I'll Be Honest - Christian Sermons: Recent Episodes
I'll Be Honest - Christian Sermons
(Please note the following transcript was partly automated transcription and therefore has not been reviewed for errors.)
Brethren, if you have your Bibles, please open them to James chapter one. One more message, I believe. Before I went to Manchester, we dealt with the first part of James 1:27, and I would like us to take a look at the last part of that verse. James 1:27.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
I just want to bring out those Greek words, but it’s those three words that I want us to train in on: pure, undefiled, unstained. Now it’s true that pure and undefiled also modifies visiting orphans and widows in their affliction, but we already dealt with that. What I’m wanting us to focus on is that aspect of pure and undefiled religion before God: to keep oneself unstained or unspotted from the world.
Father, I pray that you be a help to us now. In Christ’s name, I ask. Amen.
I just want to do a bit of a theology of purity, because that’s what we’re dealing with, keeping oneself unstained. I recognize pure and undefiled is at the beginning, pure and undefiled religion. And it’s got these two aspects. You visit the orphan and the widow in their affliction, and you keep yourself unstained from the world. It’s the unstained aspect…
Let’s just think about visiting the widow and the orphan. That doesn’t really, in and of itself, have this purity aspect to it. It is pure and undefiled because that’s how God defines it for us. But the purity aspect doesn’t immediately jump out like it does in “unstained from the world.” Unstained, there’s a purity aspect. So what do you, what’s purity? What are we talking about there?
We see pure as gold. I’m trying to think what kind of colloquial expressions we get. Pure is gold? I thought. Not that I have any gold. Well, I guess I have this. I don’t think that’s very pure. Pure is the driven snow. But we don’t get snow very often. But the idea of, like, a virgin on her wedding day in a white dress, white.
You know what, Daniel? Daniel is looking to our day at people just like us. And here’s what he says. You’re going to get three terms here, just like James gives us three terms: pure, undefiled, unstained. Listen to Daniel.
He sees us Christians. He says this in Daniel 12:10, “Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined.”
What I’m doing by going here is just collecting synonyms: purify, undefiled, unstained. Here you have white, you have refined. What’s refined? What do you do when you refine something? We refine gold or silver. What do you do with the impurities? Let the impurities out, slag. You basically heat it up until it becomes melted, and then impurities have a tendency to rise and they float on the surface and they can be skimmed off. And so if you refine it and you refine it and you refine it and you refine it, what you’re doing is you’re creating purity.
Now think about it. When you have pure gold, what do you have? What’s absent? You basically have anything that’s not gold, right? Here’s the thing. Now lay this down, just like Ryan gave us Stewart’s thing. One, two, one to two, three. Just get this: purity equals singularity. Now, that’s important as we seek, when we say undefiled from the world, we’re talking purity here, there is a singularity. Now singularity… You can probably start to imagine, undefiled from the world, you get unspotted from the world, you, your mind can grasp these things. Water’s pure if it’s singularly water and dirt; it’s not pure, it’s contaminated.
Here’s the thing. You take a woman, pure, a virgin. She gets married. We count her pure even when she loses her virginity to her husband, as long as she is a singular lady devoted to that man. See, this is the idea of purity. There is an aspect of singleness in it, singularity.
Now listen. Listen to this, because I’m going to introduce another word here, and it ought to make sense to you. We use this word, but do you recognize what it really has to do with, what the meaning is behind it? The Bauer, Arndt, and Gingrich lexicon defines purity this way: “Being clean or free of adulterated matter.” To catch that: adulterated. If something is impure, if a woman is impure, she’s an adulteress. She’s not singular in her affections. Or the sacred Greek lexicon: “Free from anything that soils, adulterates, or corrupts.”
Okay, you’re in James. Turn to chapter four, because this isn’t the only place in this letter where James is going to speak to us about the world and about the impurities associated with it. Notice James 4:4. So here’s the thing. When James says, how does he start it? What’s the first thing you heard? “You adulterous people.” Now, is he saying about these people that he’s writing to that they’re not being faithful to their spouse? Is that the issue? That is not the issue. You see what he’s saying? “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?”
Now, here’s the thing. James 1:27 says, “unstained from the world.” You think maybe friendship with the world and being stained by the world are the same thing? I think there’s a good chance that’s reality. It’s so, what happens when you get spotted by the world? It’s adultery. And you know, God uses the same kind of terminology in the Old Testament. I’ve been reading Jeremiah. When the words “adultery,” “adulterous,” or even “whore” and “whoredom” are used in the prophets, oftentimes, folks, it’s not because they were unfaithful to their spouses, they were unfaithful to their God. They were not singularly devoted to him. This is, brethren, this is spiritual adultery. It’s it’s called adultery. Why? Because it’s like giving to the world the sort of thing that a man detests, that his wife should give to somebody else. That’s the idea here.
Now check this out. Go to James 4:8, because James isn’t done talking about purity here in this context. And he’s going to bring out two purity realities in here in verse 8, 4:8. And you see them: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” And here we get our purity terms: “Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
Now here’s the thing. The first thing I want to draw out of this is, one, it’s a heart matter. In other words, you’ve got to look deep within for the purity on the level that God desires. And you remember how it was. What do you, scribes and Pharisees? And Jesus called them hypocrites, for they cleanse…what did they cleanse? The outside of the cup. And they neglected, they avoided the inside. That’s the issue. Jesus said it in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the pure in heart.”
Now it talks about cleansing hands, but you got to believe that that cleansing of the hands has to do with the cleansing of the actions. And, of course, everything in the actions and everything from the tongue, it all flows from the overflow of the heart. We recognize that at the deepest level.
So there’s the first truth from verse eight that I want to draw out. But there’s another one here. Do you see the word “double-minded”? And that’s called “purify your hearts, you double-minded.” But remember I said to you, purity has to do with single polarity. You know what this literally says? You double-headed. When you’re double-headed, you need to purify. There’s no purity in double-headedness.
And he’s talking to religious folks here. He’s not talking to the worldly guy out there. He’s very specifically writing to his brethren. And the thing is, he’s not talking to the guy out there in the world that is absolutely committed to the world, singularly devoted to the world. He’s talking about people like, right in here, in this context, we’ve got some double-headed people.
You know what double-headed is? It’s like a Siamese twin. You ever remember there was a classic, like, Guinness Book of World Records picture of the Siamese twins? You know, the one, it’s black and white, and he’s got these two guys, and they’re kind of joined like, right? And so you got heads going both ways. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine if you’re joined with somebody else? What’s the problem? What if one head wants to go that way? There’s only two sets or one set of legs. One head wants to go that way, one head wants to go that way. That’s the kind of double-headedness. When you’re double-headed, you’re not pure. And that’s the kind of thing that we have here: these double-headed religious people, torn between two opinions.
Can you think of somewhere in Scripture where religious people are torn between two opinions? It seems like we might have heard it referenced sometime today. Anybody think of it? Who is limping or halting between two opinions? Anybody know? Hey, if God is the Lord, if the Lord is God, if Baal is God, it’s like, stop limping, stop halting between two opinions. That’s being double-headed. And you know what? If the world is going where it’s going, go after it with your whole soul. Stop being lukewarm. Stop being halfway, half committed, half in, half out, stuck between two opinions. See? That’s impurity. This is the kind of thing the world affects us. It’s like the other woman, the world, limping. Limping.
How long do you halt? How long do you limp between two opinions? You see, the thing is, people that are stuck between two opinions end up doing nothing. Well, they don’t follow the world. Well, they don’t fit in exactly. And they don’t, they don’t do well among God’s people. They don’t do well in the church. These people that are trying to go both ways here, they’re said, faltering and stumbling.
Listen, the fight, get this. The fight to stay unstained from the world is mainly a matter of not being double-headed. That is the kind of thing it’s singular. It is a singularity that we’re fighting for.
Now let’s listen. Remember, Paul comes along and he looks at the Corinthians, and he says this. He said, this battle that we fight, we don’t use weapons of the flesh. We don’t. Our weapons are not carnal. The weapons of our warfare, they’re spiritual, and they have divine power. And you know how he says it? To pull down strongholds, to destroy. What are these strongholds? They are arguments. They are opinions. You know what they are? They’re mindsets.
So you have this double-headed thing, and what is the contamination? It’s being spotted by the world. On the one hand, what do we have? On the one hand, we’ve got Scripture. On the one hand, we’ve got what Christ desires. We’ve got the will of God. On the other hand, we’ve got the what? The world is trying to sell us a bill of goods. And that’s where the spottedness comes from, is double-headedness, it’s double thinking. It’s it’s I’m thinking, I’m trying to think biblically, but I’m also thinking the way that the world thinks. And the great battle, folks, is that there are these, there are these strongholds. There are these embankments. There are, there are, it’s like these great fortresses, stone edifices. And what are they? Their mindsets, their worldviews, their ways of thinking. They’re psychologies. They’re ideologies that this world has. And they come at us, and it’s hitting us. It, brethren, this hits us through all the media out there, through all the mindsets, through the people you come across. The devil is the head of this whole thing, that the devil is guiding this.
But, brethren, listen, you can’t use human weapons here. Unspotted by the world is mainly a mind thing. Listen to what Paul says. “Do not be conformed to this world,” okay? I mean, that’s the issue. Don’t be swallowed by it. Don’t be conformed to it. But what? What’s the issue? “But be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” You see where the battle is, brethren, to be unspotted from the world. This is largely for us to be unspotted by the ways that this world thinks, its theories, its belief systems. We’re talking strongholds of thought.
And brethren, you know what? You had a world out there, and it’s like they have this fortification around their head, around their thoughts, around how they think, and they live in it, and they’re trapped in these things. And our, our responsibility is to seek to come and do these things. John MacArthur says, I’ve heard him say, that these things become their tombs. They die in their… Oh, they appear so lofty, scientific, intelligent, intellectual. They, these, this all seems good. And you know what it… You know what Paul said? Listen, you know what he said? “Every lofty opinion we destroy, arguments, every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.” It’s all against the knowledge of God.
You see what people are for? Define themselves with systems that are anti-God, anti-Christ. And if you listen, to the degree you imbibe this, the way the world thinks, you’re stained by it, you’re adulterated by it. This is what, folks, are we going to get the world’s ideologies out of our minds? Stop being double-headed, stop being adulterated in the mind.
You know what we’re striving after, Virginia? “Be of the mind…” I came across this in the past, but I just came across it again recently. That 0.0% of young people in Iceland, 25 years or younger, believe that God created the world. 0.0. According to, you know, Paul, verse 12, chapters of Genesis. Now, not just all Icelanders, apparently, but many here, many Americans. The idea that the first 12 chapters of Genesis are myth and superstition, not to be taken seriously.
Brethren, the thing is, you look around, what drives people? What are the viewpoints out there? I mean, come on, you’re good. You got guys, you’re going to the college campuses. Get out there. You got people going out on the streets on Friday night. You get out there, you get among people. You start having conversations with people, just at work, the places you go, get among people, find out what they’re saying, what they’re believing. I mean, they have viewpoints. They have viewpoints about evolution. They have viewpoints about how it all started.
They have viewpoints about gender, about sex. They have viewpoints about marriage, about what’s important in life, about what you ought to be striving after, living for, what the meaning of life is. I mean, you tell the world out there, they, they’ve got all sorts of ideas about politics and about what sin is, or sin isn’t, or who God is, or about abortion, or brethren, it’s all hostile to God and Christ and to the gospel, and to the truth, and to whatever is good.
And you know what? John comes along and he says this. He says, “Whatsoever is of the world, all that, all that is in the world, the desires or the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not from the Father but from the world.”
You see, it’s all dominated by lust. These mindsets that the world has, these great, these great embankments, these castles, these strongholds of thought, they’re, they’re driven by men’s lust. That’s what, that’s what Scripture says, by carnal ambition and by greed and by self-pleasure. The whole thing is just in rebellion against God. And the thing is, it’s this, it’s operated and energized by the devil himself.
Because you know how it says there in Ephesians chapter two, “You, if you’re following the course of this world,” how does it go? “Following the prince of the power of the air.” Don’t think you can go get stained by the world and the devil is not involved, or he’s got, he doesn’t have his fingers in this thing. He’s got his fingers right in there. And here’s a… remember, it’s how we think, it’s how we think.
And so Paul then comes out in the same Second Corinthian letter where he talks about what the nature of our battle is. You know what he says in chapter four? He says that the devil, “the god of this world,” he blinds the minds of unbelievers. What does he keep them from seeing? The truth. Do you remember what it is? Oh, glory, somebody said, glory. Keep them from seeing the glory, from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.
You just imagine. It’s like the devil, you imagine him out there and he’s pulling along this cartload of all these ideologies of the world. He pulls it along, making everybody think it’s so great and it’s so smart and intellectual and scholarly, and it’s, it’s really living. And this is the way the world thinks. And he’s, he’s got one primary mindset. And I’ll tell you what it is. It is to keep people thinking that the gospel of the glory of Christ is empty. It’s ugly. It’s devoid. It’s nothing. It’s undesirable. That’s what he’s seeking to do.
You know what? You know what the world’s telling you all the time? “You got to have looks. You got to be athletic. You got to be rich. You get to wear the right clothes. You got to have the right car. You have to be involved in sports and all the right hobbies and all the stuff. And you got to have that, you got to have that, because that stuff is glorious. That stuff is great. That stuff is beautiful.” Jesus? “What’s that?”
And you know what Paul says in that same Second Corinthian letter? “I’m afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts…” See, it’s a mind thing. It’s a thought thing. “Your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure…” This is how the ESV reads, “a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” Purity, purity. When it’s all for Christ. All. All. There’s a reason why I wanted to sing that, because that’s where the purity is. That’s where it’s found.
And you know what? The devil doesn’t want us to see the end of this. Recently, I came across a little snapshot of a video, and I was looking at it, and it was the words of all these atheists, famous atheists, on their deathbed, kind of stuff. The devil, the god of this world, who wants to shield you from seeing the glory, young people, listen to this. Some of the champions of this world’s ideas.
First one, I don’t know the guy, but Cesare Borgia, he was an atheist. Anybody know that name? Yeah, he’s an atheist. And listen, these are his last words: “While I lived, I provided for everything but death. Now I must die, and I’m unprepared to die.”
Sir Thomas Scott, some of you have heard that name undoubtedly. Taken suddenly ill, he cried out, “Until this moment, I thought there’s neither a god nor a hell. Now I know and feel there are both. And I’m doomed to perdition by the just judgment of the Almighty.”
Voltaire. Anybody recognize that name? On his deathbed, “I’ve swallowed nothing but smoke. I’ve intoxicated myself with the incense that turned my head. I’m abandoned by God and man.” To his physician, he said, “I’ll give you half of what I’m worth if you’ll give me six months of life.” The doctor told him it was impossible. He responded with, “Then I’ll die and go to hell.” Last words. Very last. I don’t know, but he said that on his deathbed.
David Hume, you may know that name, on his deathbed. “I’m in flames.” Period.
Sir Francis Newport, head of English atheist club.
“You need not tell me that there’s no God, for I know there’s one, and that I’m in His presence. You need not tell me there’s no hell. I feel myself already slipping. Wretches! Cease your idle talk about there being hope for me. I know I’m lost forever. Oh, that fire! Oh, the insufferable pangs of hell! Oh, that I could live for a thousand years upon the fire that’s never quenched, to purchase the favor of God.”
He’s wishing it could be purgatory, where he actually could pay for his sins and be united to God again. But it’s a fruitless wish. “Millions and millions of years will bring me no nearer the end of my torments than for one hour, poor, than for one poor hour. Oh, eternity, eternity! Forever, forever! All the insufferable pangs of hell.”
The French King Charles the Ninth massacred the Huguenots. He said, “Asleep or awake, I see the mangled forms of the Huguenots passing before me. How will all this end? And what shall I do? I’m lost forever.”
Anton LaVey. He’s the Satan worshipper. On his deathbed, “Oh my, oh my, what have I done? There’s something very wrong. There’s something very wrong.”
Young people, where’s your mind? You see, the world and the devil, the god of this world, he wants your mind. He wants you to think that that religion of your parents is awful. It’s boring. Oh, Christianity… You know what the truth is? There is a glory that’ll blow your socks off. Honestly, there is a beauty. There is a ravishing of the soul. If you heard what I read that Mack Tomlinson has been experiencing in the middle of the night, brothers, just a foretaste of heaven.
What are you after? Young people, popularity? Is that what it is, escaping that stale religion? Is that what it’s all about? Money, sports? Is that it? Science? Oh, safety. Have we fallen into that as Christians? “Give us safety, Lord. Give us retirement. Help us to store up and and build up and be safe and secure. And we got to have all the right insurance in place. So, so we’re safe, our house is safe, and our car is safe, and our health is safe.” Safety is at it. Is that what Jesus said? Is that being fully devoted to him? Is that the way he said to go?
Brethren, we can become so much a part of this middle-class American sanity that we hardly even recognize how much of it is just the world. It invites us. It sucks us in. And brethren, I’ll tell you this. The thing is, the world’s opinions and their fantasies… They say Genesis is fantasy. It’s what they believe, its aims. What are the aims of this world? Are selfish, its pleasures. You think about it, they’re sinful, its influences. They adulterate us. It’s politics, brethren. It’s all a false hope. Trump is not your hope. He never will be. It’s advertising. Think about the advertising of this world. It’s just empty. It’s applause. We don’t applaud you for a moment, and then you’re done. It’s like, it’s just the world chews us up and spits you out.
Young ladies, you might be pretty right now. The world spits you out. You got to get old. It’s just the devil blinds the eyes from seeing what? From seeing this glory of Christ.
Now listen. When we talk unspotted from the world, we’re talking mindset. We’re not talking about initiating a list of rules. Listen to what Scripture says. “If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations?”
Okay, you want to be stained by the world? Just live your life where it’s just a set of rules and regulations. To live by a set of rules and regulations is to be worldly. That’s, that’s how the world thinks about religion, is a set of rules. You don’t go down that path. That’s basically, you got to look what’s in here. Not, not the rules, not what, what’s mechanical, not what I do. It’s got to be, it’s got to do with what I love. What do I think about? What do I live for on the inside? What have I seen? What have I experienced?
I mean, look, look, the truth is, we know that a list of rules as to what’s proper when we walk into this place on Sunday, we all got that figured out. That’s not the issue when we’re talking mindsets here. We’re talking about what’s, what’s essential at the deepest level.
Brethren, I’m afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere… Keep your thoughts from a pure devotion to Christ.
Now here’s, here’s something worth considering. Listen to this. James 1:27, where we started. Notice the emphasis: “keep oneself unstained from the world,” oneself. Did you catch that? Keep oneself. You know what they call that? You know what that word is in the English? It is what is called a reflexive pronoun. You know what that means? You do it to yourself.
Listen to this. James 4:8, “Purify your hearts, you double-minded.” If you’re double-headed, who’s got the responsibility of purifying the heart? You do. I’m supposed to do certain things to myself so that I’m not double, but singular. That’s the idea.
Listen to this. Remember I read from Daniel? The ESV reads this way: “Many shall purify themselves.” There’s that reflexive pronoun again. Now, in other translations, you’re not going to find that. If you look at Young’s Literal, there’s something that Young saw and the translators of the ESV, and they, “and they make themselves white,” themselves. Got that reflexive there. Or you got Second Peter 3:14, “Be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish.” Or Revelation 22:14, “Blessed are those who washed their robes.”
Do you recognize how Scripture speaks? They washed their robes. They have a right to the tree of life. We don’t tend to talk this way, but our Bibles do. We like to think, “Well, Jesus washed us. Jesus cleansed us.” And when it comes to justification, that’s absolutely true. But we’re talking purity. We’re talking a practical cleansing, a practical reality in our lives.
Listen, we don’t talk this way, but we need to talk this way more. Second Timothy 2:20, “In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore,” catch these four words, “if anyone cleanses himself,” himself, there’s that pronoun again, reflexive. That’s an action you do to yourself, “from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”
Now look. I recognize that our Heavenly Father often has used us when we felt dirty and unclean and unusable. And we’ve had a bad day. God is very gracious. But there’s a reality here, and you can’t get away from it. What’s the reality? God’s servants can remain shelved because of what? What is it? “If anyone cleanses himself, they’re a vessel fit for the master’s use.” So what makes us unusable? Dirt. We haven’t cleansed ourselves. There’s impurities.
Listen, what you’ve got to grasp is that… And we’re not talking activity here. Somebody can be very active but not being used of God. Activity isn’t the issue. A man can be very involved in the ministry, and God is not using him. What does it mean for God to use somebody? Well, the high God… God’s usefulness. What’s essential to that? Well, it’s God coming. It’s God helping. It’s God empowering. We need God’s empowerment to truly be used of Him.
You see, the idea is He’s not using us. We may be active, we may be up there on the shelf and bouncing around this way and that. But we got dirt and dust in our cup, and He’s not going to pull us off. We can bounce around up there and do all of our little activity.
Listen to this. I want you to turn to this one. Second Corinthians.
Turn to Second Corinthians seven. Brethren, “if any one cleanses himself…” Look at this. Second Corinthians 7:1 says, “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves.” Everybody see the pronoun again, that reflexive pronoun? “Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, inside and outside, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”
Ladies and gentlemen, you never want to read a verse like that that starts the way it does without backtracking. “Since we have these promises.” What promises? Because obviously, what Paul is saying is there’s a motive here. There’s a motive for you to want to cleanse yourself. What is it? Okay. Let’s backtrack. Go to Second Corinthians 6:16.
Here’s the promises. “We are the temple of the living God.” I heard my daughter praying this morning, “a living hope.” We have a living God, folks. Christianity is a living thing because our God, who inhabits this true Christian, true Christianity, he’s a living God. There it is. He’s living.
But notice this word, “the temple.” He lives… I mean it. Our God indwells this temple. As God said, “I will make my dwelling among them,” mine. There’s a possessiveness here, “my dwelling among them, and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be,” again possessive, “my people.” They will be my dwelling. They will be my people.
Notice this, verse 17: “Therefore go out from their midst,” who’s? “Be separate from them.” Who’s? Well, it’s the idea of that which is unclean, “touch no unclean thing.” Now notice this, “Then I will welcome you.”
Listen, what you’re going to see from this is that our relationship with God is based on your purity, not just your forgiveness. Let that sink in. There are Christians that run around like, “Well, I’m justified by faith, and so everything is good.” Listen, there is a truth being set forth right here.
Look, look, certainly impure sinners… God justifies the ungodly. You can come with all your dirt and all your filth and all your sin, and you can come to Christ to be saved, trusting Him. Certainly impure sinners can come to God through Christ, and they find that they’re going to be justified immediately. But listen to what Paul is saying here. “Then I will welcome you.” Then when we keep reading, verse 18, “I will be a father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
“Since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves.” You see what the promises are made to? The clean. God dwells among us. He walks among us. He’s walking, He’s moving, He’s acting. It’s personal to God. My dwelling, my people, sons and daughters. To me, this is a personal God.
But what you want to watch are those words, “and I will welcome you,” brethren, because of that promise, “cleanse yourself from every defilement.” Do you recognize what this is saying? This is a promise that is conditional on… This is, we have a welcoming God.
Brethren, have you ever been there? You wake up at 3 a.m., and suddenly God is there. He’s on your mind. You wake up in that welcoming. God says, “Welcome.” You go to prayer, and there’s a sense that He’s there. There’s a welcoming God. You open your Bible, and He’s there. There’s a welcoming. You come into a place like this. Oh, brethren, the fact that our singing, the singing has produced some transformation over the years in people, you come in here, you come into the midst. We have a welcoming God.
Some of you, because of the dirt, because of the filth, I know we come back. We, we break that bread. We’re wanting to remember something. We want our faith to come back to something. But, brethren, it’s because of these promises right here that he says, “Therefore, you should cleanse yourself from every one of these defilements.”
Brethren, this is, this is how Scripture speaks. Promises, it’s all conditional. Or if there’s ever a verse that connects my purity with a welcoming God, it’s certainly this: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for what? They shall see God.” Is this? “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? He who has clean hands and a pure heart,” that’s what. “Oh Lord, show me your glory.”
I mean, brethren, seeing the glory of God, isn’t that the biggest? That’s the most momentous. That’s the most monumental. That’s the most tremendous thing. Isn’t that the biggest thing of all? We want to see God. We want God to welcome us. We want to see his face. The whole, that’s the whole object of Christianity. And who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Brethren, it’s those that have a pure heart.
The living God is the greatest imaginable reality of all. Brethren, man little realizes what he lost there in the garden. And God is not saying that my welcoming is just based on you being justified by faith, nor is he saying your usefulness is based just on that. You can’t escape this. You can’t. You just can’t. You can’t escape this.
