I have thoroughly enjoyed our conference so far. I have thoroughly enjoyed the time and preparation put into these sermons. I have consistently asked Hannah to pray for me as I prepared for my sermon because, as I've mentioned several times already, it's been different. It's just a different way to preach, different way to study, but it has been A really good study for me, and I pray that that comes out in this sermon. And as we go through this last subject, the title of my sermon is, The Danger of Christian Nationalism. That's my sermon title. As you see up here, Christian Imperialism is the technical term, or the technical title that I have. Anna Catherine has mentioned before, she loves how we'll get up here and we'll say something along the lines of, if I were to give a title to my sermon, but we don't actually say that's our title, I don't see her, but I was going to give her a hard time and say, if I were to give a title to my sermon other than this, it would be the danger of Christian nationalism. If you want to go ahead and take your Bibles and turn to the book of Matthew, chapter 28, that will be our primary text this morning. It'll be a minute before we get to that, but keep your hands there. In 1541, in Eisenach, Germany, a man by the name of Fritz Erbe was sentenced to prison for a crime against the state. He was taken to Wartburg Castle. There, lowered into a dungeon, which was essentially just a 30-foot hole that had no light had no windows, had no doors, it was dark, it was damp, and he stayed there for over six years, never being allowed out until he died due to the harsh conditions of his prison. Some 30 years later, about 220 miles west of that area in Germany, a young man around the age of 24 years old by the name of Hans Brett lived in Antwerp. It was a region located in the Netherlands. He was a confectionary for a baker in his hometown. He was also charged with committing a grievous crime against the state. And so one morning, around 9 a.m., he was arrested and thrown into a dungeon. There he stayed for eight months, being beaten, tortured, increasingly getting worse during his stay, until finally he was brought before the court for a hearing on his crime. He was convicted of his crime and sentenced to burn at the stake. On Saturday, January 4th of 1577, an executioner went into Brett's prison. He placed a clip on his tongue. He then burnt the end of his tongue so that that clip could not come off. This prevented Brett from being able to speak as he was led to his execution. Brett was taken to the stake and burned on that day for refusing to follow the laws of the state in Antwerp. So you might be asking at this point, what were the terrible crimes these men committed to deserve such punishment and death? Well, Fritz Erbe, right before his arrest, had a newborn child that had been born. He lived in an area in Germany, a region which was Christian. In fact, a Lutheran church had been established there and was in fact the religion of the people there. It was also the religion of the government in that area. Fritz himself was a professing Christian, but his fatal mistake was that he refused to baptize his newborn child by order of the Lutheran religious authorities in his hometown. Now he had actually been convinced, ironically enough, that this baptism of his infant child was not biblical by reading the very Bible that Martin Luther himself had translated into German, not far from where he was at, about 150 miles from the castle in which he was imprisoned. Ironically, Luther, a man who had boldly put his life on the line incorrectly, under threat of Catholic state church of the Catholic State Church by standing for sola scriptura, Luther knew that this man was down there, but he felt the need for him to be there because of his belief in baptism and because of the state religion that had been established there in his hometown. Brett, on the other hand, he had no children, and he was under a different authority. Brett was under the authority of a Calvinistic state church. But he was imprisoned and put to death for the very same reason. A refusal to believe and confess that infant baptism was the biblical mode of baptism. In both cases, these men were determined to be a threat to the state, to the government, because of their view of baptism. a threat so great that they were imprisoned, they were tortured, and either put to death by burning at the stake or allowed to die after many years rotting away in prison. Now, both of these men would be labeled as Anabaptists. Many of you have heard that term, I'm sure, and that is because they refused to accept infant baptism and they believed that baptism must be an act by a professing believer alone. But if you think Only people under the name of Anabaptists were victims of such persecution. I encourage you, and I do not have the time to go through this story, but I encourage you to go research and read up on the Munster Rebellion. It was a horrific example of abuse, torture, and murder of other professing Christians by the state church established and run by Anabaptists. Further, if you think this issue of persecution by state churches was isolated to the 1500s, I could point you to many examples before. dating back to the 300s at least, where Arianism, which a term we heard last night, was demanded. And after the death of Constantine, Germanic tribes became Christian, but primarily remained pagan in the way they lived their