The sermon by Steve Hopkins focuses on the persecution of Christians in China, particularly the story of Pastor Wang Yi. It traces the history of Christianity in China, starting from the translation of the Bible into Mandarin in 1807, and the subsequent growth of the faith despite severe persecution, particularly under Mao Zedong's regime. The sermon highlights the establishment of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) by the Communist Party to control Christianity, leading to the rise of underground churches. Despite efforts to suppress it, Christianity flourished, with leaders like Samuel Lamb and Wang Yi playing pivotal roles. Wang Yi, a prominent figure who openly challenged the Chinese government and criticized the TSPM, was arrested for his bold stance. The sermon emphasizes that persecution has historically led to the growth of the church and challenges listeners to embrace their faith openly, drawing parallels with the courage demonstrated by Chinese Christians. The speaker encourages prayer and support for persecuted Christians and underscores the importance of spreading the gospel, regardless of opposition.

Lord, our heart goes out to them and we ask God a special blessing upon your church that's under persecution in the world, upon all those God who are suffering for the name of Christ, for all those who are in chains for the gospel, Lord, and that you would give them comfort and their families' comfort, O God. Help us, God, to be obedient to Your Word, Lord, to view them and to think of them and to remember them as though chained with them. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's be seated.

I was looking at the website that I made here a few years ago called ChinaPersecution.org and noticed that Wong Yi has now been in prison for six years and 173 days and 29 hours and so many minutes and so many seconds and here we are here we are that hymn comes to mind Am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the lamb, and shall I fear to own his cause or blush to speak his name? Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of bees while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas. Heavy words. In our text here before us, Jesus said, all power is given to me. Same word is really for authority or legal power.

So Jesus is saying go into all the world upon my authority and preach the gospel. And in the 1800s several Christians including a young man named Hudson Taylor, took Jesus at his word and they went into China. The Bible was translated into Mandarin in 1807 and mustard seed was planted that has never stopped growing. In 1949, communist revolutionary Mao Zedong came to power and by 1966, blood was flowing in the streets. Some of the estimates are that over 100 million people were either slaughtered or died of famine and disease under Mao's Cultural Revolution.

Many of those, many, many, many of those are our brothers and sisters in the Lord. If I were to put that figure of perspective for you, it would be the equivalent of murdering the entire populations of England and of France. Wiping out all of the populations of England and of France. But of course the Church of Jesus Christ continued to grow. Backing up to 1949, when Mao became head of state, there were an estimated one million Christians in China.

So that's 1949. The number grew to three million in just a few years. In 1954, Mao had originated a not so original idea. If we can't kill Christianity, maybe we can contain it. The effort at containment resulted in a new church quote-unquote which was called the Three Self Patriotic Movement also called the TSPM Church, the Three Self Patriotic Movement.

The idea was to register and recognize all churches. And then to dictate to those churches the Communist Party line, their rule, their line. But this resulted in the true church going underground. And that's what happened. The true church has said, no, we can't do this.

We can't have our leaders chosen by the Communist Party in the church. We can't have the party line being preached through the pulpit. We can't have, as we have now in the TSPM churches, pictures of Mao Tse-dung instead of the cross. We can't have this. And she, by the way, picture hangs there.

At any rate, the church goes underground and the house church movement is born and begins to multiply rapidly. And by the early 1980s, There are now an estimated six million Christians in China, 600%. One of the underground church leaders' name was Samuel Lamb. He refused to join the TSPM, and As a result, he spent 20 years in prison under extreme conditions. How many remember what his famous quote was?

More persecution, more growth. It doesn't sound like what's coming out of a lot of pulpits in America today, right? More persecution, more growth. Wow, during his lifetime of almost constant persecution from the communist regime, the church continued to advance. At the time of Pastor Lamb's death at the age of 88, in 2013, the number of Christians in China had now grown to 70 million.

One million, six million, 70 million. Persecution is good for church growth, the true church. The same year that Samuel Lamb died in 2013, something else happened. A young man by the name of Xi Jinping became the general secretary of the Communist Party of China, now President Xi, right? Xi has consistently centralized power under himself ever since he took office, and he rules now, of course, without term limitations and has become a virtual dictator.

He learned nothing from the failed efforts of his mentor Mao Zedong. The more the butcher of Beijing tried to stamp out the church of Jesus, the more it grew. I use this example or illustration with my family once of a grass fire that begins in one area and as you stomp on it, every time your foot comes down the flames spread because you create that wind that just spreads to all of the area around it. Before long the fire is out of control. That's what's happened in China.

