Good afternoon. Just ask everyone if you can, if you have a copy of your Bible, the Word of God, please open up to the 11th chapter of Hebrews. We're going to be spending some time here. Hebrews chapter 11. And I've entitled this message the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk.

Not simply the assassination but there's something more that's happened and we're going to be dealing with that here in these verses as we go through. So Hebrews chapter 11 and then verses 32 to 38. Here the Word of the Lord. And what more shall I say for The time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Sampson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of the fire, escaped the edge of the sword. Out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

Women received their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn into, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.

They wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth." Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, We come to you, the one who has been building and sustaining, keeping your saints all the way through, Lord. You have been the great builder. Lord, we have read in your word that Even the gates of hell will not prevail against your church. And we're so glad you've made us a part, oh Lord.

We pray now that as we give consideration to this great man that you set before us and blessed this country with, Charlie Kirk, Lord, that we would be inspired, encouraged, instructed, helped. Lord, thank you for what you already allowed us to hear this morning in the preaching of your word. We just pray now that you would give us attentiveness and hearts aflame and desire us of knowing you better and knowing you more. Help us we pray in Christ's name, amen. Amen.

Well I thought to frame what we're gonna be looking at today just by a consideration of the fact that here we are in 2025. We're almost three-quarters the way through this year. And the enemies of God, they've been waging a war, a thoughtful, a very premeditated war. You could call them leftists, but the forces behind them are clearly spiritual forces of darkness. And their objective is the undermining and the overthrow of all that has made the West great, which at root is none other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And in its place they have this vision for a godless, borderless, humanistic, utopian dream. No hell below, above us only sky. That idea that let's just do without God and we ourselves shall be like God's determining what is right and what is wrong. And terrifyingly, the trajectory has been in their favor. You see when you look across the world that Europe has been nearly decimated with the post-war consensus that's overrun.

The family has been destroyed when you go over there. Almost nobody is having any children. Religion has been totally gutted over there, and the idea is believe nothing too strongly, right? That's the idea. Say nothing too decidedly.

All opinions are equally valid. And what you find is this iron grip of totalitolerance that's prevailing right across the board. But God, God has had mercy on one nation and that's the United States. It's amazing when you when you travel outside of the United States, it's then that you begin to appreciate what's here. It's it's startling to consider and compare, but it really is the last bastion of the West.

And just consider the low ebb that even we have been brought to. If you go back decades, you can kind of see the trajectory and the path, but even in the last 10 years, think of all that's happened. In 2015, what happened? Obergefell. And then four years of basically sabotaging President Trump's first term.

And then we had COVID with masks and these poison injections being touted. And then don't forget the summer of love that swept the nation. And of course we had this stolen federal election in 2020. Massive money printing that has made life so difficult for so many. There were some bright spots.

You had things like the overturning of Roe v. Wade, for example, which was good. But even with the victory, the heart of the nation didn't change, did it? There's now more abortions taking place than ever. And what we find, if we're honest, is that the gods of DEI, feminism, abortion, pronouns, and then transgenderism, Obergefell's daughter.

They've all set up their high places right across the land and they seem almost immovable. If you get out in the marketplace and you work and you interact with people it seems like how will these gods ever be toppled and then you keep going there's been 15 million illegal immigrants brought into the nation in a short span of years men were imprisoned for January 6 with no due process whatsoever And then we got to the last election cycle. And they unleashed full on lawfare. Unashamed, it was in your face, unapologetic. And when that didn't work, well, assassination attempts, plural, became the modus operandi of getting President Trump and by the way they took a poll after those attempts and a third of Democrats wish the attempts had been successful.

That's after the fact and I'm sure it's probably higher. And then of course you know it's just gone on and on. Just a few months ago I went on a work trip up to DC. I was with Melinda and I went outside the the White House and we were taking some pictures and there was this rabble-rousing group that were shouting and doing all these things and I sort of just engaged them and talked to them and in a matter of two minutes I was called a racist, a fascist, and a Hitler sympathizer. These are their weapons.

That's what they throw at you if you simply disagree. Of course there was a group of young guys over there that they were laughing the whole time. They couldn't believe that these people were so insane that they would be making these kinds of comments. But here's the question for you. Do you believe that there's a war going on?

