...message is one of the Times Square Church
Pulpit series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
Other tapes are available by writing, World Challenge,
P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771, or
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Father, I thank you for the anointing of
the Holy Spirit.
I thank you for your strength and your
power that have always kept me and sustained
me.
Lord, I thank you that you give to
those who ask a heart to pursue you,
and a heart to apprehend you, and a
mind to begin to understand you as your
character and your power and your nature are
revealed to us and in us.
Jesus, we need you now more than we've
ever needed you before.
I would ask today that you would open
your word.
God, speak to every heart, speak to every
life, and let your kingdom come with great
power.
I ask, Lord, for a yearning, a yearning
for intimacy with you to be developed in
the hearts of those that are called by
your name.
Today I ask for everyone who has become
slack in the word of God, everyone who
is lost in their sin, every backslider, Lord,
that you'd reach out, that you'd open these
doors of imprisonment, that you would grant forgiveness
and the power through the indwelling Holy Spirit
to see the kingdom of God begin to
advance with great power in their lives.
Jesus, I don't come to play games today.
Father, I come to bring your word to
your people, and I ask, O God, that
you would come with sovereign power.
Lord, overturn everything that's unlike Christ.
Grant to us a living testimony, each one
of us in this last hour of time.
Give us a living testimony of the living
Christ, and more so, and most of all,
an ever-deepening hunger for intimacy with you.
Father, I thank you for this.
I thank you for the quickening power of
the Holy Spirit in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Matthew chapter 13, beginning at verse 44 to
46.
How many have got your Bibles today?
Can I see your Bibles?
You're going to need it if you have.
Hallelujah.
Bless the Lord.
Again, Jesus said, "...the kingdom of heaven is
like unto treasure hidden afield.
The witch, when a man hath found, he
hideth, and for joy thereof goes and sells
all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto
a merchant man seeking goodly pearls.
And when he had found one pearl of
great price, he went and sold all that
he had, and bought it."
Now, this particular passage of Scripture, Jesus Christ,
I spoke about this last week, he is
talking about the characteristics of heart of those
who have found the kingdom of heaven.
Not only have they found the kingdom of
heaven, but the kingdom of heaven has in
effect found them.
And Jesus Christ is beginning to work in
their lives.
The Holy Spirit has come.
They're born again now by the Spirit of
God.
And there is a strong, strong evidence to
be found in the hearts of those who
belong to God.
They have found what they've been looking for.
I hope that if you are a Christian
here today, I hope that you have found
what you're looking for.
I hope that you're not still driven by
the proverbial discontent of this present generation.
I hope that you're not so immersed in
the thinking of the world that somehow you've
been led to believe that you can be
fulfilled if you attain this goal, or if
you achieve this, or move here, or do
this, or attain perhaps some new status in
society, or your place of employment.
Those who have been born again of the
Spirit of God, there is no other desire,
or at least there ought not to be
any other desire, but to have an ever
-increasing and fuller revelation of Jesus Christ within
us.
He is that treasure.
Jesus said when a man finds that treasure
for joy, he goes and sells all that
he has to buy that field.
And again, when he found that one pearl
of great price, he goes and sells all
that he has.
In other words, he releases his plans, his
ambitions, all of his other pursuits, and he
goes out and buys that one pearl of
great price.
The Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter
4 verses 5 and 6, he said, for
God who commanded the light to shine out
of darkness has shined in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ.
But we have this treasure, that is Christ,
in earthen vessels that the excellency of the
power may be of God and not of
us.
Now folks, that's an incredible thought.
We have the treasure of the eternal God
living within us.
This is an incredible treasure.
It's something the Old Testament prophets could only
think about.
They could only foresee it.
They could only prophesy of the day when
God was going to come in power and
actually indwell.
Not no longer a tabernacle, no longer a
tent, no longer a cloud by day and
a pillar of fire by night, but he
was going to come and actually indwell.
Frail humanity.
Those who would open their hearts and minds
and cry out to him that he was
going to come and he was going to
make his abode within them.
And that presence, that power of the Holy
Spirit of God within a person's life would
produce in the hungry heart, the hungry soul,
an ever-increasing and continual revelation of that
pearl of great price who is Jesus Christ,
the Son of God.
And the Holy Spirit, as we begin to
understand Christ, then gives us the power.
He lives that resurrected life of Christ within
us.
And what a joy to so apprehend him,
to so lay hold of him, that we
can, in truth, one day say with the
Apostle Paul, it is no longer I who
live.
It's Christ, hallelujah, who lives in me.
Hallelujah.
What an incredible thought.
We have the treasure of an eternal and
a victorious kingdom with all of its promises
and all of its power living within us.
Hallelujah.
No wonder Paul could say, if God before
us, who can be against us?
Hallelujah.
Paul, the Apostle, had this revelation in his
heart.
And brethren, oft times this revelation is given
to us through trial.
Oft times it comes through sorrow and difficulty.
Oft times it comes by being led by
the Spirit of God to places where we
simply can't take another step without God's power.
And then as we begin to cry out
to him, then once again we're given the
revelation of the treasure that we have within
us.
We surrender and yield the rights to our
own lives in whatever area God is speaking
to us about.
