Thank you very, very much.
That was quite beautiful.
Would that you'd open up your Bible to
the book of Revelation, chapter 3.
Book of Revelation, chapter 3.
Beginning in verse 14.
To the angel of the church in Laodicea
write, the Amen, the faithful and true witness,
the beginning of the creation of God says
this, I know your deeds that you are
neither cold nor hot.
I wish that you were cold or hot.
So because you are lukewarm and neither cold
nor hot, I will spit you out of
my mouth.
Because you say, I am rich and have
become wealthy and have need of nothing, and
you do not know that you are wretched
and miserable and poor and blind and naked,
I advise you to buy from me gold
refined by the fire so that you may
become rich, and white garments so that you
may clothe yourselves, and that the shame of
your nakedness will not be revealed.
And I salve to anoint your eyes so
that you may see.
Those whom I love I reprove and discipline,
therefore be zealous and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the
door, I will come in to him and
will dine with him and he with me.
He who overcomes, I will grant to him
to sit down with me on my throne,
as I also overcame and sat down with
my father on his throne.
He who has an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit says to the churches.
Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Father, I come before you and pray your
help for the sake of your own glory
and the benefit of your people.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
To the angel of the church in Laodicea
write, Whenever some preacher turns to this passage,
the church begins to tremble.
Because this text is usually preached in a
very hard, very rebuking, sometimes even angry sort
of way.
And there is a need for that at
times in the church to come down very,
very hard and to preach a hard word
from the Lord.
But if we only look at this passage
in that manner, we miss so many things.
You see, whenever the Lord comes to a
group of people to speak to them, He
is always the Lord of love.
One of the ways that you can discern
the difference between when Satan is speaking to
condemn and God is speaking to reprove is
this.
Whenever Satan rebukes or condemns you, he will
always leave you without hope.
Whenever God speaks a hard word to His
people, even through the prophets in the Old
Testament, we see this.
Whenever God speaks even a hard word to
His people, He never leaves them destitute of
hope, but always leaves them with repent.
The mercies of the Lord are new every
morning.
So when we look at this passage tonight,
I don't want you to just think of
rebuke, of something negative, of how wrong you
are, of the foot coming down.
I want you to look at this passage
as instructive, as helpful, as a blessing, as
something tremendously positive in our lives.
Now, He says to the angel of the
church in Laodicea, write, Who this angel is,
there is no grammatical, contextual way to determine.
You can say whatever you want to say
as long as you want to say it,
but grammatically and contextually, it is just impossible
to identify who He is talking about.
Some say He is referring to a literal
angel.
Others say He is referring to the pastor
of the church.
Others say He is referring to maybe even
the spirit of the church.
All sorts of different things, but the Bible
is silent.
And when the Bible is silent on a
matter, we would do well to be silent
also.
Now, we can make our inferences, we can
say what we believe it might be, but
when the Bible doesn't go ahead and explain
it, maybe it is not that important.
And maybe we spend too much time trying
to explain the things that aren't explained, and
things that aren't that important, and we miss
what is really important here.
What is really important is Jesus Christ has
sent a message to His church.
That is what is important.
And it is an authoritative message.
Now, first of all, I want you to
understand something.
The greatest blessing that can be manifest in
the church is God sending that church a
message, no matter how hard it is, and
God working in that church to discipline, reprove,
and rebuke that church.
That is a sign of tremendous blessing from
the Lord.
As a matter of fact, in the New
Covenant, it promises, some of it in Malachi,
that He would come as a refiner's fire,
that He would come rebuking and cleansing His
church.
And one of the greatest acts of judgment,
of divine judgment, upon a people who identify
themselves with Christianity, is when God no longer
comes to rebuke, or discipline, or correct.
There are so many, and they are not
churches, but there are so many, I don't
even know what you would call them, people
coming together throughout this country on Sunday morning,
collecting themselves together in religious buildings that are
no more churches than a man on the
moon.
They can commit all sorts of abominations, they
can teach all sorts of heresy, but God
never rebukes them, He never corrects them, He
never censors them.
And why is that?
For the same reason, I do not discipline
another man's children.
They don't belong to me.
So I want you to know something, church.
I want you to know something, believer.
If God so zealously guards you that you
cannot get away with anything, that is a
sign, a manifestation of His love and His
blessing in your life.
But if you are a person, or a
group of people who have identified yourselves with
Christianity, and yet you are able to live
in the abominations of this world, you are
able to trespass the commandments of God, without
God ever coming to you, ever censoring you,
ever rebuking you, ever convicting you of sin,
then know this, you are reprobate and on
the road to hell.
So see, when we see God come to
us with a message that may be very,
very difficult, it is a sign that we
are His people.
It is a sign of blessing.
It is a sign of encouragement.
Now there is something very important here that
I want you to understand.
Preaching is an extremely dangerous thing for both
parties, for the preacher and for the ones
listening.
Now why is that?
If what I preach here tonight is not
biblical, it's not from the Lord, then on
the day of judgment, I will stand and
receive greater condemnation.
Not many of you be teachers.
Why?
Teachers undergo greater scrutiny, greater condemnation.
False prophets will be cast into hell.
So you see, it's a fearful thing for
me to preach, because if what I say
is not true, I come under the judgment
of God.
But then it's also a fearful thing for
you to listen to preaching.
Now if what I say tonight is not
biblical, is not from the Lord, then it's
not a fearful thing.
You can totally discard it, walk out the
door, and you're absolutely free from everything I
say.
But if what I say is biblical and
from the Lord, then you are bound by
it and will be held accountable for it.
To whom much is given, much is required.
Now I want you to understand something.
This is very, very important.
Very important.
When I was a pastor in Peru, I
would preach on a certain topic, six weeks,
eight weeks, you know, three months.
And then I would invite a visiting pastor
or visiting preacher to come in and also
preach on the same thing.
And I'd stand there at the back door
and hear countless members of my own church
come up to that man and say, praise
God for that message, we've never heard anything
like this before.
And I'm thinking to myself, I have preached
this for ten weeks.
Now, when your pastor gets up here, familiarity
breeds contempt.
When your pastor gets up here, he's not
your pastor.
He's hopefully God's man.
And the fact that you hear him every
week is a dangerous thing.
Why?
Because we have a tendency not to listen
much.
Because we hear it every week from the
same voice.
But know this, if he is preaching the
text, if he is being biblical, much is
going to be required of thee.
Do you understand?
It is a fearful thing to attend church
when the word of God is being preached
and God himself is in attendance.
Now, let me say something about authority, which
is extremely important.
From where does authority come to preach?
We hear people, they say, well, you know
these TV evangelists, they've all received a special
anointing from God, special anointing of the Holy
Spirit.
Well, the Bible says in 1 John that
all believers have received the anointing of the
Holy Spirit.
Some men, more the fundamentalist, Baptist type of
men will say, I have authority because of
my calling.
Well, just because someone's called doesn't mean they're
right.
Men who are called can be wrong.