Only with the spread of Christianity, of course, it's under complete control, God's control. God has all the tools in his tool bag and the tool that he's used again and again to advance the kingdom of his son is persecution over and over again throughout history. Xi Jinping became very alarmed at the growth of Christianity in China, and so he launched a new wave of persecution. You know, if this doesn't work, well, let's try more of it, more of the same, right? And so the number of Christians in China has now surpassed the number of Communist Party members in China.

The current rate of growth of believers in China is estimated at 7% per year. There are currently 91, 914, 000 Chinese Communist Party members in China, and there's between 115 and 130 million Christians. You see why they're concerned. They banned the Bible from the internet. You can't get the Bible online in China.

Children under 18, of course, have to be, can't go to church. You have to be 18 years old to go to church. That's to try to keep the church from growing, right? Crosses, we've seen this, you know, the last, especially four or five years, you know, taken down from public view. Can't have a cross on a building in public view.

They know something's going on here. We got to try to stop this. They blew up, you know, a lot of the underground, underground churches that were started to actually own property and weren't so underground. They took their property, blew them up. In early 2004, a bright young Chinese scholar shows up on the scene.

He's a lawyer. His name is Wang Yi. He was at that time included in a list of the 50 most influential intellectuals in all of China. In the top 50, in a nation of 1.5 billion people. A year later, this well-known, thriving intellectual converts to Christianity.

He converts to Calvinist Christianity, reformed doctrine. And he's invited to meet, to go to the White House and meet then President George W Bush by 2008 he's pastoring one of the largest underground churches in China early rain covenant church he becomes in 2011 the senior pastor and in his sermons he begins to publicly preach against and condemn the TSPM churches, comparing involvement with those as a betrayal of Christ. If you join these churches, you're actually betraying the Lord Jesus Christ. Well this is going on, Xi Jinping decides to get even tougher on the church. He dynamites some churches, underground churches begin to be raided, Sinicization is basically melding the doctrines together.

So they decided, look, we're going to have this campaign of sinicization of the doctrines of socialism and the Communist Party into Christianity. The churches will have to sing patriotic hymns to praise the Communist Party. They can sing their others, but they just have to add some praise to the Communist Party, you know. So their their religion is being forced to adapt to Chinese culture. The Bible will be retranslated to promote socialist principles.

Some of you have seen some of the texts that have come from that out of China already. Face recognition cameras were installed near house churches so they could identify the Christians and go after him. Chinese Communist Party has put its hand on Jesus Bride. Xi Jinping has demanded that the Church of Jesus Christ not do what her Lord commands, do not assemble. See, when we're told do something that God in his word commands us not to do we have to resist We're told to not do something God tells us to do.

We are to to resist. Pastor Wang Yi, when all of these things started happening, stands up and does something that no other Chinese Christian pastor is doing in China like a modern day John the Baptist, he puts his finger in the face of of the head of state of the dictator of China Xi Jinping and he charges him with violating God's commands and declared publicly in a Sunday morning sermon that except the president of China repent and believe on Jesus, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Chinese head of state and chairman of the Communist Party will perish, which is exactly what Jesus said, right? Eternally perish. I transcribed this excerpt from a sermon by Wong Yi. It took a while to sit down and do this.

Here's his sermon. This is why they come in and they get him, right? You can't say this kind of stuff. You can't say these kinds of things. And of course, it's recorded and it gets spread all over the place.

He says, all of the weaknesses we experience in the Christian life, why are we still caught up in the lies? Why are we still lingering in all that torrid malice? This is before his congregation of 700 people. It's because you're afraid of persecution. It's because you don't believe persecution is a blessing from God.

For God says, the one who takes up his cross and follows me, who renounces all he has to this day, shall also have what in this life? He shall receive a hundredfold in the age to come eternal life. A hundredfold of what in this life? One of the important things that Jesus mentions is persecution. In the list of blessings is included the persecution of the world against us.

So let me put it this way, what does Paul teach? When truth and justice prevail in our nation, we must speak honestly, we must live upright lives, we must speak edifying words, And when truth and justice wane, we must still speak honestly. We must act and speak with the same courage and uprightness as before. Amen. And all the people go, Amen.

You know, there's like three words that have never been translated right from the Old and New Testament. Amen. Hallelujah. And sabbath, right? There's no equivalent in any language.

