Transcription
[Music]
It really doesn't matter who's here, as long as the Lord is here. I did not come today to entertain you. I came to bring a message to you from the Lord, and He is Lord of all. He's almighty, sovereign, eternal. He knows everything. He's everywhere. You cannot fool God. You cannot mock God. You cannot run from God. He is everywhere.
Before I engage in this miracle called preaching, I want every one of us who names the name of Christ to take a moment, and I want you to look up and thank Him for saving your wretched soul and giving you hope and life eternal. Do that right now. Thank you. Only You, Lord, know how many nights this preacher has laid in bed and wondered why You picked me, why You saved me. I have high school classmates who are dead, and they died in their sins. Some are in jail for the third and fourth time. Some will never get out. I have buddies in high school who are alcoholics and drug addicts and have been married multiple times and can't hold down a job and have no hope. And with or without You, who am I? Who are we to stand here today? We all have those memories of people and what could have happened. Who are we to be able to stand on this earth and look toward heaven and raise our hands and call the Creator of all things our Father? Blessed be the name of the Lord. Holy is God. There is none like You. You are marvelous in all of Your ways, which to us are past finding out. But Lord, I thank You that You did save me. Thank You for picking me out. The whole church is saying that, Lord. We think of where we could have been and what might have been, but we see what is, and God is good to us, and Jesus is Lord of our lives, and the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in these bodies, and our destination is heaven, and our goal is Jesus. Oh, how blessed, how blessed we are today. Blessed, blessed in every way. Thank You, Jesus.
And now, as the Lord God lives, whose I am and in whose presence I stand, I bring the word of God. Your word. I pray with trembling, Lord, that this preacher will handle Your word gently and reverently. It's not mine, it's Yours. And I pray that people will hear it and heed it. God, I'm asking You that there not be one light-hearted moment. May we understand we're in the presence of His holiness, and that when God's word goes forth, it has power, and it does not change, but it changes everything. I don't have the strength to preach. I don't have the skill or the ability to preach. It is the Holy Ghost that preaches through people. Get me out of the way. Let me decrease so that You may increase. And no matter where it falls today, no matter what is said today, let the truth of God stand sure. Let God be true, and every man a liar. And I ask it in the name of the risen and soon coming Jesus. Amen.
And together we said, "Praise the Lord!" Thank you for being seated. You've heard me say it often. I'll say it till it happens. It being the rapture of the church. We are in the last days. Now, there are people who say, "How can you say these are the last days? It's been this way before." Okay, I'll tell you why. The writer of Hebrews opens up by saying, "God, who in various ways and at various times spoken to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son." The last days started when Jesus died on the cross. Farther over in Hebrews chapter 9, verse 26, it says that He has, at the end of the ages, put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. We're in the last days. No sane person could argue that fact.
If indeed we are living in the last days, how then should we be living? That question is posed to Titus by Paul. "How then should we be living? For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men." So you've seen it, and you've heard it, and there is no excuse for anybody anywhere, ever. There will be no excuses when you stand before God. You've heard it, you've felt it, you've witnessed it in various forms and fashions. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness. That means every day of my life, I say no to the world, I say no to the flesh, I say no to the devil. I spend my day swatting off evil like flies. Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts. I discipline myself to realize that I have more things than I need, and I want more things than I should have, and many of the things that I work to get and desire are not pleasing to God. They're only pleasing to me. So I deny worldly lusts so that I can live soberly. That means sanely, sensibly, balanced, so that I don't think like the world or let the world dictate to me how I think. I think by the power of the Spirit through the Holy Word. I don't consume the filth of this world either by my ear or my eyes so that it begins to talk through me and govern me more than the word of God does. I'm to live soberly. I'm to live righteously. That means I strive every day to be like Jesus. That I get up every morning and say, "Today, I want to please the Lord. This could be my last day. Let me live it putting a smile on the face of my Savior. Let me tell the truth even if it costs me my job. Let me be an honest man even if people walk away. Let me be righteous in all of my living and thinking and doing. Help me to be godly." But you see, I can't know what godliness is unless I read it in the scriptures. I want to live a godly life in this present evil age.
