Enemies of The Cross of Christ

Well, I can't tell you what joy it gives me to be back here. To be invited back is a real privilege, but also just the being here and seeing you all and what sweet testimonies we heard and what joy it is to see the fruit of God's work down through the years. Since we've been gone, continuing, I'm going to be preaching from the book of Philippians. I've been preaching through Philippians in Cincinnati and just preached this sermon a couple of weeks ago there. And the title of the sermon is Enemies of the Cross of Christ, which doesn't sound like a particularly positive and uplifting message.

phrase from Christian radio. And yet, I found myself strengthened as I wrote and preached this sermon the first time, and I thought that you all would benefit from it as well, because all of Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable. And that includes these kinds of phrases that on first glance strike us as a little bit against the grain in our hearts. So let me give you a little bit of background about the book of Philippians since I'm just picking up in the middle of it and then we will read our text and pray. The book of Philippians was written by the Apostle Paul when he was in prison and so he was suffering for the sake of the gospel and yet The theme that he gives over and over again throughout the book is that he is rejoicing and that he wants the church in Philippi to rejoice as well because the gospel message is going forth, because there is fruit that God is producing through his suffering and theirs. So he is being persecuted. They are being persecuted.

He has men who are opposing him, who claim to be Christians. They have men who are trying to lead them astray, who claim to be Christians. And so, in spite of all of this, the theme that you see more than anything else probably in this book is one of rejoicing. And he doesn't just say, now you must rejoice. He actually is joyful in the book. He actually is rejoicing as he calls them to rejoice. And he is, in many ways, suffering much more than they are. As you get to chapter 3, he begins to focus on those false teachers that were a threat to the church in Philippi.

What Paul does here, and we're going to read a good portion of chapter 3, what Paul does is he sets up two models of behavior. He holds up two different ways of living, and he doesn't just hold up and... On the one hand, an ideal way of living, and on the other hand, the bad way of living. He actually puts some real objective flesh and bones on those ways of living. And so he does something really gauche, which is to say really improper in our context. He holds himself up. He says, act like me. I'm doing it right. Don't act like them. They're doing it wrong. Those are the two models. And that strikes us as proud. That strikes us as arrogant. That strikes us as not very attractive in many ways. And yet, one thing that you have to realize, even for us, is that we ought to have a lot of love for Paul.

You see how much work he has given even to us that we benefit from through his writing of the many letters and through his establishing of churches in various places and spreading out that gospel message just as Jesus commanded out of Judea into Samaria and to the uttermost ends of the earth. We have Paul to thank for the fact that The church was established so quickly in many places, and that includes the church in Philippi, which he planted. So he's not in jail in Philippi, but he's writing a letter back to them after they have sent money to him to help support him when he's in prison. If you're in jail in the United States, you get fed. It's a good place to be, all things considered. There's some downsides, but much of...

and many places in the world, even still today, if you are arrested and thrown into prison, if somebody doesn't bring you food, you don't eat. And so Paul receives financial support at great expense and danger to them. As a matter of fact, the man who brings this support from the church in Philippi to Paul gets sick in his travels and almost dies. What you see from this is a great love on the part of the Philippian church for Paul. And so it's actually not as crazy for somebody you love to say, you know me, look at me. Look at how I live. That's how you ought to live when you've seen them and you've experienced how they live so intimately. And we also have seen...

Because it's recorded for us in the book of Acts and through his letters, the work of Paul in his life. I mean, in this life. And so we can know him. We can know what he was like and how he acted. And then when he holds himself up as an example and says, be like me, we can know what that means and we can be encouraged by it. And then he holds up the bad model. And he says, there's other people that you don't want to be like. They're so bad, in fact, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ. So that's what we're going to be spending our time on this morning. Would you please stand for the reading of God's word from Philippians chapter 3, beginning in verse 7.

But whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ. and may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do. Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude. And if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you. However, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.

Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame. who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory by the exertion of the power that he has even to subject all things to himself. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.

