Fireproof | Dr. Conrad Vine

on this beautiful Sabbath morning. I'm so glad I've got this 7:00 preaching slot uh because it's much cooler in your jacket than preaching in midday. So, I'm very grateful to the organizers for their thoughtfulness in that. Um for we are give you a warm welcome. It's a beautiful day here in Sed Haven and we've had a wonderful camp meeting so far.

Uh today I'm going to be talking about my sermon is entitled Fireproof. I'm going to be talking about how do you survive cancel culture. Cancel culture is all around us these days and some of us know a bit about that. I want to talk about some of the spiritual lessons of going through uh persecution and push back and how we can grow in Christlikkeness as we go through cancelled culture. So before we begin, I invite you to bow your heads with me and we'll invite the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Heavenly Father, uh we thank you for this blessed Sabbath day. I thank you, Father, for the freedom we have to gather and worship you here. And I pray, Lord, that as we gather today, your Holy Spirit will be poured out upon each one of us. Father, I pray you'll speak through me and for me. Well, my voice is kind of weak this morning.

I pray you give me the strength to get through this sermon. I ask you, Lord, that you'll be glorified in each of our lives. That people take note that those people from the Sedan camp meeting, they spent time with Jesus Christ. So, Father, I pray your blessing upon this sermon now and I pray you'll speak to each of our hearts. May our hearts be willing to be changed.

May our thinking uh be renewed. May our feet be willing to walk in new directions. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. So, uh this is our journey today.

We're going to look at uh four things related to um cancel culture. Uh four lessons I've learned. One is that um truth flees when cancel culture comes knocking on your door. and it will come knocking on your door sooner or later in life. When cancel culture comes knocking on your door, truth flees.

The first casualty of war is truth. The second thing we're going to take a look at is the fact that when cancel culture comes knocking on your front door, there is undue process. In actual fact, there is often no process whatsoever. Then we learn that you have to be bitter or better. The natural uh human inclination when cancel culture comes for you is to be bitter.

But you have to choose to be better on a daily basis. And then you soon discover who your true friends are. And you just discover that your ultimate true friend is Jesus Christ himself. And so these are the the four areas we're going to go through today. And we're going to start out um with a verse here from Isaiah 59:14-15.

And all of our verses, unless I go off the reservation today, all of our verses will be upon the screen here today. But from Isaiah 59:14-15, it says this, "Justice is turned back and righteousness stands at a distance. For truth stumbles in the public square, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and whoever turns from evil is desoiled. The Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no justice.

As I said a few moments ago, truth is the first casualty of war. And in cancel culture, when cancel culture comes knocking on your front door, the goal is to destroy an individual professionally, socially, and financially, and also destroy their reputation because their views are deemed as unacceptable. Now in cancel culture, cancel culture is only imposed by the elites of society. The poor, the marginalized, the powerless do not have the power to impose cancel culture. Cancel culture historically together with censorship is only imposed by the powerful and the elites in society or in your business or in our church.

Cancel culture is imposed because an individual threatens the power of the elites in society and so they must be destroyed and in the process of destroying them truth no longer matters. The real issue is not whether somebody speaks the truth but whether the individual threatens the power, the position or the prestige of the elites in society. And when cancel culture comes knocking on your door, it's important that we understand that those who are imposing it no longer care about truth. They care about destroying you. You have challenged their power.

You're challenging their prestige. They feel threatened. So truth is discarded in the pursuit of the man or the woman who spoke up. So truth is the first casualty of cancel culture. And cancel culture in our church is not imposed to uphold truth or purity of doctrine despite the pious window dressing that accompanies council culture.

But it is imposed to preserve the power of the powerful over the powerless and to prevent any future challenges to the elites whether in society or in the church. But truth matters. Truth is absolutely important. Why do I say that? Because God is truth.

Deuteronomy 32:4 says this, "He that is God, he is the rock. His work is perfect, for all his ways are judgment, a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." And so God himself is a God of truth. His throne is based on truth and righteousness. And Jesus himself spoke of himself in John 14:6 where he said there, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Jesus did not say I am a way, a truth and a life. He said I am the truth, the way, the truth and the life.

That is outside of Jesus there is no truth. Everything is relative when it comes to his relation to Jesus Christ. Um truth is absolute. Jesus is the truth and all ideas are measured against the person and teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And then Jesus goes on to say in John 17:7, he said, "Thy word is truth." Now the implication of this is that truth means nothing apart from God.