Now, let me probe a little bit, and let me just be real honest here this morning. It is impossible for me to live this way without the Holy Spirit filling my life. It is impossible to live this way without frequent taking in of the word of God, the Bible. You can't be a fruit-bearing Christian if you don't have a prayer life and if you don't know the scriptures. There's no two ways about it. Jesus said in John 6:63, "The words that I say unto you are spirit, and they are life." Without the Bible, you have no life, no spiritual life. You can mimic church activities, and you can mimic Christianity, but unless the word of God abides in you and you abide in it, you are not saved. You are pretending, or you are practicing, or you are mimicking those who call themselves Christians. Get the words. Now, let's not let them fall to the ground. It is the Spirit that makes alive. Jesus said, "The Spirit makes alive. The flesh profits nothing." Nothing happens when we do anything in the flesh. The church is dead if we do it in the flesh. The music is dead if it's done in the flesh. The preaching is dead if it's done in the flesh, because only the Holy Spirit of God can make alive. "The words that I say unto you are spirit, and they are life."
You see, for thousands of years, I suppose we've had this contention between word people and spirit people. Did you get what I just said? You got your word people and your spirit people. You see, your spirit people kind of dismiss the importance of scripture. They think that deep learning and constant consumption of truth is for older people, smarter people. They think that they can live off emotions. I'm going to get pretty strong here in just a minute. Then you have those word people who only have it up here, and as long as they like, like it's an academy, just say the word and read the scriptures and quote catechisms, that that's all that matters. And I've been to these churches and I've heard the Bible, but you see, without the Spirit of life, there was a deadness. Did you hear me? It's a deadness. So the problem we have is getting the Spirit and the word together. You see, without the Spirit, everything you do is dead. It becomes legalism. When the preacher gets up and he presents a homily, a sermon, it is well-organized and looks like a lesson that has been formed, and as long as that's delivered, that's all they care about. That's all the people care about, but there's no life in it. I've been to those churches. I know the feeling of hearing the word but not allowing the life of God to empower the word, because when the word of God is preached, there ought to be joy somewhere. The word of God ought to make somebody say, "Hallelujah! Thank You, Jesus!" People ought to be allowed to respond to the life-giving, life-changing word of God. But you got your formal churches, your liturgical churches, churches where the blast of an organ and an old Lutheran hymn precedes a dead presentation of the word of God. I don't want that. I can't live with that, and the Holy Spirit is not in that.
But the other problem is that you've got your spirit people. Many of you would fall into that category, I'm afraid, because you say, "I'm Pentecostal." You don't say, "I'm scriptural." You say, "I'm Pentecostal," because you were taught that if you really have church, you feel goosebumps, and you can't hold it back, and you feel like you're about to be raptured, and there's animation and noise, and if that happens, you feel like you've been to church. If, listen, if you feel something, you feel like you've been in the presence of God, and that is a false idea about what the Holy Spirit is. You see, without the word, and I can tell you, I grew up in an environment where all they wanted was a big altar service, and all they wanted was a lot of noise, and preaching just kind of got in the way. It wasn't every pastor, but many, many of them. And you go to large gatherings, camp meetings, and everybody just crossed their fingers and hoped that the choir sang so wildly with the anointing that the preacher wouldn't have to preach. Now, I know all of you who grew up in it have heard this many, many times. It's redundant to you, but there are plenty of people out here that don't understand what I'm talking about yet. And so when the music was not amped up enough, and they didn't sing the most famous current song of the day 50 times, then, oh my God, the preacher had to get up and try to keep their attention. And so he knew that just simple scripture wouldn't do it, because emotional people don't want scripture. So they concocted ways of exciting people, slapping them in the head, hitting them over the head with Bibles, telling them to run down the aisle, all kinds of activities that have nothing to do with the movement of the Holy Spirit and everything to do with massaging one's emotions and feelings. And I want to tell you that one is as bad as the other, because we were not designed to get saved and run the aisles only, and we were not built by God just to fill up our brains with Bible trivia. We were saved by the Spirit of God through the word of God, and that's how you live your entire life till He comes for you. You walk in the Spirit and you fill your life with the word of God. One is not more important than the other. Each is necessary for the other to flourish in your life. And I'm telling you, you didn't get saved because you felt something. If you are saved, you got saved because the truth was spoken, and you believed some tidbit of it. You didn't get saved because people were loose and happy. You got saved because the Holy Ghost of God went down inside and washed your sins away and gave you a new heart and a whole new life.