Folks, listen to this. “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.” You see that drawing near there needs to… what a motivation to purify oneself.
You want another motive? Listen to this one. How many of you know this? This First John 3:2. “Beloved, we are God’s children now.” Don’t you like that? We’re God’s children now. “What we will be has not yet appeared.” Somebody comes telling you that they know what it’s going to be like, and they got all this picture and they do. They create this. They don’t know what they’re talking about because we don’t know yet. It’s, it’s not appeared yet.
But we do know this. “When Christ appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” Listen to this, “Everyone who thus hopes in him,” you know what it says? “Purifies himself as he is pure.”
When the kingdom of heaven is consummated and it’s all over, and there’s this new heaven and there’s this new earth, and we’re there, Christ appears in all of his glory. What’s going to happen? The Christian is going to behold that and become it. That’s the promise of Scripture, and that’s our hope. And you know how John is arguing here? He’s arguing from this stance, from this standpoint, that everyone who has that hope acts in that hope. That’s what he says. You can’t get around it. If you have no desire for purity, and you’re just entertaining the ways of the world and the thoughts of the world and the brethren, it says something about where your hope is. That’s what John says.
It’s: “My present effort at purity is consistent with my future hope.” That’s, that’s how he reasons. “Therefore, Christ, who looks forward to this, is already determined to prepare for it.”
Brethren, our time is short. You don’t have long to prepare. We await… what? An audience with the King, to stand before Him. And what is He looking for, brethren? He wants His people to be truly saints, not just in word, to be holy people, to be pure people, to be refined people. What an incentive! Are you living in anticipation of that? Are you preparing?
Well, brethren, the question now is, where are we at? How long I’ve been going? Brethren, you got to get to the place where it’s like, okay, I got to reach in the heart. How do I get there? I mean…
Brethren, we got to talk about, like, Daniel sees many making themselves white. “Blessed are those who washed their robes.” But remember, this is not a cleansing from guilt. In somewhat this is… this is a cleansing from the pollution of the world.
What helps me to think about how do I do this? How do I reach my heart? It’s a verse like this. “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.”
Brethren, when you take your Bible in your hand, when you lift this up, when you go into this word, brother, there is, there’s nothing more purifying. This is altogether the purest material. Do you recognize? Not a single verse, not a single verse in this book, not a single word in this book will taint you. This is pure. This is… Brethren, this is exactly what Paul was talking about when he says, “Christ loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.”
For you see, this is a sanctifying cleansing. This is not the cleansing of justification.
This is a sanctifying cleansing. And he says, “The washing of water by the word.” Not a single verse here will lead you into any kind of filthiness or contamination or impurity or adultery. Nothing, nothing of that sort.
Brethren, we want, we tend to want this easy fix, you know, get up in the morning and give me this little, you know, this little devotional where there’s a verse at the top. We, we want, we want to move through this. How do I, how do I reach in here?
Listen, I’ll tell you this. The spiritually soft aren’t going to do well here. This is something that takes… This takes an effort. Remember, this is a battle for the mind. We are battling against cosmic powers, against following the course of the ruler of this world who is… brethren, this is no small thing. And it doesn’t… You can’t do this with carnal weapons. These are great battlements that are brought down through not fleshly weapons. It’s brought down through divine power. And if there’s anything, it is the sword of the Spirit that God divinely charges so that, so that there can be purity, the renewal of the mind. That’s what we’re after. Not conformed to this world, but there’s a renewal that takes place. The mind of Christ controls us. That’s what we’re after. When every thought is held captive to Christ.
Well, how does that happen? Where are Christ’s thoughts? Where are Christ’s ways? Where are Christ’s words? There, in this book. Brethren, this isn’t just some… This is some great battle.
You remember what? Behind the whole world is pride. The pride of life. You think, you think He killed pride in your life through seven easy steps? And, brethren, it’s like… It’s like, you know, we want to go to the moon, and we want it to be easy. It’s like, brethren, this, this… There’s a battle here. There’s a fight. Pride. Selfishness. Unbelief. Love of looseness. You want an easy fix for all that? I mean, brethren, and here’s the thing. You know the verse. The verse that says that as we behold the glory of the Lord, we are transformed from one degree of glory to… You know what? If you do not take the time to get into this book and meditate and chew on it to the point where you see the glory, you will not be changed. That is what Scripture tells us. You can’t get beyond that, brethren. You got to camp here. If you don’t behold the glory, you won’t become the glory. That’s what Scripture says. Beholding the glory of the Lord, you’re being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.
This comes from the Lord. Who? Who’s the Spirit? Brethren, you got to soak in it. You got to bask in it like it’s liquid glory. We’re washed by the water of the word. This is an H2O. This is the glorious living water of a book. Imagine just glorious, glowing water that flows out of this.
But brethren, it’s a mind thing. Your mind has to engage the glory of this book. You’re not going to do that in five minutes. Brethren, it is not shocking that when you find people in the church that are double-headed, impure, and worldly, that they spend very little time, very little quality time in this book. That is not a surprise, folks.
So listen to this. Remember how Peter said, “If, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…” How do you escape the defilements of the world? It’s finding the knowledge of the Lord and Savior…
Brothers and sisters, never, never, never, never underestimate what is accomplished in your life when you take this book, this Word of God, in your hands, and with discipline and deliberateness, you put yourself in this book on a daily basis. Each time you dive into it, you’re getting into the spiritual bathtub full of glowing waters of glory, the glory of the Lord. The knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. It comes out of this book. It comes into your head, and the Spirit… This happens by the Spirit, who is the Lord. He sees to it. God Almighty sees to it that there is a purifying benefit.
And, brethren, we’ve experienced it. Remember, we’re destroying strongholds. Now, I’m just going to end with this. You got a, you got to recognize that surrender… And one of the things, if we’re not going to be spotted by this world, here is purity. It was what? The words from Bob Jennings, “All for Christ.” That is purity. That we not be led away from that pure devotion to Christ. All for Christ, brethren.
Jesus said in Scripture to be the treasure that we should sell all else for, to be valued above ease and above pleasure, comfort, safety, above friends and profit, my own life. Mary, you remember, she chose the best part.
You remember what Scripture says? “If, therefore, any of you who does not renounce all that he has, he cannot be my disciple.” You see, the idea of purity is singularity. When you abandon all for Christ, that is singular. Any protected area of your life, anything un-abandoned, anything unsubmitted, anything unsurrendered, you don’t have singularity.
I mean, you have to ask, “The world or Christ?” Safety. What does Jesus say? “I have no place to lay my head. They may kill you. They, they hated me. They’re going to hate you.” Does He promise security? Does He promise us it’s going to be comfortable? He doesn’t promise that. Retirement. The world likes to talk retirement. You got, you got that area of your life protected. How about your amusements? How about the, the, the ways you play, the ways you relax? Or do you protect that part of your, your life from the Lord?
All for Christ. Unless you forsake all, your money, how are you going to use that, brethren? You see, a singularity. Singularity?
Are you committed to this true biblical purity? I’m just going to… Brethren, I want you to say this. If you are committed to this, and you’re not going to allow the stains in your life, you’re going to go to battle against this. You’re going to go to battle against the mindsets of this world. The things that they think are important, the things that they value… Then say it: “All, Lord, I forsake all to follow you.”
Say it in your mind. “I am not going to follow the world. I’m going to fight it. I’m going to resist it where it comes at me through media, where it comes at me through the TV, through the computer, through my phone, where it comes at me through worldly people, where it comes at me by my neighbors, by the things I expose myself to, the music I listen to. I am all out for Christ. I surrender. I am submitted. I’m for that. That is purity. Lord, I’m following you. Yes, for you, I give up everything. Total, pure devotion to you.”
Paul feared lest you be pulled away from that pure and sincere devotion alone to Christ. “Accept my surrender to you in all things. I want to live for you, all out for you, and that you will find purity.”
Folks, give everything. You know what little quoted verse? “Give Him arms, those things that are within. And behold, everything is clean for you.” Do you know what that means? That means within everything is laid on the altar. And everything… There’s our word. Everything is clean. Everything is pure. But you hold back. It’s not pure. You adulterers and adulteresses. These are the ones protecting a part of your life from Him. Impurity, brethren.
“Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father.” This is His estimation. Is this… it is that you keep yourself unstained from this world. You have to do it. Those reflexive pronouns mean your responsibility. God doesn’t do it for you. You do it. The person sitting next to you, your spouse, doesn’t do it for you. Your friends don’t do it. You need to be determined and deliberate and intent. And this is a battle, and we are up against these great strongholds of thought that the world and the god of this world bombard us with. This is no easy thing.
And, brethren, be committed. Be determined. Say it, “All to you, Lord. All to you. Nothing held back.” And live in this book and wash in this book. Die reading this book.
Father, I pray. My desire is that Grace Community Church would be pure. Lord, help us to reach greater degrees of this glorious purity, greater degrees of a likeness to Christ, more and more. Help us, Lord, to advance, to be victorious. I pray in Christ’s name. Amen.
Standing against the doctrine of cheap grace, which dismisses the pursuit of holiness, is crucial. At the same time, we must be vigilant against the spirit of legalism. This discussion will delve into the formalism of self-righteousness and explore how to maintain a genuine faith while upholding a commitment to holiness.
There is something to live for! Eternal glory—and that’s what this prayer is all about. What you need to understand is that preaching, witnessing, preaching on the streets, and going into mission areas are all part of the cleanup—it’s all cleanup. The real battle is fought on your knees. The battle is fought on your knees. – Paul Washer
About the sermon: This sermon explores the deep significance of Jesus’ life as our ultimate example, focusing on His humility and total dependence on the Father. Even though Jesus was fully God, He chose to live as the “Second Adam,” perfectly obedient and reliant on God to undo the damage caused by the first Adam’s fall. The message emphasizes the vital importance of communion with God, showing that true strength and wisdom come from a life of prayer and intimacy with Him. It’s a call to believers to recognize their own weaknesses, lean on God for strength, and live each day seeking His glory and advancing His kingdom. Through this, we are reminded that our spiritual life thrives only when rooted in a deep, ongoing relationship with our Heavenly Father.
When Amos spoke, he was referring to David’s tabernacle as an example, highlighting that Christ’s original intention—the Gospel—was to reconcile both Jew and Gentile to Himself, putting to death the enmity between them.
Acts 15:13-18 – After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. And with this, the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, ‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.'”
“The joy of my salvation just doesn’t come. There are times when I don’t feel it, even though I repent and walk in purity. It seems that the joy of salvation in the Christian life remains elusive. I see Psalm 51 addressing this. What should I do when I have repented biblically, but the joy still doesn’t return? Is there some sin I’m unaware of that’s holding it back?”
This question comes from Luke. I’m going to deal with this because we just dealt a little bit with this at our Spanish speaking Grace Group, and I saw this and I thought, this is along the same line of what we were talking about the other day.
Hello. I’ve sent an email here before, and I’m thankful for the response that was given. Recently, I’ve been listening to more lectures and sermons, and it benefited in my knowledge from them greatly. In the past. I have searched for the answer to the following question for a very long time.
So if you’re being discerning, this is the last one, guys. So hang with me. We’re almost done. 20 more minutes. So you’re listening to this guy thus far. “I searched for the answer for in question for a very long time.” Nothing really take issue with. “I’ve researched and read the Bible and prayed about it, but I can never come to a solid conclusion on what the answer is.” Okay, here’s the question: “Does faith by itself save you? Does faith by itself save you?”
Again, you’ve got to be critical here. You’ve got to be thinking, not negatively critical, but you have to be thinking and just thinking Scripture.
Question: Hello, dear friends, and I’ll be honest. First off, thank you for your ministry. God has used your material wonderfully over the years in my life. Some of Pastor Tim, James’ brother Paul’s sermons were instrumental in my conversion. They have been a great help to me in my walk and in growing in holiness and desire for Christ. Why do we see healings, conversions, and other fruit and manifestations of power sometimes from ministries that present questionable teaching? I’m not speaking of the larger, more public word of faith or New Apostolic Reformation so-called ministries that are so popular these days. He says this, “I’ve noticed in my city in Canada, a good number of instances of what appear on the surface to be genuine miracles come out of churches whose leadership tends toward the direction of word of faith.”
Okay, let’s not just assume things. Somebody give me a good definition of the word of faith. What is that?
Given over to the prosperity gospel and name it claim, it, whatever you say will happen. They think that if they say it, it somehow is going to automatically make it happen. Anybody know about the New Apostolic Reformation? I mean, I know it’s a you know about that. I mean, it’s a Pentecostal/charismatic type group. I know they have like sevenfold, seven mountains of something. Anyway, what do you know about them? I just watched some stuff on the Urban Gospel TV network, and some people say it doesn’t even exist. Basically, it’s, there is not a base. People do things that there are modern apostles and that this Apostolic Reformation will be, just like the Protestant Reformation with New Apostolic teachings.
He says that I’ve noticed in my city in Canada, a good number of instances of what appear on the surface to be genuine miracles come out of churches whose leadership tends toward the direction of word of faith. Here’s his question: Are these instances of the Lord honoring faith? So he’s asking, are these instances of the Lord honoring faith even though their knowledge is flawed, or are they false miracles? Do they fall into the category of Matthew 7:21-23? And of course, that’s where people are doing many mighty works in his name. And he says, I never knew you. In the end, these people seem to have genuinely performed miracles in the name of Christ. How do we handle these cases?
The issue is admittedly of particular interest to me, as the young woman I’m pursuing with the hopes of future marriage gets pulled into these circles a lot because of close friends she has in them. Her uncle also pastors one of these churches. So obviously this guy is getting a perspective through this girl. She’s got an uncle in this. So things are being communicated back to him. He’s observing things, whether it’s through her eyes or however. She sees the issues and potential dangers in associating with them but is swayed by what appears to be the spirit moving in their midst in evangelism and healing, where many other churches here lack initiative.
I’m greatly appreciative of whatever insight you might have to give on the subject. One of the things that pop out at once is the girl is swayed by what appears to be the spirit moving in their midst in evangelism and healing. So what happens is you observe what you think is miraculous. You’re swayed to believe it’s genuine because of the miraculous. And then what happens is you embrace their theology as probably genuine, maybe slightly flawed, but as a whole, embraceable. Why? Because you’ve authenticated this thing by the fact that you observe the miraculous. Any problem with that sort of thinking? Like maybe it’s backwards? Does that occur to you that that’s backwards? Does it occur to you that if you think that way, or you’re swayed that way, that you’re playing right into the hands of the devil? Does that occur to you?
Because if I am swayed by what appears to me to be miraculous. Brethren, let’s just ask this question he’s posing. But, like, think about this. Why do we see healings, conversions, and other fruit and manifestations of power sometimes from ministries that present questionable teaching? Well, maybe they’re converted. Maybe they’re not. Maybe they’re healed. Maybe they’re not. Manifestations of power. The arm of the devil’s powerful God is more powerful. But the devil is pretty powerful. And the devil can do powerful things that, even if possible, might deceive the elect. Somebody said somewhere one time. And so my wife doesn’t like when I say that. She said, Tim, don’t say that. And they think that you don’t know what you’re talking about.
So I want to talk about the possibilities here. This guy has presented something. What are the possibilities? Obviously, one possibility is the whole thing is totally demonic. It’s a demonic false religion and anything apparently supernatural is either a deception, it isn’t really, or it’s a supernatural expression of some demonic activity in their midst. That’s one possibility. Two, it may be that the people he’s dealing with actually have the truth, even though he says that they’re off in some areas or, you know, they tend towards some certain direction. Maybe he’s wrong. Maybe they’re right. And maybe what he’s observing in them is altogether genuine. Maybe he’s right in that this is a situation where their doctrine is right in the core, but they’re kind of off in some other places, maybe some things we might say are more minor, and because they believe and they have faith, God does something there that he doesn’t do in a lot of reformed and Calvinistic groups, because Jesus doesn’t do many mighty works in certain places because of unbelief. Maybe there’s a whole lot of Calvinistic unbelief out there, and maybe some people that are in charismatic circles, maybe they have enough of the gospel where they’ve genuinely got saved, Pentecostal circles, and they have more faith than we have. Maybe there’s a possibility there.
Now, here’s the thing. We’re not there. One of the, what does Scripture tell us to do? What’s that? That’s to test the spirit. Where is that text found? First John 4. You should all know that we’re told to test the spirits. Okay, let me ask you this. What does that mean? Tell me what that means. Well, out doctrine and the devil’s way out there. Doctrine. Let me ask you this. If you came along and you found this church, and you found that, and you start looking around and it’s like, there’s sexual immorality, there’s fornication, there’s adultery here. And these brothers are suing each other. They’re off on the resurrection. You got people teaching weird doctrine here. And you guys over there, they’re speaking in tongues, and gays are prophesying. It’s like you look at it and they’re suing each other. And there’s obviously a problem with the women in the church, and there’s idolatry here, and there’s division. And the rich people aren’t waiting for the poor, and people are getting drunk at the Lord’s Supper. What do you think? They’re speaking in tongues. You think it’s genuine? You think it’s genuine? Test the spirits. What conclusion are you going to come to? Well, I didn’t know it was first Corinthians, I think it. You think it’s false? You might get. I was just getting a letter on the 13th. One, two, four. It says if there arises among you a prophet or dreamer of dreams who gives you a sign or a wonder and the sign of the wonder comes to pass, now which he spoke to you saying. This life. You are the God that you are not known. Let us serve him. We shall not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams, but the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.
So clearly, if somebody is trying to move us away from worshiping the God of Scripture, we would really need to know who the God of Scripture is. You know? Just watch. Just think with me. I find, without exception, the devil attacks two things always. He attacks the person and work of Jesus Christ, and he attacks the scriptures. Look at any movement. Look at any church. Look at whatever they profess to be or are. Look at what they say. Somebody comes along and says, what do you think about Seventh Day Adventists? What do you think about Seventh Day Baptists? What do you think about Church of Christ? What do you think about these different things? You know, all sorts of movements spring up in this group or that group, and just go right there every time. What do they believe about Jesus Christ? What do they believe about his work? His person? What do they believe about scriptures? You examine them at that level. You will expose the devil every single time. He attacks those two things. He can’t tolerate them. He hates them. You want to look for testing the spirits? What spirit is this of? And be very careful. In much of the false Pentecostal charismatic circles, the spirit in those religions exalts himself. The spirit of Scripture exalts Christ. Make no mistake about it. That’s what Jesus says. He will glorify me. And so then you want to look for that.
The devil in the garden attacked the word. You look at the error. Just think about like first John. What’s the error? It’s to say the wrong thing about Christ. If you’re looking for the Antichrist. So if we’re testing the spirits, listen. There is a large amount of unbelief in reformed circles. I believe it with my whole heart. You can tell how much people really believe by what they’re willing to trust God to do, how much they’re willing to step out in, trust in. I can
remember Brother Andy, a missionary that we support, and he was talking about people like Amy Carmichael. If you look carefully, Amy Carmichael, obviously a woman, she was in India. She rescued all sorts of children from these Hindu temples. She took over a thousand children in. She would preach to men. You see, I don’t like that. She’s a false prophet. Andy has made the point that there are certain people throughout church history that know 100 times less than us, but they do a thousand times more.
So be careful. Listen, if you test people at the level of what they believe about Christ and the level of what they believe about Scripture, they may be charismatic, they may be Arminian, but just be careful. Be careful, because sometimes people don’t agree with you in certain areas. Women in a mixed congregation of the church should not be. I mean, we don’t approve of women elders and women preaching to men, but historically things like that have happened. Is that a reason to cut them off? Like, you start looking at their life and you almost have to hang your head in shame at what they accomplished for the Lord. I know this. I quoted from a book at this last conference, the fellowship conference by John Nevins. John Nevins was actually a Presbyterian. He lived in the days of Hudson Taylor. He was working in China, and he began to have experiences with the demonic. So what he did was he reached out to all of these good, solid, doctrinally solid missionaries that were working in China. He wanted to hear their stories. You start reading, and I read today, and one of the missionaries that wrote to Nevins was relating his experiences. He said that what he found is when you had these brand new Chinese converts in simple faith, they opened up their Bibles and saw how demons were dealt with in Scripture, and they were just naive enough to turn around and simply apply what they found in Scripture to their own lives. And God blessed it.
Jeff was telling me he was recently reading a book put out by a Methodist from Asbury College who was writing on the miraculous. Jeff recounted situations in other countries where they would actually ask the American missionaries not to pray with them, and the Americans feel, why? Because you don’t believe in and. I think there’s something to that. And so, you know what? Sometimes you get things happening in Canada. It’s really none of our business. I mean, it doesn’t have anything to do with us. It has something to do with this guy, but it doesn’t have anything to do with us, and we’re not close enough to really be able to test the spirits. But we recognize that, you know what? I’ve had similar thoughts before that I have a feeling there are some groups out there where their faith is just simple enough, and they’re seeing God do things that we don’t get to see, because in simple faith, they have an expectation that God is going to do them. They may not cross every single T with us in God, every single I with us. But they have a simple faith in the Lord Jesus.
The thing is, he’s talking about in Canada and he’s observing. He’s observing not just one church or one person. He’s kind of being general. So I don’t know. You don’t know. I don’t know because we don’t know them. We’re not even, we don’t have the perspective to be able to test the spirits. But just because somebody disagrees on some peripheral things, you’ve got to look at the heart. You’ve got to look at the gospel. You’ve got to look at what is their take on Scripture. I mean, brethren, I can tell you this, that one of my great heroes is John Wesley. As Arminian as he was, and some of the perspectives he had on things like, you know, perfectionism or election. He probably had far more fruit than any of us will ever have. I know he was a hero of Spurgeon’s and sometimes we almost start by, you know, how perfect is somebody’s doctrine in aligning with what we think of Calvinistic Christianity. And brethren, sometimes there’s people out there with a whole lot less knowledge that have a whole lot more faith. So be careful that you don’t measure things by the wrong thing. You test in the spirit. Go to the heart of the matter. You can never get away from this. What do they say about Christ? What do they say about the Scriptures? If you’ve got them solid on those two points, be very careful that you dismiss them because the devil isn’t in the business of making people solid on those points. Any comments or questions with regards to that?
Brethren, you know what we don’t want? We don’t want to get to the end and have written off. I can remember one time calling one of these Reformed Baptist churches when I was down here at Community Baptist Church. I mean, they grilled me on what my position was on the Sabbath. And it’s almost, and you know, a lot of these guys from that group, they admit that they were swallowed up. They looked down their noses at everybody. They were hypercritical, hyperjudgmental. If you didn’t believe exactly how they believed with regards to the law, in regards to this, in regards to that. Brethren, as much as we do to one of the least of these children, we do it to him. I want to be very careful that we’re not dismissive of some of his genuine people, just because they don’t agree with us in every place. Be careful with that. Sometimes we can get this mindset, well, if you’re not of us, you know, should we call down fire on these people? Should we tell them to stop? Should we do this or whatever? And it’s like, don’t be of that spirit. Be careful. I tell you, one of the things they found when massive persecution came to Romania and they started throwing all these professing Christians into prison, you know, if you know about Richard Wurmbrand, you know, when you’re sitting in that dungeon, you care if the guy was a Methodist or a Lutheran, an Arminian? If you’re all sitting there and you’re in your chains and you’re breaking bread together, and your only hope is Christ, you don’t care if they were charismatic. God does save people in other circles than ours, folks.
Anything else on that point? I never heard your opinion on cessationism. Brother, if we’re going to cling to Scripture, then let’s cling to Scripture. I will say this. You will not find any verse in your Bible that says that anything given to the early church has ceased. It doesn’t exist. You may think certain things have ceased. You know what’s interesting? I was talking to Mac Tomlinson the other day. You know, Mac might preform with regards to this. Mac can’t sit. He hasn’t been able to sit for 50 days. He has told me again, God has been visiting him during this entire 50 days, and it has provided him an opportunity to really pour himself into his next book. You know what? He’s doing a book on the miraculous and the Scottish Covenanters. This is key for the Scottish Covenanters. Many of these guys were the Westminster divines. These are the guys that a lot of the reform movement in both Presbyterian and Baptist circles look up to. They, I mean, these are not guys that are easily dismissed. What Mac is doing is he’s researching all the supernatural that happened among these guys. How they freely spoke about prophesying and just, they were very persecuted. Sometimes they didn’t have Bibles. God was using them in all sorts of ways.