And if you do, are you conducting your life as if there is a war going on? See, until there's a recognition of the fact that we're in a war, how can you have any peace if you don't actually come to terms with the reality of all that's going on around you? And what the left's most effective weapon in their arsenal has been over the years, go back decades, not just the last 10 years, but 40, 50 years, has been one thing called the education system. And this was like a feeder system of new energetic young recruits that were ready to take on the world and impose their philosophies. They understood the idea from that poem that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world and they embrace that as their way of taking over.

The best way to proliferate their religion, they're not having children, so indoctrinate the rising generation. And all of a sudden what happens is you've got a young man and he comes on the scene and he's a young man he's winsome, he's courageous, unafraid, he's actually smiling, he's dangerously smart, he's a happy warrior, And he's willing to enter the precincts of the left's established church, the university campus. That's where he goes, the one place where they've almost put all their chips. And what fueled him? Well, in his own words, he said this, I'm a sinner.

I gave my life to Christ. It was the most important decision that I ever made. That was his fuel. And he went with the simple weapons of truth and reason, and with those weapons he overturned the tables, and he made a shambles of their long-standing orthodoxy. He laid bare their gods, abortion, feminism, homosexuality.

They didn't really stand a chance. And the way he did it, if you disagree with me, I want to speak with you. That was his approach. And young people would come up to the mic and they would pit the best of their philosophy against Charlie Kirk and against God's truth. And oftentimes what you would find is it would just dissolve on their tongues.

The more they spoke was the more that they recognized their arguments had no weight against the truth of God's word. Oftentimes you would find them left speechless. I have nothing else to say and they would walk away. But he also did something else and I think this is perhaps the thing that struck me most about him, and the thing that's so instructive for me, is he didn't just destroy their gods, but in their place, he showed something so beautiful, that you don't have to worship these hideous gods that will do nothing but destroy you and take your life. But he showed them that God is.

And he showed them that Jesus Christ is a savior of sinners and that he is the king of kings. And he was unashamed of these things. He pitted that simple truth against all that they could throw and it oftentimes just bounced off and broke and he showed them that there's hope and that there is an alternative God's world, God's kingdom and you're welcome. Please come in fact was the invitation. And you look at the last election, and a lot of people have said no one has been more responsible for the election results, No one was more responsible for winning key states in the 2024 election than him.

And what he did is he mobilized an army of young people, specifically young men that were rescued and now ready for action. Deploy me. Do something with me." Because they had seen something that was so attractive. And I want to point us back to the book of Acts and we're going to be getting there as Trent continues his preaching through there. But you remember all the different occasions and I couldn't help but be reminded of this this past week thinking of Charlie Kirk and him having a similar impact.

You might remember when Demetrius he gathered all of the silversmiths the Ephesian craftsmen when things were getting to the point where their economics were being affected because of Paul's preaching. Look what he says, he says, men, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade. Moreover, you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people saying that they are not gods which are made with hands. So not only is this trait of ours in danger of falling into disrepute But also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed Whom all Asia and the world worship now when they heard this they were full of wrath and cried out saying great is Diana of the Ephesians and The question is could they stop the truth Were they able to stop the truth? You know, the Telegraph, they had an article that just came out on Friday, And the question, the title of the article, and they hit it right on the head, why are so many teachers celebrating Charlie Kirk's murder?

Of all the professions, why are teachers celebrating Charlie Kirk's murder? And it's because he attacked and destroyed their gods and on the rubble of their altars, he erected a place of worship for the true and the living God. He broke the rules. He entered the precincts, the palaces of higher education and he pointed out that the emperor has no clothes. That's what he did.

But not only that, as I said earlier, he then pointed them towards a king clothed in majesty and honor. He says, worship him. What a worthy thing he did. And of course that whole account in Ephesus continues and this is really the impact of a man who preaches the Word of God. Look what it says here, and many who believed because of Paul's preaching in Ephesus, and many who believed came confessing and telling their deeds.

How far did it go? Also many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all and They counted up the value of them and it totaled 50, 000 pieces of silver So the word of God grew mightily and prevailed. You see the impact? This is none other than what we witnessed over these last couple of years taking place in higher education. Drones of people being emancipated, freed from the clutches of evil and being brought to the light because a man Decided I'm gonna invade the kingdom of darkness with the truth of the gospel And this is bad news isn't it for the kingdom of darkness especially bad when they were making such strides towards their progressive utopia and they could almost see the finish line.

It was almost there. They could almost touch it. By the way, I've been to Ephesus and when you go to Ephesus and you go to find the temple of Diana, greatest Diana of the Ephesians, you know all you see is there's a pillar left in a swamp and on top is a stork's nest. That's all that there is left of this great goddess Diana, because these are not gods. And so what he was doing was undermining the system.