[Applause]
I've heard people say, "Oh, you know, many, many, many times, I've been in church all my life," as though that qualifies them for something. My question is, have you been in the word all your life? "I grew up in church, Pastor." And I'm not trying to be preachy. I know it's going to sound that way. "I grew up in church, Pastor." But have you grown up in Christ? Going to church is not what this is about. Getting involved in something, making a stir, and making noise is not what this is about. Every bit of worship we offer to God should be founded on the scriptures. Our prayers should be founded on the word of God. We should pray the Holy Bible. Everything we do as believers should be patterned after this book, and if it isn't, it ought to be ousted. Get rid of it. It's not of God. So when things get out of whack, out of control, emotional, and fanatical, some people really like that. They can't wait to get back. I remember, oh, here we go. I remember when we first started Monday night prayer meetings. Y'all remember that? At first, we started in the FLC, and it was packed because construction was going on in here. Then we came over here, and it was packed. And I had people coming up to me from other churches, even from other states, saying, "We've been praying for this. We've been praying for some kind of fire to fall in Charlotte somewhere, and it's happening here." But when they realized that they did not have a platform to get up and speak in tongues and give out messages and do fanatical things, that I believe God is a God of order, and that nobody should ever attract attention to themselves, and that God will never interrupt the preaching of His word with a so-called message in tongues, then they didn't come back. They haven't been. I wish I could remember who they are, and I wish I had a phone number. I'd call them and say, "What happened? Did the fire go out in your life?" Because it certainly hasn't gone out here at the church. We're still worshiping a risen Jesus and believing God is going to send revival to the city.
"Pastor, I was filled with the Spirit 30 years ago." Great. Then you should be sound, solid, stable, faithful, grounded, balanced, with a fervent prayer life and a deep knowledge of the Bible. If you got filled with the Spirit 30 years ago, you ought to be a pillar in the church. You ought to be a leader of spiritual faith. You ought to be a great soul winner. You ought to be teaching the word of God. Don't tell me just because you spoke in tongues three decades ago, you think you got the Holy Ghost. You didn't. No, you just got a jabber. You chattered. Because when you really get filled with the Holy Spirit, oh, I don't deny praying in the Spirit. I do it every day of my life. It's real. It's in the Bible. I can prove it, not by my experience, but by the scripture. I can prove it. It's a real deal, just like it happened on the day of Pentecost. They were filled with the Spirit, and it was tongues of fire. Notice it was not feet of fire, hands of fire, noses of fire, tongues of fire sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak with other tongues that the Spirit gave them utterance. But right after that, it says, after they were accused of being drunk, that Peter stood up and spoke up and preached about Jesus Christ. So I'm here to tell you this morning, your experience of speaking in tongues is invalid if you don't find yourself regularly standing up, speaking up, speaking the name of Jesus, talking about God's word. If you're not on fire with scripture and Spirit, you did not get a baptism in the Holy Ghost. Kind of died, didn't you? Notice that. If you speak in tongues more than you read the Bible, you miss the point.
