Transcription
Corner, you'll see a button for the digital bulletin. There you'll find all the details we've talked about today, plus others we haven't had time to talk about. Thanks for joining me for worship today.
Now, let's begin our service. Thank you, Sandy, and good morning to all of you. Welcome to the house of the Lord. We welcome those as well, uh, watching online today. I hope you've had a a beautiful weekend celebrating Independence Day.
Uh, why don't we stand as we begin today? We want to welcome everyone. We may have some guests here today. If you're a first-timer, uh, thank you for joining us at Central Church. We always have information in the lobby about the church. Uh, also, throw out a friendly reminder. Silence your cell phone if you want to check on that right now. Uh, take a moment, look around. There may be somebody you haven't yet met. Now's your chance to do that. So, uh, go get them.
And as Sandy said, today is Family First Sunday. So, as always, it's great to see our students here and up here. Uh, look forward to hearing from you guys. Let's pray now and and welcome, uh, the presence of the Lord in this place. Lord, you are here today. You are a faithful God. We pray it often when two or three gather in the name of the Lord, you are in our midst. So we declare that this Sunday morning, July the 5th, that we gather here today in the name of Jesus Christ, the powerful, strong, holy, eternal name of the Son of God. We bless you. We praise you in this place.
Uh, Lord, hundreds gathered here Monday night for for a time of prayer. And we, we echo those prayers this morning as we lift up the leaders of our country, of our state, our county, our city. And as pastor prayed Monday night, our greatest prayer is that they would know you, that you are the true and the living God, that they would walk in relationship with you. Lord, we recognize today that you put people in office. So, as scripture says, we thank you for them. We bless them. We pray for them today. We pray for our pastor and Sandy, who you've put in leadership over this church. Bless them, guide them, lead them, keep them safe, Lord God.
So our focus today is you and talking about freedom. He who the Son sets free is free indeed. We bless your name today. We praise you. You are great and you are greatly to be praised. You inhabit the praises of your people. So we glorify you today. We magnify you. We lift you high. Anoint the choir, the musicians, our pastor, and all of us as a great choir of grateful worshippers. You have done so much for us. So today we stand here. We lift our voices, our hearts, our hands to praise you because you alone are worthy in Jesus' name. Amen.
Let's sing together. God is great. Give him all the praise. Hallelujah. Name above all names. Fire in his eyes. Healing in his ve everywhere. His glory on display. Take a look at those stars. He can name them all before his throne. Every knee falls. The demons have to run. The angels have to praise. Even the wind and waves obey. Our God is an awesome God. He reigns from heaven above with wisdom. God is an awesome God. Our God is an awesome God. He from heaven, power, and love. Our God is an awesome God. When I read, he didn't run away. He came and put death back in its place. Friday on the cross, broken from my shame. Son rose up from that grave. Take a look at the scars on his hands and feet. He saved our souls for eternity. Worthy is a lamb. Glory to the king. And the angels sing. Heat. Heat. God is an awesome God might awesome God. Eyes on the sky. There will be a day. He will come and wipe our tears away. No more fear. No more pain. No more sorrow, sin or shame. The king is coming back again. and a rain on love that will never end. For everything you've done and everything you do and everything you are, I'll sing to you. My God, you're an awesome God. You're great. In all you do, I'm made to worship you. My God, you're an awesome God. What an awesome, awesome God you are. No one like you, none beside you. God, we worship you. God, we might Oh, heat, heat. We can go from heaven above is power. Yeah. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. An awesome song. Who thought I'd find you at the place? Who thought you'd feel me in the crowd? Who knew you'd make good on my mistakes? You're nothing like I thought you were. You're better. What a god. What a god. Whoa. Oh, what a God. What a God. >> Oh, what a God. What a God. >> Oh, who you are. >> What a God. What a God. >> What a God. What a God. >> I thought you saw for perfection. is my kind of God is for the lost. They say it's only for the sinner. But you say, "No, it's not. No, it's not." You say, "No, it's not. Heat. Heat. What God? What a mighty God you are. What a mighty God you are. And if the highest place I reaches at your feet, then I've done it all. If the best thing that I've seen is your glory, then I've seen it all. Your love has changed my life forever. Satisfying. You are my everything. In the highest place I reaches at your king. Then I've done it all. If the blessing that I've seen is your glory. Then I've seen it all. Your love has changed my life forever. That is why you are my Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. The highest place I reaches at your feet. THEN I'VE DONE IT ALL. IF THE blessing that I've seen is your glory, then I sing it all. Your love has changed my life forever. