Transcription
Well, let's stand as we get into the Word of God together. We, uh, got into and we almost finished up, uh, this, uh, last time together last week, and we'll finish it off today. We're looking at a message titled, "This is How What Happens." "This is How What Happens." And it's in verses 13 to 17, and we'll read that together right now. I'll start in verse 13. Again, like last week, you pick it up in verse 14. And by the way, I encouraged you last week to read loud. Uh, and then, just to be fair, I encouraged second and third service to read loud, and God blessed them. They tried. It was cute. But you guys set the bar. I mean, it was amazing.
But, um, I'll read verse 13, uh, for whoever. I love that "whoever" is that you today. "For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." And how shall they, without preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel, the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things." But they have not all, says, and then we end here, verse 17. "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
Lord, in Jesus' name, bless the going forth of Your Word to our lives. And Father, I know You've given us another weekend. We, You've given us another Sunday, another Lord's Day. And we look at the, the calendar. There's only 52 of them in the year. And Lord, by the looks of things, either by what age we might be or the sign of the times, we don't have many Lord's Days left. So Father, I pray we pray that You would galvanize us with Your truth into action. And Father, that we'd make a difference. We pray in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, amen. You may be seated. Bibles out, notepads out.
A message titled, "This is How What Happens." What's happening? People will say in the world, "What's going on? What's happening?" The more specific question should be something along the lines of, "How is this happening?" It's not just what's happening. "What's happening?" implies that we're kind of spectators to what's going on. "What's going on? What's happening?" And we're watching it play out before us. Whereas a believer, as Christians, when we read our Bibles and understand that there is no such thing as a Christianity that is disengaged from the culture in which it's been deployed. It doesn't matter if you're living in communist China or North Korea. There is some way, shape, or form that God has galvanized the believer in that realm to make a difference. And that's why I said last week that Christianity is a non-spectator faith. You cannot be a Christian and be a spectator to Christianity. That is impossible.
And so we look at this. We have now come to this point of scripture. And I'll read it in its, in its entirety, the two verses, is verses 16 to 17, which say, "But they have not all obeyed the gospel." Now, specifically, we'll see that he's talking about Israel, but not Israel exclusively. Maybe you're somebody today that you are not obeying the gospel. For Isaiah says, of course, Isaiah, the great Hebrew prophet, "Lord, who has believed our report?" So then, "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." The number one, please mark it down, the number one combatant of doubt and fear and death is none other than the Word of God. The Word of God is something that is active. It is advancing. The Word of God, um, well, you guys know that Hebrews tells us that the Word of God is alive. We'll talk more about this in a moment, but the Word of God is advancing.
And, um, you know, in our world around us, we have so often, so many props, are so many indicators of things that, um, are thrilling. You know, think of the movie industry. They have so many things that are action, action figures, action film. And, um, personally, I will see some of those, maybe depends on what my family wants to do and what the content is. If it's going to bash God, I'm not going to deal with that stuff. But if it's some, well, we saw an action movie just, just the other night. It was, uh, Despicable Me. And, um, they had heroes, now the minions, and they've got some heroes, and they do special things. And when you look at the world around us, I'm wondering if we would do better if we put on those minion goggles and saw more importantly the world that's going on around us in this invisible realm.
All of a sudden, people want to put their, uh, hands behind their neck and kick back and take it easy and put their feet up and call themselves Christians. I just want you to know, you're ripping yourself off. We haven't crossed the finish line yet, and we need to fight until we get there. But listen, for those of us who are going to stay in the fight, heaven's going to be sweeter than I think those who have taken the Christian, uh, the Christian timeout button. The days are dark. Oh, they're so dark, Pastor. I'm going to retreat. No, the days are dark. That's when we advance. And people are dying, people are, are losing their lives, people are giving up their lives, and they need us more than ever before.
So this is how what happens. And because Christ is on the throne and the Holy Spirit's in our hearts, I want to believe that God wants to use you and I for very, very powerful reasons. So when He says, "But they have not all obeyed, uh, the gospel," for that, for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?" So then, "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." It's a call to action for every single one of us. That's a very, very active, dynamic truth. Big introduction, people, to one point today. So don't panic. Are you guys ready? I want you to write these things down. By the way, I'm a firm believer that when you and I leave church, every time we leave church, we should be more equipped and more energized to go make a difference. Okay? So if you say, "Man, that's so many, so much Bible," it's because we need it. We have enough of this world that's trying to get into us. I think if we ingest more Bible, it pushes some of that stuff out.