So from where does authority, true biblical authority
come when someone is preaching?
It comes from this, I have authority tonight
to tell you about God and to tell
you what to do and even command you
to do certain things and stop doing other
things only to the degree that I correctly
interpret and clearly communicate the word of God.
Other than that, I have no authority.
So the only question here tonight is, is
it true?
When your pastor is preaching, the only question
is, is it true?
Is it biblical?
Whenever the church, maybe the church leadership believes
that it needs to go in a new
direction or do something that no one's ever
done before and people stand up and say,
well, we've never done that before.
It really doesn't matter a hill of beans.
The only question is, is it biblical?
That's all that matters.
That solves every problem.
I was preaching several years ago at University
Town and I'd spoken at the university and
I was preaching in a congregation outside of
that university and some unbelievers came, rather secular
fellows came just to kind of listen to
me and fight with me a little bit
after the meetings.
And I was preaching on that Jesus Christ
is the only way.
When I came down, a young man was
very angry with me and he said, I
don't like the way you presented that.
I don't like your spirit.
I don't like your attitude.
He went on all about all the things
he didn't like about me.
And I said, young man, listen to me.
I'm going to teach you something very important.
I will bow before you right now and
ask for forgiveness.
Without even judging myself, I will ask forgiveness
that I have offended you.
But young man, in the end, that really
doesn't matter.
Because even if I am all the things
you say I am, I am arrogant, I
am proud, I am quick-tempered, if I
am all the things you say I am,
still the question before you is this, what
I said, is it true?
Because if it's true, you cannot use my
sin as an excuse not to obey it.
You see that?
Now when you leave here tonight or when
you leave after hearing a sermon anywhere, sometimes
when we preach directly about sin, I've heard
people get up and walk out of the
congregation and they'll say, well, I just don't
agree with that guy or I just don't
like what he said or who does he
think he is?
You see, they're missing the point.
It doesn't matter whether you like him or
not and it doesn't matter who he thinks
he is or who he thinks he's not.
The only question is, is it true?
You see, in every sermon you have to
be able to say one of two things.
The man who just preached to us is
a heretic, a false prophet, completely wrong, and
I'm not going to listen to a word
he says.
Or what he said is right and it
is biblical and I am bound to obey
it.
That's not the way people think.
What people do is this.
They make it a personality battle.
I don't like the guy, therefore I'm not
listening to him.
So you can't do that.
You can't do that.
It's the same way with Jesus Christ and
C.S. Lewis' trilemma, the logical argument he
put forth.
Jesus is either a liar or he's a
lunatic or he's the Lord of glory, but
you can't patronize him.
In the same way, the preacher is either
a heretic or sent from God and you
can't patronize him.
Now, to the angel of the church in
Laodicea write, who is going to speak to
this church?
Well, in this text, it is Jesus Christ.
Now, the important thing tonight is that I
myself preach what Jesus said.
If I preach Paul Washer tonight, you are
not bound to obey.
But if I correctly interpret this text, you
are bound to obey because it is Christ
himself that is speaking to you through his
word.
Now, one of the things my wife, she
is from Spain.
One of the things that she first noticed,
she said, when she came to this country
was this.
She couldn't believe how thin-skinned that Americans
were.
She goes, you can't tell anybody they're wrong
in the church.
They will get so offended, they're gone.
She goes, in the church in Peru, we
knew that was the pastor's job.
To rebuke, to correct, to teach.
But here in America, if you just look
at somebody the wrong way, they're gone.
That's true.
And it's probably true of some of you.
If someone were to come and correct you,
if someone were to come and tell you
that possibly your teenager is lost, even though
you believe they're saved, you'd get so offended,
you'd go to the next church and not
recognize you're leaving a church that loves you,
because at least they'll tell you the truth.
Are you willing to open yourself up to
biblical rebuke?
Because if you're not, there's no hope for
you whatsoever.
Are you willing for a man of God,
with the Bible open, and not just the
pastor, but godly men, and even open to
the rebuke of godly women in its proper
context?
Are you open to rebuke?
Are you open to correction?
Are you open to someone walking up to
you in love and humbly telling you something
that's going to hurt you, but they do
it because they love you and for your
benefit?
Because if not, there's no hope for you.
You can't grow.
One of the most important aspects of fellowship
is correction and rebuke, and yet I see
none of it today in America.
No wonder we don't grow.
How can we grow?
Now, I want you to look at something
here.
The one who comes to rebuke this church,
Laodicea, and the one who may come tonight
to correct this church is Jesus Christ.
And look how He's described.
First of all, He's the Amen.
The one who, when you open the Bible,
corrects you, is the very one who is
the fulfillment of every promise God ever gave.
Can't you listen to someone like that?
Why would you want to balk against someone
like that?
Why would you want to have a stiff
neck against Him?
In the love of God, in the faithfulness
of God, in the sovereignty of God, He
is the very answer, yes, to every promise
God ever gave you.
Can't you listen to someone like that when
He comes to you and tells you, you're
wrong?
There are certain people, especially certain older men,
that I don't know why, but they have
taken me under their wing and they love
me.
They love me.
They would die a thousand deaths for me.
They have mentored me.
They have been a blessing to me.
They have rebuked me so many times.
I take it because I know them.
I'll never forget one time I preached.
Oh, I was just full of rage.
I preached one night, almost tore the church
apart.
And afterwards, one of those dear men came
up to me.
I was standing almost right here at the
steps of the platform.
He just shot out of his chair and
came right up as soon as the service
was over.
And he said, Paul, you preached the truth
tonight.
And you preached it in the flesh.
And you need to get down on your
knees right now and ask God to forgive
you.
And then you need to stand up and
ask this church to forgive you.
He was right.
And he saved my ministry, maybe.
Most people don't have enough love to do
that.
Probably most of you would have walked out
of here telling everybody how wicked I was,
but none of you had enough love to
come to me and tell me I was
wrong.
That's typical church.
But some people really do love.
And they love so much, they're willing to
put their life on the line.
And even rebuke the very ones they love.
When someone comes to you in love, humbly,
listen.
And when someone comes to you not in
love and not humbly, still listen.
Because it might be true.
Don't use their sin as an excuse for
your own.
Is it true?
But here we know it is.
Why?
Because the one speaking to us is the
Amen.
And he's not only the Amen, it says
he is the faithful and true witness.
He's faithful.
The one who comes to you in Scripture
to correct you, he has always been faithful
to you.
Always.
Has he ever failed you one time?
Has he ever turned his back on you
one time?
Has he ever not come to help you
one time?
Has his blood ever failed one time?
Well, then can't you listen to someone like
that?
And part of his faithfulness is this.
He comes to you to correct you.
Let me tell you something.
If you are someone's friend and you know
they're in sin, and you don't go to
them to correct them, it's not because you
love them so much.
It's because you love yourself and you desire
your own self-preservation and you don't want
anyone to think bad of you.
You're not being faithful to your friend.
In the same way, I'm not being faithful
to the congregation if I do not preach
the truth.
