What’s the Good in the Midst of the Bad?

So, what's the good in the midst of the bad? That's the topic we'll discuss today right here on the Christian Worldview Radio Program, where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to proclaim the good news, the gospel, that all people can be reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ.

I'm David Wheaton, the host. And our website is thechristianworldview.org. Well, thanks for joining us for another live program here on the Christian Worldview as we discuss what's the good in the midst of all the bad that has taken place this year in the year 2020.

Now, in a nutshell, the apostle was saying under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that God uses everything in life, the hard things, the good things, and everything in between, all things, for good purposes in the life of the believer. Now, it's been very well documented and we all know that 2020 has been a very unusual and very difficult year for the Christian Worldview. It's been a very unusual and very hard year. There's been a global pandemic and the government response to it has impacted almost everyone with the shutdowns and illness and all the new normal we're living in at this point in history.

There's been civil unrest based on accusations of, quote, social injustice that is occurring on streets all over America. People have died. Businesses have been lost. All kinds of bad things have happened.

School has been shut down and then disrupted and come back this year and different areas of the country have very different formats for schooling. Jobs have been lost. People have lost their businesses. Economic downturn.

Churches, of course, have been shut down and are still shut down or highly regulated from people coming together to worship. Political viewpoints have become extremely polarized and it's going to become more so now, even if you thought the election was going to be intense. Well, now that Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a Supreme Court justice, died yesterday and now there's an open seat in the Supreme Court, you can imagine how extremely more intense this election cycle is going to become. And I think that reporting is just blatantly biased.

No one's trying to report the facts. There's always a worldview given trying to persuade people to vote a certain way. And overall, I think people are just anxious. People are, you know, we're just wondering what's going to happen here?

This is so unusual this year. What happens if the election now and what happens if the election doesn't go well and there's a dispute about who won and there's fraud and where does this leave our country? Where does it leave our country with one side winning over the other?

What's going to happen here? So in the midst of all this that's going on, a lot of people would say it's bad. Is there any good in all of it?

And if there is good, what is it? And that's what we're going to discuss today on The Christian Real View because there are some things that are good things that God is doing for His people and for His glory in the midst of all this and that He will get the glory in the end. Before we get to that, I just want to remind everyone today listening, if you're a regular listener and supporter of The Christian Real View, that we have our golf event on this coming Monday. That's two days from now, so I won't be back in touch before we hold that annual event. We're not doing the dinner event this year and just wanted to say that this year we changed the silent auction to open up to all listeners to the program. So if you want to support The Christian Real View, you can just go to our website, thechristianrealview.org, and there's many different silent auction items that you, I think, will like to bid on. A lot of them are based here in Minnesota.

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We have one coming up in early October. So you should have received, if you're a supporter to The Christian Real View, a monthly partner and so forth, you should have received an email this morning announcing that event coming up in early October. Okay, now I just want to get those announcements out of the way, and let's get into the good that God is doing in the midst of the bad. I think you need to define good first. What is good? Well, good is something that brings glory to God or something that conforms us to the image of His Son. It's not just something that happens to us materially.

We get a new car or something that happens that we like or makes us happy and so forth. But ultimately, good is how God defines it. And God defines it as anything that brings direct glory to Him or directs the believer or causes the believer to be transformed to becoming more like His Son.

And that's good. As a matter of fact, this verse that we started out with today in Romans 8, we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. The next verse is where it describes it. For those whom God foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He, His Son, Christ, would be the firstborn among many brethren. So that is the point of the Christian life. That is the ultimate good, to bring glory to God and for believers to become more like His Son. So, other good things beyond that are acts of or words of righteousness, forgiveness, speaking the truth in love. Hatred of evil is a good thing, Scripture says. Or in Galatians 5, the fruit of the Spirit is a good thing.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things, there is no law. That's all good. Now conversely, what is bad? Well, bad is not necessarily what we often think of as bad. We might think of persecution as bad, or loss of civil freedoms as bad, or economic hardship as bad, or health problems as bad, or relational conflicts or trials in life as bad, but that's not necessarily so.

