Transcription
Amen. And I want to thank him for that right now with my eyes open looking at you. I thank you, Lord, that we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. And we've been blessed with everything our hearts could desire, [music] and that really is you. Thank you for letting us have you and know you. Speak to your people today, Lord. Lord, nobody in his right mind would walk to a pulpit without trembling. And so, if you can help me get past this trembling, [music] let me say what you put on my heart, I'll praise you for it when it's over. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
You can be seated. [clears throat] Thank you so much. We love all nations. That includes Israel. We love all people. That includes the Jewish people. As I preached last week, all of the Old Testament was fulfilled in Christ Jesus, our savior, by faith in him alone. But God is still on a timetable with Israel. Christ was raised on Passover. I should say crucified on Passover. He was raised on first fruits. We are now in the age of Pentecost. The great harvest is being well, it's about to be harvested. The church is about to finish its job. And I believe Jesus will come back on the feast of trumpets. I also believe that when the church is gone and that trumpet has been blown, God will resume his work with Israel with the feast of atonement. What he will do to cleanse them during the tribulation. And then when that work has been completed and the Lord comes back, the feast of tabernacles will be fulfilled when Christ himself will come and tabernacle among his people. I very uh boldly said last week because it's in the scriptures, we're one new man. There is no Jew, no Gentile. It also says there's no bond or slave or male or female and all that is to say that in Christ Jesus all of our needs are met and we are all one together with Christ. But here's the fact of the matter. Jesus Christ will forever be a Jewish man. And whatever you are now on this earth in this body is what you will be for eternity in a glorified body. I will be a white dude for eternity in a glorified body. I picked at you last week, Ken. Forever you will be a Jewish dude with a glorified body. Larry, you'll be just as black when you get to heaven as you are right now. And if you choose, you can have some hair. I think the Lord will give you that option. I mentioned the Sabbath last week. The Sabbath is over. And I just want to read a verse of scripture to you from Exodus 31:E1 17, actually 16. Watch this. Therefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. The is the Sabbath was given to Israel, not to the Gentiles. Just thought I would make that a little bit clearer for somebody.
I tell you, brothers and sisters, in all my preaching, in all these years, as forceful and aggressive as I have been and as passionate as I am about what I believe, I've never ever meant to disrespect anybody's color or culture. Never. I in my house right now in my study, I have two very expensive prayer shawls. I have been known to pull a prayer shawl over my head in my prayer room when I was in desperate times and cry out to God. I have chauffears. I have been known to use a chauffear. In fact, when Sandra and I had four little girls and we could not get them out of bed for school. This is I said to Sandra one day, I can't take this anymore. One of them is always in a coma. You know, she's asleep while you're dressing her and trying to feed her and I can't do this. I'll get them up in the morning. So, I got my chauffear and at the right time I went to everybody's room and I blasted the chauffear. Three rose. The other never heard it. [laughter] But it became traumatic for the other three. So, I I only did it once. That that was all it took. I just did it one time. It was funny. I thought Sandra said, "Don't don't do that. Don't do that anymore." So, I in my uh in my enthusiasm, sometimes I forget that people hear things that I don't say, and I I feel bad about it later. Not the truth, but just peripheral things. You see, there's a rich heritage in in Israel and the Jewish people of which we all are partaking. We have a savior because of Israel. Amen. We have a Bible because of the Jewish people. Everything we have spiritually has come to us from our God through that nation and those people. and I love them. And the point last week was was to emphasize the fact that in Christ Jesus everything we need and honestly everything we want is fulfilled by that risen savior Jesus Christ in Christ alone. That was the emphasis. By grace alone through faith alone. That's it. And always I I have to keep turning back to the scriptures that seem to be so foundational to the faith of Christ Jesus, to the words of Christ Jesus. I, you know, I get a little more criticism these days than I want. I get a whole lot more than I want. And I got one the other day and said, "You preach Paul more than you do Jesus." Let me listen very carefully. Everything Paul said, Jesus said. [clears throat] Everything Moses said, Jesus said. All scriptures given by inspiration of God. And man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So hear me very well, sir. Hear me very well. The words of Jesus are not more important than the words of Paul. The words of Jesus are not more important than the words of Amos. Every scripture in have backup is equal to John 3:16 because it's all the word of God.
So you don't pick and choose the importance of a speaker, a prophet or a scripture. You accept the whole Bible rightly divided and properly interpreted. But here's what Jesus said. These these words touch me because they are they are the foundation of this thing we call Christianity. Enter by the narrow gate. That's what Jesus said. Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. You can't stop at the gate. There is a road to be walked.
