Amen, i'm going to be reading
verse 23 through 32 in joel chapter 2 20 verse 23 through 32 just
to kind of give you a little bit of a flavor of what paul
was uh, james rather was talking about In our axe account and
we'll go back there and try to make our way through the 15th
chapter joel chapter 2 Verse 23 through 32 be glad then you
children of zion and rejoice in the Lord your
God, for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he
will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and
the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be
full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil. And
I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the
canker worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer worm, my great
army which I sent among you. And you shall eat in plenty and
be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God that has
dealt wondrously with you and my people shall never be ashamed. And you shall know that I am
in the midst of Israel and that I am the Lord your God and none
else and my people shall never be ashamed. And it shall come
to pass afterwards that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh
And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men
shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions.
And also upon your servants and upon the handmaids in those days
will I pour out my spirit. And I will show wonders in the
heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood
before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. And it
shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be delivered for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall
be deliverance as the Lord has said and in the remnant whom
the Lord shall call. This is the reading of God's
word. I want to mark a couple of things before we go back to
the Acts account. Obviously, if you're reading
in your Old Testament Bible, portions of scripture that are
called pointer passages, passages that in the New Testament are
commented upon. But when you go back to the Old
Testament and read them, you will frequently find subtle distinctions
between the two texts. They are not scribal errors.
They are not contradictions. They are not flaws of any kind. The New Testament is written
in Greek with a small measure of Aramaic. The Old Testament
is written in Hebrew. The first targeted language that
the host language was translated into is Greek. And whenever you
have a target language, the target language is never going to be
a one-to-one ratio of a dynamic in the translation from host
to target. In other words, every word is
not going to be an equivalent translation. There is always
a kind of dynamic between your host language and your target
language. And therefore words are modified,
adjusted, supplanted, sometimes removed, depending on what needs
to take place. What I would have you to mark
is a couple of things as we go back into the concept of the
last days and of the remnant doctrine and James' affirmation
that the ministry of the apostle Paul was that which was prophesied. First thing I want you to mark
with me in the prophecy of Joel is that Joel is speaking to the
captivity children, the children of Israel that's in captivity
in Babylon because of their rebellion against God. What that means
is Joel is acknowledging that Leviticus chapters 26 through
28 Deuteronomy chapter 28 through 31 is being fulfilled in that
God said, if you disobey me and break my covenant, I will send
you into a land and a country of far off who's which people
whose language you will not understand. And their speech will be uninterpretable
to you. That was the Babylonians. And
in our text, you have this strange language of promise given to
Israel in verse 22. Be glad then you children of
Zion rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the
former rain moderately. He will cause to come down the
rain, the former rain and the latter rain. That's a promise.
And what he was talking about contextually is Israel's returning
back to the land and God blessing the land again with the outpouring
of the rain so that it could produce the fruit necessary to
take care of the economy of Israel. I'm giving you a contextual interpretation
because so many people have taken these passages out of context
and made them a personal blessing for you and me without even regarding
the context. The context is that when Israel
was ever brought under the curse of God's judgment, according
to the old covenant law, one of the things that God would
smite would be their economy. He would cause their land not
to produce the harvest. And obviously that would create
a famine. and a famine would be a real
problem for the children of Israel. And this is why he's saying,
now I'm gonna let the rain come down so that you can have your
corn and your wheat and your vineyards and your olive trees
and all of the things of which God had promised to the children
of Israel in the land of promise. So they are hearing about a promise
which is yet to come to pass, because they have not completely
come back to the land, but that's how God works. He'll discipline,
then he'll give a promise. And he'll tell you to endure
the chastening Because when it's over with, the blessing is going
to recover you and put you back in the state of favor that I
always intended for you at the first. And this is why you read
language like verse 26. And you shall eat in plenty and
be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God. You guys
see that? But that statement there is indicating that Israel
learned her lesson. that the chastisement and judgment
of God upon Israel brought them to repentance so that when they
were recovered, they were thankful that God had chastened them and
yet brought them back to favor. So they are now in a state of
saying, I am thankful that God didn't destroy me. My sin merited
destruction, but all God did was chastise me. And as he promised,
he would bring me out and bring me back into the land. And I
am back at square one with the same blessings that he had promised
me originally. Do you guys know anything about
that kind of discipline in your life where God will discipline
you for your sin and it will hurt? You will smart for it and
you will wonder when will it end? It will end when you and
I have come to a healthy point of repentance. Because the purpose
of chastisement is to change our mind. The reason for which
we came under discipline is because we were doing something wrong.