Those are hard things, but not necessarily bad things. Bad things, I would define as, are sinful things. And then the passage in Galatians 6 describes what those bad things are. So, if these are marked in your life, this is bad. The deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry. These are all bad things. Sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, this is bad. Disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, now you can tell you how bad these things are, that those who practice these things, these bad things, will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. So all those, that long list there of passions and desires, those are bad things. So bad things are sinful things. Now there is one, the worst bad thing though, even beyond that list is, the worst bad thing is to die without being reconciled to God, without being made right with God, without repenting and believing in who Christ is and what He did for you, and then being sentenced to hell and having to pay the penalty for your own sins.

That is the worst bad thing in the world. So if you think bad things are happening to you or have happened to you, and I'm not discounting or downplaying it, but it's not the worst bad. The worst bad is to die without being reconciled to God, because everything else, God can take the difficult, the hard, the challenging, the testing, and as Romans 8.28 says, He can turn those things into good. So even the sinful things that we've done in our life, God can turn into good if we repent and surrender and turn toward God. Even the bad things like adultery and divorce and conflicts and all those other things, even the things in that list I read from Galatians 5, God can cause those bad things, those sinful things, to turn into something good if we repent and believe the Gospel.

So there's the definition of good being things that glorify God or transform us into becoming like a son, versus the bad, which is sinful things, and the worst bad being rejecting God's offer of reconciliation through His Son. Now, just one little caveat here, you probably noticed it in Romans 8.28, that this passage, that God causes all things to work together for good, notice who it applies to. This applies to just believers, not non-believers.

We know that God causes all things to work together for good. Who? To who? To those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. And then it goes on to this incredible chain of how God, for those whom He foreknew, this is God before time even started, He had already determined who He foreknew as a better way of saying it, as foreloved, who He had decided to love in advance. He also predestined those He foreloved to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He might be the firstborn of my many brethren, and whom He predestined, He had predestined them to be saved. He also called them, so there's a calling, and those that He called, He actually justified, that means declared righteous, and these whom He justified, He's also going to glorify someday. I mean, to think for anyone to think that God is not sovereign in the salvation of souls, is just blatant and willful rejection of what the scripture clearly teaches. Oh yes, there is responsibility for man, you must repent and believe the gospel, that's for sure, but it starts with God for loving, and then predestining, and then calling, and then justifying, and then eventually glorifying.

It's a very, very powerful passage. But these good things, these things that God causes for good, that's for unbelievers. So when bad things or sinful things happen to unbelievers, and they don't respond to those things in the way that God wants us to, and repentance and faith, there is not a good outcome. And without that repentance of sin and faith in Christ, it ultimately leads to, again, that worst bad, which is eternity in hell.

Now I know that sounds very harsh, but this is what the Bible teaches. And really, for believers, this should be an encouragement that no matter what happens in your life, God causes good things, good, from difficult things. God uses those things to create good in us, to transform us into the likeness of his Son, and also bring glory to himself. That's a pretty incredible truth of God's word, that he can take hard things, bad things, difficult things from this year, and turn them into good in the life of the believer. So let's go over a few of the things that God has caused for good in the midst of a difficult year. We've had the coronavirus, a global pandemic, we've had unrest in the streets of our country, we have a very divided country, we have a divisive and contentious election going on right now. But I think there's at least three things that are taking place right now that we can firmly say based on scripture that they are good going on, that God is using this difficult hard time to bring good. Now, of course, I can't see all of God's purposes, so I'm just going to give a few examples that seem clearly where God is working for good. And the first one is, I'm just going to give the outline and get into it in the second segment, that the gospel is being declared and proclaimed boldly.

