Vote like Jesus

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This is the Truth Network. What do you do if you're pastoring a church and the elections are upon you in America and everywhere you turn, there are political ads and there are, there are politicians who sound more like the reincarnation of the apostle Paul, because it's almost election time. They're going to all of a sudden sound godly and sober and virtuous.

And yet we know that when they get sworn into office, they're going to go back to killing babies and all kinds of evil. What do you do? How do you speak to it? Pastor Grant Castleberry, Capitol Church right here, Raleigh, North Carolina, a Texan who's a North Carolina transplant. Brother, don't you love these tough questions? Don't you love it when we put you on the spot?

Man, I love it. I think being a Texan qualifies me for a super level of insight, doesn't it? So, I mean, these are, in some ways, these are very simple issues.

As a pastor, you teach the whole council of God and you don't skip verses throughout the year. So in some ways you're always addressing issues that relate to the public square. You know, you address marriage, you address abortion, you address all those things. But when it does come to political season, I do think for whatever reason, I don't know why, but Christians are very susceptible just to a smiling, nice face.

And there are a lot of evil men and women that are masked in the cloak of kindness. And what you have to look at is you have to look at their policies. What do they actually believe? What are they going to vote and to put into law? And so if somebody is supporting the murder of the innocent, unborn, I don't see how, as a believer, you could, in your good conscience, vote for that person.

It doesn't matter how nice they are on social media, how friendly they seem. You need to know that it's a guise. It's a ploy to get your vote. So Christians need to stop being gullible and being deceived by these people and look at their voting record and actually vote for people that are going to uphold their values in the public square. Now the mission of the church is to win people to Christ and then to make them into God-fearing disciples who observe all that Christ commanded, right?

That's the great commission. So because politics has become so moral, we're talking about all the transgender issues and the abortion issues. These are issues that pastors should be speaking on and it's not because we're trying to be political.

It's because these are issues of morality and ethics in the public square. Now I'm not a politician, but Christians should be involved in politics. And that's the difference between the mission of the church and the mission of the individual Christian. So Christians should care about what happens in politics. They should care about legislation that's passed. They should care about promoting the general equity of all, which is of course under God's moral guidelines and moral laws that he's given to us. So Christians should care about that and they shouldn't be deceived by phony politicians. So this is where we get into some interesting territory as believers.

And I've heard it's estimated as many or as few as 40% of evangelicals didn't even vote in the last election. And you're a pastor. We're here in your church, Raleigh, North Carolina, the capital city of the state of North Carolina. And you have all kinds of believers and unbelievers, right, left, Democrat, Republican, independent, indifferent, whatever, listening to Truth Talk.

I'm Stu Epperson, the host and I'm with Pastor Grant Casselberry, the capital community church here in Raleigh, North Carolina. Now Pastor Grant, I gotta hit you with a tough question here. People hear a pastor and they're like, you just stay in your lane sir and you just, you know, preach the gospel or sadly some pastors don't even preach the gospel and they're not really pastors and that's not really a church. Methodist Church is about to split over this whole homosexual marriage issue tragically because the faction that's leaving the Bible and leaving the church is denying what God teaches about marriage.

So they're not a church there, but it's a struggle. But these, but someone says you pastor, pastor, how, why are you talking about politics? Abortion is a political issue. Transgenderism, gender equality, equity, these things are political issues. How dare a church ever speak to these things?

What do you say? Well, these issues they're, they're dealt with in the political realm, but they're moral issues and God cares how, how believers and everybody thinks about moral issues. Does God care about abortion? He does. God calls it evil. Does God care about how marriage is defined?

He does. God, God said it is, it is, it is not good that man should be alone. You know, therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. That's what Jesus says in Matthew 19. So these are, these are issues that we can't run from and avoid just because we speak about them. They're, they're, they're issues that, that cross over into politics, but that's because politics has become so immoral. So I think as, as believers, as, as pastors, we have a responsibility to speak about these issues, to help our people think about these issues biblically.

What is, what does God's word say? Because this is all part of a Christian worldview. We can't divorce our politics and the way we think about politics, as if Christ doesn't care about it.

It's all underneath the Lordship of Christ. Now, I'm not out there to win campaigns. I'm not out there to advance the calls of the GOP per se. But I do want Christians to know how to vote. I do want Christians to be informed on the issues so that they can stand for truth in the public square and what God desires for, for general equity of all people. And another thing, and we're so honored to have, by the way, your program is on, the Truth Network here in the Triangle area, Raleigh-Durham Chapel Hill, AM 1030, 105.7 FM, 105.5, 106.5, the Truth Network app. A lot of folks can listen that way. We want to, every station listening to my voice right now should carry Pastor Castleberry's wonderful radio program. You are, you call yourself a Bible expositor. What does that mean? And why is it important, Pastor, that, to talk about the other direction, some churches are just political pulpits. They are just hard left-wing propaganda, or even right-wing. They're like, look, you know, Christ is going to come back on Air Force One.

You know, they're going too far in that extreme. Speak to the importance of Bible exposition just in this last little bit. And what would your challenge be to pastors that would be faithful to hold up the Word? This is, we're in your study.