Because there is something about people, they like to feel things, right? It's the same thing up here. It felt flat this morning. Remember how we say, "I didn't say about this morning, I'm saying people say things." "It felt flat this morning. It just wasn't there today. I didn't see the oomph today." Because we are still geared towards feelings, and we cannot get it through our thick cranial cavities that when God moves, you may not know He's moving, because He's doing deep, secret, powerful, and eternal things. God is not moving because people are. God moves when His word is preached. Services aren't flat because the choir didn't sing well. It could be the Holy Spirit saying, "I'm working right now. I don't want somebody to get addicted to adrenaline. I don't want them to feel saved. I want them to actually be saved." And so instead of measuring and analyzing the spirit of the service, we as God's children ought to recognize that God's depths go so far beyond our understanding, but He is always working. Some of the most pitiful prayers you've ever prayed were the most eloquent in the throne room. Now, I'm about to get happier. Some of the smallest deeds of kindness that nobody will ever know about on this earth are on a full silver screen in heaven, because Jesus is after faithfulness in little things, and faithfulness when you don't feel it, and praying when you'd rather watch television, and reading the scriptures when you don't even understand what it's saying. Jesus says after that kind of tenacity and faithfulness, and those are the ones that get blessed, because they remember that Jesus said to the devil, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God." Did you see that? Every word. Not just John, not just Jude, but Deuteronomy. Every word that comes out of the mouth of God. You can't just pick out certain scriptures and live on those. It takes every word that comes out of the mouth of God.
There is a new movement in this country called the Red Letter Movement, where these contemporary Christians only live by and teach the red letters of the Bible, which are the words of Jesus. They've, they've ousted Paul and Jude and Peter. They only live by the words of Jesus. So what Paul said about homosexuality or divorce, they don't even regard that anymore, because Jesus has the words that we live by. And even when He speaks against those things, they find a way to justify their lives. Well, I need to tell you something. That movement will take you to hell. Did you hear me? Because every word in the Bible is anointed by God. Now, you need to hear me. Listen, listen, listen. The words of Jesus Christ are no more important than the words of Habakkuk or Jude or Moses. "Yeah, but Jesus, the Son of God." No, Jesus, the Son of God, did not write it. The Holy Spirit of God wrote the Bible. He's not emphasizing only the words of Jesus. He's emphasizing the word of God. Say amen, somebody. So any kind of movement that begins to, uh, disclaim or discount any other part of the Bible is of the devil. Don't get in on it. Just, I don't know. I just can't quit. I can't get out of this vein right here, because God sent the whole word for the whole church, and every bit of it is profitable for reproof, correction, that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished unto good works. You're not balanced if you don't know it all.
Let me show you the danger of, let me show you the danger of emotional religion and overexposure to the things of God without a saving experience, without living it out soberly, righteously, godly, without pouring over the scriptures every day. I'm going to go to Titus. Yeah, here it is. Ready for this? Titus 1. "To the pure, all things are pure." What a statement. You know, holy people, saved people, righteous and godly people aren't interested in nastiness and vulgarity, foul talking and living. This kind of person sees God in everything, sees good, sees the hand of God turning things around. So to the pure, all things are pure. But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Defiled, dirty, and unbelieving, faithless. There are people like that in church. To the defiled, those still living the worldly lifestyle and coming to church, those who still laugh at filth and want to see the disgusting, who have no self-control over their lives, and there is no difference between them and any other sinner on the street. But even their mind and their conscience are defiled. Think of this. Their mind and their conscience. They can't think holy thoughts. Their conscience is so seared, they can't feel the Holy Spirit. They can't experience conviction. Now, who are these people? These are people that knew better. These are people that sat in church and heard it. These are people that were exposed and had opportunity after opportunity, but said no to God in His face, said, "Don't want it. Won't have it. We will not have this Man be king over us." That's what the Jews said. "I will not submit. I will not give up my habits. I will not stop doing what I'm doing. I will not take up a cross and follow You. Every day I'll go to church, but I am who I am." And even their conscience is defiled. But look at this verse. "They profess to know God." I just want you to know, you can go in a bar or a lounge and ask people, "Are you a Christian?" "Oh, yeah, yeah." It's amazing how many rank sinners call themselves Christians. They profess to know God, but in works, they deny Him. The way they live says they don't know God. The things they want say you don't want God. I'm trying to get a scripture across to a church today. You can profess to know God and end up in hell. You can profess to know God and never even meet God, because by your works, you will prove that you have never had the born-again experience. "They profess to know God, but in works, they deny Him." Being abominable. Oh, my goodness, what a word this is. What God says those people are to Him. Abominable and disobedient. Everything they do is in disobedience. You can't be a sinner and have one bit of obedience in your life toward God, because the first requirement of a Christian is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and follow Him. Is this too heavy for the church this morning? I'm trying to figure out what I'm feeling up here. "And disqualified for every good work." Meaning you, what you do is worthless. You can sing in the choir if you want to, teach a class if you want to, go to seminary if you want to, you can show up at church once every six weeks if you want to, but it means nothing. It's worthless. You're wasting your time. And that's the danger of being exposed to the truth and not receiving the truth. See, I am of the persuasion that if you're saved, you act like you're saved. I, I feel that if God has redeemed you from sin, you won't curse and swear and lie and cheat and steal and drink and get drunk and do all of these other things. I know that your mama told you, and I know that your teacher and your pastor told you, "As long as you believe Jesus is Lord, you're saved." But that is not what the Bible says.