I've seen this in many places that I've never seen it before. Number two, we're getting clarity on people and policies that wouldn't have happened if this hadn't happened. And number three, people are reprioritizing the important things in their life. We'll come back and discuss those right after this first break of the day in the Christian Real View. The Bible says that children should be raised in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. There's nothing more important than sitting, walking, talking, and teaching your son or daughter to love and fear God. The church is swimming in children's resources, but it's ultra-important to select ones that accurately represent God, His Word, and the gospel. At our store on thechristianworldview.org, we are intentional about offering resources that will build a sound and strong faith in children. You will find several Bibles for children, the Adam Raccoon book series, and Good News for Little Hearts series.

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Thank you for listening. To think biblically and live accordingly. That's what we strive to do every week on the Christian World View radio programs. We look at all the various topics and issues that we face as believers, as a country, as a church. What does the Bible say?

What does God say about these things? And how do we apply that in our thinking and our living? Welcome back to the Christian World View radio program. We're talking today about what's the good in the midst of all the bad taking place right now, or maybe what's the good in all the hard things taking place right now. And we kind of have an intro to the topic in the first segment there.

It's getting into at least three things. And I think the first thing that God is doing that's bringing good about through this, all the different dynamics going on in our country today, in our world today, is that the gospel is being proclaimed more boldly than ever. These trying times are giving opportunities for Christians to proclaim the gospel. I've seen some ads that Franklin Graham's ministry, I think Samaritan's Purse has taken out, or the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, I'm not sure which one, but they've taken out 60-second ads on Fox for Franklin Graham, just to directly speak the gospel. I don't ever remember something like that happening, where in a commercial break on a major news network, you have a man explaining what the gospel is. Again, they actually sense we're in such a time that people are looking for hope and looking for what's going on here, why am I here, and what's going to happen in the future.

And they're taking out ads to do that. I saw last night on a Martha MacCallum show on Fox, a former football player named Jack Brewer was basically giving the gospel again, just in one of his answers, as they were arguing over policy. He's a black guy, and there was another guy who was liberal, another black guy who was liberal, and they were arguing over policy on the inner city.

And Jack Brewer all of a sudden just launched right in. They said, this is a spiritual problem, this isn't going to change until hearts change and people turn to Jesus Christ. I mean, he was going on and on, because here we are in just a regular news network, the gospel is being proclaimed. In the midst of all this unrest, here this comes out just very clearly. But the third example I want to give of the gospel being proclaimed boldly is that John MacArthur, the pastor from California, was on Fox News again this week.

I believe he's been on several of the programs there, and he was on Laura Ingraham's show this week. And his church, if you haven't been following this in California, Grace Community Church, there's a statewide mandate that churches basically have to be shut down or very, very restrictive meeting parameters. All the while, big box stores and liquor stores and all other kinds of things are deemed essential where the church is not deemed essential. And so MacArthur and his church have decided, well, we have a higher call here. We're told by scripture to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Assembly means to come together in person.

That doesn't mean watch an internet service on TV. I mean, they did it for a little while until they saw how bad the virus was, but then in time they said, well, we're going to start doing church again because we must obey God rather than men. So throughout this so-called bad of the threats and the persecution that the county of Los Angeles, the city is making on Grace Community Church, well, lo and behold, John MacArthur is getting interviewed all over the place. And during those interviews, lo and behold, out comes the gospel. So here's what happened on Laura Ingraham's show earlier this week. I was watching the interview and just was pretty amazed at what a good thing that's come out of something that we would deem negative, the stricture of his church in California.

Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church joins me now. Pastor MacArthur, why is it so important for you to stand up to these onerous edicts? Well, we believe that the governor, the county, the city and the health department are going against the Constitution. And just to remove one obvious question, the rate of COVID in California is one one hundredth of one percent. So one one hundredth of one percent of 40 million people have COVID and that eliminates freedom to worship from the entire state. That is the onerous reality the Constitution supports us. And by the way, I am so thankful that President Trump has told me personally that he supports the church as essential and the churches need to stay open.

So with the Constitution on our side and the president's backing, we're open. OK, so the first answer to the question is, what do you think about this government overreach? It is overreach. Look at this virus is not impacting as many people as we were told. It was supposed to, of course, for those it is. It has impacted people, of course. But to go to this overreach based on it is way beyond what government should be doing. The evidence isn't there.

