STAND UP FOR JESUS!

Stand Up for Jesus!

by Walter Martin

When we see idolatry, we are supposed to be provoked.  When we see evil, we are supposed to get exercised about it.  If you can calmly walk through this upholstered cesspool of earth; if you can see evil, filth, degeneracy, and hear vile language; if you can see the corruption of the media and the perversion of the gospel; if you can see the multiple forms of idolatry-the worship of things and of the creation more than the Creator; if you can see this today and you are not provoked about it, then you are not in touch with God the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is provoked by evil, and he stirs up the Church so that we may do something about it.

Christianity is not passive.  Christianity is vigorously active!  Paul, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, blameless, trained under Gamaliel with his Ph.D. at the University of Damascus, stands in Athens.  He looks around and sees idolatry, and he gets angry in his spiritual nature.  Notice, the Scripture says he did something about it.  He went out to try and reason with them.

Do you know what happens to people today when the Holy Spirit stirs them up?  They turn on their television sets and skip prayer meeting.

Am I right?

I'm afraid that too often, it's true.  But if you really are in the will of God, do you know what happens to you when the Holy Spirit provokes you?  You go out and you do something about it. Paul went out and he argued.

Oh, we have people today who say, "Christians aren't supposed to argue.  We're supposed to love."  Gush, gush, gush.  Let me ask you something.  Do you think that argument for the truth excludes love?  Love became flesh in Jesus Christ, and when love ran into the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians and the Scribes, love argued with them!

Incarnate love has to tell the truth.  If someone is dying, do you go to their hospital bed and "love" them so much you never tell them they're going to die in their sins?  They are forever lost if you don't.

What is love? Love is telling the truth.

Paul did not pick arguments.  He went out and he witnessed for Jesus Christ and when people argued with him, he answered them.  Christians are supposed to give answers to the world.  We are not supposed to go about looking for arguments, but we must love people so much that we are willing to argue for the truth.

Stand up, stand up, for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross,
lift high his royal banner, it must not suffer loss.
From victory unto victory his army shall he lead,
till every foe is vanquished and Christ is Lord indeed.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus, stand in His strength alone,
the arm of flesh will fail you, ye dare not trust your own.
Put on the Gospel armor, each piece put on with prayer,
where duty calls or danger, be never wanting there.*

