As we look at 1 John chapter 5
and verse number 19, 20 and 21, and
we know that we are of God, and
the whole world lieth in wickedness.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, that's not a self
-edifying verse of Scripture.
We're not putting our thumbs in our clothes
and saying we're holier than the rest of
the people in town.
But what God is saying, there is a
body of believers, there is a body of
Christians that love God, and if you're not
in the fellowship of believers, that the world
actually lies in wickedness.
Verse number 20, and we know that the
Son of God has come and has given
us an understanding that we may know him
that is true, and we are in him
that is true, even in his Son, Jesus
Christ.
This is the true God and eternal life.
Now, our text verse is verse number 20,
little children, keep yourselves from idols, amen.
Dr. John Phillips says that that word, amen,
is in the Greek, and that's all I've
got to say about that.
I like that phrase, because what he's saying
is, little children, keep yourselves from idols.
It is a basic tenet for anyone that
has been to Calvary and knows Jesus.
Now, some Bible truths are very difficult to
accept.
We read the Holy Scriptures, but many times
the truths are blocked from our understanding, and
they are blocked from our understanding because the
things of this world have so infiltrated our
mind and our thinking process.
You think about how little exposure we actually
have to the word of God.
You think how much radio we hear, how
much television, how much of the things of
the world through magazines and through programming and
videos, and how much we're literally saturated with
the world.
And so many times, sometimes we'll come across
a scripture or a truth in the word
of God, and we'll only experience a casual
glance with that truth, because there's so much
world in us, we just bounce right off
the truth.
We never grasp it.
We never see the opportunity, because we've been
around things of God so long, we take
them for granted.
Do you know you can learn church talk?
You can learn church behavior?
You can learn church fellowship and die and
go to hell off a church pew?
And that's the danger.
That's what is killing our churches all across
America, is that we have religious form, but
we don't have power.
And the way to know that God is
back in the church house is when the
power is back on the church.
Now, society that we're in is very comfortable
with sin.
Our society is very comfortable with that.
Our polls that we're seeing on the president's
behavior is a living proof that our society
is comfortable with sin.
Sin in high places?
Oh, it's okay, it's all right.
You say, well, Brother Sexton, you shouldn't mix
politics and religion.
I'm not.
I'm just going to tell you what God
says about conduct and morals and values.
It has nothing to do with parties or
process.
It has to do with what's right and
what is wrong.
Now, if we understand tonight that we're comfortable,
what do we become fascinated with?
Everyone says, well, in this opinion poll, we
say, I'm not happy with what the president
has done or his conduct.
But on the other hand, I'm very comfortable
with his job performance and the economy and
the stock market.
So let's not rock the boat.
Let's leave that alone.
So we, we come out with an attitude
of yes, it's wrong, but who cares?
It's wrong, but does it really matter?
It didn't hurt me.
So I become very, very comfortable.
Now, do you know what that is?
That is a sick society.
Number one, number two, it's a place for
God to out his judgment.
And number three, it testifies to the fact
of how tolerant of sin that we have
become.
And here's the danger, ladies and gentlemen, when
the world goes that wide and that far,
then all of a sudden over at the
house of God, we lose our standards and
we lose our convictions.
And all of a sudden we can't define
right and wrong.
And we're swept up into the things of
this world.
I'm telling you, our nation is in trouble.
I'm telling you that we've become tolerant of
sin and we no longer have a defining
force in the community as the people of
God.
Now, if I understand the position and the
place of a church, we are to be
salt.
We are to be a preservative.
We are to be one that keeps anything.
And the purpose of salt when it comes
to processing meat is to keep that meat
from going bad.
It's to keep it from souring or decaying
or rotting.
It's to preserve it.
That's where we get a salt cured ham
and country ham.
It comes from that process.
And if you've ever been around where they
were in the process of packing the meat
after the hog had been butchered, the old
timers would always take the fresh hams and
they would go and pack around that bone.
And then they would pack again the second
time because they didn't want it to go
bad.
They wouldn't want the meat to ruin.
And the salt had the job of preserving.
But now let me tell you something.