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Thank you. Bearing crown of thorn and thistle. The king of Jews was found on a cross bloodied and broken. Crimson river flowing down. It darkness fell upon Golgotha. Tortured body wrapped in shroud. Our Messiah laid beneath the ground. Every curse upon his shoulders with our sin he was adorned. Perfect lamb led to the slaughter as a ransom for our souls. One last act and it was finished. Fire of sin bill were torn. On this cross was our victory won. By his love he would overcome. Long live the king. The wrath of God and man now satisfied. Long live the king. Once and once for all he paid the price that none might die. Now every sin and sickness bound with me. I can't help but lift my hands and sing with the king. Then within the bounds of Hades a tremoring was made. The very breath of God descended which death itself could not slain. The accident of ancient sinners marched in triumph. Finally, hell has been over by Jesus Christ, the anointed one. The Son of God is with many Heat. Heat. s and I can't help but lift my hand and see the Yeah. Heat. the king. Wo. In the early morning hours, God's spirit filled the grave, breathing life into the body of the lamb who had been slain. Resurrecting like a lion as a stone was rolled away. Jesus Christ the glory is our redeemer. Oh my god. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Thank you Jesus. I was a wretch. I remember who I was. I was lost. I was blind. I was running out of time. Sin separated. The breach was far too wide. But from the far side of the chasm, you held me in your sight. So you made a way across the great divide. Left behind heaven's throne to build it here inside. And there at the cross, you paid the debt I owed. Broke my chains, freed my soul. For the first time, I had hope. Thank you Jesus for the blood applied. Thank you Jesus. It has washed me white. Thank you Jesus. You have saved my life. Brought me from the darkness into glorious light. So you took my place. You laid inside my tomb of sin. You were buried for three days, but then you walked right out again. And now death has no sting. And life has no end. For I have been transformed by the blood of the lamb. Thank you Jesus for the Jesus Jesus. Thank you Jesus who has saved my life. Draw me from the darkness into glorious light. There's nothing stronger than the wonder working power of blood. The blood calls the sons and daughters who are ransom by our father through all his precious blood. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Thank you Jesus. lost behind. Thank you Jesus. You have saved my life. You brought me. You brought me from the darkness into glorious light. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. >> There to my heart was the blood of life. Glory to his name. I won't be shaken. I won't be moved. My God is faithful. His promise is true. So I speak to the mountains. Oh, it's time to move. My God is big, big, strong, >> greater than you. Why would I worry when giants come calling my name? My God is so much bigger than troubles I face. Thank you, Jesus. Why would I hunger for power or riches or fame? My God is so much better than all of these things. I won't be shaken. I won't be moved. My God is faithful. His promise is true. So I speak to the mountain. Oh, it's time to move. My God is bigger and stronger, greater than you. My enemies scatter cuz they know the battle is done. Hallelujah. My God is stronger. The victory is already won. Oh, he died for our ransom and rose up on the third day. Yes, he did. Oh, my God is greater than he ever is. His promise is true. So I Heat. Heat. Heat. There's no mountain to hide, no valley to there's no fear that I have. He doesn't already know. There's no power to be. There's no weapon too strong. There is nothing for God that's impossible. There's no mountain too high, no mountain too. There's no fear that I have. Nothing. There's no problem to be. There's no too strong. There is nothing for myself. HEAT. HEAT. My God is his promise. I'm going to speak my God is righteous. Woo! >> My God is >> glorious. My God is >> faithful. Oh yes. Say yes. >> My God is >> Yes, he is. >> My God is better. >> Nobody but Jesus. >> My God is stronger. >> Oh yes, he is. Heat. Heat. Yeah. HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. HALLELUJAH. HALLELUJAH. HALLELUJAH. I want to praise the Lord this morning. Uh, God's mercy and grace has once again been shown to this nation. in that nothing really bad happened yesterday. >> You do know that our enemies are ready to pounce at any moment. And it's not our military that's protecting us. And it's not our intelligence. It's the hand of almighty God. So as a thankful American today, I was glad to celebrate this country, the greatest country in the history of the world. There's no doubt about it. >> With all of its sins and mistakes, it has still enjoyed the blessing of the Lord. This country has helped and healed. We've fought wars for other people. And it just goes on and on. History proves all of that. So I say thank you Jesus that I was privileged to be born in the greatest nation that the world has ever known, the United States of America. And I know you feel the same way for those of you that weren't born here but came in the right way. You waited a long time and did a lot of work to be a part of this. And I thank you for doing it that way. Give them a hand. Please show me that uh photograph on the screen, Stephen, if you would. I want everybody to look. That's our high school camp that just was just completed. I want you to see all of those young people with such great potential and all of those volunteers who give up. Well, they give up a lot to be a part of their lives. Those workers are laying up treasures in heaven and helping to form young men and women for the future. So, I want to thank the Lord that we were able to provide a camp for them. For all of you who gave and allowed kids to go, we thank you. Week after next, the junior highs is >> and kids go. So, that's another thing to pray about. And they are being affected as well. We're trying to make disciples. We're busy about the Father's business. There's no laying around here at this church waiting on the rapture to take place. I think I'll deal with that in a little while.
