If someone where to write a script for a play showing the time leading up to the beginning of the Tribulation, today's headlines would be a perfect match! Political, economical, spiritual, geological, and social developments are setting the stage for the very detailed events mentioned by the ancient Jewish prophets and apostles. At the center of the whirlwind of activities is the explosive conflict in the Middle East, especially Israel and her holy land and the holy city of Jerusalem. The Jewish people, their land, and beloved city have been chosen by God to be the focal point of the end-time conflict between heaven and hell. Only the Bible pulls back the invisible curtain and shows us the power struggle between good and evil in these last days. While the rest of the unbelieving world is oblivious to what all of this means, I want to remind you that the Bible declares, "None of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand." (Daniel 12:10) Don't take your eyes off of the Obama administration's efforts to force Israel to surrender East Jerusalem and almost the entire West Bank (Biblical Judea and Samaria- the heartland of what God promised to Israel forever in an unconditional covenant) to create a Palestinian State. Recent polls indicate that most Palestinians favor Hamas over the failed political party of Arafat that controls the West Bank. So, this would mean that once again the mindless American government is about to force her one and only real friend in the Middle East, Israel, to surrender land to an enemy that has been firing missiles against her people, almost without interruption, for over 2 years! (This is just what we need-- one more Islamic terrorist state.) God has promised to destroy any nation that attempts to do this! If Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama continue to press for this, God will judge America. It is time for all godly people to fall on their knees and cry out to God. Our world is about to enter one of the most dangerous times known to man!!! It is only a matter of time!
Please share this newsletter with your family and friends. As you look around, don't get down. Just look up! Jesus said, "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." (Luke 21:28) Get ready for the shout that will take us out!!
By Mike Wingfield
Click the below link to read the March 2009 newsletter in PDF format:
The interesting thing about secular history is it constantly repeats itself. Spiritual history is no different. The Christian Religion is following a parallel path to the Jewish Religion and will suffer the same fate. Just like Israel of old, Institutional Christianity has given up its pursuit of the Irresistible Kingdom of God, and forsaken the Heavenly Order of things where Christ is Head; instead, they have set their sights on political power, wealth, and position.
Is today's system of Churchianity any less narrow-minded, self-righteous, and self-centered than that system of Judaism which rejected Jesus Christ? Are our religious icons, television preachers, and institutional pastors any less blind leaders of the blind? Are Christians today any better able to recognize the true identity of the King and the spiritual nature, character, location, timing, scope, and covenantal basis of His Kingdom than their Jewish counterparts of two thousand years ago? Even with the benefit of hindsight and a complete Scriptural record, the gross spiritual immaturity among professing believers today is appalling.
As a result, most Christians are just as ignorant of the true nature of the Kingdom of God as their Jewish predecessors. "How foolish and blind those Jews were! They crucified their Messiah!" But before we criticize the Jews for their spiritual dullness let us look at ourselves. This spiritual blindness and misapprehension of God's purpose is not limited to those first century Jews. As the saying goes, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. So far we Christians have done an excellent job of duplicating and perpetuating the same old Jewish misconceptions, even adding a few interesting twists to further compound the error.
1 - Christian Misconceptions Concerning the SPIRITUAL NATURE of the Kingdom
Whereas the Jews erred in their political perception of the Kingdom, most Christians err in their almost total lack of perception concerning any kind of Kingdom - political or otherwise. It is difficult to know which presents a greater challenge: redirecting an inaccurate impression of the Kingdom, or trying to cast a Kingdom vision where no vision exists. For most Christians today, the Kingdom of God is a vague, mystical non-reality. Heaven is a celestial rest home for dearly departed saints. The Kingdom is mentioned twice in the ceremonial recitation of the Lord's Prayer but has virtually no impact on the spiritual consciousness of the average church-goer.
The Kingdom of God, for all intents and purposes, has been set aside to make way for the Religion of Christianity. The Church, not the Kingdom, is now the goal. The harlot Church, fancying itself to be the Bride of Christ has made itself the object of affection. The history of the Roman Catholic Church is a disgusting account of people endeavoring (and often succeeding) to become a political force in the earth, killing millions of people for the so-called cause of Christ. But the Roman Catholic Church is an easy, obvious target. The Protestant Church is just as guilty of politicizing the Kingdom of God with an unholy alliance between Church and State � for example, when King James asserted his "divine right of kings" ideology and insisted that he should be the political and the religious head of the Church of England.
Whenever Church and State come together the result is always persecution for anyone accused of "heresy." Questioning the authority of the Church becomes grounds for legal action and subsequent punishment, imprisonment, or execution. The Salem Witch Trials in colonial Massachusetts (1692-93) were conducted by Puritan Christians. Whipped into a frenzied religious hysteria, they arrested and imprisoned more than one hundred fifty people as "witches", indicted twenty-nine, and hanged nineteen. This is just one example of why religious zealots - no matter what their denominational or theological flavor - should under no circumstances be given political authority. Beware the ones who seek political office with the intention of enforcing their brand of Christianity on the rest of us.
What is the root problem? Failing to recognize the essentially spiritual nature of the Kingdom - bringing it down to earth and politicizing it, trying to create some kind of earthly power and authority in the name of God. It is a favorite tactic of carnal men, and this carnality extends to Christians as much as to Jews....
Facing the possibility that it could begin before the Rapture)
All of the world, and most of the professing church, is totally oblivious concerning what is about to take place on a global scale. Those who refuse to learn from history or do not have spiritual vision to examine Biblical prophecy lack real discernment. Long ago the Lord told the ancient prophet, Daniel, that in the last days “the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.” (Daniel 12:10) This simply means that the only people on earth at this hour who have any idea of what lies ahead for mankind are the believers in Jesus Christ who are searching the prophetic Scriptures and have been taught by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit informed Daniel that the prophetic revelation given to him would be sealed up, not illumined by the Spirit, until the last days.....
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Posted by tdcrocker on 2008/8/28 16:14:39 (375 reads)
"Stand therefore...having shod your feet in preparation [to face the enemy with the firm-footed stability, the promptness and the readiness produced by the good news] of the Gospel of peace." (Ephesians 6:14-15, Amp)
My background in Operations taught me one thing ... Preparation. Being prepared will protect you when disaster hits. When it comes to fighting spiritual battles, that's a word we would do well to remember. Most Christians don't pay much attention to it. We don't prepare ourselves in advance. We walk around blind until the devil makes his move, then we try to fight him with the Word... and we usually lose, and don't understand why.
I used to do the same thing until the Lord taught me differently. I used to wait until my meetings or events began to pray. Satan would come against them from one direction, I'd fight him there. Then he'd move around and attack in another area, and I'd fight him there.
The Lord has shown me that by waiting until the last minute to take my stand, I was giving satan time to build up his forces against me. Consequently, I was losing most of my battles.
Years ago, the Tylenol Company had a real scare. Someone was tampering with the bottles on the shelves. The reason Tylenol is still the Company they are today is because they already had a disaster plan ready. As Christians we can learn from this. Is your disaster plan already in place? Are you already preparing for battle before it strikes or are you waiting for satan to strike the first blow?
Begin to pray about your family, your church, your business now, be prepared, getting the stage set spiritually before we ever begin. Instead of letting Satan get his forces fixed, Start throwing him out before he ever gets a foothold.
Don't let the devil catch you off guard. Be prepared! Start praying and speaking the Word of faith now!, over your family, your church, your business. Have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace continually not having to rush to put your boots on. Then when satan causes trouble, you'll be will equipped to win the battle.
(This article is based on a spoken series of messages titled "Abide In Me".)
"But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ." (1 Jn 2:27, NLT)
Those who live in union with the Vine do not judge a thing by "can I or can't I, should I or shouldn't I". They do not even judge a thing by whether it seems "good or bad". I don't think anyone has ever made a decision or chosen a thing because they believed it was "bad". Of course not! We choose what we believe at the time to be good. The trouble with that is we are still confident in the flesh, still believing we are capable of knowing good from evil. That is what Adam was looking for: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
But over against that there is the Tree of Life, and here again is another example of the Christ-Life. Now that I am in Christ, and Christ is in me, I do not have to judge a thing by my own limited knowledge of "Good and Evil." The issue is not "Good or Evil", the issue is "Life or Death." Eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil sounded like a good thing at the time. It was pleasant to look at, and it was desirable. That's the way sin is. Sin is very desirable; if it wasn't then no one would be temptable. We need a spiritual compass greater than the limited knowledge of Good or Evil, Right or Wrong, Good or Bad. We need a way to recognize Life and Death.
That may sound very esoteric and ethereal, so let me illustrate it with a practical example. A good friend called me who was concerned about what a particular individual was teaching. My friend had researched the topic, read everything the Scriptures had to say about it, asked the person teaching to more fully explain their position, and consulted with other people who tried to help dissect this teaching. My friend had called me to get my opinion, and began to lay out all the results of this intensive research into the doctrinal position of this person. I must say, it was complicated and very complex.
So I interrupted my friend at this point and said, "I appreciate all the work you've done into the doctrinal integrity of this particular person, but I do not need to hear all the reasons why you believe they are in error. I have met the person, and there is no Life in what they are saying. So I do not have to decide whether the teaching is right or wrong, because there is no Life there. If the teaching brings Death then you should avoid it, no matter how intriguing it may be. Even if the teaching is changed to be doctrinally correct, it should still be avoided because there is no Life in it."
Likewise, I have listened to people speak – not just in a church service or a meeting, but just in conversation – and they can barely put a sentence together, sometimes they don't seem to be making any sense, they certainly are not trying to teach anyone and they would never call themselves a teacher, preacher, or minister – but they have the Life. The Life is sufficient. How do you know they have the Life? If you have the Life of the Lord then you know when others have it. You know. You just know. The Spirit bears witness. You just know. And there have been times when I didn't even like what I was hearing and seeing, and I began to judge it according to "Good and Evil", but down deeper I sensed the Life of the Lord, and at that point you learn not to argue. I may not understand or agree with it, but I sense the Life of the Lord, and that is enough.
For instance, to Peter, the crucifixion of Jesus was a bad thing. He argued with the Lord and tried to prevent Him from doing God's Will. Jesus rebuked Peter for listening to the devil and loving the things of man more than the things of God. See, Peter was making decisions based on his flesh. He wasn't being led by the Spirit.
Some people visit our website at The School of Christ and the first thing they want to read is our doctrinal statement. I suppose we could write one, or copy one, and get agreement on doctrine and teaching, and then someone could make a judgment along the lines of "Good or Bad", Agreement or Disagreement. But that would contradict what I have learned by the Spirit: that we should have no confidence in the flesh. A doctrinal statement is a way around trusting in the Life of the Lord to give discernment. I've seen people with a perfect doctrinal statement that were dead, dead, dead. It means nothing – yet people put so much value in it.
Here's what I say to people: read what we write, listen to what we say, and if the Spirit bears witness with you then you can trust the Spirit. Now if you don't know how to be led of the Spirit then you have another problem. But notice I didn't say you should trust me. I'm not going to hurt you on purpose, and I hope you won't hurt me on purpose. Most of the hurt we endure is unintentional anyway. I have no confidence in my flesh, and I would never ask you to put your confidence in me or anyone else. But you can trust the Spirit of Jesus. And that's what I'm getting at.
You have the Wonderful Counselor, this Mighty Comforter, Who lives in you. Now stop looking to man. Stop looking to yourself. Stop trying to figure it all out with your head. Trust in the Life of the Lord to show you the difference between Life and Death.