lives. And persecution of professing Christians was consistent under those state churches. I can point you from there all the way up to American settlements and colonies. Persecution from the Church of England is precisely why many fled from England and how many settlements and colonies in America were established. Unfortunately, many continue to follow the same example in those early settlements and colonies that they established. You can find many examples of early settlements and colonies which had established state churches and heavily persecuted those who did not fall in line with their theology. These are all examples of what we might call Christian imperialism. A newer, more modern term has been coined called sacralism. Another way to define that. Simply defined, sacralism is the belief that the church and the government should be one. There's no separation of church and state. In most examples of sacralism, the leader of the state or the most prominent leader of the church of that state, oftentimes a mixture of the two, they dictate to the people of the state that Christianity is the religion of the people and it must be adhered to. But not only do they require Christianity, they dictate to the people what type of Christianity must be followed and advocated of the people of that state. Just as in the examples I've mentioned above, in a sacral system, it is not enough to profess faith in Jesus. You must also adhere to specific doctrines of the state church. So for the sacralist, they believe they have a biblical mandate to establish a Christian society and most often it results in Christianity being forced upon citizens quite literally by force and compulsion by threat of imprisonment or death. And again, this has repeatedly led to the gross persecution of professing Christians as well because they do not believe every doctrine of that specific state church in which they live. What it also leads to is a society of quote-unquote Christians, where many of these professing Christians, or those who would claim that title, will still die and go to hell because their belief is based off an external experience and not an internal change. Their Christianity is just something they do, either out of a sense of tradition, or a fear of punishment, or in the name of national pride. Okay, so what is the biblical mandate for Christians then as we think along these lines? What are we told by the Word of God that we should do to further His Word, to grow Christianity? Are we supposed to promote and push for a church state? Or is there another way? Well, we could turn to many places, I do think. But as I've pointed you to Matthew 28, let us look to Matthew 28. We will just cover four verses here in Matthew 28, verses 16 through 20. Now, I will tell you ahead of time, this will in no way be an in-depth exposition of this passage. If you want that, please come to our Wednesday night services. We are currently working through the book of Matthew, and I think we should be there, should be there in a few months, okay? But let's read verses 16 through 20. But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. And when they saw Him, they worshipped Him. And I am reading from the LSB. But some doubted. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." So here as we get to verse 16 at the end of Matthew's account of the gospel of Jesus, we see Jesus bringing the 11 disciples to Him in Galilee. And this is not long after Jesus has risen from the dead. He meets with these 11 apostles in Galilee, and it is 11 now because Judas is dead after his betrayal. They've not yet voted to replace him with Matthias. This passage is obviously very well known, but it is extremely relevant to our discussion today, I think. What are we supposed to do while we await the return of Jesus? What are our instructions for our mission as New Testament Christians and as churches? Well, we have it here. Now keep this in mind as we look at this passage. Jesus is speaking here to the apostles, who we know were the foundation of the New Testament church. Now, Jesus is the cornerstone, but it is through the apostles' testimony and the doctrine of the apostles, which they get directly from Jesus, and later, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that is the foundation of the biblical New Testament churches. That, along with this being the final instruction given by Jesus, which Matthew records for us, tells us what we learn here is extremely important, right? We should take notice of this. First, as we look at this, notice that we see some doubt among the apostles here. Doubt as to what? If this is Jesus, or if this is what Jesus wanted them to do? As likely as whether this one standing before them, there's still some questions as to the resurrection, as to what is going on, and what Jesus is going to have them do, and where He's about to go, and what He's about to do, and what authority He has, so to speak. And Jesus kind of lays all of that to rest right here. If there was doubt among some of the apostles that Jesus stood right in front of them, having risen from the dead, though, then we can be assured that doubt is just kind of part of our human nature, right? I mean, that is something that we all struggle with. I'm not saying it's okay, but I am telling you that doubt is something we struggle with at various points in our lives. So don't think you're unregenerate just because you struggle with doubt at times. But Jesus