So the first thing that I want you to write down in way of introduction is Isaiah 53:6. We're going to touch on Isaiah as we quoted him a moment ago. But in Isaiah 53:6, the Bible says, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way." Now, in your note-taking, put a negative sign, not a positive sign, but a negative. There's a reason for this, and hang in there with me. The next verse is Romans 3:23. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Negative sign. That's a negative. All right. But do keep this in mind that it's as though we're in a great courtroom, and the jury is seated, the judge is at the bench. Moses, for example, is the prosecution. He's got the Ten Commandments that he's holding up against us, the law of God that convicts us and brings us to places where it says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." And then there's our Advocate. The Book of Romans says, "Jesus Christ the righteous." He's our attorney. And it's not that he, he, he, his argument of his case, uh, ends Moses and the law wrong. Oh, no, no, no. He argues this case that Moses is correct, the law is correct. My client, you, me, my client is guilty as charged. And the jury, they have confirmed that. And then the judge is about to bring down the gavel of sentencing. And that's when the Son stands up and says, "Father, may I approach the bench?" And Jesus goes to the bench and says, "Father, Dad, um, these all here trust and believe in me that what I did at the cross has paid this debt that you're going to require in a moment for righteousness. I did that. I paid the bill that they couldn't pay. I became to you the righteousness that they could never become. And I'm asking you to take my sacrifice on their behalf and free them from the bondage of the law that says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Yes, it's true, all have sinned. But listen, not all will be condemned by their sins. Even though we were once all condemned. See, you and I, we re, we were taken out of the condemned column the moment you put your faith in Christ. So remember this. I may be saying that's a negative, but hang on, because the worst thing you can do today is, is for me to get down to about the fifth verse and for you to say, "I've had enough of that. I'm out of here." Don't do that. There's life coming.
Romans 3:10 says, "As it is written, 'There is none righteous, no, not one.'" Romans chapter 3:19, the Bible there says, "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped." Did you hear that? Why did God give the law? To stop every mouth. That means to shut us up regarding our ability to justify ourselves or to say that we're okay. We're not okay. We need Jesus. "That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world would become guilty before God." Wow. "Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified in the sight of God." Absolutely powerful.
This is how what happens. Micah 7, verse 7: "Therefore I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me." Put a plus sign there. That's a positive. What do you to do? Look. Colossians chapter 2, watch this verse 13. "And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, that is the heart, He has made alive together with Him, that's Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out all the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." That's what Jesus did for you and I. Can you guys say amen to that verse right there? Yes. Exciting.
John 1:17, another positive. "For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." That's a positive. John chapter 3, next verse, verses 18 to 19. "He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already." The word in Greek means you are actually in a state of condemnation. You don't, you don't become condemned. The Bible makes it clear, we are all born into this world in a state of condemnation because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, that's Jesus, of course, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
Uh, I had a kid, Fourth of July, we had, we were with families, and I had some, one of the kids running around asked me a question about, uh, "Does Pastor Jack, does everybody get to go to heaven?" And how, you know, little five-year-old eyes are looking at you. And you know, your flesh wants to say, "Oh, yeah, everybody, everybody gets to go to heaven." You know. And, "Buddy, you can't say that. You ask your dad. No, uh, go ask your dad. He's supposed to know how to answer you." But I had to, I had to tell the truth. But thank God I had years of teaching five-year-olds at Calvary Costa Mesa. And I, I just looked at that little one and I just said, "You know what? Listen, not everybody wants Jesus in their life." Can you imagine that? Not everybody wants Jesus in their life. Well, who, what kind of a person would be like that? I know, right? Right. And so here's the deal. If they don't want to be in heaven with Jesus, if they were there, would they be happy? Nope. Was the answer. You're right. So they don't have to go. They don't want to go. They don't want anything to do with light. They like to play in the dark. And the kid just, like, "All right, I get that."
God's people want to come to the light. God stirs you up. You may not even been a Christian yet, but you want to get away from your own life. Can I say that again? You want to get away from your own life. You look back in the behind you, and you, you see, see what your life is, and you want to get away from it. Welcome to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who set you free from that life that you and I once used to live. And this shouldn't be a shock to people. "Well, I don't get involved in this or that Christianity religion." Listen, forget all that stuff. Don't you take a pill to make your shoulder feel better? Have you seen these commercials? Don't you drink this thing to achieve that? Don't you take this pill, uh, to have this, uh, thing better for your complexion? I don't know. I'm making this up right now as I'm going on, but you know what I'm talking about. Every commercial is either suing the drug companies or buying from the drug companies. And, um, the world, America, has been conditioned. "Hey, I don't have to work out. I can just take a pill and now lose weight, now get muscles." And, wow, what a, what a country. It's funny, we're suckers for that. But when the good news comes along and says, "You know what? Here's Jesus. Here's Jesus. He'll change your life." People push back from that. They'll take a pill to change their life, but when offered Jesus Christ, they won't do it. You want to know why? You know why? It's a spiritual issue. Because Jesus, His very presence demands that you come into the light. People don't want to come into the light. They want to play in the dark.
