Uncovering the Shocking Truth of the War on Christians

[0:00] I'm talking about the war on Christians. And really it's the new normal now. This is the new normal. War on Christians. And we see this fact is that belief in God and the biblical worldview is nearing extinction.

[0:17] ! According to a new study from the Cultural Research Center of Arizona Christian University, they did a study and they found that only 4%, 4% of people hold a biblical worldview.

[0:31] That's pretty shocking. It is really, isn't it? A biblical worldview. In other words, a creator, his way to live of essentially the Christian truth.

[0:42] Only 4%. That's very small. And so my message is about the war that is on Christians. And really the message is get ready for it.

[0:52] It's like there's a state of emergency effectively. I put to you tonight that we should prepare for mounting persecution. I know we had a good word from our brother Peter Gregorick lately talking about persecution as a subject in the Bible.

[1:05] And really it kind of follows on from that same truth that we can expect persecution as those that stand for Christ. I mentioned it lately that our state government is about to enact some laws that threaten churches, including parents and individuals.

[1:23] And there was a meeting of these pastors, a group of Christian pastors, and they addressed us about these things. And I asked a senior legal expert who addressed this group as to what can we do?

[1:37] What is the answer? And he said, martyrdom. We have to be willing to stand against evil such that we're willing to pay the cost to lose everything.

[1:50] He said to the pastors representing these various churches, you are the resistance. And so this is really what I'm telling you tonight. Now there was someone that might have attended tonight that has got some different persuasions about how they identify the situations that are confronting us all the time on this line now.

[2:11] And the war is being waged on many battlefronts. And firstly, conversion therapy. This is what we're talking about is conversion therapy.

[2:22] There's laws against conversion therapy, they're calling it, all across the world now. Basically, such laws can criminalise pastors, counsellors, even parents, anyone who tries to support a person who's struggling with gender dysphoria.

[2:40] In other words, they're born a man and they identify as a woman or vice versa. And the law even prevents prayer for such a thing, even if you're wanting to help someone, even if they're asking you to pray.

[2:51] And these are dreadful laws that are coming here to our doorstep in Adelaide by our state government, right here where we live. And now well we know what happened one time when the government disallowed prayer, don't we?

[3:09] Daniel's day. In Daniel's day. Daniel prayed a lot and despite the king's decree against prayer, Daniel continued to pray. We read that in Daniel 6 verse 10 as it says, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, the law was written down, what did he do?

[3:28] He went into his house and his windows being open in his chamber towards Jerusalem, he did what he always did, he prayed. It says he knelt upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did aforetime.

[3:44] The government tells you it's illegal to pray. We obey God rather than men. Amen? There's no stopping us praying. We will pray because prayer is the godly thing. It's the expected thing from our God for us to do.

[3:59] But there are some who actually kind of have got this wacko idea to actually stop us even praying for someone who wants prayer, who asks for prayer because it's not politically correct.

[4:11] I put to you difficult days are ahead for us. And what are we to do? I repeat a theme again from my earlier message and I don't mean to go over the same ground but a little of this is what I touched on.

[4:24] What are we to do? Fear not. A scared world needs a fearless church. I saw a footage of the police taking out the shooter in a recent school shooting in the US.

[4:39] And what did they do? It was quite gripping footage as the police entered this school building and there's this shooter upstairs madly shooting. And what did these responders do?

[4:50] They went directly towards the killer to stop her from killing more innocent people and children. And I put to you in such a time as this, we have to be willing to walk into the line of fire.

[5:04] We've got to be willing to walk into the line of fire. And that's what these guys did. They didn't muck around. They weren't trying to hide or protect themselves. They went straight to where the gun was going off and they took out the killer.

[5:15] And friends, we've got some responding to do to what's going on about this enemy that we face. There's mounting persecution for Christians all around the globe.

[5:29] In Australia, we've been pretty protected, haven't we? Christians around the world, really, they are being silenced through. They call it cancel culture. Cancel culture. Brutal regimes, censorious governments.

[5:42] We see big government, big tech and big pharma have colluded. I put to you in recent times, churches have been ganged up on, closed down by force. We've got some video clips, as I'll show you a bit later.

[5:54] And COVID restrictions have heavily impacted church attendance. Now, of course, there's different views amongst us about whether we take a vax or not a vax or what we do about restrictions of this or that.

[6:06] Thankfully, not affected right now. But who's to say there's not going to be another outbreak, another variant? I know of loved ones staying away from church still because of the COVID madness.