seems to address them immediately here with instructions. They come to Him, there's some doubt, and He addresses them immediately. First, He establishes that they have every reason to listen to Him as He stands before them and to obey Him. Now, that would seem obvious considering His entire ministry and considering He just rose from the dead, right? But maybe in light of the doubt or to emphasize His authority post-resurrection, Jesus tells them that all authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth. So that covers everywhere, right? That's all places. There's nowhere not covered by heaven and earth. Jesus has authority in the physical realm. He has authority in the spiritual realm. He has all authority. With all authority, Jesus then commands or commissions the apostles here to go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So Jesus begins his commission here by sending them to all nations or all people groups. So first we see their commission is not to one limited group, not to go just to the Jews, not to go to someone who might look like them or act like them. They were to not focus on the rich and the powerful. They were not to focus on the poor or the weak. They were to go unto all nations and all people, the whole world. Next, they were to make disciples of these people. Well, how is that to be done? Jesus tells them that they were to baptize these disciples in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Well, we must ask ourselves, then, who are candidates for baptism? Every example of baptism that we have in the New Testament from the book of Acts on is performed on one who has made a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus. That is a proper candidate for baptism. Upon making their profession, they are immersed in water to picture the dying of Jesus, the burial of Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus, and us dying, being buried, and rising with Him as well. It is then, after baptism, of a proper candidate for discipleship, that the born-again believer, that Jesus instructs these apostles to teach all the things He had commanded them. So, Jesus instructs or expects the apostles to teach their disciples, those baptized believers, all things He commanded them. So as they recognized believers by the act of water baptism in the name of the triune God, they were to then instruct them concerning the obedience required, and get this, by their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. The apostles went forth as witnesses to Jesus' resurrection and His lordship. They baptized all who made a profession of faith in Jesus per this commission. Then they taught them the doctrine that Jesus had been teaching them for the better part of three years in which the Holy Spirit would teach them further as Jesus promised in John 14. And this forms the heart of Jesus' command here to make disciples. This is the Great Commission. This was given to the apostles, and this is then given to the church. And as local New Testament churches, this is what we are commissioned to do. This is the Great Commission. Is that all that God left us with, though? Is this all that we have? Is this the only example in Scripture? Is there anything else that we can look to to see in God's Word to give us an example, to set the pattern for what we are to do as New Testament Christians? It would be enough, if so, but God saw fit to give us the book of Acts, wherein we find example after example of this taking place. We have not long been through that study as a church, so I hope you remember much of that study and those examples. But I'll just point out a few, and I don't want you to have to turn with me. I'm just going to quickly go through several passages, several verses here in Acts that point out the work of the apostles and the early churches there. In the book of Acts, in Acts 8, verse 25, we read, So when they had solemnly bore witness and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem, and were proclaiming the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. Verse 40 of chapter 8 says, But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through, he kept proclaiming the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea. Acts 11 verses 19-20 reads, So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except the Jews alone. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, proclaiming the good news of the Lord Jesus. In the hand of the Lord was with them a large number who believed, turned to the Lord. Acts 13 verses 48 and 49, And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region. Acts 14 verses 5 and 7, And when an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers to mistreat and to stone them, They became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lyconia, Lystra, and Derbe, and the surrounding region, and there they continued to proclaim the gospel." Finally, Acts 16.10, And when he had seen the vision immediately, we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the gospel to them. I hope you see the pattern. I hope you see the focus in each one of these passages. I could continue with many more through the book of Acts which demonstrates the same thing. What do all of these passages have in common? They all show exactly what the first churches were doing to bring Christianity to the world around them abroad. These verses give us a clear picture of what they believed God had sent them out