John MacArthur I am amazed at some of the things that have been said and written in recent years about the gospel. I fear that in many circles a different message is replacing the good news of salvation. I'm not talking about the attacks on the gospel from liberal religion or the theology of the cults, but a skewed message that has sprouted from right within conservative evangelicalism. I have a copy of a training film now being used internationally to teach Christians what they should and should not say when leading someone to Christ. A respected, conservative organization produced the film, but frankly, the warped view of the gospel it presents is appalling.
In the entire half-hour film, there is not one mention of the resurrection. It speaks of forgiveness without defining sin, and it talks of trusting Christ without describing faith. Incredibly, the film counsels believers never to speak to a non-Christian about the lordship of Christ, submission to Him, surrender of the will, forsaking one's sin, or obeying God. Those truths, according to the film, have no place in the gospel message but should be saved for later, after someone becomes a Christian.
That sentiment reflects a viewpoint that is rapidly gaining momentum within evangelicalism. A handful of outspoken and increasingly vocal teachers are popularizing it. To their credit, most of those men are motivated by a passion to keep the gospel of God's grace free from the influence of human works. Their desire, I'm sure, is to make clear the biblical truth that salvation may in no way be earned or obtained by man's effort. Their approach, however, has been to eliminate from the gospel message anything that sounds like a work of righteousness, and to speak only of believing the objective data. They have erased the biblical words repentance, obedience, and submission from the vocabulary of evangelicalism.
Such teaching has taken a heavy toll. Faith has become merely an intellectual exercise. Instead of calling men and women to surrender to Christ, modern evangelism asks them only to accept some basic facts about Him. A person can believe without obeying. Thus faith is robbed of any moral significance, and righteousness becomes optional. Even the way we invite people to Christ reveals this shift. "Make a decision for Christ," we say. When was the last time you heard an evangelistic message that challenged sinners to repent and follow Christ? Yet isn't that the language Jesus Himself used (Matthew 4:17; Mark 8:34)? Those were the questions that prompted me to write
--I wanted to study the message Jesus preached to unbelievers. How could any issue be more important? The gospel we present has eternal consequences. If it is the true gospel, it can direct men and women into the everlasting kingdom. If it is a corrupted message, it can give unsaved people false hope while consigning them to eternal damnation. This is not a trivial matter for theologians to speculate on. It is an issue every lay person must understand and get right.
Here are some questions that need to be answered biblically: Do we receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, or as Savior only? Some say a person who refuses to obey Christ can still receive Him as Savior. They teach that the gift of eternal life is available by faith even to one who rejects the moral and spiritual demands of Christ. They accuse others of teaching "lordship salvation," implying that it is novel to suggest that submission is a characteristic of saving faith.
Until relatively recently, however, no one would have dared suggest a person can be saved while stubbornly refusing to bow to Christ's authority. Nearly all the major biblical passages calling for saving faith refer to Jesus as lord (cf. Acts 2:21, 36; Romans 10:9-10).
Is repentance from sin essential to salvation? Some say that turning from sin is a human work and therefore cannot be part of salvation. To accommodate the biblical call to repentance, they redefine repentance as nothing more than a change of mind about who Jesus is.
Biblically, however, repentance is a total about face--turning away from sin and self and unto God (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:9). That is no more a result of human effort than faith itself. Nor is it in any sense a pre-salvation work required to prepare a sinner for salvation. Real repentance is inseparable from faith and, like faith, is the work of God in a human heart. It is the response God inevitably generates in the heart of one He is redeeming.
What is faith? Some say faith is merely believing certain facts. One popular Bible teacher says saving faith is nothing more than confidence in the divine offer of eternal life.
Biblically, however, the object of faith is not the divine offer; it is the Person of Jesus Christ. Faith in Him is what saves, not just believing His promises or accepting facts about Him. Saving faith has to be more than accepting facts. Even demons have that kind of faith (James 2:19).
Believing in Jesus means receiving Him for all that He is (John 1:12). It means both confessing Him as Savior and yielding to Him as Lord. In fact, Scripture often uses the word obedience as a synonym for faith (cf. John 3:36; Acts 6:7; Hebrews 5:9).
What is a disciple? In the past hundred years or so, it has become popular to speak of discipleship as a higher level of Christian experience. In the new terminology, a person becomes a believer at salvation; he becomes a disciple later, when he moves past faith to obedience.
Such a view conveniently relegates the difficult demands of Jesus to a post-salvation experience. It maintains that when He challenged the multitudes to deny self, to take up a cross and follow Him (Mark 8:34); to forsake all (Luke 14:33); and to leave father and mother (Matthew 19:29), He was simply asking believers to step up to the second level and become disciples.
But how does that square with Jesus' own words, "I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Matt 9:13)? The heart of His ministry was evangelism, and those difficult demands are evangelistic appeals.
Every believer is a disciple and vice versa. A careful reading of Acts shows that the word disciple has been a synonym for Christian from the earliest days of the church (cf. 6:1-2, 7; 11:26; 14:20, 22; 15:10).
What is the evidence of salvation? In their zeal to eliminate good works as a requirement for salvation, some have gone to the extreme of arguing that good works are not even a valid evidence of salvation. They teach that a person may be genuinely saved yet never manifest the fruit of salvation--a changed life.
A few have even taken the absurd position that a born-again person may ultimately turn away from Christ into unbelief, deny God, and become an atheist--yet still possess eternal life. One writer invented a term for such people: "unbelieving believers"! Scripture is clear that a saved person can never be lost. It is equally clear that a genuine Christian will never fall back into total unbelief. That kind of apostasy proves an individual was never really born again (1 John 2:19).
Furthermore, if a person is genuinely saved, his life will change for the better (2 Corinthians 5:17). He is saved "for good works" (Ephesians 2:10), and there is no way he can fail to bring forth at least some of the fruit that characterizes the redeemed (cf. Matthew 7:17). His desires are transformed; he begins to hate sin and love righteousness. He will not be sinless, but the pattern of his life will be decreasing sin and increasing righteousness.
You need to settle these critical questions in your own heart. Study the gospel Scripture presents. Listen with discernment to every speaker you hear. Measure everything by the Word of God. Above all, make sure that the message you share with unbelievers is truly the gospel of Christ.
(An urgent and passionate appeal to the American people)
By Mike Wingfield
About 15 years ago, while I was a pastor of a church in Northeast Tennessee, we were about to celebrate America’s July 4th independence and give thanks to God for His blessings upon this nation. While preaching through Jeremiah, I noticed that one of the major themes of the book was the Lord’s revelation to this great Jewish prophet about God’s judgment upon the nations. I remember like it was yesterday that when I studied this book and discovered the reasons for God’s divine judgment of a nation, I knew that America was in trouble. What was taking place in America, in the light of the message of the book of Jeremiah, indicated that America was in the crosshairs of the judgment of God! My burden became so great for this land and her people that at one point I prostrated myself upon the floor of my study and began to weep before the Lord. I did not have a vision or any other supernatural experience. I just simply believed the message of the Bible about the sovereign authority of our God over the nations of the world. I instantly knew that my homeland was on a collision course with the great Creator and Ruler of the universe! I remember crying out to God, “What can I do? I will do anything you ask me to do.” Little did I know at that time that the Lord was preparing me for the incredible privilege and responsibility that I have had as an evangelist in the last eleven years, traveling throughout this great nation, from Florida to Maine, and from Virginia to Oregon, proclaiming the prophetic Word of the Lord concerning what He is doing, and is about to do, in these last days. I must confess to you that the burden that I had for America on that occasion 15 years ago has steadily increased and has brought me to this point today where I must share this message with all who will listen to and read what the Lord is clearly saying to America through His written revelation, the revelation of His creation, and His work among the nations in light of His prophetic, eternal plan recorded by the ancient prophets and apostles of Israel.
In recent weeks and months I have listened to the American people, the politicians, political parties, pundits, and the media’s spin on what is occurring in our world today. I have also heard the frustrations and false hopes that Americans are expressing as we expect a newly-elected president to somehow deliver us from the colossal mess we are in. The empty, foolish talk and dreams I hear people expressing ignore the fact that it is God, not man, who is in complete control of the nations and that the future of every nation and this planet is in His hands. Not only do we not have a firm grip on the solution to our problems, we do not even understand the real cause of our national dilemma.
During the Old Testament days of Israel’s national apostasy, God raised up many godly prophets to sound out the warning of God’s approaching judgment to the people. While these warnings were given to historical Israel, they still represent a vital warning to all nations today because these divine instructions flowed out of the holy nature of the One and only true God who still rules over the entire universe! He has declared, “For I am the LORD, I change not.” (Malachi 3:6) His holy and righteous standards of justice, what is right and wrong, have not and will not change because His holy character is eternally the same! This reality must be sounded out today because we are being told by liberal educators, the arts, and media throughout this land and around the world that there are no moral absolutes or standards! We are increasingly living in a world where anything goes. According to the eternal moral standards of God, this is a lie that carries with it some very dangerous and deadly consequences. Please remember that God has said, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Proverbs 16:25) God’s moral standards are like gravity. It is the same for all times, nations, and cultures! If you do not respect the law of gravity, it could cost you your life; if you do not respect God’s laws of morality, it could lead to your death!
The real problem in a nation that is rebelling against God is there is “[no] knowledge of God in the land.” (Hosea 4:1) According to the Bible, the mental grasp of reality is always anchored to the foundational truth of who God is! Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear [being in awe] of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” God told the ancient prophet Hosea that the reason his nation was filled with swearing, lying, murder, stealing, adultery, and violence was because there was “[no] knowledge of God in the land.” (Hosea 4:1-2) This lack of the knowledge of God was the reason for Israel’s rebellion and refusal to change and, would ultimately force God to judge them! (Hosea 4:3-9) Beware America! This nation is on the same path of destruction.
The United States has been a superpower for many decades now. Most American citizens, it is apparent, believe that this nation is very powerful and invincible. We glory in our political, economic, and military achievements. Our problem is we have forgotten that compared to Almighty God, we are nothing. We are hopeless and helpless! Our measur-ing stick of greatness is flawed! We are totally vulnerable to collapse or ruin on any given day should God remove His hand of blessing and protection from America!
Please consider Isaiah 40:15, 17, 21-24: “Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: That bringeth the princes to nothing: he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.” Our God has infinite might and knowledge and has all of His powerful creation at His disposal. The human mind cannot begin to fathom the greatness, majesty, and glory of this awesome God! Psalm 19:1 reports that “The heavens declare the glory of God.” As astronomers explore the billions of galaxies of His amazing universe they are overwhelmed with the vastness of this creation. When they measure the dis-tance in the universe they have to use the term “light years,” the distance light travels in one year at the speed of 186,000 miles per second. Using this standard of measure, we are told that some of the galaxies and stars in our universe are billions of light years away from earth! All of this should cause us to be in awe of this infinite, almighty God!
America and the world have forgotten that there is a God in heaven who rules in all of the affairs of man and is directing the course of history to complete His eternal plan, clearly spelled out in the prophetic Word of God! God has created the nations to glorify Him, honor Him, and be in submission to Him. In Psalm 33, the Lord reminds mankind that He supernaturally created the world when He spoke it into existence “by the breath of his mouth.” (verse 6) In light of this Scripture, He demands that all men should be in awe of Him and submit to His Word. When men do not do this, God has warned in this text that He will frustrate and ultimately defeat man’s greatest efforts. He reminds us that it is foolish to struggle against the sovereign hand of the Almighty. Even a world superpower, like the United States, is no match for the One who rules the universe!
About 2,500 years ago, the most powerful nation on earth was Babylon. Its king, Nebuchadnezzar, looked out over his kingdom and boastfully proclaimed that he had built his great empire by his own wisdom and power. (Daniel 4:28-30) As a result, God humbled the most powerful king on earth by causing a mental illness to completely debilitate and dethrone him for seven years. (Daniel 4:31-33) At the end of the seven years, the Lord mentally restored Nebuchadnezzar and gave him great spiritual insight. Daniel 4:34-35, 37 stands as a testimony to all those who need to recognize the sovereign power of God among the affairs of men: “And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of Heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.”