When you go through the gate, there is a road to be traveled, a life to be lived. And Jesus didn't pull punches. He said this narrow door, I am the door. He said, "But I am also the way, the truth, and the life." And he said, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." So he says abruptly and very plainly, this way is hard, it is a difficult way. There is nothing fun much of the time because you are following a savior who takes you through the tests and trials of life to make you a fisher of men. and a saint of God. You know, we read often in Hebrews chapter 6 where it says, "Therefore, leaving," that's motion, you see, "the principles, the fundamental elementary principles of Christ, let us go on unto perfection." Understand this everybody. Please understand it. Faith is not just something you say with your mouth. It is a life you live.
You can't just profess Christ or confess Christ and then live your life. When you confess Christ, then you get on the narrow road, the difficult road, the hard road, and you follow him day after day. Jesus said, "Unless you abide in me, you won't bear any fruit and those branches that do not bear fruit will be thrown into the fire." So you see, abiding is a matter of staying. And yet in the staying, you continue. You continue in the ways and the words of the Lord while you abide in him. He's the vine. You are the branches. That means every day I draw my life from Jesus. Every day that my eyes crack open and I begin the thought process, I realize I need Jesus right now. I cannot live off yesterday's prayers or devotions. I cannot say, "Well, praise God, I'm saved anyway. I just think I'll take it easy from now on." No. There's not one star in scripture, not one prophet, not one apostle that said, "I'm going to slow down. I'm going to take it easy. I'm going to back off a while." Paul's scriptures, I guess, stick out to us more than any others. When he said, "I press. I'm going after it." The Bible teaches us to pursue, follow after, go for. And my heart is kind of burning inside of me today to remind people how close we are to the coming of the Lord. Time is running out. How difficult the way is and it's easy to become discouraged. And how sly the enemy is, he knows when to come to you and offer you the right thing or the right person. So when Jesus said, "If you abide in me, live in me, draw life from me, I am your life," [snorts] listen to me. I don't have a life outside of Jesus.
Jesus is not my religion. Jesus is not even my faith. He's my life. My faith says I'm going after him. I want more of him. As the deer pants after the waterbrooks, so my soul pants after the Lord God. Folks, Jesus, I've said it twice already, did not play with words. He said, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness." STOP for a moment. I'm not going to get out of out of hand now. I want you to ponder some things. Hunger. Everybody here has felt hunger. Very few of you have ever been truly desperately hungry. We've got some uh Vietnam vets that can tell you about hunger, but nobody here really understands the depths of agonizing hunger. We just know that about 8 12 4 and 8 again, it's time to get something in our bodies. It hits all of a sudden and we don't like to wrestle with that. Jesus was saying, "If you want to be blessed, let the hunger for me be as strong as the hunger for food." Let the Holy Spirit develop a a a craving in you that makes you want Jesus more than you want your necessary food. Thirst. Very few of us have ever been thirsty enough that our tongues would stick to the roof of our mouths. Oh, we've been very thirsty before, but not the kind of dying thirst. And yet Jesus used that very illustration to say, if you want to be filled with righteousness, you got to be thirsty for him. My question is to my congregation, are we hungry and thirsty for righteousness? Does righteousness loom before me every day to the point that I say, I want to be right with God in my thinking, in my talking, in my walking. I want to be right. I want righteousness. I want nothing to hinder my prayers. I want nobody to slow me down. I'm hungry for righteousness. I'm thirsting for righteousness. YOU DON'T GET SATISFIED WHEN you get saved. Now, there's a lot of preaching and singing that I guess could be called that. But I can tell you when the Lord saved me, HE GAVE ME A SATISFACTION I did not have in the world. But the satisfaction has grown and the need for more of it has grown and it exponentially increases in my life. I just can't get enough of Jesus. I just can't seem to get enough of this thing called the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. So, my point to you this morning is that if you are one of those that has decided, I'm going to take it easy. Life has smacked me in the face. I'm tired of dealing with it. I'm not going to fight this fight anymore. I want you to listen to the word of the living God. And so, I begin with first, I'm sorry, Colossians chapter 1. And I begin with verse 21. And you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works. Is that anybody in here? Yet now has he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy, blameless, and above reproach in his sight. That's what the blood of Jesus does for those who apply it. You become holy, blameless, and above reproach in his sight. Problem is, there's a dash. And the next verse says, if indeed you continue in the faith, if you continue in the faith, if you keep walking, running, fighting, praying, and don't give up, if if if you continue in the faith, and you'll be grounded and steadfast, listen to the preacher. You're not in and out and up and down and here for a month and at another church for a month. You're not going to every Bible study in town trying to find something. YOU'RE NOT FOLLOWING EVERY BIBLE teacher on the internet trying to find something. You've already found the something. His name is Jesus. And in JESUS CHRIST, YOU OUGHT TO BE GROUNDED, STEADFAST, NAILED DOWN, SATISFIED WITH NOTHING BUT HIM. And if you are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, then you will remain blameless in his sight. Folks, I don't even know how to say it any better than I've already said it. I am blameless and holy if I continue in the faith. I keep it up. You know, if you go through Hebrews 11, which we do often, and we read about all of those who by faith who by faith did something, there's the point. Everybody who had faith [snorts] did something and their calling was affirmed by their doing. They were not saved by doing. They were doing because they were saved.