If the community is in trouble, if the
schools are in trouble, if the nation is
in trouble, the problem is not with the
world.
The problem is not in the adult nightclubs
tonight.
The problem is not because there's liquor being
sold in a store down the street.
The problem is not because some guy has
got a crack house here in Kingsport and
he's selling crack cocaine.
The problem, ladies and gentlemen, is that those
people are already in sin and they are
doing the bidding of their father, the devil.
They belong to him.
The problem is the light is going out
in the church.
The problem is the salt is losing its
savor.
And so if we have any hope of
reclaiming our communities, if we have any hope
of reclaiming our cities, if we have any
hope of having a Christian nation going into
the next millennium, then churches are going to
have to get under a burden for revival.
And a church doesn't get under a burden
for revival by saying, Pastor, we want you
to have an evangelist come and preach, and
we'll have someone come and sing, and we'll
have a special singer and a special speaker,
and we'll call that revival.
Revival is not in a special singer.
Revival is not in a special speaker.
Revival is in an individual doing business with
a holy God.
It's with men and women getting desperate before
God and saying, I don't want to remain
the same.
I've got things in my life that are
displeasing to God, and I want God to
turn the searchlight of heaven on in my
soul and to reveal to me my own
wickedness and my own unrighteousness.
The only hope we can have is an
old-fashioned heaven-sent awakening where men once
again fear God.
And there is no fear of God on
the land.
There's no fear of God in our churches
anymore.
We've turned the house of God into political
sessions.
We choose upsides and politic against each other.
We get saved, and we slide down on
the back of our neck and say, well,
I'm saved.
I've been saved.
I've been around here long enough I can
just relax and let somebody else do my
praying, let somebody else carry my burden, someone
else do my visiting.
After all, I've paid my dues.
Well, I've got news for you.
You don't pay your dues in this business
and walk away from the battle.
This man's 80 years old, and he's more
in the battle today than he's ever been
in his life, bent double with the burden
for America and for this country.
Why?
Because if we lose what we have now,
there's no getting it back.
What is the problem then?
Verse 21 defines the problem.
It says, little children, keep yourselves from idols.
Now, before you can keep yourselves from idols,
there are nine things given here that you
have to know.
If you're making notes, you can write these
nine things down.
Now, what do we know in verse number
19?
And we know.
What do we know?
Number one, we know that we are of
God.
Bless God.
I know who I belong to.
I know who died for me.
I know I'm not worthy of it, but
I know God.
And I know when God's around, I know
very little about preaching.
I know even less about pastoring, but I
do know when God's around and I know
when God's happy and I know when God's
not happy.
There are some things you can know and
we can know God.
Number two, listen, we know that the whole
world lies in wickedness.
We know that.
Number three, we know that the, that the
son of God has come.
I love going to the holy land.
And one of the reasons I love going
to the holy land is because it thrills
me to prove and to document, even from
the secular archeological sites, that there was not
only a historical Jesus, but there is Jesus,
the son of God, and that he came
and he invaded this world.
And the prophecies of the old Testament are
fulfilled in the new Testament and have given
my Bible that the position that I know
it is the inerrant, infallible word of God.
Number four, we know that the son of
God has given us understanding.
God didn't put you in this world for
you to stay stupid.
He means for you to learn something.
If you go to church, you learn something.
Every time you go through the door, the
old writers used to tell me, said, Ralph,
if you ever have a day, you don't
learn something.
You start dying.
There ought to be a growth process.
Every believer here, you ought to be hungry
to know God and to know God's word.
You say why brother Ralph, because this world
is getting ready to come unglued.
Society is getting ready to come apart.
Men's hearts are going to be failing them
for fear.
Do you understand we're living at the crossroads
of Bible prophecy?
You can play church.
If you want to, you can think I'll
get right with God tomorrow and get serious
tomorrow.
But ladies and gentlemen, you may not have
a tomorrow.
God's got us with the opportunity.
That's why I am so burdened and so
concerned about the opportunity that God's given to
higher ground.
I don't know of another church that's going
to have on their hands.