[6:18] This is insane. And it's playing right into the devil's hands. The devil doesn't want you to be here. The devil doesn't want you to attend a church, to fellowship, to congregate, to assemble. And he'll do everything in his power to put you off doing it.

[6:32] And so don't listen to the devil. There's been a huge war going on against people of faith and conviction. People have faced threats of vaccine mandates and quarantine camps. There are such things around the world.

[6:44] See what's going on in China. It's mind-boggling. I've got a video clip that I'll show Monday night of what they do in China, as I touched on this morning. You're roped into these sections of your city and you've got to get permission to cross borders.

[6:59] They've got checkpoints within the city because they want to contain people in these sections. And you're only allowed to move into other sections if you've got the right social credit score.

[7:12] In other words, as long as you're not a problem to the government. These are realities today. And we see, in fact, some churches were forcibly shut down.

[7:24] We see here, there's a news story there. And 200 police showed up with 40 vehicles to close down a church in Canada. And it's shocking footage. You can watch it on the net if you're so minded.

[7:37] Where President Trudeau, or is it Prime Minister Trudeau in Canada? His very strong-arm tactics with the churches. He was very brutal.

[7:47] And in fact, right now, in recent times, Trudeau in Canada has threatened truck driver protests with the seizure of their bank accounts and the revocation of driver's licenses.

[7:59] So if you don't toe the line, they'll take you away and lock you up, forcibly shut down churches. And we see pastors have been hauled off to jails. Here's another picture of a man, a pastor, being dragged away because he dared to open a church and to want to present the Word of God to people.

[8:18] And people have been told in recent times, this is, comply or you'll lose your benefits. Comply or you'll be fined. Comply or you'll lose your job. In our world, they're constantly pushing this mantra of political correctness.

[8:32] Really, it's about creating uniformity. They want a population that is conditioned to comply so they can better exert control. And through the pandemic times, they've used what is called the Hegelian dialectic.

[8:47] Now, you can't see all the writing probably from there, but basically you've got a problem, you've got a reaction, then you've got a solution. That's what they've done. That's their tactics. They cause some fuss, some chaos, some confusion, some disorder, some problem.

[9:01] And then they have the reaction, people despairing. Oh, the sky's falling. It's got to do something. The government's got to save us and help us.

[9:12] And then the government brings in its solution, which is what they had intended all along. These are the tactics that politicians use. And so, of course, we ain't seen nothing yet, I put to you.

[9:23] They're using this same order out of chaos is the word, really the phrase. We can expect increasing fascist globalist tyranny to come to power with the ultimate antichrist system.

[9:39] See what's happening in Victoria. I mean, it's crazy over there what they did. It was very strong-arm tactics by Dan Andrews. And the globalist design is already taking shape.

[9:50] And their agenda really is totalitarian control. Really, it's socialism, communism and enslavement. Another battlefront we see is this rise of radical activists.

[10:03] The radical left are especially at war with the people of God. Here's a report from Rebel News. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has reacted to women demanding women's rights by ordering, get this, get this now, there was some protest about women were actually protesting to say women should be women and women should have rights.

[10:27] And people pretending to be a woman that goes into change rooms, they're against. But women should have the right to have a women's space, a women-friendly space, a women-supportive space, excluding these ones who falsely identify as women.

[10:45] And Daniel Andrews reacted to this, this women's movement, by issuing this order, that the transgender flag be flown outside government offices.

[10:59] That they would fly the transgender flag outside these government offices. And he tweeted this. He sent a tweet and I quote, This is the Premier of the state of Victoria, Daniel Andrews.

[11:14] I quote, There's a new flag flying outside the offices of the Victorian government. Oh, here you can see the little clip as the man takes the flag and he hauls it up the flagpole. And this is the tweet that the Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, tweeted, There's a new flag flying outside the offices of the Victorian government because we'll always respect you.

[11:36] And we'll always have your back. He's flying the transgender flag. And Dan Andrews was very severe during the lockdowns, during the main COVID era. Victoria was especially affected.

[11:49] There's horror stories. I've just been over in Victoria. And the horror stories that pastors and churches can tell of such a time, of this full-on COVID tyranny. They shut down churches and some have not recovered.

[12:01] And this has been the case in various other countries. It's amazing that despite all of the heavy-handed tactics of Daniel Andrews, the people have actually re-elected him for a third time.

[12:14] So that's what people want. Are they so blinded? It's clear what flag this man wants to fly over our nation. Now, of course, I'm saying all of this to say really this, that our enemy is not a politician.

[12:27] It's not Daniel Andrews. It's not a party as such. Our enemy is spiritual in nature. And we're going to get to that. Because it tells us this in the Word of God.