We give it to God.
And in resurrection power, one more time we
come out of the tomb on the other
side, sharing that cry of Paul.
It's no longer I who live.
It's Christ who lives in me.
Oh brethren, that's called the living testimony of
the living God.
It's day by day being able to share
with our neighbors and friends and family and
office workers.
It's being able to say, I'm not the
same as I was yesterday.
Let me tell you why.
I have once again, God has revealed something
of the treasure of Christ that is within
my life.
Hallelujah!
He's given me power.
He's changed my life.
Paul cries out in Romans 11 33, he
says, Oh the depth of the riches both
of the wisdom and the knowledge of God.
How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways
are past finding out.
Oh the treasure of God, the treasure of
God.
I hope that this is a lifelong pursuit
in your life if you're a Christian, if
you're a child of God.
I hope that you're on that, may I
call it a treasure hunt, if I may,
to find Christ and to see him revealed
in us and through us in ever greater
measure, that we may bear fruit through these
lives to the honor and the glory of
God.
I go in the New Testament to the
book of 2nd Peter with me.
You go Hebrews, James, 1st Peter, then 2nd
Peter, chapter 1.
Now Peter begins to give us a clue
of how this treasure of Jesus Christ in
us, this treasure that we cherish, we should
cherish above every treasure in our lives, about
how this treasure is released in us and
through us.
In 2nd Peter, chapter 1, verse 3, Peter
says, according as his divine power has given
unto us all things that pertain unto life
and godliness.
Now through his power, in effect, he has
given us the things that we need for
life and for godliness through the knowledge of
him that has called us to glory and
virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great
and precious promises.
How does the kingdom of God advance in
our lives?
God gives us promises and by faith and
by faith alone you and I lay hold
of those promises.
It's not by striving in the flesh.
It's not by any good works that we
do, for the best that we can accomplish
is still filthy rags in the sight of
a holy God.
But God gives to us because he is
the treasure and he gives to us exceeding
great and precious promises and by faith we
lay hold of these promises and through these
promises the kingdom of God begins to advance
in us and through us.
Peter says that by these you might be
partakers of the divine nature.
Through these promises I thank God for the
promises of God.
Brethren, where would we be without the promises
of God?
Think it through just for a moment.
If we had, say, just simply John 3
16, God came, said his son loved us,
died for us, now we're saved.
And we didn't have this book and we're
all left to our own resources.
What an incredible miserable failure we would be
as a church, individually and collectively.
But the promises of God are revelations in
a sort of the nature, the character, the
faithfulness of God through Jesus Christ to everyone
who calls out to his name.
Now go to the second Peter chapter 3.
I want to read the last two verses.
He says, Ye therefore, verse 17 and 18,
he says, Ye therefore, beloved, seeing you know
these things before, beware lest ye also, being
led away with the error of the wicked,
fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in
grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ.
To him be glory both now and forever.
Amen.
Peter is saying to those Christians that he
is writing to, beware, he says, lest you
lose your position in Christ.
Lest you let something else perhaps come in.
Begin to occupy your thinking, your minds, your
hearts.
You lose an understanding of the day that
you're living in.
And all of a sudden you begin to
drift away from the things of God.
I want to share with you, brethren, it's
always a danger that you and I can
drift away from the things of God.
We can even be living in the midst
of seemingly great revelation being given to us
of God.
I'm going to show you that in a
moment.
But at the same time, we can be
drifting away farther and farther and farther away
because knowledge is never a replacement for a
heart that loves Jesus Christ more than anything
in this world.
Give anything in this life up, but don't
ever give up your love for Jesus Christ.
Because that love will keep you.
It will guide you.
It will cause your heart to be smitten.
Every time you and I move in a
direction that's not of God, there'll be a
smiting that comes into your heart.
The love for Christ, the cherishing of that
treasure, that eternal pearl, that field, that truth
that we look for all our lives that
we found and have given everything to possess.
We'd ask ourselves the question today, say, well,
how does one begin to lose their position
of ever-increasing growth and knowledge of Christ?
How does this happen?
I think the best way to understand this
is to look at how a nation, and
in particular a lineage of kings, lost the
presence and the power of God.
Now go back to the book of 1
Kings in the Old Testament, please.
1 Kings.
We're going to look at how the carelessness,
if I can call it such, in the
things of God opens the door to what
the enemy is always after in our lives.
He's after something.
And if he can get that, he can
take you and I into captivity.
He can take an entire church generation into
captivity.
1 Kings chapter 7.
Now I'm only going to look at this
in part and parcel.
We're going to look a little bit at
the temple that Solomon had built.
Now the creation of this temple was a
foreshadowing of the relationship that God desires to
have with all of his people.
It was a type, and you're going to
see that in a moment.
This temple, the scripture tells us, was full
of treasures, full of treasures.
Verse 48 in 1 Kings chapter 7 says,
And Solomon made all the vessels that pertained
unto the house of the Lord, the altar
of gold and the table of gold, whereupon
the showbread was, and the candlesticks of pure
gold, five on the right side and five
on the left, before the oracle, with the
flowers and the lamps and the tongs of
gold, and the bowls and the snuffers and
the basins and the spoons and the censers
of pure gold and the hinges of gold,
both for the doors of the inner house,
the most holy place, and for the doors
of the temple to it of the temple,
of the house rather, to it of the
temple.