*George Duffield, 1858

By Walter Martin Click here for bio and archived articles

Re: Stand Up for Jesus! Posted On: 03/07/07 11:05:06 AM Age 56, TX Of course I AGREE with the late Dr. Walter Martin, dear saint who is in the presence of Jesus Christ right now! Jesus said "He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters." Luke 11:23 & Matt. 6:24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve G-d and mammon." Re: Stand Up for Jesus! Posted On: 02/22/07 02:24:48 PM Age 46, MO part 3 of 3 Note 1: It is obvious but forgotten, light and dark must be exposed by reference to their standard because of their relative gradient shift. What I mean is that society is darker than in the past as sin becomes normal and light is lighter than we ever knew when we become born again. If we judge ourselves by society today, living in sin is acceptable and being intolerant is a sin. If we judge by Christ or even 40 years ago, living in sin was unacceptable. This truth is a slam against churches that are society relevant and true gospel deficient. Note 2: This note has come with much prayer and consideration. Actually it is but a snippet of hours of research I have done. Many churches today have said they will be seeker sensitive to reach out to the lost, the least, and the lonely, admirable goals, and I do not doubt the sincerity of their hearts, but without true repentance of self, there isnt true faith. Sadly, these churches for the most part never talk about sin or hell but only about love, forgiveness, self fulfillment, and personal relationship- making happy pew sitting self fulfillment sponges. Yes, some churches are worse than others and I still see hope for ours. However, I also see the end of the road, the parallels with the Emergent Church, the non- churched, and the humanistic church. They all in the end focus on self. Love is like a prophylactic, full of promises, yet the skin of the truth, wrapping a lie. (I dont know- but it sounded good, didnt it?) Note 3: Ask any soldier coming back from Iraq if they believed what they were doing was just; then you can make a righteous judgment as to their success, their satisfaction, their attitude, their self-less-ness. Yes men, I am upset writing this because these are the end times, pastors need to get a clue, wake up to their calling and lead their congregations out of their cursed slumber. (Must read: Revelations 3:14-22.) However, mostly I am mad at myself for being in my own slumber all those many years and not starting this when God first brought it to my attention. Never-the-less, it is my calling and I will forever be true. Now if you excuse me I will calm my spirit and spend some more time in prayer. Remember: While it is true that God is love, it is not true that love is God. Preach God not love! John jchristco@earthlink.net Re: Stand Up for Jesus! Posted On: 02/22/07 02:23:37 PM Age 46, MO part 2 of 3 Men: If we are Christians then we have faith, and the portion we have is sufficient to spur us on to good works because salvation comes, not by faith, but through faith. The more we exercise our faith, the more our faith builds, the more our faith builds, the more good works we produce. The more good works we produce, the more we will exercise our faith and the richer our reward in heaven. Oops, I lost some of you there because lets face it; we are not in it, to win it. Most of us are pride of ownership, personal relationship Christians. I dont blame you!!!! This is what is taught yet is the epitome of being lukewarm! This self love is the tool of the Anti-Christ. Sure, we dont think of ourselves as self centered because the church has money in the bank, the lights are on, and our self serving ministries are all humming along churning out Christian mummies. Dont get me started here because the statistics are staggering as to how poorly we stand up when our faith is tested having known nothing but father Abraham had many sons or how to put on a great bake sale. What is amazing to me is why good pastors are scratching their heads wondering why their congregations have no depth of, well; anything- never being taught how to exercise faith, going out on platoon deployments, as is taught by Christ himself and exemplified in Acts and the epistles. Do you get it, liberals think they are righteous; they are tolerant, loving, etc. They believe it is Christians, who are bigoted, intolerant, ignorant, unloving, ungiving, self righteous, etc. The church has failed because indeed this allegation is mostly true. We are in the same boat as the unsaved because we are bigoted, self loving, self righteous, etc because we are taught to use Christs love for our self benefit, ignoring the plight of society, reinforcing our four walls, getting fat on baked goods, and playing right into Satans hands. See: Note 2. Let me take a breath for a moment and let the smoke clear from my keyboard. Can you tell I am angry with righteous hate, hate that spurs on to action- to be a man of action? Friends, fellow warriors, we are not yet battle ready but when we are ready to engage the battle, as Paul did, we will consider it all joy to suffer for Christ, to earn our stripes. Arent men most satisfied when they are fighting an enemy in a war they believe in? Is the exercise of faith a battle or love, flowers, and bright sunny days? See: Note 3. Friends, most churches if they preach the truth at all, teach us to avoid the battle entirely or if you are fortunate, they attempt to equip us for some future confrontation, as the battle rages all around us now! We must not avoid the battle, we are to be salt and light and the battle is critical to our sustained faith because only in battle can we use the armor of God. (Use it or lose it!) When families divorce, when babies are aborted, when gays marry, when Christ died for our-selves, when self is liberated- love is adulterated and truth is irrelevant. Do you yet get how love, as the world teaches, as most pastors preach, is false love? I truly get angry every time I hear pastors preach how Christ is madly in love with our-selves, or hear worship songs that are so dripping with love, I feel like a cheap whore. They have their purpose, but every week? What man, who has a set of stones, should feel that way? And yes, if you are a man and you dont feel like picking flowers every Sunday, then you are intentionally led to believe that you cant possibly be a Christian because, dont you know, God wants you to be a eunuch. Well men, isnt Christ also the truth of God, the righteous judge, the lion of Judah, the alpha and the omega? Yet in church we never worship that God in