There was a local girl that was raped in the public school.  The school board covered it up, sent the kid (rapist) to another school, and he raped another girl there.  I guarantee you, if he called her fat and ugly, they would have suspended him for bullying.  Somebody needs to be reminded that rape is the ultimate bullying.  And they call good, evil, and evil, good.  You stand up and bring the truth, and it says the people will not hear it.  We gather around in the churches, afraid to say anything in public, lest there be some kind of backlash, and it cost us something.  Dear God, that it would bring hardship on me to stand up for the truth.

I’m not promoting going out there and just trying to bring attention to ourselves and take on social issues.  Our job is not social issues; our job is the gospel.  I’m not talking about this from a social perspective.  I’m talking about why are we, as Christians, not living examples?  What is the world seeing when they look into the average Christian church today?  They’re seeing women dominating the men.  They’re watching independent, rebellious children, their love of the world and their lust for the things of the world.  The church is not distinct.  The Scripture says, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.”  “To be a friend of the world is to be the enemy of God!”  It’s these truths that will guarantee us not having a big church.  So you don’t have to worry; your seat will be available.  People don’t want to hear about women being submissive.  Are we doing the Word or not doing the Word?  Are we preaching the Word or not preaching the Word?  You want to solve the bullying problem?  Love one another; amen?  Learn to walk in humility; humble yourselves.  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He’ll lift you up.

The Bible gives us all of the instructions.  They are 180⁰ to the world, to the world’s wisdom, to what some psychologist would tell you.  During the COVID-19 days, we never closed.  We continued to gather as a community.  I had people talk to me, and they said, “Well, this is a good social statement that shows the church should be separate from the state.”  I said, “That has nothing to do with it!”  And the guy was like, “Really?”  I said, “Yeah.  The reason we did that is because the Bible says forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, and even more as you see the Day approaching.”  It’s the Bible; we don’t know how to do anything else.

I encourage you, as we look into this Word, and we’ve talked about it before, Nehemiah, Chapter 8, verse 5.  The Scripture said when Ezra came out to address the people, and they opened the Book, the people stood up.  The thing my mind is just going over and over:  where is this reverence for the Word of God, today?  Where is this reverence for the Word of God?  The Bible says, "Truth has fallen into the streets," the prophets have declared.  The Word of God, “Thy word is truth.”  During the time of Josiah, the Word of God was found in the temple.  They sent the teaching priests into all of the regions to make sure that everybody believed the same thing.  We are living in an hour, beloved, when there are a lot of gospels being preached.  The secular-humanist gospel sounds something like this, “My Jesus would never do that.”  You see the “Jesus” that many people have, today, would never call somebody a whited sepulcher, would never call them a generation of vipers.  A whited sepulcher--you look so good and righteous on the outside, but inside, you’re full of dead men’s bones.  You are a hypocrite.