And so was ended all the work that
King Solomon made for the house of the
Lord.
And Solomon brought in the things which David
his father had dedicated, even the silver and
the gold and the vessels that he put
among the treasures of the house of the
Lord.
All of these treasures.
Now they must have been an awesome thing
to behold.
Each of these treasures had its own meaning,
and each one of them, we don't have
time to look at this today obviously, but
each one of them represented something of the
character and the nature of God.
Some of them represented His holiness, some of
them represented His mercy, some represented His goodness,
some represented His power.
But everything represented something about the nature of
God.
The temple that Solomon built was a house
filled with treasures, absolutely filled.
It would have been overwhelming.
And brethren, it's exactly the same for you
and I.
When we received Jesus Christ as our Lord
and Savior, the Holy Spirit came and made
His dwelling within our physical body.
And we became the temple of the Holy
Spirit.
If you are a child of God today,
you are the temple of the Holy Ghost.
And when the Holy Spirit came in, this
is this is the Godhead in effect that
has come and made up a residency within
your body.
And the Holy Spirit is now revealing the
treasures of Jesus Christ within us.
He reveals to the hungry heart the meaning
of these treasures, the purpose of these treasures,
and all the attributes and the character of
God not only reveals them, but as we
see them, He gives us the power to
lay hold of them through faith.
That the life of Christ now begins to
be lived in us and through us.
The underlying theme of the treasures was without
doubt the desire of Almighty God to reveal
Himself as a just and a holy God.
There were some things, some treasures in that
temple that would have given that impression.
Obviously when you walked in and saw the
continual flowing of blood, the continual sacrifice that
was being offered up for sin, there would
be an awesome understanding that God is a
holy God.
He's a just God.
That He deserves reverence and He deserves all
respect.
And yet also at the same time that
He's kind, He's loving and protective and forgiving
to all who approach Him in truth.
The heart sensitive to His without doubt would
be overwhelmed that such a magnificent God would
want to dwell among mere men.
I am overwhelmed.
The more I know Him, the more overwhelmed
I seem to get.
And when I see Him, the more I
begin to understand Him.
I feel like the Psalmist David when he
said, when I consider the heavens, when I
consider the works of thy fingers, the moon
and the stars which you have ordained, he
said, what is man that you are mindful
of him?
It's an incredible feeling that when we begin
to draw close to God.
I believe it was Charles Finney said one
time, he said that the man who is
distant from God feels very good about himself.
He's quite content, he's quite proud of his
works, all the religious things that he does,
he's very very happy about himself.
He'll more than readily tell you about all
the goodness in his life because he's actually
quite distant from God.
But the man who's drawing or the woman
who's drawing close to God, all of a
sudden there's an undone-ness comes into the
life.
God in heaven.
Charles Wesley wrote a hymn that says, and
can it be, and can it be that
I should gain?
God in heaven.
How can it be?
When I see you, when I consider you,
when I see the depth of your character,
when I understand your goodness, how can it
be, oh God, that you would come and
take your dwelling, your abode in such a
man as I?
Oh God in heaven, God in heaven, I
want to know you more.
That's the cry of the child of God.
I want your kingdom to come.
Lord, I want you to possess my reigns,
David said, in my heart.
Lord, I want you to occupy every space
of my life.
I want you to grant to me the
power to take this flesh.
Take it, oh God, I give it to
you, take it and crucify it, that it
may not reign in my life anymore.
Paul cries out, oh who shall deliver me
from the body of this death?
Thanks be to God, to Jesus Christ, my
Lord.
It's the cry of the child of God
to be delivered from all the works of
flesh, the frailties of humanity, and to be
clothed upon with our house, if I can
call it such, that comes from on high,
that wonderful treasure of eternity, Jesus Christ, the
Son of God.
If you're a child of God, he is
your treasure today.
If you're a child of God, you cherish
him and love him and desire him and
want him with all of your heart.
If you're a child of God, there's no
flippancy in your heart about the things of
God.
There may be momentary failings.
There may be times that you think your
own weakness is going to overwhelm you.
There may be struggles and trials in your
life, but in the midst of all of
these, there's still a heart that wants him.
There's still a heart that acknowledges that he's
the treasure of eternity.
Hallelujah.
The relationship that God had with Solomon in
Israel was a type of that which we
as the New Testament believers have through Jesus
Christ today.
This relationship was based in essence upon the
promises of God's faithfulness towards those who walk
before him with an honest heart.
God had a relationship with Solomon and a
relationship with Israel in this temple, which was
a type of our relationship.
Now I want to show you this.
Go to 2nd Chronicles, please.
Chapter 7.
We remember that when Solomon dedicated the temple
after it was built, he prayed an incredible
prayer of dedication.
You remember some of the elements of that
prayer.
Basically, if we've been put to the worst
before our enemies and pray, God hear us.
If there are encroachment upon our borders, God
hear us and pray for justice for the
stranger and the widow and all types of
things like this.