The Constitution supports us. And very interesting. President Trump has contacted John MacArthur personally and is on his side in opening his church.

That's very significant. Let's go on to the second question. Pastor MacArthur, Kamala Harris thinks we're in essentially World War Two. Listen, this is not about punishment. It's not about Big Brother. It is simply about saying what a leader but what a leader says in times of crisis. And this is you look at World War Two, you look at the Great Depression, where leaders said we each have to sacrifice for the sake of the nation and the collective. And that's what this is about.

Now, almost half a million Americans died during World War Two trying to free Europe from the grip of Nazi Germany. Is that similar, Pastor MacArthur, to what's happening now to somehow justify depriving people of their inalienable rights to assemble, to petition the government and, of course, to worship as a community? OK, now you watch the opportunity taken here to launch directly into the gospel. Well, of course not.

But it's more than that, Laura. The church preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Jesus died and rose again and is the only source of eternal salvation. The church doesn't exist to make sure it navigates around politicians whims. The church exists in the world to preach the saving gospel of Christ.

We're not concerned about the flu. We're concerned about eternity, eternal life, salvation. And the more dire circumstances become in the world around us, the more critical, the more essential the church becomes and the more important the gospel becomes. I'll tell you something. Our church is literally flooded with people.

We have them in every nook and cranny jammed together inside, outside on several floors in our children's education building, in the gym, in a tent outside. They're flooding the place to hear the message of forgiveness and salvation in a time when fear is being propagated on every street. OK, again, this is Fox News prime time. Three or four million viewers listening to John MacArthur basically just give the gospel there and tell you what it's about. That is an opportunity that I never saw him or other pastors who faithfully preach the gospel have very often, at least if it hadn't been for this time of this government trying to shut down his church, he would never have been on Fox News. And there we go. God taking a hard thing and turning into something good. Let's go on more with the interview. Pastor MacArthur, I've listened to so many of your sermons over the years. You're unbelievable. You're just you're incredible as a and not only, of course, your message about the gospel, but your your courage and your strength at this time is is inspiring.

I've got to say, I'm a Roman Catholic, but I'm very disappointed with a lot of ways that the Catholic Church has kind of rolled over for these prohibitions. And you turned around, you said, put us in jail. We're going to go preach the gospel.

People are coming. We're going to try to be responsible. But look, you put us in jail. Did Gavin Newsom threaten to do anything to you personally for defying essentially his order?

No, not personally, but we received a letter with the threat that we could be fined or I could go to jail for a maximum of six months. Of course, you know, my my biblical hero, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, is the apostle Paul. And when he went into a town, he didn't ask what the hotel was like. He asked what the jail was like because he knew that's where he was going to spend his time. So I don't mind being a little apostolic if they want to tuck me into jail. I'm open for a jail ministry.

I've done a lot of other ministries and haven't had the opportunity to do that one. So bring it on. Pastor MacArthur, I hope everyone across the country takes what you just said to heart because they work for us, not the other way around. And you just we can't roll over to these ridiculous ongoing edicts that never involve a legislature. You notice that there's no legislature involved, just an executive fiat.

And then everyone's supposed to go into a defensive crouch. But you are not going to do that. I've been so wanting to talk to you.

Thank you so much for coming on and come back soon. OK, what the world and the government means for ill God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God. Now, this kind of interview, you could even see the respect that Laura Ingraham has for John MacArthur and Laura Ingraham's Roman Catholic. She would not probably believe doctrinally, theologically what John MacArthur does. I mean, the Roman Catholic Church, their official teaching is faith plus works.

Now, that doesn't mean that Roman Catholics who attend Roman Catholic churches necessarily always believe that. It always comes down to what you are trusting in. Are you trusting in Christ alone by faith alone for salvation? Or are you trusting in Christ, the work of Christ, plus your own works as well?

