Hey, podcast listeners! Thanks for streaming today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word through the most effective media available, like this podcast. To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes.
Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory, ladies and gentlemen, the Bible says you and I are salesmen for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And instead of cursing the darkness of the culture that we're in, we ought to realize that the black backdrop in which we're living right now only makes the light of Jesus Christ shine that much more brightly. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress.
In light of recent developments on issues like gay marriage and gender reassignment, it's clear that our country's morals are reaching an all-time low. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explains that while we may be in America's last days, they can also be its best days. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress? Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. A lot of Christians are discouraged about the political climate today.
And for good reason. With tragic reports of school shootings, our college campuses sponsoring protests for evil regimes, and continued attacks on our Christian values, it's no wonder that Americans are fearful about the future. But rather than take our cues from the hostile secular press, I plan to spend the entire month of June presenting an urgent series called America and the Bible. You see, God's Word is the only hope for a nation in desperate need of Christ. Along these lines, today is my first occasion to tell you about the exciting Beacon of Hope matching challenge in the amount of $750,000. Because of these funds that were set aside by friends of Pathway to Victory, every dollar you give between now and July 5th will be automatically matched and therefore doubled, having twice the impact on America and the world. Our Savior, Jesus Christ. And when my message is complete today, I'm going to tell you about a thank you gift I've set aside for anyone who gives toward the matching challenge. But right now, I want to set the stage because the message you're about to hear was originally presented while our country was under a prior administration and one that was openly hostile toward Christian values.
Our current administration is no different. In light of this open rebellion, we need to be praying as never before. So let's get started with the first study in this teaching series.
I've titled my opening message, The Beginning of the End. You may remember that conservative former Fox Luminary, Glenn Beck, led a rally in Washington, D.C. that he called Restoring Honor. It was held in front of the Lincoln Memorial on the Washington Mall. Some reports estimate that as many as 300,000 people attended that event. I just happened to be in Washington, D.C. the weekend of that event. And on the Friday afternoon after I had finished some meetings, I decided to walk on down to the National Mall to see the preparation that was being made for the Glenn Beck rally. And I was surprised that Friday evening to see a number of people setting up pup tents to spend the night, that Friday night, to make sure that they had a prime seat for the next morning's activities. One young father had his children with him. They had traveled hundreds of miles.
They were gonna spend the night to be ready for the next morning. Somebody asked the father why he had gone to such trouble to attend the event, and this is what he said, I really don't know why I came, but I realize something is not right in our country, and I want to do something about it. The feeling that something is not right in our country is a pervasive feeling among Americans today. You have good reason to be upset about what is happening in our country.
Perhaps you're deeply disturbed about the wholesale effort to remove any and all restrictions of abortion and embryonic stem cell research. You're upset about the failure to protect our borders against illegal immigration, threatening both the physical and the physical health of our nation. Perhaps you're upset about the runaway deficit that will enslave our children and our children's children with trillions of dollars of debt. Or you're upset about the hesitancy of government officials shackled by political correctness to recognize and verbalize that we are in a war against terror. You're upset about the willingness to abrogate Americans' First Amendment rights at home to prevent offending Islamic extremists abroad.
You're upset about the denial not only of secularists, but of Christians themselves to affirm without stuttering that America was founded as a Christian nation. You wondered what you can do, what you should do, to put the brakes on a country that is about to go over the cliff. You have a great love for the United States of America. You have an even greater allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. You wonder what kind of nation you're going to leave to your children and to your grandchildren.
You know, whatever is motivation, whatever is theology, I have to admire Glenn Beck that he was willing to try to do something to turn the course of our nation. And as I left Washington D.C. that Saturday morning flying out of Reagan Airport, I looked out the window and saw hundreds of thousands of people on the National Mall. And that's the beginning of what began to happen in my own heart and spirit. I began wondering what I could do to make a difference in my country. Maybe you too are wondering what you can do to reverse the course of a nation that has lost its way.