In 2nd Chronicles, chapter 7, verse 15, the
Lord says now, in verse 12, it says,
the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and
said unto him, I've heard your prayer and
I've chosen this place to myself for a
house of sacrifice.
In verse 15, he says, now my eyes
shall be opened, my ears attend to the
prayer that is made in this place.
For now I have chosen and sanctified this
house that my name may be there forever
and mine eyes and my heart shall be
there perpetually.
Now here's a promise.
He's made a promise that if you have
my heart, because you've longed for me.
Brethren, if you long for God, if you
long for Christ, his heart is towards you.
I promise you that today.
There's no power of hell that will come
against you that will ever triumph against you.
No weakness that will ever overpower you.
No devil in hell that will ever take
you out of the hand of God if
your heart is towards Christ.
Hallelujah!
It delights Christ to fight for his church.
It delights him to vanquish our enemies.
It delights him to open prison doors and
give sight to the blind and healing to
those that are bruised in body.
Hallelujah!
He said, I've chosen, I've sanctified this house
that my name be there forever and my
eyes and my heart will always be there.
This is what he's telling Solomon.
It was a type of our relationship with
God the Father through Jesus Christ.
He says, and as for thee, if thou
will walk before me as David thy father
walked and do according to all that I've
commanded thee and shall observe my statutes and
my judgments then I will establish the throne
of thy kingdom according as I have covenanted
with David thy father saying there shall not
fail thee a man to be ruler in
Israel.
And God is saying to Solomon, Solomon walk
with me.
Solomon walk with me in truth.
Solomon don't forget the prayer that you prayed
when this house was dedicated.
When you come into this house and my
glory, my power came down.
Don't forget the prayer that you prayed.
Solomon walk with me and I'll walk with
you.
It was a type of the relationship that
God has with us as the New Testament
believers today.
And as Solomon continued to seek God he
increased in wisdom and power as he walked
with this Holy God.
In 2nd Chronicles chapter 9 verse 22 the
scripture says, Solomon passed all the kings of
the earth in riches and in wisdom.
Remember the cry of Paul, oh the incredible
depth, the unsearchable riches of Christ.
And all the kings of the earth sought
the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom
that God had put in his heart.
Verse 24 says they brought every man his
present vessels of silver and vessels of gold
and raiment, harness and spices, horses and mules
arrayed year by year.
And Solomon had 4,000 stalls for horses
and chariots and 12,000 horsemen whom he
bestowed in the chariot cities with the King
at Jerusalem.
And he reigned over all the kings.
And he reigned over all the kings from
the river even unto the land of the
Philistines and to the border of Egypt.
When Solomon walked with God, Solomon reigned.
Oh brethren, let's settle the issue once and
for all.
If we will walk with God, if we
will love him with all of our heart,
if we will obey him when he speaks
to our heart, we too will rule and
reign with him.
In chapter 9 again and verse 16, scripture
talks it throughout this chapter of the things
that Solomon made.
But I want to draw attention to this
one aspect.
It says he made 300 shields, made he
of beaten gold.
300 shekels of gold went to one shield
and the king put them in the house
of the forest of Lebanon.
Now these were shields that were for a
special group of soldiers in effect.
They were soldier shields.
And Solomon made 300 of these golden shields.
And I'm not there, I wasn't there obviously,
but if you will take a journey with
me in your mind or your heart, you
see God and his promises and his attributes,
everything about God, were represented mainly by gold
in the temple.
When you walked into the temple, if you
and I would have been there and we
would have been walking in with Solomon, we
would see all this, the gold on the
ceiling, the golden vessels, the mercy seat, we'd
see all, everything that is represented by gold,
which represented the character, the promises.
It represented God, the very nature, the attributes
of God.
And Solomon built, made golden shields that some
of his soldiers would carry.
And I can picture in my mind Solomon
coming up to the temple.
And obviously being the king going to the
temple, he's not going to be walking alone.
There'd be an entourage with him, there would
be protective guards around him.
I can see these guards coming up with
these golden shields on their arm.
And as they're walking to the temple, there's
knowledge that these shields that were carried by
his soldiers represented faith and the faithfulness of
God, who had promised him the victory.
They were carrying on their arm, what did
the Apostle Paul say?
Above all, carrying the shield of faith.
David said, Lord, my glory, my lifter of
my head, you are my help, you are
my hope.
David always called the Lord his shield.
And I see in my heart that as
the soldiers, as Solomon is heading to the
temple and the soldiers, they've known nothing but
victory, victory after victory.
They rule over all the kings in all
the area.
And everywhere they went, there was nothing but
victory.
But they carried on their arm, in effect,
the shields that represented that our victory, that
we are winning, is because of the promises
that God has made to us.
It's not by might, it's not by power,
but it's by thy spirit, O God, that
we are winning the victory.
And what an incredible thing to be walking
in the house of God and knowing that
it's not our own strength that has gotten
us the victory.
Knowing that it is God, it is Christ
in our lives that has given us the
victory.
And therefore, our pursuit should be to know
him more intimately on a continuous basis.
Our pursuit should be, as Christians, to cherish
him with all of our heart.
What's the most important commandment?