[12:37] Ephesians 6 verse 12, it says, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood. It's not about people. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

[12:54] Really, it's the enemy that's manifesting in human flesh. Satan filling the hearts of people to fulfil his wicked plans.

[13:05] One example is the Pope. Pope Francis has been called the first gay affirming pontiff. He's sold out. He's the first gay affirming pontiff.

[13:17] And the devil has taken over the churches. We see stories like this one. This is an Anglican church. Meet Australia's first transgender priest. I'm sorry, you might want to turn away from some of these things because it's so repulsive.

[13:30] And the Seventh-day Adventists have got a bisexual pastor, they're calling him. And meantime, people who stand for biblical values are shut down, they're lampooned and labelled, and they're taking over churches lock, stock and barrel.

[13:44] There are radical global agendas that some people are framing that are truly shocking. Get this one. This is a man called Peter Singer. He's an influential Princeton professor.

[13:57] And look at the quote he's saying here. This is how Peter Singer sees the life of an unborn baby in a mother's womb. He says that the value of the newborn is less than the life of a pig, a dog or a chimpanzee.

[14:12] This is Peter Singer. He's getting in the ears of politicians. He wants to have abortions after the baby's born. That's where it's going. Abortion's not enough.

[14:24] Kill the baby in the womb, but they want more. They want even more than that. What Peter Singer says, you've got 28 days to decide if you want to keep it.

[14:36] After the baby's born, Peter Singer says it's of little value. And he's an animal rights activist. Singer has said that Christianity is our enemy if the animal rights movement is to succeed.

[14:52] These are confronting things, aren't they? Another battlefront is conditioning. Conditioning. Conditioning is going on. We see they're calling it freedom of speech, but it's only within their...

[15:02] This is a meme, of course. They're calling it freedom of speech these days, but really it's freedom only within where they would say it's freedom. What they call journalism now is mostly filtered and steered down a leftist track.

[15:16] We've got climate change. Climate change. And the small writing there says, if the temperature is above or below average anywhere in the world, it's a crisis.

[15:28] Oh, it's too hot. It's too cold. This or that. Now, there may be different views amongst us about such an issue as climate change, but for me, I think there's a lot of dodgy stuff going on.

[15:39] And they're telling us that our government wants to bring CO2 to zero. They want to get rid of CO2. Carbon dioxide is the very element that sustains life.

[15:51] And people believe what they are saying without any information about alternative views. These are serious things that we're seeing these days, aren't they, I put to you.

[16:05] And people might have heard in recent times in the press, there was a sad case. There was a shooting. There was an incident in Queensland. And some people did some totally inappropriate things, killing police that attended their property.

[16:20] But how did the press handle this? They stigmatised these people as being Christians. They believed in the coming of Christ. And they had some quasi-Christian beliefs mixed in with a whole load of cultic ideas and drug-taking.

[16:37] They're obviously not Christians as we would consider it. That now they're lumping all Christians in effect and labelling us all as terrorists. Here's the story.

[16:47] They're labelling Christians as terrorists. And there's another picture of it here. Where anyone who believes in the end times or believes in a coming of Christ and believes that these things are moving in that direction, because of these wacko ones who had some incident in Queensland, they're lumping us all in the same lump.

[17:12] And it's a conditioning. That's what it is. A conditioning that's going on. And they stifle any different views from showing in search engines. So some of these things we're talking about this morning, tonight, Monday night, the search engines don't pick some of this stuff up.

[17:28] It's not readily findable, some of this information that I'll be touching on. Our freedoms are under threat in every which way. And it seems like the freedom to choose is only for the woke crowd.

[17:41] And the woke crowd are pulling out all of the stops. There's such a decline. There's a protester. I saw a picture of a protester holding a sign. And what the sign said, Mary the Virgin should have had an abortion.

[17:55] They're so pro-abortion. They're mocking Christianity all the time with such protests of such things. And as I mentioned before, Adam Bant, the leader of the Greens, he says that Australia's flag itself is offensive.

[18:10] That's why he's always pictured behind, standing in front of the Aboriginal flag, because he's ashamed of the flag of Australia. This is one of our politicians. This is someone who's, in effect, in our government body.

[18:24] And he's routinely attacking the values of our nation. So he's refusing to stand in front of the national emblem, arguing that the Australian flag is a symbol that is hurtful to first peoples.

[18:36] We should stand for what is right. We're meant to have freedom. Now, Adam Bant's got the freedom to say any load of hogwash, but we're meant to have freedom of speech too, as God's people. We're meant to have freedom of information.