You know why most people don't discipline their
little children?
It's not because they love them.
Don't buy into that lie.
It's because they love themselves and they want
their children to like them.
They feed off their own children like parasites.
The one who comes to you is faithful.
But not only is he faithful, he's a
true witness.
Now, anyone else comes to you, including myself,
with a witness against you, listen, but just
don't accept right off the top.
If God shows you that what they're saying
is true, then accept it.
If God doesn't show you, if it's not
clear to you, then go gather some other
brothers and sisters who will be honest and
sit down all of you together and say,
is this so about me?
Is this true?
Do I need to change?
Apply Matthew 18 there.
Because not every time someone witnesses something about
you, not every time are they true and
faithful.
We can just simply be mistaken.
Someone can come to you to rebuke you,
and they might do it in love, they
might do it humbly, but at the same
time they might do it and they're fallible.
And they're wrong.
But when Jesus comes to you, He is
the faithful and true witness.
Everything He says about you is true.
He knows you're rising up.
He knows you're lying down.
He knows you're coming in, you're going out.
He knows the deepest recess of your heart.
Everything He knows is truth.
He is omniscient.
He knows everything completely, perfectly, exhaustively, and without
effort.
So when He comes to you, what He
says is true.
Now let me ask you something though.
Are you like so many people, that you
are so busy with the things of this
world, that you are not hardly ever before
Him in the Word and prayer?
You are so busy you never hear His
voice.
You're never before the open Word meditating upon
it.
You're never before Him silent and listening and
reading and meditating and saying, Lord, show me
my heart.
Is there any wicked way in me?
Examine me, O Lord.
Even the pagan philosopher said that one of
the highest virtues is to know thyself.
We know nothing.
We're a busy, noisy people.
And our Christianity is just as busy and
noisy as anything you can find in the
world.
A poet, songwriter has written a beautiful, beautiful
narration of Jesus Christ coming in from the
wilderness and desiring to go into the temple.
He says, Weak from the journey and the
long passing days, hungry to worship and join
in the praise and shock met with anger
that burned on His face when He entered
the wasteland of that barren place.
And it talks about Christ entering into the
temple with all the noise and the clanging
and the music and the buying and the
selling and the screaming and the hollering.
And he talks about making a whip and
chasing the people out of the temple.
And then it says, The noise and confusion
gave way to His Word at last sacred
silence so God could be heard.
There's so much noise in the church.
Can God be heard?
So much activity, so much just useless, vain
activity.
How much time do you spend quiet before
the Lord, asking Him to examine you, asking
Him to examine you, to show you your
ways?
David even asked God, Show me how transient
I am.
Teach me to number my days.
Is there any wicked way in me?
He was a man acutely aware that there
was a judgment coming.
Silence in order to hear.
Is anybody listening?
Does anyone have ears to hear?
So much noise.
Do you know what the church, well, you
know what Christianity is in America today?
Hardly anything more than a six flags over
Jesus.
And the bigger the church gets, the bigger
the carnival.
Programs, activities, everything from ski trips to coffee
shops.
Why?
Well, it's what you got to do when
you got to keep the program going.
And when men out of a desire to
be famous within Christianity build big churches upon
the bones of unconverted church members, you need
a bulldozer to knock the whole thing down.
And it's coming.
Probably the only thing that will save the
church in America is persecution or national catastrophe
or revival.
He says, the amen, the faithful, the true
witness, the beginning of the creation of God.
I love what the Puritans used to say
and Thomas Watson, speaking of Jesus Christ and
His authority and power, he would say, this
is no inferior governor of some small village
who has come to speak with you.
This is no inferior prince.
This is the beginning of creation.
This word here doesn't mean that He is
the first created being, as many cults would
say.
No, it means He is the head of
creation.
He is the origin and source of creation.
The very one who holds your entire existence,
every breath in the palm of His hand
comes to speak with you in the Word
of God.
It was said by Jesus that certain people
would rise up against the people of His
age and judge them.
The Queen of Sheba, a pagan, would rise
up and judge the people of Israel because
one greater than Solomon was among them.
When I think of the countless pastors and
Christians that I know in third world countries
that I have served with, pastors who have
planted 15, 20 churches and yet they have
to go to their church and ask permission
to take the one Bible that they all
have out of the church in order to
carry it to another village and use it
to preach.
And yet we have a Bible for every
day.
And it's not used.
To listen to God!
To hear Him!
To stop!
Just to stop!
The only reason you were given ears is
to hear Him.
The only reason you were given eyes is
to see Him.
The only reason you were given a heart
is to love Him.
But we don't have time.
You will fill up your SUV with every
one of your kids and you will take
them to every soccer match, football game, basketball
game.
You will run them here and there, teach
them all sorts of things and they never
learn the ways of God.
How many hours a day do they spend
acquiring knowledge that has no eternal value whatsoever?
And in the busyness of your home, they'll
never hear a word from God.
The beginning of the creation of God says
this, I know your deeds.
I don't know your deeds.
You don't know mine.
And we take consolation in that, don't we?
You wouldn't want a man to know your
deeds or your thoughts.
I was preaching one time speaking at a
university and this reporter came up to me.
He was so angry because I was speaking
on sin.
And he said, I do not believe that
men are as sinful as you say they
are.
And I said, first of all, young man,
it was not I who said it.
I just read the passage.
God said it.
And I said, furthermore, man, take a test
with me right now.
If I could take out your heart right
now and put every thought you have ever
thought in your life, every deed you've ever
committed, and I could put it on a
DVD or a video or a film strip
and I could show it here this evening
in this auditorium to this entire university, is
it not true you would run out of
this building and you'd never show your face
here on campus again?
He could only bow his head and say,
it's true.
One of the things that we need to
know, yes, our Lord is a merciful and
gracious God.
But know this, He knows your deeds.
He knows them.
Some of them you know too and you
hide.
But others, you're so busy and your head
is so filled up with noise that you
don't even know when you're sinning against Him.
My people perish for a lack of knowledge.
Where there is no vision, the people run
unrestrained.
If I ever hear that...
I've heard that passage preached wrong so many
times by megachurch pastors.
It's unbelievable.
Where there is no vision, the people...
We need a vision.
We need to build a big church.
We need to have a great ministry.
That is not what that passage means at
all.
And those men either do not know the
Bible or they are twisting Scripture.
You interpret the passage in its context.
It's speaking of where there is no revelation
of God's law, the people run unrestrained like
wild dogs.
That's what it means.
He knows.
You need to become discerning.
You need to be more than just acknowledging
that, yes, He knows.
But you need to know.
And how do you know more about yourself?
By sitting quietly before Him.
By asking Him.
By being concerned for these things.
By getting into the Word and allowing the
Word to cut you to pieces.
You say, oh, the Bible is my friend.
Well, it's not mine.
It's what Martin Luther said.
He said, the Bible is not my friend.
The Bible is my enemy.
The Bible comes against me every way I
want to turn and cuts me off.