In Isaiah chapter 45, verse 22, Isaiah 45:22 says, "Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other." That's a positive. That's a beautiful positive. Here's another one. John 6:40. "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." Jesus' own words. Says, "I will resurrect you."
Now, church, if you missed last week, go back and watch it. We're going to dive right in. We're not going to recap. This is the third argument, and it's in verses 16 to 17. This is how what happens. Mark it down, if you would, please. It's the coming to your senses. I want to appeal to your senses today. Many of you are already Christians, and you trust God, and you have peace with God, and your life is a dynamic. Let's be honest, if you're following Jesus, your life is thrilling. It's thrilling. In fact, for some of us who are following Jesus, we pray for some boredom sometimes. That would be great. "What are you doing today?" "I can't imagine that." "What are you doing today?" "Nothing." If you're open to the will of God, truly, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. If you're open to the Lord, man, He's going to grab you, and He's going to use you. Your phone's going to ring. Someone's going to knock at the door. You might be on your way home or going to work or wherever you're at, and God will touch you and use you all the time because time's running out.
And so I want to appeal to your senses today this way. Challenge yourself. Number one, this way. It's time to see with your soul. We touched on this last time and had to end. It's time to see with your soul. Now, for those of you who want to be a good Bible student, you ought to write down "soul." The word equals, and you can put GRK, that's Greek, and the word is *psyche*. You won't see it on the screen, I don't think. I didn't put it in my notes. *Psyche*. Have you ever heard of psychology? *Ology* is the study of. *Psyche* is the study of the mind. The soul is how you and I work and live in the mind, our, our, uh, thought process region, the region of the mind. And I'm look, I'm going like this around my head as a zone. This is the soul zone. This is the spirit zone. This is the body zone. You and I, according to the scriptures, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, are a body, and within our body is housed a soul and a spirit. Did you know that? Now, your body is alive, and your soul is alive. Christian or not, your body is alive, and your soul is alive. Your thinking is alive. But only the true Christian, their spirit is alive. Think about the, well, I'll just pick on me. Before I became a Christian, inside of me, and I, I, in my mind, I see it this way, inside of me without Christ, my soul looked like a raisin. One little raisin, all by itself, dried up, shriveled up, dead. The Bible says dead because of sin. And we were born that way. I was born that way because of Adam and Eve. What was handed down to me in my spiritual DNA was my spirit was dead. More, more, uh, likely described as comatose. We weren't alive to the things of the spirit. When we heard spiritual arguments, we couldn't understand them. We blew them off. We had no appetite. And then the sovereign God Almighty somehow touched you, touched me, began to spark within us to start caring. "What does that mean? I don't think I'm heading in the right direction, man. When am I going to think? I better wake up. My life is a ruin." And God begins to show you things, and you begin to wake up. And then what happens? Your soul, your mind, starts thinking. The soul is your mind. And I want to appeal to your mind for a moment. Now, you know, uh, preachers in preaching school, in seminaries, and how to deliver a sermon will tell you that if you preach to the mind, you're going to reach the mind. And if you preach to the heart, you're going to reach the heart. Uh, but Charles Spurgeon came along, and he said, "I, what's wrong with preaching to the mind and the heart?" Spurgeon said, "I don't care if I get to your mind through your heart or get to your heart through your mind." And I like that. Some people can reason things out and come to God. Some people can have no explanation given to them in life, and they wind up just coming to God. Why put God in a box? Maybe you see yourself as some great thinker. Then I, I encourage you to study the things of God. Don't tell me that you're going to put your brain up against somebody like Paul the Apostle. Or how about this, more recently? Can you imagine putting your brain and logic and reason up against a believer like the name of Sir Isaac Newton? You're going to lose. Okay. But God will reason with you. Isaiah 1:18 says, "Come, let us reason together, says the Lord." And that word in Hebrew, "reason," is "come, let's argue." And it's funny, God, so to speak, ties His hands behind His own back and just opens His mouth, and you lose. God just speaks the truth.
And here the Bible tells us that they did not all obey the gospel. He's speaking about about Israel. When the Jews had the gospel presented to them, technically from the days of the Wilderness wanderings, and certainly at the giving of the gospel, the word "Jew" I'm using as leadership. Many Jews came to faith in Christ, but the Jewish leadership of Judaism, they wouldn't listen to the word. How do you know? Because Isaiah says so right here. And notice that the Apostle Paul, even Christ Himself, you might want to write this down, it's kind of fun. The book of Isaiah is quoted more in the four Gospels than any other Old Testament book. Did you know that? Book of Isaiah. He's known as the Evangelical Prophet. So much of the four Gospels is Isaiah being lived out. And Isaiah says this, "Lord, who has believed our report?" It's a, it's a negative statement. God, is anybody believing this message? Is anybody believing the testimony and the witness?