[18:47] They're stopping us from having that. Freedom of assembly, that churches should assemble and can assemble, freely assemble. Freedom of association, freedom of religion, freedom of movement.

[18:59] I was looking at this stuff on the internet. It's year eight civic class stuff. All these freedoms, speech, information, assembly, association, religion, movement. But many of these freedoms are under threat.

[19:11] It's cultural Marxism that's happening. Truly, it's a culture war. It's cultural Marxism. And we've witnessed this paradigm shift. You look at where Australia was some little time back and the culture change that we're seeing today.

[19:25] And as God's people, really, we hold an alternative position, a righteous position, that we have true freedom. Of course, it's in Christ, isn't it? That's our true freedom.

[19:35] That's where it's found. That's the right order. It's knowing Christ. But ultimately, there's a plan to overturn all of these Christian values that we would cherish and we would reverence.

[19:48] The things of God, the things that are righteous and true. For this world domination, they want to suppress any dissent and unrest. And here's another example in Birmingham in the UK.

[20:01] This is a civilised country, you would think, that they've got these laws now. Here's a woman who's simply praying outside an abortion centre. She's, you know, some metres away from the place.

[20:14] She's simply standing there in silent prayer. And authorities in Birmingham in the UK have introduced, you could effectively see them, as censorship zones around abortion facilities.

[20:28] And this woman was interrogated and then hauled away, and this has happened now a second time, by six police, simply for silently praying. Isabel was simply praying peacefully and silently, standing on a footpath, and the policeman asks her, are you praying?

[20:48] As if that is some great, unlawful act. She's simply praying. Are you praying? That's what he asks her. This is shocking stuff, isn't it? And because she was praying, because she said, yes, I'm praying, the policeman hauled her away.

[21:02] Friends, this is about the best basic rights that we have as Christians to simply pray. As we touched on before. To live out our faith, it's all in danger. What is at stake here is the right to live according to your convictions, even to pray.

[21:15] They want to take that away from you. Basically, people are being punished for a thought crime. It's like George Orwell, 1984, isn't it? And another battlefront is mind control.

[21:27] And now it's time to go over the carefully selected stories that have been chosen to manipulate your emotions and thinking. That's the news media today. That's the meme, of course. You see this mind control.

[21:39] They're telling us things to do to keep us safe. That's the mantra they use. That's what they've been using. We might have different views about what's going to keep us safe. Some people think the vaccine will keep them safe.

[21:50] Friends, the media will tell you what they want you to hear. What they say will keep you safe. And meantime, we're surrendering a whole lot of freedoms and rights. Effectively, I put to you that there's these puppet masters, a few puppet masters who wield control, full control over the mainstream media.

[22:09] And we're all subject to their indoctrination. Basically, friends, our news stories, our news programs is curated and filtered. It's biased propaganda.

[22:21] Don't trust what the news tells you. As another example of this, this is a news story. It was a while ago now, but there was an Australian mother of four. And the media, this is the Today Show, they slammed her.

[22:36] They slammed her on Facebook because she liked to get up early and make breakfast for her husband. She liked to get up early and make breakfast for her husband.

[22:49] Quote, this is the woman speaking, Brooke Smith, as she posted on Facebook, I always make sure I don't go to bed until everyone's lunches are packed.

[23:03] Thank you of our children. Their clothes are set out for the next day, including my husband's. And the house is clean, the dishwasher is on, and the load of washing is on. I always get up early, 4.30, with husband to make his breakfast and coffee.

[23:18] And Smith's story was introduced on the Today Show by the female host saying mockingly, I want to take you back to the 1950s.

[23:29] They would mock such a woman. They would mock such a woman who wants to be a homemaker, who wants to make lunch for her family and her husband. And the Today Show mocked the idea of a traditional mother and a homemaker.

[23:42] But you look at this woman, she doesn't look like the victim of some domestic abuse. On the contrary, she's actually fulfilled. She's actually fulfilling her God-given right, making her own personal choice to fulfill this role and her choice out of love for her husband and her family, her children.

[24:02] I started this message with the words, get ready. Our Bible tells us of an escalation of persecution in the end times. Now, of course, personally, I don't see that the church will suffer the wrath of God poured out at the end of days.

[24:17] But I do believe we'll see a severe escalation. I see that now, this severe escalation, as we see these troubles and testings before the Lord catches up his church away from the full-on tribulation.

[24:32] And there's been some active violence against churches in Canada. Christians are being threatened, even in supposedly free civilised countries. An article here, the burning of Canada's churches.