The Bible is your friend.
You probably haven't been reading it very much.
Because the Bible is like a hammer.
It's like a fire.
It's like a sword.
Sometimes I just want to pour myself out
on the floor before it.
I know your deeds.
That you are neither cold nor hot.
I wish that you were cold or hot.
So because you are lukewarm and neither cold
nor hot, I will spit you out of
my mouth.
Now before we go into anything else, let's
just look at, I will spit you, literally,
vomit you out of my mouth.
My dear friend, does the preaching, the typical
preaching in the typical Baptist church today have
anything to do with language like this?
What would, I mean, a pastor stands before
the people and says, God's going to vomit
you out of his mouth.
Now anyone who preaches on this all the
time is mean spirited, hateful, yes, I'll agree
with that.
But to never preach on these things?
I'll never forget, I was preaching a conference
several years ago.
And I preached one night on the holiness
of God.
Just the holiness of God.
That was it.
I came down out of the pulpit.
Some pastors were in the back.
They came up to me.
They said, Brother Paul, we need to talk
to you.
I said, okay.
They said, we've got a problem with your
message.
And I said, well, what is it?
And they said, you preached on the holiness
of God tonight, and not once did you
mention the love of God.
And I said, well, gentlemen, I have a
problem with all three of you.
Because last night, I preached on the love
of God, and not once did I mention
the holiness of God, and not one of
you had a problem with it.
So we can preach on the love of
God all day long, and no one's got
a problem with it.
You preach on the holiness of God five
minutes without explaining that that's not really what
it means, you're going to get in trouble.
You see.
You need to be very, very careful.
This God is not Santa Claus.
He's not a tame lion.
He's really God.
He makes alive, and He kills.
He lifts up, and He judges.
He restores, and He destroys.
He's an awesome God.
He really is.
So when He talks and uses this language,
here's what I want you to do.
I had a fellow call me one time.
This was on prayer.
I was at a conference, and we began
to pray for revival, and I began to
weep.
Now, all of us in this big conference,
we were all sovereign grace guys.
Believe in the sovereignty of God, which I
do.
Now, he calls me up, he's furious.
He said, I thought you believed in the
sovereignty of God.
I said, well, I do.
He said, then why are you weeping and
crying out and begging God for revival?
I knew where he was going.
If God's sovereign, you can't make Him do
anything, which I agree with.
But I looked at him and I said,
Sir, let me tell you something.
Very, very important.
The difference between me and you is I'm
a theologian, and you're a philosopher.
Well, he got really mad there.
I said, Sir, listen to me.
The Bible says that God is sovereign, and
there's not a maverick molecule in the universe.
The Bible also says you have not because
you ask not.
Now, Sir, a theologian says, God says this
and I believe it.
God says this and I believe it.
I can't put it together, but that's really
not my job.
In the same way, the Bible says God
is one.
He is just one.
And three persons are called God in the
Bible.
You know where all the heresy about the
Trinity came from in the first five centuries
of the church?
Either from those who sought to deny the
Trinity or those who sought to explain it.
Now, the Bible says that I am before
the Lord, I have the righteousness of Christ,
that I have been redeemed.
It talks of all those beautiful verses and
chapters about my position before Him, and I
need to take that seriously and I need
to stand in it.
And also, when the Lord says to a
church, I'm going to vomit you out of
my mouth, I need to listen to it.
I can't put those two things together, but
He says both of them and I believe
it.
Do you see that?
We always go from one side to the
other and we don't seem to be able
to maintain a balance, do we?
There is a balance.
I have nothing to fear from God.
And I have everything to fear from God.
And when you get off into a tangent
on either side...
Let me tell you something an old preacher
told me.
I've learned a lot from old preachers.
As a matter of fact, I learned this
from an older preacher who learned it from
an even older preacher.
And it was this.
He said, Son, falsehood is a very broad
path.
You can walk a thousand miles that way
and be in falsehood.
You can walk a thousand miles that way
and be in falsehood.
But being in the truth is like walking
on the edge of a razor blade.
It's very narrow.
That's true.
You hear a preacher that's always preaching things
like God is going to vomit you out
of His mouth and that's all He's ever
preaching on?
He's probably a very bitter, angry, spirited man.
You listen to a preacher who never warns
the church about judgment or discipline?
Be very careful.
He may be a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Now, he says, I know your deeds.
You are neither cold nor hot.
I wish that you were cold or hot,
but because you are lukewarm.
Now, most of you have probably only heard
one interpretation of this passage and I want
you to know that there are actually two
viable grammatical possibilities here.
I'm going to give you first the customary,
traditional interpretation of this passage, which may be
true.
I'm also going to give you the other.
First of all, you have heard it, haven't
you?
I'd rather you be totally against me or
totally for me, but because you're halfway, you
have no zeal, you have no passion, you
have no heart about this thing, I just
as soon spew you out of my mouth.
And that is a warning to us about
what?
It is a warning to us about the
lack of zeal, a lack of passion, that
you can get so passionate about so many
things and not be passionate about Jesus Christ
and the work of God.
We have the horrifyingly magnificent ability to turn
absolutely everything into an idol, to get caught
up in every tomfoolery, every vanity on the
face of the earth and neglect the glory
of God.
What's your God?
Well, I'll tell you.
What do you think about most?
There's your answer.
What do you think about most?
To most people, Jesus is like a little
accessory they add on to the end of
their life.
And I hear preachers promoting that.
Here's the way it goes nowadays.
Modern day preaching.
Look, yuppie couple that I want in my
church because obviously you've got money.
Listen, you've got everything.
You've got it all.
You've got a great job.
You've got a great house.
You've got great kids.
You've got a great wife.
Man, you've just got it all.
You just lack one thing.
You need Jesus.
Let me make this little preaching this guy
just did a little bit more biblical.
Everything you have is dumb if you don't
have Jesus Christ.
Everything you have is going to burn.
And Jesus Christ is not some little accessory
you add on to what already is a
sort of full life to complete it.
He's not a part of your life.
He is your life or you're going to
hell.
I'm not into marketing Jesus.
He's not something that tops off the rest
of the good things you've already gained without
Him.
It's like the Chinese Christian.
When he went back to China, he said,
I am just utterly amazed at how much
American Christians can do without God.
How much they can accomplish without God.
My dear friend, these things should not be
so.
Zeal.
Now, I don't want to leave you there
because if I were to interview every one
of you, you would all say along with
myself that you lack zeal and you lack
love and you lack passion.
Now where are we going to get that?
Pull you up by your bootstraps?
Kind of get motivated, go to some conference,
acquire the fire and get souped up for
about two weeks and then go right back
down to where you started?
I mean, how do you get this zeal?
How do you get this passion?
How do you find this love?
There's only one way to know Him.
Theology.
I know that's going to shock you.
Theology.
I hear people say, I don't want none
of that theology stuff.
Well, the word theology comes from the word
theos, which means God, and logos, which means
word or discourse.
Theology is a discourse about God.