Truth cannot be explained or understood without God as the source and cancel culture comes knocking at our door. Well, as Christians, we're very good at building a scaffolding of ideas around the person of Jesus Christ. We have sermons, we have devotionals, we have hymns, we have camp meetings, uh we have devotional books and but the but at the end of the day what matters is not the ideas but the person of Jesus himself. You see the phrase the verse in scripture my truth or my grace is sufficient for you as a text it doesn't get you through cancel culture. Merely knowing what the Bible says does not get you through cancel culture.

When the verse says, "My grace is sufficient for you," what the verse is saying is that it is when you experience God's grace on a personal level, that is what carries you through the challenges of life. So merely knowing that God's grace is sufficient as revealed in scripture will not get you through cancel culture. Experiencing God's grace for yourself will get you through cancel culture. It will carry you through. And so the words of scripture are important but they point to an ultimate reality and that is Jesus Christ himself.

There are no seminary classes in surviving cancel culture. So you have to make your faith your own. You have to have a lived experience with God and that is what will carry you through the dark moments of cancel culture. Decide in advance therefore before cancel culture comes to you personally where your ultimate loyalties lie. We need to make our calling and our election sure before persecution comes chasing us down in the public square.

In practical terms, what we discover with cancel council culture is that your words will be used against you. Your words will be twisted. Your words will be deliberately misunderstood. And so if you're going to say anything these days, and it goes online, and things do go online these days, some practical advice would be this. Keep your sentences short.

Avoid idiomatic language. Make your words easy for translators. Use simple, clear, and direct language. Stick to the point. And don't use inference.

People will infer the wrong thing. Don't sugarcoat anything. Tell the truth. Speak it as bluntly, simply, clearly, directly, honestly, unashamedly, and unapologetically as possible. The world in 2025 is looking for truth, and they don't care where they find it.

People are looking for truth online and they don't care really what denomination you are anymore. People are searching around the world for truth. And truth has a certain ring to it. Truth is self- authenticating. And so when cancel culture comes knocking on your door, the first thing you will learn is that truth is the first casualty.

But we respond by continuing to speak truth because the truth will survive. Time and truth will always survive over falsehood. Lies may circle around may go around the world before you get up for breakfast, but the truth will eventually track it down. So when cancel culture comes knocking on your door and whatever you are being cancelled for, covenant with God that you will always speak the truth to the best of your ability. Speak the truth.

The truth will ultimately triumph. The next thing I've learned in cancel culture is that cancel culture involves undue process. It often involves no process whatsoever. You cannot escape the storm when cancel culture comes knocking on your front door. Within my experience, cancel culture is manifest in certain ways.

The church manual outlines the due process and the fundamental rights of members, but those are simply ignored. No specific details of alleged false doctrines are ever provided by one's accusers. So, it's impossible to defend yourself. No opportunities are provided to know the formal accusations. No opportunities provided to prepare your defense or to have a court of a court where you can defend yourself.

Whether it's before your local congregation in a business meeting or before a conference executive committee. When bans are imposed, they're imposed in different ways. Sometimes a conference will have the moral courage to actually vote a ban on an individual. More often p presidents will call pastors and pressure them not to invite you or to cancel the invitation. Sometimes presidents will call the board of elders and say, "If you don't cancel that speaker, we will withdraw your pastor immediately or will fire your pastor as happened not so long ago." Some bands are communicated in writing.

Some bands come by telephone. And some you discover by accident when you arrive in a place and discover that you've been banned. And so cancel culture works in different ways. And as a general rule, there is almost no process to it. You soon discover that anonymous hit pieces um prepared by young men seeking to ingratiate themselves with a hierarchy circulate around on the internet.

Character assassinations and falsehoods are the are the the um the norm on the internet these days. And in such moments, how do you respond when there is undue process and often no process in in the cancel culture experience? Well, you cannot chase every rabbit. So don't. You cannot chase every rabbit.

So don't. You would spend the rest of your life like a dog chasing its tail and you would never succeed in reaching that tail. So don't chase every rabbit. When time and truth are on your side, you can be still and know that I am God as in Psalm 46 and verse one. The ultimate question is this.

Galatians 1:10. Am I now seeking human approval or God's approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I was still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ. And so when cancel culture comes knocking on your door, you discover that truth flees.

There is undue process. People cloak themselves in piety and they destroy you. Sometimes to your face, sometimes behind your back. But at the end of the day, as servants of Christ, we are seeking the approval of God, not the approval of men. There are many courts out there.

There's the local county court. There the earthly law courts. There's the Supreme Court of your nation. There are church business meetings. There are conference executive committees.