to do to convert the lost world to Christianity. And what was it? They were to preach the Gospel of Jesus to all who would hear it. If you go back through and you read through the whole book of Acts, verse by verse, you will notice this is the primary method of the apostles and all other Christians from start to finish. Clearly, we see the preaching of the Gospel is central and prominent. There is no question about that. There should be no question about that. This is precisely how disciples are made. The good news is preached, hearts are opened by the Holy Spirit, disciples are made, and disciples are taught. We see in the book of Acts that Peter, Stephen, Philip, Barnabas, and certainly Paul, they preached to all nations represented in the Roman Empire, both the Jew and the Gentile of all ethnicity. They preach to the poor. They preach to the rich. They preach to those in power. They preach to those with political office. They preach to those without any political office. Not one time do we see an example in the book of Acts of the apostles or anyone else preaching the gospel making a special effort to focus on one specific people group, or political leaders, so that the political leaders then could turn around and lead the people in that area to becoming a Christian nation. You will also not find one place in Acts where the apostles or anyone in the church led a riot, a rebellion, or an insurrection in order to establish a Christian community or nation. you will not find even one passage in Acts where the apostles or early Christians entered the political sphere to push for policy changes in the empire so that Rome or even their community might become more Christian. In fact, according to history, Jewish Christians refused to join in with their fellow Israelites in the late 80s, 60s, and 80s, 70s in their rebellion against the Roman Empire. They refused to. Now what you see In the Word of God, over and over, is the preaching of the Gospel. Oftentimes in the face of persecution by the state. You see the New Testament Christians loving and caring for their fellow brothers and sisters. Sometimes selling their own possessions or giving what little money they had to make sure that their brothers and sisters were not destitute. You see what Jesus describes in Matthew 25. A group of people who fed their hungry brothers and sisters, gave them something to drink, were hospitable to a fellow Christian even if he were a stranger to them, clothed the needy, took care of the sick, visited the Christian imprisoned for their faith. You see what James later describes in his letter as pure and undefiled religion. Christians caring for the orphan and the widow. Those who at that time could truly not care for themselves or without aid or means to get aid. You can scour the New Testament epistles from the book of Acts on and you will not find one passage which calls the New Testament Christians or churches to do any of the following. make a push to be placed in political offices so that we can use those offices to teach people about Christ and create a Christian nation. Use force to secure Christian morals in the society in which we live so that we can live in a Christian nation. Put anyone in prison who is refusing to live according to the biblical principles that we espouse to or according to the specific biblical doctrines that we promote so that we might live in a more Christian nation. In fact, Christianity exploded in the 1st and 2nd centuries despite the culture and the government being heavily opposed to them. Why? How did that happen? Because it was based on an internal change and not an external mandate. God did the work in the hearts of men and women to bring about their change. And He did this through the preaching of the Gospel. What the New Testament consistently demonstrates and teaches is that we as Christians are to live in this world, but not be of this world. We are to tell everyone from all walks of life of the good news of Jesus while also warning them that they will face judgment one day if they refuse this good news and repent of their sin, but that judgment will be from the one and only righteous judge, Jesus. We are consistently taught how we are to treat each other as a body of Christ. We are consistently taught how we are to love and pray for our neighbors and even our enemies. We are taught to care for the widows and the orphans or those who truly cannot care for themselves. we are told to submit to the authorities that God has placed over us, which includes the civil authorities God has put in place, unless they try to force us to do something which stands in opposition to God's Word and commands. But even then, in the face of persecution, we see several examples, in God's Word, of respect, submission to the position placed in front of them, and the preaching of the gospel to those civil authorities despite their persecution. Paul used what legal rights he had to try and prevent getting beat, imprisoned, and killed, but not once did he call for an insurrection for those who loved him and followed him so that he could get out of jail. You know what you have when you get a Christian nation, and I use that term in quotations, one built on a policy change from the civil leaders and not built on converted hearts through the preaching of the gospel? You get something very similar to the nation of Judah during the reign of King Josiah. Judah was not a Christian nation. Christianity had