So you're saying, I want Jesus, but I
don't want to hear nothing about God.
I don't want none of that doctrine stuff
from the Hebrew word leka, meaning teaching.
I want the benefits of Christ, but I
don't want to hear any of His teachings.
My dear friend, you cannot divorce the mind
from Christianity.
When you do, you're gone.
So what do you do?
You know I love my wife so much
more after 12 years than I did when
I met her.
It's unbelievable.
Why?
Two reasons.
I know more about my wife than I
did 12 years ago, and I've experienced more
with my wife than I had 12 years
ago.
You lack love for God?
Then go into Scripture, cry out to Him,
Show me Your glory.
Show me Your beauty.
Show me Your attributes.
Show me Who You are.
And the more you see of His beauty,
the more you see of His glory, the
more you see of His goodness and the
magnificence of His works and His justice and
His holiness and His sovereignty, the more you'll
love Him if you're born again.
You see, because many, if not most, today
in American churches are not born again.
Sunday morning in America is the greatest hour
of idolatry in the entire week because most
people are worshiping a God they made with
their own mind, a figment of their own
imagination.
It's nothing more than a projection of what
they are.
And if you were to stand up...
Sometimes people say, come to our church and
preach on the attributes of God.
And I'll say, you really don't want me
to do that.
It'll split your church.
They'll say, what do you mean?
We're Christians.
I mean, what do you mean it'll split?
I said, when I begin to preach on
the sovereignty of God and the justice of
God and the holiness of God, there are
going to be many people in your church
that are going to stand up angry, walk
out stomping, saying, I could never love a
God like that.
My God's not like that.
Because their God's not like that.
Their God's not the biblical God.
It's true.
So there's zeal.
And where does it come from?
From knowing Him.
Knowing Him.
But now there's another interpretation of this passage.
It's also a possibility.
It's very ancient, very old.
In the patristics in the first five centuries,
it was common.
And it goes something like this.
You're neither cold nor hot.
I wish that you were cold or hot,
but because you are lukewarm and neither cold
nor hot, I will spit you out of
my mouth.
It goes something like this.
You're useless to me.
If you were cold, I could use you
to refresh the saints, to encourage believers.
If you were cold, you would be useful
in some way.
If you were hot, prophetic, if you were
burning, I could use you to bring sanctification
into the life of people.
Your zeal could burn into the lives of
others.
Others could light their candle in your fire.
But you're not cold.
I can't use you for that.
You're not hot.
I can't use you for that.
I can't use you for anything.
As a matter of fact, you're just lukewarm,
and lukewarm water breeds disease, and I don't
want you evangelizing.
I don't want you doing anything, because the
only thing you're going to do is spread
the disease that you're filled with.
I can't use you for anything.
Do you know that when you look in
Romans 3, verses 10 through 19, where it
talks about the characteristics of the reprobate, the
characteristics of depraved men that are unregenerate and
not Christians, one of them is they're useless.
All together become useless to God.
I just described a great part of church
membership roles.
It is a common knowledge truth.
You're taught it in seminary.
Pick up any book that's there.
Well, first of all, I graduated from the
University of Texas with a business degree, and
one thing you learn in managing people is
that in your corporation, 20% of the
people are going to do what?
80% of the work.
And 80% of the people are going
to do 20% of the work.
It is just a fact.
No matter how you mix it up, it
always comes out that way.
You know what the problem is?
That's not the problem.
The problem is this.
It's the same statistic in the church.
20% of the people do 80%
of everything that has to be done in
the church, because the rest are useless.
And being useless according to the Bible is
one of the characteristics of a lost man.
Now, let me ask you a question.
How useful are you to God?
How useful?
Would you be able to sit down and
describe your ministry?
Write it out on a piece of paper.
Are you an instrument?
God's instrument.
Are you useful to Him?
Is He using you?
Is He?
I don't mean are you just going to
church on Sunday.
That in itself is just hypocrisy out of
this world.
Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together.
That's not all it says.
It doesn't say go to church, listen to
a sermon.
It doesn't say go to church and sit
down and worship singing four hymns.
You go to church, you gather together as
a community in order to really and practically
minister to one another according to your gifts.
That's what He's talking about.
We are so gone.
It's unbelievable.
We are so far off.
We couldn't find a biblical church with a
road map because we have one right here.
He's not saying, you know, I hear this
all the time.
Don't forsake the assembling of yourself together.
Be there on Sunday morning.
That's not what it means at all.
Even though you should be there on Sunday
morning.
What it means is, you collectively come together
as a body to minister to one another.
Each according to his gifts.
Now what are your gifts and how are
you doing that?
I'm not going to let you go on
this one.
I'm going to push you.
I'm not going to let you go.
How are you faithful in congregating and gathering
together with other believers in order to minister
to them?
What are you doing?
When was the last time you knew the
Lord used you as an instrument?
Come on now.
Think about it.
If I were to hand out a sheet
of paper to everybody, let's say that you're
all my corporation.
You all work for me.
You're my employees.
And I hand out a sheet of paper
and I say, on the front part of
that paper, I want you to give me
a job description of what you do here
in my company.
The second half of that sheet, the first
half of the back of the sheet, I
want you to write out everything that you've
done for me this year.
And then the last part, I want you
to write out what your plans are in
the upcoming year to better serve our corporation.
And I hand that all out and wait
a couple of hours and I come back
and I pick up your piece of paper
and it's blank.
And I say, well, on the part here,
this whole front page where you're supposed to
explain what you did last year, it's blank.
Yes, I know it's blank, sir, but bless
God, every time the doors of this corporation
were open, I was here.
Well, on the part about what you're going
to be doing in the upcoming year, it's
blank.
I know, but I'll promise you this, boss,
every time the doors of this factory are
open, I'm going to be here.
I'm going to say, bless God, you're fired.
But now look, I don't want you to
stand, now listen, I don't want you to
stand before God one day because this is
really going to happen.
I gave you talents, he said.
I gave you gifts and I gave them
to you to primarily minister in your local
body that you associated with and you did
nothing.
Nothing!
Depart from me, you worker of iniquity!
You say, are you saying that I'll go
to hell because I didn't have works?
No, I'm going to say that you're going
to hell because you never were a believer
and one of the evidences that you never
were a true believer is that there never
was any fruit in your life.
Folks, Jesus and the church that you're involved
in, it's not some little thing you do
on Sunday.
It's everything.
Everything!
And you know how God's going to make
it everything?
Because I know Americans aren't going to turn.
Apart from a revival, we're not going to
repent.
So this is how God's going to make
it everything to you.
The same way He made it everything to
the Peruvian believers.
He brought the communists in down there in
Peru and they killed 23,000 people and
they wiped out so many churches and killed
so many of my brothers and sisters in
Christ and we were terrified.
We had our building bombed.
We had machine gun fire going everywhere in
the service.
We were threatened with our own lives.
We hid out in the back of grain
trucks so that they would not get us.
And church meant something when those people came
together.