I believe that an overwhelming majority of Americans are living and speaking as if our leaders, armies, resources, economy, and people have built this great nation without the hand of God and that we can continue to maintain and rebuild it without God! This kind of blind, foolish thinking ignores Scripture, our history, and the prophetic Word of God. Psalm 127:1 summarizes the proclamation of the Word of God: “Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh in vain.”
America has forgotten that the men who wrote the founding documents of this nation and set this nation on the course that has sustained it for over 230 years have left behind many testimonies of this nation’s total dependence upon the God of the Bible and the doctrines of Christianity for its survival. George Washington, the first president, said, “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.” John Adams, the second president stated, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by moral and religion. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Jedediah Morse, known as the “Father of American Geography,” declared, “To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness, which mankind now enjoys… Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government – and all blessings which flow from them – must fall with them.” The great insight of Benjamin Franklin in his old age can be seen in this recorded statement, “I’ve lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: That God governs in the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We’ve been assured in the sacred writings that unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. I firmly believe this, and I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.”
The godly leaders of Congress in the House Judiciary Committee Report on March 27, 1854, ushered the following observation: “At the time of the adoption of the Constitution and the amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged… In this age there can be no substitute for Christianity…That was the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants.”
For most of its existence the United States has been known by the world as “a Christian nation.” For example, in 1831, when the French author, Alexis De Tocqueville, visited the U.S. he observed, “Upon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more I did perceive the great political consequences resulting from this state of things, to which I was unaccustomed. In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom pursing courses diametrically opposed to each other; but in America I found that they were intimately united, and that they reigned in common over the same country.”
It is not a secret that for several decades now there has been a very gradual, but definite, shift by a very militant and vocal minority in the United States away from the Biblical foundation upon which America was built. How tragic that many Americans feel threatened by the very same spiritual truths that historically placed this nation in the position to be blessed and protected by Almighty God! Now, there is an aggressive demand throughout the land for this nation to be set free from the anchor of Biblical Christianity, and to be set free to sail on the ocean of religious and moral freedom.
I must remind my fellow Americans that the United States is not mentioned anywhere in the Biblical prophecies of the last days. This leads us to conclude that this last superpower of the old world order will not be a major player in the “New World Order.” It is apparent that America is about to be judged by God and will slip from its lofty position among the nations of the world. This single event will politically, morally, militarily, economically, and spiritually alter the world. Most people have not stopped to think of what this will mean for our world, in light of the global godless context at this hour. Even with all of our sin and spiritual weakness, the United States, in spite of who we are, has been used by Almighty God as a promoter of freedom and goodness. This global impact upon the world by America has come as a result of the freedoms that a godly remnant has exercised to proclaim and promote the Word of God in this land and around the world. The Apostle Paul exhorted believers to pray for their governmental leaders so that “we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.” (1 Timothy 2:2-3) It has been this kind of atmosphere that has fostered the freedoms, peace, and prosperity that America has enjoyed for so many years.
If the Lord has instructed us to pray for our leaders, then it stands to reason that we should be praying about and be involved in the election this November. Romans 13:2 states that government is “the ordinance of God.” God has ordained government and calls its leaders “the minister[s] of God” in Romans 13:4. Some believers have taken the position that Christians should not vote, hold office, or get involved in political matters because we are citizens of heaven. (Philippians 3:20) However, please notice that the Apostle Paul was given this revelation, and yet, Paul eventually appealed to Rome to hear his case after he had been held prisoner in Caesarea for three years. (Acts 25:11) Paul considered himself a citizen of heaven and Rome. When Jesus was asked by His Jewish opponents about paying taxes to Rome, which all Jews despised to do in His day, notice his answer: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Mark 12:17) The believer is spiritually a citizen of heaven, but this does not cancel out the fact that in the physical realm he has been placed by God under the authority of human government and must respect, pray for, and, as the Lord leads, be involved in governmental affairs. We have several examples of this in Scripture. Notice that God placed Joseph in the position of being the second highest in command in the court of the pagan leadership of Egypt. (Genesis 41:37-45) The Lord also placed Daniel in position to be in favor with and to serve in governmental positions in the wicked Babylonian and Persian Empires. (Daniel 2:48; 5:29; 6:28)
As salt and light (Matthew 5:13-14) the Lord has called His people to serve Him and all those around them, by providing spiritual guidance and wisdom that would promote freedom and peace, consequently opening the doors for the proclamation of His revelation and preserving society so that following generations might be able to hear the Word of God and benefit from the grace of God.
As believers who know the prophetic Word of God are following the dangerous developments in the Mid-dle East and around the world, it is very important for us to be praying about this election for the leaders that will serve this nation for the next four years. Have you considered what the next President of the United States will be facing? When our next President is sworn into office, he will be faced with the daily threat of an attack upon the U.S. by radical Islamic elements that are already in this country and have access to weapons of mass destruction. According to the Christian Action Network, there are more than 35 radical Islamic communes with more than 3,000 members who are training for an Islamic jihad attack against America. (www.ChristianAction.org.) Russia and Iran are working together to control the oil of the world. Israel is warning the world that if Iran should develop nuclear weapons that it will use them against Western interests in the Middle East. Not only is Iran threatening to destroy Israel, but it is also planning to take over the Persian Gulf to control almost two-thirds of the world’s oil supply that flows out of this region. Russia’s aggression against Georgia in recent weeks should be viewed as an attempt to control the daily export of more than one million barrels of oil, along with the rich deposits of coal and natural gas, in the region. Many Islamic nations in the Middle East fear Iran and are already making plans to develop nuclear capability to defend themselves against Iranian aggression. In light of the developments in Iran, it is difficult to determine what the outcome of the war in Iraq will be. We must remember that many Iraqis are Shiites and will side with Iran. While the situation in Iraq looks better at this time, this could change in one day – the day that Iran gets the nuclear bomb or the day that Israel and/or the U.S. attacks Iran to destroy its nuclear capabilities. In light of all of this, no one can begin to imagine the security nightmare that the next president will inherit.
From the perspective of the prophetic Word of God, the single most important issue the next president will face will be the peace process between Israel and the proposed state of Palestine. According to a multitude of Scriptures, the Lord has promised that He will de-stroy the nations that attempt to divide the Holy Land and take Jerusalem away from His chosen people. (Jeremiah 30:11-24; 51:20; Ezekiel 38-39; Joel 3:2; Zechariah 12:1-9) In light of this, the Bush administration leaves behind a diplomatic minefield that will blow up in America’s face. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice have both declared that the Holy Land and Jerusalem must be divided to create a Palestinian State, with East Jerusalem as the capital. This will bring the judgmental wrath of God upon America. Unless the next administration reverses this dangerous support for a Palestinian State upon the land that God has given to Israel, it will lead to the demise of the United States. In recent years two authors have presented their research to demonstrate that since 1991 the United States has suffered a number of significant natural disasters, financial difficulties, and terrorist attacks because of the U.S. pressure on Israel to surrender the land that God has given to them. William Koenig in his book, Eye to Eye, Facing the Consequences of Dividing Israel, and John P. Ternan’s book, As America has Done to Israel, both demonstrate with impeccable detailed research that within 24 hours of the attempts of the last three administrations to force Israel to give land to the Palestinians, the U.S. suffered massive natural disas-ters that have cost billions of dollars and hundreds of American lives. As this newsletter comes to you America is still cleaning up from three massive hurricanes. It is not by accident that a number of natural disasters have occurred during the month of September. The Bush administration announced this past spring that it was their goal to bring the Israelis and Palestinians to peace talks in September. In August Israeli Prime Minister Olmert resigned. This means that Israel will have a new administration and Prime Minister in the next few months. Also, this September a number of very destructive and deadly hurricanes hit the United States. It is not by accident that Hurricane Ike caused heavy damage to the state of Texas, home to President George W. Bush. Does anyone remember that on October 30, 1991 President George H.W. Bush announced that Israel had to compromise and give up land for peace? The next day a powerful storm smashed the New England coast, heavily damaging Bush’s home in Kennebunkport, Maine. This is exactly what God has promised He would do to those who oppose His will for Israel in the last days. “Behold, the whirlwind of the LORD goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked. The fierce anger of the LORD shall not return until he have done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it.” (Jeremiah 30:23-24) “He sendeth out his word … he causeth his wind to blow, and his waters flow. … Fire, and hale; snow, and vapors; stormy wind fulfill-ing his word.” (Psalm 147:18; 148:8)
Furthermore, the next President will face a failing U.S. economy with a national debt that is growing at 1.4 billion dollars a day! The current energy crisis is rapidly depleting the economic surplus in the banking, corporate, and private sectors. The failure of several important U.S. banking and loan firms has already sent major shock waves throughout the financial global and national markets. The conservative projection for the next few months looks very bleak for the U.S. economy.
The governmental bodies of the U.S. leadership in Washington are deeply divided and corrupt. It is apparent that most of the elected officials are more concerned about their re-election and the power of their political party than the condition of the nation and serious threats that we are facing. The next administration will need the support of the American people to apply pressure upon Congress to move out of political gridlock and to get back to work for the people of the United States.
As we elect leadership this November we need to elect godly leaders. If they are not on our ballot, we must select those who are the closest to God’s standard that will please Him and will implore His mercy, and pray for His blessings upon this nation. We must prayerfully select the candidates who have demonstrated that they are servants of God and man and have demonstrated that they are people of godly character and moral integrity. Moses, while seeking leadership to aid him in leading the nation of Israel, was given the following counsel: “Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, and rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.” (Exodus 18:21) Speaking from his death bed, the aged King David said, “The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.” (2 Samuel 23:3) If a person does not know God, then he will be void of wisdom, because wisdom comes from knowing God. (Psalm 111:10) We need leaders who not only have the facts, but make the right choices when adversity strikes and critical decisions must be made. We need leaders of godly character because these leaders can be trusted to be faithful to God and the American people.
America, the selection of a leader must not be based only upon his ability to lead. The most important consideration in the selection of a leader is not how well he can lead, but where he will lead his people. This is the most critical element. When the Lord gave the church instruction concerning the selection of its leaders, the qualifications focused upon the candidate’s moral character and proven experience as a respected leader in his home and in his community. (1 Timothy 3:1-7) Leaders should have good experience and not be “a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.” (1 Timothy 3:6) The leadership of a nation should demand the highest levels of tested experience.
It is vitally important that we select the candidates that will consider themselves servants of the United States of America before they give their allegiance to the United Nations. Please understand that a very powerful movement is already in motion to force the United States into a North American Union with Canada and Mexico. Those who are attempting to build a New World Order government have been successful in forming regional governments, like the European Union, around the world. Great pressure is about to come upon the United States to surrender a very significant part of her sovereignty to create some form of regional government in North America. If the powers that be have their way, this will occur in the next four years! If this takes place, this will be the last election of a president over the sovereign United States of America! This would also take away or alter many of our freedoms that have been a part of America envisioned by the Founding Fathers. In essence, the America that we have known all of our lives will cease to exist! Therefore, it is very impor-tant that we select a leadership that will promote, guard, uphold, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States of America!