And let us pray. Heavenly Father, we give you thanks and praise for this word of truth that you have breathed out, inspiring the Apostle Paul to write to the church in Philippi and to us today. May it be profitable in our ears. May your Holy Spirit be at work, and may the words of my mouth and the meditations on every one of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen. Well, the first thing that we have to understand as we look at this passage is what it means when Paul says that some are enemies. of the cross of Christ. In this case, when he speaks of the cross of Christ, it may not be entirely clear to you what he's speaking of. A cross is an inanimate object, right? I mean, so in one sense, you could say, I'm an enemy of this pulpit. But it would be silly to be an enemy of an inanimate object, right?

And so obviously when he speaks of people being enemies of the cross of Christ, he means something a little bit deeper than just that piece of wood or pieces of wood that were used by the Romans and the Jews to put Jesus to death. That is the cross that he's speaking of. But the cross stands for much more in this passage and in general and in our lives object, right? When he speaks of the cross here, he is using it as an abbreviated way of talking about, just a shortened way of speaking of, the whole gospel truth that he has proclaimed to them and that is his ministry to proclaim throughout the world to the Gentiles.

What is that gospel truth and why is he able to abbreviate it as the cross of Jesus Christ or the cross of Christ? Well, the reason he's able to shorten it down so much is because they already know the gospel message. If you don't know the gospel, this letter, this little section can't actually make that much sense to you. So until you know, and this is what Paul is assuming they know already because he's preached it to them, he knows that their pastor is preaching it to them, right? He knows that they know the simple gospel message, which is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he came to earth and took on human form.

That he lived a righteous and holy life and that he was executed, put to death by evil men for the purposes of God. And that purpose of God was that he would be the perfect sacrifice for sin. That he would pay the penalty of the sins that you and I have and that we deserve that penalty. but that instead he took it and we received his reward for his righteous living. So that is the gospel message and that is what Paul is speaking of when he says that they are enemies of the cross of Christ. He's saying that they are enemies of God, they're enemies of his Messiah, his Savior, the Son of God that he sent. He's saying that they're enemies of that message all across the board.

To call somebody an enemy of the cross of Christ, you couldn't say anything worse about them ultimately. It's not just that they are unsaved, that they don't believe that gospel yet, or that maybe they have not heard it yet. It is that they need to be distinguished and shown that actually they hate that message. They reject and despise that Savior. That's what it means to be an enemy of the cross of Christ. And so why would Paul make that kind of a statement? Is it because these are people that he's particularly put out with? That he's particularly irritated with? No, actually, if you go back to the beginning of the book of Philippians, there's a whole group of men who preach the gospel and do it in order to try to cause Paul pain.

believe it or not. They do it out of selfish motives, he says, and they do it to try to make him feel bad. But he doesn't care, he says. As a matter of fact, it's another reason for him to rejoice. As long as Jesus Christ is being proclaimed by them, he doesn't care if they've got some bad motives in there. As long as they truly proclaim the cross, he rejoices. Those are the kinds of people that you would be put out by. As an apostle. I mean, it's not pleasant. That's one of the ways that he is really suffering. Paul's in jail. Watch this. This will really make him mad. I'm going to go out in front of his house and preach where he can't go. I mean, we don't know exactly what they're doing, but you see, like, they have really nasty motives in doing that. But that's not who he's talking about here when he calls this group enemies of the cross of Christ.

These are men who claim to be followers of Christ, but who care not about heavenly things, but rather who care only about earthly things. And so they have mixed false doctrines in with the truth. And that mixture is toxic. Because they have mixed in poison. Now you can take tap water from your sink and it's good and healthy for us here. But if you take tap water and you put strychnine into it, just a little bit, mix it up, drink it down. Is it going to be good for you? But it's water. Water is good for you, right? Not when it has poison added to it. And that's what's happened.

to the gospel message that these enemies of the cross of Christ are proclaiming. They have mixed in false doctrines with the true. Now, why would somebody mix in false doctrines with the true proclamation of the gospel? Think about that. I already gave you a hint in saying that they're thinking about earthly things rather than heavenly things. Remember Paul talks about how he is pressing on to the goal and that his citizenship and our citizenship, if we are believers in Jesus Christ, is where? Our citizenship is up in heaven. We could spend, of course, a whole week just on that. But here you have men who, their citizenship is different. The land that they belong to.