A lawyer said, tempting Christ, and he said,
love the Lord your God with all your
heart and all your soul and all your
mind and all your strength.
This is the first and this is the
most important commandment.
Now, God's promises are as good as gold,
are they not?
They are.
Hallelujah.
They're as good as gold.
We acknowledge your protection, your provision, your power.
My heart's cry is to let the glory
of God, the glory of the risen Christ,
shine in us and through us, especially in
this hour that we're living in right now.
David said, many there be would save my
soul.
There's no help for him in God.
But thou, O Lord, art a shield for
me, my glory and the lifter of my
head.
You are my shield.
You are my strength.
It's because of who you are.
It's because of your promises that I am
able to stand.
It's because of your promises that I have
victory.
It's because of your promises I will become
whatever it is that you have destined me
to be.
However, the triumph for Solomon in Israel took
a turn towards tragedy when Solomon began to
be careless in his relationship with God.
This is where we need to take heed.
He got careless.
It's ironic that he wrote the words, yet
a little sleep, a little slumber, a little
folding of the hands to sleep.
And so shall thy poverty come as one
that traveleth and thy want as an armed
man.
A little sleep, a little slumber.
You notice they don't say a big sleep
and a great big slumber.
A little sleep, a little slumber, a little
folding of the hands.
Solomon got careless with the word of God.
In the abundance of what he was learning,
I often wondered, did it seem like those
first truths were, well you don't have to
obey the first truths because look at the
greatness of the revelation that God has given
to me.
Folks, it was the first truths, the things
that David his father had taught him, that
he disregarded, that eventually cost him his relationship
with God.
No greater tragedy than to leave off the
pursuit of God.
Instead of coming into that temple and seeking
God with all his heart, then his heart
turned and he began to love strange women.
He brought horses out of Egypt that he
was told, specifically in the Word of God,
that he should not do.
He began to bring home silver into his
borders and gold and he was told specifically
in the Word of God.
He would have been taught that by his
father David.
He would have known, but those were the
foundational truths, the first things.
And oft times as we begin to learn
things about God, we begin to go to
studies and open the Word of God, and
God begins to open heaven, we get tremendous
revelation.
And somehow in the abundance of that revelation,
we forget.
This is the end of side one.
You may now perhaps opening this book every
day and meditating once again on some of
the very first truths that we learned.
Holding on, Peter says to these things, lest
we should lose our position of steadfastness in
Christ.
Holding on.
A little slumber, a little sleep, a little
folding of the hands.
Every time even a supposed on fire Christian
backslides and you begin to talk to these
folks, you can be sure that the underlying
cause is having turned away from this book
and having come out of the closet of
prayer.
Instead of passing on a glorious heritage and
a glorious kingdom to his son, his son
Rehoboam took over what was then a divided
kingdom.
And in chapter 12 verse 1 it says,
it came to pass when Rehoboam had established
the kingdom and had strengthened himself, he forsook
the law of the Lord and all Israel
with him.
We begin to get careless with the word
of God.
You watch the downward spiral now that comes
into the nation of Israel and those who
are called to lead the nation.
But consider it a type of what happens
to the believer who becomes careless with the
things of God.
Now his son, the next in line, the
next one to lead this nation is now
forsaking God and bringing the whole nation into
that forsaking with him.
Now the enemy begins to come.
You remember it was those shields of faith
that caused Solomon and Israel to win the
victories that they were winning.
And in verse 9 it says, so Shishak
king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem and
took away the treasures of the house of
the Lord.
You see God, the enemy rather, is always
after the treasure of Christ in your life.
Always.
After the one thing that can destroy his
kingdom and that is the revelation of Christ,
the treasure in you and in me, the
enemy is always after the treasure.
And if we get careless with the word
of God, the very first thing that begins
to go out of our lives is the
treasure, the manifest presence of Christ, the awareness
of Christ's presence in our lives.
And he took the treasures out of the
King's house.
He took all, he carried away also the
shields of gold which Solomon had made.
Instead of which Rehoboam made shields of brass
and committed them to the hands of the
chief of the guard that kept the entrance
of the King's house.
And when the King entered into the house
of the Lord, the guard came and fetched
them and brought them again into the guard
chamber.
And so now Rehoboam forsakes God, the enemy
comes in, steals away the golden shields and
Rehoboam now replaces them with shields that are
made out of brass.
Confidence in God now gives place to the
ingenuity of man.
It is a cheap replacement.
It looks like faith perhaps, but it's not
faith.
It's all mixed in with human reasoning.
And folks, I want to tell you, we
live in a generation where the church of
Jesus Christ got careless with the word of
God, careless.
The bride of Christ began an incredible slumber
in the Western world a few decades ago
and allowed careless people to stand in pulpits
and bring a careless gospel.
And the church got careless.
And when people get careless with the things
of God, the very first thing that is
gone is the desire for Christ.
Second thing to go is faith in the
promises of God, because there's a carelessness now
about this book.
And the third thing to happen is that
faith in God now is replaced by the
ingenuity of man.
We have churches now that are no longer
built by faith.
The church can only be built by faith.
You cannot build the church of Jesus Christ
any other way.
But now we have churches built by community
surveys.
Faith has given way to the ingenuity of
man.