America, please be careful to not listen to the financial promises of the political candidates. First, please understand that the economy of the nations is in the hands of Almighty God! All of the wealth in the world belongs to the Lord, and He distributes it to whom He wills. For example, God told Israel that if they obeyed Him and were in the center of His will, He would economically prosper them and make them a leading and lending nation. (Deuteronomy 28:1-14) However, if they rebelled against Him, He promised to judge them and make them a borrowing nation. (Deuteronomy 28:15-46) If you listen to the politicians and political pundits they will make you think that the economy of a nation is very much dependent upon the governmental policies of that administration. However, that is not totally true. While the policies of governments and their taxation of the people do play an important role in the economy of a nation, it does not measure up to the major factors that make up the economy of a nation. The economy of a nation is dependent upon the blessing or cursing of God, and the obedience or rebellion of the people toward God. If the people of a nation honor the God who created them, then He has promised to multiply their resources and reward their work with abundance. However, if they refuse to honor and serve the only God of heaven, then He has promised to curse that nation. He will remove their resources by plagues and natural disasters and will frustrate their work so that it will not be productive. Therefore, we must not think that the answer to our economy is to elect the leaders that have the cleverest economical plan. If we as a nation strive against God, no economical plan will work. That is why the moral issues of abortion and homosexuality are very critical in this election. If we elect leaders who will promote a moral lifestyle that is offensive to God, then we are voting to invite the judgment of God and the de-struction of our economy!
When you vote for a candidate who is promising that government will fix your personal financial problems, you are voting for the destruction of the economy and the nation. Governmental revenue comes from four sources: governmental business, taxation, printing money, and borrowing money. At this present hour our government has overextended itself so that it is spending all of its revenue, plus printing a lot of money and borrowing about $1.4 billion per day! With a present debt of over $9 tril-lion and future promises for the entitlement programs (Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, etc.) adding up to about $50 trillion in the next few decades, how can any candidate promise Americans a free comprehensive medical health insurance program? Do not be fooled! This is not in the best interest of the American people. We do have a major problem with health care costs, but the answer is not a government health insurance program. We should not expect government to take care of our daily needs. We should not ask them to do for us what we can and should be doing for ourselves. The Bible teaches that if a man will “not work, neither should he eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10)
I do not want to leave the impression that the greatest need in America is better leadership in Washington. This is not true. The greatest need in America is a turning back to God. As believers in Jesus Christ we need to fall on our knees and cry out to God for revival. The church has become a part of the spiritual problem, rather than being a part of the spiritual solution to the sins of America. Too many pastors and churches have departed from the sound teaching of the Word of God. What can you do? Hold your pastor and church accountable to sound Biblical doctrine and godliness! If Christ is first in your life, you should refuse to belong to a church where the Word of God is being compromised and immorality is being tolerated. (Romans 16:17-18; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13) Too many church members are attending a church because of tradition or because family or friends go there. They have chosen to offend the Lord who died for them, rather than disappoint their family or friends.
We need to get back to the Bible and holy living! America needs a lot of salt and light now! It will not be easy. Men love darkness rather than light!!
God is speaking to America through the broken economy and the natural disasters, but is anyone listening to Him? Read Amos 4:6-13.
When all is said and done in terms of the ministry of the Word of God, the most important thing we do is preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. The most important thing we do is to tell people there is a heaven and there is a hell. And you will spend eternity in heaven or in hell. And then to tell people that there is a way to heaven, guaranteed, absolutely sure and final. There is a way therefore to avoid hell. And since heaven and hell are forever, this is the most important message that anyone can ever give or anyone can ever hear. Every human being lives forever. Every human being is eternal. After this life is over, we will live forever. We will live consciously, personally, intelligently. We will live fully aware of every detail of our existence. We will experience every moment of our eternal existence in a sense that we have never experienced any moment in this life...without distraction, with full comprehension, full understanding of every moment and every experience in eternity without ever sleeping, or being unconscious.
The experience of every person in the life to come will be unlimited and unmitigated and unrestrained and unprotected. We will have in our final form fully functioning minds and bodies. We will feel, we will think, we will emote at a level that far exceeds the most exhilarating moment in life here. We will be fully conscious of every detail in the eternal experience of heaven or hell.
The biblical description of hell makes this obvious. It is described as a place of a relentless accusing conscience, unrelieved guilt, remorse, sorrow, regret, isolation, agony, suffering, punishment by God, described as fire, darkness, where there is gnashing of teeth and weeping and wailing forever. On the other hand, the biblical description of heaven is stunningly attractive, unending, unlimited joy, bliss, happiness, satisfaction, no pain, no sorrow, no suffering, no loss, no remorse, sheer joy forever.
It should be obvious that heaven is the place to be and hell is the place not to be. The most important choice a person makes is the choice of heaven. And it’s a challenging choice. And sad to say, there are many people who think they have made that choice...but they have not. They think they are set to avoid hell and enter into heaven, but they are mistaken.
Open your Bible to Matthew chapter 7 and hear the words of our Lord Jesus Christ...who is, by the way, Lord of heaven and Lord over hell. Matthew chapter 7 verse 21, and I want to read down to verse 27. Matthew chapter 7 verse 21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name? And in Your name cast out demons? And in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts upon them may be compared to a wise man who built his house upon the rock and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and burst against that house. And yet it didn’t fall for it had been founded upon the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act upon them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and burst against that house. And it fell and great was its fall.”
Surely there are no more serious words for religious people to hear than these. No more serious words for people who profess Christianity than these because our Lord says there will not be a few but many who are mistaken about their future destiny. He points out in this passage for our consideration the folly of empty words, and then the tragedy of empty hearts...empty words coming from empty hearts.
I don’t think there’s a more sobering text of Scripture than this one. I can understand that there are people who reject religion, reject Christianity, want nothing to do with Jesus Christ, nothing to do with the gospel of Christ, nothing to do with the Bible, the Word of God, and they are headed for hell. But it’s a far more sobering and stunning and shocking thing to realize that there are many who are going to say, “Lord, Lord,” to Jesus Christ, there is a confession openly of some attachment to Him that has been carried so far that they have actually functioned in His name only to hear that they will not at all enter heaven.
One’s final destiny then is not determined by what you say. It is determined by what you do. It is not about profession, it is about obedience. Now that is not to say that verbal profession of Christ is bad, it is not bad, it is good. It is not just good, it is necessary. If you would be saved, you must confess Jesus as Lord, Romans 10:9 and 10, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. “For with the mouth confession is made unto salvation and with the heart man believes.” Confession is good. Confession is not only good, it is necessary. It is also the work of the Holy Spirit because in 1 Corinthians 12:3 we read that no one can make this confession, no one can make this profession apart from the Holy Spirit. So confessing Jesus as Lord is necessary, it is also the work of the Spirit to bring about a true profession of Christ.
But it cannot stand alone, just the profession. Let’s look at verse 21. “Not everyone who says to Me,” the operative word here is “says.” You can underline that and you’ll get the thrust of what our Lord is saying. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord...’” Now there is nothing in that confession that is anything short of right. It is correct to say Lord, and to say it twice is to affirm a certain level of devotion. Lord...that’s respectful. Lord, Lord...that’s orthodox, that’s fundamental, that is certainly true. And so here you have what is correct, what is true, what is to some degree zealous and passionate, showing some strength of devotion...Lord, Lord. And you add to that that this person is convinced that in Your name we have prophesied and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name performed many miracles. Here is a life given over to the purposes connected to the name of Christ. This is not a fringe person. This is not somebody on the edge. Three times in verse 22, “in Your name” appears. It’s emphatic. There is devotion here. There is an open confession that has passion and zeal. And backing up that confession and that profession is a life given over to ministry associated with the name of Jesus Christ. And even the activities themselves...prophesy doesn’t mean to predict the future, it means to speak forth. They have taught, spoken, proclaimed in the name of Christ. They have engaged in spiritual conflict. They claimed to have actually exercised power over demons in that name. And even to have done some miracles. Here is a life that could basically be defined as the life of a minister, the life of a missionary, the life of a preacher or a teacher of the gospel or even the life of an Apostle who was able to perform wonders and have power over Satan. This is not then some superficial marginal person making the claim, Lord, Lord.
How stunning then to hear in verse 22 many saying that. And then in verse 23, in response to their confession, the Lord makes His confession, “And then will I declare to them I never knew you.” They may claim Him, He does not claim them.
Why? Because salvation doesn’t come to those who only profess it, who only speak of it. It’s not the sayers who are saved, it’s the doers. And if you look a little closer into verse 23, you can see that these people are not known to the Lord because they are doers of lawlessness. Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness. Literally in the Greek, “You that do always work lawlessness. You that do always work evil.”
Professing Christ and living a sinful life will expose you one day as a hypocrite. Profession is valueless if it stands alone. In fact, profession is a kind of profanity. I’ve always felt that it’s pretty clear in the Old Testament that you’re not to take the Lord’s name in vain. I know as a kid I was raised in such a way in my family to never ever even think of taking the Lord’s name in vain, in any way, shape, or form. And my parents educated me about what they called minced oaths where you would intend to take the Lord’s name in vain, but you substitute another word, and that is equally wrong and a violation of that command. I was raised to avoid all manner of profanity and have raised my own children in the same way and I think it’s right to keep that commandment, not to take the Lord’s name in vain, but I would suggest to you that there is a far greater profanity than from time to time using the name of God, a greater profanity is to all the time use the name of God and have no real commitment to Him. Now you have a life that is one total act of profanity.
The blasphemy of the sanctuary is far more awful than the blasphemy of the street. The blasphemy of the sanctuary is far more awful than the blasphemy of the street. Taking the Lord’s name in vain, claiming to belong to the Lord, claiming to represent the Lord, claiming to speak for the Lord, claiming to do ministry for the Lord while all the time having no relationship to Him but living a wicked, sinful, self-indulgent life is a kind of profanity that exceeds all other profanities. It’s a profane life. And I suppose no one would argue that the worse of all kisses ever rendered in the Bible was a Judas kiss...to say, “Lord, Lord,” while in your heart you have nothing but resentment.
The world is full of people who call Jesus Lord, who say it with emotion and passion, Lord, Lord. And yet never ever do they turn from their sin and submit to that lordship, never do they obey the will of the Father who is in heaven. The church is full of people like this. That is why we are told in the Scripture, 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves to see whether you’re in the faith.” And you don’t look at a past event, you look at the character of your life. The only thing that makes you acceptable to God is a pattern of obedience to the Word of God that is the product of repentance and genuine faith in Jesus Christ and truly abandoning your life in obedience to His lordship. “Faith without works” is...what?... “dead.” It has no life.
In the text in the original, if you just look at that statement, “I never knew you,” in the original language, if you drew out all the components of that, it would probably be better to read it this way, “Not for a single moment have I acknowledged you as My own. I have never known you.” That doesn’t mean He doesn’t know who you are. The Lord knows who everybody is. He not only knows who everybody is, He knows everyone’s heart and He knows what everyone is thinking. You remember in John 2 it was said of Jesus that He didn’t need to ask anybody a question because He knew what was in their hearts. When I says, “I never knew you,” it doesn’t mean I don’t know who you are, you’re a stranger to me. It means I have no intimate personal relationship with you. That’s knowing in the biblical sense.
For example, in the Old Testament book of Genesis, Scripture says that Adam knew his wife and she had a son. It means a lot more than he knew who she was. He knew here in the sense of physical intimacy and she conceived and brought forth a child.
With regard to Joseph and Mary, Mary became pregnant and in the New Testament it says, “Joseph had not known her.” It’s a beautiful traditional ancient euphemism for sexual intimacy.