that they call home is different. Their king is different. The laws are different. The priorities are different. It's an entirely different culture. And so if they have their minds fixed on earthly things, think about if you are in the city with Paul, where he's been preaching and he gets arrested, and you think, you know, with a little bit of change, I think we could really make something out of this. Do away with the self-sacrifice part. And after all, Paul's in prison. I don't want to go to prison for preaching. Let's change this message up just a little bit. Leave in a lot of the good motivational stuff. Leave in a lot of the description of right and wrong that everybody knows. Right? And let's make this a little bit better. Let's improve on this a little bit.

This message really has some potential to it. And I think I could gather a large group of people in this city who would be really favorable to this modified message. Matter of fact, I'll bet you they'd support me. Matter of fact, I'll bet you I could gain some influence in this city. Now that's speaking in the sense of... From the perspective of somebody who wants to stand up in front of people like me and talk. I like that. I enjoy that. Some people enjoy doing that. Other people don't. So, you know, does that still happen today? Are there still enemies of the cross of Christ? Are there still those who claim to be followers of Christ and yet who are mixing truth and falsehood up?

and making it poisonous, there still are today. I remember years ago here in Indianapolis, I guess before we even started having services, so more than 10 years ago, that I was invited through a connection, a friend of Luis's, to preach at a Spanish-speaking church here in town. And I asked Luis, what I should know before I went there to preach. And he said, they have not heard the gospel. They have not heard the gospel. Preach the gospel to them. Luis would have called himself immature at that time, based on his testimony this morning. And yet, what was he doing? He was making a judgment. He was making a judgment that there was a church where The gospel was not being proclaimed, but rather an admixture. It was a church. They said they were followers of Christ, and yet he said he had been there, and there was no gospel. What a sad, sad description, and yet there is much temptation there.

And this is why Paul gives this warning and says that he's given it several times and that now he gives it so intently that he gives it with tears as he's writing this letter. Do not be like them. Do not be like them. Why? Because they are enemies of the cross of Christ. Because actually they are walking to destruction. Because their citizenship is not in heaven. They're walking toward destruction rather than toward the resurrection from the dead that he is pressing on toward that he says he has not yet achieved. Of course, it's almost a funny thing to say, you have not yet achieved the resurrection from the dead. I mean, after all, he's still alive, right? He hasn't died yet. You can't achieve the resurrection until...

I mean, you've got to go through that dying thing first. Of course, Paul was a lot closer to that than you and I were, being in prison and potentially about to be executed for preaching this good news. But even so, just as when he speaks of the cross of Christ, He's using it in a shorthand way. So when he speaks of the resurrection and having not attained to it yet, he is speaking in a sort of shorthand about the perfection that comes only after we have passed through death and have been raised immortal, given new bodies, new life, made perfect in Christ Jesus. precedes this description of those who are enemies of the cross of Christ by saying, in essence, I'm still a sinner. I am not yet perfect. I am still pursuing that, pressing on, fighting for it. I have not given up, but I continue to push forward in my walk with Christ, push forward in seeking to live a holy life, push forward.

in knowing and growing towards that citizenship, being the perfect citizen. Now, we don't have too much of a patriotic bent in this country anymore. There's still a good touch of it, but not like there have been in past years here and not certainly like there has been in many other nations. But having that... Having that thought in your mind that there is such a thing as the uber citizen, right? The perfect man that is ready to be everything that that country embodies. Well, if you're thinking of an earthly country, everything that that country embodies is going to include some pretty nasty stuff, right? But if you're thinking about heaven and you're thinking about being a citizen of heaven and having the appropriate attitude, actions, thoughts, commitments of heaven where the king is Jesus Christ, then all of a sudden it's like, hey, you know what? Yeah, I want to keep figuring out more and more what it means to be a citizen of heaven. I want to press on. I want to get closer to that model.