What’s the point? Well, these guys, the Scottish Covenanters, come along 15, 1600 years after the apostles, and they’re still seeing those things at that time. Brother Andy, some of you were here the last time he came here. One of our sisters said, can you tell us about things you’ve witnessed over there? He said, I could, but it would be sensationalized. So he chose not to. But I’ve sat with him in private and your mouth would hang open, and I’ll tell you, you hear some of Paul Washer’s stories about when he was in Peru. The same thing. Tozer said it and I, but you’ve probably often heard me say this, but Tozer said, you want to see the miraculous look on the front lines. You know, you can get a guy that comes along, one of these cessationist guys like John MacArthur, and say, well, where is it? I mean, if all this stuff is happening today, show me where. The problem is, when we are in our nice, air-conditioned building and there’s no real persecution, I mean, people aren’t busting in here and throwing us in jail. We basically have a very comfortable setting, and we have full Bibles and everything that we have. It probably ought not to surprise us. But, you know, when you get out there in the raw and you’re facing the devil, where, you know, in Hinduism and the rawness of Buddhism and Islam, and it’s right there in your face, you’re dealing with these things out there where the devil is not hiding behind the white shirt and the tie on Wall Street. It’s like this stuff is kind of in your face. There’s you get in environments where there’s persecution and there’s, what Andy said was, to the degree that you saw demonic activity, he said over and above, you saw God do things through the church supernaturally.
He cannot come here and talk among his supporters about the things he’s witnessed over there. Mac was telling me that Paul Washer was recently speaking in the context of something like the John MacArthur churches, and he was talking about the supernatural things, and he could tell a coldness was developing with his audience. Paul began to tell them about what God did in Spurgeon’s ministry and what God did through
the Scottish Covenanters. He said the guys were disarmed, because once you start talking about these guys that are your heroes and they experience these things, we’re always revisionist. Men love to revise history. So guess what? Banner of Truth comes along and they write a biography of Martin Lloyd-Jones. They don’t want to tell you about all the supernatural stuff that he experienced. Why? Because they don’t like it. So somebody comes along and writes their books on Spurgeon, and they’re not going to tell you about all the supernatural experiences. Yet they don’t like it. They’re not comfortable with it. They want to erase it. They don’t want to see. This is why it’s so great that Mac is actually keen in on these aspects of the Covenanters, because these guys are behind the Westminster Confession. It’s the staple confession of Calvinistic Presbyterianism today, from which the 1689 London Baptist Confession came. When you get the guys that make up some of the stalwart personalities that were behind these things and you find out that they’re out there having these kinds of experiences, well, you know what? There’s not a lot of people talking about it. Mac’s hoping to produce a whole book on it. He’s getting original resources. He’s been over to England and different libraries. He’s collecting all those together. And then God puts him in a situation where he’s got back problems and hip problems, and he’s out of commission, like on his back for 50 days. He feels like glory, and God’s meeting with him. He said, I have so much liberty to write this book. I told Mac, you’ve got to finish that before you die. We need that book.
He asked me just the other day, would you write all sorts down and just take an hour and the thoughts on prophesying and whatever your thoughts are on that. I just say be biblical because there is a text somewhere, and folks, this tells us not to despise prophesying. Now, you might have to figure out theologically how you define that term. The way to do it is to look at every place it’s used in your Bible, especially the New Testament. Look at every place that word is used in some form or another in the New Testament. Do an exhaustive study of every single place it’s used and get a good feel for what it was, what it was intended to do. Develop and derive your definition there because you’re not supposed to despise it. Answer me. Are you despising it if you write it off as something that doesn’t apply today? I would say so. It seems to me that would be the perfect example of despising it. Now we may have to define it. Is it broader than predicting the future? I think it is. If you study, I’ve studied probably not only every New Testament use but every use in the entire Bible. If you’re going to get a feel, you’re going to develop a feel. I want to be biblical. That’s where you’re going to be biblical. You do topical studies out of your Bible and you start looking. If we’re honest with Scripture, it’s like, where’s that verse that says all these things have stopped and ceased? Look, I recognize that when and we’re all safe and quite comfortable, well, is there a reason for certain things to happen?
Historically, you can look at times when tongues have been given, but you know what it’s like. The situation demanded it. What these charismatics are doing with it. For one, they don’t have interpreters. Get rid of tongues speaking with no interpretation, which the Bible says silence. If you don’t have an interpreter, get rid of all the non-interpreted tongues. You just got rid of 99% of all the tongues. Let’s just be biblical. The thing is, if we’re all sitting here and we all speak the same language, who needs tongues? You don’t. We don’t. But go read Richard Wurmbrand. You get thrown into a communist prison. Just read about the things that happen. I’ll tell you, if you were in prison, you were in a dungeon, you’d want those things to happen too. The situation demanded it, and Christ came and visited his people in wonderful ways.
One of the reasons we say a lot of the things we do is we don’t simply don’t know the history. We’re so much caught up in this revisionist thing. We’re so selective on who we’ll read and it’s all been tampered with. They give us their rendition of what history looks like. Sometimes we get a step out of that and go back. Anyway, brethren, you know what my prayer is on a regular basis. Lord, I don’t know what you’re willing to do right at this hour and in this place, but Lord, please, whatever the fullness of that is, give it to us. Please don’t. I mean, it was said of the Corinthians that they came behind a no gift. So I didn’t say, Lord, whatever gifts you’re giving today, please give them to us. Because there’s always purposes. It’s not just so you can sit back and say, well, I want to. That’s neat. There’s always spiritual purposes. There’s spiritual warfare. There’s encouragement. God gives these things for a reason to help his people. You read about what prophesying is. I mean, it’s to encourage the church. Anything else on that?
Tim Conway | James Series Part 10 | James 1:27 – Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Often in the family integrated movement, it is taught to have no form of children’s Sunday school. Should the whole family be together the entire time? Is it unbiblical to have a children’s Sunday school? What about the topic of “ragged schools” and outreaches to lost children? As a church, are you willing to reach out to the lost kids in rundown neighborhoods and even bring them into the church, where it might be “clean,” risking your kids getting lice from them in order to share the Gospel with them?
Sixteen years after the death of Mary Ann (mentioned in the preceding sketch), I was summoned to the sick-bed of her sister. She was a younger sister, whom I had never seen since she was a mere child, and of whose religious character I had no knowledge. She had married; and after many trying changes, she was now in the city of New York. A kind lady, one of my own friends who resided in that city, and who had formerly known something of her family in another State, had accidentally heard of her illness, had called upon her, and now did me the favor to bring me the sick woman’s request, that I “would go and see her.” She told me I should find her in a very destitute condition, very much unbefriended and alone, though she had herself done something for her, to make her a little more comfortable. I received this message in the evening, and early the next morning I made my way to the house, to which she had directed me.
I found the sick woman in a boarding-house, among strangers, where nobody knew her except her husband, and manifestly nobody cared for her. She was in the garret, in a little room close under the roof of the house. The scanty furniture and the whole appearance of the room, showed me, at a glance, how unenviable was her condition. There was but one chair in the room, and this was used for a table (the only one she had), on which were placed some vials of medicine, a tea-cup and a saucer, which constituted all the furniture of the room, except her humble bed. But all was neat and clean. If there was scantiness, there was decency.
As I entered the room, I perceived at once her hopeless condition. She was emaciated, pale, tormented with a hollow cough, unable to speak but in a whisper, and her cheek was flushed with that round spot of peculiar red, with which I had become too familiar to mistake it for anything else than the fatal signal. I approached the bed on which she was lying, told her who I was, and offered her my hand.
“I am very happy to see you,” said she (speaking with effort and only in a whisper, and compelled to pause at almost every word). “I did not suppose you would remember me at all, and for a long time I could not have courage to send for you, or let you know that I was here. But I remembered you visited my sister, Mary Ann, when she died, and I had a great desire to see you.”
“I am very glad,” said I, “to be able to see you; but I am sorry to find you so ill. I wish I had known that you were here, sooner.”
“You are very kind, sir; but I was afraid to trouble you. I have not seen you before, since I was a little child; and I supposed you had forgotten, that there was such a person. I am very thankful to you for being so kind as to come to see me.”
“Have you been sick long?”
“Yes sir, a good many months. I have lately been growing much worse, and I want now to get home to my mother, this week, if I can. I think I should be better there for a little while, though I cannot tell.”
“Do you think you are well enough to go home?”
“I hope I could go in the boat and live to get there. The hottest of the summer is coming on soon and our place here is very uncomfortable; but most of all I want to see my mother, once more before I die.” And the big tears rolled fast over her fevered cheeks.
“I hope,” said I, “you may be able to see her; but you do not seem to have much strength just now.”
“Indeed, sir, my strength is all gone. I cannot stand on my feet any longer. Before I became so weak I used to work with my needle and help my husband earn something; and then, we had a more comfortable place. But I can do nothing now and so we came to this garret to save rent.”
“Have you much pain?”
“Yes sir I am in great pain now, the most of the time.”
“Do you expect ever to get well?”
“Oh, no sir, I shall never get well. I know I am to die before long; the consumption is a hopeless disease. This painful cough will soon end my days.”
“Are you afraid to die?”
“Oh, no sir,” said she with a smile, “Jesus is my hope. He will save me.”
“Trust Him,” said I, “you trust eternal rock. He has promised,”
Interrupting me, she replied, “What can anybody want more than the promises? It seems to me the promises are enough for everybody; so sweet they are so full. Why, God has promised to make an everlasting covenant with us poor sinners!” And tears of joy coursed down her smiling face.
I conversed with her as long as I thought it best for her. All her conversation was in the same happy strain. She appeared very much exhausted, and I had little hope that her desire to “see her mother once more,” would ever be gratified. Indeed I did not think she would live till sunset. I prayed with her, and promising to call again in the afternoon, I left her.
Some little arrangements were made for her comfort, and in the afternoon I called there again. She was evidently worse, but her joy was full. Said she, “I bless my God for all my pain for the disappointments of my past life, and the strange strange way in which he has led me on. I have had trials many trials. My husband did not prosper as he hoped to do, and sometimes we have been in distress. But my trials have done me good. Now we have few wants. You know I cannot eat anything now, and I hope his wages will keep him from suffering. I came to this little room when I could not work any longer, on purpose to relieve him. The rent is cheaper here in this little garret, and I want to be as little burdensome to him as possible. I used to think when I first made a profession of religion trials would overcome me; but God makes me happy in them. I find if one is not worldly trials are easy to bear; and if we look towards God and heaven they are nothing at all but mercies.”
“And does your husband feel as you do? Is he a pious man?”
She turned her languid head upon her pillow, glancing around the room, to see if the nurse who had been procured for her, had left the room, and perceiving she was not there, said she: “I suppose I may speak freely to you about my husband, since we are alone. He is not religious, and that is the trouble of my heart.”
She could say no more: she wept and sobbed aloud. After a little time, becoming more composed, evidently struggling to suppress her emotions, she continued, “I must leave that I can’t speak of him. Oh, it seems to me as if the careless, who neglect salvation, have never read God’s promises. If they had and knew what they meant they could not help trusting them. I am happier now than ever I was before. It is sweet to suffer this pain, when Christ puts such delights into my soul.”
She was now stronger than I had expected to find her. I prayed with her, and promising to see her again the next day, I left her.
I was prevented from calling to see her the next morning, as I had intended; and when I called in the afternoon, I perceived her end was very fast approaching. Her countenance was changed, her pulse more feeble and fluttering, her voice was now perfectly restored, and she could speak with strong, clear articulation. She mentioned her recovered voice as an instance of God’s goodness to her, and both she and her husband took it as an evidence that she might live to reach her home. To me it was only an evidence to the contrary. She did not appear to be at all aware how near she was to death, and still entertained the hope of starting the next day, “to go home to her mother.” I felt very reluctant to crush that hope; but I thought she ought to be made acquainted with the prospect before her. She was still very weak and in some pain, and when I mentioned her sufferings to her, and expressed my sorrow that she had so much to endure; her face lighted up with a glad smile: said she, “Oh, it is pleasant to suffer, when we know it is our God that brings us to it. He does not afflict me too much. My poor body is weak and almost gone; but my God fills me with the delights of his love. My heart is full of joy. I am perfectly happy. I shall soon be where Christ is, and love Him forever.”
“I suppose,” said I, “you are aware that you cannot now last but a little while; and are prepared to go, at any moment when God bids.”
“I have no desire, sir, to get well. Why should I have? There is nothing in this world for me. You see we have nothing. I have parted with all my little furniture and my clothes, to get bread and pay our debts; and I don’t want the world; it is nothing to me now, and I leave it willingly. I am happy. God makes me happy. Christ is enough for me. I love to trust God’s promises. I trust Him for all I want, and He makes me very happy. Death seems like nothing to me. It is my friend. I welcome it. Dying is only a step, and then
I shall be at home, at home!” and tears of joy coursed down her smiling face. The last word-home, which she had uttered, seemed to remind her of her earthly home, and she added, “To-morrow, I hope to go home to my mother, and see her and all my other friends once more; perhaps I may.”
“I am afraid not, my dear friend. You are very low, and I wish you to be ready to die at any moment.”
Turning her death-glazed eyes upon me, she asked, “Shall I die to-night? If you think so, tell me plainly. Don’t weep so for me. I thank you for all your kind sympathy; but I am perfectly happy. God fulfils to me all His promises. I leave all in His hands—gladly, joyfully. But I think I can live to get home. You think I shall die to-night. I thank you for letting me know it; and I am ready if God calls. But if I am alive, may I see you in the morning? God will reward you, I know, for all your kindness to me.”
“Yes, my child; you may expect me here in the morning; but if you have anything you wish to say to me, you had better say it now.”
“I have no more to say, but to thank you again. Your kind words have done me great good; and it has been sweet to me, very sweet, to join with you in prayer. Help me to praise God for the delights that fill my soul. Don’t weep so for me.”
I prayed with her, and praised God as she desired, and then bade her farewell. “Do not think I weep because I am sorry,” said she, “I weep because I am overcome with joy. Delights fill my happy soul. This is the dawn of heaven. My heaven is begun. Dying is sweet to me. I go to my blessed Lord. I thank you for coming to me. Farewell, farewell.”
Early the next morning I returned to that privileged garret. It was empty! Even her corpse was not there! She had died about four hours after I left her; her body had been placed in its coffin, conveyed on board the vessel, and on the very day in which she expected to see her “mother once more,” her mother received the lifeless corpse of her child.
It now lies buried in the grave-yard of her native valley. She and Mary Ann sleep side by side. And they shall rise together from the dead, in that coming day when our Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven, ‘to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.’
If grace is there, how instructive, how glorious is
The Death of the PoorTread softly—bow the head—
In reverent silence bow;
No passing bell doth toll—
Yet an immortal soul
Is passing now,
Stranger! however great,
With lowly reverence bow;
There’s one in that poor shed—
One on that paltry bed—
Greater than thou.
Beneath that beggar’s roof,
Lo ! Death doth keep his state
Enter—no crowd attend:
Enter—no guards defend
This palace gate.
That pavement, damp and cold,
No smiling courtiers tread;
One silent woman stands—
Lifting with meagre hands
A dying head.
No mingling voices sound—
An infant wail alone;
A sob suppressed—again
That short, deep gasp, and then
The parting groan.
Oh! change—Oh wondrous change—
Burst are the prison bars;
This moment there, so low,
So agonized, and now
Beyond the stars.
Oh! change—stupendous change
There lies the soulless clod;
The sun eternal breaks—
The new immortal wakes-
Wakes with his God.
James 1:26 – If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.
0:00 – Has Anyone Not Spoken a Word Today?
1:04 – What Kind of Conversations Have You Had?
15:43 – The Only Religion That Is Not Worthless
24:03 – This Gives Us a Firm Warning
31:51 – Who Are the Most Problematic People in the Church?
34:06 – What Bad Speech Must We Put Off?
39:58 – What Good Can We Do with Our Speech?
57:06 – Conclusion
In verse 18, of His own will, He brought us forth by the word of truth. This is God saving us. He does it through the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures (James 1:18). Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear. And as I made the case last time, the hearing is obviously connected to the word of truth, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God (James 1:19-20). And you’ll see in verse 21 he picks back up this idea of the word: therefore put away all filthiness, rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word. It’s interesting. He’s speaking to my beloved brothers. We can talk to Christians this way, folks. We can say that they need to put certain things off in their life, receive the implanted word, and it’s able to save your soul (James 1:21).
Brethren, we are being saved. And there’s a way. God. Not us, not in our own strength. There is a way God saves, and it’s got to do with a relationship with the word. It’s able to save your souls. And how does it save your souls as you’re receiving it? And what does receiving have to do with verse 22? Not just hearing it. Be doers of the word and not hearers only (James 1:22). You see, there’s deceit if you hear only. Deception, obviously, has got to do with whether or not we’re a Christian.
Now we keep reading. If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, then we’re going to get a metaphor. He’s like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away, and at once forgets what he was like (James 1:23-24). Verse 25 is where I want to focus today: but the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing (James 1:25).
You know, this idea of being a doer and not a hearer only is something that James is going to keep at. When we get into chapter two, this idea that if you really want to validate faith, it’s validated by your works. You remember he’s going to bring up Rahab; he’s going to bring up Abraham. This is where he’s headed. He’s going to keep us in this tone of doing, doing, being doers of the word.
Okay, let’s dive in. Perfect Law of Liberty. Now, most of our translations say the perfect law. Verse 25, the law of liberty. Actually, if you’ve got certain translations, they like to put in italics what is not actually in the original, you’ll see that it actually reads in the Greek, the perfect law of liberty. The law isn’t in there twice. Many of the translations add it twice just to, I think, to pull out the perfect law. And then they reiterate the law of liberty.
So what is that? What is the perfect law of liberty? Is it the same as the entire Word of God? And I would say absolutely. Consider the metaphor. Now, look, I recognize this law can be used in different ways in the Scripture. You have to take the context to figure out the scope of what the author is talking about when he talks law. And there are different. Law can be like a principle or like the law of gravity. Also, law has to do with commandment here.
Just consider the metaphor. Look at verses 22 and 23. Be doers of the word, not hearers only. Verse 23: if anyone is a hearer of the word, and then what does that do? Well, it produces this idea in James’s mind of an illustration concerning a mirror. And in verse 25, what is the mirror into which we look? Well, obviously, it’s the word that he’s been talking about, except here he calls it the perfect law, the law of liberty.
And what he’s doing is he’s stressing three aspects of this word, of this mirror into which we look. And you see what he’s stressing. He’s stressing that it’s law, it’s perfect, and there’s liberty. And so, brethren, do you recognize that whenever God expresses His will, then is the ultimate law God telling us what to do, what not to do, expressing His will to us? That’s law. God comes along and He says, here’s my son, my beloved son. And He says, hear Him (Matthew 17:5). And Paul can come along and talk about the law of Christ. Christ is speaking. Christ is the Son of God. Christ came and has spoken on behalf of His Father. He’s relating to us what God wants us to know. And it’s called the Law of Christ.
There is law here. There’s an expression of the will of God. This law is perfect. You see that word? Those who look into this perfect law, brethren, perfect eye. Are you really grabbing that? You know what that means. That this is perfect. It really does mean this, folks, that I don’t need supplements. This is sufficient. I recognize it’s not sufficient for learning calculus, but it is sufficient for the things in life that really matter: how to be right with God, how to walk with God, how to have your soul saved. That’s the idea.
Brethren, to equip the man for works that please God. To equip a man of God perfectly. This is where we get it. You don’t need additions. You don’t need addendums. You don’t need other books. Brethren, it’s. Other books can be good only as much as they rightly divide this perfect word. Mentors, counselors. Others are only as good as they come back to this word. This is perfect. Now we sing about this: the law of the Lord is perfect (Psalm 19:7). Some translations say convert or revive. There’s this idea of a restoration of refreshing.
Brethren, do you recognize? Perfect. If you will seek to conform your life to this book, the greatest that man can achieve, the greatest excellency, the greatest beauty, the greatest perfection that men can achieve in this life is going to come from being conformed to this book. You can’t get away from that. Brethren, this is really sufficient. Perfect. So don’t add to it. Don’t take away from it. Not even in your mind where you’re saying, well, I need something else. You get there. I mean, brethren, how often do you feel like I need something else? This is just not working.
But, brethren, our problem is typically not being doers of this word, not coming back and living in this word and knowing it and living it and having it characterize our life. That’s the issue. Aren’t the answers there? How to be in the will of God? It’s in this book. Extra-biblical books, extra-biblical stuff, extra-biblical people, extra-biblical whatever. The mentors that you. Brethren right here, brethren, we really have to be people who can come to the Word of God and find it to be perfect and find it to be sufficient, and recognize that we got to run there.
The law of liberty, the perfect law of liberty, brethren. But let me tell you this, I get thinking about liberty, the law of liberty. But how does Scripture speak? I’ll tell you how Scripture speaks where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17). We read that the law of the Spirit of life sets us free in Christ (Romans 8:2). Brethren, there’s only freedom in this law if you’re a Christian because you know what Romans said. You know what Romans eight says about the law and in the last verse, brethren, the reality is this, that God frees us from our natural hatred to His law when He saves us. So now we find delight in the very thing that we used to detest. And the thing is, you know what the psalmist said: I delight to do Your will. Oh my God, Your law is within my heart (Psalm 40:8). I mean, David speaks for us. Is the Christian not free?
This is the beauty. I want you to recognize this. The Christian is free, not free to sin. Brethren, we are free to be like Christ. We are free to do right. We are free to obey. We are free to go down the path that really beautifies men. Free indeed. If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed (John 8:36). And we are indeed free. And we’ve got this perfect law of liberty. It’s set before us. We’re free to love. We’re free to be pleasing to God. Free from the bondage of sin and Satan.
You know what? We’re free from following the course of this world. Following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit. Get this. The spirit that is at work in the sons of who? Isn’t that amazing that people that are lost in this world are characterized as sons of disobedience? Not us, not us, not if our trust is in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is not the title for us. We’re sons of obedience. There’s a difference there. We’re sons of obedience. If we are.
Brethren, look, verse 25, the one who looks into the perfect law looks. Now, that is not a glance. That is a word that means to bend over. It’s got the idea of the person bent over to gaze into the depths. There’s an intensity. Somebody says it means to stoop sideways
. Some of the commentators actually say that this is the word that’s used when they come and they stoop to look into the empty tomb. There is an idea here of a real intensified look. And brethren, you know what Scripture says. You want wisdom. What do you do? You search for it. It’s like hidden treasure (Proverbs 2:4). Brethren, you go out there in the streets and you go walk around. You don’t find rubies scattered on the ground and diamonds scattered on the ground and gold scattered on the ground. You get it, dig for it. It’s the same thing with wisdom. That’s what Scripture tells us. It’s not just some casual glance.
Brethren, if somebody told you there’s a book over there and it is perfect, it perfectly describes what you should do and how you should live your life in order to please God. There’s a book over there that tells you the way to heaven. It tells you the way to the greatest joy, the greatest good, the greatest of all. This is a book, and it’s over there. And it’s perfect. What are you going to do? You’re going to ignore it. I mean, that’s what we’re being told here. When you go look, when you really look and notice it says perseveres. The Young’s Literal Translation says continues there, brethren. That idea of perseverance is the idea of the look. You look into the law, the law of liberty, and you’re looking with perseverance. You continue there. That’s the idea.
You know what? Sometimes you get people, you recognize this. You watch people you’re seeking to pastor, people you’re seeking to point people. You got to live in this book, live in this book, and you get people that have this occasional enthusiasm. But then as far as the word of God goes, they dive into it. You know, they have some New Year’s resolution. They’re going to read through their Bible and whatever, and they’re going to come to the Bible study here. But then it’s surrounded by vast seasons of just coldness and apathy. For a long time, I just assumed. I know what God did in my life and the hunger He gave me for the word. And so. And I remember the days I moved down here to Texas and out there at CBC, and it just seemed like, and you know, everybody’s carrying their Bible and this is so good and this is so healthy. I went to Bible churches up in Michigan, and they were carrying their Bibles. And it’s like people carry their Bibles. People are interested. There’s just an assumption. God’s people are in the word. God’s people are in the word. And I’m assuming that. And more than once my wife has said, Tim, I wouldn’t assume that. And it’s, we gotta persevere here.
There was a brother visiting last week. I don’t know if he’s here today. He told my daughter, Joy, that he visited another church in San Antonio, and he said he walked in with his Bible and the pastor looked at him and said, Oh, you won’t need that here. We’re not that serious. You know what Spurgeon said? Spurgeon said, Some of you can write damnation in the dust on your Bible. I would say that pastor can write damnation on his Bible.
Brethren. Perfect. Think of it. All that God has spoken and preserved as absolute truth is recorded in this book. The stuff that He wants us to know. And He can give us everything that could be known. But He’s given us 66 books of exactly what He wanted His people down through this. The running centuries of time. Here it is. This is what’s been preserved for us. It’s perfect. What are you going to do? You’re going to make it the 10th most important thing that you’re going to do today? Is that what is going to be? Are you basically going to live? Well, maybe I’ll get to it. I’m going to play my video game, and I’m going to watch my movie, and I’m going to go on Facebook and I’ll do that, and I’ll eat and relax, and then I’ll relax some more. And maybe if I have time. What are you, crazy? What are you doing? This is perfect.