Isaiah chapter 52. Let's see what he's saying. Isaiah, are you guys okay? You guys super quiet. Does this mean you're so tuned in and no one's sleeping? Okay, we'll see how this goes. Um, verse 13. This is God's prophetic word. Isaiah 52. "Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high." Interesting. Verse 14. "Just as many were astonished at you, shocked." It's a very strange thing. We go from this very seemingly positive thing, watch, seemingly positive, to a negative. No, no, watch. "Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently." This is a, a practical negative. What does this mean? God has a Servant. It's the Son of God, Jesus Christ, being prophesied in Isaiah. My Servant, watch what happens. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Some have said that the glory of Christ is not only that He rose from the dead, but the glory of Christ was the suffering on the cross for our sins. You have to ask yourself this question: If a good Bible student, is that statement that Jack just made biblically accurate? Is there scripture to back up the fact from the Old Testament that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would suffer for the redemption of mankind? You already know the answer to that. In fact, it gets even more intense. "Just as many were astonished at you, so His vis-, the word vis-, so His vis-, visage was marred more than any man." His physical manifestation of His presence will be disfigured to the point where nobody will be able to recognize Him. That's what it means. Whoever the Servant of God is happens to be the Messiah, and the Messiah of Israel will be so mutilated that nobody will be able to recognize Him. This is in the Jewish scriptures. Every Jew knew this. Every Jew should know this. We're treading upon some holy ground right now. There may be some Jewish friends in the audience right here saying, "I believe you're making that up. I've never been taught that in synagogue. My rabbis never mentioned that." That's right. Go take this home to your Rabbi and ask him to read to you this portion of scripture because this is part of the forbidden scriptures, not allowed. Why aren't they allowed? Because what is Judaism will keep you from knowing the God of the Jews. You'll just get balled up in rules and regulations. That's not what God wants. He never even said He wanted that. And so is four marred more than the sons of men. Verse 15. "So shall He sprinkle many nations; Kings shall shut their mouths at Him, that's shock, gasp, for what had not been told to them they shall see, and what they had not heard they shall consider." Isaiah 53:1. "Who has believed a report?" Hmmm, sounds like Romans 10, huh? "And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" So Paul is quoting the Old Testament here. The word "arm," by the way, in Isaiah, it's this meaning in the Hebrew language, the might of God, the power of God, the things sown in the earth, really, that which is to come up, a plant, a child, a descendant, a seed, posterity. God is saying, "I'm going to have a seed planted in the earth. I'm going to have posterity in the earth." Oh, by the way, He only has one name. You should know His name. And God said, "I'm only going to do this one time." And the entire Bible is written about Him.
Hey, I'm going to try something. Something just popped into my mind in remembrance, and so I want to do this. It's pretty cool. So we're talking about God's Word to the Jewish people. So here's, here's Exodus, the, uh, the children of Israel leaving. Exodus. And then here's Acts chapter 2, right here. See this? This is all of all of creation being created, and Adam and Eve fumbling the ball at the three-yard line. See this? This is God. This is God calling Israel out of Egypt. And this is God speaking to one nation, only one nation under God, Israel. See that? Look at that. See this? This is Acts chapter 2 to the end of the book of Revelation. You see the volume, volume of this. "Behold, in the volume of the book it is written of me," says Messiah. So here's the deal. You see Jack, such a great chunk of scripture given to the message in the redemption of Israel. But what's up? Romans chapter 9 dealt with Israel of the past. Romans chapter 10 deals with Israel right now in our current age. Romans chapter 11 will deal with Israel predominantly in the tribulation period. Friends, listen, right now is a time of grace for we as Gentiles have the opportunity to respond to the gospel. And we're at the latter end. We're 2,000 years down the road from that opportunity. And God is speaking to us. And that's why the gospel is going out everywhere. Technology, various ways, satellite, all this stuff. But listen, friend, we're near the end as believers when it comes to the church age. God is about ready to get back into that latter end that I just showed you to work with Israel again. Remarkable. It is true that they disobeyed. But the Bible tells us that through their disobedience, the gospel has come to the world. That doesn't mean God has cut off the Jews forever. He hasn't abandoned them. He hasn't said, "You know, all those promises I made you that are ba-, fully based upon my ability to keep them, sorry." Oh, no, no, no. Friends, listen, He's going to fulfill those promises. Do not let anybody tell you God is done with Israel or done with the Jew. That is to, that is to call God, the God of the Bible, a liar. And I would listen. I do not spend, I'm not kidding. I can get along with a lot of people. But when somebody comes up and spews that kind of heresy, I do not even talk to them. I literally won't give them a minute. I walk away because, in my opinion, their conscience is seared. You can't convince them. And if you believe in their God, then you've got a God who changes His mind. You can't trust Him from one moment to the next. And what other covenant promises will He renege on? No, no. Thank God, He keeps them.