[24:45] Multiple churches are being burnt to the ground in Canada. Christians are being harassed. Churches are being burnt down. Another story here. What does it say?

[24:57] 48 Christian churches burnt down in Canada. This is what's been happening. This is happening, people. This is happening in a Western country. So I believe we should be mindful of what the Bible tells us will happen, of these days that we are living in, which I see increasingly as approaching the last days.

[25:15] The last days. Now, Revelation 6 talks about the four horsemen of the apocalypse. I'm not saying that the four horsemen are out of the stable necessarily, but if they're not, they're close to.

[25:28] We can see the signs in front of us as we're seeing the setting of the book of Revelation. For example, in the accounts of Revelation 6 and around there, it talks about global government.

[25:44] The first beast, the rider on the white horse. We see global military, this escalation of military spending, pouring billions literally into Ukraine, stoking this world war.

[25:57] There's the red horse of war, the global military. We see the global economy, the rider on the black horse with the scales. You could say, is that the Great Reset, the fourth industrial revolution?

[26:10] Is that the food shortages and famines that we talked about this morning? Then we see global finance, the economy in the sense of these CBDCs, this digital currency.

[26:21] When the digital currency comes in, the government has total control over your finances. That's what it means. And then we see global religion. In Revelation, it talks about the second beast with horns like a lamb, speaking like a dragon.

[26:37] We know that there's globalisation of religion. Just lately, there's this Chris Lamb place over there, isn't there? We're seeing it. It's all syncretising, coming together into faith.

[26:47] And in the end times, the Bible says that the Antichrist is going to wear out the saints. Some of this stuff is like mind-boggling. It's just, I can't take it all in. It's just doing my head in. We can expect times of weariness.

[26:58] It says that of the Antichrist, that he shall speak great words against the Most High. He shall wear out the saints of the Most High. Of course, the devil hates the church, people. The devil hates the church.

[27:10] He wants to shut it down, and shut it down, and keep it shut down. And divert people away to other so-called gods. Think of the gods that we have, that many people worship today.

[27:21] I said this phrase this morning, trust the science. It's like science is, science is just omniscient. You know, science is just beyond question now.

[27:33] And effectively, the new religion, someone's coined this term, scientism. Scientism. In other words, believe the science. Believe the science. Believe it. Don't question it.

[27:44] Don't have a rational, intelligent mind that says, actually, I'm going to weigh everything, and then I'm going to decide what I think stacks up. And there's claims now from some that man can achieve immortality through technology.

[27:57] There's some engineer saying that humans will achieve immortality within the next eight years. Immortality. If they achieve immortality through technology, then you don't need God anymore.

[28:10] No talk of heaven or hell or having to get saved. They want to play God, don't they? They want God out of the equation. That we can live forever. By taking whatever drugs or whatever methodology they want to bring in.

[28:23] And of course, another popular religion is relativism. Commentators have even compared climate change to being some kind of new kind of religion. It's like you're hearing it all the time.

[28:34] They're worshipping this climate change idea. And I put to you, for myself, I think a lot of it's flaky and false. Rather than all of that, let's believe the word of God, the truth of God's word, that we're in his hands.

[28:46] The world is in his hands. And we can trust his acts and know his care. We don't have to worry about climate change as such.

[28:57] And consider the spiritual state of the nation. This is not that long ago. There's a man, Andrew Thorburn. He was the CEO of the Essendon Football Club.

[29:08] And he was attacked and ostracised from this position simply because he's a Christian. Now, the man himself, Andrew Thorburn, made a few silly mistakes when he was head of the NAB.

[29:20] But nevertheless, simply because his church that he attended espoused a biblical view of sexuality, the people, the fans, the board of the club and Dan Andrews got wind of it.

[29:36] Oh, this biblical view of sexuality. I mean, that's what we would say as a church. You might get targeted later if you are seen to belong to such a church that talks about such issues.

[29:50] And here's what Daniel Andrews said about these views of this church that espoused a biblical view of sexuality. He described the views of this church as absolutely appalling.

[30:03] That a church would say God made them male and female. They've made them husband and wife. In the beginning, God created, you know, the man and the woman. And to say that you would espouse such a biblical view, Dan Andrews says that's absolutely appalling.

[30:20] They're calling evil good and good evil. That's what they're doing, people. That's what's going on, friends. It's exactly what the Bible says they would do. Now, friends, the Bible says don't put any wicked thing before your eyes.