I mean, brethren, this is something to get worked up about. God’s people going along, and I prioritize. Brethren, we live in a time when, I’ll tell you. You better be careful. All these little toys and all this technology, it saps people’s time and energy and attention away from that which is perfect. And all that time you spent on Facebook, you think that’s perfect? Video games. Guys, I hear guys in this church come home and play video games. It’s like, hey, be honest. The amount of time you spend on video games, what if you spent it in here? The amount of time you spend on movies or TV or whatever. What if you spend it here? The time of. I mean, it’s like these things. What are we doing? Do we not have souls? This is able to save your soul. That’s what it says. So it. Here it is. A doer who acts. That’s verse 25. Did you know this? That when you come to this book, this book gives us a work to do? Did you know that you can’t be hearers only? You got to be doers. That means doers of what? Doers of the word. That means when you go in here, God’s got something for you to do. You agree with that, right? And, brethren, what I’m going to do is show you in a second. The primary thing for you to do is not simply figure out how to make it to the meeting on Sunday. Now, that’s important. But isn’t that the main thing He’s calling us to do? You only come here to get equipped for the things that you’re supposed to be doing.
Brethren, we read in our Bible a work of faith. Have you ever read that? A labor of love. Fruits that are meat or suitable for repentance, or the obedience of faith? That’s the way our Bibles read. Brethren, what you’ll notice here is verse 25 is a beatitude. You remember the Beatitudes there in the sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek. They shall inherit the earth. There’s a promise given. This is a beatitude. Blessed is the doer who acts. He shall be blessed in his doing. Let’s see and get this. He shall be blessed in his doing. That’s exclusive. You say, what do you mean? Do you recognize that it’s only those who do, who are blessed? Because if you back up to verse 22, the person that hears and doesn’t do isn’t in the camp of the blessed, is in the camp of the deceived. That’s the kind of thing that we’re dealing with here.
Brethren. It doesn’t say blessed are those who just simply accumulate lots and lots of biblical knowledge. That’s not what it’s saying. Listen to this. You’ve probably seen this, but I’m going to throw some of these verses together to try to give you the impact of this. Have you ever noticed the Bible’s insistence that you, being blessed, is directly related to your obedience to God’s Word? And it’s inescapable. Listen to this: Psalm 19 that we just sang. Moreover, by them, he’s talking about the rules of the Lord. The Word of God. The commandments of God. Listen to this. Moreover, by them is your servant warned, and in keeping them, there’s great reward (Psalm 19:11). Not just knowing them, keeping them. Listen to this: Psalm 119. Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart (Psalm 119:2). Or how about this? You remember the woman in the crowd? She raised her voice and she said to Jesus, Blessed is the womb that bore you, the breast at which you were nursed. He said in Luke 11:28, Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and keep it. Are you recognizing the connection, blessing to keeping the word? John 13:17, If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. Our brother was in Revelation. Revelation ends, in the last chapter. Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book (Revelation 22:7). You can’t get away from it, folks. Blessing. I’m not saying you can’t live your life in disobedience to God and not know some of the kindnesses of God. He allows the sun and the rain just and the unjust, I recognize. But we’re talking about true deep spiritual blessedness is attached to this reality. And that’s the way Scripture speaks. You’ll be blessed in your home. You’ll be blessed in your workplace. You’ll be blessed in that family arena. You’ll be blessed in your prayer life. You’ll be blessed serving the church, blessed as a citizen, blessed in the recesses of your own soul.
So here’s the thing. This is what I want to do that James doesn’t do. At least he doesn’t do it yet. He is going to do it. But I want to step in right here and actually look back. We’re blessed if we look here. We receive this. We’re doers and not hearers only. We’re blessed. The doer of the word is blessed in his doing. So that’s a big book. What should we do? Some things undoubtedly could come to your mind right now. But what do we do? I was thinking, where do I start? Well, I figured this. Let’s let Scripture dictate where we should start. Have you ever read any place that said maybe from the mouth of Jesus himself, that there are some things in this book that are weighty? Have you ever read that? There
are. Remember Jesus speaking to the Pharisees, scribes, and the Pharisees, and He says, you guys do this, this, and this, but you neglect the weightier matters (Matthew 23:23). I would say that if we’re going to look in this book and we’re going to be doers, not hearers only, we’re going to be these blessed doers. Then you know what, brethren? We need to really be striving to embrace that which is weighty in the mind of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so let’s turn in your Bibles. Go to the verse, Matthew 23, because that’s where He talks about weightier matters of the law.
Again, in tune with James. James is saying, you’re blessed if you do. He says, if you don’t do but you hear, only you’re deceived. Well, listen, Jesus talks the same way. He’s going to talk to some people who are not doers of the weighty matters. And He doesn’t say you’re blessed anyway, or you’re blessed because you do these minuscule things with the dill, the cumin, the mint. He says, woe to you, woe to you. That means they’re in trouble, folks. They’re not in a good place. Obviously, Jesus does not want us to neglect these weightier matters. And what are they? Justice and mercy. Some translations say kindness. And I mean, I’m going to point out, why am I making that emphasis in a second? But justice, mercy, or kindness? And some translations say faith, some say fidelity, some say faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others (Matthew 23:23).
So think about that. Woe to you. That’s the camp we find ourselves in if we neglect weighty stuff. Now remember, a doer acts. These guys did not act on the weighty matters; they neglected. You got to act. Actions are key, brethren. Passivity is the opposite of activity. Do you recognize something? Oftentimes, we can talk about the surrendered life. We need to be surrendered to Christ. But, you know, sometimes there’s almost this idea that if we surrender to Christ, we’re passive. That’s not true. That is not true at all. To be surrendered to somebody is to do what they say. To be surrendered to Christ is to be very active in the things that He calls us to be active in, not passive. You need to grab that. So true surrender calls for true obedience and true activity according to what God has said in His Word. And of all the acts one, you got to distinct that the weightier matters are the issue. And, you know, the Old Testament stresses just this as well.
Remember this, He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you? But to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8). That’s why I brought kindness in before. Do you recognize the Old Testament? What Jesus says is exactly the same thing. Justice. Mercy. These guys neglected that. Now, when I talk justice right now, you remember we were singing Psalm 19 and judgments, the judgments of the Lord. But you know, that doesn’t mean that somebody is going to be punished in the end. The judgments of the Lord there is and be basically a synonym for the rules, the commandments of God. In fact, justice. Listen, I’m going to use the term right now, and I don’t want you to think about it the way you were thinking about it when Jeff brought it up. The idea of justice, it fits, undoubtedly, with what Jeff said. But don’t think of our court system. Justice is what you do when you uphold the law. And remember, we’re looking into the perfect law of liberty. That’s where we’re looking. Justice is basically just the administration of what is right. What is fair, by God’s standard. And here’s the thing. The justice he’s talking. See, these guys? They were taken advantage of. Widows. And when Jesus comes along and He says you’re neglecting justice, it’s that. It’s that which is right by God’s law that goes side by side with mercy and kindness. Brethren, do you know it is a just thing to, according to God’s law? It is a very just thing to show kindness to people and to be merciful. Often when we think justice, we’re thinking, well, they get what they deserve. But do you know to be just at this time, before the end and before the judgment? It is a very just thing to obey what God has set forth. And you know what He said as much as possible. What should we be doing? He’s as much as.
Let’s not the verse. I have as much as possible. You know, somebody said it. Not the piece. Other good were to do good to others, especially. So let me say. God’s law. If we’re looking for justice, if we’re looking for that which is just and oftentimes justice is, is side by side with righteousness as well. But if you take what is just, it is to do good to all men. As much as possible, we do good to all men, especially those of the household of faith. This is the idea. Listen. This idea of mercy and kindness, the justice that goes with that. This is weighty, folks. Jesus comes along and He says, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice (Matthew 9:13). Again, that was Matthew 9. In Matthew 12, He says, if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless (Matthew 12:7). Proverbs 21:3: To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. You go to Jeremiah. Remember this: to the sons of Josiah. God said this. Do you think you’re a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? What did he do? Then it was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor and needy (Jeremiah 22:15-16).
See, judgment is not just giving people what they deserve for their crimes. The judgment here is to judge the cause of the poor and the needy. That’s how Scripture speaks. We’re talking about the weighty things. We’re talking about looking into this book. God wants us to be doers of it. So this is the kind of thing that He wants us involved with. He wants us concerned with. James himself is going to tell us almost immediately, you know, what true and undefiled religion before God is? What is it? This is to visit the orphan and the widow in their affliction (James 1:27). And I’ll tell you, that word visit is a broad word. That doesn’t mean you pay a visit and you show up at their door and they open it. You say hello. Visiting them in their affliction. That means you’re seeking to mitigate their affliction and their suffering and their needs.
Out of all the things. Think of it. I have scanned Scripture studying Judgment Day. And I mean, we get these broad things like we’re going to have to give an account for the things that we did in our body. But I come back to this over and over. The one place where you actually have the person’s deeds, I don’t know. There’s places like Romans 2 where it talks about, well, the people over on this side, they’re selfish, and they did this. And the people over here, well, they’re doing good. They’re patiently doing that. I mean, there’s things like that, kind of broad. But you know what’s very interesting? Matthew 25 captures the justice and the kindness, and Jesus steps in and says, you know what’s going to differentiate? I got people over here on the right hand who were doers. You know what they did? They found the hungry and they fed them. And He says, I was hungry and you fed me (Matthew 25:35). Now, listen, we’re to do good to all men, especially to the household of faith. The household of faith is Christ as much as you do it unto one of these little ones. You’ve done it unto Him. And He says, I was hungry, and you fed me. You think this is weighty? Out of all the things that Jesus could have said that He’s going to look for on that day when He’s evaluating your life and my life. Don’t read that as though that’s like some story or fairy tale that’s detached from you. It’s not detached from you. You’re going to be there in all the nations that are gathered there. You’re in that crowd. And you know what? As He divides, there’s some doers and there’s some that didn’t do. There’s some that did something about hungry people and needy people and widows and orphans. Homeless people. Sick people. There’s that. This is weighty, folks. This is really weighty.
And again, I come back to the Old Testament and I recognize you get these. You’ve got these people that God actually says He makes statements about them. He says to His people, Israel in Isaiah, declare to my people their transgression (Isaiah 58:1). What was their transgression? Well, He starts by saying, they seek Me daily. Was that transgression? Is there something bad with that? They delight to know My ways. Well, that sounds great. As if they were a nation that did righteousness. You see that? You got to get that. They were portraying themselves as seeking God and delighting to know His ways, as if they really were concerned about righteousness. And get this: and did not forsake the judgment of their God (Isaiah 58:2). You know what
judgment means. It’s the legal claim. You see, God says, you neglected this. You forsook this, the judgment or the legal claim of their God. They ask of Me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God. They say, why have we fasted? You see it not. Why have we humbled ourselves? You take no knowledge of it. Behold, in the day of your fast, you seek your own pleasure. You see, there’s the issue, selfishness. You fast only to quarrel, in other words, of seeking themselves. They’re not seeking others and not seeking the care of others. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose? Will you call that a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?
And then He says this. You want to know what pleases Me. And brethren, this is no different today. This is no different than the picture that Jesus gives us for Judgment Day. And dividing the sheep and the goats and those on the right hand. They were doers. And He says to them, you weren’t doing the things that mattered. We can be very good at doing lots of stuff, but we miss the weighty matters. Well, I’m a churchgoer. I own a Bible. I go to the Bible study. I plan on going to the ladies’ meeting. Those things are great. It’s great to hear. It’s great to learn. But here it is. Of all that God has to say to His people, Israel, all that He desires that they do in their religiousness, religiosity. They’re doing many things, but in all of it, they’ve forsaken that legal claim of God, that judgment of God, which is what? What is His legal claim? So that. And the very thing that is heart and soul of what God wants is missed.
What is justice according to God’s perfect law? What’s it look like? Listen to this: Is this not the fast that I choose? This is. This is the heart of the matter, is what God is saying to them. Just like it was the heart of the matter with Josiah. Don’t think you’re some king because you come along and you’ve got riches or you got wealth, or you’ve got cedar, or you’ve got these different things. There is a king. And he gave himself to the poor and needy that you know what God said? That’s what it is to know Me. And it’s no different today, this fast that God is looking for. What’s it look like? Is not this the fast I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, undo the straps of the yoke. We’re looking to set people free from their afflictions, their bondage. Let the oppressed go free, break every yoke. Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, bring the homeless poor into your house? This sounds a whole lot like what Jesus was saying there in Matthew 25. When you see the naked, to cover him, not hide yourself from your own flesh. Verse nine: if you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted. And you know what James says? If you’re a doer, you’re blessed in your doing (James 1:25). Are these people blessed? Then shall your light break forth like the sun, your healing shall spring up speedily, your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer (Isaiah 58:8-9).
I mean, there’s a promise of answered prayer. There’s a promise that God’s going to be there. There’s a promise of light in our life. There’s a promise of just righteousness. Go before you. You’re going to have a reputation of being righteous, of being upright. You’re calling, and God is saying, here I am. Then shall your light rise in the darkness, your gloom be as noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, satisfy your desire in scorched places, make your bones strong. You’ll be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt (Isaiah 58:10-12).
You know what? God came along and He said, Satan, have you considered Job? And you know what He said about Job? Job was blameless and upright (Job 1:8). Okay? What does blameless and uprightness look like? Job said this: I was a father to the needy, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know (Job 29:16). This is not just simply passivity, where I wait for a need to come. This is actually a man who is searching. He’s got his eyes moving back and forth. He’s looking for the need.
Brethren, we have to get past this, thinking that Christianity is primarily about what we don’t do.
That is key. I did some searching in the past and listen to this world. Religions basically tell us to leave people alone. This is Buddhism’s Udonna Varga: “Hurt not others with that which pains yourself.” Hindus’ Mahabharata: “This is the sum of duty. Do not to others, which if done to thee, would cause the pain.” Judaism’s Rabbi Hillel: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow creature. This is the whole law.” Confucius says, “Do not to others what you would not wish done to yourself.” The Apocrypha: “Do not do to anyone what you yourself would hate.”
The parent comes along and asks a child, “What did you do to your brother?” I didn’t do anything. It’s always what we don’t do. Ask somebody at evangelism, “Are you good?” “I never murdered anybody.” I mean, that’s that. You know what? When Jesus commends people and says to them at the end, to those that are to enter into joy, what does He say to them? “Well done” (Matthew 25:21). You don’t give a commendation like that unless they had done something worth the commendation. The idea is they did something.
Jesus could have said to those on His right, “Well, I came to your door and you didn’t kill Me.” Yeah, but the guys on the left can say that. You see, that’s exactly the point. Is that why we don’t? You see, the guys on the left? They didn’t kill Him. The guys on the left didn’t spit on Him. You know what they did? Nothing. They didn’t do anything. Just indifferent. And you know what? The religiously indifferent are all around us. Just because we carry a Bible doesn’t mean we can’t.
Brethren, the idea is the guys on the left didn’t do good or bad. They just avoided it all. They just ignored it. They acted like the needy didn’t exist. Brethren, see Christianity for what it is. Christianity is not just this list of negatives. You see, sometimes we have this idea. Wasn’t it like this when we were lost? This is how I saw Christianity when I was lost. Christianity is all about what it’s against. You know, Christianity. If you’re a Christian, you got to be against this and against this, and it’s all these negatives. Do you see the heart and soul of this? Is not that. The heart and soul of this is to love and give your heart. When we’re lost, we’re just takers. We’re not givers.
All of a sudden you get saved and Christianity is radical. I mean, brethren, do you recognize we’re called to be the followers of this blessed one who is called the friend of tax collectors and sinners? And Scripture says He’s anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. And what did He do? He went about doing good and healing all those who were oppressed by the devil. God was with Him (Acts 10:38). I mean, that’s weighty. What Jesus did is weighty. He went about doing this good. He went about and He was seeking out people. And He was just constantly doing good, constantly.
Brethren, you know what? Jesus comes along and He says, hey. Let me tell you something. If I take all the Old Testament, which He calls the law and the prophets, He said, you want to know if I take all that Moses said, all the prophets and all your Old Testament? And I basically boil it down to the weighty matter. What are we left with? You know what we’re left with. Jesus tells us, listen to this. Whatever you wish that others would do to you. Do you see? That’s how it’s different from all these world religions that tell us just to leave people alone. It’s not that. Do. This is the law and the prophets (Matthew 7:12).
Now we can admire this. All this golden rule it says is glorious. But what a wonderful scene it is. We can typically quote it. But you know what Jesus says right after this, just a few verses later, everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like the wise man who built his house on the rock (Matthew 7:24). Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them, will be a foolish man who built his house on the sand (Matthew 7:26). This is precisely what James is saying. Doers, not hearers.
The golden rule. This is the law and the prophets. What does that mean? The law and the prophets. Jesus said, “Don’t think I came to abolish the law and the prophets. I did not” (Matthew 5:17). But you know what He says when you boil it all down, it comes down to this: You’ve got to treat others the way you want to be treated. And He says, give yourself to treating other people the way you want to be treated. The spirit of the law, the spirit of what Moses gave us, is summarized and boiled down to a single principle. Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. For this is the law and the prophets (Matthew 7:12).
That’s the same substance. You see the true intent. It’s not a list of restrictions. It’s not, brethren. Being a Christian is not just trying to do the bare minimum so that I can get in. That’s not the idea here. If that’s all I see, just some mechanical list. And in regulations and negatives. Brethren, you recognize you missed the very heart of the law. You missed the weighty stuff, which is what? Justice. Mercy. Luke’s rendition says the love of God. That’s the issue.
Folks, don’t simply be someone able to quote the Golden Rule. We’re supposed to implement it. So how do you implement it? How do we do this? Weighty stuff. Think Jesus assumes that whatever I want others to do to me, others want me to do to them? That’s what He’s assuming. I desire to be visited when I’m sick or clothed. If I don’t have clothing or fed or cared for, that’s the idea. You desire encouragement. So do I. You desire not to be forgotten. You desire to be helped when you have some need come up. You desire to be dealt with kindly. You desire to be well spoken of. You don’t like people to gossip about you. You don’t like people to do evil to you. You don’t like people to steal from you. You don’t like. You don’t like those things. You don’t like to be forgotten.
How quickly we forget others. We do. And we don’t forget our own needs. Brethren, it’s like out of sight, out of mind. But we’ve. Brethren. The thing is, we. How do we implement? The idea here is that you just have to think, how do I want to be dealt with? What kind of desires do I have and spin the thing around? Put yourself in the other place. Job searched out, John said. You know what? If I was out there and I. And I was just forgotten and I had these needs and nobody knows and I’m just forgotten. Oh, we hate to be forgotten. And he says, I’m searching it out. I’m searching out people’s needs so that they’re not forgotten. And I brought them to my table and I found clothing for them. And I did these things. This is how you implement this. You’ve got to be proactive, folks. You’ve got to be intentional. You got to be deliberate. And, brethren, it’s the perfect law of liberty. We’re free. We can. We’re just free to love people in the different ways that God has gifted us, or with the things that we have. But you got to be intentional. You got to be deliberate at this. You got to think. You got to imagine yourself in their place. Isn’t that what the author of Hebrews says? Didn’t he say, put yourself in the very place of the people that are in prison? That’s what he said (Hebrews 13:3).
What does that mean? That means I actually think about them being over there and what they’re suffering. And, you know, if I was there, I’d kind of like, somebody bring me food and I’d like somebody to bring me a Bible, and I’d like somebody to do this. And then, brethren, that’s the idea here. If you were there, why. So you’d want is to be just forgot, and you’d want people to remember. And we don’t forget our own needs. And the idea here, here is we’re not. Jesus doesn’t want us forgetting the needs of others. I mean, brethren, imagine if the whole church was actually, I mean, striving to be doers of this striving to treat other people and love other people the way that we want to be. I mean, brethren, you turn the world upside down. And you know what? It did make the church this literal heaven on earth. But, brethren, do you recognize what we’re talking about? We heard in the first hour about the fact that the bride made herself ready. What was she clothed with? There’s fine linen. It’s the deeds of the saints (Revelation 19:8). These things follow us. I mean, when you compare Revelation 14 and Revelation 19, the deeds of the saints follow us and we’re robed by them. How does the bride make herself ready? By her deeds? That is how we’re seeking to do this, folks. This is and this is the issue that we’re dealing with.
And you just think about Mary. She did what she could (Mark 14:8). Brethren, do you realize you’re not called to do what other people are called to do? You’re called to do with what you have. You’re called to use the spiritual gifts you have and the money you have, and the time you have and the life you have for these things. I mean, Jesus said, whoever loses his life for Him, they find it (Matthew 10:39). Brethren, I’m calling you to that life. Go lose your life for Him. Do what Mary did. Do what you can. Mary did what she could. God doesn’t expect more than that.
Brethren, the thing is, the problem in all of this, we know where it is. It’s selfishness. And Romans 2 speaks this way. Those who are self-seeking do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness. There will be wrath and fury (Romans 2:8). Basically, you know what characterizes the people on the left? The goats. They’re self-seeking. Well, that’s obvious. They’re self-seeking because they didn’t help the people in need. They didn’t visit the sick. They weren’t mindful when people were homeless and naked. The whole thing can be boiled down to self. Just selfish, self-consumed self-deification. Our Lord would have us to love our neighbor as our own self. But you know why we don’t? Our neighbor just isn’t all that important to us. We’re important to us and our needs are important to us. And we feel them keenly. And we have a real problem. Brethren, you got to put yourself in other people’s place, and you need God to help you. And you need to have the warmth of Christ there. You don’t need to look at other people. It’s just like, well, they’re nothing special. I’m the one that’s important. There’s no room for them on my throne. Well, it’s just self-deification. I’m entitled. They need to bow to me. Treat others like I want to be treated. I don’t think so. I don’t like you doing that to me. But I have no problem doing that back to you. I mean, but that’s how we are naturally, folks. That’s by nature. We’re preeminently self-absorbed, preeminently a taker, not a giver. Oh, you see people in the church like that. They take, take, take, take. They don’t give. That’s a blight on all of this. And, you know, in the end, where they’re going to prove to fall out, they’re going to be on the left.
If there’s anything that ought to characterize Christians in a very selfish world, it is that we’ve been gripped by the grace of God to change us. Some radical change here, of course. By nature, people in the world, and we when we were lost, or you if you’re still lost, you’ll be kind to people to an extent, to a degree, just so long as you know it makes you look good and it serves your own interests. But by nature, we just don’t have the capacity to embrace those weighty matters. Why? The whole time I’m just consumed with me, exalting me. And you know what happens when you exalt you? You don’t much like the God of Scripture. Why? Because He’s the kind of God who dreadfully interferes with my self-importance. You know, the God of Scripture threatens me, and we tend not to like that.
But then what happens? Brethren, you know what happens. Then all of a sudden, we’re confronted. The gospel comes in, and the Son of Man, we see Him lifted up, His body broken. I mean, we come to Him to be healed of the selfishness, and that blood is very healing, and we become these new creatures, and our eyes get opened. Did you have that? I mean something, the Spirit comes in, and the first aspect of that, of the fruit of the Spirit is love (Galatians 5:22). And did you have that happen where suddenly your eyes get open, you begin to notice other people in a different way than you did before. Suddenly there’s a spirit of compassion. There’s this. Do you recognize it? All this. He died. He shed His blood for the stinking kind of selfishness like mine. The Spirit under conviction with all of that stuff. But all of a sudden, then what happens is supernatural compassion arises in us, and we begin to look around. You know what happens? We begin to notice others. We actually really look at them like they have eternal souls, and they have feelings and needs. An entirely new view of other people. That’s what happens, especially of those of the household of faith. We really, and God gives us an endearment there, and God help us to see people as more than just these impersonal blobs who block us in the checkout line. I mean, there’s people there, and they’ve got souls, and these are real people.
Brethren, again, I say it: Whoever loses their life for Christ’s sake and for the gospel, they’ll find it (Mark 8:35). Brethren, this is the kind of thing that He’s called us to. This is a true and undefiled religion before the Lord (James 1:27). We’re going to get to that right here, and then we’re going to dive into that more as far as what James is saying.
Brethren, listen. Does the gospel call us to work? Yes. Does Christ call us to work? Yes. And sometimes people hear all these things, especially dogmatic talk, like the Sermon on the Mount or like James, and you just, you get hit with all of this and it’s like, where’s grace? Brethren, let me tell you something. The thing that differentiates this from Catholicism and from any kind of salvation by works, the great thing that you need to remember, and this is as weighty as anything, is, we look into this perfect law of liberty (James 1:25). Is this reality that without Christ you can do nothing (John 15:5). And the reality is, whoever abides in Him, in Me and I in Him, he it is that bears much fruit. And this is what we want. This is the fruit. This is all these deeds that make up this robe that will be robed, these deeds that follow us, this much fruit apart from Me. You can do nothing. You can do nothing of any value. Oh, you can be in motion, but you can’t do anything that’s worth anything to God. That’s the idea.