But the challenge is this: It's time for you and I to see with our soul, to use our minds, and to understand that God has given us the greatest, precious Word ever. So we either acquiesce or we reject. The question is, why are you refusing? God says, "I'm going to send My Servant, and He's going to suffer." The Bible tells us in another place, which is remarkable, when it says they did not obey. In Matthew 23:15, regarding seeing with the soul, Matthew 23:15 says Jesus is speaking, and this is a shock for people who have never read this part or the nature of Christ this way. Whoa. He's not riding a horse. *Woah*. Is the Greek word. *Aiai*. Sounds like Hawaii, just remember Hawaii, except it's not *aiai*. What does that mean? "Damned be you!" Jesus said that. "You are condemned." Strong words. "You scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites." Hypocrite. The word "hypocrite" means you put on one face, and then you put on the other face. Two-faced is where we get the word hypocrite. It's also the logo for the Screen Actors Guild, which is kind of cool, because an actor, that's the whole point behind being an actor is that you act out somebody that you're not. And so the Screen Actors Guild is the two faces, one sad and one smiling. That is called the hypocrite. "For you travel land and sea," Jesus said, "to win one proselyte, one convert to your rules and regulations, and when he is one, you make him twice as a son of hell as yourselves." Jesus said that. Wow.
Know the truth. Put your soul into action. Be thinking that your mind. Listen, what's what's going on in your mind is actually the residence of your soul. Who are you? Unless you're born again, your mind is ruling your life. Think of it. Before we were born anew, our minds ruled our lives. And listen, our minds did whatever the flesh screamed, "Hey, I want this!" And the mind went, "All right, all right, all right, already. Let's see how we can get that." But when you're born again, the flesh goes, "I want this!" And the mind goes, "Oh, okay." And the spirit says, "Wait a minute." That's why you, you know, Christians, those of you who are not Christians, I'm going to let you in on something. We're not nuts. I know you think you are. We are. I get it. But inside of us, there's a lot of battling going on. Yes. And the B-, the Bible tells us that that battle is a really good thing. You don't have a battle. Your flesh says, "I want pizza at 2 a.m. with ice cream and popcorn." And you go, "All right, let me think about it. Okay." The spirit wars with our flesh. The Christian is in a constant battle. We're walking down the street, we're driving the car, we're at the game, we look normal. Inside, there's a tornado going on of temptations being fought, wars taking place of who's going to win. And here's the amazing thing. When the flesh is in control, the soul says, "Hey, let's go think about this." And the soul just runs on over there. Okay, here we go. But when the spirit is uppermost, and you are sowing to the things of the spirit, and the born-again, the spirit life of you is in control, this is what happens. The flesh goes, "Hey, I want to go do that!" And the mind goes, "Okay." And then the spirit says, "Sit down. Get away from there. Knock it off. We're not doing that." And the flesh goes, "But I wanna!" And then the, look, the, the soul goes, "What? Wait, what?"
And I love Dr. Harry Ironside. He was preaching, traveling across the United States, coming to Glendale, California, on a train. And he stopped in Oklahoma, got out, and he was preaching the gospel at the train stop. Up, people were accepting Christ. And then they took an offering. And he said there was this huge Blackfoot Indian male standing there, huge guy from the, uh, South Dakota. And he was there in Oklahoma. And they passed the offering. And the Indian man told the usher, "Can you lower the plate?" "Lower it more." "Can you lower it?" "Just set it on the ground." The big Indian man said, "Just set it on the ground." And the Indian stood inside the plate. He looked up to heaven, and he stepped out. And Ironside saw that. Harry Ironside saw that. And at the end of his preaching, at the end of the service, he went and he said, "Young man, what was that you just did?" And he said, "Well, I have no money, but I just felt compelled to put myself fully into the trust of God." And Ironside was so moved by that. And he said, "Can I ask you a question? It's beautiful that you are so certain of your relationship with God. Can I ask you, how, young man, do you know that you have a walk with God?" And he said, "It's easy. It's very easy." He said, "I have two dogs inside of me that fight. One's a white dog, and one's a black dog. And they fight. They never stop fighting." Ironside had not heard that analogy before about the internal warring of a believer. And he said, "Well, I'm curious. Which, which one wins?" And he says, "That's easy, too. The one I feed the most." Is that great? Dive into the things of the world and wondering why your Christianity is not working so well? Playing around with the world and wondering why your spiritual witness is so weak or non-existent? Handling the things of this world and never, never thinking that it's going to come back to burn you? Flirting with the world? Listen, the person that has the Spirit of God working in them is terrified of disobeying God. You can have all the rules and regulations. You can have the Ten Commandments. Heck, let's put in 10 more. Let's put in 613 more. It can't change you. It wouldn't even change if it was reduced to one rule. God, the Holy Spirit has to come and live inside of you for any change to happen in your life. Period. We cannot reform ourselves.