There's the courts of public opinion. But there is only one court that really matters, and that is the pre-advent judgment in heaven going on right now. where the eternal destiny of every soul is being determined by our heavenly father. That is the only court that truly matters. And so when cancel culture comes knocking on your door, keep your rudder straight through the storms of life because we're not seeking the approval of the fickle crowd.

We're seeking the approval of our heavenly father. And in the pre-advent judgment, we want to be found to be true and pure in all that we do. That is the only court that matters. The Apostle Paul spoke about that pre-advent judgment 2100 years ago. He said this, "For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each may receive um recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil." And so Paul spoke about this fact 2,000 years ago, pointing forward to what we know in Daniel 8:es 13 and 14, that there is a pre-advent judgment and it started in 1844.

And the eternal destiny of every soul is confirmed in that pre-advent process. When Jesus comes, he says, "Behold, I come soon." Revelation 22, "My reward is with me to repay everyone according to everyone's work." And so before Jesus comes again, it is clear that our eternal destinies are already decided. So when cancel culture comes knocking on your door, you're ultimately trying to please God and not men. And calibrate your words and your actions in such a way to bring honor and glory to your heavenly father. The greatest example of somebody facing undue process was Jesus at his own trial.

He faced false accusers. There was new no due process at the trial of Christ. Everything about his trial was illegal under Jewish um uh under the Jewish legal system. But Jesus before his accusers were silent. He let them speak.

And after a while there were so many false accusations that it became apparent to the Sanhedrin that the accusations were false. And the high priest was forced to personally intervene and to adjure Jesus, I tell us whether you are the Messiah or not. The high priest got to the core of the matter because all the false accusations were revealed to be false during the undue process. While that pre-advent judgment is going on in heaven above, Sister White writes this. She says, "While the investigative judgment is going forward in heaven, while the sins of penitent believers are being removed from the sanctuary, there is to be a special work of purification of putting away of sin among God's people upon earth.

What matters is the heavenly judgment. Not the judgment of your local conference, not the judgment of the local congregation. What matters is God and his judgment. So when cancel culture comes your way, keep your ru straight. Speak the truth and nothing but the truth.

Live lives of simple pleasure. Why? Because one day those simple pleasures are going to be denied you. When persecution comes your way, um the simple things you take for granted in life, such as people smiling at you, people acknowledging your existence, people shaking your hands, those simple things often disappear in front of you. So what you realize in cancel culture is that prayer and Bible study, the quiet hour with your heavenly father first thing in the morning, those become really important because that's the only thing that's going to get you through is your walk with God.

What you also realize in cancel culture is that if your if your view of the word of God, the Bible, is that maybe it contains the word of God rather than it is the word of God. If that is your view of the word of God, you might say a more progressive view, that's not going to get you through cancel culture. Nobody's willing to suffer persecution or loss for myths or fables. Either the word of God is true and you're willing to stand for it and lose for it in this world or if it is just a collection of fables or it contains the word of God rather than is the word of God. and we're free to cut out the bits that we don't think are inspired, generally the things that disagree um with our personal desires.

If the if the Bible is just a collection of myths and fables and is not the inspired word of God, you're not going to survive council culture. Liberal theology does not get you through persecution. A living faith in Jesus Christ and and a firm faith that this is the word of God for fallen humanity. So when cancel culture comes knocking on your door and there is undue process, speak the truth and remember that we're seeking the approval of God rather than the approval of men. The next thing about cancel culture is that you have to choose every morning to be better and not bitter.

When enduring cancel culture, it's easy to respond is natural to respond with anger, with depression, with rage or bitterness. Bitterness leads to health problems such as high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, stomach ulcers, cancers, backachche, back spasms or premature aiding aging. Ultimately, if you if you turn bitter in the process of cancel culture, it can lead to unresolved anger and depression which can destroy your relationship with your brothers and sisters, with your family, and also with your heavenly father. Hardness of heart is not just a euphemism for stubborn attitude. A refusal to deal with anger and bitterness leads to a diseased heart and emotionally to broken relationships.

And emotions such as bitterness do not die. They seek expression. They seek resolution. When we refuse to acknowledge and deal with that anger in a Christlike way, we are burying a living emotion. When we bury our bitterness, the tension is often turned inward rather than outwards.

The tension of the anger is transferred to our muscles. We wake each morning with a stiff back or a painful neck or a heartache. That anger, that bitterness has found expression in in has found an outlet in physical expression. That is not the path to take. When you go through council culture, it's a strange thing I've noticed.