Did you hear me? So there shouldn't be any criticism about me preaching that works will get you saved. Works won't get anybody saved. It's faith in Christ alone that gets you saved. But once you get saved, you become a worker, a producer, a follower, a fighter. You become a disciplemaker. YOU FOLLOW JESUS every day. Continue in the faith. Do the Bible says Enoch walked with God and Abraham believed God and went and Noah built a boat and Jacob wrestled with God and Rahab hid the spies. All through the the chapter you see that PEOPLE WHO HAD FAITH DID SOMETHING that cost them. They kept it up. So I I want you to hear me today. Faith is a verb. FAITH IS NOT A SECT of religion that you belong to. That's all the media know about because they are dead and blind. They know nothing about spiritual things. They talk about this man's faith and that faith and well all have faith and everybody will one day get to heaven by their faith. Wrong again. Faith is not a group you belong to. Faith is a recognition of the true and living God, of his son, Jesus Christ, OF HIS SHED BLOOD, OF HIS POURED OUT SPIRIT, OF HIS KEEPING POWER, OF HIS PROMISES TO COME BACK. And because you believe it, you get up EVERY DAY AND YOU START ALL OVER AGAIN. And you SAY, "I BELONG TO JESUS. JESUS BELONGS TO ME. I'M NOT LIVING BY WHAT I DECIDED 10 YEARS AGO OR 10 MINUTES AGO. I'M LIVING IN THE LIFE OF JESUS RIGHT NOW. I'M LIVING, WALKING, TALKING IN THE RESURRECTION POWER OF JESUS RIGHT NOW."
I want to read to you from First Peter chapter 1. beginning with verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that does not fade away. Reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God. Don't stop there. Lots of people do. I'm kept. I'm kept. I'm kept by the power of God. Let's finish it. Who are kept by the power of God through faith, through continuous living, who having passed through the narrow gate are now walking the difficult road. It's not easy. God keeps me as I daily trust him. Not my effort. It's the keeping power of God. But I am able by faith to live a life victorious because I recognize my responsibility to serve him, honor him, know him every day of my life. There was another passage of scripture in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Let me read these. Well, the first 10 verses just let me kind of uh summarize. Paul said, "Now you know that Israel came through the Red Sea and they were all under Moses and he says they ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink and that was Christ." That rock was Christ. But with most of them, God was not pleased. For their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Is everybody listening? Now these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolattors as were some of them. The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Don't let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did and in one day 23,000 fell. Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by the serpents, nor complain nor complain. This is a hard road. I don't know if I can do this anymore. God doesn't answer prayer. I've done everything right, but it doesn't seem to work. Nor complain as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer twice. Here it is the second time. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Everything that happened to them was for us to learn something. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Wow. That kind of uh unnerves me because we have lots of people that think that it is impossible for them to fall because they believe Jesus Christ is Lord. They think uh it couldn't happen to me. But he said, "No temptation has overtaken you except as is common to man. But God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you were able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it." But but folks, that sentence there in verse 12 needs my attention. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall. Which means that I have to be alert every day of my life all day long. It means that I can never pity myself for the hard road that God has put me on because he said, "Wherever I put you and whatever path I assign to you, I will give you the grace to live it. I will give you the strength to rejoice ever more. But you must stay on the road and you must stay aggressive."