And so I appeal that you would come to your senses and that you would see with your soul. It's very important. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 1 says, "Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any one of you seem to have come short of it." Don't be a halfway Christian. Don't be almost a Christian. For indeed, the gospel is preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it." That's awesome. Make sure you go to a Bible study intending to do what is about to be taught. I shared this last week. I have to share it again. I don't know if it was in this service or Wednesday night. What I just said is so important. Check this out. You could, in this illustration, you could have a Ferrari, and it's worth a bazillion dollars. But if you go and park it in your driveway and take a garden hose from your house and fill up the tank with water, that car is worthless. Okay? Why? That car was designed to fly without wings, so to speak, right? So are you as a Christian. So watch this. People who think they can ingest Bible ser-, Bible, uh, lessons and go to church services and get sermon under their belt, sermon under their belt, one more thing, this, and the other, and listen, they they never do anything with that with what they've learned. They never, they take it in, but they never go do it. Makes Christianity one of the most terrifying, horrific things ever. You want to know why? It's not a joke. It's alive and it's real. Listen, if you want to know everything you want to know about blenders, then study, you know, about blenders and and get a, get your little engineering degree on blenders, and you'll be a, who cares? If you're going to study Christianity if you don't put it into practice, you will self-destruct. It's guaranteed. Well, listen, it's guaranteed. A person who's always receiving the Word of God with no intentions to ever do it, you will eventually watch their Christian life wane, fade, and they say things like this, "I tried that Christian thing. It didn't work for me." Warning, warning. If you take in a Bible study like this, if you read the Bible tomorrow morning, you're supposed to go do it. If you don't, it becomes as it was concrete around your ankles. And the very thing that could have blessed you big will destroy you because you were never, never intending to do it. And the world is hurting today because Christians, so-called, don't do the Word. Does that make sense? I know this is harsh, but I'm talking to the church today. This is, if you're visiting today, we do church on Sundays, and we get you ready for the rest of the week. Don't talk about it. Go do it. "Well, I've read five books on this topic." Stop. Go do it. So important.
John 1:10. John 1:10 tells us, "Jesus was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own," that's the Jewish nation, "and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him," that's anybody, by the way, Jew or Gentile, "to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." That's awesome. Look at verse 17. "It's time to hear with your spirit. It's time to hear with your spirit. This is how what happens. We come to our senses by hearing with our spirit. Be alive forever, part of you." Verse 17 says, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Mark down the meaning of the word "hearing." This is very, very important. Hearing. It's interesting because, uh, there are various words that can be used for hearing. This is pretty cool. Hearing meaning by way of. Faith comes by way of, on account of, faith comes by, based upon, or dependent upon the hearing. Hearing with the intent to act upon what is heard. Wow. Is that look at that word? It's *ek*. *Ek*, that's the Greek word. Look at the definition. It's huge. Having the intent to act upon what is heard on the basis of. Tell me what to do. You want to see this perfectly, beautifully? An antichrist, anti-Christian, anti-God man who is super moral in his rules and regulations, thinking he's serving God, is on a donkey heading to Damascus to arrest and kill more Christians. His name is Saul of Tarsus. One of the greatest thinkers, philosophers of all time. You know him as Paul the Apostle. And he's on the road to Damascus, and Jesus frankly knocks him off his horse. And the Bible tells us that he, the first words out of his mouth are, "Who are You, Lord?" Right? What a, what a way to respond. You can just see Paul. He's on a donkey, and he, and he's killing Christians. He's the ISIS of the day, gonna get those bunch of Christians in Damascus. I'm going to make sure everyone's either arrested, taken back to Rome, or killed on the spot. Those little rats. And then he falls off his donkey. And the Bible says that those who were with him in the entourage could hear rumblings and sounds, but they couldn't make out what was going on. Only, only Paul. And his first, he didn't say, "Hey, what's going on here?" He said, "What would You have me to do, Lord?" Who are You? Isn't that great? Who, whoever You are, I'm going to obey. Who are You? And Jesus says, "I'm Jesus, whom you're persecuting." Can you imagine? He could have said, "I never hit you. I never stoned you." I wish he would have said that. Jesus would have come back and said, "But it doesn't have to be said. It's built in." Jesus is saying, "If you attack one of My kids, you're attacking Me. I take it very personal." Saul, you're in trouble. And, um, from that moment on, his life is a great example of the fact that his life was all about hearing with the spirit. I want to hear from the inside.
2 Timothy chapter 4. This is him writing. 2 Timothy 4:2. "Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come," we are in that day, 21st century, "for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine." I, I would insert, and there'll be a rise of a bunch of goofy woke churches. "But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; let us pick our own teachers that will make us feel happy. And they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." That's written to not only Timothy, that's written to all of us.
