It’s Time To Resist!

IT’S TIME TO RESIST!

2 Cor. 10:5

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. Over the Christmas break I heard about some ladies who were shopping non-stop for several days.

2. In one of the many parking lots, they ran into friends. One friend complimented the shop-a-holics on their new car and asked if it was had any special features – like was it an economical car.

3. The shop-a-holics added up their last three days and said, “Well it does get about 20 MALLS TO THE GALLON!”

B. THESIS

1. We live in a time where evil –immorality, profanity, and violence – are sweeping our society. Everywhere the morals and teachings of the Bible are contradicted and opposed.

2. Many Christians are not anchored, and like ships on a tide, are being carried away and subverted by it. They are not consciously rejecting or resisting the drift of the new godless generation, so they are becoming like their environment.

3. This is cause for concern and corrective action by the Church. The Church must hold the line against the changing morals and beliefs.

4. I remember when I went to seminary I was assigned a book to read and be tested on. It taught many unbiblical ideas and attacked Christian beliefs from many angles.

5. I found that the only way to maintain my Christian beliefs was to identify every statement contrary to the Bible and write a rebuke in the margin. If I didn’t, I found myself accepting his ideas. This approach worked.

6. My swordsmanship “parried” the enemies blows, or raising my shield of faith absorbed the flaming lying missiles. It caused me to have victory over all the enemies’ deceits.

C. TITLE

So tonight I want to discuss three things; 1. The Church’s duty to resist evil; 2. What we’re to Resist; and 3. How we’re to Resist it. The title of this message, “It’s Time to Resist!”

I. THE CHURCH’S DUTY TO RESIST

A. FIXING A WRONG INTERPRETATION

1. Now some people have misinterpreted Matt. 5:39 in the KJV. Jesus said, “But I say unto you, That you resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

2. This wasn’t talking about moral evil in society, but persecution by an individual person. It really means, “Don’t fight back against the person who is persecuting you; just take it.” He mentions being slapped, sued, etc. by persecutors.

3. So nowhere does the Bible say we’re not supposed to resist moral evil.

B. OUR DUTY TO RESIST EVIL

1. “With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him” Dan. 11:32. This was a prophecy about Antiochus Epiphanes (215-175 B.C.) king of the Seleucid Empire, who tried to destroy the Jewish religion. The Maccabee family did resist him and liberated the Jewish nation around 160 B.C.

2. Two other verses speak of resisting the enemy; “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” James 4:7; “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith…” 1 Pet. 5:8-9.

3. The 2 N.T. verses above both use the word “anti” against and “histemi” to stand; thus it means “to stand against, to oppose, to withstand.” They all mean to resist all that is contrary to the Word and will of God.

4. Just like when it was suggested to the Lord Jesus by Satan that He turn a stone into bread, Jesus refused and countered the thought with the Word of God. God’s will was His will. So when the enemy pushes you, push back with the Word!

C. LET’S LIGHT A FIRE!

1. Elton Trueblood, the Quaker scholar, once compared evangelism to fire. Evangelism occurs, he said, when Christians are so ignited by their contact with Christ that they in turn set other fires.

2. It is easy to determine when something is aflame. It ignites other material. Any fire that does not spread will eventually go out. A church without evangelism is a contradiction in terms, just as fire that does not burn is a contradiction. “GOD, PUT A FIRE IN US!”

II. WHAT WE’RE TO RESIST

A. SO CALLED SCIENCE

1. “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to your trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called” 1 Tim. 6:20.

2. It’s interesting that the KJV translates “knowledge” as “science” (as do several other translations). Science is the study of the natural world and its uses. Many areas of science do not contradict the Bible, but are simply the findings of studying the natural world.

3. Where “science” crosses the line is where they theorize about things they can’t prove – like the origins of the universe, the origins of life, whether life evolved from one species to another, and how the strata of the earth was laid down.