Well today I have some bad news and some good news for you. The bad news is America's demise is inevitable. 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 I understand why you feel that way. We who are privileged to live in the greatest country in the world's history, we have been conditioned to believe in American resilience, American exceptionalism. We've been led to believe that no matter what the obstacle, we can overcome it. And that's why we flinch when we hear that America's demise 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. Consider 1 John 2.17. John said, And the world is passing away, and also its lusts. But the one who does the will of God abides forever.
Or 2 Peter 3.10. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Or Revelation 21 verse 1, And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. Not only does the Bible teach that the world is going to end, the Bible also teaches clearly that America's end will come before the world's end.
You say, Pastor, where do you find that in Scripture? In Daniel chapter 7, in Revelation chapter 13, in Revelation chapter 17, the Bible clearly teaches that the final form of government on this earth before Christ's return will not be a democracy like America's. The final government form in the last seven years of earth's history will be a ten-nation confederacy that is presided over by the dictator that we commonly call the Antichrist. And in that final form of world government, all national distinctions will be abolished, which means the United States Constitution must be abolished before the tribulation begins.
You say, how can you make such an assertion? Well, our Constitution guarantees that as Americans, we have the right to elect those who rule over us. And yet, there will be no vote that will put the Antichrist into office.
The Bill of Rights guarantees us many rights, the rights to buy and sell, the right to worship whomever we choose to worship. And yet, under the reign of Antichrist, there will be no right to buy and sell. Our First Amendment right will be gone, the right to worship.
Such a usurpation of power by the Antichrist. The only way that is going to happen is by the abolition of the United States Constitution. And ladies and gentlemen, once the Constitution is abolished, America will be no more.
And that's why I can say with absolute certainty, America will end before the rest of the world ends. Now, enough gloom and doom. Enough of the bad news.
Here is the good news. 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.
She said, well, why would we want to do something like that? Isn't that futile to try to delay the decay of our country if we can't reverse the decay of our country? Think about your own life. Has it sunk into your consciousness that you're going to die one day? Your death is absolutely inevitable. And yet, we do everything we can to delay death, don't we?
We go to the doctor, we take medicine, we diet, we exercise, we do these things. Why? We know we're going to die, but we want to delay that which is inevitable. It's the same way with our country. We cannot prevent the ultimate demise of our country, but we can delay it. And I understand why many people some way are pessimistic about doing that. But let me say, the motivation for working to delay this coming collapse of our nation is not to preserve our way of life. 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 find that most evangelical Christians understand, even though they don't obey the mandate to be light, to share the message with Christ with as many people as possible. But many people, many Christians don't understand the command to be salt in the world. Many Christians view efforts to stop the murder of the unborn through abortion, to outlaw same-sex marriages, to uphold biblical principles of morality, to elect godly leaders. They compare those activities to kind of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
I mean, if we're going down anyway, why even bother? Now I'm somewhat sympathetic with that viewpoint because I used to have that viewpoint. In the first 18 years that I was a pastor, you're going to find this hard to believe, I never preached on social issues at all. Never said a word about it from the pulpit.
I never once encouraged our people to go out and vote. I felt like I had a higher calling as a pastor. And I wasn't about to sully my pastoral calling with lesser callings in life.
But today I have a completely different perspective through something that happened in my own life. And I've come to realize that while our responsibility to delay the decay of our country is not our primary calling, it is a prerequisite if we're going to have the freedom and the ability to preach the gospel. At this critical time in our nation's history, we cannot afford to sit back with hands folded waiting for the end to come. What can we do as Americans and Christians to affect real change in our country? And how do we balance our responsibility to share the gospel and yet also to delay the decay of our country? You know, I have found that in answering the question, how should Christians respond to the deterioration of our country, I find that Christians tend to go to one of two extremes in relating to our culture. Some Christians adopt the extreme of political activism. Political activism, as they see our country sliding toward Gomorrah, as they see the slide toward immorality, they think, you know, we just need to get active politically. If we can elect the right leaders, if we can enact the right legislation, then we can save America. I love what my friend Cal Thomas says, the kingdom of God is not going to come riding in on Air Force One. But a lot of people don't understand that.