But it has an even greater metaphorical meaning. It is to have an intimate relationship. For example, Amos 3:2, God says regarding Israel, “Israel, only have I known.” It doesn’t mean that only Jews were known to God in terms of awareness. It means with Israel God established an intimate relationship. That’s why He calls Israel His wife. And He calls Himself her husband. When Jesus says at the day of judgment to the person making an empty profession, “I never knew you,” He is saying, “We never had a relationship of any kind.” You may have respect for their claim of interest in Christ, you may have respect for the fact that they talk about Jesus, they talk about Him as Lord, you may have respect for a certain measure of orthodoxy, you may have respect for the fervency that is exhibited in their public devotion, you may see people like this singing hymns or even performing hymns and songs of testimony to Christ, you may have respect for some who can actually preach, some who claim to cast out demons, some who claim to do miracles. This sounds a lot like what is claimed today by those leaders of the Charismatic Movement, doesn’t it? And the preachers of the devilish prosperity gospel. There will always be those who make these claims.
Were their deeds genuine? Not apart from God they weren’t. False miracles, false exorcisms, false prophecies because they have no relationship to Christ. They never came, by the way, through the narrow gate. Back in verse 13, Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide, the way is broad that leads to destruction. Many are those who enter by it for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and few are those who find it.” they didn’t come by the narrow gate. They didn’t come with an attitude of repentance. They didn’t come knowing they were sinners. They didn’t come stripped bare. They didn’t come naked, destitute, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, that Beatitude attitude.
It’s a scary thing to think about this, folks. It’s a frightening thing to think about, that there are going to be people cast into hell who have spent a great portion of their life giving testimony to their faith in Jesus Christ. But they’re only empty words. Show me your life.
Go back to verse 18. “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit. Nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn’t bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then you will know them by their...what?..fruit.” Look at the life. Jeff O’Hara wrote these words, “Why call Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things I say? You call Me the Way and walk Me not. You call Me the life and live Me not. You call Me master and obey Me not. If I condemn you, blame Me not. You call Me bread and eat Me not. You call Me truth and believe Me not. You call Me Lord and serve Me not. If I condemn you, blame Me not.” Empty words.
The so-called church of Jesus Christ is filled with those speaking empty words. These empty words rise from empty hearts. Notice verse 24, this illustration demonstrates the real condition of the heart beneath the empty words and the heart beneath the true profession.
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts upon them may be compared to a wise man who built his house upon the rock and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and burst against that house and yet it didn’t fall for it had been founded upon the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act upon them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and burst against that house and it fell, and great was its fall.”
Now here again there is this very familiar contrast that we’ve been looking at through this entire text. Two gates, two ways. Two crowds, two destinies. Two trees, and now two houses. Both subjected to the same judgment. The contrast here is not between people who hear the Word of God and people who have not heard the Word of God, but between people who hear the Word of God and act upon it, and people who hear the Word of God and do not act upon it. Or those who are exposed to the truth and who obey and those who exposed to the truth do not obey. This is about obedience as over against disobedience. And the contrast between the obedient and the disobedient is painted for us in a picture of two builders of houses. The words here you will understand then are addressed to those who profess to know God. These words are addressed who profess to know the Lord. The Lord-Lord crowd, the ones who have given their life over to preaching and confronting Satan and doing things in the realm of ministry associated with Christianity and with the gospel and with Jesus Christ. But that group is divided into two groups, those who really obey and those who do not genuinely obey. You see then in verse 24 those who hear these words of Mine and act upon them, and in verse 26, those who hear these words of Mine and do not act upon them. So you have the professors and the possessors.
You have the false claimants and the true claimants, but both look alike. And the stunning thing about this illustration is that you really can’t tell the difference on the surface. Both appear the same. You have a house, the only difference that is made distinct here in the building of these two houses, in either case you have a house, the only difference is the part you can’t see, right? It’s not the roof, it’s not the side walls, not the windows and the doors, it’s the foundation. That is to say, we’re talking to people who belong to the visible church. We’re talking to people who have been exposed to Scripture. They have heard the sayings of Mine. They attend meetings, they attend preaching, they go to Bible study, they may attend a Christian college. They may end up in a seminary, They may read Christian books. On the surface they look like everybody else who is a true Christian and the foundation is not visible.
The real question here then is not whether they have heard the gospel. It’s not about whether they’ve heard the teaching of Christ. But what do they do about it genuinely. It’s not just that they have heard the teaching about Christ, they’ve actually done it, done ministry in His name.
Now what Jesus says here is that there is no way to tell the true from the false until the storm comes. The storm will manifest the truth. Then we’ll find out who built like a wise man and who built like a fool.
Let’s look at these similarities a little bit before we look at the contrast. They both built a house. A house constitutes a life of religious activity, a life within the broad framework of what we would call Christianity or the gospel. They both built it in the same place. How do you know they built it in the same place? Because the same storm got both houses. So we could say they were next door to each other. Both are subject to the same events. They built within the same area. True believers and false believers, side by side. Much like our Lord said in Matthew 13, that the wheat and the tares would grow together. And the time of separation would be at the judgment. So similar are these houses that it’s hard for us to tell. Sunday night after Sunday night we come, we gather here, we hear the testimonies of those being baptized, and never does a Sunday night go by that we don’t hear somebody and we heard it again tonight, say, “I lived like a Christian on the outside, I was not a Christian on the inside, I was raised in the church, I was in the church, I reiterated the things I needed to do, I acted the way I needed to act but I didn’t know the Lord.” That is not an unusual experience. That is a very common one.
They both built a house. They built a house in the same vicinity which puts them within the framework of the true believers. They actually built it in the same way. It looks the same. You could say that they built a house consistent with the Christian development. It’s a tract house. It looks like all the other Christian houses on the outside. The only difference here is the foundation. That’s the only difference the Lord makes.
And this is significant for us to understand. That’s why the Lord says, “Don’t you take on the responsibility to separate the wheat from the tares, you can’t know that, only the Lord can know that until the judgment day reveals it. The difference is the foundation. One builds on petra, rockbed...rockbed. Not petros, that’s boulder or stone. Petra, rockbed. One has a concrete, if you will, or stone foundation. The other builds on sand. The Greek word for sand is ammon for which the capital city of Jordan where I have visited a number of times gets its name. Ammon Jordan, it is aptly named, it is one big sand pile, ammon Jordan.
So, there is a foundation of stone in one place and rock. There is a foundation of sand in the other place. A man is a fool to build on sand because when a storm comes, it will wash the house away. And that’s exactly what happens. Look at verse 27. Verse 26 says, “The foolish man builds his house upon the sand and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and burst against that house and it fell and great was its fall.” On the other hand, “A wise man,” end of verse 24, “built his house on the rock, and the rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew and burst against that house yet it did not fall for it had been founded upon the rock.”
Here, by the way, again is a powerful rebuke of the religion of the Pharisees who were hypocrites. But of any false religion, but most particularly in this context of false profession of Christ as Lord.
What does it mean to build on sand? No foundation. What does that mean? Well the one who builds on sand has no regard for the Word of God in terms of obedience, not committed to a life of devout obedience, willing obedience, loving obedience, eager obedience. No regard for true spirituality of the soul. No regard for true purity of the heart. No integrity in behavior. No love for the law of God. No longing to please God. The one who builds on sand prays, occasionally fasts, gives money, works within the framework of Christian life, and does it to enhance his or her reputation. Does it to feel good about himself or herself. It’s the religion of externals. The outside looked good, but the foundation was non-existent. They bring their bodies to prayer but not their souls. They worship with their mouths but not their hearts. They boast of their orthodoxy but have no love for obedience.
What is the rock? Clearly, the rock is these sayings of Mine, or these words of Mine, verse 24, “Everyone who hears these words of Mine...” Verse 26, “Everyone who hears these words of Mine...” The Word of Christ, the Word of God, this is the word that saves, is it not? Faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ. This is the gospel. This is the truth of Scripture. So in both cases these people have heard these sayings of Mine. But where they act upon them, where they obey them, there is a foundation that will stand the test of divine judgment. A life of obedience manifests true salvation. If it isn’t there, it’s deception. John 8:31, “If you continue in My word, then you’re My real disciple.” John 8:31. If you continue in My Word, then you’re My real disciple.
Do you remember James 1, and there are a number of scriptures we could look at. But a couple to keep in mind. James 1:22, “Prove yourself doers of the Word and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” If all you do is hear it, and you don’t obey it, and you don’t obey it because you love it, you are self-deceived if you think your life will stand the test of the flood of divine judgment. In the opening chapter of Titus, verse 16, speaks of people who profess to know God, “But by their deeds they deny him, being detestable and disobedient.”
One thing marks the difference between a true believer and a false believer, and that is a pattern of loving, eager, submissive, obedience to the Word of God. Obedience is the key. Hearing the Word and doing it, that is the only genuine authentic validator of true salvation. If you say, “Lord, Lord,” “Kurios, Kurios,” “Master, Master,” then immediately you should say, “I am Your slave.” If He is kurios, you are doulos. If He is Lord and Master, you submit. And if you say, “Lord, Lord,” with zeal, and devotion and you do not submit, that is a blasphemy above all blasphemies, that is the blasphemy of the sanctuary that takes His name in vain. You would be better off, frankly, to use the name of Jesus Christ, or God, in an occasional curse word than to live an ongoing hypocritical life that blasphemes His name from beginning to end.
We’re not talking about perfection here, we’re talking about direction. I’m not perfectly obedient, I am imperfectly obedient. But I long to be perfectly obedient. That’s my passion, that’s my heart longing. I have recognized that I fall short. I have recognized that I am a sinner. I have repented of that sin and embraced Christ as the only hope of salvation and my life has been transformed and my heart longs to obey. True Christians build lives of obedience, built on the rock of biblical truth.
Let me take you a little more deeply into the differences. What does it mean to really build your life on the things that Christ has said that are revealed in Scripture? To build your life biblically? As compared to building on sand? Just some things to think about.
One, in the one case you build the easy way, and the other, you build the hard way. It’s really to build on sand. You don’t have to do anything, start building. You don’t have to dig. You don’t have to prepare the site. You don’t have to set the footings. You don’t have to put in the foundation. You don’t have to lay in the concrete slab. It’s easy to build on sand, you just put your building up. This speaks of the fool in a hurry, the easy way, shortcut, quick results, fools are always in a hurry. Fools always want to get it fast. And in many ways, in Christianity in our time, in our place, we aid and abet the fools by making everything quick and easy. Quick and easy evangelism, quick and easy gospel presentation, keep it moving, no time for soul conviction, no time for building a deep sense of one’s sinfulness. No time for the cultivation of conviction by the Holy Spirit, regret over sin, no time for deep soul searching, no time for counting the cost. The fool is in a hurry, he wants it quick and easy, and very often we accommodate the fool by making it quick and easy.
Also, not only is the fool in a hurry, but he’s very shallow. And again I say, we live in a time when shallowness is at a premium as if it had some value. It’s a shallow approach to almost everything in our culture. There’s so much superficiality and shallowness in the name of Jesus that is accepted as if it’s legitimate that one can hardly get one’s arms around this. It’s so common. No deep plowing. No hard spade work in the soul. No foundation exercises. No brokenness of heart. No grief over sin. No mourning over waywardness. We lack depth. We lack sincerity. Everything is superficial.
On the other hand, the wise man, Luke 6:47 and 48 says, “The wise man dug deep.” The wise man dug deep. Went down into the rock. What does it mean? Not in a hurry, not in a hurry. Not looking for the fast track to heaven. Not looking for the quick conversion, for the light confession. You know, I agree with Arthur Pink who once said, “There are some who say they are saved before they ever have any sense they are lost.” And it’s almost against the rules now to give someone an overwhelming sense that they are lost. To drive them down deep into the ugliness of their own heart, the wretchedness of their own sin.