So amen. A little side note there. He says when we are not being persecuted, we must spread the gospel. And when persecution comes, we continue to spread the gospel. When we're not being persecuted, we must spread the gospel.

And when persecution comes, we continue to spread the gospel. When we're not being persecuted, we go street preaching. And when persecution comes, we continue street preaching. Amen? Amen.

If we're talking about a president, we declare that he's a sinner. When we're talking about a general secretary, we'll still declare that he's a sinner. We believe that we have the responsibility to tell Xi Jinping that he is a sinner. The government that he is leading has sinned greatly against God. It is persecuting the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and if he does not repent, he will perish." This is China, communist China.

You can get away with this. Somebody could say that today. They could say, It's our responsibility to tell Donald Trump that he's a sinner. If he doesn't repent, he will perish. We could say that, right?

And I'm not going to walk out that door and probably get arrested, right? Or someone who would preach that. But in China, now standing up and saying, if he doesn't repent, that's heavy. We say this because it's truly for his good. We truly believe it's for the good of all authorities and power in every government worker.

We don't want to see them go to hell. We don't want to see them and their descendants cursed by God. We long to see them turn from their wicked ways. So we call them to repentance. Amen, amen.

This is how we give them the grace of the gospel. If we do not endure persecution, How can we give them the grace of the gospel? What are the means of giving them this gospel grace? What means did Jesus use to give us grace? He did it through Gethsemane.

He did it through the cross of Golgotha. What means must the Chinese Church use to give the grace of the gospel? A society that does not know the gospel. A society that resists and persecutes the Church of the Lord Jesus. We must walk the path of the cross.

We must boldly preach the way of the kingdom. And we must pay the price for doing this. And what about us? The church was raided after this on December 9, 2018. Pastor Wong Yee and 100 members are arrested.

What can we do? Well, we can pray. A couple of the men today prayed earnestly for the persecuted church. You know, until you experience somewhat of it, it's so very difficult, isn't it, To understand, to feel what they're going through. I sit sometimes and I just go, what if it was me?

And for now, seven years, almost seven years in prison, my children have gotten six and a half years older. So that passage from Hebrews 13.3, we're told to remember them that are in bonds as if bound with them. Remember them. Pray for them. Remember them.

Maybe someday the church in China will send missionaries to America, use the missionaries from China, you know. Missionaries go into nations where you know people run around naked and worship idols and you know dark places. I can see China being a country one day if it continues the way it is and growing, Christianity growing there being a place where Christians from America could flee persecution. We think these things can't happen but it can very well happen. You know, we have been enjoying some respite, right?

Because the federal administration is not on the back of the church right now. But you know, things change. Wong Ye again from another sermon. God has caused this country to declare war on the Christian church, a most insane war, the most intense war since the Cultural Revolution, and it is a war that they are doomed to lose. Wow.

This is a sermon entitled, Die. Top 50 intellectuals in all of China, legal scholar, becomes a Christian, becomes a pastor, now in prison. He says God has ruined the life of the president of the Buddhist Association. God has killed the chairman and national committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. We don't talk like that, do we?

God killed these guys who were opposing him and causing great destruction. The Pope of the Catholic Church has prostituted himself to the government. God has disgraced these three drunken powers, all the while allowing his true church to be persecuted by Pharaoh. He says, masterpiece, it's like Normandy. They just didn't want to, they couldn't shut him up.

You know his wife, she's only had one phone call with him in six and a half years. She doesn't know what prison he's in. You talk about being scared to death, the powers that be being scared to death. We don't even want people to know where he's at. The only question is, he said, is how many people will die?

How many will renounce their faith? How many will give their life for the Lord Jesus Christ? God is doing a work. He's building his church in China through persecution. God uses evil dictators to fulfill his designs, many times afflicting his own people for his righteous causes and then afterwards destroying those evil men for doing it.

God is doing a work in China the likes of which the world has never seen. And we need to give Him the glory to His name. And we need to remember those who are in chains for the gospel. We need to pray for Wong Ye. When one member suffers, the Scripture tells us the entire body suffers.

Are you suffering? Are you shared somewhat in that suffering? Although we would just remember to pray and pray and pray. Hard to imagine. Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them and then which suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the body.

The word martyr from Webster's 1828 dictionary, one who by his death bears witness to the truth of the gospel. You know Samuel M., you know, more persecution, more growth. Maybe it would take persecution to save America. We're not on our way out of anything right now. You know that.