[30:34] So I'm going to give you a trigger warning here. You might want to turn your eyes away. I'm just going to put it up there briefly. But this is a picture. We're going to go to a GIF so hopefully it'll work. But it's a picture of what they're calling drag queens.

[30:47] Now, bear with me. I know this is disgusting. These things called drag queens. It's like they're seeing it all the time. This is sick. This is sick, people. Here's a man dressed as a girlish feminine creature with children sitting on his lap.

[31:04] I think we've seen enough of that. We'll go to the next slide. But this is what's going on. The world is normalising this stuff. And they're saying we're the problem. They're saying stop pushing your beliefs on me to Christians like you and me.

[31:15] because they want to push their agenda of sinful pride. It's sick, people. That's what it is. It's sick. And we stand against it. I stand against it. And I don't care whether people will think well, you're a homophobe or whatever.

[31:30] They've called me a conspiracy preacher, a hate preacher. Now they can call me a homophobic preacher. But look, this stuff needs to be told. We need to tell the truth. No matter what. I don't care if the council sacked me.

[31:41] You know, the radicals have freedom to flaunt their sin. Some churches have largely fables. They're not standing for biblical truth or they're too weak to stand for the Bible and God's truth. We need to tell it like it is.

[31:52] And that's not to say we don't have compassion for these people. They've got a mental illness. They're mentally sick. There's a lack of doctrinal truth. Churches seem obsessed these days with seeker sensitivities.

[32:04] I've heard actually that there's a new local church that someone's trying to plant in this very neighbourhood and I've heard that their deliberate policy is they're not going to call it a church because it might put people off to call it a church.

[32:18] And what's more, even more stunning, is they're not going to use the name of Jesus. They don't want to use the name of Jesus because it might put off newcomers. It's like they're ashamed of the very name of Christ.

[32:31] And this is, I've got it firsthand from someone who's heard it out of the mouth of these people who are starting a new church. We're not ashamed to say we're a church. We're an assembly of God. We're a congregation of God's people.

[32:43] We are an assembly that congregate. We're an ecclesia. We're God's people assembling together. And we're not ashamed of the name of Jesus. We want to declare it on the hilltops, on the streets.

[32:57] We want to declare his name because we're not ashamed of his name. But our society's turned upside down, isn't it? There's so much social engineering going on and it's endemic in the schools now.

[33:08] There's this abundance of radical leftist ideology, woke nonsense, has overtaken even many churches. As we've seen pictures before, we don't need to labour that point, but some churches have been taken over by these radical people.

[33:22] They're behind the pulpits now, these people, and we need to resort unto prayer, I put to you. The Bible tells us of a people devoid of natural affection. In Romans 1, verse 31.

[33:35] And the people, there's some Christians, inverted commas, standing up for these things that are wicked. Friends, this is wickedness. This is devoid of natural affection.

[33:47] And leftists are actually blaming, you might have seen this recent development. It's a very sad story. Someone shooting up a Christian school and this trans activist has gone in and shot six people, killed six people.

[34:03] And what does the leftist media say about this? They're saying, oh, the Christians are to blame for this terrorist massacre. They don't blame the killer. He's this mentally ill person who's trying to change their gender from what they were born as.

[34:18] And this person has gone in and deliberately targeted a Christian school. I'm heard that they were trying to kill the pastor, but he wasn't present. So they killed his little girl and others.

[34:30] Friends, this is sick stuff. This is mental disorder and perversion. People are accepting it as normal and just it's kind of ridiculous to me that the leftist press are blaming the Christians for this.

[34:42] It's the Christians' fault that this transgender person has killed six people. People are living a fantasy and this is being promoted. We're being told lies, gender confusion, people are ignoring gender reality.

[34:56] We're going to go to a video clip here. Pastors are being dragged away from churches. Now this is obviously in the context of the COVID clampdown that they had, but it's still happening. There's this clampdown, there's this overbearing, overreach of government and they're walking into churches while they're singing on Christ the Salted Rock I stand.

[35:15] The police storm in, address the meeting and shut the church service down and take the pastor away to prison. This is what has happened.

[35:30] This is real stuff. This is simply what was a Christian organisation, the Salvation Army, is cowed down to these radical forces that are saying they've got to change what they're saying about what the Bible says about such things.

[35:48] In today's society we celebrate the trans movement, homosexual marriage, the slaughtering of the unborn. All of these things operate without natural affection. The Bible talks about such a time.

[36:00] They're not going to have natural affection. And those who stand for biblical values or used to stand for them, they're under literal violent attack. People literally don't know whether they're Arthur or Martha.