You wake every morning with a sense of anger and rage and you have to decide what to do with it. You have to decide what to do with it. And I've come to the conclusion that you have to choose first thing every morning to be better rather than bitter. It is a conscious choice you must make to avoid the bitterness and the sense of injustice from overwhelming you. The Apostle Paul said this, "Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." Now, we use truth to defend against cancel culture on the outside, but internally we need a daily experience of God's grace to get us through that cancel culture.

God's cra grace is to permeate every aspect of our beings, our hearts, our minds, our marriages, our families, our daily thinking to banish that evil summising that that that may come into your thoughts naturally. God's grace keeps our hearts open to the love of God and to the presence of Jesus Christ. And so we choose every morning to be better rather than bitter. You pray every morning for for the spirit of Christ to so fill you that the fruits of the spirit will be manifest and God will wash away with his grace the anger and the works of the flesh. We seek every morning for a Christlike spirit that people may see Christ in us.

And as Christ comes into us on a daily basis, he takes care of the anger and the bitterness for us. Because it's almost impossible to take care of that yourself. That is the human response to cancel culture. But when you invite Christ in every morning and you ask him to clean you up and to give you his spirit and his character, that's exactly what he does. So there is a daily surrender of your anger and your bitterness and your sense of injustice and you're asking Jesus to take care of these things.

That famous English preacher in the 1840s, Charles Spurgeon, this is what he had to say about the experience of anger. He says, "The lament has a soft melody that a song of joy cannot have." Isn't this explained by the fact that in suffering we are closer to God? Our friends are like the waves of the shore that throw us onto dry land. But our suffering is like the returning wave that takes us out into the endless sea of God's grace. We would have been stranded and wasting away on the shore if it had not been for their returning wave that carried us to our father and our God.

Blessed be the tribulation. It has brought us to God. It has quickened our prayer. It has kindled our love, strengthened our faith. It brought Christ into the fiery furnace with us and brought us out of the furnace again that we might live with Christ more joyfully than before.

It's a beautiful quote that our friends may try to take us out of suffering but God sometimes allows us to be carried into by suffering so we may experience how vast and how beautiful and how wonderful the sea of his grace really is. And so suffering opens our eyes to a new experience of God's grace. We have a new understanding that he really can carry me through the storms of life. We understand that his grace is sufficient for our needs and that his grace can take and carry us through and can wash away whatever this world is throwing at us today. Sister White puts it this way in our high calling.

She said, "The most trying experiences in the Christian's life may be the most blessed." The special providences of the dark hours may encourage the soul in future attacks of Satan and equip the servant of God to stand in fiery trials. The trial of your faith is more precious than gold. It's a beautiful passage there that I I like that first phrase, the most trying experiences in the Christian's life may be the most blessed. And why is that? is because we grow the most spiritually.

Not in the good times of life, but in the bad times of life. We come closer to God when we go through that health diagnosis, that business bankruptcy, maybe the repossession of our home, maybe struggling with a wayward child, or giving birth to a child and discovering that he or she has a congenital defect, and you're going to be a caregiver for the rest of your life. These are the trials that God allows to come our way in order to grow us spiritually, in order to perfect our faith, in order to rep prioritize our lives so that the froth of this world is burnt away and we realize what is truly important. Cancel culture is just another one of those trials that God allows us to go through in order that he might perfect our character for our heavenly home. Sister White goes on to say in a testing treasures volume 1, she says, "Some so-called servants of God do not know the value of refining trials.

They have not experienced the baptism of suffering. The third angel leads his people gradually upward, higher and higher. Each step will be a new test." And so cancel culture is just one of those refining trials that God allows us to go through that leads us close and closer to a Christlike character. But if it's going to lead us to a Christlike character, we have to consciously choose with intentionality every morning to be better rather than bitter because the natural inclination is to be bitter. So in my experience, asking God for the infilling of the Holy Spirit, asking my heavenly father for the spirit of Christ on every morning is what carries me through and enables me to live life and to keep the bitterness and the anger at bay and so that people may see Christ in me by the grace of God rather than what people have done to me.

And this can apply to each one of us in our lives today. When cancel culture comes your way, we're not to minimize the suffering. You will hurt. Your families will be hurt. Your children will see the elites trying to destroy their parents, both in society and in the church.

But our love for God and our love for those who are perpetrating cancel culture must triumph over our love for our own families. We must be prepared in advance for betrayal and condemnation from within our own families. When Jesus was on the cross of Calvary, he saw his mother weeping below Mary. What did Mary went want for her son in that moment? The chief priests and the Pharisees said, "If you come down from the cross, we'll believe that you are the son of God.