The great key to living the Christian life is found right here. All these weighty things. This is what He wants us about. But if you’re going to do this and you’re going to have deeds to lay at His feet, brethren, I’ll tell you this. Everything we do, we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do these good works (Ephesians 2:10). And God does them through us. God does them in the power of Jesus Christ. That power of Jesus Christ is that Holy Spirit. You want to know, we are branches. We’re plugged into the vine. You know what that sap is that comes out that we rest on? It’s the Holy Spirit. That’s where the empowering comes from. You’ve got to rest here. This is the key. This is the center of it all. There’s no greater truth concerning your time and my time in this world and in all these things that Christ has called us to do.
Fruit is not ultimately a matter of you being strong or you being weak, you being mature or you being immature. That’s a greatly gifted or little gifted. Christ is the key to making your life rise above nothingness. Christ is that key. If my link, if my life with Christ is right, all is right. This is the issue. It doesn’t matter what accomplishments you’ve had, what attainments in Scripture you have, whether you’ve gone to seminary, how extraordinary your conversion was. None of that matters. How well you know your Bible, how eloquent, how fervent. That isn’t the issue. You’ll not produce fruit detached from Christ. You got to live with Him. You got to live close with Him. The idea here, it’s all related to a person. There’s more to be had. But how is it going to be had?
And you look around, folks, look around at Christianity. Look around. There is so little power, so little supernatural, so little that is impressive. About so many. If there’s going to be that which is, it’s all related to a person. You ought to rise above nothingness. It’s involved with this person who said, whoever abides in Me, I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. Listen, the strongest branch is no different from the weakest branch. If it’s severed from the vine, it just doesn’t matter. The branch. What does a branch have a responsibility to do? Be plugged into the vine. Draw the sap and bear the fruit. That’s the responsibility of it. Absolute dependence. The branch in itself has nothing. It is nothing. It knows nothing. It can do nothing. Brethren, don’t you think that maybe we ought to be in the place where we’re studying and we’re meditating, and we’re trying to really get a grasp on what it means to be nothing. You see, the problem is we walk around and that idea of nothingness just isn’t permeating our thinking all the time.
We get, you know, one of our big problems is dependency. Independence, rather. Independence Day. Didn’t we just have that? We like to be Indian Americans. We like to be independent. We don’t want anybody else’s help or we want to break fruit. We want to be free from all of it. But there’s an absolute dependence here. Much work goes on in the church, but I think if we’re honest, there’s often little power. What’s the issue? Connection is the issue. That’s what abiding is. You got to live there. There’s got as brethren, brethren, brethren, brethren, as close to Jesus as possible. That’s the key. That’s the key.
And as much as, I’ll just say, brethren, you got to live in this book. But, brethren, you got to live communing with Him. You got to live talking with Him. You got to live in prayer. Brethren, don’t you realize we draw all our nutrients from Him? All of our wisdom, all of the power to live this life, all of our encouragement, all of our direction, all of our help. It’s from Him. Sister, God never gave you a husband to fill that spot. Money doesn’t fill that spot. It’s Christ. It’s Christ alone. No religion, no pastors, no mentors, no counselors. Not other Christians. Nobody else is going to fill that spot. It’s Christ. You can go to the Bible study. You can be around other Christians. You can come to the meeting. But, brethren, there’s no substitute for you living in the presence of Christ and walking with Him and talking with Him and abiding in Him and letting that image burn into your own being of who He is. That’s the way we get to see Christ and know Christ and trust Christ and hear Christ and love Christ. Run to Christ, find Him, abide in Christ. Oh, it’s in Him. And I tell you, you live in the fragrance of that reality. And then you put your sights on the weighty matters. He went about doing good. And I tell you, there will be fruit, there will be transforming fruit. Oh, oh, oh, Christ.
Father, I pray that you’d help us to live in these realities, to be doers, to consider the weighty matters—the justice, the mercy, the kindness, the needs in this world. Help us to all be like Mary, not to be concerned with what other people can do, but doing all that we can do. Oh, what it would be for every one of us to hear the same commendation that she heard. She did what she could. Give us grace to do what we can. Every one of us has different measures of health, different places in life, different amounts of energy, different amounts of money, different amounts of spiritual gift. Lord, help us be faithful. Well done. Help us be doers, not hearers only. Help us to know the fullness of the blessing that the doers of Your word will be blessed with. I pray it all in Christ’s name. Amen.
In this sermon, Tim Conway exposes 26 mental gymnastics we perform, 26 excuses we make after the sermon, and 26 ways we talk ourselves out of obeying God’s Word, even when convicted by its truth. Drawing from James 1:21-22, he’ll reveal the gap between hearing and doing, challenging us to move beyond mere conviction and into active obedience.
0:00 Introduction and Reading Text
2:30 Where We Will Go Next Time: What is the Perfect Law of Liberty?
3:38 Have an Anger Problem or a Problem with Rampant Wickedness?
12:35 Be Hearers of the Word, Not Hearers Only
14:54 How Many Did Not Look in a Mirror Today?
24:49 The Mindset Behind Why People Hear and Don’t Do
26:11 1 – The Casual Listener
27:39 2 – Listening on Behalf of Someone Else
29:23 3 – Create a Category Where the Text Does Not Apply to Us
33:16 4 – We Wait for God to Do Something
34:12 5 – We Imagine Someone Else Is Going to Do It
36:06 6 – I Am Praying About It
37:16 7 – The Wretched Man Complex
38:17 8 – Always Looking for the Next Mentor or Counselor
39:52 9 – The Person Easily Offended and They Reason Themselves Out of Obeying
42:00 10 – Living on Past Obedience
43:41 11 – Living on Future Obedience
45:18 12 – Living on Someone Else’s Obedience
46:14 13 – The Imputed Righteousness Excuse
48:09 14 – It Is Just the Preacher Saying It, He Didn’t Prove It from the Bible
49:11 15 – Because of Exceptions to the Rule You Dismiss the Entire Obligation
51:23 16 – I Can’t Understand It, So I Don’t Need to Worry About It
52:21 17 – You Lie to Yourself About You Doing What You Are Not Truly Doing
53:28 18 – Others Do Not Obey So I Don’t Need To
53:58 19 – I Am Partially Obeying So It Is OK…
55:10 22 – Doctrine Instead of Obedience
55:39 23 – Discouraged by Past Failures
57:07 24 – Disobeying God by Obeying Man-Made Legalistic Commandments
57:36 25 – Or the Scriptures Are So Broad in an Area That You Miss Applying It
58:48 26 – I Am in a Trial So God Cannot Expect Me to Obey in That Area
1:00:20 Where Can I Run Faster for Christ?
1:03:08 27 – Our Mindset of American Christianity Makes Us Not Think Like the Bible Does
1:07:29 Closing Prayer
In this sermon on Mark 3, we explore the context of Jesus’ teachings on blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, distinguishing it from other sins that can be forgiven. The discussion includes the meaning of blasphemy, Jesus’ warnings, and the relevance of these teachings today, offering hope and clarity to those with sensitive consciences.
00:00 – When You Exposit a Book, You Cannot Overlook Any Text.
03:24 – Opening Prayer.
04:26 – The Context in Which Jesus Says What He Says.
11:38 – Beelzebulb?
16:10 – The Strong Man Is Now Like a Dog on a Leash.
18:59 – What Is Jesus NOT Claiming?
20:39 – Who Is Jesus Primarily Warning?
25:42 – What Constitutes Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit?
29:36 – What Does Blasphemy Mean?
32:44 – What Distinction Is Jesus Making?
34:27 – Who Here Has Never Had a Blasphemous Thought?
41:31 – Was This Text Just Reserved for Jesus’ Day and Does Not Apply Now?
43:41 – Hebrews 6:4
51:03 – 1 John – A Sin Unto Death.
54:44 – A Word to Those With a Sensitive Conscience.
56:08 – Do You See What Jesus Is Saying? All Sin Will Be Forgiven!
1:00:41 – How Does This Fit in the Context of Mark 3?
1:02:16 – Closing Prayer.
James 1:18 – Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. 19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
What does it mean for God to bring us forth “by the word of truth”?
Why is it essential to be “quick to hear” and “slow to speak” according to James?
How does anger hinder the righteousness of God, as James describes?
How can we effectively receive God’s Word with meekness?
0:00 James 1.19-20
5:37 Let Us Consider the Context
9:35 Quick to Hear What?
11:40 History of the Ministry of the Word at GCC
16:02 Scripture in the Life of the Christian
30:44 What Does He Mean by “Know This”?
36:38 Receiving the Word Is Not Automatic
43:04 Do You Read Your Bible Every Day?
45:00 What Does James Mean by “Be Slow to Speak”?
50:19 Controlling Proud Thoughts and Opinions
53:00 What Does “Slow to Anger” Mean?
57:26 A Closing Thought – God Is Speaking
59:22 Do You Leave Prayer Meeting Early?
1:03:16 Closing Prayer
This sermon delves into what the Bible teaches about demonic oppression and possession, providing scriptural insights and practical observations to help understand this matter.
0:00 Sermon Opening
5:22 Is It Demonic Oppression or Possession?
11:30 Demonic Possession Is Obviously Dark, It Is Not Subtle
13:15 Demonic Oppression Is Rare
14:04 Jesus’ Compassion and Power Are Drawn to Help These People
15:54 How Can You Tell That Someone Is Demonically Oppressed?
18:51 Sign of Demonic Oppression: Self-Destructive Behavior
20:37 The Devil “Made Me Do It”?
21:40 Mark 5: They Can Possess Supernatural Powers
24:05 Prayer for Help in the Sermon
24:37 Mark 6: They Respond Strongly to the Presence of Christ
29:00 How Should We Apply This Teaching?
29:17 Keep a Broad View of Spiritual Warfare in Your Mind
35:47 How Do We Get Ready to Help the Demonically Oppressed?
36:51 Be Full of Faith!
39:15 Be a People of Prayer and Fasting
41:01 Have an Appreciation for Specific Spiritual Gifts
47:21 Closing Prayer
The reason most cultures have categories for “the supernatural and spirit possession” is not because they are backwards or pre-modern, but because they are more in touch with Biblical reality than we are. We often talk about not letting our culture trump the Bible. We don’t want to be “woke” like the culture; we want to be biblical. Yet this issue runs so deep that we don’t even notice it. Any focus on one thing for a prolonged amount of time is viewed as a dangerous potential for imbalance, rather than recognizing that the boat may indeed need rocking.
0:00 Preview
0:46 Introduction and Text
2:39 Opening Prayer
3:57 A Kentucky Man Who Deeply Cared for People
5:57 Cultural Baggage Can Hinder Us from Walking Out the Faith
7:03 As a Westerner, What Is Your Perspective on Demons?
13:23 Does Your Culture Have a Category for the Supernatural?
21:27 Demons Are Fallen Angels
23:57 Satan Leads Legions of Demons
25:45 What Do Demons Do?
26:56 First, the Devil Works Through Lies
29:36 Second, the Devil Works Through Destroying
31:36 Third, the Devil Works Through Temptation
33:28 Fourth, the Devil Accuses You
37:08 Fifth, the Devil Is a Cosmic Warrior
40:13 In Closing
41:20 One of My Favorite Verses
45:54 Closing Prayer
Jesus speaks some profound words in John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.
» View: What Does Jesus Mean, “My Peace I Give to You”?
Often, when people think about God's love for those who believe, they neglect to think about his love which is evident in his divine correction of us.
» View: The Forgotten Factor of Divine Correction
Blessed are the peacemakers, according to James chapter 3. Could it be said that you are pursuing peace and unity within your church?
» View: Are You Dynamite Or A Peacemaker In The Church?
In Matthew 22 Jesus compares his kingdom to that of a king who gave a wedding feast for his son and invited people to this feast. Have you responded to his invitation? Has it been lost in the mail? Is the clothing you are wearing appropriate?
This sermon was preached at the 2023 Fellowship Conference by pastor Mark LaCour (https://www.gracebiblefellowship.com/), he was burdened to share a sermon directed at the children.
0:00 – Matthew 22.14 – Making Your Invitation a Reservation
3:32 – The distinctions between the Old and New Covenant–we can touch the ark.
10:10 – Those whose invitation got lost in the mail.
11:55 – Those whose invitation they put in the wrong folder and don’t prioritize it.
14:07 – Did you read the small print on the invitation?
15:51 – What does this wedding garment look like?
20:28 – Does it matter how much faith I have?
22:04 – What problems start to come in and affect our coming to Christ?
33:46 – You have been invited.
38:24 – Those who have heard and know are now more responsible.
39:15 – Children–come to Christ.
41:04 – Closing prayer.
What was the power of Christ’s look to Peter after he had denied the LORD? And are you and I looking to the LORD to see His look to us? Are we resting in and trusting the unconditional love of God for us as believers?
0:00 – Text – Luke 22.31ff, The Look of Love
1:52 – Do you see your spiritual poverty?
5:41 – Illustration – Child trying to gain parents’ approval by their own power.
7:45 – Many believers struggle with God’s unconditional love.
8:27 – Peter struggled with grasping the unconditional love of God.
15:23 – Peter’s pride blinded him.
16:48 – Are you wrongly trying to gauge your love for Christ?
24:11 – Consider Peter’s conversion and experience of God’s love.
25:11 – Having objective knowledge that God loves me.
27:30 – Having God’s experiential love.
32:00 – Faith that God loves you without experiencing God’s love.
33:46 – The Pharisees’ mistake towards the Scriptures…
36:03 – Peter’s conversion.
44:32 – What was the power of Christ’s look to Peter?
48:07 – John Newton – Looking to the cross.
49:39 – This love is more than a theological fact lodged in your brain.
50:30 – How can I experience this love?
59:01 – One final note–Peter turned and looked at Jesus.
1:02:11 – Closing prayer.
Gatepost
Vol. 4, No. 1 | January 1978
1 Kings 13:1, 2, 8-11, 13-19
And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the LORD unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. And he cried against the altar in the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the LORD; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men’s bones shall be burnt upon thee . . . And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place: For so was it charged me by the word of the LORD, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest. So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel. Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel: the words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father . . . And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the donkey. So they saddled him the donkey: and he rode thereon, And went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak: and he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that camest from Judah? And he said, I am. Then he said unto him, Come home with me, and eat bread. And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee: neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place: For it was said to me by the word of the LORD, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest. He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him. So he went back with him . . .
I am about to be misunderstood.
Nevertheless, the very fact that the thoughts expressed here will be shocking is added reason why they ought to be said.
A grey-haired head on a prophet of God does not indicate superior wisdom. In fact, it might be a warning to hear him with extreme caution.
We have been warned against the novice, instructed to lay hands on no man suddenly, encouraged to seek a man of experience in serious and important matters. Now I suggest we exercise the same caution about extreme age as we do about the premature youth.
The passage in 1 Kings 13 is not to be taken without warning. Here is a true prophet of God with a direct commission and specific instructions on how it is to be carried out. He executes it faithfully and carefully with admirable courage. He does not shirk to pronounce the curse of God’s judgment upon king Jeroboam. God faithfully vindicates His man by withering the hand put forth to apprehend him. He then again attests to His approval of His servant when the repentant king prays his hand to be restored. The prophet’s prayer is heard and the withered member healed. Also, we must admire the prophet’s courage and devotion to every detail of duty when he refused the king’s invitation to dine with him in regard to the Lord’s command that he is to “eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the way that thou camest.”
The fact that this true and faithful servant of God, in the face of all this, was persuaded to turn away from the explicit command of God by an old prophet at Bethel underscores our point. What physical threat, intimidation, flattery, and favor could not do, an old prophet of God did. He successfully turned a true child of God away from the path God had assigned, and occasioned his destruction. This is a point that ought not be considered lightly.
Of course the primary lesson to be learned here, is to obey what God tells you no matter who tells you that God told them you ought to do something contrary. But the second lesson is also important: An old prophet does not mean an infallible oracle of God; and because he is an old prophet, he may be a particular treacherous snare.
During the past few years, it has occurred to me that a man could have a deeply rich and fruitful ministry for most of his life, and then in his later years do, write, or embrace something that almost, if not actually, disgraces the Lord’s name and casts a shadow on his entire ministry.
Consider a few contemporary cases in point.
Case one: A Scotsman, converted to Christ in his youth, became a devoted and flaming evangelist. His ministry included some marvelous revivals in Easter Europe, a number of which countries now are locked up behind the Iron Curtain. He is the author of scores of inspirational books, biographies and booklets centering around true evangelism, revival and the Holy Spirit. His entire ministry was characterized by joyous victory. Even in some of the most depressing and contrary circumstances, he seemed to be never without a pronounced sense of the Lord’s presence and power. Yet in the last few years of his life, he became a cringing, whining picture of defeat. He was convinced the Lord had forsaken him, feared the company of people and was in constant depression. It must be said, however, that it grieved him extremely to be in such a condition, and he mourned continually, fearing his present state would bring a reproach on his life’s work and would be a stumbling block to those who knew him.
Case two: A prolific writer of great stature, who (as is so often the case) was not fully appreciated until his decease, wrote some of the best books and commentaries from the Reformed viewpoint of this century. As he grew older, he became increasingly bitter and intolerant of those who held views contrary to his own. He first ignored, then fought and railed against a mighty God-sent revival in the Islands off the coast of Scotland where he then lived. Before he died, he was known to have a serious drinking problem. Fortunately, because he was in an isolated part of the world and he was not accepted as he is today, his latter years’ deterioration was not widely known.
Case three: Another famous preacher and writer of deeper life books, though more in the Arminian persuasion, has been used to found one of the foremost Missionary Societies in Britain. In his old age, his lectures and at least one of his more recent books is nothing less than thinly veiled Pantheism. He stoutly declares it is not, but it has all the main elements of the ancient heresy. This man is still a strong voice in deeper life movements, along with his false doctrine.
Case four: Here is another man, a powerful evangelist from the old country. His star has faded, his type of preaching which once stirred thousands, is no longer heard seriously. Even though his preaching ministry is for all practical purposes finished, he is still in demand as a novelty or a drawing feature in conferences and in some churches. He is lonely in his rejection, sick and disillusioned over the apostasy of churches. He has been associated with a number of evangelical associations. Dissenters soon are drawn to him, through his powerful influence and strong denunciations. A split soon follows. He continues to attract malcontents and soreheads, who mistakenly associate his severe denunciations with their own hatreds and prejudices. He, in turn, mistakenly identifies their hatreds and prejudices with his own holy indignation at the apostasy of churches and evangelism. In such a way he strengthens the hand of the wicked in their uprising and rebellion against their spiritual leaders.
Case five: One of the most prominent evangelists of this country is now well up in years, but continues to attempt a driving pace. His preaching in the past has been superb. The fruits of his evangelism are everywhere. By his own example in prevailing prayer, he has inspired many into the ministry of intercession. But now his preaching does not have the power it once had. Crowds do not attend as they once did, and those who come do not respond as he has been accustomed to. In his frustration, he will at first cheapen the terms of salvation, then lower the commitment of response, begging, and then harangue and harass people to come forward. In once conference which I attended, he displayed a boorish contempt for an humble, yet mighty man of God who was ministering there at the same time. He refused to stay in the building when his colleague was ministering, and jealously attacked his ministry at every opportunity.
Case six: Here is another recently deceased man of God, a native of this country and one who spent practically all his life preaching and evangelizing in it. He was a mighty and effective preacher of the grace of God in salvation. Never too popular, he became increasingly rejected in his latter years. He was persuaded that all organized churches were apostate, the whore of the Apocalypse, and spent his last years warning people to “come out.” The great flood of deception and apostasy of our times goaded him into an obsession with “false prophets.” This, coupled with an old man’s natural interest in the second coming of Christ succeeded in turning his interest away from his sound and profitable ministry to the quagmire of speculative prophecy. The mark of the beast, the Antichrist, the great tribulation, false prophets and the millennium. He began to call all preachers who did not agree with his views of prophecy false prophets. Since his views were so radical, scattered and uncertain, this meant just about everyone. He drove away all his sound minister friends with these radical obsessions, so that when he died, his followers consisted mainly of a few women who had rebelled against their husbands and pastors. These expect to carry on what they have been led to believe is “the end of time ministry” he left with them.
Case seven: An English educator, though not a clergyman, was one of the stoutest defenders of true Christianity of our century. Having been a renowned atheist before his sound conversion to Christ, he became an intellectual barrage against the heresy of humanism. His books, essays, and lectures on crucial religious issues were clear, profound, and powerful. Yet in his later years, the death of his wife threw him into such a state of profound grief and despair, he wrote a book that put in serious question all his stalwart stands for the faith. He complained against God, railed against the hopeless and futile state in which he found himself, and foolishly charged himself with having had no faith at all. There is nothing in this latter book to commend faith in God and plenty of fuel for the fires of skepticism.
Case eight: Here is an old veteran preacher from the mountains of the Southeastern United States. His preaching, books, records, and tapes have warmed and thrilled the hearts of people who love truth and righteousness for fifty years. He is especially a master at taking the word of God and cutting to pieces the shallow evangelism, the phony Churchianity, and the utter foolishness of churches today. His sharp satirical style has set in bold, clear relief the far departure of popular evangelical Christianity from the purity of the early church and the person of Christ. Indeed, so bold and clear have been his prophetic denouncements and cry for repentance, that only his keen wit has kept him a place of popular acceptance in the very church situations he deplores.
Yet this precious man seems to have, in recent years, capitulated to popular demands to produce the same sort of artificial results his whole ministry has decried. After preaching, he will stand and make one silly proposition after another, until he has practically the whole congregation stand down front, indicating, if not that they love Christ and want to serve Him, that they love mother or country or any other such acceptable and inoffensive proposition. After attending such a blatant display of compromise, one is made to wonder if the man really meant all he has preached and written for fifty years, or has it been just his particular brand of religious merchandise.
The above examples are of actual men either now living or recently deceased. To give their names would serve no practical purpose. I am sure some of my readers will recognize some of them. Many other such illustrations could be set forth, and we could go back into the past and pick up scores more. But these suffice to illustrate the point.
It is significant that the Levites were not allowed to enter into the service of the Tabernacle of the congregation before the age of 25, nor allowed to continue in it past the age of 50. Numbers 8:24-25 says, “This is it that belongeth unto the Levites: from twenty and five years old and upward they shall go in to wait upon the service of the tabernacle of the congregation: And from the age of fifty years they shall cease waiting upon the service thereof, and shall serve no more:” The marginal reading on “wait on the service of the tabernacle of the congregation” is “war the warfare.”
After reading this, it occurred to me that most of the problems in churches and in evangelical Christianity center around either very young or very old men. What pastor has not had to deal with the subtleties, the deceit, the eccentricities of an old preacher in the congregation, in the community, on the radio, TV, etc., who by his past reputation, accomplishments, and present persuasive powers, has gained a following from the flock?
The gospel ministry, if a man is really in it intensely, takes a terrible toll on the mind, emotion, body, and whole psychological makeup. It is a rare man indeed, who can continue under such a strain into the twilight of his life and maintain sound judgment. The courageous cliché, “I’d rather burn out than rust out,” sounds noble and commendable. But the fact is that preachers do not usually go out in dazzling brilliance. They usually fizzle out long before they shut up. No man’s star burns brightly his whole life span unless he is martyred, killed, or translated, as Elijah.
No man gains perfection in this life. Unsound ideas harbored in the back of the mind but kept suppressed by an alert mind that is disciplined by God’s word may be spoken or written when judgment weakens and personal discipline is slackened. Weaknesses of the flesh, petty jealousies, fears, lusts, and secret desires that have been suppressed for years often burst out in old age as senility takes its toll on the mind, and the body weakens. Ministers are not impervious to becoming childish, insecure, and petty in old age. As their following diminishes and other men’s increase, jealousies may arise. In order to hold on to men’s admiration or attract others, one may leave sound doctrine in favor of sensational extra-scriptural teachings. He may hold out, as an attraction, experiences, and power that the scriptures do not promise. They are likely to pass over the glaring faults, ignorances, and prejudices of the few followers they have, flatter and puff them up with vain-glorious illusions of their own spiritual superiority, knowledge and wisdom.
Rebellious soreheads, childish, immature believers, and young novices, are all prime targets for such an old prophet’s weenings. Flattered that they have been selected by this great man to learn at his feet and to succeed him, they greedily and thoughtlessly devour every word he throws out. It is little wonder that such men are then remembered more for the error than their truth.