Church wasn't some little thing you do in
order to be a proper southern person.
Church was your life.
You did everything to get there.
You didn't want to go home because there
was nowhere to go.
Why?
Because you stood eight hours a day just
to get a bag of rice.
Well, it's going to happen here.
It's going to happen.
Mark it down.
God so loves His church, He will shred
her to pieces to make her beautiful because
what she thinks is beautiful, her gold and
her garments and her eye salve, He hates.
He hates it.
It goes on.
He says this, Because you say I am
rich and I have become wealthy and have
need of nothing and you do not know
that you are wretched and miserable and poor
and blind and naked.
Do you honestly think they said they were
rich?
In their own hearts, I believe.
They were going to church.
They would have never walked in there because
when you go to church, you've got to
put on your church face and your church
talk and everything else.
No one probably walked in there, unless they
were charismatic, none of them walked in there
saying, I'm rich!
But they thought it in their heart.
You see, remember what He said?
I know your deeds.
I know your thoughts.
And this is what He says.
Now look at this.
Never forget this.
What is beautiful to the world and what
is beautiful to carnal people who profess Christianity
is filth and rot to Jesus Christ.
The temple scene there in Matthew is going
to happen here in America.
Pastors and the elders and the leaders of
the church are going to be walking there
with Jesus.
Jesus, look at this building.
I tell you that there's coming a time
when not one stone of this building is
going to be set upon another stone.
Because I told you a long time ago
they worship not in this mountain, those who
worship Me, or in that mountain, but the
true worshippers of God worship Him in spirit
and in truth.
And I'll not tolerate this anymore.
Look what He says.
He says, because you say I am rich
and have become wealthy and have need of
nothing.
Now how does that happen?
It happens to all of us.
You know, I was telling the pastor the
other day, it wasn't hard to serve Jesus
Christ in Peru.
It wasn't hard to serve Jesus Christ living
in a tent.
It wasn't hard to serve Jesus Christ when
persecution was breaking out on the church.
It was hard to serve Jesus Christ when
I got off the plane in Miami.
I heard two Russian guys years ago.
Now these guys, when they were teenagers, watched
the KGB come in their church building, put
their pastor against a wall, pull out his
tongue and cut his tongue out for preaching
the Gospel.
And yet those two men stood in our
church and said, the hardest thing we have
ever had to do was be Christians in
America.
And someone said, how can you say that?
And this was the answer of one of
them, because there's no Jacuzzis in Russia.
Life is not easy there.
There's no prosperity.
There's nothing.
All you have is Jesus.
Folks, poverty and persecution never harmed the church
of Jesus Christ.
Affluence and ease.
Affluence and ease of life.
Now that isn't to say, and it might
be.
I heard a preacher say a while back,
when Jesus told the rich young ruler sell
everything he had and give it to the
poor and follow him, the preacher said, now
he doesn't mean that that's what you're supposed
to do.
No, that preacher's wrong.
Jesus could tell you to do that.
He really could.
Don't you realize that?
He could lead you.
It doesn't mean every true believer has to
sell everything they have and give it to
the poor.
But don't think he couldn't come and knock
on the door of your house and tell
you to do that.
What you have to understand is this.
Prosperity and ease of life makes living the
Gospel of Jesus Christ very difficult.
Isn't it amazing that usually since there's no
persecution really that much or physical persecution in
the church in America, isn't it amazing that
you see signs of greatest spirituality, especially in
smaller congregations, when someone dearly loved in that
congregation comes down with an incurable disease like
cancer?
Isn't it amazing how spiritual the church becomes?
Because no one can save them.
No one can help them.
No one can buy their health with gold.
No one can cover their malady with garments.
No one has any salve to make the
cancer go away.
And the church starts praying and crying out
to God and ministering to one another.
You see?
Have you not witnessed that?
In times of most severe crisis when you
think your entire life is going to fall
apart, I was dealing with a group of
believers in Texas a few years ago and
the church was really going through some trial
and this one young man was going through
a terrifying trial.
It was horrifying what he was going through.
And he looked up at me one day
with tears in his eyes and he says,
I have never been so afraid.
I have never been so frightened.
I have never been so disturbed.
My life is tore apart.
And he said, but you want to know
what my greatest fear is?
That it's going to end.
Because all of this has made me cling
to Jesus Christ like I never thought possible.
But this church, what were they famous for?
They were famous for their wealth in the
world.
Laodicea was famous for its wealth.
They were famous for their clothing industry, their
garment industry.
And they were famous for the salve and
certain medicinal fountains that they had for healing.
They were famous for those three things.
And so Jesus Christ points out those three
things and says they're worthless.
They're worthless.
I advise you, he says, to get rid
of the whole thing.
Don't talk about your riches.
Buy from me gold tried in the fire.
Now what does he mean?
He's saying this, all your wealth and your
prosperity and everything you have, it is going
to burn up in the fire.
It's going to be worthless.
Much of your deeds, much of your thoughts,
much of your activity and your endeavors, it
is all going to burn up on that
great day.
So I advise you to get rid of
it now.
And he says, buy from me that which
has already passed through the fire, tried by
fire.
What he's saying is, come to me and
begin to do the things eternal that will
pass through that flame and not be burned.
Don't waste your life gathering gold that will
burn.
Buy from me.
Come to me.
Serve me.
Live for me.
And every treasure that is gained by you
in my name will pass through that fire
and remain.
So a very wealthy man knew he was
going to die, so he took absolutely everything
he had and he sold it.
He invested the whole thing in gold and
then bought this huge chest and put all
the gold in it and tied it up,
strapped himself to it, and he died.
He goes to the gates of heaven, as
they say.
An angel standing there and said, well, this
is kind of unusual.
You actually did get this far with it.
What's going on?
And the fellow says, sir, if I'm going
to pass through the gates, I've got to
take this with me.
He said, well, you can't do that.
He said, you don't understand.
My whole life is in this thing.
Everything I worked for, everything I sweated for,
everything I sacrificed for, it's in this trunk.
And the angel goes, whoa, that's pretty impressive.
Well, maybe I ought to let you in
with it if it means that much to
you.
I mean, you gave your life for it.
You did everything you possibly could just to
get what's in this box.
Sure, come on in.
I'm just curious, before you come in, can
I take a look at it?
And the guy goes, well, sure.
Walks over there and puts the key in
it, opens it up.
The angel looks in thinking, man, I'm going
to see something amazing.
Looks in and goes, you spent your entire
life working for pavement?
And the guy goes, what?
He goes, we pave streets with this stuff
up here.
You spent your entire life working for pieces
of asphalt?
Don't you realize that there is coming a
day when you may weep, bitterly weep, because
you've invested your life in that which does
not remain.
Now, he goes on and he says, and
white garments so that you may clothe yourselves.
Now, this is a big deal right here.
It appears that there was some self-righteousness
in this group.
I want you to know you're not going
to get to heaven with one shred of
self-righteousness on your back.
You talk about difficult for a camel to
go through an eye of a needle.
