The Persecuted Church, Part 2

Driving home: Remember them! Remember them! Remember them that are imprisoned as imprisoned with them. Remember them that are ill-treated as being yourselves also in the body.

Martin contrasts the public grief over seven space shuttle deaths with the annual martyrdom of 165,000 Christians worldwide, shocking the audience into recognizing the scale of persecution.

We are, I think, in a state of distrust, truly and justly grieved this morning, at the sudden and tragic death of seven highly gifted, superbly trained and efficient men and women, whose lives were snuffed out in that fiery breakup of the space shuttle yesterday morning. However, do you know that according to some reliable sources,

5:02 - 5:37 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin uses illustrations of Winston Churchill galvanizing a nation with an offer of 'blood, sweat, and tears' and a Japanese kamikaze pilot to emphasize the seriousness and…

Churchill's offer of 'blood, sweat, and tears' galvanized a nation for a noble cause (preserving liberties), illustrating how a serious call to sacrifice can inspire, contrasting with the 'fun and games' offered to the current generation of Christians.

And when it looked like the Nazis might subjugate Great Britain, God raised up a man pathetically out of shape physically, a rather ugly looking man with a pint of brandy in one hand and a big cigar in the other. But he galvanized the soul of a nation. And you know how he did it? After painting the picture of what was before them as a nation, he said, I offer you nothing but blood.

63:54 - 64:27 Read in full sermon

Driving home: This let's go play business. That's we thank you for your word. For its honesty. For the honesty of our blessed Lord Jesus.

Tozer's story of a chained-in kamikaze pilot with only enough fuel for a one-way mission illustrates the total, non-negotiable commitment required for true Christianity, where life is expendable and serious, contrasting with a 'let's go play' approach.

He told the incident that was a true story from the experience of one of his sons who served on one of the carriers in the Pacific. And toward the end of the war when the Japanese were desperate and you know, they began their suicide bombing runs. And the planes would take off from Japan or from a carrier some other place in the Pacific. And the pilots would be put into a plane that had only enough fuel to reach the battle group that was their target.

65:53 - 66:26 Read in full sermon