Because a man’s ministry has been great in the past, young preachers are likely to attempt to emulate him even when he is at his worst. Because he has been a stalwart defender of orthodox truth in the past, the false teachings of his old age are likely to be accepted. Because of his dogmatic unwavering stands throughout his life, his faltering doubts in his old age may cast doubts about the certainty of any truth.
What are we suggesting in this? Should men be retired from the active gospel ministry at the age of fifty? Certainly not! The grace and providence of God, and the great variations in capabilities and durabilities of men preclude our setting rigid limits on a man’s usefulness in the gospel ministry. Rather, here is what I am suggesting:
God’s men should welcome the closing of their ministry, as did John. “I must decrease that He might increase.” Instead of trying to hold on to the limelight, continually pushing to expand our horizons, or clinging tenaciously to the measure of ministry we have had at our peak, we ought to be encouraging younger men to move in. We ought to be pulling in our personal powers and influence and recommending our followers’ confidence and support to our successors. All of us have ideals, goals, objectives, and longings, that we will never attain in this life. Forget about them. You cannot master every musical instrument in one lifetime. Be content with the glorious ministry God has given you and step aside for the next fellow. I am not suggesting retirement. The Levites that “ceased waiting upon the service of the tabernacle of the congregation” did not retire completely. Rather, they “ministered with their brethren in the tabernacle of the congregation to keep the charge.” So can we, as we become “old prophets,” be assistants and helpers to the men whom God has raised up to replace us in the ranks to “war the warfare.”
Now a few words of caution concerning our attitude and responsibilities toward the old prophets. Don’t write off an old man simply because he is old and “out of touch” with what is going on today, or doesn’t understand contemporary issues. But neither accept his ministry as infallible simply because of his grey head. Here are a few things to watch out for:
-
A bitter, critical, railing spirit tending to put down every other ministry or work outside his own.
-
Be cautious of one who tells everyone to “come out” from whatever he is in. No man can call another man out. Only Christ can tell a man to come out to Him. But when a man tells you to come out, he is not saying “Come to Christ,” but “Come to me.”
-
Avoid someone who has an obsession with his interpretation of difficult and obscure passages of scripture, especially those related to prophecy. It is not likely the Holy Spirit has left the Church ignorant of these things for 2000 years and revealed it privately to one old prophet in the fading years of his life.
-
Watch out for new teaching that has not been a part of his greater ministry. A departure from the emphasis that God blessed in the most fruitful years of his life. “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” God does not change a man’s ministry, nor does He give him a new doctrine after his anointing is gone.
-
Be on the lookout for a negative spirit which ministers defeat, discouragement, gloom, and depression.
-
Make sure to avoid those who claim to have infallible revelations by the Holy Spirit that are not consistent with the scriptures.
-
Beware of a man that demands to be heard because he is aged. A greyhead no more validates what a man says than the fact that he is the bishop or the Pope. Homes for the aged are filled with gray heads devoid of sound judgment and spirituality. A man’s credentials consist, beyond his proven ministry, of the anointing of God, not his titles or his age.
We owe a great and impossible debt of love and gratitude to the old prophets who have served us well. They are our spiritual fathers. We ought therefore to honor them as our parents in the Lord, and see that their physical and emotional needs are well cared for. We ought to visit and care for them, kindly entreat and hear them. But we must remember that they are old prophets, and their day is past. The weight of the burden of ministry is now shifted to our own shoulders. The same God that was mighty in them will be mighty in us.
What is a Christian? How do you define a Christian when you go to the Scriptures? What comes to mind when you think of someone who is a Christian? What are improper ways that people view what it means to be a Christian?
0:00 – Introduction – Am I in a state of salvation?
1:20 – What does a Christian mean to you?
2:20 – To the preachers–why not do a series about this topic?
3:19 – Let us ask Paul what he would say – Galatians 2.20.
4:06 – Answer 1 – A Christian is a human being, “life I live in the flesh.”
12:50 – Answer 2 – The Christian has human affections, “wished myself separated”.
14:44 – Answer 3 – The Christian has native weaknesses and strengths that remain.
26:53 – Answer 4 – The Christian has a wonderful view of Jesus Christ.
43:07 – Answer 5 – The Christian has the assurance that this is true, “Son of God loved me…”
49:05 – Answer 6 – The Christian is someone who has unlimited access to Christ, “Christ lives in me…”
52:06 – Application – Am I a Christian? How do I come to this Christ?
55:45 – Closing prayer.
Have you ever been hurt by another Christian and offended by them? Are you restoring broken relationships? Are you loving the brethren regardless of who they are? Are you doing everything you can to love others? Fractured relationships are so important to resolve that we have a book in the New Testament that deals with this very matter.
0:00 – Preview
0:20 – Introduction to the sermon.
1:30 – What is my goal? Calling you to love the brethren regardless of who they are.
4:02 – Paul sees Onesimus’ situation as an opportunity for two brothers to choose to love one another.
7:56 – In every relationship love needs to win.
9:13 – Point 1 – A relational problem.
11:23 – If you break your wrist do you go as quickly as possible to get it healed?
15:20 – Point 2 – Paul’s appeal.
26:31 – Throw the grudges in the garbage where they belong!
30:05 – Point 3 – How do we live this love out practically?
42:37 – If this applies to us, what are we waiting for?
50:52 – John Bunyan sought to help two reconcile and it led to his death.
53:07 – Closing prayer.
Men want something spectacular, something supernatural…but not something scriptural; but if the living Word won’t move you why do you think some miracle will? Consider Jesus’ astonishing words in Luke 16:31 – He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’
0:00 – A testimony of a remarkable conversion.
1:44 – The “Hell Fire Club” opposed the “Holy Club”.
3:35 – Thorpe mocked George Whitefield as he shared…
4:46 – The Word of God pierced Thorpe’s heart and led to his conversion.
6:33 – Luke 16, The Rich Man and Lazarus.
9:09 – Opening prayer.
10:19 – A summary of the three headings of the sermon.
12:53 – 1 – What men want.
17:20 – People often are wanting more than just the plain proclamation of Scripture.
21:27 – 2 – What men need.
26:16 – 3 – The sufficiency of Scripture
30:18 – Scripture is like a pillow for the believer’s weary head.
36:48 – Believer, are you confident in your Bible?
38:17 – Closing prayer.
What does Paul mean when he says our works will be tested by fire? Will they burn up or survive the judgment? In this Ask Pastor Tim, we look at what 1 Corinthians 3:13 means and does not mean. Paul is saying that our works will be judged to determine if they were done for the glory of God or for our own gain.
1 Corinthians 3:12-15 – 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw–13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
[Note: The following transcript needs to be proofed errors.]
Saved so as by fire, this often gets questions from people. First Corinthians Chapter three, verse six, . Paul says, I planted Apollos watered. Now, obviously that is farmer language that is being applied to church planting. Paul broke up the the fields and in the forests he broke up the rocky ground. He broke up the the wild lands and he created fields for farming. He planted the seed there and Apollos, he comes along afterwards and he he builds on top. He does the work that has to happen after he watered. But God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only God who gives the growth. And by anything, he doesn’t mean that they don’t matter. It doesn’t mean that they’re not essential to the church being established. But if it’s kind of like we say, if God doesn’t protect the city, I mean, we keep watch in vain. If God doesn’t build, we build in vain. The fact is that God has to give the increase. God have to give the growth. We can plant the word of God, but God has to make it sprout. He has to make it come up and become fruitful. Only God who gives the growth He who plants and he who waters our one? Well, he’s not saying we both do the same thing. He’s basically saying we’re both in the same category and each will receive his wages according to his labor. Now, that’s key because what he’s saying here is, no matter how much it’s God who gives the growth, each one of us are responsible. That’s where the wage comes from. And it’s it’s not this. This obviously is a reward. It’s not it’s not these guys working for their salvation. This is a reward. But we are going to be rewarded according to our labor. And even though he said before, we’re nothing in verse 9 he says we are God’s fellow workers. I mean, we work with God, but God is the one that’s essential in all of this. He doesn’t really need us, but he does use us and we work along with him and God works through us. You are God’s field. He’s talking to the Corinthians. God’s building. In other words, that’s I mean, like the Corinthians. They’re the ones that are being planted This is the field. This is where the planting is happening. This is. And then he changes his metaphor. God’s building, according to the grace of God given to me like a skilled master builder. So you see the whole metaphors change now, but it’s according to the grace of God. So it’s all dependent on him. But it’s given to men. It’s given to me. But Paul says, even though it’s given to me, we all have to work. We all have to labor. And we’re going to receive wages. Or it’s it’s the wage of a reward. Like a skilled master builder. I laid a foundation. Someone else is building upon it. We see the metaphors changed, but that’s the same imagery. I plant someone else waters. I lay the foundation. Someone else builds upon that foundation. To metaphors. But we see one guy starts the work, Other guys come along and they begin to fulfill that work. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid. Now, that’s interesting. He says, Let let each one take care how he builds upon it. The foundation, he said, I laid a foundation. Someone else is building on it. Let each take care how he builds on it, and then he reverts back to the foundation in verse 11. No one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And what he’s saying is not just no one can lay a foundation other than that he’s saying it is laid. And I laid it and he said, I laid the foundation like a skilled master builder. I laid it. Let me tell you what it is. It’s Christ. That is what I laid. And so everyone needs to take care how he builds on it. In other words, you better be using the same building materials that I use to lay that foundation, because in the end, that’s how we’re going to be. That’s how our labor is going to be evaluated. And you see what he says in 12. If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw. So the first three are good, the last three not so good. Each one’s work will become manifest for the day, will disclose it. We’ve got judgment day. It’s going to show us what all of this is because it will be revealed by fire. And the thing about gold is it can stand the fire Silver. It can stand the fire. Precious stones. You take diamonds, they can stand. The fire would hay, stubble or straw that doesn’t abide the fire. The fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. You see that? Now it’s reward. It was wages before. Now it’s reward. So we see what it is. But notice, the reward is based on the building materials. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself. And this is interesting. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss. Though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. And it makes sense. He’s going to be saved. But he and his works are going through the fire. And the idea here is the idea here is that Christians can suffer loss on judgment day. Why? Because our works are going to be tested and some of our works are going to be burned up. If it’s wood, hand stubble, it’s going to be burned up. And the truth is that he speaks in absolute terms. We know that we’re we’re his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. The fact is this Christ has a people of particular people, peculiar people of his own possession. And we know this. We are a people that he has saved for that very sake. To accomplish good works, to be a peoples is ours. Of good works. And he said, By this, you prove to be my disciples. We know this, that that the fruit in our life. You can tell the tree by the fruit. But though he speaks in absolutes, here we get the idea. Judgment day is going to burn burnable stuff away. The building materials here. It seems to be he’s talking about himself in a palace I planted. Others came along and watered. Or I laid a foundation. Others came along and built. Well, you are the field. You are the building. Who? The church. And so we see building going on. But, you know, the thing is, we’re all builders. To some degree, I was just thinking about Paul using the term built. Here’s some examples. Let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual up building. So each one of us are involved in building each other. This building gets built as each person is added and as each person is strengthened and edified. That’s our word built up. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up or it says it. Here we are, God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. You are. So we are. We’re God’s building. And how do we get built? Well, God builds us. But how does he do it? Through human instrumentality. And it’s not just through apostles and prophets and pastors. We’re each building. You get texts like this. I want you to all speak in tongues. But even more prophesy. The one who prophesy is greater than one who speaks in tongues. Unless someone interprets so that the church may be built up. So you have all that strive to excel in building up the church, he says. Let all things be done for building up. We know that there’s we know apostles, prophets of angels, pastors, teachers have been given to equip the saints for the work of the ministry for building up the body of Christ. Then Paul goes right on to say that the body grows. It builds itself up in love. So the body itself builds itself. Let no corrupting come from your mouths. But only such as is good for building up. My point is this We’re all building. We’re all building, We’re all building one another. And we all are living lines. We’re all living lines where what we do is going to be tested in the end. And anyways, that’s a very sobering passage. What we know is this We all have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Why so? So that what was done in our bodies is going to be brought to judgment, It’s going to be examined, and there’s a quality about things. It’s like some of the things we do. If you look at the quality in God’s eyes, it’s gold. There are other things that we do that in God’s eyes. It’s it’s, hay, it’s something, but it’s not going to stand the fire. And so we want to be certain, not just that we do things, we’re going to be certain about the quality of what we do. How can quality be bad? Well, I was reading something to Joshua from John Piper, and he said something like this he said, wood hay and straw seem to refer to things like when we think about people in the ministry, perhaps defective teaching, not blatant gospel denying heresy, but some lesser erroneous, distorted teachings. And he goes into it is whether it’s our works or a teaching, our love, whatever, if it’s unwise, if it’s irrelevant, if it’s misapplied, if it’s poorly explained, if it’s superficial, twisted to fit unbiblical traditions or worldliness, I think those are really good thoughts to apply. We want to we want to think about our our doctrine. We want to think about if we’re supposed to be building up one another. Well, one of the things would be this We need to be making attempts to build up one another. You recognize what I’m saying? If if we’re even going to get to the place where our building is going to be tested for, whether it’s Diamond or whether it’s some kind of chaff, we actually have to be making an effort to build up one another. I mean, we have to apply ourselves to the building process. You don’t want to be the person that comes there when you don’t. I think for the for most Christians, what’s going to happen is we’re going to we’re going to have a pile of diamonds, but we’re also going to have all this other stuff over. And I think it’s all mixed together. And when the fire hits it, you know what’s going to happen? Oh, you hit you hit a pile. You got a pile of dried up grass there and you spread some flakes of gold and silver through it. What happens when you hit it with the flame thrower? Well, you’re just going to basically blow all that worthless stuff off. It’s going to burn up. It’s going to turn to ash. It’s going to blow away. And what you’re going to be left with on the ground is now going to be what’s really valuable and what’s going to stay in the fire. And that’s that is exactly how Paul is describing the day. And you just think about him. He talks this way in Romans talking about judgment day. He says when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, they’re allotted themselves. Even though they do not have the law, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus, we can go through with that day, that day, the day Paul speaks about that day in in various places, and very obvious what it is when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, to be marveled at among all who believe because our testimony made the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day. Anyway, we we see how Paul uses it, but that day is coming. We really every one of us have to think. It’s like you don’t you want you don’t want to take it lightly. Like, you know, you go down, you go down to the city center and you seek to evangelize. Is it possible, like what would be an example of would he stumble? Well, I, I know this, like in teaching. I just I just think in teaching, I got to teach the scriptures. I got to make Christ Central, I got to make him preeminent. I got to teach Scripture the way I’ve got to be balanced, the way Scripture is balanced. I got to go seek to emphasize the things that Scripture emphasizes. I want to seek to bring the glory of God out. I want to seek to to make this real. And in I mean, can a guy who just speaks monotone possibly lose something, a guy that just wants to put up tradition or talk about the 1689 London Baptist Convention all the time, or we as we live our lives, we want to think about motive. I mean, can you do what two people can do the exact same thing? And I almost guarantee you that motive. No, I will guarantee you. Why? Because First Corinthians chapter four says that it’s Paul is telling them, don’t judge anything before the time we wait, God’s going to come. He’s going to sort all the motives out. You know what that means? That means that our motive can make the difference between two people doing the same thing. But one is going to be stubble and one is going to be gold. Why? Because of motive. One guy could do something selfishly or hypocritically. Somebody else could do it for the glory of God. And we have to watch all that. Anyway, we’re at the end of time. We’re 5 minutes past. But those are verses that are we are all heading towards Judgment day. Any time we get some teaching on Judgment day for us to think about, we really want to think about it. You want to soak it in because you can’t escape it. It ought to form our lives. It ought to be it ought to be something that quickens our step makes us think how? Listen, there is, you know, you you know, one thing you can’t get away from. There’s nowhere in there where Paul says rewards are foolish, rewards are selfish, rewards are carnal. Don’t even think about it. And no, he speaks about rewards. There is desirable like like you want. You want gold and silver and precious stones and get the reward. You don’t want it to get burned up. You don’t want to be saved. So as by fire, you don’t want it, you don’t. And judgment day, I mean, maybe, maybe somebody would think, Well, I’m just glad I made it in. Why would you want to think that? I mean, if if if you’re serving the Lord Jesus Christ in your trusting in Him, then why would you not heed all the admonitions to be as fruitful as you possibly can and have the greatest possible reward? Why would you want to waste your life to to be the guy? What do you want? If. I mean, don’t you think that’s just crummy thinking? To think, Oh, I just want to slip in the back door and just barely get in? I mean, that’s. That’s really shoddy thinking. It’s like, Oh, God has saved me. I mean, I want it to be acceptable to him because. Because obviously, if it gets burned up and I get no credit for it, well, that means God’s not pleased with it. Why would I want to live and try to do things God’s not pleased with? Wouldn’t you agree?
In John 14:9 Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Jesus places himself in the same category as the only true God. Would you also place him in such a category? Do you have any gaps in your understanding of Christ? Denying Christ is more than just denying his existence; it is denying who he specifically claimed to be.
Series: The Upper Room Discourse, Part 7.
0:00 – Introduction
3:36 – There are gaps in the disciple’s understanding of who Christ is.
7:59 – Do we still have gaps in our understanding of who Christ is?
24:16 – Christ is the one who declares who the Father is.
26:37 – Observe the harmony that the Father and the Son have.
35:18 – Jesus and the Holy Spirit’s main task was not to always defend the doctrine of the Trinity.
40:22 – There is an intolerance in Christianity that should offend people.
42:05 – What will comfort you and me in trials?
54:09 – In conclusion.
Do you have a troubled heart? Christ counsels us and gives us a remedy for troubled hearts. By speaking words of stability and anchoring us, Christ helps us avoid falling away.
As a believer is it always wrong to not pay taxes? How should a Christian view paying taxes if the government is supporting wicked practices?
0:00 – Is it always wrong not to pay your taxes?
2:05 – What should a Christian think about the Boston Tea Party?
4:57 – Did the British treatment of Americans justify not paying taxes?
7:47 – What if the government collects taxes for something that is not its God-given duty?
14:26 – What is it that changes the world? Political protest or the Gospel?
17:06 – Personally I cannot see a place where I would not be justified in paying my taxes.
19:44 – What if the government imposed a 100% tax?
21:24 – Audience question: Can you think of a time when you would break the law?
[Note: This transcript has not been proofed for errors.] Is it always wrong to not pay your taxes? By this? I don’t mean the secretive and cunning practices of tax evasion, but explicit and public protest. Against a form of taxation. When Jesus was asked if it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, he responded that we ought to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s. Paul in Romans 13, also teaches Christians what to do with regard to taxes and explains that God has ordered government for a particular purpose and that in order for the government to fulfill that purpose, it must collect taxes. Romans 13:6-7, some would argue that if the government tries to collect taxes for something that is not its God given duty, namely rewarding the doer of good and punishing the evildoer, Christians have to object to it. I can see where that view comes from, but at the same time struggle to believe that the Roman emperors used the taxes that they collected only for those legitimate God given purposes. Is there, however, a case when Christians would want to not pay taxes? And what would that look like? I can think of tax money going for immoral practices such as government-funded abortion procedures, etc.. What about American history and the whole thing about taxation without representation or paying taxes to a tyrannical government?