Paul has held himself up, and he does this several places in his letters. He says, keep pressing on like I press on. Keep following in my footsteps. Look at me and how I lived. You saw me. I lived among you. And then, I'm not there anymore. Look at the men who follow in my footsteps, he says in this passage, right? Those who are living like I lived. Use them as your model. He puts flesh and bone on it here and now because Jesus Christ isn't here, right? Not in his physical form. We don't get to watch him live. All we have is the record of his life. And that's a wonderful gift. We get to see and read what he was like. But his presence now among us.

works its way out because he dwells in our hearts, right? And it works its way out in our behavior. If we are followers of Jesus Christ, he is in us, he is in this body, and as we live our lives, our actions show Jesus Christ to the world. So when Paul says, live like me, he's saying, live like me as I live running towards That goal, being perfect like Jesus Christ, and yet there's this whole other group of people who say, I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. Be like me. Where he says, no, stay away from them. Don't look at them. Don't model them. Don't run after them because they're running to destruction. Their citizenship is elsewhere. It's earthly. It's deadly. So those are your two models.

Now, the bad model, he says that they have their appetite as their God. What does it mean to have something as your God? You worship it. And then that worship plays out with very particular kinds of things. If we think of appetite being a God, it's a little bit easier to... Put some flesh on the bones of, if appetite is your God, what does that mean? It means when you wake up in the morning and you're hungry, you're controlled by your hunger, right? And if you don't get food, you get hangry. That's what it means to be controlled by your appetite, right? Does being controlled by something have anything to do with it being a God to you? Well, yeah, think about God. He is in control, right? So if God is in control, that's a totally different thing than if your appetite is in control. But of course, when Paul speaks of appetite, he's not talking merely about our stomachs and food, right?

When he speaks of appetite, he is speaking of our desires, our earthly, physical desires. Physical in the sense of food, but earthly in the sense of not heavenly. Earthly as in the sense of wicked desires. So there are many, many good things that God has given us, but that when... We seek them greater than him, then they become our appetites, and our appetites are then our gods, controlled by, ruled by, serving a desire. What is the controlling desire in your life? Now, when you look around, remember, it's easy to see people who are not Christians, who are living a life of, who are living a life who are just running after whatever it is that they want at that moment. You can see people who make no pretense of being a Christian and who run headlong after money, full speed ahead, right? That's all they care about. You can see it. Every decision in their life is simply filtered through increasing money? Yes. Okay, good. We go this way.

Decreasing money? Okay, bad. We don't go that way, right? It's just that easy. There's a whole group of people who serve money, and that's their God and their appetite, etc. Yep, easy to see that. But is that who Paul's talking about? No. Paul's not talking about those people who make no pretense of following Christ. Paul is actually speaking of a group that he feels particularly needful of warning them that there is this group that... actually you need to realize that they're enemies of the cross of Christ. You need to notice that actually what's going on is that they are serving their appetites. That they are being controlled by other gods. And then you need to not be like them. What else does he say about them? He says their glory is their shame. Now again, pride parades.

In every major city in this country, right? Pride parade celebrating the shame of homosexuality and all sorts of sexual debauchery happen every year, right? And in some sense, Christians need to be warned, yeah, don't be like them. That is glorying in their shame, right? I mean, that is shameful behavior, that is wickedness, and them glorying in it is... Yeah, we need to be warned about that. Paul does warn us about that sort of thing. But here, again, there's this other group that Paul is really focusing on here. And so what I want you to have in your mind is a recognition that there are people who make no claim to be followers of God at all. There are people...

who are followers of God and that we are to use as our model. And then there is this other category of people who claim to be followers of God, and yet we are to be careful not to have them as our model because actually their appetite is their God, their glory is their shame, their end is destruction. And if we are like them, then we will be... on the same road as them, we will be walking to destruction like them. You see that warning. So it's that category that I want us to sort of get in our minds and realize it exists. And then, after we finally get it through our heads that that category exists, to begin to think about, are we following that group? Is that group our model or is it something else?