So, Father, I thank you now for your holy word, for your holy people. Every song that was sung today speaks of your kindness and mercy in laying your hand on us and saving us from our sins. I pray now, Lord, that you'll open our understanding. Uh, Lord, I want you to be glorified this morning. I have no reason to be up here if if it's not to point to you, Almighty God. So, help me to do it. And may the people be blessed and edified and stirred to want to know you more. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. >> Amen. >> And you can be seated. Thank you so much.
Last Sunday I took you to Revelation chapter 17. I referred to the great harlot, Mystery Babylon, um, referred again to the mixture of government and religion. I'd like to read another verse, one of the same verses, and then comment on it. Verse four in chapter 17. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth. And it was pointed out how many times a reference was made to sexual immorality, spiritual sexual immorality called fornication. And that's how God sees any kind of uh addition to him, anything that's added to him. Whenever the church is affected by anything other than the Spirit and the truth, God sees it as spiritual adultery. In Ezekiel chapter 16, the Lord said to Israel, "You've played the harlot." So, that's not the first time that reference is made in the Bible. It's all the way back in the book of Ezekiel when the Lord um looked right at Israel and said, "You've played the harlot by marrying the Assyrians."
And then last Sunday, I mentioned Constantine. I want to go a little further today, the emperor that tried to make Christianity the state religion. You you heard enough about that last week. But what I want to tell you today is that it was that effort by Constantine that actually spawned the Roman Catholic Church. And uh, with all of its religious, how can you say this? Tentacles, the Roman Catholic Church began to grow. And then the Roman Catholic Church split. And then it was the Greek Catholics and the Roman Catholics. And out of that came the Russian Orthodox and the Greek Orthodox. And then when you move towards Great Britain, we have today the Church of England, which is a mixture of Catholicism and reformed theology. It's just a big mess. And Catholicism started selling positions in the church. So politicians could pay enough money and become a bishop. And then bishops started having influence over the government. And it may sound trite to a lot of people that all of that happened way back then, but we are still suffering the effects of it today. The Roman Catholic Church has a grip on millions and millions of people and have shrouded them in darkness and deception. H you hear about especially in all of those churches you've seen the Greek Orthodox and the Russian Orthodox and all Roman Catholic church. Its icons and images and incense, relics and statues. Um, Durk mentioned to me Friday when I was in the office for a few moments, I thought it was extremely interesting. King Charles III, who is by title the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Now there's the king called the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. His duty is to defend the faith. He's called the Defender of the Faith. But he decided to change that and he's now called the Defender of All Faiths. So we are moving in the direction of a one-world government and a one-world religion for a while. That's what religion does. That's what religious people do. They depend on things. They look at things. They worship things rather than the true and living God. They put their confidence in men and leaders rather than the direction of the Holy Spirit. Let me just say it again. That's what religion is and that's what it does. That's what nations do. Uh, Ham got off the boat with his two brothers, Shem and Japheth, and their father Noah. They all got off the ark and looked at what had to be done and where to live and what to do with the animals. And the Bible says that Ham had a son and his name was Cush. And Cush had a son and his name was Nimrod. And Nimrod gathered his people and of course they were having babies and by this time there was a growing population. Nimrod took his people and they said, "Let us build a city. Let us build a tower so that we may have a name. So that we may not be forgotten. Let us build a structure that will reach into the heavens that we may never be forgotten." And so all you have to do is just look at the history books, go to to Google and YouTube and see the history of mankind's religion. And you find that every nation, every nation has built something, a city of some sort or a tower of some sort to make a name for itself. You read about ziggurats, which are religious structures, and you read about terraces, again, religious structures. So, you just take a trek down through history and you'll see since Nimrod built a city and a tower, it has just completely spread out. And now all nations and tongues and tribes and peoples and colors and cultures have their own divine representations. And the United States has done the same thing. Why? If you go out to South Dakota, you can see that into the side of a mountain is carved the faces of four people. God's mountain that he spoke into existence that he carved with his own finger. They decided to honor