So then, "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." This is the great missionary pronouncement. Go and take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Just be careful in taking the gospel to the ends of the earth that you make sure you got it yourself. Friends, you can't give anything away you don't own. Exactly. You know the stuff you've ordered from Amazon that arrives to your door? You think the driver owns that? The driver knows he doesn't own it. You bought it. It's yours. There's a middleman who brings it to your house. In Christianity, don't be the middleman who just delivers the goods and they don't own it. It could be that the Amazon driver looks at the package bringing into your house and he says, "I have this exact same thing." Well, now you're, now you're brothers in razor blades. But unless you own it, you can't give it. You can pass it along, but it hasn't affected you yet. God wants you and I to be so affected by His power. This gets kind of fun, and we'll come to a, we're not ending yet. Every time I say that, we catch all these people on camera running for their cars. It's great. We're going to be mounting cameras with little blow darts going to, no, I'm just joking. That was in my, uh, to say that.
Um, I'm going to go somewhere with this that that you've heard this criticism. Someone's going to say, "Yeah, but what about this? 'Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.'" And you're hearing it today. Christ died for you on the cross and rose again from the dead. You have to put your faith in Him. And, um, you may not like to hear that. So one of your comebacks is, "What about the guy in South America running around the jungle?" Like you care. Seriously, you don't even care about your own soul, but you want me to stop this conversation to talk about the guy running around in South America? Did you know what God said in the Book of Romans chapter 1? He says, "I got the guy covered who's running around in South America. I'll talk to him. What about you?" That's the thing. What about you? And I got to tell you, it's hard to be a non-believer. Let's be honest. That's a rough road. Yes. Every day you got to get up, convince yourself, "There's no God. There's no God. There's no God." You almost get wiped out at the intersection. "Oh, there's no God. There's no God. There's no God." Your life is so messed up. You're upside down. You're like a turtle flipped over. Good luck. That's what you look like as an atheist. Your legs are going like this, and God is looking like this. "I could flip you right over if you want me to flip you. I can flip you over. Just ask me. You want to be flipped? I'll flip you. I'll do it. I'll do it. I got it. I got this. I'll do it." You're not going to do it. And God rubs it in.
Psalm chapter 19. Psalm 19. God will rub it in. Look at this. "The heavens declare the glory of God." Boom. Splash. Bang. The heavens. He doesn't, he doesn't even qualify this. God says, "The heavens declare My glory." Good night. Thanks for coming. Isn't that great? He just drops that bomb of truth. "And the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech." What the celestial universe is speaking. Yep. "And night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard." How is that possible? You know, see Jupiter going, "Hey, listen to me." Mars is not going, "I'm over here." When you look up, according to the Bible, God begins to speak to the depths of who you are. God will tell you the truth. You think all that's an accident? And He'll start talking to you. He'll reveal His glory to you.
Romans 1:18. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness." Sounds like California. Seriously. "Who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." That sounds like Sacramento. "Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead." See, forget about the guy in South America. What about you? So that they are without excuse. That's why it's tough to be an atheist. You got to stop pretending to yourself and grow up. Because although they knew God, that is, they knew of God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were they thankful. Watch this. "But became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools." Does that sound familiar? "I'm an expert." I'm going to call a press conference. "I'm an expert." Didn't we learn the last four years that "expert's" the last thing we ever want to hear from again for the rest of our lives? It's like, "I'm an expert." Yeah, I'll see you later, right? Sorry. But that's one of the fallouts of crazy.
And then we end with this. It's time to give up the priorities are the.
priority of ourselves. So then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Friends, we'll end with this. There's a lot of hearing going on out there. Jesus said in Mark 4, verse 24, in Luke 8:18, "Listen to this." Jesus said, "Take heed, watch out what you hear." Oh my goodness, that should be, that should be like a legal statement on the internet. Watch out with what you hear, sincerely Jesus. "With what measure you use, it will be measured to you." And, uh, to, uh, and to you who hear, more will be given. In other words, be responsible when you hear things. Luke 8:18, "Therefore, take heed how you hear." Wow, what you hear and how you hear, for whoever has, to him more will be given. And whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him. In other words, if you listen, if you listen to things, if you're hearing things that are not beneficial to your soul, your soul is going to get darker. And I, I mean, I'm not being rude, I'm not being mean when I say this. You'll experience a divine judgment of being dumbed down.
On the flip side, if you listen and you hear to the things of the spirit, what's true, the least educated person on the planet becomes wise because their thoughts become God thoughts. And in this day and age, right now, what we hear and how we hear, because we're not handling ourselves right, because we've got to be the one that, oh, we, we're in the, no, I'm tired of this. I just told the pastors before service, after we prayed, I said, I've become increasingly sensitive to this thing about, "Do you know, did you hear what happened? That, did you hear what happened? Did you see that post? Did you see this thing? Did you see that video? Did you see that podcast? Did you see that thing?" How many times do people tell you this? If you, if you talk to five people in one day, you've got 50, 50 things like this. "Did you see it?" I don't want to see it. This is my new conclusion. I don't want to see it. "Did you hear that guy? I mean, he's crazy, but you should have heard this." I don't want to hear it.