not began at that point, if you want to put it that way. Jesus had not yet been born, had not come, had not died, had not professed His clear Messiahship. But they were God's chosen nation, and they did have God's law, and they were supposed to live according to God's Word. If you'll turn with me for a moment to 2 Kings 22, In 2 Kings 22, we'll just read the first two verses. Josiah was eight years old when he became king and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jedidiah and the daughter of Adiah of Bozkath. And he did what was right in the sight of Yahweh and walked in all the way of his father David. And he did not turn aside to the right or to the left. Josiah became king of Judah, and we read here that he was a godly king. He walked in all the way of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or the left, meaning he did what was right according to God's word. And he commanded and brought forth reform to the nation of Judah during his reign. Now Judah had been a wicked, wicked nation prior to the reign of Josiah. Perhaps the most wicked king that had ever reigned over Judah, a man by the name of Manasseh, sat on the throne for a little over 50 years before Josiah took the throne. There was actually one other king between he and Josiah who was also wicked, but he only reigned for about two years. But by the time Josiah took the throne, the people of Judah had become engrossed in idolatry and sin. They were wicked. Still, Josiah sought to change that. Turn over to chapter 23. We read in verses 1-3 of chapter 23, "...still during the reign of Josiah. Then the king, king Josiah, sent and gathered to him all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. And the king went up to the house of Yahweh, and all the men of Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of Yahweh. Then the king stood by the pillar, and he cut a covenant before Yahweh to walk after Yahweh." and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all His heart and with all His soul, to establish the words of this covenant that were written in this book." And notice this last piece, "...and all the people entered into that covenant." So King Josiah makes this covenant with Yahweh to follow His word and the people join in the covenant with Him. That's fantastic, right? That's wonderful news. Josiah wasn't finished with that. If you read through, and for lack of time we won't, but if you read through the whole chapter of 23, you will see that Josiah, he went through Judah, destroying all of the places of idol worship. He destroyed temples and altars. He put to death priests who were worshiping pagan gods. After Israel had split into the northern and southern kingdoms, there was not another king in either kingdom who did more to stamp out idolatry and wickedness in Judah or Israel than King Josiah. Yet after his death, the very next king over Judah, Josiah's very son, did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He was a wicked king. But it was not just the king who did evil after Josiah's death. Jeremiah the prophet was sent to Judah during the reign of Josiah. Jeremiah was sent to proclaim judgment on Judah for their wickedness. But again, he was sent during the reign of a godly king who brought sweeping reform on the nation of Judah. God knew that even though there was a godly king on the throne, Despite all the reforms that King Josiah demanded take place during his reign, despite taking part in the covenant with Josiah as a people to live by God's Word and follow His commands, God knew that the people of Judah still had wicked hearts. Josiah was godly. There's no question about that. But the people were not. None of the reforms or demands made by Josiah changed the hearts of the people of Judah. And so, as soon as he died, they returned to their idolatry and their wickedness, even his own sons. Not many years after that, God would send Babylon to destroy Jerusalem because of their wickedness and bring ultimate judgment on them. Now consider this. He reigned in Judah, which was a true theocracy, one which God established Himself and gave His law to. Yet, a godly leader who brought godly reforms and demands of the law that God gave did not change the hearts of the people. They turn right back to idolatry. Josiah, unlike a sacralist society over the last 2,000 years, examples of those societies, he actually had a mandate from God to do what he did because Israel was a nation set apart by God to be His voice and be a light to the world. Yet it didn't change the hearts of the people. And therein lies the crux of our subject today. How has God chosen to bring people to Himself and why is that relevant to us today? Well, in a sense, I've kind of buried the lead. I mentioned it in my title, but I've kind of buried the lead. You might or might not have heard the term Christian Nationalist thrown around over the last several years. It's been a pretty popular term recently. It's a term or a label which carries with it a lot of confusion, just to be honest. Many American Christians have begun to claim the title or accept the title of a Christian nationalist. And for many, I think, they do this because they don't fully understand the implications of what it means to call yourself a Christian nationalist. Now, let me say this. Just like so many things, there are extreme views of Christian nationalism that don't represent everybody who may hold to that title or think they are a Christian