our actions or our songs, we only worship the baby in the manger, the lamb, the gentle and meek, the lover of, heres that word again, my-self. Re: Stand Up for Jesus! Posted On: 02/22/07 02:19:47 PM Age 46, MO Hello: Thanks for your willingness to speak truth. I just yesterday wrote this for my men's group, I think it relevent. Feel free to use it or abuse it, either way it's out there and won't return void. In Christ! Topic 5- Lukewarm no more! Hello Friends: I woke up the other morning thinking of a song from my generation sung by Nazareth; it is called Love hurts. I havent heard that song in years so I thought it ironic that it was in my head because I had a very good night indeed. Well anyway, as it so happened I was reading in Philippians today and started looking at this epistle a little differently than I had in the past, namely through Pauls eyes. So I began thinking; why does love hurt? I mean sometimes it hurts when we give it, sometimes it hurts when we receive it, and it always hurts when it is abused or said another way; adulterated or perverse, but why? I mean if love hurts, who wants it? First: What is love? If you have been attending these discussions for any length of time, you know I define real love differently than the world, or sadly, even differently than most preachers define it. I define it as obedience; or the proper, faithful, application of action to the Truth. (Hence: Men of Action.) The entirety of scripture supports this succinct definition but it is most exemplified by Christ himself in Luke 22:40-46. You see, Christ did not want His suffering; whom would, but He was obedient to the truth because it was proper, and He perfected or completed it on the cross. So what is the proper? (FYI: I use my Websters very often when Im studying.) Proper is: peculiar, correct, excellent, refined, faithful, discreet. I found all these adjectives to be helpful to me but peculiar stood out as well; rather odd. Odd because the word itself denotes the unusual or the strange yet obviously it is not debased or perverse because it is, well; proper. (Nothing is perverse in Christ. Ill say that again; IN Christ, are all things good, pure, and proper.) However, this is almost a catch-22 but actually key to the whole thing so bear with me! The love we have is from above and it is strange to the world because it is folly to them. It is peculiar because it is unexpected, unwarranted, undeserved; ie: grace. It is not an emotion or selfish, but rather is meant to encapsulate truth. Not so that truth can be accepted, or swallowed, but rather the opposite- so that truth can be exemplified, glorified or pronounced as absolutely truthful! (How many churches preach true truth, truth that cuts like a knife yet is medicinal in effect? Are we listening to the full counsel of God guiding our faith?) This truth about love is hard to fully wrap our minds around because of our perversion of scripture but remember, Satan is the most powerful created being and he is the exact opposite of Christ (Anti- as in anti-Christ, means opposite, without, or against.) He is the father of all lies and his evil stems from his unlimited selfish love for himself. If you dont remember anything else I say here, remember this: Truth is pronounced when lies are exposed, light is pronounced in a dark room, (See: note 1) love is pronounced in the mist of suffering, and understand this: love is not the end goal because love cannot save- to love is a choice! If you have not love, then you are fooling yourself, but we have love if we have faith. John jchristco@earthlink.net part 1 of 3 Re: Stand Up for Jesus! Posted On: 02/22/07 02:07:33 PM Age 35, IN Thank you for such a truthful--yet loving--article. I think that is why we are told to "speak the truth in love" (Eph. 4:15); one without the other is not God's truth or God's love. Many today are so focused on God's love, they are willing to sacrifice His truth in order to reach seekers. They deliberately omit preaching about God's wrath and man's sinfulness so as not to offend anyone with the TRUTH. Sadly, many of us idly sit by and allow it to happen. It seems these days anyone trying to promote the truth of doctrine is labeled as divisive and dogmatic. What a shame... Re: Stand Up for Jesus! Posted On: 02/21/07 09:10:36 PM Age 56, MN AMEN. what Mr. Martin said is so dead on. TODAY it seems all I hear is we are not to debate or argue anything. ITS nothing but Go alongs to GET alongs. I have to sit back and scratch my head and say WHOS side are they on. THATS not good, it should be clear as Jesus said "YOUR either for me or against me!" ONE should not have to guess "SHOULD THEY?" Re: Stand Up for Jesus! Posted On: 02/21/07 08:28:41 AM Age 25, QL This world literally stinks .. it wreaks of sin. Yet the Lord of glory came down to save us wicked creatures. The wrath of God must be something awefully terribly, to see Him come down to this place, indeed his love must be absolutely mammoth, to expend his whole human life to save us. To suffer the ripping apart of his sinless flesh. To suffer the mockery and heart rending buffs of wicked lips, from the very creatures he so carefully designed. All so that some could stand and render eternal praise and glory to God, attesting the love of the Saviour for all eternity. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: Does the heart of flesh that broke on calvary's tree, still bring a tear to the eyes of his saints. How can we stand by, and watch? Only a cold-hearted, self-seeking.. What should a creature do for His Maker? Render praise and thanks for His goodness, proven by obedience to the object of his worship. Sinners are perishing.. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Re: Stand Up for Jesus! Posted On: 02/21/07 08:08:45 AM Age 60, MO Amen to you Walter. Stand up for Jesus. Many times in my electrical contruction work have I had the opportunity to witness for Jesus. It usually starts out with another worker on the job site cussing and fussing about something or other, and I will ask what the problem is. From their I will take it to "where do you go to church?" not expecting to get an answer, but ususally the answer is one that states the hypocricy of what these people have encountered as far as the "local church" goes. I will usually agree that I too have encountered a great deal of hypocricy in the local church groups, but BUT, that is not Spirit and Truth. I go on to explain that what is important is a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Just yesterday, I wrote in this forum the need for the brethren to stand up for Christ. George Cancilla