And if we had time through all of
Chronicles and Kings, we'd find this continuous downward
spiral.
We had some attempts at revival, mostly dictated
and imposed upon the people.
And even though they seemed to have some
value, none of it was lasting until finally
we come to Asa in chapter 16 of
2 Chronicles.
Verse 1 says, In the sixth and thirtieth
year of the reign of Asa, Bashar, king
of Israel, came up against Judah and built
Ramah, to the intent that he might let
none go out or come in unto Asa,
king of Judah.
Then Asa brought out silver and gold out
of the treasures of the house of the
Lord and out of the king's house and
sent to Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, that
dwelt at Damascus, saying, There's a league between
me and thee, as there was between my
father and thy father.
Behold, I have sent thee silver and gold.
Go and break thy league with Bashar, king
of Israel, that he may depart from me.
And Ben-Hadad hearkened unto the king Asa
and sent the captains of his armies against
the cities of Israel.
And they smote Ijon and Dan and Abel
-Maim and all the store cities of Naphtali.
And it came to pass when Bashar heard
it that he left off building of Ramah
and let his work cease.
Then Asa the king took all Judah and
they carried away the stones of Ramah and
the timber thereof wherewith Bashar was building.
And he built therewith Geba and Mizpah.
And at that time Hanani the seer came
to Asa, king of Judah, and said to
him, Because thou hast relied on the king
of Syria and not relied on the Lord
thy God, therefore is the host of the
king of Syria escaped out of thine hand.
Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubams a
huge host with very many chariots and horsemen?
Yet because thou didst rely on the Lord,
he delivered them into thine hand.
For the eyes of the Lord run to
and fro throughout the whole earth to show
himself strong in the behalf of those whose
heart is perfect towards him.
Herein thou hast done foolishly, therefore from henceforth
thou shalt have wars.
Asa sells off treasures to save himself.
We're living in a generation of self Gospels,
self-advancement, self-help, self-healing, self...
you'll find that term terminology completely almost inundating
much of the Church of Jesus Christ.
The church that has sold off the treasure
to save themselves.
Self-preservation, self-reliance has now almost completely
taken over.
From once having trusted in the promises of
God, from once having known complete victory, to
now instead of going in and seeking God
when the enemy comes, they go in and
sell the treasures of God.
Sell off the treasures for the preservation of
self.
When this begins to happen, it leads ultimately
to complete defeat.
In 2nd Chronicles chapter 36, verse 14, it's
a progression, folks, and it all starts with
carelessness with the Word of God.
Carelessness.
Carelessness to even obey the little things that
God has spoken to us.
No sense going on to deeper revelation if
we have neglected the little things, the first
things that we learned.
Don't tell me God is giving you great,
great revelation of some eternal perspective of the
kingdom of God if you are still hating
your brother.
2nd Chronicles 36, verse 14, moreover all the
chief of the priests and the people transgressed
very much after all the abominations of the
heathen and polluted the house of the Lord
which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.
It's such a tragedy, this house once built
on such promises and such relationships, such revelation,
is now a polluted place because they have
sold off the treasure that was therein and
not trusted in the Lord God.
And the Lord God of their fathers sent
to them by his messengers, rising up at
times and sending because he had compassion on
his people and on his dwelling place.
But they mocked the messengers of God and
despised his words and misused his prophets until
the wrath of the Lord arose against his
people until there was no remedy.
Therefore he brought upon them the king of
the Chaldees who slew the young men with
the sword in the house of their sanctuary.
Folks, I want to tell you something.
There are places today where they are saying
that there is great revival going on the
Western world.
I prophesied it a long time ago and
I stand by that word that there's going
to be a great slaying and many of
these who think that they are in the
presence of God are going to be strewn
among the hills, lost, hurting, lonely, depressed, not
knowing what it is that even hit them,
not understanding that they have forsaken the greatest
treasure of all of eternity, Jesus Christ, and
the understanding of his kingdom for some momentary
satisfying of the flesh.
He had no compassion on young men or
maiden, old men or him that stooped for
age.
He gave them all into his hand and
all the vessels of the house of God,
great and small, and the treasures of the
house of the Lord and the treasures of
the king and of his princes, all these
he brought to Babylon.
Now the things of God are so intermixed
now with the things of the world that
they're no longer discernible as the things of
God.
And they burnt the house of God and
break down the wall of Jerusalem and burnt
all the palaces thereof with fire and destroyed
all the goodly vessels thereof.
This is the end of dealing carelessly with
the Word of God.
Folks, it has repeated itself all throughout history.
The types, the patterns, the shadows are here.
For if anybody wants to see it, both
for a nation, for a church age, and
for you and for me, it all starts
with the careless dealing with God.
A carelessness, a laxity, getting so used to
the presence of God.
There's a danger.
Sometimes we come in and we say, God,
what a marvelous presence, what marvelous anointing, but
there's a danger that comes with that too
as well.
You can begin to take his presence for
granted and leave off the seeking of the
kingdom of God and lose that love, that
first love, that causes us to pursue him
as a treasure to be most desired for
our lives for all of eternity.