We believe you are the Messiah." And I'm sure Mary in her heart of heart wanted Christ to come down from that cross and to end the suffering once and for all. But Jesus chose to stay on that cross because his first allegiance was to the the salvation of all humanity, not just the feelings of one individual, his mother. The plan of salvation has to take priority over human sentiment. And our first allegiance when we go through cancel culture is to our savior Jesus Christ. And we may be like him become a man or woman of sorrows.

So lean into being better. This is one of the hardest teaching experience it as you go through council culture yourself. Really appreciate about the stories in the gospels is that Jesus recognizes that when people are hurting him or his body, they are often acting under a satanic delusion. When Christ was on Calvary in Luke 23, he said, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. When Jesus said, "For they know not what they do," he was recognizing that those Roman soldiers were not entirely morally responsible for what they were doing.

They did not know what they were doing. And so when people hurt you, when cancel culture comes knocking on your door, we can take the same posture and attitude as did our Lord and Savior that they know not what they do. There is coming a time, says Jesus in John 16:2, when they will persecute you and in so doing they'll think they're acting offering acts of worship to God. They are acting under satanic delusion. And so when people hurt you in cancel culture, don't get angry at the individual because in the teachings of Jesus, when these things happen, these things happen because Satan is at work and people are acting in a deluded or deceived way.

And so we're not going to get angry at those who are hurting us. We may be angry at Satan, but not at the people who are hurting us. We pray for their salvation that truth will triumph over Satan's deceptions in their own lives. And so to let go of bitterness every morning and to choose love and forgiveness for those imposing cancel culture on you is to set the prisoner free and to discover that you are that prisoner. The final thing I've learned about cancel culture is that you soon discover who your true friends really are.

It's not a hard it's not a curse to go through cancel culture. I want to emphasize that this morning. Some people may be afraid of cancel culture. Maybe we do anything to avoid cancel culture. Maybe we keep on saying what we think are the right things in society so that cancel culture doesn't come knocking on our door.

But I'm here to say this morning that don't be afraid of cancel culture. There are many blessings to cancel culture and one of the blessings is you discover who your true friends really are. During the COVID pandemic, I had a lot of supplies of Ivamekin in my home. I had a lot of ivormectin and sometimes at 10:00 at night, you get a knock on the door and there's a complete stranger standing there. They say, "My mom can't breathe.

She has COVID. Right here on the grapevine, you've got ivormectin." Then you have to decide what to do. You have to decide, do I trust this individual or not? Because you're not supposed to give out ivormectin. And I'm not saying that I did.

But you have to choose in that moment, do I trust this individual? Do I trust this individual? The Bible says this, a friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. A man that hath friends must show himself friendly. And there is a friend that stickketh closer than a brother.

There are many fair weather friends who are not true friends. They will exhaust your resources. Your but they will not stand by you in the times of comes knocking on your door. You may also have biolog who will not stand by you in your hour of need. But you discover who your true friends are when cancel culture comes knocking on the door.

They are the ones who will not just offer their support in private, but they'll stand by you in public in your hour of need. They are the ones who will speak up at business meetings or conference committees even when you are not there and you have no idea they're speaking up for you. Those are your true friends. True friends will stand by you publicly know it will bring reproach upon them also. Those are the those are the friends you pray for.

They're willing to join in the fellowship of the damned in public society. You will need such friends when the mark of the beast is imposed. So don't be afraid of cancel culture today because God is revealing to you who your true friends are when the final crisis of conscience comes upon this planet. It's the way that God winnows out the wheat from the chaff. Cancel culture is God's blessing and it opens your eyes as to who really cares about you and who you can really trust.

And likewise, if you have a friend going through cancel culture, you have to choose whether to be a true friend or a fair weather friend for them as well. It works both ways. Standing in solidarity with those who are experiencing cancel culture gives them encouragement, brings them joy, brings them comfort, brings them the assurance that they're not entirely alone, even though polite society enjoys pointing their fingers at them. In cancel culture, seemingly innocent words can be used against you. But Proverbs 27:6 says this, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Those are your true friends who will risk the friendship to tell you the truth about your situation. Pray that God will give you friends who will wound you in private because they care about you. Who who will tell you the hard truths that you need to hear for maybe you to change your course of action or to change your thinking on a in a certain matter. Ecclesiastes 10:20 says this, "Do not curse the king even in your thoughts, or curse the rich even in your bedroom, for Siri or Alexa may carry your voice, or some winged creature will tell the matter. We all have these smart devices.