four men and built Mount Rushmore. All you have to do is go to Washington. You'll see a city full of statues and memorials. Go to the Lincoln Memorial. It's a big rock, but it's a picture of a man, the image of a man. There's the Washington Monument, 555 ft of granite and marble, a an obelisk to the sky. Or you could just go down a few streets to the harbor and see a lady made of copper and bronze and brass standing in the harbor with a torch. And they call her Lady Liberty. I could preach here about that. I'm not. I'm going somewhere else. But I just You didn't take offense at all of that, did you? Oh my goodness. It's the truth. And I think of all those documentaries I've seen where the immigrants on boats coming from nations finally get into the harbor and they take their hats off and they embrace one another and they weep because they now see Lady Liberty and they know that they are free. Free to worship, free to work and yet don't realize that that's not real liberty. Real liberty can't come from a statue or a representation. Real liberty comes from knowing not not a woman standing in the harbor, but a man who was about 8 feet off the ground who was hung in a pool of blood and opened his arms wide and said, "Whosoever come to me." And that's the scripture. Who whosoever the Son makes free is free indeed. And all I'm saying is that nations and religions all do their best to memorialize things and they try to somehow depict the divine and they make replicas and representations WITHOUT KNOWING THE TRUE AND LIVING GOD. And that's what God did when he called Abraham out above all people on the earth. He called Abraham, who was a pagan and worshiped all the pagan gods. But God put his hand on him and said, "I'm taking you out of this. You're going to leave your family, your friends, everything you know, and you're going to be the father of a nation that will not need to hold something in their hand or look at an image, but you can walk and talk with the true and living God. You can have a relationship with the almighty creator. And I will not allow you to do what the nations have done. I will not allow this new nation called Israel TO DEPEND ON A PICTURE. You have me. You can know me."
And so the Lord finally brought them to to the foot of Sinai and took Moses up into the cloud. And the people watched as fire shot out of the mountain and the clouds overwhelmed it. And there was fire and lightning in the clouds and an earthquake and darkness and fear. And even Moses said, "I I am exceedingly fearful and I tremble at this." And when he came down, he said, "This is what the Lord wants out of you. I am the Lord your God. You will have no other gods before me." You have to understand the depth of that word before. It doesn't necessarily mean in front of me. It can mean anywhere around me. You shall not have any gods before me. You shall not make a graven image. You shall not craft from your imagination what you think I look like. You shall not use pictures or images of anything created to represent me because I am spirit. I don't have limitations. I am the spirit that created all things. So you are not to construct or design anything to reach towards me to represent me or replace me. And wouldn't you know it, he brought those laws down while Israel had crafted a golden calf. Brought it down in the midst of their iniquity and their ignorance. I wish I had time to go into detail about what they had to do to make a golden calf there in the wilderness. But once it was finished, they disrobed. They got drunk. They committed sexual immorality. They danced around the golden calf and said, "This is our God. This is our God who brought us out of Egypt." And I don't need to tell you how upset God was. Neither do I need to tell you how angry Moses was. If you go to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 15, let me read these words to you. This is God's word. God said, "Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire." What is he saying? You didn't see an image because I'm a spirit and I came down. Be careful lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves carved images in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female. That includes Mary, the mother of Jesus. The likeness of any animal that is on the earth, or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, or the likeness of any fish that is in the water, and take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven. And when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them. And people, ungodly people in every nation have made images of everything he said don't do. Creeping things, fish, birds of the air. They have memorialized and made icons out of them and worshiped them. In countries like China, it's the dragon. Some countries like Japan, there's an emphasis on the sun. Why? We've got them by the multitudes in this country. Because God knows that unless people know the true and living God, they're going to worship, but they're going to worship that which was created instead of the one who created it. So when you go to Romans chapter 1, you read Paul's writings and he said, "For since the creation of the world, his invisible invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead. So that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up to uncleanness."