But the wise are not in a hurry. They want to make sure that what they’re doing is the real thing. There are many who would claim Christ as Lord who have no thought of what that means. In fact, strangely but truly there are many people who confess Jesus as Lord and don’t think that means He’s in charge. Many rush into a profession and later rush out again. But the one who is wise digs deep. He’s not shallow like the parable of Matthew 13. The rock is plowed out of the soil. The weeds are removed so he doesn’t have a superficial shallow faith. That’s why, folks, we have to preach against sin. You have to expose the true lostness of the human heart. The sinner must feel far worse before he ever has a right to feel any better. The person who is wise is not in a hurry. He is willing by the working of the Spirit of God to take the full blast of condemnation that comes at him for his condition. He embraces that “God be merciful to me, a sinner” attitude that the publican had when he pounded his chest.
And secondly, and unlike the wise (meant foolish) man, he’s not superficial in his house building, he gives maximum effort. He counts the cost. Jesus said that. Look, you don’t go to war without counting the cost. You don’t build a tower without counting the cost. You understand what the Lord is asking. He’s asking for your life, for your whole life. Deny yourself, take up your cross, follow Me. If you say this is going to cost me my family, then let it cost you your family, your father, your mother, your wife, your husband, your sister, your brother, your friends. If it means you have to be persecuted even to a cross, let it be. But you deny yourself and all other things and follow Me.
This person wants to do it right. Counts the cost. Learns the right way and willingly submits. He is emptied of self-righteousness. He is emptied of self-sufficiency. He digs way down. He knows he has nothing commendable. He’s overwhelmed with his sin. He makes the maximum effort in the Lord’s strength to place the Word in his heart. He’s interested in genuinely submitting to Christ and loving Christ. He longs to know the Word in order that he might obey the Word. He doesn’t want to know the Word so he can wow the ignorant, he wants to know the Word so he can compel his own soul into a life of obedience.
Nothing superficial about him. Oh, there are so many people in Christianity today who want the quick, fast track. They want the byproducts of a relationship with God without the relationship. They want the byproducts of salvation without salvation. They want the byproducts of repentance without repentance. They want forgiveness without repentance. They want salvation without submission. They chase the signs. They chase the wonders. They fool around the Bible. They have no real relationship with God.
And so, our Lord says this is how people build and the truth will not be revealed until the storm comes. What is the storm? It’s the day of judgment. The rain descended, verse 25, and the floods came, the winds blew, and burst against the house, the same thing is described exactly in verse 27. The first house did not fall that was founded on the rock. The second house fell, great was its fall. This is divine judgment. This is the final judgment. The day of judgment will come when people will say, “Lord, Lord, it’s us.” To which He will confess, “Homologeo, depart from Me, I never knew you, you who continue to practice lawlessness.”
Listen, you may be respectful of Christ. You may have orthodox views about Christ. You may see yourself as fervent and zealous. You may be active in some level of devotion to the church. You may make a public proclamation. You may be busy building your little religious house adjacent to all the others, built by those around you. You may be deceived only to have our house smashed to a million pieces in judgment. Go back, dear friend, and check your foundation. Go back and check your foundation.
How do you know if you don’t have a foundation? A few things you might think about. Marks of the many with only sand under their religious house. Reservation in yielding to Christ. Do you find in your life an unwillingness to yield to Christ? Are you irritated by the commands of Scripture? Does it bother you that Christ is restrictive? Does it bother you that the Bible is restrictive? Do you not like the fact that there are sins that you would like to do and you restrain from doing them because pressure is put upon you? That is evidence that you have no foundation.
Another one, external religious activities with no proper motivation. Do you come to church because your parents expect you, your friends expect you. Do you come to church because you’re trying to make a good impression on someone? Are you trying to earn your way in? That’s a wrong motive. Unless you do what you do in the cause of Christ because you are compelled by your love for Christ and a desire for His glory, you may have no foundation.
Are you self-righteous? Is there anything in you that thinks you can earn your way to heaven? Even if it’s a small component, even if you believe in the cross and the resurrection, if there’s anything in you that thinks it can contribute to your salvation, you have no foundation. If you love the world, 1 John 2:15, if you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. If you can’t let go of the evil world around you. If you’re characterized by pride. If you do what you do for self-glory. If you love pleasure more than you love forsaking pleasure for the glory of God. Any of these marks would indicate that perhaps under your religious house is sand...sand. And that would be true, I hate to say this, of most professing Christians because many will say, “Lord, Lord,” but few come in the narrow door. Examine your heart and examine it carefully.
Our Father, we come to the conclusion tonight of this soul-searching message, a true invitation on the one hand and a severe warning on the other. We thank You, Lord, for confronting empty words and empty hearts, those who profess to be in the Kingdom but are not. Lord, rescue those who are guilty of being hearers and not doers. We pray, Lord, that for those who may be in the hearing of this message, who have been building a very elaborate house and have now found out that they have no foundation and they will be swept into hell when judgment comes, may this be the hour of their true salvation. May they dig deep. May they come to grips with their sinfulness, their helplessness, their hopelessness, their spiritual destitution and bankruptcy, their desperate condition. May they see all the glory of the cross in its magnificence and may they truly repent, confessing Jesus as Lord and themselves as His slaves...willing and eager and joyous in their commitment to obedience. And we ask that You would do this for Your glory in the name of Christ. Amen.
I want you to begin tonight as we return to the Word of God by following as I read Matthew chapter 7, verses 21 to 27...Matthew chapter 7 verses 21 to 27. Here are the words of our Lord Jesus Himself. And they are stunning words, shocking words, and tragic words.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy or preach in Your name? And in Your name cast out demons and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts upon them may be compared to a wise man who built his house upon the rock. And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and burst against that house and yet it did not fall for it had been founded upon the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act upon them will be alike a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and burst against that house and it fell and great was its fall.’”
Perhaps this is the most tragic text in all the Bible. The reality is there will be people one day who stand before the Lord, many of them, who will assume that they are about to enter heaven only to be told they’re on their way to hell. This is the worst possible illusion that someone can have, to be mistaken about your eternal destiny, to be mistaken about your salvation.
I’m often asked the question, “Are Roman Catholics Christians?” And I would pose this question, “Are Protestants naturally or always Christians?” How about another question, “Are evangelicals necessarily Christians?” But a more important question than any of those is, “Are you a Christian?” Could be that you’re among the many who are self-deceived. You’re not alone. I am convinced that in the name of Christianity there are many places that call themselves churches and they’re not churches. And they have men leading them who call themselves pastors and they’re not pastors. And they have congregations who call themselves Christians and they are not Christians. They’re not churches, they’re not pastors, and they’re not Christians and yet they proudly post the label Christian.
Now we learned in our message last time, from verses 13 and 14, that there are only two possible options. There is a narrow gate that goes to heaven and there is a broad road that says heaven but goes to hell. The narrow gate is hard to find and hard to go through because it demands denial of self, denial of self-righteousness, recognition of sin, full repentance, submission to Christ, commitment to obey Him and follow Him no matter what the cost.
It’s hard to find that truth and hearing it, it’s hard to act upon it because of the love of self and the love of sin which is natural to the sinner. The true way to heaven is hard to find. It is away from the crowd. It is narrow, you come naked, you come alone, you come penitent. You strive to enter. At the same time, most religious people are on the broad road and there are plenty of false prophets who are enabling them. They are discussed, by the way, in verses 15 to 20. The false prophets, the false religious leaders, the false representatives of Christ, false agents of God who really are the agents of Satan, they are ministers of Satan disguised as angels of light, leading people on a road that says heaven but ends up in hell. For all the years of my ministry, there has been nothing that has come to the level of my concern for this issue.
Of course it’s a tragedy for Hindus to go to hell, or Buddhists, or Muslims. It’s a tragedy for atheists and Jews who reject the Messiah to go to hell. It’s a tragedy for anyone to go to hell. But it seems to me that the tragedy of all tragedies is the oft repeated Judas tragedy where you hang around Jesus but end up belonging to Satan. That’s the real tragedy. There are pastors who fit into this category, they’re not even Christians. And churches are filled with people, some quote/unquote churches are made up almost all of non-Christians who are deceived about their true spiritual condition.
And so, it’s important for us to hear the words of the Lord. If I’m concerned about this issue, believe me, He’s far more concerned about it as well. And when the Lord said these words, He was not speaking to irreligious people, He was speaking to fastidiously religious people. He was speaking to people who were religious to the max, I suppose we could say. They were obsessed with religion. In fact, they couldn’t divorce their social life, their civil life, their economic life, their family life, their national life from their religion. It permeated everything in Israel. These are THE most religious people. These people are as religious as you can get. But they have no relationship to God and no relationship to Christ. They are religious but lost. They are on the wrong road. To borrow the words of Paul, they have a form of godliness without the reality of it. They are self-deceived.
We have that today, as I said. It is everywhere...everywhere. People who in some way or another are connected to the idea of God and even Jesus, but utterly devoid of any divine life, any knowledge of God, any salvation at all. We have multitudes of deceived souls within churches who are on some kind of Jesus trip, thinking all is well. And the words of our Lord in this text really are the best words to deal with this deception. And I’m sure it’s not just a deception that’s out there somewhere beyond us, I’m sure it’s a deception that is here within us. Of course it would be the tragedy of all tragedies, but it will occur and it does occur and it will continue to occur that someone would sit at Grace Community Church and end up saying, “But, Lord, but, Lord,” only to hear, “Depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness, I never knew you.”
Our Lord had this concern even in the Olivet Discourse at the end of His ministry when He told a story in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew about some virgins who had all the trappings for the great event, waiting for the bridegroom to come for the wedding celebration. Only one thing was missing. What they needed on the inside, oil to light the lamp because they had no oil, symbolic of not having anything on the inside of spiritual light, they were shut out forever, though they had all the external trappings.
I suppose the shocking word here, at least the shocking word for me is the first word of verse 22, “Many will say to Me on that day...” And I can’t help but tie that word back to verse 13, “Many are those who enter on the broad way through the wide gate.” It’s the same many. It’s the religious but lost. It’s the same many who go on the broad road that says heaven, but goes to hell. It’s the same many who when they come to the end of the road think they will be admitted to heaven only to find that the entrance to heaven is from, as it were, the very portals of...the entrance to hell, rather, is from the very portals of heaven. What a shock that is to think you’re on the way to heaven, only to find out you are in hell.
What lulls people into this deception? What does it? How could you get to that place where you’re comfortable in your own deception, your own self-deception, even unaware of it. Well let me suggest some things. There are some things that contributed to this. And I would say, first of all, is a superficial understanding of the gospel, which...by the way...permeates if not dominates quote/unquote Christendom, a failure to understand the true terms of the gospel, the real definition of salvation and saving faith. We have such a weak and shallow and superficial and trivialized emotionalized psychologized approach to the gospel that most people who call themselves Christians couldn’t give you a meaningful explanation of the great doctrines of redemption. They don’t know them. Nor are they expected to know them because in many cases the people who teach them don’t know them either. And so people have a false understanding of their spiritual condition because they don’t even understand what saving faith and what the saving gospel are. And you would think that someone like myself who has spent a great portion of his lifetime trying to clarify the gospel and clarify what it means to genuinely repent, and what it means to genuinely put your faith in Christ, and what the doctrine of justification really means would be some kind of a hero to the Christian church, but the fact of the matter is, I’m an anti-hero, I’m treading, as it were, on people’s feelings, I’m invading the comfortable bed of their tolerances, I’m being divisive. But the truth always does that...always does that.
The church is so ignorant about the gospel that when you preach the true gospel, you’re very liable to be vilified for it by the church. I picked up another article today that was sent to me in a journal, I think about 15 pages long, attacking me for what I say it means to become a Christian, written by a man who is a Christian pastor. I tell you to preach the true gospel in the Christian world today is to engage yourself in more warfare than to preach the true gospel in the world.