So, I have been disturbed lately. See, the best thing a preacher can do, I got oh, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of you here today. Best thing I could do is just throw something out there and make you say, "Yippee." But see, I'd be a hirling then. Uh, as a shepherd, my heart is heavy today because I see people deciding to back off, let up, don't be as involved. And that troubles me because that's not usually the only thing. It's not usually that people are just tired. something else is going on. How do I know this? Because of my age and my tenure here as a pastor and pastoring tens of thousands of people over these decades and watching what the devil does to people. They use the excuse, well, I'm just going to back off and take it easy for a while. See, if the devil can't make you quit, he'll help you slow down because you got to slow down before you can quit. So, if you can glide in and at some point, Satan will just make you quit. And when you quit, you quit everything. You quit reading your Bible. And how do I know that? Because people who read and pray don't quit. HOW DO YOU KNOW ALL THIS? I just told you. My age, my experience, the gift that God has given me to pastor and discern spirits. You are not an exception. The moment you say, "I'm just going to back off for a little while," Satan says, "It's exactly what I wanted." The only reason, well, listen very carefully. Jesus was in a garden after 40 days and 40 nights of fasting. And when Satan came to him with three offers, Jesus simply said, "It's written. It's written." Jesus said on another occasion, "The prince of darkness, the prince of this world is coming for me." Now, that's when Judas had just betrayed him. And let let me do that again. The prince of this world is coming for me now, but he has nothing in me. He can't find anything in me to accuse me of before the father. He can't find anything in me that's disobedient to the word. Satan cannot get a handle. And I'm going to tell you, I'm going to tell you very passionately this morning. If you stop reading and praying and you quit, you've given the devil every handle in the world to get a hold of your life. And you better do what the proverb says, ponder the path of your feet. You better think this through. Don't don't don't fool yourself into thinking you're just tired or anything else. That's Satan's way of getting you to convince yourself and he won't get blamed for it that you needed to do this. But the moment you let up, you let him in. This is as pointed as I know how to be. Ponder the path of your feet. What are you thinking about right now? What decision are you about to make that could destroy you spiritually? It could destroy your family. It could cost you everything. What excuse are you giving yourself that you need to move away, back away, not be a part of the family of God, the church of God, that that you're too busy. You don't have time for devotions anymore. You don't have time for the prayer closet anymore. Ponder the path of YOUR FEET BECAUSE THAT IS THE way of destruction. And here's what second Peter 3:17 says. I could yell all day long, but until you hear it from the word of God, it may not make that much difference to you. Second Peter 3:17. You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, know what he was saying how people were a little confused about the Apostle Paul's writings. He said they're kind of deep and tough and people are twisting them because they're hard to understand and in so doing they are bringing about their own destruction. You therefore beloved since you know this beforehand beloved you didn't pass over that did you church? You therefore beloved since you know this beforehand beware. Beware if you think you stand, you might just fall. BEWARE IF YOU THINK YOU GOT IT ALL TOGETHER. Beware if YOU THINK YOU CAN LIVE OFF YESTERDAY'S REVIVAL. BEWARE IF YOU DON'T THINK YOU NEED TO EAT GOD'S WORD EVERY DAY. BEWARE IF YOUR PRAYER CONSISTS OF SOMEBODY ELSE'S THAT YOU REPEAT. BEWARE. DON'T LET SATAN DO THIS. Who you TALKING TO, PASTOR? I DON'T KNOW. BUT GOD DOESN'T LAY THINGS ON MY HEART FOR NOTHING. SOMEBODY HERE OR THERE NEEDS TO HEAR this preacher today. I AM BEGGING YOU, I AM IMPLORING YOU JUST AS PAUL DID TO BE RECONCILED TO CHRIST. GET BACK WITH JESUS. GET BACK DOWN ON YOUR KNEES. OPEN THAT BOOK BACK UP. START CRYING IN HIS PRESENCE AGAIN. HUNGER AND THIRST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. GET BACK IN THE SADDLE. GET BACK IN THE MINISTRY. DON'T GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO BE WEAK AND DISCOURAGED. STAND UP. YOU'RE A SOLDIER OF THE CROSS. YOU'RE A WORKER IN THE VINEYARD OF GOD.