What you're going to have on your hands
when you meet a holy God, a church
that's been so blessed with so many opportunities,
how have we responded to the hand of
a holy God?
We know the son of God has given
us understanding.
The fifth thing we know is that we
may know him.
The sixth thing that we know here is
that we are in him.
God.
The seventh thing we see in this verse
is that we are even in his son,
Christ Jesus.
The eighth thing we see is that we
know this is the true God.
And the ninth thing that's in verse number
19 is that this is eternal life.
Nine things.
We know you want to live forever.
Then you got to be in the Lord.
You can't be in the church to live
forever.
Church membership cannot help you.
Water baptism cannot help you.
Holy communion, Eucharist, candles, confessions, catechisms, those things
are not salvation and they cannot help you.
The only way you can have eternal life
is to be in God.
I'm so convinced that the Lord's coming that
I'm believe there's not an accident in this
building tonight.
I believe God has people in this building
to hear the warning from God's word.
So the number one that you don't leave
here, not knowing you're saved tonight.
I believe God's got you here that you
can know that you know, that you know,
that your name's been recorded in the Lamb's
book of life.
Number two, God's got people here tonight, Christians
that have gotten cold and careless.
You've gotten out of sorts that God would
get you to where you would turn loose
of the idols of this world and get
back in business with a God.
Number three, that God would shake the church
from lethargy and raise up men and women
of faith once again to pray and to
fast that God would revive us again and
shake us from our death rattles and give
us another opportunity to do business with a
holy God.
Now, if you'll notice, it says in verse
21, little children, keep yourselves from idols.
Do you understand the power of that?
Keeping yourselves from idols, little children.
He didn't say world, keep yourself from idols.
He didn't say lost people, keep yourself from
idols.
He said little children.
He's talking to the family of faith and
he's saying, keep yourself from idols.
Why?
Because it's easy for us after we've been
saved to go back and pick up the
idols of this world.
Todd, Dr. David Gibbs gave a powerful story
about while he was preaching over in Asia
that he went into a conference there to
meet with some missionaries and training seminars for
them.
And they had a rally that night at
the soccer stadium, thousands of people gathered into
that stadium for the service.
And you know what happened?
He said, as people were coming into the
service that night in the soccer stadium said
that two thirds of those people came in
the soccer stadium like this.
They came in carrying their little gods, their
idols with them because number one, they were
foreigners.
Number two, they were afraid and they brought
their gods with them, afraid of any evil
spirits that might be there to harm them.
So they brought their God with them to
protect them.
Dr. Gibbs said to his host, he said,
I can't believe that they're coming to a
preaching service and they're carrying their heathen God
with them.
He said, there's hundreds of them, thousands of
them.
And they're coming into the stadium carrying their
little gods with them.
You know what that missionary said to him?
He said, Dr. Gibbs said, don't you worry
about that.
He said, that's not a problem.
You can see those gods.
He said, the problem you got is when
you go back to America, you got to
walk into churches every Sunday where they're walking
in and you can't see the gods they're
carrying.
And that's where we are.
You see, ladies and gentlemen, it's so basic.
It's so elementary in this passage of scripture.
He's saying little children, he's saying, pay attention.
He's saying, please don't hold on to the
idols of this world.
Now, you know what idols are?
You know what idols are?
Idols are the things that the devil uses
to bleach the power of God out of
your life.
An idol can get a hold of me.
An idol can get a hold of you.
And an idol bleaches the power of God
out of your life.
It keeps you from being what God wants
you to be.
That's why he said, keep yourself.
That is a phrase in the Greek of
active, aggressive, contending for the faith to keep
yourself from the idols of this world, that
you would keep yourself.
Idols, what do they do?
They steal your joy.
Idols cause you to lose your testimony.
Idols rob you of your spiritual vitality.
Idols literally have the power to shred your
testimony.
Little children, keep yourselves.
The warning that's given there is that we
would keep ourselves.
Now watch this, this very day in this
auditorium, we can start the journey to real
revival by God convicting us of idols that
we're holding on to.