I've asked the Lord to help me to make this plain and clear today. How important, how absolutely imperative it is that we constantly remind ourselves that all of our help comes from the Lord. Not from men, NOT FROM GOVERNMENT, NOT FROM THE ABUNDANCE OF MONEY, NOT FROM WISDOM, NOT FROM KNOWLEDGE, BUT WE SURVIVE AND THRIVE BY THE TOUCH OF GOD'S HAND on our lives. HIM ALONE SHOULD be served. You will have no other gods before me, and you shall serve me with all of your heart. ALL of your soul, all of your mind. It's not a portion of me that's Christian or religious or spiritual. Everything about I don't know if I'm making my point. It's It's about to blister me to death on THE INSIDE. NOTHING MATTERS BUT JESUS. AMEN. >> It's not Jesus and anything. It's Jesus alone. It's God alone. Everything about my life comes from God. Everything I have came FROM GOD. Everything he lets me use, I GIVE BACK TO GOD. ONE DAY I will be in the presence of God. And it must be it it IT MUST BE SHOUTED FROM THE ROOFTOPS. We have to be dedicated, consecrated, set apart, sanctified, holy people UNTO GOD AND GOD ALONE. >> HE WILL NOT SHARE HIS GLORY. HE WILL NOT STAND IT IF YOU TRY TO HAVE SATISFACTION or fulfillment in anything but him. >> That's Bible preaching right there. >> That's not from the mouth of some liberal preacher who is telling you that you were MADE TO BE A MASTERPIECE, that God LOVES YOU JUST THE WAY YOU ARE. That is false. YOU WERE DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS. YOU WERE WITHOUT HOPE AND YOU DID NOT KNOW GOD. BUT GOD WHO IS RICH IN MERCY. You didn't find him. HE REACHED DOWN AND PICKED YOU UP. HE found you.
So I want to show you how quickly it is that you can devolve from what God wants us to be. The church can do it. The church can backslide. Churches like this can backslide. If the pre if the preacher does not preach the truth and THE PEOPLE DO NOT WALK IN the truth, we can backslide. WE CAN DEPEND ON THE FLESH. WE CAN TRY TO DO IN THE FLESH WHAT CAN ONLY BE DONE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT. >> SO, I'm in the 18th chapter of Second Kings. Let me just preach to you. They won't put this on the screen because I want you to look at me and listen to me. Israel had sinned. They had accommodated every pagan god and assimilated into every pagan society. They were no longer different from the other nations. They backslid. They worshiped the sun, the moon, the stars. They went so low as to take their new babies and burn them on an altar unto Molech. They put up wooden statues in the temple, statues of animals, horses, um, snakes, on and on and on. They did this and they were God's people. The Bible says it came to pass that Hezekiah came to the throne. I'm going to do some reading here. Hezekiah removed the high places. See, they all had places, mounds, terraces that they built to go out and kneel and worship these false dead gods in Israel. But he cut down the wooden image. He broke the sacred pillars. He cut in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made. For until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it and called it Nehushtan. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? Do you remember when Israel sinned against God and God sent fiery serpents into their midst? If you remember that, say amen. >> Amen. >> Do you guys remember that? He sent fiery serpents to judge them. And they were dying and they were crying and they were hurting. And God said to Moses, "I want you to fashion a brass serpent, a a bronze serpent. Put it on a pole. Put it in the midst of the people. And whoever has been stung or bitten and looks upon that serpent will be healed and it will save his life." And that's what happened. But they didn't let it go. It became an object of worship. They worshiped it until Hezekiah's day. I mean literally they would go and bow before it. But Hezekiah said, "No more." He crushed it up. You know what Nehushtan means? It's just a piece of brass. That's what it means. Just a piece of brass. Hezekiah was simply saying to the people, "Are you kidding me? The true and living God wants to have a relationship with you, and you just want to worship a piece of brass. You give God, you give the brass more attention than you give to God. Are you KIDDING ME? IT'S JUST A PIECE OF BRASS. AND I WOULD SAY TO people watching ME, YOU SAY, "WHY ARE YOU PREACHING that here at Central?" Because we have a vast and growing audience out there on the internet who have not heard this kind of preaching. AND THEY DON'T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN right and wrong, profane, and unholy and righteousness. And that's why I'm preaching it this way. So I JUST WANT TO SAY TO THOSE who are in the religions that I've mentioned, Orthodox or Catholicism or anything else, THAT ICON IS JUST A PIECE OF WOOD. Those beads were made by a MAN'S HAND. THEY CANNOT HELP YOU. It's just smoke. SMOKE CAN'T HELP ANYBODY. INCENSE DOES NOT MAKE YOU HOLIER. LIGHTING A CANDLE WILL NOT DRAW YOU CLOSER TO GOD. IT'S JUST WAX AND SMOKE AND WOOD AND BRASS AND COPPER. IT WON'T HELP YOU. IT'S DEAD. ONLY A LIVING GOD. ONLY A TRUE BREATHING, WALKING, TALKING GOD can help you. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him, for he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following the Lord, but kept his commandments. The Lord was with him. He prospered wherever he went. That's beautiful, isn't it?