But the respect that you could see that Laura Ingraham had for John MacArthur and his boldness not only had an impact on her, but also has an emboldening impact on those who are listening. Like they see this pastor who's like, this guy's strong. This guy's going to stand up and he's going to stand for what the Bible says. He's not going to try to kind of nibble around the edges and walk a tightrope and so forth.

He's not going to do things to just purposely try to be provocative. But it's always based on what the scripture says. And that is the bottom line. The authority is scripture over and above governmental authority when governmental authority is trying to get a church to contradict what the Bible actually says. So what a powerful moment to see on Fox News. MacArthur unafraid, open to jail ministry.

So on the surface, it's bad. California is threatening MacArthur's church, lawsuits, jail, COVID outbreak. The good is MacArthur speaking the gospel to a national audience.

God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. We have two more coming up. Stay tuned.

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So we would appreciate your support, and you can do that by going to, again, our website and take part in the silent auction or make a donation to support The Christian World View. Today we're talking about what's the good in the midst of the bad, and we have been talking about all the bad things that have been happening this year. And one good thing that God is causing to work together for good is that the gospel is being proclaimed more boldly, more publicly, than I remember in many, many years. I don't ever remember a time where I'm hearing the gospel clearly articulated.

We heard the example of John MacArthur and Franklin Graham and Jack Brewer and others. When they get a national prominence or a national platform on television or radio or something, it's just becoming more and more clear as people are emboldened to say, look, we've got problems, but here's the solution. The solution is the gospel. That's what changes people's hearts, and when hearts are changed, that's what changes an individual, a sphere of influence, a family, a community.

And by the way, just before we move on to point number two, on the clarity that is a good thing that's come from a result of this, everyone listening today, if you're a believer, you should know and learn how to communicate the gospel simply and shortly and clearly. And just to give a brief outline you can think of in your mind, think of it in four parts, and they really all have to do with God. But the first one is God, who God is.

Start out with that. God is the Creator, He's holy, He's righteous, we're accountable to Him, and He created us to be in relationship with Him. He created us to worship Him. That's the purpose of everyone's life. That's why God created each and every one of us to know Him and to worship Him.

That's point one. That gives someone the purpose for why we're here. Oh, that's the purpose of life.

It's not just to make money and buy a big home and to do fun things. No, no, no, there's a higher purpose than that. God created you to know Him and worship Him.

That's number one. Number two is, the problem is that we are sinners and separated from God. Our sin separates us from God, and that sin brings forth judgment. The wages of sin, the Bible says, is death. So that God created us to be right with Him, to worship Him, but we're separated in Him, number two, because of our sin. And that sin is going to bring God's judgment upon us. So point three.

Well, here's the good news. The gospel is that God sent His Son Jesus Christ into our world and lived a perfectly sinless life so He could be the perfect sacrifice and pay the penalty that we deserve to pay for our sin. And that's the third point. And the fourth point is, well, what do we do with this information, this revelation, this message that God is holy and He created us to worship Him, but we're sinners and separate and we're under His judgment, but He sent His Son to reconcile us to Himself.

What do we do with this message? Well, the fourth point is, repent and believe the gospel. Repent is turn from your sin, and then turn to Christ and put your trust, your faith, your hope, your belief in Him alone, who He is, the perfect Son of God, and what He did for you and the cross.

He paid the penalty that we deserve to pay for our sin so that God's wrath and justice could be satisfied. That was, you know, what, one or two minutes. Everyone should be able to explain their faith story and give the gospel in a minute or so and be ready with that. There's nothing more important than knowing how to articulate that because you're going to get into a situation. You don't have to be John MacArthur on Fox News. You may get into a conversation like this with someone on your street, a neighbor at work, who knows where.

It's going to happen. Pray for those opportunities so you're ready to proclaim the gospel in the midst of a difficult time. You're ready to be a part of God, causing all things to work together for good. Okay, let's get to point number two, the good thing that's come out of this whole situation. We receive a lot more clarity on the policies of the political parties, the policies of people, policies of Christian leaders, where they stand on the issue. Clarity is always a good thing. Confusion is not. Satan is the master of confusion and the lie.