So the first reason why people can be lulled into this deception is because they don’t know the definition of the gospel. They can sit in a quote/unquote meeting somewhere that poses as a church and be taught by someone who poses as a Christian pastor, and surrounded by people who pose as Christians, and be made to feel good about whatever situation they’re in.
The second contributor to this is a false sense of assurance...a false sense of assurance. The idea is that if you feel good about God, and if you have some emotional attraction to God which might be called love, if you believe in Jesus and you want to connect to Jesus, and you want to sort of associate with Jesus and be a part of what Jesus is doing, and you want Jesus to kind of work with you and make you what you want to be, you’re in. And this will be affirmed. You will be told if you just pray this prayer, “You’re a Christian.” You’ll be certified. In some cases if you come to an altar and pray this prayer, you’re going to be doubly certified. In some cases if you show some kind of faithfulness to the meetings that you go to and they’re all about Jesus, quote/unquote. That’s a certification. But mostly if you feel good about Jesus and you want Him to fix your life and take your life, you’ll be affirmed, you’re okay. As long as you say you want Jesus in your life and as long as you say you believe in Jesus and as long as you pray to Jesus and ask Him to fix your life, say the right things, show the right emotional responses to the events that are done in the name of Jesus, you’re okay. In fact, you’ll be built up. You’ll be affirmed regularly. God loves you and He loves you unconditionally. And all He wants to do is fulfill every dream and desire you have in your life. And you’re here and you’re showing your love for God and that put you in the spot where you’re going to be just blessed.
And so, both the lack of definition in the gospel and this overwhelming desire to make everybody feel good and to assure them that they’re okay with God if they just hang around the people who talk about Jesus, lures people in and seduces them into the dream that they are right with God. And they’re not.
There’s a third thing. A failure at self-examination...a failure at self-examination. When somebody says to me, “I’m not sure I’m a Christian,” what should be my immediate response? “Well, of course you are. You’re here. Have you ever prayed the prayer? Have you gone to the prayer room? What are you talking about, of course you’re a Christian, look at you. You have a Bible. Hey, you have a MacArthur Study Bible, you have to be a Christian. What do you mean?”
But if anybody says to me, “I’m not sure I’m a Christian,” my immediate response is, “The reason you may feel you’re not a Christian is because you’re not a Christian.” It’s much more important to demand an honest self-examination than it is to ride across somebody’s doubts. If you doubt your salvation, there’s a reason you doubt your salvation. It may not be a legitimate one, but it may be a legitimate one. You may have every right reason to doubt that you’re on the way to heaven. You may have every right reason to doubt that you’re a believer. And until I can see a pattern in your life and make a good guess that this is unnecessary doubt, and that you’re succumbing to temptation not to trust God who has saved you, and even then I can’t be certain. I’m going to question the fact that if you doubt, maybe you have reason to doubt.
But that’s not popular. In fact, the words that I’m saying right now to you are words that would be rejected soundly in many, many quote/unquote Christian churches. What? You are calling into question people’s salvation? Who do you think you are?
Well I’m only endeavoring to make certain that the words of Jesus in Matthew 7 are brought to bear upon this generation, that people are living under a massive illusion about their relationship to God and there are many, many in that category. This is not my message, this is the message of the great Shepherd, I’m only His undershepherd, passing the message on.
And we’re so grace oriented. We want people to feel so good. We want people to like us. We don’t like confrontation. So we don’t want to call people’s spiritual life into question. We’re so grace oriented, we don’t want them to feel bad about their sins, we want them to feel happy about God’s love. But that’s not biblical. In 2 Corinthians 13:5 there is a word that we all need to hear and it comes from the Apostle Paul to a church, to a church where he had spent about two years of his life, to a church where people had professed Christ, where they had been baptized, where they had been taught by Paul, the Corinthian church, a church to which by the time he writes 2 Corinthians, he’s already written three other letters...1 Corinthians and two other letters that aren’t in Scripture. This is a church that has heard so much from this man. And by the time you come to chapter 13 here, you’ve now got a total of 29 chapters written to them just in the two epistles that are inspired by the Spirit and placed in the Scripture. And yet he says to them in chapter 13 verse 5, “Test yourself to see if you are in the faith, examine yourselves. Do you not recognize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail the test?”
After years of ministry under the Apostle Paul, after years of instruction from Paul and from his emissaries sent to that church on behalf of Paul, after years of professing and confessing Christ, he says, “You must go back to the very beginning and examine yourselves to see whether you are really in the faith.” In fact, this should happen in the life of the church as a normal course. What do you mean by that? Every time you come to the Lord’s table, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, every time you come to the Lord’s table, as often as you eat this bread...verse 26...and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes, therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner,” and that would be someone who is not genuinely saved, for sure, “shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” If you are a false Christian and you take communion, you become guilty of His death. “Let a man examine himself.” Every time you come to the Lord’s table, it is a time of self-examination. If you don’t do that, if you’re unwilling to do that, the likelihood is you have found a comfort zone in your self-delusion.
There’s a fourth matter that I think seduces people into this delusion...a fixation on religious activity...a fixation on religious activity. Being in a church, being with people who call themselves Christians, reading quote/unquote quasi-Christian literature, talking about God, as so many people feel today, feeling spiritual, even being in a Bible study, being a part of some Christian organization. This lulls people into the deception that that’s the equal of being saved.
O my, Christianity is filled with people in all kinds of religious activities. Just think of all the Christian organizations, there’s no end to them. Think of all the Christian publishing, books, music, literature of every imaginable kind, television, radio. It’s endless. How many people are involved in all of this? Think of all the churches from Roman Catholicism, the Orthodox Church down through everything that purports to be Christian, including cults, all the way through to liberal Protestantism, denominations, all the way down to every different kind of church. And churches now pop up everywhere, the idea today is to start your own church. You’re not supposed to be called or gifted or trained or ordained, you’re just supposed to be entrepreneurial. Everywhere these churches pop up and then reinvent what a church should be around the personality of the leader. And they involve people.
I just got a little deal somebody showed me the other day, it came out to everybody in my part of town. The New Techno Church, and it features break dancing Jesus boy...break dancing Jesus boy in the New Techno Church. Now that’s involving a lot of people. And when they meet, it says, when you come bring your stuff, bring your rap albums, bring your turntable and you can be a disc jockey...and who knows what’s going on in that situation. It involves all kinds of people who feel like they’re connected to break dancing Jesus boy. And we laugh at that because it’s so absolutely ludicrous and ridiculous, but it’s a tragedy beyond all tragedies. Religious activity everywhere...everywhere.
There’s a fifth feature that I think lures people into deception, I like to call it a fair exchange approach...a fair exchange approach. It’s so typical. It usually starts like this, I’m basically a good person, it’s the idea that you believe in God and you’re a good person as over against a bad person, which means given a twenty-four hour day, most hours in that day you’re not committing a violent crime. That’s the way it works. It’s all about stacking up the hours. How many hours a day do I commit crimes? Well, it’s a rare day when I do a crime, but there are a lot of other days when I don’t do a crime, so I’m basically good. Or how many hours a month am I raping someone. Occasionally, but most of the time I’m basically a good person. That’s how it works. They sort of balance off the timetable. We tend to also balance off our sin with something good. Hey look, I support my family...I support my family. Yeah, I know I stumble once in a while and I’m unfaithful to my wife and I cheat on my Income Tax, but I’m telling you this, I take my kids, you know, to the Saturday Little League, I’m a good dad. Really? Yeah, God wouldn’t keep me out of heaven, after all I believe in God and hey, I believe in Jesus, I’m basically a good person.
Now, of course, that’s the biggest lie in religion. You have to forget in order to buy that lie that God only justifies the ungodly. So it’s not until you’re ungodly and you know it, you’re already ungodly, you just don’t know it. But when you come to the knowledge that you are ungodly, then there’s hope that you could be justified...but not until. This works for most people. Some bad over here, some good over here, balance...I’m on the good side, I’ll be okay. God certainly couldn’t keep me out of heaven.
There’s another element in this little list of attitudes that give people a false sense of assurance. Familiarity with biblical morality...familiarity with biblical morality...they say, “Well hey, I don’t deny what the Bible says, I believe in a biblical morality. I’m not pro-homosexual, I’m not anti-marriage, I’m not anti-family. I agree with that. I think sexual activity should be between a husband and a wife only inside marriage. I hold that morality, I must be on my way to heaven.
And there are lots of people who fit into this category. Take, for example, the Mormons. They say this is their way of life...although it doesn’t always work out so. I’m not certainly trying to twist the Scripture. Look, I don’t have any argument with the Bible. Actually I don’t know what it says, but I think these are the kind of things that the Bible advocates and I’m for them.
And all these things are just a big deception because none of these things have anything to do with your salvation...none of them. The real issue is this, people who are deluded and deceived have failed to come through the narrow gate. They have failed to come through the narrow gate. What does that mean? Repentance for sin, confession of sin, submission to the Lordship of Christ, brokenness, humility, contrition, obedience to the Word of the Lord no matter what. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, “What our blessed Lord wants, most of all, is ourselves, what Scripture calls our hearts.” He wants the inner man, the heart, He wants our submission. He does not want merely our profession, our zeal, our fervor, our works, or anything else. He wants us. God does not want our offerings. He does not want our sacrifices. He wants our obedience. He wants us. It is possible for a man to say the right things, to be very busy and active, to achieve apparently wonderful results and yet not to give himself to the Lord. And that is, finally, the greatest insult we can offer to God. What could be a greater insult, says Lloyd-Jones, than to say, “Lord, Lord,” fervently to be busy and active and yet to withhold true allegiance and submission from Him to insist upon retaining control of our own lives and to allow our own opinions and arguments rather than those of Scripture to control what we do and how we do it. This is the greatest insult of all to the Lord.
And the deceived come in several categories. There are the superficial. They are the ones who call themselves Christians because at some point when they were kids they accepted Christ. We’ll use that buzz phrase. Or they believed in God. They are ignorant and they are uncommitted. I call them superficial because they have a superficial exposure to Christianity, some event in their life, probably reinforced by their parents. They think there’s a real connection to God because of that. But they’re just kind of superficial, it’s all about a past event. They think they’ve put that to rest. They’ve settled that issue. They’ve taken care of that sort of necessary item in their lives. And the only time you ever see them is on Christmas and Easter. When they roll into the church on Easter, you want to wish them Merry Christmas because you won’t see them again till then.
And then there are the deceived who are not the superficial but the deceived who are very involved. They’re all through the church. Jesus called them tares sown among the wheat. They know more about the church. They know about the life of the church, they’re involved in the life of the church. They know a little bit about the Bible. They know Bible stories. They know what the buzz phrase is, the Jesus narrative to some extent. They could tell you some Bible stories. They know a little bit of theology, just enough to be dangerous. But there’s no real humility, there’s no brokenness, there’s no godliness. They’re just there. They’re involved. They don’t think deeply about things. They’re not trying to be deceivers. They’re not trying to be false Christians. They are, but they don’t really know it. They’re just kind of going along with the church activity, thinking...Hey, these are my people, this is where I belong.
And so you have the superficial, then you have the involved. And then you have, thirdly, the hypocrites. They know they’re not believers. They show up on church on Sunday and they can’t wait to get out of the place to go back to pornography, illicit relationships, wicked evil behavior. Oh the involved, they’re trying to work on their ethics, they’re trying to work on their morality and trying to be as good as they can be without any help from the Holy Spirit, pretty tough...actually impossible. But the hypocrites, they’ve given up trying to be what they can’t be and they just pretend to be one thing when they show up at the church and the rest of the time they are exactly who they are.