And in his last interview, I think it was his last interview, and I shared this with some men at church. It was released the day after his martyrdom. It was a Canon press and he was at recounting an event. He had just come from an event and he was sitting down and he was recounting what happened where he was just a couple of hours ago and look what he says. This is what he says and this captures everything.

Why do they have to martyr a man like Charlie Kirk? Listen to what Charlie Kirk says in his own words. He says, there were protesters there the whole time. What are they so threatened by me? Why are they so threatened by me coming there for three hours?

Open mic. So let me get this straight. Washington State University gets them for four years. I might get some of them for three hours because they know that I, in three hours, can undo the damage of four years of garbage with one sentence, one question, one truth claim. And that's why they have to try so hard to not let me speak.

That was just a couple of weeks before the interview was done. It was released the day after, but he's speaking about this a couple of weeks before he's actually martyred. And so I want to make this very clear that Charlie Kirk wasn't just assassinated, but he was martyred. That's the right word. That word martyr simply means witness.

You know JFK was assassinated but Charlie Kirk was something different, something on a higher plane and you've seen it. You've seen the videos our brother mentioned it this morning of people gloating and laughing and rejoicing It's the great miscalculation that they made That he was just a messenger of the truth The truth itself is unaffected He was simply delivering what was true and they thought that by killing the messenger they would overthrow the truth. He was only a tributary but God is the actual source. And so here's the thing that we read in our text in Hebrews 11 and what more shall I say? There's so many things God has been doing.

He's been the writer of Hebrews started with Abel and he's just going down all the way through the history of the Old Testament. Victory after victory, God doing wonderful things, retelling those victories. But notice mid verse what happens. It says others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.

They were stoned, they were sawn into, were tempted, were slain with the sword. I was reading an account of John Fox, everyone knows Fox's book of martyrs, and he was retelling an account of what happened in the Roman Empire in 404 AD. Of course if you go back in time it was even though Christianity was making major impact, there were still vestiges of a lot of paganism and evil. And there was a story of a man, a monk actually, a Christian monk named Telemachus, and he made his way to Rome from the eastern part of the empire and he found himself in the Colosseum and he was just horrified by the violence that he was seeing and this country monk you could imagine he jumps over the railing and he enters into the grounds of the arena where two gladiators are fighting And he gets between them and he screams at them. He says, in the name of Christ, forbear.

Well, the people, the spectators, not too pleased that their entertainment was being interrupted, they stoned him to death right there, and that became their entertainment. But the emperor, he was moved by what he saw of this monk, and he declared Telemachus a martyr. And not only that, but he also issued a decree, no more, and he banned gladiatorial games from that point forward across the entire empire. A lowly monk piercing the conscience of the mighty Roman Empire and the Emperor himself. Think of this, 640 years of gladiatorial games of all sorts and a little monk from the East ends it but at great cost to himself.

But it seems like this is the way that God has been active and working all down through the ages at great cost perhaps to the individual, but then doing a massive thing and an amazing thing. It says in our text that they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, maybe like this monk, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. So what does a martyr primarily do? Well, a martyr for Christ, he displays Christ's worthiness.

He acknowledges and he puts forward the fact that God has spoken on this matter. And I will not back down. A martyr divides. He sends some home persuaded, he sends some home hardened, but what he specializes in is he keeps men awake at night. And God uses that to overthrow the kingdom of darkness.

Look at that phrase. It's one of the most beautiful expressions in all of scripture of whom the world was not worthy. In the sight of men, yes, hated, sometimes impoverished, chased, threatened, but what about in the sight of God? Jewels for his crown, of whom the world was not worthy. They're too precious for this world is the way of thinking about this.

And so let's go back to Charlie Kirk. He was one of those unique men. He understood the times that he was in and he wasn't just an orator or someone who wanted to just talk about it. He recognized that we're in a knockdown, drag out, life and death war for the next generation. Not a low grade civil war, but a hot war.

Sometimes spiritual, and then sometimes physical. And he was an attack just on September the 10th alone, but all through really for years, he'd been getting death threats. We heard some of the attacks he'd endured as well, just jeering and pouring things on him, throwing things at him, all of these type of things. But what is his life proof? This is what I want to communicate to us men especially, but all of us, is that darkness doesn't get enraged by passive men, does it?