You're not getting to heaven with one shred
of self-righteousness.
If you think that you and Jesus got
your own thing going, well, you've got another
thing coming.
He's not your co-pilot.
You and Him do not have your own
thing going.
You aren't working together for this.
You aren't trusting in Jesus and trying to
do something else.
No, if you're going to heaven, you're going
to heaven for only one reason.
Two thousand years ago, the Son of God
shed His blood for your soul.
And if you understand that rightly, if someone
were to come up to you and suggest
that you were going to heaven because you
were a rather fine person, you would vomit.
It would make you so sick.
Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to
the cross I cling.
He says, I advise you, throw away this
foolish, demonic, stupid notion that you are somehow
respectable and upright and a good gain for
God.
You know what the old preachers used to
talk about?
You know we talk about repentance from sin?
Do you know the old preachers also talked
about repenting from good works?
They did.
Not from doing them, but from trusting in
them.
To repent of trusting in any goodness in
yourself and throwing yourself upon Christ and Christ
alone.
And then he goes, I salve.
I salve to anoint your eyes so that
you may see.
Here's the thing.
I honestly believe most people don't want to
see.
I knew a lady that was considered a
very fine, upstanding woman in a certain First
Baptist church many, many years ago who whenever
I preached there, she would not allow her
little boy to go because she was afraid
that he would hear me preach and become
a missionary.
She did not want him to see.
She did not want him to hear.
Do you want to see?
Do you want to hear?
You say, oh yes, I do.
Be careful.
Be very careful.
He has all the authority and right in
heaven and on earth when he opens your
eyes to tell you, sell everything you have
and give it to the poor.
He has the right to pick you up
and tell you to go to Bible college
or to be trained by your own pastor
and then go to the Middle East and
die a martyr, you and all your children.
He has a right to do absolutely anything
with you.
Are you sure you really want your eyes
open and your ears open to hear and
see?
Because it will not be comfortable.
It will be terrifying, but He is good.
Sometimes it's just better not to see.
Sometimes it's better just not to hear.
I honestly believe, I've seen this in my
own life, I've seen it in so many
people's lives that it seems to be a
tendency in Christianity.
You know, when you first become a Christian,
I mean, whatever God wants you to do,
you just want to be used of God.
And you know what's amazing?
You hear Him.
I mean, you don't hear His voice.
Maybe some people do.
He actually does lead you.
You know He's leading you to go witness
to somebody.
You know He's leading you to talk to
somebody.
You know He's leading you to stop doing
a certain thing or to start doing a
certain thing.
And then what happens?
Pretty soon the cost just gets greater and
greater and greater.
And what happens?
You start getting, oh, I don't think that
was God.
That was just my emotion.
And you almost like the doctrine that God
doesn't speak anymore except through the Word.
He never leads anybody except through the Bible.
Because then you can shut off when He's
saying, go across the street and witness to
your neighbor.
You can shut it off when He says,
go to your pastor and just lay your
life out there and say, pastor, pray for
me.
I want to know what my gifts are
and I want to serve this church.
You see.
Do you want to hear Him?
Do you want your children to hear Him?
Your child.
He's very, very smart.
Brilliant young man.
Got a great future ahead of him.
He's 18 years old.
He comes to talk to mom and dad
one night and says, mom and dad, I'm
not going to college.
There's a tribe in Columbia and they've been
seen, but no one has ever, ever even
made contact with them.
And even the other tribes are terrified of
them.
They're headhunters.
They're violent.
They've killed everyone they've come in contact with.
God doesn't want me to go to Bible
college.
Mom, I need to buy a ticket.
I need to put on a backpack.
And I just need to walk into the
jungle.
Will you be happy then?
That your boy heard from God?
We're always happy when our boy becomes the
pastor of First Baptist Church of so and
so.
But when our boy is asked to become
a martyr, you think, well, that's unrealistic.
No, it happened to a man named Bruce
Olson.
He almost died several times.
He almost starved to death.
He was so suffering from starvation in the
jungle at one time that he passed out
and had a dream that a butterfly was
touching him on his lips.
And when he woke up, three feet of
a huge tapeworm was crawling out of his
body through his mouth because there was no
longer anything to feed on.
Would you want your boy to hear the
Word of the Lord when the Word of
the Lord asks him to do something like
that?
This is basic Christianity 101.
He says, those whom I love I reprove
and discipline.
Therefore, be zealous and repent.
My dear friend, you need to understand something.
It's amazing that preachers recognize this, that sometimes
you're preaching and God begins to really move
and He begins to deal with people about
their sin.
Isn't it amazing that it is always the
most godly, most devoted people in the church
that come forward weeping about their sin?
And it is always the most carnal, wicked,
lukewarm church members that sit back there as
though not one thing was said to them.
Because in fact, not one thing was said
to them.
The ones that God loves, He reproves, He
disciplines, and He reproves.
When was the last time the Lord came
to you and dealt with you about a
specific sin in your life?
When was the last time you wept over
your sin?
That will tell you a lot.
We're almost at the point where I know
God loves me because He never deals with
me.
I know God loves me because He leaves
me alone.
No.
I know God loves me because He so
zealously guards me that I know if I
turn one inch to the left or the
right, He's coming after me.
The sign of God's discipline is not a
sign of being unconverted.
It is a sign of conversion.
If He lets a church go and doesn't
discipline or correct that church, He does not
love that church because it's not a church.
It doesn't belong to Him.
But He says this, those whom I love
I reprove and discipline.
Therefore, be zealous and repent.
Why should you be zealous and repent?
Because He loves you.
And His rebuking, His correcting is a sign
of His love.
He's not sitting there and going, look, I'm
going to crush every one of you, so
repent.
No, He's saying, I love you, that is
why I corrected you.
Now, listen, look at my love, behold it,
and be zealous to repent.
It's a labor of love.
And then He goes on.
I know that time is getting away from
us.
He says in verse 20, Behold, I stand
at the door and knock.
If anyone hears My voice and opens the
door, I will come in to him and
will dine with him and he with Me.
Just to let you know, this verse has
absolutely nothing to do with evangelism.
And I had a preacher say, yeah, I
know, but it works.
A friend of mine preaching a while back,
he was so mad it was unbelievable.
I call him Rowdy Randy from Texas.
And he was preaching and he said, I'm
so sick and tired of these preachers that
say there's the door of your heart but
the handle's only on the inside and only
you can open the door and God can't
violate your free will and if you don't
open that door, He can't come in even
though He wants to.
And my friend looked up and says, that
door belongs to Jesus Christ and if He
wants to, He'll kick it in with His
foot.
This has nothing to do with evangelism.
He's not talking about a lost person's heart.
He's talking about the door of the church.
And you don't have a right to pull
Scripture out of context and make up some
silly little contract between a sinner and God.
Yeah, you know how it is, don't you?
He's knocking at the door of your heart
and only you can open the door.
Will you open the door?
Well, how do I do that?
Well, pray and ask Him to come into
your heart.