So clarity is a good thing to get. You learn a lot about people when there is pressure applied. Where do Christian leaders stand? Who do they side with? Do they close down their churches indefinitely or do they open them up?

Do they stand for God's word over any threats from government? I'm going to play a sound bite now from another cable network, CNN. They interviewed Andy Stanley, a mega church pastor down in Atlanta. He's the son of Charles Stanley who, by the way, just retired from being the senior pastor of his church this week. Not retiring from ministry, but retiring from being the senior pastor of his church in Atlanta. This is his son who is the pastor of many churches, one big church, many campuses down in Atlanta. He's a very, very influential evangelical Christian in this country and he has chosen to shut down all of his churches, I think, for the rest of the year.

I'm not sure indefinitely, but for sure through the end of the year. Done exactly the opposite of what John MacArthur has chosen to do with Grace Community Church. Here's how he explained it on CNN. Again, this is a good thing that we have clarity on where a Christian leader like Andy Stanley stands. One of the largest mega churches in the country, Northpoint Ministries, has just said that it is suspending all in-person worship for the rest of the year. This is a church with seven locations in and around Atlanta ministering to more than 30,000 people every Sunday. It does not go unnoticed when a pastor with your reach says that he can't keep his congregation safe. What are you seeing that led you to this decision?

Well, first, Kate, thanks for having me on. The context of our decision was we want to love our neighbors, we want to be a good neighbor, and we want to love our neighborhoods, and we're for our communities, and we don't want to accidentally do something to our communities. I just want to interject here. Whenever you hear this love your neighbor phrase being used, there's usually something coming after it that's going to be a compromise.

I've just noticed you could really do anything. Well, you know what? We don't want to sing too loud in church because someone might be offended by that outside who's driving by who might hear it. We don't want to preach the gospel too strongly. We don't want to talk about sin and hell because that might offend us, and we want to love our neighbors and not offend them. Beware when someone, especially a Christian leader, says we want to love our neighbors, usually some sort of compromise is to follow. You understand this.

Your viewers understand this. We have to go to the grocery store. We have to go to the drug store. We have to go to work. We don't have to go to church. So we have chosen to bring church to the people in our community, actually people all over the world, and this is a temporary shutdown, but the church isn't shut down. It's just our Sunday morning services. So this really was about the health of our congregation, but not just our congregation.

This was about the health of our entire community. You know, I have heard other faith leaders early on in the pandemic especially saying that churches are essential services. You must have Sunday worship.

Your doors must stay open. What do you say to those faith leaders? Well, a church is an essential service, but a one-hour worship service with hundreds of people, or in our case, thousands of people all crammed into a room is not an essential service, and that's one of the things people need to understand. Our church and our staff are actually busier maybe than we've ever been because we've reallocated assets, personnel to serving in the community. In fact, and we're not the only church doing this. Lots of large churches are very outward facing, so we're not closed, but a one-hour worship service, hey, we can do that at home, and as everybody listening understands, we can worship wherever we choose to worship. So that's not what the Bible says. The Bible never says that there's remote worship. Church is about preaching of the word, fellowship, and fellowship is in person. It's not over a television set, breaking of bread, communion, and prayer. That's what church is about. That's why the Bible says the church is ecclesia. That's actually the word for assembly.

Assembly means getting together. It's a completely different, and I believe wrong, view of scripture, interpretation of scripture by Andy Stanley. You know, the worship service is one facet of a healthy church, and we've just decided to suspend that one facet of our local churches. An interesting thing, Kate, when we made this decision, about 85 percent of the response from our churches was positive. About 15 percent was negative, as you might imagine, that we've given in to a political agenda or we're basing this decision out of fear, which is not the case, but the group that was the most outspoken in favor of this decision was the medical community. And as you mentioned, we're a very large church.