That's a great gift actually to the kingdom of darkness. Darkness doesn't get enraged by men who have agreed to keep their religion at home. Or men who have agreed and signed the social contract, I will keep my religion within the four walls of this church. That's fine. Keep doing that.

We're foreign Baptists, 1689, blah, blah. That's too easy. We might pat ourselves on the back, but that's too easy. And so I wanna just leave some time here actually for some application. And I want us to really consider, I've got about four points and then we'll close here.

But I think one of the things that we should really recognize is this, is that now is the time to fight in a united way. And what I mean by that is, I'm not talking about ecumenism, let's go together with Catholics and all that stuff, but I am talking about the idea of not, let's stop nitpicking and recognize the battle that is underway, that there is an actual war. You know, Spurgeon said it like this, he says, not much good comes from picking holes in other men's characters, and yet many spend hours in that unprofitable occupation. Social media, a hotbed for all of that. You know, I just finished a book, a fascinating book, and it was talking about the Crusades, and it's an overview of what happened in the overthrow of the last city.

So if you imagine the Muslim hordes pushed back the Christian forces over and over again, taking over stronghold after stronghold after stronghold, and there was one stronghold left called Acre. It's in modern-day Israel. The year is 1291, and the Sultan comes with 60, 000, some say even a hundred thousand, troops, and they besieged the city for about 43 days. You can imagine just everywhere you look on the wall The whole horizon is filled up with tents and men and horses and catapults and all these different types of things. But you know what the main problem is?

Inside the gates. You had this internal fighting. You had these different military orders. You had the Templars, the Hospitallers, the Teutonic Knights from Germany, and they all wanted to protect their own little neighborhoods within the walls. And they had no agreement on how to defend this city that they were all trapped in.

And the Sultan knew this and he exploited these differences and these fric fractures between these different groups and the Templars and the Hospitallers they had this long-standing feud that they were never able to really resolve and so I just want you to picture this Here are these groups of men and women, there's lots of women there as well, children, and they're all in the same walled town with an adversary battering down the walls from the outside, but I'm just gonna protect my own little neighborhood. Well how long is that going to last? Before they breach the wall, and then what's going to happen to your little neighborhood? But you see how we can be as men, as fools really sometimes, and we get carried away with division. It's a good idea to let pettiness die and to fight a common enemy.

A lot of things can be sorted out later, but it's a good idea to do that. And that's number one. The other thing I want to just communicate is that the forces of darkness are strong, that's true, but not as strong as you think. Because they traffic in lies, don't they? And because they traffic in lies, their footing is always suspect.

Paul put it like this, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And this is what you know we're seeing it right now right we're seeing this you can only insist that up is down two plus two equals five a man can become a woman it's loving to get the vaccine put darkness for light light for darkness bitter for sweet sweet for bitter for so long before people begin to consider, wait this isn't really working. And why is that? It's because we live in God's world This is God's world and like the line in that song says although the wrong seems oft so strong God is the ruler yet. This is the truth and add to that one thing not only are they in slippery places, but guess what?

We are not alone. We are not alone. Christ is with us on every occasion. I was thinking actually as our brother was preaching this morning, you know the weapons of our warfare, they're not merely carnal, but there's an account also in the book of 2 Kings where the Syrian hordes are surrounding the nation of Israel and about to overthrow it. And there is Elisha, I think it is yes, it's Elisha, and he's got his servant, you can imagine his servant there biting his nails, what in the world are we going to do?

And this is what you find out, it says, therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city." This is the enemies of God. And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, Alas, my master, what shall we do? So he answered, do not fear. Now look at this, write this down in your heart.

Do not fear for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And Elisha prayed and said, Oh Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see. Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw, and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. It goes on to say, needless to say, that they won the victory. But I want us to recognize this truth.

Do you believe that? That when you invade the darkness, you're not alone. That you go as an ambassador with the King at your back and the whole country of heaven behind you. This is the great motivation that allows many men to go out into the difficult places because they know that Christ is standing with them. The folly of the kingdom of darkness, How should we account for it down through the ages?

Well, they think that by stomping on the messengers, that is the martyrs, that they can defeat truth. We saw that early in the book of Acts. And you know, in his book, Tertullian wrote a book in 197 AD, and it was a book defending Christians against persecution. I think Robert might have quoted this not too long ago or someone did but the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. So even when you seem to win Against God you don't win.

All it does is cause more people to rise up. The martyr's death was never a defeat. What it did, what did it do? It put unbreakable conviction on display. It forced people to confront, is this true?