We're not on our way out of anything. The darkness is very deep. The same number of children are being slaughtered by abortion in this country as there was before Roe v. Wade was overturned. They just go to other states and they just get the pills through the mail.

We're in a scary situation. Wong Ye is a soldier of the cross. These persecuted brethren are soldiers of the cross. Are we soldiers of the cross? Are we soldiers of the cross?

Followers of the lamb. You know, I read the passage earlier in our opening text from Romans chapter 10, 9 through 12. If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. With the heart man believes under righteousness, with the mouth confession is made it a salvation. Whoever believes on him shall not be ashamed." Think about that passage for a moment, just in relationship to what we're talking about.

Do you confess? Just by way of application, do you confess Jesus with your mouth? So no one who doesn't confess Jesus with their mouth is really truly a Christian, right? Everybody knows that. You got to believe and those who truly believe, they confess Jesus.

They don't hide that, they don't keep it, they don't put it in an undercover Christian. There's no such thing as an undercover Christian. It's real, it's our life, and we share, you know, we talk to others about Jesus. We don't hide that. I think it's a good idea for us to make conscientious, deliberate effort to confess Jesus before others.

Is there someone maybe on your job site, they don't know you're a Christian, maybe they don't know, that you could just go to and you say, you know what, I don't know if I ever told you this before but I'm a believer in Jesus Christ. It's amazing what happens so many times when we think, well, you know, we kind of judge a person. This person is going to really, you know, they're going to really have a fit if I start trying to share the gospel with them. And I've found so many times it just isn't true. Yeah there's going to be persecution in the world if you're a follower of Christ and you're sharing the gospel with others there will be those that will persecute you.

We see it sometimes on the street, a lot of times we don't. A lot of times it's thumbs up or whatever but it's interesting that you know we don't really know how it's going to go. And I've had far more positive responses where I know something was put in this person's thinking that this was timely. This is totally of God. You just see it.

This past week, I go to a Chinese food restaurant. The owner there, I've talked to him different times, you know, about God and everything, but Just something this past week, I could just tell, when we're standing there at the counter, I'm about to leave and there's nobody around and I'm talking to them about just a simple message of the gospel. You know, well, Jesus died for our sins, you know, and he was buried and he rose again the third day. It's like, wait a minute, you see the expressions kind of, oh wait a minute, I didn't know we were going there. And then kind of soured to the point where I go, someone else has done this.

This isn't the first guy. I'm not the only one who's done this over the years or whatever. So I said, hey, so and so. I said, someone else has told you this message. Has anyone else told you this message before?

You know about the gospel about Jesus Christ dying for our sins and rising from the dead the third day? His countenance expression, everything just kind of falls and he says, My grandmother was a Christian. They're from China. My grandmother was a Christian. Your grandmother?

Oh. So, I'm an answer to your grandmother's prayer for you. You may be the answer to someone's prayer that you never knew existed. God's got His people, and they're taking the gospel and they're confessing Jesus. And then your part comes, your role on the stage comes, and you come to play your part.

And you don't know who's gone before you, who is going to follow after you. But God knows and He has it all orchestrated from before the foundations of the world. Play your part. Do your part. Don't hold back.

You're like, I really feel like I need to share the gospel with this person. Do it. This could be really rough if I didn't go ahead and do it. Go ahead and do it. Go ahead and do it.

Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize and sail through bloody seas? Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? Is this vile world a friend to grace to help me unto God? No, I must fight if I would gain, increase my courage, Lord.

I'll bear the toil, endure the pain, supported by thy word. Thy saints in all this glorious war shall conquer though they die. They view the triumph from afar and seize it with their eye. When that illustrious day shall rise and all thine armies shine in robes of victory through the skies the glory shall be thine amen amen let's pray father we have it so easy we have it so comfortable I pray you would help us Lord to have the heart of a people who will take risks for Jesus. I pray you would give us the heart Lord of a people who are truly not ashamed of the gospel.

The heart of a people who can't wait to confess Jesus before others. And I pray, Lord, that we would see the fruit of that, Lord. We would see the fruit of that, Lord. We would see the fruit of it, God. And if not, Lord, that we would hear of it in heaven one day.

Make us compassionate. Help us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Help us to love the lost. Help us Lord to confess Jesus before men. Before we ask it in His holy name.

Amen. Thanks for watching!