And they that had escaped from the sword
they carried to Babylon where they were servants
to him and to his sons until the
reign of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill
the word of the Lord by the mouth
of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed her
Sabbaths.
For as long as she lay desolate, she
kept Sabbath to fulfill three score and ten
years.
All the treasures, the people come into complete
defeat and all the treasures that were intended
to be for the betterment of the people
are now taken to Babylon and the people
become slaves, slaves in effect to the powers
of darkness.
And we're living in a generation where there's
a slavery to darkness, I think almost unprecedented
in any other generation, incredible slavery.
But yet in the midst of this, God
gives an invitation.
He says, now in the first year of
Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of
the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah
might be accomplished.
The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus,
king of Persia, and he made a proclamation
throughout all his kingdom and put it in
writing.
And he said, thus saith Cyrus, king of
Persia, all the kingdoms of the earth hath
the Lord God of heaven given me.
And he has charged me to build him
a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Who is there among you of all his
people?
The Lord his God be with him and
let him go up.
God invites his people to return.
This is the heart of God.
Maybe the people dealt carelessly, and yes there
was a suffering that came into their life
because they dealt carelessly with the treasure of
eternity.
But yet in the midst of it, God
once again reveals that the ultimate end of
all that he does is to be merciful
to those who will call out to his
name.
Even his judgment is intended to show his
mercy towards all who would call.
And Cyrus is stirred up, it says, by
the Lord.
And he says, who's among you of the
people that want to go?
The Lord his God be with him and
let him go up.
And that same invitation is still here for
you and I today.
Revelation chapter 3 verse 18.
Jesus is speaking through the Apostle John to
a church that had gotten all kinds of
wealth and all kinds of things that the
world had to offer.
They said they were rich, increased in goods
and had need of nothing.
But he said to them, I counsel thee
to buy of me gold.
Try it in the fire that thou mayest
be rich.
The prophet Isaiah, in speaking to Baxlod and
Israel, in calling them home to God, he
said, for brass I will give you gold.
I will return you.
In effect he's saying to your former estate,
violence shall be no more heard in your
land, wasting nor destruction within your borders.
But you will call your wall salvation and
you shall call your gates praise.
Hallelujah.
Now go quickly with me to one last
scripture, the book of Ephesians chapter 1.
Ephesians chapter 1.
Hallelujah.
God forbid that you and I should ever
get so familiar with the presence of God
that we become careless with him and careless
with our relationship with him.
That we begin to think, well, the temple
will always be there.
This began to be the saying of Israel,
the temple, the temple.
It'll always be there.
I can, I can neglect this all week
and I can come back Sunday and God
will be there one more time.
Samson played that game and he only got
away with it for so long.
One day he woke up and his strength
was gone.
In Ephesians chapter 1, Paul says that the,
verse 17, he says that the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory,
may give unto you the spirit of wisdom
and revelation in the knowledge of him.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that
you may know what is the hope of
his calling and what the riches of the
glory of his inheritance in the Saints.
And what is the exceeding greatness of his
power to usward who believe according to the
working of his mighty power.
That your eyes, Paul says, will be opened.
That you will see what is the hope
of his calling.
That you will understand the riches of the
glory of his inheritance in the Saints.
Now who do you suppose that is he's
talking about?
It's Jesus Christ.
Paul said it's Christ in you that's the
hope of glory.
And the exceeding greatness of his power to
usward who believe according to the working of
his mighty power.
How do we lay hold of it?
We lay hold of it by having a
heart that longs for God.
We lay hold of it by not dealing
casually or carelessly with this book.
We lay hold of it by opening the
words of this book and saying God give
to me the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of he who lives in
my life, who dwells in my heart.
Give me an understanding of the inward working
of your kingdom, O God.
And by faith let me lay hold of
it like the woman laid hold of the
hem of the garment of Jesus.
No matter what I might be going through
that I can say to God I'm not
letting go.
For I've read it in your book and
I'm not letting go until you bless me.
Hallelujah.
And what's the exceeding greatness of his power?
To usward who believe according to the working
of his mighty power which he wrought in
Christ when he raised him from the dead
and set him at his own right hand
in heavenly places.
Far above this is the kingdom that is
within us.
Far above all principality and power and might
and dominion and every name that is named
not only in this world but also in
that one which is to come.
Paul says that your eyes would be opened,
that you would walk in and begin to
understand that we have the treasure of an
eternal God abiding and resting right within our
lives.
That we begin to cherish this treasure of
our relationship with Jesus Christ.
Hallelujah.
I say God banish from my life any
careless dealing with this book.
God help me as a preacher.
Pray for us all the time.
Pray for Pastor David, myself, and all the
ministry team that we not be preachers who
hold the truth in unrighteousness.
You know what holding the truth in unrighteousness
is?
It's holding it, understanding it, but holding it
away from yourself.
Pray for me.
I don't ever want to hold this book
in unrighteousness.
I don't ever want to be given revelation
of truth that I'm not willing to live
in my own life.
And I know today I can only live
it by the power of God.
I beg you, in the name of Christ,
to be a people who love Jesus with
all your heart.
And if you don't, just ask him.
He understands that.
Some people are afraid to even admit it,
but if you don't, just ask.