Let me tell you something else about Hezekiah. When he got there, this is hard to believe. When he got there, he found out that the temple, the holy dwelling place of God, had been turned into a warehouse and a trash dump. Yes. The temple of God, the the beautiful place where God said, "I'll meet with you." And now for years instead of people taking their household trash down to the brook Kidron, which was the city dump, they said that's too far to go and they would just look around and throw it in the temple vestibule. Other people said I got nowhere to put this. You know a lot of you have storage places. You're paying for it every month cuz you don't have enough room at the house. So you take it and store it somewhere else. And that's what they had done with God's house. Stuff they couldn't get in the house. They just took it down and stored it in the temple. And I want you to know something. This is a picture of our walk with Jesus Christ. The Bible says that Hezekiah saw the condition of the temple and he called all of the Levites and all of the priests together, hundreds of them, and he said, "This is not going to continue. This cannot be. This is God's house and we're God's people. We're going to clean this thing up." And so it took hundreds of Levites and priests, listen to this, eight days to clean out not the temple, the entrance to the temple, like our vestibule here or foyer or lobby, whatever you call it. It took them eight full days to pull the rubbish out of the vestibule. And then it took eight more days for them to clean out the temple itself. And when they got it clean, the Bible says that Hezekiah restored worship. He repaired the doors. He repaired the building because people had gotten lax spiritually and thought nothing of God's temple except it might just be a place to throw my trash. Can I preach to you just a moment? Every time I read that, I have to remember I'm the temple of the Holy Spirit. >> Every time I read that, I have to ask myself, have I just decided to be so lazy that instead of cleansing my temple every day? And you have to do it every day. You have to wash down the temple every day with the water of the word of God. But if you're too lazy to do that, then trash starts accumulating in your heart and in your mind. After a while, this just becomes a warehouse for ungodly and foolish, uneternal things. And that's why you don't want to go to prayer meeting. And that's why it gets harder to read the Bible. And that's why you can't stand hard, straight, convicting preaching anymore. Because there's so much trash in the foyer of your soul that keeps the spirit of God from doing his work in your heart until you just don't want to deal with it. There comes a day when you have to say just as Hezekiah did, this cannot go on. This cannot go on in my in my heart. I am the temple of the Holy Spirit. I've got too MUCH OF THIS WORLD IN ME. IT'S TIME FOR REVIVAL. TIME FOR CLEANSING. You got to do it. That's why I preach the way I preach. Because see, I I told a group this morning, EVERYBODY in the country is worried about the separation of of uh church AND STATE. THAT'S NOT THE PROBLEM. >> THE PROBLEM IS THE SEPARATION OF THE WORLD FROM THE CHURCH. I'll say it again. One of the easiest paths for the devil to get into the church is through music. SATAN KNOWS HOW. HE knows music. WE HAVE TO CONSTANTLY PRAY ABOUT IT. THAT'S WHY WE HAVE TO CONSTANTLY SANCTIFY OURSELVES. SINGERS OUGHT TO BE SANCTIFIED SINGERS, spirit-filled singers. MUSICIANS OUGHT TO BE SANCTIFIED. SPIRIT-FILLED MUSICIANS. TEACHERS IN SUNDAY SCHOOL OUGHT TO BE SANCTIFIED. SPIRIT-FILLED TEACHERS. Everything we do, we must make sure that we've kept THE TEMPLE OF GOD CLEAN AND SEPARATED AND HOLY in our lives. You work at it every day. It doesn't just work ITSELF OUT. BUT HEZEKIAH DID IT.
Here's the problem. The Bible says he died and his son Manasseh took over. This is the very next scripture. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. Listen. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed. He raised up altars for Baal and made a wooden image as Ahab did. AND HE WORSHIPED ALL THE HOST OF HEAVEN AND SERVED THEM. HE BUILT ALTARS for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of THE LORD. HE ALSO MADE HIS SON PASS THROUGH THE FIRE. HE PUT HIS OWN SON ON THE ALTAR OF Molech soothsaying and he USED WITCHCRAFT AND CONSULTED SPIRITISTS AND MEDIUMS. ALL IT TOOK WAS ONE DEATH. ALL IT TOOK WAS THE NEXT GENERATION TO MOVE IN AND DECIDE THAT'S TOO HARD TO DO. THAT'S TOO TOUGH TO ACCOMPLISH. THAT'S OLDFASHIONED STUFF. WE BELONG TO THIS WORLD. WE GOT TO LIVE IN THIS WORLD. AND BEFORE YOU KNOW IT, ALL THAT KING HEZEKIAH HAD DONE, ALL THE REFORMS AND ALL THE REVIVAL RIGHT DOWN THE DRAIN BECAUSE A LEADER STEPPED UP WHO DID NOT KNOW GOD.