Every man, every woman, every boy, every girl,
every teenager, every preacher, every deacon, every missionary,
every evangelist, every layman, every choir member, every
Sunday school teacher, every officer of the church.
God says, if you want to have revival,
then keep yourselves from idols.
Are you holding on to an idol and
you don't even realize it?
You see, you can start the day of
spiritual healing and heading for revival.
I'm going to ask you tonight by the
help of God and by the grace of
God, for you to have the courage to
go to the altar of a holy God
and to lay your little idol down and
say, God, by your help, I surrender my
idol to your holy hands.
You cannot serve Jesus with an idol in
your hand.
You said brother Ralph, what is an idol?
How would you define that?
An idol is anything that takes God's place.
An idol is anything that changes God's order.
An idol is anything that replaces God's power.
If you substitute something for the power of
God, then that is an idol.
If something takes the order of God away,
then that is an idol.
If something takes the place of God, then
that is an idol.
Ladies and gentlemen, idols are incredibly deceptive.
Idols do not play fair.
That's why God warned us Bible believers, keep
yourselves from idols.
Paul Harvey tells the powerful story about the
cunning method that the Eskimos have for trapping
wolves.
The wolf is a very smart animal.
The wolf is an intelligent animal, is also
powerful and it is also dangerous.
More than one careless person has died at
the hands of a wolf.
More than one animal has been snared by
the wolf pack.
Eskimos know how to bring them down.
Eskimos have a plan to get wolves.
You listen to me closely right here, would
you please?
Unless you're sick, no walking around and leaving
the building.
Don't let the devil distract the very night
God wants to deal with the heart.
Now watch this.
You know what the devil does?
Here's what the Eskimos do.
They take a razor sharp knife, a skinning
knife, and they take that razor sharp knife
and they dip it in seals blood.
They take a basin of seals blood and
they dip that cold metal knife blade in
that blood.
They take it out and lay that knife
outside the igloo and it freezes.
They bring it back inside and they dip
it in that seals blood.
They take it outside and they freeze it
and they repeat that process over and over
until they have covered that blade with several
coatings of blood to actually make a blood
popsicle out of that knife blade.
Then they take that razor sharp knife and
they go out where the wolves are and
they put that knife down in the snow
and bury the handle and they leave that
blood popsicle sticking up out of the snow.
A wolf can smell blood for 10 miles.
Those wolves begin to smell and track and
they're always moving and sure enough they get
the scent of that fresh blood and then
the pack begins to track and to trail
and to follow the molecules that are leading
them to that that blood covered encrusted knife.
When they finally find it they run up
to it and they test it and they
take a lick and then another one biting
and nipping at each other they take a
lick and then the next thing they know
they're fighting each other to lick on that
seals blood.
That's what they're after is that blood and
in a matter of minutes their warm tongues
melt and consume that blood and now they're
fighting each other for the opportunity to lick
on the blood knife and all of a
sudden the ice covered blood is gone and
then the next lick is that their wolf's
tongue is on that razor sharp knife and
it split his tongue.
But he's in such an enraged and engorged
attitude of seeking blood he doesn't even realize
it's cut his tongue and the taste of
blood in his mouth now is his own
blood and then another wolf pushes him out
of the way and he licks and the
same process and now they're tasting fresh blood
and in a matter of one hour that
whole pack will have bled to death and
every wolf will die from one blood covered
knife.
Ladies and gentlemen I submit to you tonight
when we take on idols the devil is
deceptive he masks the very thing that'll kill
us and he comes into a local church
and he tries to get you to turn
on each other and to bite at each
other and to think each other's the enemy
and this one and we end up hurting
this one and we push this one aside
and we go over to this one and
the next thing we know we're turning in
a feeding frenzy and instead of realizing the
devil is the enemy we turn on each
other and we lick the blood knife.