[36:12] That's serious, isn't it? Much of what strong-armed governments have been imposing on their citizenry is built on a foundation of lies. So I'm just going to show one more video clip.

[36:24] Thanks everyone. I know some of this stuff is pretty confronting. I know really this is confronting all of us. We're constantly getting these messagings. We've got to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

[36:35] But we need to, when it comes down to it, we've got to be willing to stand for the truth. When we're faced with it and they're telling us to bow down or go and march with them, that we're not going to do that.

[36:48] And on the other side, these people that are so affected and so deluded, we want to reach them with the gospel. We love souls in this church no matter where they're at. And whatever sin, whatever state of lostness they're in, there's hope for any soul to trust Christ.

[37:03] And so we pray for these people. We're not against them, we're for them. We want to see them saved and trust Christ. George Orwell said this, he said, the first duty of intelligent men in times of universal deceit is to tell the truth.

[37:18] Tell the truth in times of universal deceit. And it says that when people do that, when people tell the truth, they will be seen as committing a revolutionary act.

[37:29] We're revolutionary here because some churches wouldn't put any of this stuff out there. And maybe we're going to attract some criticism for this. But really, universal deceit can only be sustained by stifling dissent.

[37:43] They want to silence the church. They don't want the church to talk about such matters. And really, I don't even like to talk about it or show such confronting pictures. But it seems like they've won in many quarters.

[37:54] They've taken over churches. And there's no message, there's no voice anymore. They've silenced the church. And we can ask, while all of this is going on, where is the church? We're meant to be the pillar and ground of the truth.

[38:07] The pillar and ground of the truth. That foundation and that construction of truth upon truth. That we're meant to be founded upon the truth. And yet, it seems so many have not got the humility to receive the truth.

[38:20] A big thing these days is that many people can't take loving correction. You know, as a pastor, sometimes I reach out to people, as I've reached out to some individuals of late that are in these situations.

[38:32] I've reached out in love. I've reached out with compassion. I've reached out with care. I've reached out with a godly concern for their soul. There's one time, for example, there's a young lady that I'm familiar with who has had some reference to this church.

[38:47] And I saw she was posting some posts. And this is kind of a trivial example, but nevertheless, it's real. What she was posting was how she was making some crafts as a kind of hobby and putting them out there, I suppose, at craft stores and things.

[39:02] What she was making was wands. Wands, as in a witch's wand. Witch's wands. And I told her that's something that is wrong, that the Bible talks against witchcraft and wands are a picture of that witchcraft.

[39:15] And she got offended with me. It's the offended culture. You can't say anything to anyone. And false churches and false pastors are falling for all kinds of things. They've not got the gumption to tell people the truth.

[39:28] And it's no wonder the Lord is repulsed with this. As we see in his rebuke of the Laodicean church, that he says to them, thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot.

[39:39] I will spew thee out of my mouth. Here's another little meme here. If Jesus did this today, he's clearing the temple, that some Christians would tell him that's not what Jesus would do.

[39:51] And so it's like, you know, Jesus wouldn't clear the temple. You know, he would just kind of accommodate that. He would have just pandered the Pharisees and not withstood them. But we need to have the same fighting spirit.

[40:02] The Lord Jesus cast out these ones who corrupted the worship and were doing these things that were evil and wrong. We need to have that same fighting spirit of zero tolerance for evil.

[40:15] The church is meant to be a force to be reckoned with, a force that's storming the gates of hell. As our Lord addressed Peter, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. But we could ask the question, I put to you the question, where is the church?

[40:30] Sadly, the reality is that many churches are in decline and disappearing. You look on realestate.com, they're selling them off, all these properties. It's like, the church is in decline or it's disappearing.

[40:42] Some have totally lost the plot. These churches that are closing, especially are the churches that have compromised the biblical gospel. There's no content there, there's no gospel there. So maybe that's God taking away their candlestick as we see the judgment of the church at Ephesus who had left their first love, that God's snuffing them out as it were.

[41:02] He's snuffing out that candle, that light, that light that they were. He's snuffing them out in judgment as he did warn the church at Ephesus. So in some churches there's this evident lack of Bible preaching and teaching.

[41:17] Surely we need revival, don't we? Don't we need revival? People of God. I don't want to leave you with a heaviness here this evening but rather that your eyes be open to say, yeah, this is what's happening, this is true.

[41:33] We need revival. Another factor in these days that we live is the aging of pastors. Last time I looked in the mirror I look a lot older than I used to remember myself and it was at a recent pastor's retreat where some of the pastors and their wives got together and friends, it was obvious that most of the pastors present were in their 60s or older.