So he died and then his son came to the throne and here's what it said. He did evil in the sight of the Lord. He walked in all the ways that his father walked and he served the idols that his father had served and worshiped them. He forsook the Lord God of his fathers and did not walk in the ways of the Lord. But the next chapter says God raised up another man named Josiah. >> And Josiah said, "How did this temple get in this condition? Here's what I need for to tell you. From the end of Hezekiah's reign to the beginning of Josiah's reign, 46 years. We're not talking centuries. We're talking less than 50 years that a revival took place, but then the world got back in the church. Is anybody hearing me this morning? MAYBE I'M THE ONLY ONE. MAYBE I'm losing my mind. But I'm telling you, brothers and sisters, there's a desperation in my heart about making sure THAT THIS GENERATION, THESE YOUNG PEOPLE UP HERE, SEE THE POWER OF GOD AT WORK AND KNOW IN THE SAVING GRACE OF JESUS CHRIST. How'd this temple get in this condition? And somebody said, "I'll tell you, king. I'll be right back and I'll show you." And he went and went through and rummaged through the temple again. And guess what? He found the word of God. And he came back with the word of God and said, "This is the reason. This hasn't been read in 46 years. This has been put in the trash pile for 46 years." Josiah said, "Give it to me." And he started reading it. Then he gave it to the Levites and the priest and said, "Start reading it to the people. Read it to all the people." The Bible says when he read that, he started tearing up and tearing down all the articles made for Asher. Uh, that's a a Roman pagan I'm sorry, a pagan goddess. And he burned them outside of Jerusalem. He removed the idolatrous priests. He brought out the wooden image from the house of God, took it to the brook Kidron and burned it. He tore down the ritual booths of the perverted persons. You see, they had I can't believe this. They had booths in the temple for sodomy, HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVITY, AND PROSTITUTION IN THE TEMPLE. JOSIAH SAID, "GOD FORBID." AND HE RIPPED ALL of that thing out and he reinstituted THE PASSOVER ONCE AGAIN. GOD SAID, "I'M GOING TO RAISE UP somebody who will SPEAK ALL OF MY WORDS." And he WILL REMIND THE PEOPLE, "I AM NOT A THING. YOU CANNOT SEE ME. I AM A SPIRIT. I AM HOLY. I AM GOD. I AM ALMIGHTY. AND YOU MUST WORSHIP ME IN THAT WAY. THEY THAT WORSHIP ME MUST WORSHIP ME IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH. FOR GOD IS SEEKING SUCH TO WORSHIP HIM."
So that brings me to my opening scripture. I love this verse. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Paul is writing to the Thessalonians. I said opening scripture, didn't I? That was all my opening remarks. Not really. Paul is writing to the Thessalonians. Here's what he writes in verse 9. For the whole world's talking about your faith. They themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you. Let me paraphrase. The world and the other churches can't believe how readily you welcomed us with open arms with the gospel of Jesus. And they're also marveling how you turned to God from idols. THEY WERE JUST LIKE ALL THE OTHER NATIONS. THEY HAD AN IDOL FOR EVERYTHING, A GOD for everything. They were wrapped up, controlled by pagan deities. But when Paul came to town AND PREACHED THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST, IT WAS NOT IN WORD ONLY, BUT IN POWER AND IN THE HOLY GHOST AND IN MUCH ASSURANCE. THEY SAID, "WE DON'T NEED DEAD GODS. WE CAN HAVE THE TRUE AND LIVING GOD." And they TURNED TO GOD FROM IDOLS. YOU SEE WHAT I'M SAYING, BROTHERS AND SISTERS? YOU GOT TO TURN AWAY. YOU GOT TO TURN TO SO YOU CAN TURN FROM. THE opposite is true. IF YOU TURN FROM GOD, you will TURN BACK TO IDOLS. TURN BACK TO THIS WORLD. PAUL SAID, "THEY ARE AMAZED AROUND THE WORLD BECAUSE YOU HEARD THE GOSPEL AND YOU TURN TO GOD FROM IDOLS." Isn't that beautiful? To serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven. I love this. I showed that picture a while ago because I want to comment again on this. For all those people who accuse us who believe in the pre-tribulation rapture, it's in the