Are these people all aware that they’re being deceived? Oh I think the superficial probably are really deceived and they don’t know it. I think the involved are deceived and they don’t know it. I think, for the most part, the hypocrites, they aren’t deceived, they are deceivers. I don’t know what they think they’re going to gain out of it.
Now let’s say you’re here in a church like this, or any church, you want to help. And you say, “Okay, we’ve got some tares here, and we’ve got some people who are here, they’re doing things in the church. They’re involved. They’re working at this Christianity thing. We’ve got some other folks who show up now and then, only sporadically, they’re the superficial ones. And we’ve got some well crafted hypocrisy going on that is articulated very effectively by some people who have been practicing it for a long, long time. How are we going to help these people? How do we get to these people to unmask them for their sake? What do you look for? How can a deceived person know he’s deceived. How can we spot someone who is deceived and deceiving?
Let me give you a few suggestions. And by the way, in this message I’m only giving you the introduction. Here’s what to look for. When you’re looking for people who are deceived, look for people who are seeking feelings, blessings, experiences, healings, angels, whatever that are only interested in the byproducts of the faith, not in Christ. They’re not consumed with the glory and the honor and the wonder and the beauty and the magnificence of Christ. They’re not consumed with honoring Him, loving Him, serving Him, obeying Him, submitting to Him, exalting Him, proclaiming Him, worshiping Him, confessing Him. They’re only there for the byproducts of that which is attached to Him...give me blessing, give me spiritual experience, give me a spiritual high, give me good feelings, give me healing, give me prosperity.
That’s an interesting thing to realize that some years ago the prosperity gospel was just a small part of the larger Pentecostal Movement. Now it has swallowed the whole movement. The whole movement is predicated on giving people the products of God, but not God...the products of Christ, but not Christ. They’re not looking for Christ. Let me have Christ whether I’m sick or well. Let me have Christ whether I’m rich or poor. Let me have Christ whether I’m alive or dead. Let me have Christ for my sins and Christ for my guide and Christ for my power and Christ for my King. I don’t care whether I have anything but Christ.
That’s not what you hear today. In fact, if that’s you message, it’s very likely the crowd will thin out fast. So when you’re looking for people who might be deceived, look for the people who are seeking only the byproducts that are going to be what they want and not Christ. And as John Piper says, “The gospel does not offer to the sinner what the sinner wants naturally.” What does the natural sinner want? Huh, good feelings, blessings, healing, happiness, riches, money, success, a bunch of angels working for him, all unregenerate people want that naturally. That’s not the product of the work of the Spirit in an unregenerate heart. The gospel does not promise the sinner what the sinner already wants. It promises what the sinner does not want and that is righteousness, holiness, forgiveness, heaven and dominating all of that, Christ. And what is the attitude of the world toward Christ? They hate Him. That’s why we study about Christians being persecuted, right? You’ll be hated by all because of My name. They hate Me, they’ll hate you. The unregenerate man has no affinity for the gospel that redefines him as a wretched sinner on his way to hell, desperately in need of salvation. And to get that salvation he has to abandon himself and embrace Christ.
So you look for the people who are looking for all the byproducts that they want in their unredeemed condition, rather than Christ. Secondly, you can look for people who are more committed to churches than Scripture...more committed to quote/unquote churches and Scripture, denominations, movements, groups because it very likely is a social thing. Oh not just purely social, but it’s sort of social with a spiritual twang, you know? Ah, it feels good to be involved in a God thing. And you even hear people say that. Hey, come and meet with us, we have a God thing going here. It’s a kind of a God social amalgam. And that’s what they’re committed to, not to the Word of God. How could you be committed to God and not to His Word? How can you say, “Oh yeah, I really want to connect with God.” Okay, you want to connect with God? Here’s what God says. Confess your sin, repent and embrace His Son as your only hope of salvation. That’s the first thing He says. And if you don’t agree to do that, you’re going to hell forever.
Now do you want to hear the next thing God says? Maybe we could start there and then we’ll work on, “Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him.” Then we could work on, “Hate your father, hate your mother, sister, your brother and even your own life.” And then we’ll talk about count the cost.
Wait a minute, He’s asking all that? And then, by the way, the Law of God is the Law of God because it’s a reflection of His holy nature and the Law of God doesn’t change, God’s moral Law will have to become your passion. What? Which is another way of saying everything you love to do now, you have to hate. Everything you hate to do now you have to love. Are you ready for that? Look for people who have a commitment to some organization, some place, some group of people that is far more than their commitment to know the Word of God so that they can obey the Word of God.
I’m not under any illusions. I know why people come to this church. I know why you’re here. You’re here because you take the Word of God seriously, correct? And this is not a dog and pony show. Look, I get up here every week and do the exact same thing I did last week. There’s no variety in this church. But you’re not looking for a variety act here. It isn’t a juggler this week and a dancing horse next week. You don’t need to be entertained. You don’t need a rock band. You’re here for one reason, tell me what the Word of God says. That’s why you’re here. I know that. We all know that. That’s why we’re here.
And sometimes people will say, “Well, you know, we came to your church for a little while but it was a fifteen minute drive and we found a place closer by.” Really? Do they teach the Bible there? “Oh no, no...not like you do. But it’s close to where we are.” Oh, okay, yeah. Not hard to figure out where you’re at, is it?
There’s one reason people come here and one reason they don’t come here, because they don’t want the constant exposure. I wouldn’t come here if I didn’t want to hear the Word of God. I’d take about one sermon from me and say, “I’m not going there again.” Look, if you don’t listen to the Word of God, and you’re not interested in the Word of God, this isn’t the place to be because nothing else is going to happen. So if you’re waiting for the new wave to show up, it’s not coming.
There’s a third kind of person you might look at and wonder if these people are really converted. They’re more involved in theology as an academic interest than for personal holiness. I hate to say it but seminaries all over this country are filled with professors who have a academic interest in Scripture, an academic interest in theology, who don’t know God at all. And so whatever they think the Bible means is probably not what the Bible means, since the natural man even though he’s a scholastic, cannot understand the things of God. It’s no wonder that seminaries full of liberal professors can’t get the gospel right, can’t get Genesis right, can’t get the Old Testament right, can’t get anything right because unregenerate people no matter how well they’re educated or theologically trained still can’t get it right. Because, as 1 Corinthians 2 says, only the Spirit of God knows the mind of God and only the Spirit can give understanding.
So you look for people who have an academic interest in theology and the Scripture rather than an interest in the Word of God for the sake of personal holiness and personal worship. You know, that’s the two things that I draw out of Scripture. The first thing is the work of the Word in my own heart, the cleansing, purifying. It’s like a knife, John 15, that prunes. It’s like water that washes. And the second element is that it not only convicts and cleanses my heart and the heart of a true believer, but it also enables us to worship in fresh ways. Every new passage releases new things about God. Every verse that I go to, and I go so slowly through every verse explodes on me in a kind of cacophony of angelic voices praising God and opens new vistas of understanding for me.
And so what do I draw out of Scripture? That which produces personal growth and holiness in my own life, and that which expands my worship. I never read the Bible for academic reasons...never.
Another thing to look for in a person who is deceived is someone who is always stuck on one point of theology. I have run into these people all my life. They deal with only one over-emphasized point of theology and they’re just seeking a platform to expound this sort of wacky view. And when they write me letters, you know these kinds of people, they write tiny writing, never spaced down all sides of the paper and then they write all over the envelope. And everything they say is all about the same point. And all they want is a platform, driven by some ego need. You’re going to find with true Christians that there is not this obsession with some quirky aspect of theology, but rather there is this open balance in which they embrace all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are found in Christ.
Another and I’ll just give you two more, another thing to look for when you’re looking for people who might be in a condition of being self-deceived is that they are over-indulgent in the name of grace...they are over-indulgent in the name of grace. Another way to say that is they lack penitence. With true Christians, there’s just an ongoing brokenness. There’s just an ongoing kind of recognition that they fall short. We are the ones always confessing our sins and thereby, 1 John 1, we give evidence of being ones that are always forgiven.
When you find people who are over-indulgent in their sins, who are going to defend their right to conduct their life in a certain way and live a certain way because of grace, sort of super-grace, indulgent grace, and they lack penitence and brokenness and a measure of humility, it might well be that you’re dealing with someone who is deceived.
And just one last one, and we’ve kind of talked about it, but you can put it in the list, number six, look for people who see God as the means to their own ends...who see God as the means to their own ends. I want to be...I want to get to God because I’ve got all these deals that I want to do, I’ve got all these plans, I’ve got all these dreams, I’ve got all these ambitions and hey, if you tell me God will help me get there, that’s Joel Osteen. He’s a heretic. That’s not Christianity. That is not Christianity. And that is not a church. It’s heresy. God is not the genie in your bottle who jumps out when you rub it and says, “Tada, three wishes.” That is not Christianity. It doesn’t even approximate true Christianity. You need to help those people who see God as the means to their own ends.
Sad to say, people who live like this even though they hang around churches, called churches, and sometimes hang around real churches and some of them are even here in our church, they are on the road to destruction. They’re among the many who will say, “Lord, Lord, it’s us.” Only to hear, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.” These are the people who think they’re going to heaven, but they’re not.
Now with that, we introduce this text. I’m glad you still think that’s humorous. That gives me hope that there is a future. We’re going to return to this text and we’re going to look more deeply into what is one of the most provocative and powerful of all of Jesus’ teachings, the folly of empty words. Profession without possession, the tragedy of all tragedies. But for now, we bow in prayer and thank the Lord for what He’s given us tonight.
Father, it is such a tragic thing to think of empty words coming from empty hearts of lives that will be destroyed when the rain of judgment and the flood of divine wrath comes in the end who will stand at the tribunal and say, “Hey, Lord, it’s us, Lord, Lord.” Only to hear, “I never knew you. Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity.” Father, we know that all are deceived who have not ceased by Your power doing iniquity and begun to do Your will. What marks a true believer? They as we heard in baptism tonight are not longer a slave to sin but have become slaves of righteousness. On the other hand, if we look at this all positively, how can you tell a true believer? Consumed with the love of Christ, consumed with a hunger for the Word of God, longing to be holy and righteous, longing to be humble and broken, desirous to be above all things obedient from the heart, longing to worship, can never get enough obedience, can never get enough worship...all these evidences of a transformed life. And, Father, we would pray that if there are any with us tonight who are deceived about their true spiritual condition, Lord, may the light go on and may they see the reality. Give them a hunger and a thirst for righteousness. Give them an overwhelming love for Christ. Give them a desire to humble themselves, turn from their sin and submit to Christ as slaves submitting to a sovereign and all-gracious, merciful Lord. Give them a desire to worship. Free them from the longings of the natural heart, the unredeemed heart. Fill their hearts with the longings that belong only to the regenerate...obedience, submission, humility, holiness, worship.
Now, Father, just do your work, that’s all we can ever ask. Ours is but to bring the truth and to bring the warning and to repeat the words of our blessed Savior. And we pray, Lord, that Your Spirit would do a mighty work in hearts through what we’ve heard tonight. We thank You for it in the Savior’s name. Amen.
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Sponging off God's people to make themselves rich!
"There are far too many relatives here," said Frances Hill, a University of Miami law professor who specializes in nonprofit tax law. "There`s too much money sloshing around and too much of it sloshing around with people with overlapping affiliations and allegiances by either blood or friendship or just ties over the years. There are red flags all over these relationships." Copeland, 71, is a pioneer of the prosperity gospel, which holds that believers are destined to flourish spiritually, physically and financially — and share the wealth with others. His ministry`s 1,500-acre campus, behind an iron gate a half-hour drive from Fort Worth, is testament to his success. It includes a church, a private airstrip, a hangar for the ministry`s $17.5 million jet and other aircraft, and a $6 million church-owned lakefront mansion...
