were mute. The newspaper editors said nothing. The renowned authors of the day did nothing. But listen to what Einstein said: quote: Only the church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing the truth. I never had any special interest in the church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration for it.
Because the church alone had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised, the church, I now praise unreservedly. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, There is a tide of evil rising up. that is about to engulf our nation. If we sit on the sidelines like those German Christians and do nothing, we are not only ensuring the collapse of our nation, we are ensuring the consignment of millions of souls to a priceless eternity.
It is time for the Church of Jesus Christ to stand up. To push back against unrighteousness and to shine bright the light of Jesus Christ. We cannot allow evil to triumph. We can tolerate. No more.
I'm pleased to tell you that Pathway to Victory is sensing a groundswell among our audience. Devoted people who love our country as you do are stepping forward to join us in this worthy cause of shining the bright light of Jesus Christ. And we're inviting you to do the same today.
So let me explain how you can make an impact on our culture. Just last week, we activated the $1.5 million In God We Trust matching challenge. This time-limited arrangement offers you the opportunity to double the impact of your ministry gift. From now through July 5th, your gift will be matched and therefore doubled in impact. Together, as partners in ministry, we can shine the light of Christ's love to our community by empowering our local church and inviting people to join us in worship.
Together we can show our courage and faith in Jesus Christ. And be a testament to the enduring strength of the Christian spirit in America. As a way of saying thanks for your generous support during the matching challenge, I'm eager to send a special book to bless your family. It's called the 250th Commemorative Edition of America is a Christian Nation. But that's not all.
The In God We Trust DVD contains teaching from me on the future of our nation, and a patriotic music audio disc features 12 powerful performances by the First Baptist Dallas Choir and Orchestra. Together, these resources will strengthen your faith, stir your patriotism, and remind you and everyone in your home that the God who built this nation has never once let her go. Here's David now to explain how you can get in touch right now. When you give a generous gift to support the Ministry of Pathway to Victory, You're invited to request the brand new 250th commemorative edition of America is a Christian Nation. In addition to the book, you'll also receive In God We Trust, a brand new two-disc set featuring music performances by the First Baptist Dallas Choir and Orchestra, and teaching from Dr.
Robert Jeffress. To request these resources, call 866-999-2965 or visit ptv.org. You could also text PTV to 78800. and when your gift is $100 or more, We'll also send you the America and the Bible message series on DVD video and MP3 format audio disc. And remember, because of the In God We Trust matching challenge, your gift to pathway to victory will be matched and therefore doubled in impact.
So be sure to get in touch with us today. One more time, call 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org. You could also send your donation by mail right to PO Box 223-609 Dallas, Texas 75222. Again, that's P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.
I'm David J. Mullins. We're encouraged to be tolerant of other cultures, other lifestyles, and other religions. But some people take the idea of tolerance too far. Hear Dr.
Jeffress talk about the most misunderstood word in America. That's Wednesday on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here.
Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. And right now, your ministry gift will be matched and therefore doubled in impact thanks to the In God We Trust $1.5 million matching challenge. Take advantage of this opportunity to double your impact before the deadline on July 5th. To give toward the matching challenge, go to ptv.org slash donate. or follow the link in our show notes.
We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.