They're in our homes. They're in our bedrooms. And don't think for a minute that there isn't passive listening going on. If you don't believe me, uh, just say this afternoon, this evening, say in the hearing of your phone, I'm thinking of buying a new Range Rover. And then you'll start seeing adverts for Range Rovers flooding your social media.

So, you know that something out there is listening to your every word. But what this verse is telling you is that in cancel culture, there are moments when you do not tell your your deepest secrets, even to your spouse. Why do I say that? We say that honesty is important in marriage. Yes, it is.

But the experience of the persecuted church, whether it be communist China or Chowescu's Romania or the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany, the experience of the persecuted church is that a former spouse, an estranged spouse, a separated spouse may become your most bitter enemy. They may say things about you to protect themselves. And so there are things that you do not share with anybody other than with your heavenly father. And so maintain discretion. Avoid gossip.

Silence truly is golden. Consider whether your words will disseminate harmless information that will one day be used against you. The Apostle Paul put it this way. Be at peace with all men. Why does he say this?

Well, because when there is a quarrel and two sides are arguing, there are accusations going back and forth. There are reciprocal accusations and you may have a quarrel with your brother in church today and you may not think anything of it. But in six months time when cancel culture comes knocking your way, your enemies will pick up the accusations from that quarrel and hurl them at you again. So what was said in a private quarrel may now be splashed out in public and across the internet by people who weren't part of the original discussion. So the Apostle Paul says, "Seek to live at peace with all men because disputes and accusations give ammunition to persecutors when council culture comes your way." Jesus said this in the sermon on the mount, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." And Jesus modeled what it means to be a peacemaker on Calvary.

In Ephesians chapter 2, we read that Christ is our peace. And in his body he has broken down the dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles. And what happened in the time of Christ was if imagine this is the temple in front of me. You have the temple itself and then around the c temple you have the court of the Israelites. Then you had a colonade and outside that you got the court of the Israelite women.

Then outside the court of the Israelite women you had a wall and the Gentiles male or female could not come closer to the temple itself than that wall. That was the dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles. And that was where the animals were slaughtered. And so Passover time, when Passover comes, you have maybe 3 million pilgrims in Jerusalem at the time of Christ. And they're slaughtering one lamb for every, say, 10 Passover celebrants.

That means they they're slaughtering about a third of a million lambs in the court of the Gentiles. They're slitting their throats. The noise, the sound, the smell is horrendous. That's why the Ethiopian unic would have been praying. It's no wonder that God that Jesus drive drive the animals and the money changers away.

This is supposed to be a house of prayer. He says, but you've made it to den of thieves. And Christ modeled for us on Calvary what it means to be a peacemaker. He died in order that Jews and Gentiles, both of whom were involved in a centuries long dispute, and neither of whom was entirely innocent. Jesus or the innocent one died in order that the guilty might be reconciled.

When we make peace today, if I make peace with my brother in front of the church, I want the whole church know that my brother was entirely responsible for the problems. I want the whole church know that he was an absolute roter and stinker. I want everybody to know that he is a moral reprobate. And I want everybody to know that I did everything right and pure and noble and true and honest. And I need to come out of the process smelling of roses.

And even though we've publicly reconciled, everybody needs to know that that is a suspect marked man for the rest of his life. That's how we want to make peace. But when Jesus made peace, he accepted blood on his hands. But only Jesus was innocent of the blood on his hands. And he accepted blood on his hands that those who have blood on their hands and who are guilty of the blood on their hands can find reconciliation with one another and with their heavenly father.

That's the peacemaking that Jesus modeled for us. Jesus said, "I do not call you servants any longer because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I've called you friends because I've made known to you everything that I've heard from my father." Culture, we discover who our true friends are. We discover at a deeper level that our truest friend is Jesus Christ. Cancel culture is an invitation to study more deeply in the gospels, to pray more fervently, and to repent more fully than ever before. To know Jesus and to be known by Jesus is maybe the greatest privilege we have as followers of Jesus Christ.

To come before him without pretense or self-d delusion and to enable him to transform us. Transformation takes place when you have a combination of grace and truth and time. You put those three ingredients together, grace, truth and time in the presence of Jesus Christ leads to a personal transformation. And that personal transformation will carry you through the storm of cancel culture. I want to share with you a moment uh just our fundamental beliefs here.

Because when you go through council culture and you dig more deeply into scripture, you soon realize that the heart of all of our doctrines is the person of Jesus Christ. Each of our fundamental beliefs are like the windows of this hall here that they let light in and they show us something beautiful about Jesus. Each of our fundamental beliefs shows a different aspect of his character, his grace, his ministry on our behalf. And so when you go through cancel culture, you're looking for a deeper walk with Jesus, a deeper understanding of Jesus, a fuller, more fuller appreciation of who he is and what he's doing for us today. So I want to just share with you for a moment.