You see if the devil can't get a
church to crumble from the outside he'll move
inside and it causes us to turn to
the idols of this world the devil is
a pro he's a professional he knows what
I like and he knows what my taste
enjoy and he knows what your taste enjoy
he knows what to put on the knife
to get me do you understand that teenagers
the devil knows how to destroy your life
he knows how to ruin your life he
knows how to to cause your life to
be destroyed single adults do you understand he
knows what to put on the knife to
get you to lick mom and dad grandparents
there's something at every age level he knows
what to coat the knife with to get
you to lick I want to give you
three or four idols just to think about
number one idol I think that gets us
in trouble is the idol of performance the
idol of performance we go to church we
sing in the choir we teach Sunday school
we work here God if I do more
will that make you happy the idol of
performance if we're not careful we're licking on
the knife of performance instead of worshiping God
we're wanting people to pat us on the
back for our performance you're if you get
caught up in that idol if you get
caught up in that the next thing you
know your life becomes an act rather than
worshiping God and we end up we don't
do it for the Lord we do it
for ourselves you said brother Ralph what do
you mean he says if you love me
keep my commandments it's that simple whether I
get patted on the back whether I get
recognized or not whether I'm in the limelight
or not if I love the Lord I'm
going to keep his commandments bottom line whether
the rest of the crowd understands whether my
friends understand or not I'm going to keep
the commandments of God you'll be surprised what's
slipping in to churches all across America how
do you think people are excusing the lifestyle
that we're allowing to come into the house
of God how do you think we're allowing
those kind of things to happen it's because
we've gotten caught up with this idol of
performance I want to ask you a soul
-defining question when was the last time you
spent precious moments with Jesus just because you
love him and that's the only reason not
because somebody was with you not because you
were in a group bible study not because
you were in a prayer meeting not because
somebody was standing next to you but just
because you are in love with Jesus and
you spent precious moments with him because he's
your best friend some of us behave and
perform at church because of the approval of
our circle of friends and if you were
removed with that circle of friendship then you
would not have the walk of faith your
performance is for their approval rather than for
God's approval second idol is the idol of
reputation he said little children keep yourself from
idols and you know what we can do
even at the house of God we get
influenced by what we think people think of
us what's their opinion of me not one
person in this auditorium can be a disciple
or be ready to walk with Jesus until
you walk over and you lay down the
idol of reputation are you willing to be
misunderstood are you willing to have people say
well I don't know you see sometimes I
have members at my church they'll say brother
Ralph I'm having a real battle at work
I don't mind if they know that I'm
a Christian but I don't want them to
think that I'm foolish I don't want to
think I'm a holy joe I've gone off
the deep end or something what they're saying
is pastor I'm still worried about my reputation
I'm still worried about what people think of
me they're holding on to the reputation idol
that's why a lot of pastors get in
trouble instead of pastoring their church and what
God has called them to do and to
be obedient to the leadership of the Holy
Spirit they pastor their church how they think
other preachers want them to pastor their church
and they're holding on to the idol of
reputation by the way the easiest idol of
all to pick up after we go to
an altar and pray God I want to
get rid of my idols is the easiest
one to pick up is to go back
and get that idol of reputation because it
goes back to the ultimate sin which is
pride which gets us in more trouble anytime
and anything in our lives the third idol
for your consideration is the idol of criticism
criticism is what we do so artfully well
ladies and gentlemen there would never ever be
gossip in church if there was not the
idol of criticism you can't how are you
going to gossip if everybody's laid down the
the idol of criticism if you were to
tell them something it would die in their
ear the only way it can be gossip
is to go in the ear and then
they'd be repeated and passed on that's why
God said he hated that so in discord
among the brethren the idol of criticism and
and we do it so well we're trained
as baptists from the from the nursery department
on how to do this and we pass
it on from one generation to another you
say well brother ralph they asked me what
do I know I mean they really were
searching for spiritual truth and so God left
you assistant number one in charge right and
you're going to pass judgment on everybody else
I know it's quiet tonight I know you
wish I'd got hung up on the mountain
but I didn't I'm here I talk about
revival's chief is getting down here to where
the rubber meets the road's expensive huh ladies
and gentlemen that idol can get a hold