Let me ask you something. This is an easy question to ask here. Our American Revolution. Do you remember we had a Boston Tea Party. We all know about that. What do we do with the Boston Tea Party to it? Through the tea out of the boat? There are some Americans dressed up like Indians, and they went out on the tea ships that had come over from. They probably came from India, but they were owned by the British and they throw a tea in the harbor. You can imagine if you lived in a colony and you were being taxed. And I’m sure those Americans liked the tea. They had English blood and Irish blood and Scottish blood and Welsh blood flowing through their veins, most of them. And so, you know, some of them came from Germany and wherever Austria. But the fact is that to have your taxes just indiscriminately raised and you have no representation in London. So basically, people that live around the United Kingdom, they at least have representatives in parliament. They’ve got a voice. But Americans had no voice. So they threw the tea in the harbor and they and they eventually I mean, they went to war. They didn’t want the British not only imposing taxes without representation, but the fact is that the redcoats could commandeer a house. They could come in and eat all your food, mistreat your family. And so imagine that. Imagine that the price of everything is just going up. Why? Because the king, the parliament, they see opportunity for bringing a lot of wealth out of the United States over to England, and they’re sending soldiers over there. And the soldiers basically have the right legally from the British court system established in the U.S. if their own soldiers can can just come and go and they can commandeer houses and food. And you wouldn’t like that if somebody did that to you. Now, is that a reason to not pay taxes? I have basically said in the United States that if I had lived during the time of the revolution, I would not now because it wasn’t there. And I don’t know all the factors. It’s difficult for me to say exactly what my attitude would have been if soldiers did something to a family member or something like that happen. But just from the standpoint of taxation without representation, there’s nothing stated about that in Scripture. There’s no place in Scripture that says that as I honor the emperor, the emperor has to make sure that I have a congressman or a representative in Washington or in London that doesn’t exist. And so just on that basis alone, I would not, if I was a pastor in 1776, I would not just on that basis, I would not have been able to condone and lead the church in that direction. I would not have been able to, with a clear conscience, take up arms and fight against the king who was the rightful ruler at that time. Now, once the Americans did it and there was an American government established, I would have submitted to it, but I would have submitted to your king because it would have been my king and I would have submitted to him because that that seems biblical. And did the taxes get increased? Yes. But who’s to say when the taxes are too high? Well, we say as the consumer, it’s we always are saying they’re too high. When when are the taxes not too high? When there are no taxes, that’s that. And if they get increase, don’t we complain when the energy gets increased and we complain? Somebody has got to answer for this. Right. But I would not have been able to do that. So the question is this. Actually, I, I feel it given two ways here, that it says that if government tries to collect taxes for something that is not its God given duty. Like it says in Romans 13, namely rewarding the doer of good and punishing the evildoer, if the government tries to collect taxes for something that’s not its God given duty. Do Christians have to object to it? I can see where that view comes from. Now, see, he’s actually asking two questions. Does a Christian have to object to it? And is there a time to withhold paying, paying taxes? What I would say, based on what we know from Scripture, is that, yes, we can object to it, but then, yes, we still need to pay our taxes. So if I have a voice to object, then why would I not object? But but even they’re like, do I object to the fact that the the U.K. government, that I pay taxes to use this money to to pay for abortion? Do I object to that? I object to that. But what am I going to do, not pay my taxes? I mean, I think it’s right to bring up the Roman government. They used money on all sorts of wicked things as well. But you know what they also used it for? They used it for infrastructure. They used it for aqueducts. They used it for their road system. They used it for all sorts of things that are in the interest. They used it for their court system. They actually had laws. You know what? Most of these countries, even even Germany and Adolf Hitler’s day, I mean, they had laws against stealing. They had laws against murder. They had laws that basically made it it made life manageable. It kept order in the society. And so is there a place for me to not pay taxes because a portion of it might be used for a wicked purpose? Well, we don’t see that. I mean, when Jesus said, bring me the denarius. Well, I mean, whose picture was on there? Do you know whose picture was on there? Which Caesar do you imagine was Augustus? Yeah. Just. But. But, I mean, the fact is, if we look at the Caesar’s we and we look at the Roman Empire, we see what they did. Certainly. Certainly as soon as Jesus says render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. That automatically assumes what all the governments of the world are going to look like. And you know what? Jesus is introducing a time when there’s no there’s no theocracy. In other words, there’s no government system where God like like Old Testament, Israel. Where you’ve got God who’s ruling. But that’s not the kingdoms of this world are not of that nature. As soon as he identifies Caesar, we see the very kind of government he’s identifying. What kind? The worldly government, all it all the different kings and queens and presidents and prime ministers and and the tyrannical sorts and the dictators and all the pharaohs and what I mean, fill in the blank, all the different names that leaders have been given. And and that’s what he had in mind. That’s what he was saying, rendered to Caesar. He had he had exactly that kind of very unsaved people leading and in doing what they do. And there’s no indication how can we object to it? Yes, we can object to it. We can object to the fact that our money might be used. And if we have a platform for it, is there a place to make that objection public? Well, I guess everybody has to have a clear conscience themselves quite honestly. I do not think that I’m called to spend my life protesting. Why? I think it’s a waste of time. Why? Because we’re talking about where some money goes. Are they going to abort the children anyway? I would rather pray that God will do something to bring that to an end. Overturn Roe v Wade. And you know, effectively what they did in the United States is it basically outlawed abortion in many states? Not all of them, Not not the liberal states, but in the conservative states, it basically. And so I think praying if if you can vote somebody into office, that’s likely going to have that kind of agenda. But, you know, I just don’t find that the New Testament church was anywhere encouraged to become these political radicals. It is. It isn’t there. You know what we’re supposed to do, evangelize the world? The greatest thing I could do for for any kind of government or any kind of country is proclaim the gospel. And if God will use it to awaken that generation. You know what happens when revival comes in? Even two, three, % of the people get saved. I mean, you know what they’re saying? I think, if I’m not mistaken, I read somewhere where the Hebrides revival in the 1940s, 49, I believe only 2% of the people in the Hebrides Islands were saved. If I’m not mistaken, it closed down when only that percentage of people get saved. And there’s a movement of God like that. Their jails closed, their court systems basically shut down the dance halls, shut down. And what I hear is you can travel to the Hebrides Islands even now, and you still feel the results of that. My point here is this. What is it that changes the world? Is it. Is it political protest? What changes the world is the Gospel. What changes the world is is us imitating Christ and basically going and seeking to make disciples among these nations? It’s it’s not. There is simply nothing counter to these the animist and these reconstructionist guys and these post middle guys. Our primary objective is not to reinstate a theocracy among the nations. It just isn’t. It’s not. Jesus didn’t do it that Jesus had some interaction with government. Paul had interaction with government. John the Baptist had interaction with government. But if you look at them, what’s Paul doing? Paul’s Paul’s proclaiming he’s he’s proclaiming the gospel, he’s proclaiming righteousness. He’s proclaiming this coming judgment. He’s proclaiming he’s basically he’s he’s you know, what he did and ultimately was shipped off to Rome and John the Baptist. I mean, his interaction with Herod was not trying to get some kind of a some kind of new taxation system. He confronted Herod about his adultery and Jesus interaction with government. I mean, you hear how he talked to pilot. What was his basic point? Look, my kingdom’s not of this world or or my guys would fight. In other words, he didn’t come to set up this earthly kingdom here and to have some kind of reconstructionist idea about what government should look like. So my thing is, yes, I can object to something, but then it’s like, well, how much time would I want to give to it? Quite honestly, I don’t want to give any time to it. If somebody else determined they wanted to give some time to it. Okay, they got it. They have to make that decision. And I think one of the things that we want to we want to kind of way out is what is the likelihood that my involvement is actually going to matter? Because I want to use my my life wisely. And last thing I want to do is spin my wheels, trying to bring about some political reform or taxation reform. When my one puny voice is just, I would rather pray that God would bring revival upon this country. God would have mercy upon the people God would save. Why? Because that seems very consistent with Scripture. But I and I personally cannot see a place where I would feel justified in not paying my taxes and not I’m not going to cheat on my taxes. When God saved when I was lost, I, I was I did a number of things that I didn’t even know how. I don’t even remember that I, I so mindfully just rebelled against the IRS. The Internal Revenue Service. I, I just think after I got saved, I became I just recognized I was shoddy with regards to my tax returns and so I went to the IRS and I basically said, here’s my situation. I told them I got saved. I know his convictions about these things and I just think I probably owed taxes. And so anyway, I ended up paying back taxes. But I just think whether it’s I mean, I’m a resident of the U.K. and I believe I ought to pay my taxes here. And I’m a citizen of the United States and I believe ought to pay my taxes there. And I don’t like it. I don’t like how much they take. But you know what? If God tells me to pay it, I can look at it just like giving money to missionaries. It’s what God wants me to do with it. And I can look at it and think he’s pleased that I’m doing this. See, I think that comes down to the real question. Is there a time when you’re paying taxes and you think God’s not pleased? Because that would be the time when you would say, therefore, I’m not going to pay him, but I can’t think of a situation where that would be the case unless somebody that wasn’t legitimately the government was trying to force me to think that they had some authority, that they don’t really have. And that might be a case. But when the government’s authentic and it’s it’s the government of the U.K. or the United States, I’m going to pay my taxes. And I can’t think of any situation where I wouldn’t just simply because Jesus said render to Caesar what’s Caesar’s. And Caesar has the right to to tell us what the tax is going to be. Now, what about if they called for everything? I mean, what if they basically taxed me to the point that I can’t feed? I’m just going to hope that God would not allow it to come to that. And I would hope that if we actually got to that place, there’s going to be anarchy, because I’m not going to be the only one hurting if if their taxing us with everything else. That’s basically where eventually the people are going to rise up and resist that. But kind of like what happened is, you see, the thing is the Christian didn’t really have to be behind the revolution. They could have submitted to the king, but inside they submitted to the king and paid their taxes. But inside they were really hoping Washington would not Cornwallis back out in the ocean. I mean, you can you can hope that. Why? Because life would be better and our dollar would go farther and we’d be able to feed our family better. And yeah, I mean, I can submit to a government but hope that the government will change but not be involved in making it change. Any thoughts on taxes? I will say this year your country, I’m doing my taxes right now in your country. I mean, when you look at everything they take out, it’s all got social attach to it. An offshoot of the question. And we might not have time to really go into any depth. But I guess I was just kind of curious if you had anything to say with regards to the time in which you would break the law of a nation. A time when I would break the law and break the law. Well, we’re going to break the law when they tell us to do something that God forbids or they tell us not to do something God tells us to do, and so am I going to break the law. I broke the law. And I mean, I’ll say it when they said we needed a lock down, we didn’t. We met, we got Steve. Steven Holland did give us his building and he was happy to have us there. And we were happy to go there and pay and help them financially and and you know, Steven is of the same mindset is me that no, we’re told not to forsake the assembling together of ourselves. And the government said, stop assembling yourselves and don’t sing. And Scripture says to sing. And so we’re going to sing. We’re going to take the Lord’s Supper and we’re going to meet together. And so it’s there. If God tell that, that’s when I’m going to break the law, when God tells me to do something and the government tells me I can’t do it, that’s when I’m going to and that’s that’s what those early disciples said. I mean, we you you guys judge. I mean, we obey, man. We’re going to obey God. And so that’s the that’s the issue. When my obeying the government is obeying God, well, then I want to obey government. When my obeying government is disobeying God, that’s when it becomes the issue. So really. But do we have to sort that out? Yeah, we have to sort that out. I mean, everybody has to sort that out on what that means. They wanted to quarantine me. See, I was traveling enough and every time I’d come back they were quarantining me for two weeks. And I finally said, Nope, I’m not doing that anymore. Why? Because God called me to pastor this flock here, not to sit in quarantine for two weeks every time I travel well. And finally I just said, okay, Ruby, there is a way to actually obey and be able to travel. And that’s just simply to go ahead and get vaccinated. Now, you know, somebody can question whether I should have or not. If I had it to do again, I wouldn’t have done it. But it did ease my traveling restrictions and it eased all the different kinds of tests that you had to take and everything. And but anyways, we all everybody has to sort that out. Everybody has to flesh through those things.
Are my pet dogs going to heaven? Is my pet an idol? How would you respond to someone who says, ” sincerely hope that I will be reunited with my beloved pets in heaven.”? On the Internet, this is one of the most commonly searched questions regarding the Bible.
0:00 – Question
5:10 – Talking to a median?
10:39 – Anything in the Scriptures that indicates there are animals in heaven?
17:05 – When Romans 8 speak about creation is it referring to animals?
18:58 – What is in the new heaven and new earth?
26:03 – What about Ecclesiastes 3?
What does it mean to be glorified? in John we find these terms used over and over again. John 13:31-32 – When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man GLORIFIED, and God is GLORIFIED in him. 32 If God is GLORIFIED in him, God will also GLORIFY him in himself, and GLORIFY him at once.
Tim discusses six sobering lessons that we can learn from Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.
0:00 – Introduction and overview of Judas and the upper room discourse.
19:00 – Lesson 1 – Judas was someone’s son.
29:58 – Lesson 2 – Judas was not forced to do what he did.
41:29 – Lesson 3 – Judas’ heart desired to sin.
53:42 – Lesson 4 – Judas had the money bag and yet Jesus did not remove him from having such.
56:17 – Lesson 5 – Comparing Peter and Judas.
1:02:58 – Lesson 6 – The disappearance of Judas at night–what an incredible example of what can happen when you have the greatest truth and abandon it for the darkness.
Does James chapter 4 exhort us not to make plans for the future? Being overly passive is bad, things don’t just happen by accident, you need to be intentional and plan ahead.
Does James 4 teach that planning for the future is wrong?The person with the question feels like James 4, speaking about not planning out our life because all such boasting is evil. And I would just say this: Is the passage from James actually saying that any sort of planning for the future is necessarily wrong. Or what is it saying? Does somebody want to look it up? Audience: Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. As it is you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is an. Tim: Does that forbid planning or does it, it is what it is actually forbidding, or saying that if you say what you’re going to do with such certainty, were you should actually check yourself with the humility to say, well, look, this is what I’m planning to do. But if the if the Lord wills, I want to be very careful. I don’t know if you all have experienced this, but if when I’m talking about the future, if I am to assertive about the future or I have noticed that as soon as I will say something to certainly about the future, it’s like right there, God’s going to say: Now it’s not going to happen that way. I recognize that pattern. Maybe you haven’t. I don’t think James 4 is teaching that we can’t have plans because even in the Proverbs, even though okay, I grant maybe Proverbs 29:18 isn’t the place you want to go when it comes to being a visionary. But I would say this. There are other Proverbs that definitely talk about making plans and talk about it in a positive way. Let’s look at some of these Proverbs 12:20. Whoever gets there, just go ahead and read it. Audience: The seed is in the heart of those who devise evil for those who plan, but those who plan peace have joy. Tim: There’s nothing wrong with planning right there. If I’m if I’ve got plans of peace, plans of good plans of righteousness, certainly there’s nothing wrong or twisted about that. How about Proverbs 15:22. Audience: Plans fail when there is no counsel but with many advisers they succeed. Tim: Yeah, I mean, that’s not denouncing plans. That’s saying if you want to be really wise, not only make plans, but make them with counsel, get other people’s opinions about things wise people’s opinions. Somebody look up Isaiah 32:8. Audience: But he who is noble, plans noble things and on the noble things he stands. Tim: Don’t you love that? That certainly isn’t condemning making plans. Not in the least. And you remember the apostle Paul. Remember, he ran into an issue with the Corinthians where they were kind of questioning him because he had made plans to visit them and then it didn’t work out. Does anybody remember that? And he said, What am I saying? Am I saying yes and no? Am I going back and forth here? And he’s saying, No, I made plans to come to you. And I meant to come to you. But it didn’t work out.
Passivity is bad, things don’t just happen.Look, let’s talk about this for a second. I really believe that over-passivity is bad. I believe it’s bad in the family. I believe it’s bad in business. I believe it’s bad in the church. I believe it’s bad for countries over passivity, where there aren’t plans, where people are not looking to the future. You know what? Things do not happen by accident. People who are most godly in the Christian walk don’t end up that way by accident. You want to look at the most godly people in history. You want to look at the ones whose names, you know, read their lives. Look at them. Do you think Hudson Taylor ended up on the foreign mission field by accident? Do you think William Carey just happened to jump on a boat one day and it just mistakenly took him over to India? Do you think that happened? These guys planned, you know, this, that men and women who have sought to walk most closely with the Lord they had…there like Mueller, who said it is my aim to get happy in the Lord each day. He had a plan, he had a goal, and he sought certain means to get there. How about John Wesley, who said, I am going to pray until I pray? And that was his practice every single day. You know, people don’t accidentally end up with great prayer lives. They don’t accidentally end up reading their Bible through once a year or twice a year. They don’t accidentally get to where they walk really close with the Lord. You don’t accidentally fast. You don’t accidentally end up being a godly person with a godly walk. That doesn’t happen. And you know what? What do we we should not go through life not asking questions like, where do I want to see my family in ten years? Where do I want to see the church in five years? Those are the questions you have to be asking. Because what people with goals, people with no goals, people with no vision, they don’t do much in life. They flop around because they never know where they’re going. People who succeed in this world, whether it’s in the realm of Christianity or whether it’s in the realm of business or sports, they don’t get there by accident. And people who succeed in the family, they didn’t get there. I mean, look, I remember when Ruby and I got married and when we were raising children. If Ruby saw a family where they had their act together, if Ruby saw where the children were well-behaved, the children were all safe. Ruby was over there speaking to that mother and finding out what she did. Why? Because she knows that doesn’t happen by accident. She knows that this lady did something this family did something to get where they are. If you don’t have goals, you don’t ever achieve them. Why? Because they didn’t exist. People who don’t have goals and people that don’t have plans and people that don’t have vision, they just end up sitting and passively waiting. And oftentimes they just end up going nowhere. These things don’t happen by accident. Paul had a vision. Paul had a plan. I mean, you look at it and you can see Paul had a strategy and you can hear his strategy. Do you ever hear there’s times when he’s saying, you know what, there’s no more room for me over here. I’m not going to build on another man’s foundation. I got to go over here. Why? He had a plan. He had a strategy. What was his strategy? His strategy was take the gospel to the big cities, to the highway crossings, the the the harbor cities, the influential cities, the places of commerce, the places of travel. Let’s take the gospel there to these main arteries. Let’s preach it. And see churches planted there. He didn’t evangelize. Everybody know that. But because that wasn’t his plan. His plan was you plant churches, okay, now works done works done for him. Now you move on somewhere else. There was a plan. There was. There was a purpose here. There was a trajectory he was aiming at.
Plans may get interrupted, but that doesn’t make them bad.Now it’s true. Okay. My purpose is this. He would tell people why don’t you know? I don’t want to go up there because I’ve got a purpose. I want to get back to Jerusalem by this time. Well, it’s true. He planned to get to Rome, and they were going to help him on his way to Spain. Well, he got to Rome another way then he thought. The Lord intervened. People with plans, those plans always get interrupted. But it’s not bad to have plans. It’s not bad to make your plans with counselors. The Lord may interrupted at any time. And we’re always as Christians, we’re going to be humbled. Submitted to that. Thy will be done. Because his will is going to be done doesn’t mean that we don’t do anything. It means that we’re always in the place where, if the Lord wills, I’m going to do this tomorrow, I’m going to go over here. I’m going to go over there. What’s wrong is when you leave, if the Lord wills out, not just in word, not just because it’s as a little appendage that you add on. It’s just this incantation that you say, It’s not like that. It’s coming from a heart that surrendered. This is what I’m planning to do. But what you’re expressing to people is the same thing you’ve expressed to the Lord in prayer. Lord, I want to do this and we want to do this. And, Lord, our objectives are going to be this. If you would have us to do it, if you don’t want us to go in that direction, than show us which direction you want us to go in. Just like Paul, he had a plan. Let’s we’re going to go up there and Asia and then he was he was prevented. And then, okay, now what do we do? And we go over here and then he has a vision and okay, now it’s going that way. And constantly you’re what constantly is what scripture says. You acknowledge the Lord. He’ll direct your paths. So we’re constantly we’re making plans, we’re strategizing, we’re looking, but we constantly lay those plans before the Lord and put. I mean, I think all the time saying, Lord, this is what I plan to do. This is where this direction we’re headed. And if you don’t want us to go in that direction, we serve the Christ who opens doors and nobody can shut those doors. And he closes and nobody can open them. And he he directs his people.
How do you get confirmation from your church about missions?Audience question: I’ve had numerous conversations with John S. where he’s talks about American Christians with regards to going on the mission field, that so many of them are hindered by this idea that if God is calling into the mission field, I’m going to have some big dream or get some special revelation from that. And I think he was just more taking the approach. Matthew 18 or Matthew 28, tells us just to go and maybe it’s a little different. Well, I would say this, that as we’re looking, there are things in my life where I’m making plans. But this thing about counsel and even though this you might not consider this to exactly be counsel, I think it’s roughly that. But if I’m thinking about doing certain things, but I recognize that the thing that I’m thinking about doing also requires that I be qualified to do it. Then there would be an expectation that the church would back up my desire to do that. There would be a confirmation amongst the people of God that, Yes, brother, you should be doing that. I mean, just to launch out and go run around and do things that the people of God, the community of God’s people are not recognized using, you ought to be doing. I think that’s like running without counsel. I mean, I think you’re just you’re here’s one of the things about the plans we make. One of the things about the plans I make is I would really like to succeed in doing those things. And I think you’re on your path to not succeeding if you’re running without being sent. And there is a sense in scripture of being sent. There’s no question about that. In fact, that’s that’s really where that apostolic word group or the missionary word group comes from, one being Latin, one being Greek. But it has that idea of being sent, you know, the well-known passages in Romans 10. There’s that sense of being sent. I think that there’s something to that. The reality is that the foreign mission field will chew people up and spit them out if they’re not ready and called to do that, do I think that everybody in the church should just head off to the mission field? Do I believe that there’s a sense in Scripture that everybody is called to that just because Matthew 28 says when it says that therefore everybody’s qualified for it? I don’t believe that at all. And I believe that if you send people to the mission field that are not qualified, you’re going to end up with problems and and I know a lot of you don’t know the early history with [names removed for security reasons] but they had Americans in the Far East and it they had to send them all back because they just were not prepared to be there. And I mean, the reality is Glenn is not a missionary. He’s not he’s not over in the country. He’s in doing missionary work. I mean, he’s over there working there. The reality is that the people going forth from our church, you know, there has been a sense of calling, a sense of sending. It may be true that you don’t need to see it written in the stars, but in the same way that a man senses a call to the ministry, there are ways that God communicates that. And I would say one of the primary ways is just through the support and recognition of God’s people. If that’s lacking, I would have a real difficult time believing that a person should run because it doesn’t have the feel that they’re actually being sent.
What confirmed your call to pastorate?Audience question: Pastor Tim, what confirmed it for you that like you were called to be a pastor. Tim: See, that was a big thing, God’s people. I remember driving to the church and David, they were going to vote on me out of Community Baptist Church. And I was saying to Ruby, you know what, if five people don’t vote for me? And she she finally just said, There’s no sense worrying. I don’t even know if you remember that. You remember driving there that day. Ruby: To Community? Tim: For some strange reason, we we came that little road. I don’t know if we missed our turn or we’re going to vote. The day they were taking the vote. Ruby: All I remember saying is, you don’t remember this, that I it just struck me the weight of it. And I said, Is it too late to change your mind? Tim: Here’s the thing. The Lord took me to Stockdale, and as I preached and sought to lead the group down there, God, God filled that little place to the point where Pat asked me if I wanted to pastor it. My desire was for the inner city, so I declined. But it was apparent that God was doing something. And then I had a real, there was one night I was walking the streets of Floresville. That’s where I lived. We were planting the church in Stockdale, but we were living in Floresville minutes away and walking the streets one night praying. It was just like the Lord really confirmed there was a real settled sense that He was taking me into the ministry. But I think ultimately it came down to God’s people saying, Yes, brother, we believe. We believe that’s what you should be doing. And so first step was the church. Unanimously, it was 100% voted yes, we believe you should be in the ministry. And then it was the elders, the five, the four well, probably three other elders at that time in the house who said, go plant a church in the inner city. And the church stood behind me and 11 others were willing to follow me. And so the Lord, the Lord confirmed that. But, you know, one of the things [named removed] has said is that, you know, one of the one of the things that God does in somebody that he’s raising up to lead and to preach to God’s people is they have a unique relationship with this book. And there’s no question about it. From the time of Lord Save Me, I had such a hunger for the word of God. I just I mean, I was in it all the time listening to sermons about it all the time. There was just such an insatiable hunger. And it was there were other factors, but those are some primary ones.
Where there is no vision the people perish?What about this verse? Where there’s no vision, the people perish. Well, you can look at that like, Oh, well, you know, when we have when we have you have governmental leaders, you have family leaders, you have church leaders. You know, we talk about their visionaries, oftentimes inventors or somebody, you know, they’ve they’ve got these goals. They’ve got a vision. We talk like that. And that’s how that text is. Often it’s looked at that way. Well, see, if you you know, if you don’t where you don’t have people with a vision for the future, the people perish. But that’s not that’s not the meaning of vision in scripture. I mean, vision in scripture has to do with revelation. It’s more like the reality that if you don’t have what’s a vision? A vision is like a prophecy. A vision is God giving revelation. Contrast experience has been blessed as he keeps the law. So it’s like people without, you know, a knowledge of. Right, exactly. People without a knowledge of God’s revelation, they perish. That’s for lack of knowledge. That’s the idea. And so I would agree with him that that couple there and this is this is common for people to take that passage out of the King James Bible and misinterpret it. If you just hear it from other translations, it it is a bit more obvious, the ESV: no prophetic vision, the people throw off restraint. The New King James, no revelation. People cast off restraint. The New American standard, no vision. People are unrestrained. The Holman Christian: Without revelation the people run wild. And yes, it’s over against the Proverbs are oftentimes they’re they’re comparing opposite ideas. Somebody look at 1 Samuel 3:1 You remember in those days there there was that revelation was lacking in that day there there was an absence of visions to me. Read that first. Audience: The boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli, and the Word of the Lord was rare in those days, and there was no frequent vision. The word of the Lord was rare, no frequent vision. And that’s bad. That’s bad when the word is absent, when God’s not raising up preachers, when God’s not giving revelation, when the word of God is not taken seriously, people run wild.
0:00 – Does James 4 teach that planning for the future is wrong?
3:44- The Corinthians accused Paul of making plans and not following through.
4:13 – Passivity is bad, things don’t just happen.
8:58 – Plans may get interrupted, but that doesn’t make them bad.
11:09 – How do you get confirmation from your church about missions?
15:30 – What confirmed your call to pastorate?
18:54 – Where there is no vision the people perish?
Believer, are you overflowing with praise to God because of the truth of your adoption?
» View: I Was Predestined To Adoption: Praise God!
Today we are asking in what ways does the book of Genesis speak of Jesus, the son of God? Where did Moses write of Jesus in Genesis?
» View: Where Did Moses Write of Jesus in Genesis?
What does the Bible say about joking and laughter in the life of the believer? We consider some of the following questions...
» View: What Does the Bible Say About Joking And Laughter?
What is the purpose of a series on Abraham? In this first sermon we will consider Abraham's call within redemptive history.
» View: Abraham Part 1: Abraham’s Call Within Redemptive History
Jesus Christ Is Ready, Willing, And Able to Save Sinners. Now with a title like that you might think I am giving an evangelistic message.
» View: Jesus Christ Is Ready, Willing, And Able to Save Sinners
Matthew 24 speaks about of "the abomination of desolation", what is this speaking to? There are certain passages of Scripture, like Matthew 24...
» View: What Is The Abomination of Desolation?
Christian, if you lay aside your Bible you are in a dangerous place. God's Word is always true, despite what we feel, whatever God says is true.
» View: What God Says Is True: I Shall Not Want (Psalm 23)
Do the laws created by the government need to be derived from Jesus' teachings? Does the Bible call for us to seek to bring this about?
» View: Should The Government Create Laws From Christ’s Teaching?
What does the bible say about cutting ties with toxic family members who are having a negative effect on us?
» View: Is It Okay To Cut Ties With Toxic Family Members?
Do you consider your ways? Are you investing your time and energy into the Lord's work or is it all about self? What are your priorities?
» View: Consider Your Ways: What Are Your Priorities?
Like the youth of today, Josiah too lived in an evil day, and yet it is said of him that he truly followed the Lord. He is an example to young men...
» View: Josiah’s Example Is A Call To Young Men
How would you define someone who is wicked? How does the Bible represent them? According to the Bible, the wicked forget God and do not seek him.
» View: Keep Seeking God, Don’t Turn Back
What word does God give to a nation in revival? In Zephaniah, we find God's message to those in the midst of Josiah's revival...
» View: A Startling Message To A Nation In Revival
How well are you evaluating and discerning the signs of the times? What is the condition of the church?
» View: Evaluating The Signs Of The Times
What is Biblical Christianity? The great heart of Biblical Christianity, preached by the apostle Paul, and inspired by the Holy Spirit...
» View: What Is Biblical Christianity?
What does the calamity in Luke 13 mean for you and your church? How should we respond? How does Jesus respond?
» View: The Greatest of Calamities
Billy McCurrie went from being a terrorist to evangelist; hear as he shares about how the Lord Jesus saved his soul.
» View: From Terrorist to Evangelist: Billy McCurrie’s Testimony
Do you have an objective like Paul's, to keep the faith and to not abandon Christ?
» View: Keep The Faith And Finish The Race
How can I discern between my heart genuinely being moved by the truth versus emotionalism?
» View: A Heart Genuinely Moved By Truth vs Emotionalism
Galatians 5:4 says, "You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace."
» View: Severed From Christ & Fallen From Grace
How does a Christian experience fellowship and communion with God?
» View: How Do I Experience Fellowship With God?
What do you find when you go to the book of Nahum? You find that it reveals God is dangerous and that God is good.
» View: God Is Dangerous But Good
Are you satisfied with what Jesus has done on the cross? Or are you saying, "Jesus died, yes, but I must..." You must what?
» View: Are You Satisfied With What Jesus Has Done?