Okay, I'll do that.
Then the sinner prays and asks Him into
the heart.
And then you go, well, did He enter
in?
And the guy goes, I'm not really sure.
And then you say, well, of course He
did because He promised He would.
So are you going to believe or call
Jesus a liar?
Look at that.
That's superstition.
It has nothing to do with the Gospel
of Jesus Christ.
Most of these evangelists, they ought to put
them on a boat, ship them off to
some island, and we ought to stand on
the dock and sing the doxology as they're
pulling off.
Because more people are going to hell because
of that type of preaching than all the
brothels in America.
People are saved, not by opening up the
door of their heart because the Bible says
they can't do it.
The Bible said God opened up Lydia's heart.
People are saved because of a supernatural work
of God that produces repentance and true faith.
Not because they've made some silly little contract
of decisionism with God.
But what does this mean?
First, I want you to look at the
word behold.
Behold.
I think it's extremely important.
Now, just look up here.
Behold!
Has no meaning, does it?
No meaning at all.
Now, keep looking up here.
Don't turn around.
Just keep looking up here.
Behold!
Look at me now.
Now it has meaning.
And that's the whole point of this verse.
And if you can see this, it will
really help the way your church is directed
and how your church walks.
Alright.
Most churches hear the voice of God.
God leads them to do something.
Jesus leads His church to do something.
But here's what they do.
They believe that the leadership of Jesus Christ
is static.
Static means unchanging.
God leads a group of people to do
something.
So they think that for the next 10
,000 years, that's the direction they're supposed to
be walking in.
No.
The leadership of Jesus Christ with His people
is not static.
It's dynamic.
It's not that you hear a word from
God and then follow it the rest of
your life.
No, you're constantly seeking God, constantly following God,
constantly following every direction He may turn.
Churches get in ruts because they obey something
they heard from God and then close their
ears off as though God's never going to
speak to the church again.
The church is looking in an entirely different
direction.
They're not looking at Christ.
If they were looking at Christ, He wouldn't
say, behold, or look over here.
They're looking in the wrong place.
And unless you are in the Word of
God as a church, unless you are seeking
to hear Him in silence, you'll never be
able to follow Him.
You'll constantly be wasting so much energy running
like a bunch of rats in every direction.
It is to constantly hear Him, to constantly
go before Him, to constantly be open to
Him.
Lord, what do you want from this church?
When was the last time this entire church
got together, declared a day of fasting, came
in here, and just sought God's faith with
regard to, Lord, what should we be doing?
Lord, what do you want from us?
Where should we go?
And church, He will not allow this church,
if He truly loves this church, He will
not allow you to sit there and never
seek to hear His voice and depend on
one or two other men to hear everything
and do everything.
He won't allow it if He loves you.
You see, church?
I mean, He's saying, behold, here I am.
You're looking in the wrong direction.
You may not be looking in the wrong
direction today, but isn't it worth saying, man,
we need to have a time of prayer.
We need to seek the Lord.
We need to ask Him to show us
where we need to be going and what
we need to be doing with every aspect.
I'll go up and I'll talk to, at
times I'll say, I'll ask a music minister,
I'll say, okay, have you gone through the
Old Testament and the New Testament to determine
how God wants worship to be done?
Well, this is the way we always do
it.
Okay?
Now, I'm not saying that because I didn't
see anything wrong tonight.
I loved the worship.
But what I'm saying is, do you see,
you don't just take for granted anything.
How should this church be led?
Okay, get into the Word of God and
determine how it should be led.
How should we take care of our children?
How should we take care of our youth?
How should we disciple?
How should we do everything?
It all goes back to, let's go into
the Bible and see.
Let's call on the name of the Lord.
Let's seek Him and let Him show us.
But no, because you say, I know, because
you don't need that anymore, you're pretty much,
I mean, compared to everybody else, you're doing
okay.
Paul said, you compare yourselves by yourselves and
that is not wise.
And then he says, here's what I love,
it's so amazing.
I know it's late and you're all so
worried that I'm tired, but don't worry about
me, I'm young and full of stamina.
He says this, I will come to Him
and will dine with Him and He with
me.
What does that mean?
These people had really messed up, big time.
But look at this.
He doesn't say, you've really messed up, now
repent, and after I cool off for a
while, I'll fellowship with you again.
That's not what he says.
He says, you repent and I'll come to
dinner immediately.
Isn't the Lord wonderful?
He's not like this thing of, yeah, I've
forgiven you, but I can't forget.
I've forgiven you, but you just need to
let me have my space for a while.
Women.
He's not like that.
And men, if your wife says that, obey
her.
Because if not, you're going to stretch forth
your hand and draw back a bloody nub.
But Jesus isn't like that.
You repent.
That's why I love where it says He
gives wisdom.
Everyone loves that passage in James 1 where
it says He gives wisdom.
You know what I love most about that
passage?
Not that He gives wisdom, that He gives
it without reproach.
And what does that mean?
It means this, you came to God for
wisdom one day, He gave it to you,
you went out and did just the opposite.
You go back to Him when you need
more wisdom, and He doesn't look at you
and say, I'm not going to give you
wisdom.
I mean, after all, I gave it to
you before, you didn't do anything with it.
No, it says He gives it without reproach.
He just gives it to you again if
you've repented.
Church, what the Lord, and here again, here's
that mystery.
There is so much the Lord could do
with you.
Remember what He looked at Jerusalem?
You say, no, He's sovereign.
Yes, I taught on that, remember?
But He looked at Jerusalem and said, how
long you would not.
There are people all around this area that
are lost.
Other people who are looking for churches that
are just even close to being biblical.
There's a world out there.
I mean, the doors have opened to do
missions in the world in a way that
15 years ago, there's not a mission expert
on the face of the earth could have
ever dreamed that the doors would open up
to do missions like they have.
I mean, the only place you can't preach
the Bible really right now is the United
States of America.
We used to say, what's the difference between
Russia and the United States?
You can teach the Bible in high school
in Russia.
There's so much to do.
In Peru, we say this, Tu vives porque
el aire es gratis.
It means the only reason you're alive is
because air is free.
You don't do anything with your life.
What do you want to live for?
Some of you, older people.
Let me ask you a question.
Do you really want to die on the
golf course?
Do you really want to die collecting seashells?
Or do you want to serve the Lord
and serve your generation to the end of
your day?
Now, one final thing.
You do that in the context of your
local church.
If God's called you to be a part
of a certain fellowship, it's basically get in,
get out, get out of the way, do
something.
It's in the context of your local church,
the context of the body of believers.
Church is important, folks.
Church is important.
It doesn't matter if that church is made
up of a thousand people or that church
is made up of five people.
There has to be community.
And if you're a part of this church
or a part of your other church or
church at home or wherever you're a church,
you need to realize that God can do
so much through a church that will listen
to hear, behold, behold.
Let's pray.
Father, I come before You and I pray
that You would use these words to help
Your people and get glory for Yourself.
In Jesus' name, Pastor.