They think the way to cure our country's ills is purely by political activism. And yet I want you to consider the Apostle Paul. This warrior of the Christian faith lived in the most decadent, godless, anti-Christian culture in history. He lived in the time of the Roman government, the Roman Empire. And yet it was because of the Roman Empire's anti-Christian hostility that he ended up in prison. But what was his attitude toward his persecution? When Paul was in prison, he wrote the letter to the Colossians, but he also wrote a letter to the Christians at Philippi. And what did he encourage those Philippian Christians to do? Did he say, because of my persecution, what we need to do, Christians, is mobilize and overthrow Nero.
He never once advocated overthrowing the Roman Emperor. In fact, when you read Paul's letter to the Philippians 19 different times, he says in that letter, Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice. Listen to what he said in chapter 1 verses 12 to 14. The fact is Paul was pretty upbeat about his depressing situation.
Why is that? Listen to what he said. Philippians 1 verses 12 to 14. Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances, he's talking about his imprisonment, have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel so that my imprisonment and the cause of Christ has been well known throughout the whole Praetorian Guard and to everyone else. And that most of the brethren trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. Now you know, if Paul had had the same life purpose that most Christians have, pleasure, prosperity, peace, then his imprisonment would have been a tremendous tragedy.
He would have written, now I want you to know, brethren, that my imprisonment has been a giant detour in the plan for my life. But you see, Paul had a greater purpose in life than peace and prosperity and pleasure. He had dedicated his life to sharing the gospel of Christ with as many people as possible and that gave him a whole different lens through which to view his imprisonment. The fact is, he said, this imprisonment is helping me achieve the goal.
It's helping the gospel be spread more widely but because of my imprisonment, people are having courage to share their faith with other people. And then Paul moves from beyond his own situation and he speaks to the Philippians and to you and me 2,000 years later to give us a lens through which to view our decaying, decadent culture in which we're living right now. In chapter 2, verses 14 to 16, Paul says, Do all things without grumbling and disputing, that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God, above reproach, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may have cause to glory. I want you to read that phrase again in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Is there any better description of the culture in which we live right now than crooked and perverse? Somebody has said there is no century more like the first century than the 21st century.
Both centuries are characterized by rampant immorality and hostility toward Christianity. And yet notice what Paul said. He didn't say, Philippians, your job is to straighten out the crooked and perverse generation in which you live. Instead, he reminded them that against the darkness of the world in which you live, you are to be children of light holding out the word of life. You see, Paul understood an important principle about light, and that principle is the darker the background, the brighter the light.
I gained some insight into what I think Paul was trying to communicate a few months ago. I took my younger daughter, Dorothy, to the mall to celebrate a special occasion in her life, and in a fit of insanity, I said to her, now Dorothy, we'll go buy whatever you'd like to buy. I'll buy you a gift for this special occasion. And in my mind, I thought we'd go to, you know, Forever 21 and buy a little 20, $25 dress, you know, and that's what we were going to buy. Well, we walk into the mall, I thought we were just strolling, and she took me directly to a jewelry store there at North Park. And we walked into this jewelry store, and we stood at the counter, and the salesman came up, and he said, can I show you something? And immediately, Dorothy mentioned a particular ring that she wanted to see again. She had been in there before I found out. The salesman recognized her. Now, at this moment, I knew I had been had, okay?
I was getting ready to be reeled in, you know? And so, Dorothy mentioned this ring, and the salesman came out, and he brought the ring, but before he put the ring down on the counter, he first took out a piece of black felt and put it on top of the counter. And once he had that black felt on the background, then he put the ring in the center of it. He knew what he was doing. He was highlighting the brilliance of the ring that was so bright, it almost blinded me to the price.
Almost is the operative word. But you see, he was a good salesman. He understood the principle, the darker the background, the brighter the light. He didn't curse the black felt.