of all of us someone asked you what
you know you say I know everything a
good about everybody that's what I know everything
good about everybody I know that you say
brother Ralph I'm saved well if you're saved
let me tell you something here's what helped
me God saved me and I did not
deserve to be saved I should have gone
to hell I am in no position to
be critical of any other person in the
body of Christ so I'm so happy I'm
saved and I've got a full-time job
trying to keep me right and to keep
me in a right relationship with God than
to try to run somebody else's life and
tell them how to do it if
you don't think the devil will offer you
the blood knife you just hang around church
and he'll give you an opportunity to lick
he'll give you an opportunity to see things
happen ladies and gentlemen I really believe that
if we're going to develop any skills at
the house of God we ought to develop
the skill that we'd be able to love
each other and encourage each other the Bible
says you know you've passed from death unto
life because you love the brethren I'd like
to be known for being an encourager you
say well you don't know how she gets
on my nerves you don't know what a
aggravation he is well won't you just leave
that up to God God's the one that
made them and God's the one that saved
them so won't you let God straighten them
out why should you run over there and
grab a hold of that blood knife and
lick your brains out God I'm going to
help you get them right but you see
if we grab the idols of this world
that's exactly what we do that's why real
revival is so expensive is because not one
of us can say I don't need revival
Booker T Washington in his diary he tells
about the flat shirt experience Booker T was
very smart he was out front intelligent obviously
very intelligent a genius the shirts of that
day were made from leftovers and the flax
leftovers were filled with bristles and when they
made a black shirt if you had no
undergarment you put those black shirts on they
would actually dig into the flesh and make
raw places very painful until that flax would
be worn off Booker T Washington wrote that
one of the greatest days in his life
is he had a younger brother John and
John was not as gifted and was not
as intelligent and the boss man came by
and he said I've got new flax shirts
and handed Booker T one told him to
put it on and everybody knew the pain
that was going to cause and the sores
that would erupt on that body and they
said as Booker T reached to put that
shirt on the boss man walked away his
brother John said Booker I'm not as smart
as you are I'm not out front like
you are but I can wear that flax
shirt for you let me wear it till
the hurt's gone what if you came over
here to church and said let me carry
your burden till the hurt's gone let me
help you pray to your son saved let
me help you pray to your daughters off
drugs instead of saying if they'd have done
this if they'd have done that if I'd
have been them well you're not in their
shoes won't you quit licking on the blood
knife and say let me help you carry
a burden why don't we start weeping for
our homes and weeping for our schools and
weeping for our church and weeping for our
families and share this load of burden and
prevail on this old planet earth turn loose
of the idols of this world become a
love specialist before a holy god the fourth
idol I want to give you is the
idol of accomplishments the idol of accomplishments don't
we love for people to think we've arrived
I am somebody well the truth of the
matter is we haven't arrived and the only
way you can ever be anybody is to
be in him because without him we're all
lost and undone it's easy to say what
we've done and what we've accomplished and we
want to take credit and I'm going to
tell you something ladies and gentlemen there's no
way we can take credit for anything so
while we're getting proud and puffed up about
what we've done we're going to give our
babies to the devil we're going to give
the community to the new agers and to
the witchcraft worshipers we're going to give the
thing over to the gods of this world
and the lust of the flesh well you
might but I'm not I've decided I'm going
to serve God with everything that's within me
and take it for another generation that we
can have revival in the midst of all
this wickedness that we'll stand and having done
all the saying that we will make the
sacrifices and whatever it takes we'll do business
with a holy god as for me and
my house we will serve the lord you
say brother Ralph how are we going to
do that only way we can do it
turn loose of our idols we got to
get rid of the idols I was just
mentioning for there's hundreds there's hundreds what are
you holding on tonight money fame ego pride
well they they hurt me they did me
wrong and I'm not going to forgive them
they'll have to come to me will you
hold on to that while this thing rots
around your ears I'd rather forgive them and
let God sort it out at the judgment
seat and have my power back and have
my tears back and have the anointing back
on my life and have God walking around
with me you're not going to be understood
if you're sold out for revival you're not
going in a popularity contest I'd rather go
with Jesus and I'd rather God turn the
searchlight on my soul and say God you
reveal anything in me that's not like you
and send revival to my being