I'll go through these very briefly and each of our 28 fundamental beliefs how Jesus is at the heart of each of our beliefs. You may not have thought of it in these terms before, but in cancel culture, you are studying the scriptures precisely to find Jesus. once again for yourself. So our first fundamental belief is the word of God. What we discover there is that Jesus is central in the scripture both as a subject of prophecy and as the word made flesh him to humanity.

Hebrews 1:1-4 we realize that Jesus baptism distinct roles within the Godhead the father and the holy spirit affirming Jesus' divine sunship and heavenly earthly mission. I have my microphone. The third doctrine is God the father. This doctrine teaches us that God Jesus reveals the father and his character through his life and teachings. Jesus shows us the way to God the father and he reflects God's glory as his perfect representation.

In the fourth fundamental belief, the doctrine of the son, we re humbled himself to become human, embodying obedience, will of his father and sacrifice, ultimately being willing to be obedient to death on a cross and then leading to his exaltation. In the doctrine of God, the Holy Spirit, our fifth fundamental belief, we read that the Holy Spirit is sent by Jesus to teach, remind, and empower his followers, to bring to the minds of of his followers the teachings of Jesus so they may continue his work and his presence in the world. The doctrine of creation teaches us that Jesus is the active agent in cre all things were made and in whom life and life measure of man. Doctrine 7, our anthropology, we read that humanity was made in God's image, but we have inherited Adam's fallen nature. But Jesus, fully God and fully human, sympathizes with our weaknesses, yet himself was without sin.

In the doctrine of the great controversy, doctrine 8, good and evil, um is a struggle between Christ for the souls and to vindicate the honor of God. In the doctrine number nine, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, that doctrine is clearly about Jesus Christ. But that doctrine tells us that Jesus through his life and death and resurrection offers eternal life to his disciples today. The doctrine of salvation teaches that through Jesus life and death, believers are now reconciled to God and have receive the gift of eternal life through God's grace. The doctrine of growing in Christ number 11 and also about growing in Christ likeness.

This doctrine grow in our relationship with God and in our relation church. The doctrine of the church number 12 the body of Christ. Each member has a role to play and we are collectively preparing as the bride of Christ for his return and the wedding supper of the lamb. The doctrine number 13. The remnant and its mission teaches us that the remnant proclaims the everlasting gospel calls for endurance and faithfulness to God's commandments and faith in Jesus Christ.

The doctrine number 14, unity in the body. Jesus prayed for that unity for among his followers in John 17 that it would reflect the unity within the godhead as a witness to the world of what the grace of God can do for broken humanity. The doctrine of baptism teaches us that baptism symbolizes believers union with Christ in his death, in his resurrection, and promises we may have new life in Christ Jesus. The doctrine of the Lord's supper teaches us that the Lord's supper commemorates commemorates Jesus sacrifice. The Lord's supper, we remember his sacrifice on Calvary and it points forward to his soon return.

The doctrine of spiritual gifts and ministries. Jesus taught the importance of abiding in him particularly in the gospel of John in order that we might bear fruit. It emphasizes that spiritual gifts are meant for edifying the church reflecting Jesus' ongoing work through his disciples. The doctrine of the gift of prophecy doctrine 18 teaches us that the gift of prophecy exemplified in the book of revelation given to John is a testament to Jesus' birth, death, and resurrection. So revelation of future events and God's and Jesus' sovereignty over history is intended to guide and comfort his church, the body of Christ.

The doctrine of the law of God, doctrine number 19, teaches us that the new covenant established by Christ in the Lord's supper in Matthew 26 promises that he will write the law of God on the believer's hearts, emphasizing a personal and internalized faith in the of the Sabbath reveals that Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath and it purpose for the Sabbath which is that it is be a blessing to fallen humanity. The doctrine of stewardship doctrine 21 Jesus parables many of which are on money teach responsible management of resources emphasizing that stewardship and service the giving the returning of tithes is today just as the fourth commandment will be a test of obedience in the final crisis and the giving of offerings is not a test of obedience it is a test of love. So tithes represent our obedience. Offerings represent our love for Christ. The doctrine number 22 on Christian behavior.