nationalist. There are more moderate examples of this term, but for the most part, especially the most prominent and popular groups of Christian nationalists, they fall in that extreme camp. Christian nationalists claim to be patriots and Bible-believing Christians. That sounds wonderful. They also promote the idea America must get back to their roots of being a Christian nation. God and country is their cry. Now maybe you're saying, what's wrong with that? I don't hear anything bad there. And I admit that on the surface, it's hard not to think this is a good thing and something that we should be a part of and we should support. This is the case for many Americans, but I would dare say especially for those of us who have been raised in the Bible Belt South. But let me say this now. The core of Christian nationalism is a modern push for sacralism. It is a modern push for Christian imperialism, and that is both dangerous and not the biblical example. And it is also founded on an extreme view of post-millennialism. Let me explain that quickly before we move on. I don't want to get deep into eschatology, and I'm not going to, but post-millennialism is a term used to describe a person's view on eschatology or end times prophecy. Someone who holds to post-millennialism believes, in a nutshell, that God is using Christians to build the Kingdom of God today, and that ultimately there will come a time when the vast majority of the world will convert to Christianity, and then sometime soon after that, Jesus will return. There's different views of this, there's different ways to express that, but I think that is a good way to put that in a nutshell. While we at Sovereign Grace do not hold to that doctrine of post-millennialism, we do recognize that there are some very solid theologians and men that we respect greatly who do hold to this view of eschatology. And just like many other doctrines, there are many different views among people who hold to a post-millennial view. The solid theologians and the men that we respect who hold to this view that I just mentioned, they believe that ultimately God will accomplish this coming and this outpouring of Christianity through the preaching of the gospel. And it is only through the preaching of the gospel that God will one day pour out His Spirit in a major way on the people of the world, which will bring about this massive conversion. Again, we do not fall in line with that, but the focus with that group and those men is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the preaching of the gospel and the conversion of souls through the gospel. But there is a group seemingly growing day by day who believe that it is the Christian's responsibility and duty to bring about a mass conversion, and I use that term in quotation, to Christianity by all means necessary. Further, they believe that God has ordained civil magistrates or civil leaders to be a major catalyst for this change. Maybe the major catalyst for this change. And so they believe and they promote the idea that it is essential for Christians to take over political offices, pass Christian laws, mandate things to make a Christian society from the top down. This is the view of most people who call themselves Christian nationalists. It is a social gospel, just not the social gospel that we usually think of. They do not believe the power of God into salvation is solely in the preaching and teaching of the Word of God, where the Holy Spirit uses the gospel to change the heart. They believe it is also in social reforms and civil mandates that God is using the civil government along with churches to build His kingdom. Most Christian nationalists believe that God has chosen America. Let me rephrase this. Most American Christian nationalists believe that God has chosen America to be His current nation of blessing, much like He did Israel, and that He has ordained to work through America to bring the world to Christianity. In fact, many of them believe the Founding Fathers were given inspiration. They believe that the founding documents that we have, our Constitution for instance, are inspired documents. They believe the Founding Fathers formulated and wrote these documents under the supernatural inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And of course, America then must be God's nation of blessing if that is the case. For the American Christian nationalist, if you are not Christian, you are not a patriot and you are not American. Funny enough, Christian nationalism is not just an American ideology. You might be surprised to know that Russia is considered the global leader of the Christian nationalist movement, with Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church as the head of that movement. At the early center of American nationalism was a group of professing Christians who are self-described as New Apostolic Reformed. These professing Christians, they believe that God has reawakened the church and He has started to call out new apostles to herald His message. This movement is rooted in Pentecostalism and charismatic theology. Paula White, President Trump's lead spiritual advisor, is a leading voice in this movement. The movement has taken roots outside of the NRA though, the National Apostolic Reformation. It has found a home in many churches and with many pastors who call themselves Reformed Baptists. They take an adamant and hardline stance against anyone who would oppose them. Some