We are not to imitate them. And they are many. This is not a rare category. Remember when Jesus speaks of separating the sheep and the goats, he doesn't separate out a group of people that said, oh yeah, we never believed you existed anyway, as goats. Who are the goats and what do they say? They say, but Lord, Lord, did we not cast out demons in your name? Did we not start megachurches in your name? Did we not do many glorious works on your behalf and in your name? And he will say, depart from me. I never knew you. That's the group that we must not be like.

That's the group that Paul warns the Philippians and us, even with tears, they are enemies of the cross of Christ. And the Bible says, bad company corrupts good morals. There's a group of people that says, yeah, I'm bad company, right? And there's a little bit of an attraction over that sometimes, the bad boy, right? I'd like to maybe be that or be with that. But there's a lot of danger and risk and so forth over there. How about this other guy who is really cool, doesn't call himself a bad boy, always gets away with everything? Is he bad company? He's much worse company because he claims that he is good while he's being bad. You have to pick your role models carefully. Now, what does it mean to be like them? Let's take a step back.

and think about what they are like. Well, we already know they're given over to pursuing their earthly appetites, right? But what does it mean for them to glory in their shame if it's not that they're running to the pride parades? How can people glory in their shame and yet claim to be followers of Christ? Think of the church in Corinth. Remember that they were proud of the fact that they were accepting a sinner in their midst who had his father's wife, right? Yikes. But they were being so gracious. They were demonstrating the love of Jesus Christ to sinners. How could Paul or you or anybody else find fault with that? Isn't God love? Isn't he gracious? How can you judge them so harshly?

When they are simply trying to show the kindness of God to a fallen, lost world full of sinners who need Jesus Christ. You better run away. You better run away. You see how seductive that is? They have such pride in their shame. They hold it out there as so wonderful and attractive and holy. And yet, It is to give themselves over to not the fear of God and pleasing him, but rather the fear of man and pleasing of man. This is who we are not to be like. They take pride in their acceptance of sin. They take pride in their mixed-up doctrine, and it leads to bad practice. And so one of the things that Paul is talking about here is Judaizers. That's the word that we would use to describe the error that he is facing. And one of the things that is central to that error is legalism. And so their shame would be the fact that they put their hope in their own obedience rather than in the obedience of Jesus Christ. That's their shame because what has he just gotten done saying? All my righteousness, never mind my wickedness, is rubbish and so I can't have any pride in it. But anybody who puts pride in and takes their hope from the fact that they know what's right and wrong and they have set up

a very rigorous set of rules that Christians must follow. That sort of legalism and Judaizers had it in spades, right? Which was, what it means to be a Christian is, yeah, yeah, Jesus Christ died. Yeah, he's good. He set a model for us. Yeah, we need him. But remember, there's these rules. And if you're not keeping those rules, you're not a Christian. If you're not keeping these rules, there's not hope for you. And you say, well, yeah, isn't that holiness? Isn't that what Paul means by press on to the upward calling in Christ Jesus? He's pressing on, you know, seeking that perfection. But what does he say? Not that I have attained it. The Judaizers have put their hope in their own righteousness.

We have many, many people who claim the name of Jesus Christ today who have defined a new sort of righteousness that they put their hope in. What is that righteousness? Well, tolerance is one of the great righteousnesses of today, right? And Paul is so utterly intolerant of them here. They are enemies of the cross of Christ. And so it's the opposite of pressing on toward the goal of Jesus Christ. That they are doing in spite of the fact that they claim his name. To be like them, of course, in many ways is to adopt their poor teaching, their bad theology, their bad practice. But I want to hold up to you probably the most dangerous temptation that we face to be like them. And that is simply to wallow.

Lethargically, doing the bare minimum, seeking to fill our appetites. Now, what does lethargically mean? Do any of you kids know? It's a hard word, so I think we better get it straight. What does lethargically mean? Yeah. Tired or slow? Sleepily? Lazily? Yeah. So if you wallow around in your Christian life, like... you know, I should probably read the Bible, but Fortnite's calling. Or, yeah, you know, there's Bible study, but it's easier to scroll up in TikTok, right? I mean, it's really easy, isn't it? All you have to do is this. See that? And how much time goes by with you doing this? Does your thumb get tired? Thumb never gets tired, does it? It's really easy. You can do this for a long, long time.