Bible. It's the only truth there is. That's a silly, empty, hollow accusation. Sir or ma'am, we're not lazy people sitting around waiting on Jesus to get back. This is the busiest church I've ever seen. I don't know half the stuff that's going on here. We're in countries around the world. WE'RE IN WE'RE DOING everything you can imagine. Busy, busy, BUSY, BUSY. NOBODY'S SITTING UP HERE TWIDDLING THEIR THUMBS WAITING ON JESUS TO GET BACK. NO SIR. WE HAVE TURNED TO GOD. WE ARE SERVING THE TRUE AND LIVING GOD. AND AT THE SAME TIME, WE'RE WAITING ON HIS SON FROM HEAVEN. HALLELUJAH TO GOD. EVERY TIME I WAKE UP, I SAY, "THIS COULD BE THE DAY. I'm going to work till he comes. I'LL NOT BE LAZY, BUT THIS COULD BE THE DAY. ANYBODY ELSE WANT JESUS TO COME BACK in here? I need to hurry. and to wait for his son from heaven, even Jesus, whom he raised from the dead, who delivers us from the wrath to come. Listen to the preacher. Wrath is coming. God is merciful right now. But wrath is coming on this nation. Wrath is coming on the whole world. The seals are going to be opened. The trumpets are going to be blown. The vials are going to be poured out. This world is going to see tragedy as never before. Earthquakes in diverse places. The whole face of the earth is going to be changed. Rocks and mountains are going to fall on people. Uh, every island is going to be moved from its place. Water's going to be turned into blood. Fire is going to fall from heaven. Demonic scorpions coming out of the earth. Wars everywhere. IT'S COMING. IT'S COMING. BUT NOT TO ME. BECAUSE I'VE ALREADY MET JESUS AND I'VE BEEN DELIVERED FROM THE WRATH TO COME. SOMEBODY SAY, "PRAISE THE LORD." STAND UP WITH ME AND praise him. I know you had to HELP YOURSELF UP NOW. USE THOSE HANDS and praise the Lord this morning. Thank you, Jesus. I've studied Revelation, Daniel. I've studied all the books that deal with the the wrath of God that's coming. The more I study it, the older I get, the more it frightens me. People have no clue what what's coming. They think this is just going to go on and on forever. Folks, one day God's going to say, "That's enough." He's going to take us out of here. And then heaven's going to be unzipped and people will beg rocks and mountains to fall on them because the great day of his wrath has come. The wrath of God and the wrath of the Lamb. So for you here and you who are watching me, let me just tell you no religion is going to save you from that. No artifact, no relic, no handful of beads, no candle, no incense, no statue. Nothing's going to save you from that wrath. There is only one. Uh, he doesn't have an image. He doesn't have an outline. He's the spirit of the living God. HE'S IN HERE TODAY. HALLELUJAH. HE'S IN HERE today and he can SAVE ANYBODY FROM ANYTHING. >> He can SAVE YOU FROM WRATH. HE CAN SAVE YOU FROM SIN. HE CAN SAVE YOU FROM YOURSELF. BUT HE IS a savior and he is here today. Praise the Lord forever. Anybody want to sing with me? Of course, if you're lost, you know you can find Jesus. JUST CALL ON HIM. GOD BE MERCIFUL TO ME A SINNER and the Lord will save your soul. What you playing? >> Here I am to worship. >> Here I am. Here I am to say that you're >> my God. You're all together lovely, all together worthy, all together wonderful. >> Everybody, one more time. So here I am to worship. Here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. You're all together lovely, all together worthy, all together wonderful to me. >> I have to let you go. But listen, it would it would behoove every one of us today to have a temple inspection to take this word and get alone with God and inspect our lives. Has my lobby gotten cluttered? is my temple choking under worldliness. This is the only water that can make you clean. I bless you in Jesus' name. I ask you to take these scriptures and apply them to your heart. And remember, this could be the last Sunday we ever walk into this place. I might die this week or the rapture may take place. But if it happens that way, I'm leaving here with clean hands and a pure heart. How about the church? Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, OH LORD, MY STRENGTH and my redeemer. Amen. Love you, church. Have a great week. Where are