One of the signs that you're losing that
love, that you're failing to cherish that treasure,
is carelessness with this book.
Now, I'm not talking about just reading it.
Carelessness in obeying it.
Carelessness in asking God to apply it.
Because if truly our hearts are one with
his, there's a cry in us that says,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in
me as it is in heaven.
There's a cry if our hearts are one
with him.
If you're a slave to sin, if you
have become careless and you begin to trade
faith in this book and the promises of
Christ for ingenuity, and then you begin to
sell off Christ to survive, then ultimately you're
swallowed by the powers of darkness.
God says today you can get up and
you can come home.
You can be cleansed, you can be forgiven,
you can be given new life in God.
That's what it's all about.
It's about the mercy of God and his
desire for you and me to dwell in
covenant relationship with him through Jesus Christ.
If you're lost today or backslidden, I'm going
to open this altar in a moment and
ask you to come home to God.
Say, Lord forgive me.
Somewhere down the line I got careless.
I got careless with maybe just some of
the little things and they became bigger things.
I began to replace faith with other things
and now the enemy has come in and
he's swallowing me.
And it could be just an area of
your life that it just looks absolutely hopeless.
But today if you can humble yourself before
the Lord, if we can all do this,
God says I'll set you free.
Who among you is able?
Let him get up.
Let him go back and meet his God.
I'd like to give one more call for
this afternoon and it's for those who are
becoming careless with this word.
I can't think of a greater danger in
this hour for the true child of God
than to become careless with this book.
Study, Paul said, and show yourself approved unto
God, rightly dividing the word of truth, the
workmen that will not be ashamed.
Now the word ashamed in the original text
means overpowered by his enemies.
Study, study.
Father, God in heaven, thank you that you
are a loving God.
You are a merciful God.
You are a wonderful covenant keeping God.
For my own life, I cry out today
to you, Lord, and I said, God forbid,
God forbid that I should take you for
granted.
God forbid it, Lord, I'd rather die.
I would rather you take me home today
than I should ever discredit your name and
disgrace you.
Oh, Jesus, I trust you today for the
power to stay in this book and to
stay in communion with you and to love
you with all my heart and soul and
mind and strength.
Oh, Lord, I ask for this to be
given to those who are in leadership in
this church, to all of us, that you
keep us and hold us in the palm
of your hand.
God, hold the people, Lord.
Give us hearts that treasure Christ more than
anything in this world.
Banished from our lives, a little slumber, a
little folding of the hands, a little sleep.
Take this away from us, Holy Spirit.
Give us hearts of diligence to seek God
and his kingdom first.
Father, I thank you for this in Jesus
name.
Amen.
Would you stand, please?
Pastor Carter, not only have I been careless
with the word of God, but I'm a
sinner.
I live apart from God and I need
to be saved.
And today I'm willing to acknowledge that I'm
a sinner, that God had to send his
son to die on a cross to pay
the price for my sin.
Today I want to turn from that sin
and I'm trusting in the power of Christ
to save me.
I'm trusting in the Holy Spirit to give
me the power to be able to live
a victorious life.
If that's you today and you'd like to
come to Christ, would you raise up your
hand with me?
Unashamedly, it can be the balcony and the
main sanctuary all over.
You may or may not have come to
this altar.
Please just raise up your hand.
All right.
God bless you.
Their hands all over.
God bless you.
Oh, hallelujah.
Father, pray with me now.
Let's all pray together.
Lord Jesus, I am a sinner.
Thank you, Lord, for dying for me and
paying the price for my sin.
I ask you now, come into my heart
and be my Lord and my Savior.
Thank you for cleansing me and giving your
life for me.
I now give my life to you.
And I say, Jesus, come and become the
chiefest desire of my heart.
I love you, Jesus, and I thank you
for loving me.
Hallelujah.
Now, to those who prayed that for the
very first time today, please get in the
New Believers class as soon as you can
and begin to learn about Jesus Christ, about
the ways of God.
How many can say, Pastor, this is me.
This message has been me today.
I became careless.
And now the enemy is coming against me
like a flood.
Remember, the invitation of God is to get
up and come back.
It's always get up and come back, get
up and come back.
God says, I'll restore you.
I'll restore you.
It's all through this book.
I'll restore you.
I'll give you back.
If you will learn about me, learn about
me.
And once you begin to learn about me,
your faith will increase and then you will
have the power then to stand against your
enemies.
When again, your faith is based not in
yourself, but it's based in the promises of
God's word.
Pray with me, Lord Jesus, thank you for
forgiving me.
I became careless with your word and I've
paid a price because of it.
But today I thank you for your mercy,
your grace, your incredible goodness.
Open to me a new understanding of Jesus
Christ.
Show me who you are.
Show me your power, your grace.
Give me an understanding of the working of
your kingdom.
Open my heart to receive your promises.
Each one of them as if they're made
just for me and for me alone.
And give me a heart of faith to
believe and to watch you stand against my
enemies and to see every last one of
them go down in total defeat.
I promise you today, I will give you
the honor.
I will give you the praise.
I will give you the glory for thine
is the kingdom, the power and the glory.
Hallelujah.
Thank you, Lord.
This is the conclusion of the tape.