Jesus commands us neighbor as ourselves. Those are the foundation of all Christian e embodied through his life and his teachings. The doctrine of marriage and the family. Jesus affirmed the sanctity of marriage and the family in his teachings and it underscored by a mutual love and a commitment that is reflective of Christ's love for his bride, the church. Doctrine 24, Christ's ministry in the heavenly sanctuary.

This teaches us that Jesus serves as our high priest in heaven above, offering him himself as the ultimate sacrifice for sin and mediating the new covenant on behalf of his on the second coming of Christ. talks about his second coming which is the central hope of the Christian faith emphasizing the need for preparedness and faithfulness today. The doctrine of his death and resurrection, doctrine 26, teaches us that because Jesus gained victory over death, we also have the assurance of victory over death ourselves in the resurre and the final eradication of sin will culminate in the promise of a new heaven and a new earth where God will dwell with humanity. And the doctrine of the new earth and eternal life that we will dwell with God forever free from sorrow and death. And not not just that, but we will dwell forever with Jesus.

What you discover in cancel culture, your true friends really are. And as an Adventist, when you delve deeper into our fundamental beliefs, you discover that Jesus is at the heart of all of our doctrines. The doctrines are not dry, boring things that we we may think, why would I study that? No. that each doctrine is a window into the person and ministry and character of our savior.

Now, as I've just gone through those 28 fundamental beliefs very briefly, I hope I've demonstrated that Jesus is at the heart of all that we believe. And so, when we study the doctrines, we're actually studying something more about Jesus. And we discover that he is our truest friend, our only true friend in times when cancel culture comes knocking on our door. So, our time is up here this morning. What do I say in conclusion?

I just reiterate cancel culture is perpetrated by the elites in society whose power, position and prestige is threatened by truth speakers. As power is the main issue, truth is not important. What is important is destroying the individual who threatens the power of the elites. So you cannot stop cancel culture knocking on your door, but you can choose how you're going to respond. and you can respond as did Christ in his trial in John 18, John 19.

I have a friend who leads a ministry in Austria. He sent a letter to me recently. He's been battling a fatal and a terminal disease for just over a year and he's had time to reflect on the priorities in life and what's really important in life. And this is part of a letter he recently sent to me. He said this.

So let's be vigilant, be brave, step out of the comfort zone. Let us seek God now so that the suffering that is sure to come does not drive us away from him because we lack oil. Let us realize that we have nothing in this world except our loved ones and we once take them home with us. It's each of us but there in the heat the shackles fall from our hands. In illness we become healthy, rich in poverty.

The fiery furnace also is preparation for the filling with the Holy Spirit. No theory exists in the fiery furnace, only pure tr. And in the blazing flames of the fiery furnace, our savior, friend, and brother, written by a man who I believe is dying, who leads a ministry in central Europe. And he's come to these conclusions that no theory exists in the fiery furnace, only truth. And it's in the fiery furnace, as did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you will finally meet Jesus for yourself.

So cancel culture is not something to be ashamed of. It's not something to run from. It's not something to dread. It may be the means by which Christ brings you closer to him. It may be the means by which Christ perfects your character.

It may be the means by which Christ reveals who your true friends really are. It may be the means by which God burns away the dross of this world and leaves you pure spiritual gold. So don't run from cancel culture. Don't close your mouths and no longer speak the truth because you're afraid of cancel culture. I'm here to tell you today, you can cancel culture, cancel culture through the power of a Christlike character, through the presence of the inddwelling Jesus Christ in your life.

So regardless of whatever cancel culture does to you, seek the truth that is Jesus Christ. Speak the truth. Stand for truth. Share the truth. Truth will triumph.

You will meet Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life. Don't run from cancel culture. Run to Jesus Christ, and he will carry you through. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father, we are living in a world where truth no longer exists in the public square.

Father, we're living in a world, a world that says we will not have this man to rule over us. We're living in societies that have turned their back on you. We're living in a world where liesated and we are being forced and coerced by our wider societies to accept these lies. Father, we're living in a world where cancel culture can strike at any moment. We're anonymous keyboard warriors once but never meet with you in person.

But father this world I pray that each one of us will be like Shadrach, Mach, and Abednego. Lord, when they're in that final fiery furnace, Lord, in that fiery furnace, Nebuchadnezzar saw Jesus for the first time. I pray father that as we go through our fiery furnace that the world may see Jesus for the first time as well and they will come to know him for themselves. So father give us the courage give us an experience of grace give us when cancel culture comes knocking on our doors Jesus maybe for the first time. Thank you father for hearing this prayer.

Thank you for walking with us through these furnaces. Thank you for purifying us in and thank you that one day we will see Jesus face to face. Name we pray. Amen.