We have all kinds of people from all around the city of Atlanta, which is a very diverse city. The medical community immediately came out and applauded this decision. They said, hey, Andy, people don't call me pastor, Andy, just Andy. They say, Andy, we know this was a difficult decision, but for the protection of not just the church, but the communities around the church, this was the right decision. So that's kind of the leader, the leading indicator.

So I don't know a date, I couldn't give you the specifics, but when we feel like it is safe to bring thousands of people back into our auditoriums, we will open, but in the meantime, we will continue to serve our community. So basically he's basing it off people support this, so therefore it's right. And doctors. Now, have the doctors and the medical community been really right in this whole coronavirus pandemic?

Everything's so politicized in this. Listening to doctors and the majority of people in the church as your basis for what you're going to decide here. It brings clarity, that's for sure. It brings clarity on where certain influential Christian leaders stand on the issues of our day.

We'll take a break and come back more after this on The Christian Worldview. in the podcast app on your smartphone and subscribe for free. The program is also available at oneplace.com, sermonaudio.com, iTunes, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher. If you need help navigating the online podcast realm, just give us a call toll free, 1-888-646-2233, or follow the links on the homepage of thechristianworldview.org, because when believers have a sharper biblical worldview and non-believers come to saving faith, lives and families are changed for the glory of God.

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That's 1-888-646-2233. Or visit thechristianworldview.org. Final segment of the day here on The Christian Worldview radio program. We're talking today about what's the good in the midst of all the bad that is taking place in the year 2020 here in the United States of America within the church and lots of people's individual lives. And we see from Romans 8-28 this well-known and powerful verse and this true verse that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

So God does work all things together for good, all the hard things, even sinful things when we repent. But this is for believers and God is causing good things to happen in the midst of this. The gospel is being proclaimed boldly. That is God using the saving gospel to reach those in the midst of this difficult situation who wouldn't have these platforms to go in places and to really speak the gospel boldly. We gave some examples of that of Franklin Graham and his ads on Fox and John MacArthur in his recent interview on Laura Ingraham's program is that these things just wouldn't have happened if all that is taking place wasn't taking place. And number two, we talked about another good that's coming from this for believers is that we should be getting clarity on where Christian leaders stand and what policies are being presented by the political party. We should have understanding of where people are and that's a good thing because when you have that clarity, you know, well, that's not someone I want to be as a primary teacher in my life.

We just heard from Andy Stanley. He takes a very low view of what Scripture says about meeting together as a church. That's not essential. We need to listen to people in our church support us, so therefore it must be right.

The doctors say that it's safer not to meet, so we're not. And church isn't essential to meet in person, okay? We're clear, Andy Stanley, on what you believe now and that's not someone personally. Again, you know, I'm not going to tell you what to do, but that's not someone personally I'd want to be taking Bible teaching from who's going to capitulate at a time when he really should be standing up.

This is the most essential time right now when people are struggling that there should be good churches proclaiming the gospel and sound doctrine at this particular moment in history. Now I was going to get into another example of clarity, another Christian leader, Tim Keller. He wrote a Facebook post, I believe it was this past week, just about this upcoming election, who Christians should consider voting for. And basically the point of his short Facebook post is that Christians, it's really up to your conscience. Christians can vote either way.

You can vote for Democrats, you can vote for Republicans, it's really according to your conscience. He says, the Bible binds my conscience to care for the poor, but it does not tell me the best practical way to care for the poor. Any particular strategy, like high taxes in government services, that's a Democrat value, versus low taxes in private charity, that's a Republican or conservative value, may be good and wise and may be even somewhat inferred from other things the Bible teaches, but they are not directly commanded and therefore we cannot insist that all Christians, as a matter of conscience, follow one or the other. I'm not going to get into explaining that, but basically he's saying, either way, there's good ways to help the poor, whether it's through government taxing people, then redistributing it in a completely unspiritual way. How well has that worked out for the poor in this country, those on welfare?