[41:55] Now I'm not saying if you're 60 or older which is me, that you're past it or you're on the shelf that God's given up on you but the point is that young men need to answer the call to the ministry.

[42:08] Young men, answer the call. Answer the call. What is happening in Canada? We've seen these things. Laws are being contemplated that threaten the preaching of the gospel, outlawing the gospel, outlawing prayer.

[42:25] Christians face actual imprisonment. What are we to do? What are we to do? Church of God, I say we need to prepare. We need to prepare. We need to be prepared on the inside of us.

[42:37] Prepare by faith, by prayer, by knowing the word, by hiding the word in your heart. Expect persecution to ramp up. Expect it. As you stand for righteousness, evil is overtaking this nation and preachers are preaching smooth words.

[42:54] They're not willing to tackle some of this stuff. I don't like even talking about it, honestly, but while our culture is corrupted, we've got to speak out. We've got to stand up for godly, biblical values.

[43:06] We're in a whole lot of trouble. We've drifted. I think back 10 years ago, you can think back. 10 years ago, where were we? The world's completely gone upside down, hasn't it?

[43:16] We're in a lot of trouble. We need to find our voice and stop being silent. We need warriors. Men and women of God, rise up. Let's be willing to stand.

[43:27] Let's be willing to pay the cost. There's a cost to it because you're going to be stigmatised. They're going to look at you funny because you're saying things that they don't stand for.

[43:39] But we need to stand. We need to have the courage to confront the enemy because we've got to fight on our hands. And as the godly, God helping us, we can be bold, courageous, recognise what's going on, the spiritual forces.

[43:51] Let's, God helping us regain that militant Christianity. Not that we're out to make ourselves a target, but we're not willing to put up with falsehoods and think that everything's okay, that we're willing to be brave, to fight the good fight of the faith and to march on.

[44:10] And we see there's a fight ahead of us, the good fight of the faith, as Paul tells Timothy. And these things that I tell you of, they're really a spiritual attack. We're not against necessarily people in movements or politicians per se.

[44:26] It's about the spiritual forces that are happening here. That's why we need to go to prayer. We need to have a spiritual battle. It's not a battle of the ballot box or political sparring. This is a spiritual thing because we're warring against not flesh and blood.

[44:40] We've got this, and their weapons are not carnal, but they're mighty through God. So the pulling down of strongholds, talks about casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

[44:56] It's a spiritual war. It's a war against Christians. The message is there's a war on. Be aware of it. A demonic warfare. Influence is everywhere.

[45:07] An angelic conflict. What are we to do? Of course it says we are to put on the whole armour of God. Put on the whole armour of God. We need to wake up to what's happening and put on the whole armour of God.

[45:20] That the church mount accounts are offensive. That we won't be afraid to say the truth in love. To share the truth in love. To share the gospel. That we won't be ashamed of the gospel.

[45:32] We won't be ashamed of our saviour. We'll pray for our nation, for our nation's leaders. Truly this nation is under the judgement of God. You can't do all this stuff and get away with it.

[45:44] There'll be a reaping time. Amen? There'll be a reaping time. And pray for our leaders that are truly under the judgement of God. And for their disobedience to the word of God.

[45:56] Pray for them. Be of good courage. God is supreme in all of this. And he is the one we can rest in. And our future is in his hands. Let us pray.

[46:07] Lord, we pray for each one here listening that each one might have that heart's trust that saves a soul from sin. We saw that picture of the lifeboat of men and women being dragged out of the choppy seas as it were as a picture of a shipwreck and of the rescue boat.

[46:25] Help us, Lord, to mend the lifeboats and to drag them out of the water before they drown to reach these lost souls while we can. Reach them. Give us the hands that will reach out and touch others.

[46:37] And we pray if we're one of those struggling in the deep waters of sin and lostness that you can, by your grace, reach out your hand to touch us, to show us the truth, to give us the light that helps us to see the truth that we can be saved, that we can trust you for time and for eternity.

[46:57] And that salvation gift, we can gladly receive it as you extend it to us. Lord, we pray for anyone here present or hearing this is not saved, that they won't dilly-dally because today is the day of salvation.

[47:10] Behold, now is the accepted time. We know that there's no hope from humanity in what the world or the politicians will offer, certainly what the new world order has in store, but there is hope in Christ and we thank you, Lord, for that, that sure hope, the glad, blessed gospel hope of your coming again, of our salvation purchased for us because of your blood shed at the cross.

[47:33] Lord, we thank you for all these things. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.