Listen, oh yeah, you Christians, you just put your head in a hole. Find me a hole and I'll put my head in it because apparently it's the safest place to be these days. So many people have their minds so wide open, it's like a, a total trash bin. "What do you believe?" "You know, I'm not sure why, 'cause I listen to that guy, and this one, and those, and over here." All scrambled. Do you hear what I'm saying? I know I sound like a dinosaur, but I'm staking this on Jesus. Be careful how and what you hear. Hey, you want to hear something really weird? I don't know. We're suckers for this, and we got to get strong. When somebody says, "Oh man, what's her name posted this thing on, in this thing," and, and listen, do you find yourself leaning in? Yeah. Take heed, take heed, because what you have might be diminished. But if you're wise, what you have will be increased. You want greater faith? Here's how we do it. We listen to more of the word of God. We study it verse by verse. We get it in us, and it begins, listen, it's alive. It's, it's alive. The Bible begins to grow inside.
Think about a little plant with the seed. It starts growing. Remember a few week, remember last week I told you, Lisa took me away for two days to this amazing place, and they had this amazing rock structure that's like a hundred and some odd years old. It's huge, it's amazing. It's a, like a, a like a chimney. It looked like that, but it's gigantic. It's like 80 feet high, whatever. At the top of it, there's a tree growing. I took a picture of it, and it's really out of place. And if somebody doesn't go up there and kill that thing, it's going to tear down that incredible antique spire. You know, but there's a tree growing out of the top. And Lisa said, "How in the world did that happen?" And I said, "You really want to know?" Well, how did that, how did that happen? And I said, "A bird pooped up there." What? It's true. Did you know that? How did they get trees in that part of the area over there? And how did, how did those plants wind up on that part of the, the birds? A bird ate the seed, flew, pooped, tree grows, tears down 200-year-old resort by the roots from the tree that came from the bird. No, seriously. When the Bible gets in us, starts to germinate, out comes the roots, sprouts up, and the Bible comes out of you.
Listen, Jesus said, "You're not going to be judged by what goes into you." He goes, "I could care less." Oh no, we can't eat that. That's not kosher. That's not blessed. That's not, who says this? The priest, the priest, the whatever. Jesus said, "I don't care. Don't you dare." If, listen, Jesus said, "You eat it, God made it. Here's the, here's what I require of you. Give God thanks for it." Can you imagine? Can you imagine? Can you imagine being like Peter, and you're in the, you're in the gospel age, and you're preaching the gospel to Gentiles, and they're having BLTs, bacon, lettuce, and tomato. And, "Hey, Peter, want one?" Peter's like, and then he remembers, "Wait a minute, I am really hungry. This could be the Lord providing." But I remember that day in Jaffa, down at the beach, when I fell asleep, and I saw this giant sheet come down from heaven in this vision, and there was lobster running around in there, and pigs in a blanket, and deviled ham, pork chops. And I heard a voice from heaven say, "Peter, rise up and eat." And I said, "Not so, Lord, nothing unclean has touched my lips." And God spoke to him and said, "Don't say that. Don't say what I've made is unclean. Eat it." And I bet you, I would have loved to have been there. I wish Spielberg was there. Could you imagine Peter going, "I don't know, I don't know." Right?
It's not what goes into you that defiles you. Jesus said, it's what comes out of you that defiles you. Make sure your heart's right with God. You'll know it, and others around you will know it because in you will come the seed of His precious word that brings eternal life. And if God can put a tree on a building by a bird, then how about that seed coming out of your life by telling everybody you and I know that you know the Lord? Explain to them what it means. Tell them what great things God has done for you. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.
Father, we thank you for your word, Lord. For those, those who do not yet know this, they're unaware that the Bible can be quoted in a situation where someone is horrifically distraught and even dealing with dark spirits, and the, who are we, but we quote the word, and all of a sudden something happens. A great calm comes upon them. We can be praying for somebody and just say, "Lord, if it's your will, Lord, we pray that you'd heal this young lady." And four days later, there's no more cancer. How does this? This is you. This is the God of the Bible, and you're awesome. So, Lord, I pray that we would live today, tomorrow, until we see you, radicalized for Jesus. Wow, wouldn't it be great if the world were to say, "You've been radicalized"? What does that mean? We will be the most loving, we will be the most caring, we will be the most truth-tellers that this world has ever seen. So, Lord, take possession of us by your Holy Spirit, and may we build daily upon the word of God that our faith may grow in Jesus name. And all God's people said, amen.