go so far, and I've seen this, I've seen it written, I've seen it posted, but they take a stance to go so far as to pronounce death on professing Christians like James White, if you know who that is. I don't know if you do or not, but he's a solid, solid Christian theologian, apologist. But pronounce death on him and those like him who have opposed their ideology, and this will come once God revives America as a Christian nation once again. Look, there's no other way to put this than this is a heretical approach to Christianity. This is one that is dangerous to both church and America. I freely admit that there is an appeal to the Christian Nationalist and Christian Nationalist movement if we just look it on its face without digging in deeper. We look around and we see secularism rampant, right? We see so many wicked things in our society being accepted, promoted, and codified into law. We ache as we see the Word of God ignored in such a blatant way, and so we ask, what can we do? What should we do? As good Americans, as good Christians, what are we called by God to do to fix this? As Americans, I think we are uniquely positioned, more so than probably any other country in history, certainly any modern country, to accept this because we live in a republic government based on democracy. We can vote, we have a voice, we can run for office, we can advocate for laws. So we look at a movement like this and we find an appeal to it. We can do something, we should do something, and this is a call to do something. We might even think it a good thing. Why shouldn't we want to be a Christian nation? Why shouldn't we want America to be Christian? Before I answer that more clearly, let me say this. The purpose of this sermon and what I've said to this point is not to make a political statement. I want to be clear about that. Nor is it to discourage any Christian from seeking or having a political office, otherwise I'd have to step down from what I do. I wouldn't have a job. It is a blessing to have a Christian that has a biblical worldview in office or in power, as opposed to someone who has a secular worldview. I am also not telling anyone that they should not call for legislation that honors God and His Word, and instead sit home and be silent. For instance, I actually think it's our responsibility to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves, the most vulnerable humans on earth, those who are yet to be born. So we advocate for laws against abortion. I'm also not saying we shouldn't pray for a revival in our nation where people desire to follow God and His Word. Or that we shouldn't warn civil leaders of the judgment to come if they oppose God and His Word and promote laws that directly oppose God and His Word. We are to do that. I would encourage you to look to Pastor John MacArthur as a great modern example of how he interacted with Governor Newsom at various points in his ministry. Or look back to the Apostle Paul and his example during his imprisonment and the trials that he had before civil magistrates and his example and his testimony. But what I am saying is that political activism or moral laws or Christians in place of power will not change the hearts of the people of America. None of that is the gospel. None of that was the commission given to us by Jesus. And it is not the biblical example that we have as the focus or mission by the apostles or by anyone in the early churches. We do not want a sacral state, which is what the Christian nationalist promotes. As James White once stated, can you imagine, and this is the product of what we would have if we had a sacral state, can you imagine Donald Trump correcting your church with Paula White's theology and then having you submit to it? That is the danger of sacralism and Christian nationalism. It's not bound up in President Trump though. We could say the same thing about President Biden before him or any president after him. That's not my point. It is a movement which desires to take root in political leaders or churches willing to buy into its theology. They're trying to get anyone into their movement willing to buy into this idea. Look, every example of a nation or a state attempting to mandate Christianity through our history as a means to having a Christian nation has failed miserably ultimately. And has almost always resulted in wickedness being perpetuated in the name of God. That is because that is not the commission of the New Testament churches as given by Jesus and as exemplified by the first century church. And again, as James White would go on to point out, the answer to moral insanity in America is the gospel and that's it. But it's also because there is only one King who can establish a fully moral and theocratic society while righteously and perfectly ruling in that society. And His name is Jesus. And He will come back to this earth one day. Where He will bring justice to the wicked. But that is His role. That is His responsibility. As He has determined in His Word. That is not the role of the New Testament Christian. It is not the role of the New Testament Church. Our role. is to preach the gospel of Jesus, which is the power unto salvation. It is only through the gospel that hearts can be changed, society can be changed, and anybody can have a biblical worldview that stands the test of persecution, or of time, or of anything else. And I pray that this sermon has pointed that out more clearly. Stand with me.