And what is Paul saying? He's saying, you must press on. Follow after me. I am running towards the goal. I am fighting for holiness. Be like me. And if there's ever been anybody who was not lazy in this life, who was not lethargic in pursuing the cross of Christ, it's Paul, right? Yeah, he describes himself as pressing on, as running, as fighting the good fight, as running the race, all of those things. But he also, just look at his life. From city to city, planting, preaching, praying, writing letters, going to jail. Over and over and over, you see that he never gives up that pursuit. And so when I mock, Fortnite or TikTok, or if I mock your seeking after money, because many people don't give themselves to the laziness of sitting there comfortably on the couch being entertained. Here we are now, entertain us, right? There's many people who give themselves to seeking after a different appetite, one for money, and who work hard at it every opportunity that they get. And there are others who give themselves to other appetites,

Appetites for sexual fulfillment, whatever that means today, whatever form that takes at this moment. And there are those who live for the next meal and making sure that it will taste good and be a pleasure to eat. And there are those who live for every good and gracious gift that God has poured out. in his common grace on all of mankind. Because food is a wonderful gift, isn't it? As is marriage and sexuality. As is the way that he made the world so that if we work, we eat and we receive money and the laborer is worthy of his wages. What a wonderful world he has made. And the moment that you take one of those things and you begin to live for it and it becomes your God and your appetite.

your belly, then all of a sudden it's a totally different life you're living. No longer are you running after Paul as he runs after Christ. No longer are you a citizen of heaven seeking to be like your king and to serve him with joy and gladness of heart. There's no dual citizenship here. That's what we're tempted to think, right? I can pursue heaven and I can pursue my earthly desires. I'm going to pursue them both. First of all, we're told no one can serve two masters. With regard to money and God, you're going to serve one or you're going to serve the other. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Is your heart in heaven like Paul's is? Or is your heart here on earth looking at your bank account?

There's no dual citizenship. You must have your citizenship in heaven. Or you must acknowledge that you are an enemy of the cross of Christ. And rather than remain an enemy, you must fall on your knees and repent and enter into his kingdom through that narrow gate on that straight and narrow path. Jesus Christ is the gate. that the sheep enter into his kingdom through. And so you may not be an enemy of his and claim his name. You may not claim his name and serve your earthly lusts. You may not be a citizen of earth and claim his name. You must be a citizen of heaven. You must repent and believe.

Now I know that it can be somewhat confusing to say there's no dual citizenship because here we are living on earth, right? And it's like, it's awfully easy day by day to get caught up in, even as Christians who are not enemies of the cross of Christ, in the daily grind and the one foot in front of another work that we have to do and forget what it means to, whether we eat, or drink, or whatever we do, do it all to the glory of God, we can very quickly become caught up in like, okay, now I need to eat. Okay, now I need to drink. Okay, now I need to work. Now I need to get my, and like, what? That is to be like these people whose God is their belly, right? Don't be like them. And you say, but I'm living on earth. I don't get it. And I say, you are a stranger here. You are not a citizen. You are a sojourner.

And yes, to sojourn on earth is filled with many, many difficulties. There is much pain in this fallen world. There are many temptations. There are many, many sins and sinners. And even in yourself, deep in your heart, sinful desires. Even if you are a Christian, yes. Because why? Because Paul does not. consider himself to have arrived yet at the resurrection because why because he's still sojourning on earth the same as you and me at that time so when i say there's no dual citizenship you say but i'm living here and i say temporarily you're visiting for a short while but eternity is waiting just around the corner who are you going to be like For the short time that's left, Paul warns us with tears. Don't be like them. They are enemies of the cross of Jesus Christ. Flee from sexual immorality. Flee from idolatry. Flee from youthful lusts. Run to Christ. Fall at the foot of the cross. No longer be an enemy of the cross, but be one who is saved from this perverse generation. Let us pray.