[applause] You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware, lest you also fall from your steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked. Did you hear that? He's talking to that brother there, not some sinner. The Bible's not written to sinners. IT'S WRITTEN TO THE SAINTS. has written to the church. Be careful, brother. He said, you could fall from your steadfastness. You could be caught up in the error of the wicked, but grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So, here we are. I don't really know what to do at this point. The word has been given. The warning has been issued. Trumpet has been sounded. You know who you are. And I'm telling you, whether you're in front of me or behind me, you are not strong enough to live this life until you lay on your face. Until your weakness gives you his strength. You don't have the ability. You don't have the intellect. You don't have the the the anything to make you a VICTORIOUS conqueror unless you come to him every day and eat his flesh and drink his blood and remember who your life is. The whole church said amen. I found in my experience, the devil usually starts up in the choir in music. That's what he knows most about. That's what he did in heaven. So I just want to make sure all of you psalmists, singers, musicians realize that standing on this stage is a great responsibility. And you shouldn't be up here just because you like to sing or play. You should be up here because God called you and gave you a talent to be used for his glory. And you can't live a victorious life. And you cannot keep an anointing on you unless you stay in the presence of the Lord. Now, I'm going to come down. We're about to have communion. I want to tell everybody, you cannot you cannot live a fruitbearing, overcoming life unless you dig into God's word. I am so sick of devotionals because some pe and some of you like the one they said I did read and pray. That's not enough to get you to heaven. That won't even give you strength for the day. That might kickstart it. But what you need to do is open up that book. Open up that loaf of bread from heaven and eat it for yourself. You better learn how to pray. You better learn the importance of long prayer, deep, heartfelt prayer, because the Antichrist is loose. The spirit of Antichrist is at work. Deception is coming. I read uh just the other day. No, no, no. Somebody sent it to me. There's a new Bible out now. Ready for this? called the Queen James Bible, written by homosexuals for everybody to learn that God loves gays and that nothing in the Bible condemns homosexuality. And this Bible was written to deliver us from homophobia. This is only going to get worse because there was a crash last night. Somebody drove a car, I believe somewhere in Europe, a car into a a a pride party and a lot of gay people were hurt. This is the beginning where they're going to say, "We've got to take up for these people. Something has to be done." Now, the steps will move on where you can't say anything against it. And the Bible should not be used to pound people over it. And if you even use the scriptures to condemn it as a sin, it will be considered hate speech.
So while we're sitting here thinking that was a good service today, I I guess you would think that. NOW LET'S GET ON WITH LIFE, you better realize what your life is. You're still on a narrow road. You came through a narrow gate. It's a DIFFICULT ROAD. IT'S A HARD ROAD. IT'S A TESTING ROAD. IT'S A ROAD FOUGHT BY THE DEVIL EVERY DAY. HE'S TRYING TO KNOCK EVERYBODY OFF. BUT YOU'VE GOT TO HAVE A MADE UP MIND. I'VE DECIDED TO FOLLOW JESUS. [applause] And I only know one way to do it. Pastor Greg, would you help me out, please? Sir, I only know one way. And these two elements represent that way for me to get up every day and walk in victory right here. The blood of Jesus and the body. The blood of Jesus and the body. Listen to this preacher. Satan is horrified of the blood of Jesus. Satan is horrified of the body of Christ. So when we start relying on the blood, living in the blood, when we start acting like his body, Satan has no hold on us. Let me say this again because it needs to be said. What we're doing now is not for sinners. If you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal savior, if you're not walking with him every single day, you shouldn't do this. Amen. It's only for those who say, "I'd rather have Jesus than breath, and I will follow him the longest day that I live. He's only the son of God, one and only son of God, my savior. I give up all that I have for his name's sake. I declare him to be lord of my life." If you can say those things, you are welcome to enjoy this thing we call the Lord's supper. So, Father, I thank you now. I thank you in my own life. I thank you for what this bread represents. It means that I am one with you. Hallelujah. It means that there's no separation between us. Thank you, God, for letting us be part of your body. And [music] we take this now reverently and bless you for it. Holy Father, I thank you for what this represents. This made a new man out of me. This washed all of my sins away, Lord. This made saints out of us. Oh, thank you, Jesus. This broke chains in our lives. This gave us new hearts and minds. Thank you, Jesus, for shedding your blood. Hallelujah. And when you finish, just stand [music] with me. Church, I love you. Come up here, babe. Nobody prays more for this church than this woman does. We love you. We love you. This is our [music] life. We We have kids here today. It's different though. We've raised them. [snorts] Now they're raising their own. But but we're still shepherds over this flock. And I want you to know something. [snorts] You're prayed for every day. Guys, up here, every one of you, you're prayed for every day. We don't fake it. I'm not trying to keep a job. [snorts] I don't have a job. I [clears throat] have a calling. And you don't quit a calling. So, we bless you in the name of Jesus. We pray that heaven will be unzipped. And that every spiritual blessing you will realize in Christ Jesus. May you walk out of this place today. Even though the road is narrow for you, may you walk out knowing there's still somebody WALKING BESIDE YOU. IT'S JUST WIDE ENOUGH FOR YOU and him.
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. And we'll see you next time.