It's kind of quiet in here. You know, we're not in a coffee shop, but we're having coffee in your study. All these books about the Bible, all these study guides, all these lexicons and things of that nature. Why is it the verse-by-verse exposition of God's Word so critical to inform the heart, the soul, to build people into, you know, more and more in the image of Christ?

And that's such a huge topic to even begin to address, because I do believe it's so important. Peter says in 1 Peter, that Christ is the chief shepherd of the church. So ultimately it's not my church or any pastor or group of elders that shepherd a flock. It's ultimately Christ's church. And so the question is, is then how does Christ shepherd the church? How's Christ going to speak to the church? And ultimately, I think the best way to do that is just by simply teaching the Word of God and letting God speak through His Word. God's Word is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, able to divide soul and spirit, bone and marrow. So, you know, Peter says that you're born again, not by a perishable seed, but imperishable seed through the living and abiding Word of God.

1 Peter 1. So the Word of God has power in it, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God to salvation. It is the power of God to salvation.

And so what I, what I realize is that no mere pep talk or motivational moment that are my thoughts is going to ultimately change people's lives. What changes people's lives is God's Word and the power of the Holy Spirit. And so when you dedicate yourself to Bible exposition and what we mean by Bible exposition is reading the Word of God and then explaining its meaning in the context and then applying it to people's lives.

That's what we're talking about. We're not just talking about taking the theme of the passage and then maybe telling a few stories, anecdotes, quotes, and then, and then some application, but we're talking about actually explaining the syntax, the context, how it's been interpreted historically, the theology, the doctrine. We're talking about getting down into the text and letting God's Word speak for itself.

Spurgeon said, what you want to do is you want to unleash the Word. And that's the mentality of Bible exposition is you want the Word to get into people's hearts and souls and allow the Holy Spirit to do his work through it to change the heart. So it really comes back to what you believe about God's Word. Do you believe it is really God's Word now? And do you believe that the Holy Spirit is going to use it?

And if you, if you are under that conviction, then why would you do anything else? Because I really have the conviction, and I know you do as well, that this Word is powerful and God will use it. Might not be to convert sinners. It might be to harden hearts.

That that's an interesting dynamic. The prophets would preach and sometimes hearts would become more hard and you have a negative response. You know, you see that sometimes, but Paul says, preach the Word in season and out of season.

So our responsibility is faithfulness to do that. And I mentioned early denominations that are being, you know, pulled away and allured away in this. The fact is praying, praying for a reformation of God's Word in the Methodist church, praying that men of God, and I know several that are holding strong to the truth that they will, they will dig deeper into God's Word, praying for that. And the Baptist movement, all the Pentecostal, the Word of God hasn't changed. The gospel hasn't changed.

The loving God sent his Son for sinners like me. And what's interesting, pastor, when you teach God's Word, then God's Word will inform the heart, the soul, the conscience on how to vote and how to be involved and how to be a steward of your vote. He's given you this stewardship, just like he's given you money.

It's not yours. He's given you a vote in this culture. It's not ancient Corinth.

It's not ancient Assyria. It's America and you have a stewardship of vote. So vote, according to how God in his Word has informed. And thanks to pastors like Grant Castleberry for boldly proclaiming God's Word, even when it gets tough and holding strong on what God says about marriage, what God says about gender. Pastor, as we wrap up, plug your church, just tell everyone, maybe the church's website, and tell everyone about the, give a little plug for your new radio program too, if you would.

Yeah. So our church is, it's right in the middle of Raleigh, inside the, the loop in Raleigh. It's called Capital Community Church. Our little tagline is a people awaken to holy God. And we're, and we're trying to really just to get people to who God is, who Christ is, what the gospel is, and just be, uh, awakened to his majesty and his glory and his splendor.

And, and, and for this place to be a place where God has worshiped and where God is honored and where God is feared. And the, the, the, uh, radio program, Unashamed Truth is really an extension of that is, is it's, it's to awaken people to a God centered Christianity that, you know, Calvin said, if you know who God is, then everything else in the world begins to make sense because everything is then oriented to its right trajectory. That if, if God's at the center and God is the creator of everything, and then you can, if you can get that, then you can understand yourself. The reason why so many people have problems with their life is because they don't know God. You know, when you know God, you then can know yourself and you know how to live in the world. So it's really this to be awake into the reality of who God is, that God is holy, that God is righteous, that God is loving, uh, that God has, has loved us and the gospel and, and sent his son. But you don't understand the gospel if you don't understand God. And so we're trying to get Christians back to, back to the bedrock of, of historic Orthodox Christianity. And, um, the, yeah, so that's the purpose of the radio program 2 30 PM on the Truth Network. Share this broadcast. And when it becomes a podcast, please with other folks and let the word of God inform how you live, how you love, how you encourage, and how you communicate with others and how you vote. Cause God's word speaks to everything. Just as pastor shared and get in a Bible teaching balanced church that preaches God's word that that is the ultimate priority, exalting Jesus and presenting the gospel and feeding some of you are starved out there because you need to go to a church where you're going to get fed the word of God. This is the Truth Network.