I'm going to calm down here. The Bible says when you are born again, you will bear fruit. This is exactly what I preached last week. That that fig tree in that vineyard had every advantage and did not bear fruit, and the owner said, "Cut it down," because every living thing is supposed to bear fruit. So when I say to to to you, this is very discouraging, or maybe insulting, when I say that people speak in tongues but they're not saved. The devil can speak in tongues. He can do anything. The devil can do anything Jesus did except live a holy life. He can mimic and counterfeit everything in the Bible except holiness. So if you are not bearing fruit, the Spirit does not abide in you. What, what does that mean? You ever notice the Bible says "fruit of the Spirit," not "fruits"? It's not plural. Yeah, but Pastor, there are nine listed: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance, or self-control. That's nine. No, no. You bear one fruit with nine manifestations. How about that? So you say, "Well, I, I'm a gentle person, but I don't have much self-control." You can't do that. You can't have more love than gentleness, because every one of these manifestations is tied to each other. So when the Spirit of God lives in me and drives me, I am bearing love. I am full of joy. I have peace. I am patient. I am gentle with people. I'm a good person. I'm a humble person, and I have my life in control. Now, some of you are upset, some of you are discouraged, and some of you don't know what you feel. That's a good thing, because it would behoove every one of us in here today, and everybody watching me on that screen, to build another altar, repair your old altar, get in it, and pray. God's people ought to be a praying people. We ought to pray with the Bible open in front of us. We ought to pray without ceasing. We ought to read and absorb it and get up and live it. This thing of playing church and pretending that you're an evangelical, whatever, is is a sickening thing in the in the nostrils of Almighty God. What He's looking for is somebody who's bearing the fruit, who cares about His name in holiness, who doesn't mind the burdens and the trials of life because they know they're making them stronger in Christ. He's looking for somebody done with murmuring and complaining, because they recognize that God orders our steps, and wherever we are, God is there with us.