No, he used it to his advantage. Ladies and gentlemen, the Bible says you and I are salesmen for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And instead of cursing the darkness of the culture that we're in, we ought to realize that the black backdrop in which we're living right now only makes the light of Jesus Christ shine that much more brightly. It gives us a greater opportunity to make a sale, to introduce people to a saving faith in Christ.
Why? The darker the background, the brighter the light. Let me just say to you, instead of allowing the flow of daily news from cable TV and those endless emails that come your way about ten reasons that the president must be the anti-Christ and all of those kind of things, instead of allowing those kind of negative reports drive you to despair, we should see our present situation as an unprecedented opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The darker the background, the brighter the light. 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. They're focused on the three P's, on pleasure, on prosperity, on peace. No wonder they're frightened by the news. Listen, if your goal in life is building up a big portfolio, if the goal in your life is money, you're going to be upset when you hear higher taxes may be coming.
If your goal in life is the avoidance of pain or convenience, you're going to be upset when you hear about the possibility of government-run health care. If the focus of your life is going to be avoiding death, then no wonder you're going to be shaken to your foundation when you hear the possibility of another terrorist strike on America. You see, fear and despair is like a warning light on your dashboard in your car. It's a signal that something else is wrong in your life. You know, whenever you see that check engine light appear on your dashboard, you can ignore it if you want to and pay the repair bill later. Or you could take your car into the repair shop and say, you know, this light is really bothering me.
Can you turn it out for me so I don't have to look at it? But that'd be kind of a foolish thing to do. Or you could realize that the light itself is not the problem. It's an indication that there's a problem. Fear and despair is that way in our life.
Fear is not a problem in and of itself. It's usually an indication that there's something else that's wrong in our 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.
You see, whenever our life purpose is built around that which can be taken away from us, we're going to have this general anxiety in our life. But when we share the same passion that permeated every fiber of Paul's life, that is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as possible, then we view a darkening and a threatening nation and culture in a different way. 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. Today I shared some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that America is decaying. We are slipping off a solid Christian foundation that made our country great. The good news is that we can delay the decay.
And that's what Pathway to Victory is all about. Through this daily program we are actively engaging the culture with the truth of God's Word. Would you be willing to join us in this all-out effort to bring light into the darkness? Today I'm pleased to inform you about an opportunity to double the impact of your giving through our $750,000 Beacon of Hope matching challenge. Your generous gift between now and July 5th will be matched and therefore doubled in impact until we reach the goal.
Here's why we're conducting this matching challenge. You see, as Christians in America we stand at the forefront of upholding the timeless values that shape the very foundation of our great nation. Your gift toward the matching challenge will be applied toward shining the beacon of God's hope into the dark places of our country. And when you give a generous gift today, I'm going to say thanks by sending you a fascinating book. It's called Miracles in American History, 32 Amazing Stories of Answered Prayer.
I guarantee these factual stories are no longer taught in school rooms or on college campuses. And yet we cannot ignore God's miraculous hand on America from our earliest days. I want your family to have this book as a powerful reminder of our only hope for the country we love.
Again, it's called Miracles in American History. Here's David with all the details. Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. You're invited to request the book Miracles in American History when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. When you give, you'll also receive a DVD copy of the highly requested message by Dr. Jeffress called America is a Christian Nation. Simply call 866-999-2965 or visit our website at ptv.org. And when you give an especially generous gift of $100 or more, we'll also include the complete America and the Bible teaching series on audio and video discs. Plus, you'll also receive an additional book written by Dr. Jeffress called Praying for America, three inspiring stories and prayers for our nation.
Remember, your gift right now will have twice the impact because of our Beacon of Hope matching challenge. So be sure to get in touch today. Call 866-999-2965 or go to ptv.org. You could also send your request by mail. Write to P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. One more time, that's P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.
I'm David J. Mullins. America once stood as the greatest of all nations, but in recent years our country's glory has started to wane. Hear the conclusion of this message called The Beginning of the End. That's Tuesday 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. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His Word. To become a Pathway partner, 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.