It's worked out terribly for them, just look at inner city communities around the country. But he's saying that you can really, as a Christian, follow your conscience and vote either way. You can vote for the party of Romans 1, the Democrat party who supports all the things in Romans 1, or you can support the Republican party, who is not the Christian party, so to speak, at least they're not the anti-Christian party. He goes on to say, the Bible binds my conscience to love the immigrant, but it doesn't tell me how many legal immigrants to admit to the U.S. every year. It does not exactly prescribe immigration policy.

Well, yes it does. It says a government should be a nation with law and order, and not just let people come over the border and have unending amnesty for people who legally break our law. He goes on to say, the Bible tells me that abortion is a sin, and a great evil, but it doesn't tell me, now listen to this, it doesn't tell me the best way to decrease or end abortion in this country, nor which policies are more effective. This is Tim Keller, one of the most popular and well-known influential evangelicals in the country, the co-founder of the Gospel Coalition, saying that it doesn't tell me the best way to decrease or end abortion in this country, nor which policies are most effective. He said the current political parties offer a potpourri of different positions on these and many other topics, most of which, as noted, the Bible does not speak to directly. This means when it comes to taking political positions and voting and determining alliances and political involvement, the Christian has liberty of conscience. Christians cannot say to other Christians, no Christian can vote for this, and every Christian must vote for that, unless you find a biblical command to that effect.

That is just stunning, I have to say, just stunning. I mean, I'm not stunned because I'm very familiar with what Tim Keller believes, but it's just stunning that someone like this, when something is so clear of what the Democrat Party stands for, we went over this a couple of weeks ago and they're right in their platform, stand for things as antithetical, diametrically opposed to the word of God. And again, it's not the Republican Party, it's the Christian Party, but just compare them.

I mean, it's not difficult. And commenters to this column, some of them were in support, of course, I'm cherry picking a couple, but a couple of people wrote some good things. What about a party who supports BLM, Black Lives Matter, who's for the destruction of the nuclear family and homosexuality, who wants to redefine the family and the father is the head of it and has a problem with men as leaders. What about a party who supports abortion?

So long, Tim Keller. Another one wrote, the more I read this post, the more troubling I find it to be. It almost sounds like he is saying, don't worry, you can vote for either party or president because you have liberty of conscience. I find it interesting that the Bible binds his conscience to care for the poor, to love the immigrant, but does not bind his conscience to protect the unborn. If it did, he could not vote for a party that is not only okay, but promoting abortion. And this person references John MacArthur again, said recently, no true Christian could vote Democrat because the party has adopted Romans one as their party platform.

And I agree. So clarity is one thing, another good thing that we are getting on where certain people, influential Christian leaders stand in the midst of these difficult, trying things happening in the country. And finally, I'll just say this, the last good is I think people, Christians are now prioritizing the important things.

That's another good that's taking place. You know, when things go well, it is our natural human tendency to become complacent, to not feel such a strong need to draw near to God, and we tend to go astray. And this has happened in the life of David. Remember when he should have been off to battle, he was kind of home in the spring. When the kings go out to battle, he got complacent. He was lazy, not doing, he should have been doing. He sees Bathsheba.

He gets involved in adultery and what eventually leads to the murder of her husband. And it's the same thing in our lives as well too. Testing is a good thing. This is why weightlifters lift weights. The resistance makes you stronger. Life without challenges and testing and trials, we just don't grow very much.

It's just the way we are. And so with these trials, I believe many Christians I'm talking to are waking up and prioritizing the important things in life, their faith, their family, their fellowship within the church. And that's a very, very good thing that God is causing all things, even the hard things, to work together for good. Thank you for listening to the program today. Again, go to our website. We have our golf event on Monday if you'd like to support the Christian Real View by taking part in our silent auction or just making a donation to support the ministry of the Christian Real View. We'd appreciate that because we do live in a changing and challenging world. But there is one thing we can always trust in and count on. Jesus Christ and His Word are the same yesterday, today, and forever. Talk to you next weekend, everyone. Thank you for listening. Until next time, think biblically and live accordingly.