[Applause]
And I will tell you this, and this is where my heart begins to break. Our homes in this church would not be in such disarray if we were the praying, fruit-bearing, Bible-reading people we ought to be. If husbands really did love their wives, I don't know how long I'm going. I'm I'm kind of upset spiritually. I want to say it to some jock in here. When you get off work, and you've got a wife at home, and or children, you are a jerk if you've got to go by the sports bar and have a drink with the boys. Go home. Go home to your wife. Go home and be a father to your children. Your high school days are over. Your college days are done. You're married. You're a father. Act like it. Be responsible. Forget about talking of sports and Duke and Carolina and Pittsburgh and all of that foolishness that's going to pass away. No, your mind ought to be on your family, on your God, on your walk with Jesus Christ. Go home and be who you're supposed to be. I hear talk of divorce even in this congregation. I'm really upset right now. If that word is even brought up, one or both of you is not walking in the Spirit. One or both of you has backslidden. "Well, Pastor, we still love each other, but we we found out we can't get along, so we think it's okay." If, no, no. You've backslidden. You're not walking in the Spirit, because if you were filled with the Spirit, walking in the truth, reading the Bible, you, husband, would take her by the hand, and you, ma'am, would say, "Let's kneel. We made a vow. We made a covenant. It wasn't based on how we feel five years from now. We got married, and we said, 'Things may change greatly. We will change greatly, but with the Holy Spirit's help, we will walk through this life together and depend on God.'" Husbands, love your wives the way Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. Wives, submit to your own husbands in the Lord, for this is right. And I am telling you, two Christians will never divorce. Might as well go ahead and say this too. Time's up. I think sometimes your young parents, what generation is this I'm talking about? Is this a Z or an X or a? I don't know all that stuff. That's for people who got bored and tried to just think up some stuff. What group is this? Pre-war, post-war? What more? So, whatever this generation is that has small children, I'm afraid your parents are working harder to make memories than you are to make disciples. I'm not opposed to you taking them to Disney World or anywhere else, once in a lifetime, twice. But how about every morning when you get up, Dad, as the priest of the house, why can't you say, "In the name of Jesus, I pray blessings over my family and salvation to this house"? You know something? Listen, listen. You want me to tell you why men don't want to pray with their wives? I know a fellow who studies this stuff, and he said 90% of Christian families do not have a father or husband that leads in prayer. 90% of husbands don't want to pray with their wives. They feel intimidated or humiliated or something. I'm not asking you to raise your hand, but let me tell you why it's so hard, sir. Because Satan knows that when husband and wife agree, he loses control. Man, did you hear me? When husband and wife pray together, it is a powerful connection with heaven, and Satan has lost his hold on that family. I know guys that'll pray at church, they'll pray glory down at church, but they won't pray a prayer with their wife. I know preachers. I've heard of preachers, they'll anoint everybody in the congregation, but they will not anoint their wife or hold their wife and pray. Because, because they listen to Satan, and Satan says, "If I can just keep these two who are in covenant apart, keep them from agreeing, I still have a foothold in that family." I need to quit right now, but I can't. Why am I apologizing? I'm preaching to you the truth. Let me, let me read something to you. It's in Lord, let me find it right quick. Matthew 18. I hadn't planned to do this. The Lord laid it on my heart. "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea." Parents, your child is totally responsible for the decision they make for Christ, but parents are going to be held accountable for how they helped their children come to Christ, for making a way for them to come to Christ, for bringing them to church and letting them be involved in activities for Christ. You can be one of these stickler parents. "You can't go to youth group tonight. You've got schoolwork." Are you kidding me? I got mad right then. Are you kidding me? You're telling me that schoolwork is more important than an experience in your child's heart for Christ? I see teachers here, and I know what you're probably thinking, but I'm telling you, they can get the best education in the world and die without Jesus. I want my children to know God. If they don't know anything else. My parents had that. I got to quit. My parents had that attitude. Oh, six-week revivals every night. We got homework. Get home and do it. Don't play around. Put that basketball down. Put that football down. Get in there and do your work. We're going to church tonight. What did it work? Here I am. There he is. There she is. There they are. Are we the smartest people in the world? No, but we're the wisest people in the world. We know Him. We know Him. That makes us wise.
Stand with me, please. Stand with me, please. Hallelujah. I've gone away. I don't care. We're in the last days. Something desperate's got to happen. Do you agree with me this morning? Do you agree with me that husbands ought to pray with their wives? Do you agree with me that parents ought to be examples to their children? Do you agree with me that we need more word in our lives, more Spirit in our lives, more prayer in our lives? If you do, say amen.
Father in Heaven, thank You. I can walk away from this service saying that I have delivered my soul and Your word. And now, instead of an altar call where someone feels something, I pray that we will all walk out of here under conviction, and we will do the things that we have seen and heard today.
[Music]
And the whole church said, "Amen." Most important service at seven tomorrow night.
[Music]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Amen. Bless you.