It drew crowds, irresistibly, what did it do? It planted seeds of courage and admiration, even among people who were enemies. They had to shake their heads in bewilderment. Is this true? Why would a man die?

Why does he not just simply recant? All these questions begin to plague the man who's observing this, still an unbeliever at that moment. And so speaking of the never-dying influence of martyrs, Soren Kierkegaard, he wrote this, he says, the tyrant dies, and Rhett was sharing this with me yesterday, the tyrant dies and his rule is over. The martyr dies and his rule begins. What a beautiful statement.

Is it possible That God will do more through Charlie Kirk's death and martyrdom than he did through his life Of course, it's possible. We heard all things work together for good Listen just some encouragement If you are tempted to overrate the power and the stratagems of darkness, I want to just leave you with one word, kamala. Just one word. That was the best that they could come up with. I want to talk to you men also, those of you who are under 30, I know this hit you hard and I've talked to some of you, there's emotions, there's righteous anger, a desire to point your energy somewhere and spend it, you know, That's a good thing.

I love what Spurgeon said. I always go to Spurgeon. He says this, Show the world that your God is worth ten thousand worlds to you. What a way to live. That when men look at you they say God must be worthy.

I might not believe it, but God, his God is worthy. And I want to think, I want you to think about this. This is a poem I memorized years ago. I kind of forgot part of it but it was written by Teddy Roosevelt. It's a secular poem.

But men are called to battle and the age that we're coming out of, the age that we have been marinating in has made men soft and made men passive and made men maybe I don't want to you know maybe I'll do that another time or maybe someone else will do it but listen to the words of one of our ex or one of our presidents Teddy Roosevelt it is not the critic who counts not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of the deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error in shortcoming. But who does actually strive to do the deed? Who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." Get in the arena.

Spend yourself in something that's worthy. The question is, are you there? Are you in the arena? Are you preparing, at least, to be there? How are you preparing?

When are you gonna enter the fray? Maybe some of you, I know some of you already are, which is amazing, and I'm so encouraged by that. But what are your weapons gonna be when you enter that arena? And by the way, I'm not talking about the arena of a keyboard gladiator, I'm talking about real life. You know, not the next clever meme or little theory that's out there, but actual real life, real battles where you're engaging the enemy, enemies of God.

You know one thing we can learn and I draw great inspiration from this and every time there's a young man that wants to do something I'm like let's do it. You don't have to wait until you're old to do something great. That's what Charlie Kirk's whole life tells us. This is that God can use, in fact he delights all through history to use young men who are available and willing and trained for battle. You know Will, just the other day he made a call for 50 men on October 11th to go and invade the darkness during the pride parade.

What would keep a man back? You know, it's not my thing. What's going to keep a man back from saying, that list shouldn't be 50 men, should be 100 men desirous of going. What's going to keep you back from entering the fray? You know engaging in hand-to-hand combat in evangelism.

Like let's not keep giving ourselves passes. I pray thee have me excused. No, it's not the time for that. It's time to combine orthodoxy with a love for sinners. It's time to go to the town council, which is happening this Tuesday.

You know, Train your hands for war and be done with lesser things, lesser battles, things that don't matter, but give you some sort of dopamine hit. Be better men. Oh, that's works. Be better men. Be better men.

Let's be better men. I'm saying that to myself as well. Run from vice and cling to the things that are good. You young men, you young men, you might be nine years old, you might be 12, you might be 15. Guess what?

The battle is rushing to you. Are you ever gonna be about serious things? Are you reading serious books? Are you talking to men? Are you reading biographies?

Are you just waiting for the day, 18, when you can get a truck. Is that really what life is about? I'm not against trucks, but I'm just saying, don't let that be your ambition. But what I'm saying is, men, there's a battle to be fought. And the great miscalculation of the forces of darkness is they thought oh we take out one man and everyone will hush.

That's the calculation but that's never been God's calculus. In fact it's been the exact opposite that where one falls a hundred stand in his place And that's the call to us as men. I want to end with this. And I just think, you know, brother you mentioned it today as you were preaching and you saw that shot, those of you that saw that shot and I'm imagining mid-sentence he's done but seconds later, where is he? Seconds later, before the presence of the Lord.

Let's fix our eyes on the true prize. I want to end with this. Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, just to picture this, picture this, What was his entrance into the presence of the Lord? What was it like? Well since we also are running a race and we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us.

And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Let's go to the battle. In Jesus name, let's pray.