This video follows Emily Tiegreen, a now widowed mother, as she observes the faithfulness of God during a season of suffering multiple miscarriages...
» View: God’s Faithfulness To A Widowed Mother
What is the evangelistic responsibility of the church? Are you obeying the command to go and evangelize?
» View: Evangelistic Responsibility Of The Church: Go!
Another secret reality that belongs to God can be summed up in this question: Am I one of the elect? Has God chosen me?
» View: Am I One Of The Elect? Has God Chosen Me?
Are there mysteries that God has kept a secret? Deuteronomy 29:29 says, "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong...
» View: Six Mysteries God Has Kept A Secret
In an hour of trial, the disciples failed despite the privileges they had. They had spent three years in the presence of Christ and seen Lazarus rise from the dead.
» View: The Failures of The Privileged Disciples
When we reflect on the praying Christ and his humanity we come away realizing all the more that there is no way that you and I can face any day without prayer.
» View: The Praying Christ and His Humanity
Nothing can be the object of saving faith except what God has revealed in His Word. So what has the Lord revealed in His Word?
» View: What Is The Object of Your Faith?
Song of Solomon 4:9-10. I want to speak on the theme, A Parable of Love. Although I've selected this as our main text.
» View: A Parable of Love (Song of Solomon)
Risky faith? At times the life of faith might feel risky and dangerous. We are people who don't like risk, but we crave security and long to have control over our situations.
» View: Risky Faith: Trusting God In The Midst of Danger
Paul speaks about not being anxious but instead having God's peace guard your heart and mind. Do you bring your cares and concerns to Christ and not pick them up again and worry about them, but leave them to the Lord Jesus?
» View: Does The Immense Peace of God Guard Your Heart?
In chapter 9 Amos’ prophesies shift from speaking of judgment to speaking about a movement of God and the ruins being rebuilt. What is he speaking about and who does this apply to? Is Amos speaking of an abundant ingathering of souls? And if so, when is that harvest?
0:00 – Do the prophets focus too much on judgment?
4:00 – Amos 9.11, we have a shift from judgment.
13:02 – Is this message consistent with the New Testament?
14:54 – “In that day”? When is this?
19:55 – Does the New Testament quote this? Acts 15.
27:02 – James is saying that what they were seeing was what Amos prophesied would happen.
34:20 – Amos is making a promise that there is a connection between the House of David and us Gentiles (non-Jews).
45:40 – If this belongs to us, then where is the harvest?
50:52 – A flow of God-given blessing? Is this “grape” country?
1:02:10 – What does he mean that ruins will be rebuilt?
1:05:06 – Do you think this is really saying that God will plant the Jews in Palestine forever?
1:08:07 – There is a harvest coming.
» View: A Movement of God: Amos Gives a Promise of Revival? (Part 2)
This study is a follow-up to, “What Do I Need To Do To Be Saved? (Part 1)” where Tim continues to examine different ways people get confused when confronted with the question of how to be saved. There are many subtle ways by which a person can turn salvation into a work or qualification that they must complete in order for the Lord to save them. Tim goes through the Scriptures, specifically John’s Gospel, to examine how the Bible itself specifically words things.
0:00 Logo intros.
0:12 – Recap from the previous study.
4:02 – Are you trying to believe that which an unbeliever has no right to believe? There is a difference between believing you are forgiven before you are actually forgiven.
8:26 – How can I place my faith in Christ?
15:15 – The Bible does not tell you to believe that you are saved but to believe that Christ will save you.
20:13 – Start of a survey of John’s Gospel and the passages that speak on how to be saved.
28:50 – Christ takes away sin, so he can take away your sin.
39:11 – Rest in what Christ has done and that you know is true.
51:00 – John 3:14 – bit by the serpent? Believer, you are healed when you are not? Or look and live?
58:49 – Receive Jesus’ testimony.
1:12:45 – John 5:24 shows us we must believe what the Father has said.
1:20:24 – How can I place my faith in Christ? Well, why do you place your faith in anything?
1:28:00 – John 6.
1:39:44 – What do I need to know about myself?
1:46:29 – In closing…
1:53:59 – Someone ask a question and Tim answers by overflowing with glorious thoughts about Christ.
What is the difference between being discerning compared to hyper-critical when hearing a sermon? Am I listening with ears tuned in to find fault rather than ears to be fed and hear the truth? In this study, Tim Conway considers how we can approach this in a Biblical and balanced way.
00:00 – Logo intros.
00:14 – Question – Being Berean or hyper-critical?
02:46 – The study of how we hear sermons?
04:09 – Is the fault with the preacher or the listener?
15:30 – Speakers have to earn the hearer’s trust.
23:49 – Luke 8
28:02 – It is about understanding what you are hearing.
42:00 – How are you processing the Word you hear?
44:01 – Are you a lazy and sloppy hearer?
46:39 – The overly critical person does not benefit from the good that was said.
51:45 – Do not miss the next truth that the preacher says is very good.
53:14 – Discontent or not appreciating your own pastors due to the famous internet preacher?
54:02 – James 3.1 – few teachers
1:07:41 – Are you listening with pride and arrogance?
1:10:49 – What were the Bereans seeking out in Acts 17?
1:12:14 – Approach preaching with a spirit of humility.
1:13:21 – Do you come into the service with a chip on your shoulder?
1:16:11 – The Devil is in the business of snatching up the Word.
1:20:00 – Satan wants you to be ineffective.
1:25:19 – Judgmental people are proud people.
1:27:10 – So how should I listen?
1:29:46 – GFM previously had the opposite issue – listening to errors and not being critical enough.
1:32:02 – Let love cover?
1:33:31 – Charles Spurgeon on knowing your Bible well.
What do I need to do to be saved? How do I trust in Jesus? How do I know if I am believing in Him? Why am I not being saved? I am seeking the Lord for salvation and he is not saving me! Sadly many have stumbled over these questions. In this study, Tim goes to the Bible to see how the Scriptures speak in regards to these most important questions.
0:00 – Question – I am seeking the Lord for salvation.
5:53 – I am trying to figure out how to trust in Jesus.
07:06 – Does the Bible tell us HOW to trust or does it just tell us to trust?
12:23 – Should we ask what does he think about his own sin?
17:38 – Don’t ask people to believe something about themselves that might not be true.
21:12 – Some verses on this.
22:16 – Matthew 3.2
25:45 – Matthew 7.13
30:34 – Matthew 9.9
33:10 – Many are waiting to feel something.
37:00 – Don’t try to go into some state of euphoria before you believe you are saved.
48:03 – Matthew 10.38 – Die to self and follow Christ.
1:17:14 – I am trying to figure out how to follow Jesus.
Does your eschatology view fit with a two-age program? In this study, Tim goes to countless passages in order to help us interpret Scripture from Scripture itself. Once we’ve seen the big picture it should all the more motivate you to live by the power of God that this present age is characterized by in the believer’s life.
0:00 – Logo intros.
0:05 – Preview of the study.
1:09 – Ephesians 1, an age and an age to come.
6:01 – What does the term age mean?
9:33 – Matthew 12, they considered they were in a age and that there was another to come.
12:31 – Mark 3, parallel accounts can help us see the big picture.
15:18 – Mark 10 speaks of rewards in this age.
19:37 – 1 Timothy 6, be convinced of a two-age structure leading right out into eternity.
23:21 – Luke 20:34
28:41 – Galatians 1
31:30 – This present age goes on to the point of where eternal life starts.
32:31 – 2 Corinthians 4:3-l4
34:36 – John 6 tells us when we are resurrected from the dead.
40:26 – Do you see this framework we are developing based on these passages?
41:48 – Matthew 13
45:15 – What is my point so far?
46:54 – Hebrews 6
51:00 – 1 Corinthians 15:20
57:43 – Step back and just see the big picture!
59:25 – Why do the postmill people think glory days will come?
1:00:33 – 1 Corinthians 15:51
1:03:04 – 1 Thessalonians 4:16
1:04:11 – John 12:48 – the last day is judgment day.
1:06:55 – Matthew 28, this is the age of missions.
1:10:12 – Ephesians 1, back to the start.
1:16:50 – Postmill people feel like something is lacking right now.
1:26:08 – Use the power of God that is at work in your life!
1:32:06 – Do you see? This age is characterized by victory.
1:34:46 – Does this not make you want to shout?
1:35:25 – Be cautious of any system that would portray the book of Revelation as not relevant to you today.
1:37:48 – Question – What about the age to come from the Old Testament?
1:40:28 – Question – Revelation 20 – spiritual or physical resurrection?
This question came in from one of the new Christians in our church, who was reading Philippians chapter two and asked this question: “What does it mean to work out your own salvation?” Ok. Let’s address this. If you want to get your bible, we’ll be starting in Philippians chapter 2.
The first thing that comes into some people’s minds when they see this is, “I thought salvation wasn’t by works, it’s by faith?” It’s a valid question. We know from elsewhere in Scripture that Paul himself, who wrote this phrase in Philippians 2:12, also wrote the lengthy teachings in Romans and Galatians on salvation by faith alone apart from works. Paul is not contradicting himself here. Working out your salvation isn’t just stated here in Philippians 2. The verse in question, though, contains our question, so let’s read the verse: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” Let’s look at what’s going on here.
Paul is writing to the church at Philippi, and he speaks quite highly of this church in the first eleven verses of the letter. When we get down to verse 21, Paul starts to talk about life. The Christian life. In verse twenty-two he talks about living in the flesh and the fruitful labor of this life in the flesh, as he states his wrestling match of desiring to depart and be with Christ – verse twenty-three, but also stating that for the present, remaining alive in this world is more necessary on account of churches like Philippi – verse twenty-four.
In verse twenty-seven, though, is where we can get to more direct application and interpretation on the question we’re looking at here. Paul issues a command: “Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.” That’s an active imperative, even though your bible, like the ESV, may use “Let” – “let your manner of life” – this is something Paul wanted the Philippians to do – “your” in verse twenty-seven is plural – it’s a charge to the church as a whole, and when it’s a charge to the church as a whole, it’s also a charge to each individual within that church. I know there’s more to say here but for the sake of this video, we’ll move on – but we’ll return to verse twenty-seven in a few minutes.
Paul gives some counsel on how to live early chapter two, keeping in mind chapters were not in Paul’s original – it was one continuous stream of thought. In verse five of chapter two, he switches to writing about Christ’s example of humility and continues through verse eleven. It’s in light of that – going back to chapter one where he began writing about the Christian life, that we have the instruction to the church and its individual members in verse twelve of chapter two.
Verse twelve. “not only as in my presence but much more in my absence.” Keep that in mind as I read from verse twenty-seven of chapter one: ”whether I come and see you or am absent.” Coming and seeing them or being absent. In my presence, much more in my absence. The connection is there. Really just two ways of saying the same thing. Paul wants this church to life in a certain manner whether he’s physically there or not. He doesn’t want them to put on a holy appearance just when the apostle comes to town. He wants them to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel ALL the time. And he wants them to work out their own salvation ALL the time with fear and trembling. The phrase “fear and trembling” could be worthy of its own video and again, time doesn’t permit us to break that down and do it justice.
I think inherent in the question that this new believer sent me was what I mentioned at the beginning: “Work? I thought it was by faith?” Is it by faith, or is it by work? Let’s dig into the answer.
One basic issue with the question is, as is so often the case, a matter of definitions. When Scripture speaks about “salvation,” is it only speaking about that moment when a person is declared to be justified – their sins pardoned, the penalty for them removed, and the person declared to be righteous by God? No, it doesn’t. Scripture uses “salvation, or being “saved,” to describe three stages in the Christian life – yes, it talks about the moment a person is declared to be justified, but it also talks about salvation as the ongoing Christian life AFTER a person is declared justified, and it also talks about salvation as that which will come to its fullness on the last day when the dead are raised and given glorified bodies and will dwell with God and the Lamb forever in the age to come. Here, in Philippians 2 verse twelve, Paul is addressing the second – what the Christian life is to look like AFTER having been declared justified – the process known as sanctification. Is it Paul’s burden here to give us a comprehensive, all-encompassing teaching on the Christian life? No. So don’t think that what Paul doesn’t say here is absent from the teaching of Scripture. In its immediate context, Paul is writing to a church that is doing well, and he wants them to continue to do well, whether he gets to see them again face-to-face or not.
He gives this exhortation to work out their salvation in light of Christ’s example of humility in verses five through eleven – because Christ did this, you, Philippians, ought to do THIS – as indicated by the “therefore” that begins verse twelve. What Jesus Christ did, and the Philippians having received justification – salvation – by faith, as a gift, as verse twenty-nine of chapter one says – is to then result in what Paul wants the Philippians to do in verse twelve of chapter two – AND in verse twenty-seven of chapter one. Walking in a manner worthy of the gospel. Working out their own salvation. Two ways of saying, really, the same thing: what does your life look like, Philippians – you…the church as a whole, AND all the individuals within it?
We’re going to go back to that question that comes into people’s minds… does this make salvation by works? No. It’s all about faith at its root, but…the faith that justifies produces something and that something is works. Obedience. You think about Ephesians 2, verse s eight and one. Paul says the Ephesians were saved by grace through and not by works – it’s the gift of God so man will boast. But the next thing he says is that the Christian is God’s workmanship… create for a reason… created in Christ Jesus FOR good works… good works which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
The Christian life is not just one of passivity… it’s at once being passive AND being active. We have our rest in Christ… Matthew 10, verses 28 and 29. We receive faith as a gift – again, Philippians 1:29. We receive everything good from God as a gift – 1 Corinthians 4:7. At the same time, that faith, that resting, is to produce activity. Wrestling against the ruler, the authorities, the cosmic powers of darkness over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil. There’s nothing passive about wrestling… Scripture uses metaphors like wrestling to establish its points… wrestling is hard, it’s exhausting and it’s WORK. We have Scripture telling us to strive after the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord in Hebrews 12:14. We have Scripture telling us the mortify sin… kill the deeds of the flesh in Romans 8:13. We have the book of James that in its five short chapters issues more than 50 commands for the life of the Christian. It’s about becoming more and more conformed to the image of Christ as we walk through this life.
I imagine, though, somebody, in listening to this so far, might be a little bothered by how I read the text from Philippians 2:12. I stopped at the end as if there were a period there. There’s not. The thought isn’t complete, and it’s not complete even if your verse twelve has a period, like the King James does. All your English translations of note start verse 13 with the word “For.” Whether verse twelve ends with a comma or a period, you just can’t leave out verse thirteen. “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Is it our working out our salvation, then, or is it God working in us? Yes. Yes, it is…. We can only work out our salvation BECAUSE God is working in us. A minute ago I cited Romans 8:13 and the killing of the deeds of the flesh…killing them by the work of the Holy Spirit in us… becoming confirmed to the image of Christ as I just said…and 2 Corinthians 3:18 says we are being transformed from one degree of glory to another – how? It comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Yes, Scripture wants us to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, working out our salvation… …sanctification… which 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says is God’s will or us… that growing in holiness between the time we are justified and the time we either die or Christ returns, whichever comes first. Do we rest in Christ by faith, or do we work out our salvation? Yes, again to both… and I think you’ll find the more you rest in Christ by faith, the more you will work out your salvation…. faith always has to come first… but that faith that comes first, if it is the faith that has truly saved you, will produce the working out of Philippians 2:12. Amen.
What does the prophesy in Joel 2 have to do with you and me today? As much as we may long for the outpouring of the Spirit we cannot let our desires misinterpret Scripture, so what does the text say?
0:00 – Consider the flow and timing of the book of Joel.
2:30 – Joel gives us a look into the future.
7:00 – When will God pour out His Spirit on all flesh? Peter tells us.
11:22 – What does Joel’s prophesy have to do with me and you in 2022?
15:21 – How many of our old men dream dreams?
16:47 – As much as I might want this for today, I cannot let my desire cause me to misinterpret Scripture.
19:06 – 1 – Be careful what you emphasize.
28:52 – 2 – Is this also for today as much as it was in Peter’s day?
39:48 – 3 – How do we tap the Spirit’s power?
42:14 – 4 – Testimonies of people who experienced these things.
47:42 – 5 – Where does the Spirit show up in Acts 2?
53:25 – 6 – I conclude the prophecy of Joel 2 does apply to us.
56:45 – 7 – Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
57:44 – 8 – We need the Spirit’s power.
1:07:23 – Quote from Duncan Campbell.
1:08:13 – We need right doctrine but clothed with power from on high.
1:11:53 – Closing prayer.
Ephesians 4 reminds us of the character that is required to cultivate and maintain church unity. How will you and I build a lasting community? How will you survive and thrive as a long-term member of your local church?
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by I’ll Be Honest (@illbehonestwillyou)
The book of Joel makes it loud and clear that natural disaster is not some accident, but rather the Lord is the ultimate cause behind it all.
In recent news headlines, a Catholic Diocese declared that an Arizona priest used one wrong word in baptisms for decades, and thereby they believe those baptisms are invalid. Are any Catholic baptisms valid? What do they believe actually saves you? This news headline is a springboard into talking about the Gospel and how it is that a man or woman can truly have their sins forgiven in Jesus Christ alone.
More Resources:
Is Baptism Necessary for Salvation?
Baptism or Christ
In this sermon, Tim talks about some of the current issues Christians are facing. Will some be arrested and put in prison for preaching the Gospel to the lost?
The lost sinner clearly sees the power of God in the creation and yet rather than give thanks to Him, they suppress the truth and deny Him. Oh, what shame of foolish humanity to see the power of God and deny such power!
Watch Part 2, “Thankfulness – Let The Redeemed of The Lord Say So (Psalm 107)“
Jesus declares that there are two types of people, and both are builders, one who is wise and one who is foolish. So are you building your life on the words of Jesus Christ and obeying what He says? The whole sermon on the mount has been a test from Jesus for you and me to recognize what type of builder we are.
0:00 – Introduction
3:24 – Who are you like? The wise or the foolish man?
05:44 – What does it mean to be wise?
10:07 – What does the wise man do?
12:09 – There are two types of people, both builders.
16:44 – When Jesus speaks, what happens to you?
24:33 – Is Christ precious to you?
28:57 – What about the person who has no foundation?
36:08 – This sermon is a test from Jesus.
41:58 – Noticed how often hell is threatened.
45:17 – The warnings should not make you despair but drive you to Christ.
46:35 – Do you think you are a Christian?
49:11 – Does this series annoy you?
What a powerfully used passage Matthew 7:21-23 has been in the last decade. It contains words of our Lord Jesus that have been used by God to shake many out of a state of false religion. Yet for the believer, they must not fall into fear and doubt when they hear these words but rejoice that Christ is their own. It is only by God’s grace alone that we are not workers of sin but are workers of righteousness.
00:00 – Reading the text Matthew 7.21-23
00:50 – 1 – What would you say before God?
07:51 – 2 – Lawlessness
14:32 – 3 – Day of judgment is a day of many surprises.
15:59 – 4 – Does Matthew 7.23 contradict the fact that we are saved by grace through faith?
25:35 – 5 – If your ‘grace’ does not change you it is cheap grace which is fake grace.
28:23 – 6 – Verses that speak about what grace through faith looks like.
36:50 – 7 – What are the causes of deception?
44:45 – 8 – What if I don’t want to embrace God’s standard of purity?
52:12 – 9 – Does God know you or has he never known you?
1:04:32 – Closing prayer.
If a professing believer came to you and confessed to a struggle with drug addiction, how would you counsel them? What would you say from the Scriptures in order to point them in the right direction?
Jesus warns us that there will be many false teachers who come and are disguised. How can we know them? Why give this warning? Is not grace so gracious that we don’t need this warning? How do you know I am not a false prophet?
0:00 – Have you heard what Jesus said?
1:20 – Matthew 7, considering the context.
4:16 – Verses 15-20.
6:59 – Are there prophets today?
14:51 – Is your authority some confession or the Bible?
17:39 – False prophets don’t like to tell you the hard things.
19:35 – False prophets are disguised.
23:04 – How can we know them? Fruit.
33:29 – Why is this warning given? Not as a threat to the false prophet but to you as a warning.
39:07 – Is not grace so gracious that we don’t need this warning?
44:48 – People quote Ephesians 2.8-9 but forget to quote verse 10.
45:34 – False prophets want to reinterpret Jesus for us.
56:59 – How do you know I am not a false prophet?
57:37 – We need genuine faith because we face real trials.
1:00:22 – Are you a decided follower of Jesus Christ?
1:09:15 – Worn out? Look to Christ.
1:10:52 – John Wesley quote on being all out for Christ.
1:12:02 – Closing prayer.
If the Christian speaks to an unconverted sinner, in love, and alone, and without disputation, and in humility, and in the spirit of prayer, his words will do no harm. He may not be able to do good, but at least he can try. The unconverted in the midst of God’s people, meeting them every day, their friends, their associates, and neighbors, certainly ought not to be able to declare, “nobody said anything to me,”—“no man cared for my soul.”
Kingdom math is 5 Loaves + 2 Fish – 20,000 Ate = 12 Baskets Leftover. Are you convinced that such a math equation works? We can be so prone to doubt that we forget the Lord’s ability to provide. The Lord gives this account of the loaves four times. It is a constant reminder to us of the Lord’s provision.
0:00 – The Bible and math…
7:04 – The text, John 6.
17:52 – “What are they (the few loaves) for so many?”
30:05 – Think of Israel, we may see God work and be anxious the next day.
34:32 – Christ wants them to review their math lessons.
49:32 – Greater than less than math problems.
57:20 – Closing prayer.
John 6:44 says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” Does this verse teach that God drags people kicking and screaming into heaven? And that those who want to come cannot come? No!
Satan is on a quest to destroy the faith of God’s people, and yet God is on a quest to strengthen the faith of God’s people. And of all things, God uses the Devil and allows trials in order to strengthen the faith of the believer.
0:00 – Reading Job 1.
3:56 – Opening prayer.
5:12 – Introduction – Who was Job?
9:29 – Point 1 – Job’s trials, allowed by God.
13:30 – Richard Wurmbrand’s torture by the Russians.
18:19 – Point 2 – Satan’s work is ultimately God’s work.
22:37 – Point 3 – What suffering God allows is to strengthen us and bring more glory to God.
32:55 – Job’s wife was in the trial too.
42:12 – Does cancer come from Satan? Must we pray it away?
45:15 – Point 4 – Truth misapplied can cause more harm than good.
50:45 – Point 5 – In suffering God reduces us in order to increase us.
58:08 – Story from Tortured for Christ.
1:01:51 – Closing prayer.
The Bible teaches that Satan is bound (Revelation 20:1-3), but God’s Word is not bound (2 Timothy 2:8-9). These truths give us Gentiles a glorious hope, not only of salvation for us but of taking forth the Word to the perishing. We who Christ has saved were once under the domain of the Devil are now enlisted in the Lord’s army.
0:00 – Introduction
1:35 – Opening prayer
3:52 – Revelation 20.1-3 and 2 Timothy 2.8-9
6:33 – Satan is bound, but the Word of God is not bound.
11:39 – Remember what it was like when Satan was not bound.
21:33 – Matthew 12, Christ reclaims us.
26:55 – Those once under the domain of the Devil are now enlisted in the Lord’s army.
28:23 – Athanasius quote.
30:08 – The Word of God is not bound.
34:25 – 1 Thessalonians 1.4-10
37:55 – God is always toppling idols, remember Dagon.
40:04 – Combine 2 Corinthians 10 and Ephesians 6, and you get…
44:41 – Application 1 – If God is convicting you, don’t send Him away.
48:09 – Application 2 – God topples idols over in the believer’s life and we ought to praise Him.
51:53 – Application 3 – Jesus is busy plundering the enemies’ goods.
54:00 – Hymn – Over The Gloomy Hills of Darkness
55:03 – Closing prayer
Jesus taught that the many on the broadway are the religious people who say, “Lord, Lord.” Humanity wants a way to heaven that is easy, and therefore, the truth does not appeal to the religious multitude. The majority want to trust in their works to be saved and not obey the radical commands of Christ.
0:00 – In verse 13, Jesus gives the finality to the Sermon on the Mount.
6:27 – How do these contrasting pairs relate back to what was previously said?
9:02 – What % possibility is it of you perishing when Christ comes?
10:48 – This is not about being saved by works.
14:50 – Do Christ’s words make you uncomfortable?
17:05 – Consider Matthew 7.13-14.
25:58 – How can the narrow way appeal to humanity?
30:12 – Those in the pairs that Jesus gives are not just normal humanity.
37:28 – Why is it that people call Christians fanatics?
40:49 – There are only two choices.
44:30 – How does a person enter the narrow gate?
56:46 – Hear the voice of Christ – Listen or reject.
1:02:20 – The broadway has an end of destruction.
1:06:23 – How do people respond when you warn them?
1:08:12 – Christ’s yoke is easy, and his burden is light.