And discipline is always an indicator that we have been stubborn. That
we have not listened to reproof. That we have not heard god's
warnings. You know how god talks to us in providence He talks
to us in circumstances He will give you that indicator that
things are not right And then we'll blow god off for a long
time until god has to deal with us as he does the horse or the
mule Put the bridle in and ride us as if we are an ignorant beast
Am I telling the truth? Right. And so this is what God
does with his children when they persist in acting like they're
not listening to him. Because God is a father, is he
not? And when you're a father, one of the things you do, and
even a mother, you'll say, son, are you listening to me? And
they'll say yes, but you can tell by their conduct that they're
not. And the second time around, you say, son, I asked you, are
you listening to me? And when you discover that they
really are not listening, then you have to take more severe
measures to get their attention. And this is what's going on in
this text. And so Israel is being promised to come back to the
Lord. And in verse 27, it talks about a knowing the Lord is in
the midst of them as a consequence of the chastisement, the recovery,
returning back to the land, the Lord giving them health, giving
them blessing, giving them strength, giving them a healthy economy,
et cetera. And then verse 28 says this,
and it shall come to pass, what's our word? Afterwards. See English translation of the
Hebrew term that is translated in Acts 2 as what? The last days. This is where we're about to
go. The last days. So when we're interpreting scripture,
the Old Testament will give us a context and the New Testament
will give us either prophetic fulfillment. The New Testament
will give us prophetic fulfillment or sometimes application or both. In this context, we have what
is called prophetic fulfillment. So go to Acts chapter 2 and let's
look at this again and see what's taking place. This is Acts 2.
verse 17. There's more in Joel chapter
2, but I don't have time to develop it. I'm giving us a context so
that we can reaffirm and kind of anchor down on the concept
of eschatology or end time things in relationship to the language
of the New Testament. So in Acts chapter 2 verse 17,
listen to it. And it shall come to pass that
the Lord, I will pour out my spirit and my flesh upon your
sons and daughters and they shall prophesy. Let me see if that's
the verse that I want. Acts chapter two, verse 17. It shall come to pass in the
last days. You guys see it? I will pour
out my spirit upon all flesh. Joel said, and after this, here
is your corresponding connection with the Eschaton. After what? After Israel is brought back
into the land, God is going to now move into Israel's life,
prophetically bringing about the incarnation of Jesus Christ
His three and a half year ministry, his death, burial, and resurrection,
and then the subsequent what? Pouring out of the Holy Spirit.
The pouring out of the Holy Spirit is part of the last day's ministry
beginning at Pentecost. So what I was sharing with you
last week is that when you hear the term, the last days, you
have to understand the last days contextually, right? Not simply
viewing the last days as the end of time as we know it, but
it might be the end of an era such as the era of the old what
Testament and largely where you find Jesus, our master speaking
about in times are the last days or the next word we're going
to deal with is the word remnant. He's largely not exclusively,
but largely talking about a complete ending of the old Testament system
and the bringing in of the new Testament age. We call it the
gospel age, the age of the church. So We read here in Joel, I mean,
Acts chapter 2, 17, and it shall come to pass in the last day,
said God, I will, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.
So we know that this is AD 33. It's now 2016, almost 2000 years,
not quite 1900 and something, almost 2000 years since verse
17. Correct? Well, from that time
to now, we have been in the last days. You guys follow that logic
from the days of Christ. to now we have been in the last
days. So we read Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 in order to affirm
this. I want to tighten this up before
we go on back to James interpretation of the Joel text. And in Hebrews
chapter 1 verse 1, we read these words, God at sundry times and
in different manners spoke to our fathers through the prophets,
right? But in these last days, he has spoken to us in his son.
That's verse 2. In these last days, he has spoken
to us in his son. So even the writer to the Hebrews
acknowledges that we are in these last days. How? God has spoken
to us personally by the second person of the Godhead. Christ
came. He has spoken. He is speaking. He's speaking through the gospel.
We are in the last days. Let me show you another verse,
Hebrews chapter 9, verse 26. where it is stated that Jesus
came into the world in the end of the ages, or at the end of
the Old Testament era. I'm in verse 26. For then must
he, that is Jesus, often had suffered since the foundation
of the world, but now wants, in the what? End of the world. Do you see that? In the end of
the world, hath he appeared to do what put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself so there is an eschaton or a last days doctrine that
is really atonement centered it's rooted in the cross work
of christ and largely when you read old testament prophecy if
you miss the cross you really miss what we mean or what the
text means by the end times it is the cross that actually puts
a finality to the Old Testament and initiates the New Testament
period. The cross does that. And so we
read here in verse 26, but now once in the end of the world,
you guys see that word world. So we were doing an exegetical
and I was dealing with the rules of interpretation, literal, historical,
grammatical, theological, redemptive. I would emphasize a grammatical
interpretation here where I would take the world and let you know
that that word world actually is the Greek term aeon, which
means age or dispensation, not the physical cosmos or the universe. He didn't come in the end of
the physical cosmos. He came in the end of the age
or the end of the old Testament era. He closes out the old Testament. And so this is much of what was
taking place in first century, uh, um, uh, Israel where the
gospel is being established. When the apostles preached and
taught, they were using the term in times in relationship to the
end of the old covenant, because the people with whom they were
having the most trouble were the Jews who were still holding
on to the old covenant. and we're not willing to buy
into or accept the notion that the old covenant was fading away,
waxing old, ready to die because the implications would be no
more blood sacrifices, no more high priests, no more Levitical
system, no more circumcision, no more Sabbath days, no more
Judaism with this ethnocentricity. Are you guys hearing me? What is the challenge with that?
As we were learning back earlier, the reason for which the Judaizers
came down and told the Gentiles, you got to be circumcised and
keep the law in order to be saved. What the Judaizers are doing,
which they do today, is try to preserve their identity. The
problem is the Jews were actually set up by God to bring Jesus
in. And whether they know it or not, their identity was to
land smack dab in the person of Christ. So in a real sense,
when they reject Christ, they reject their true identity. And
they're holding to a shell of an identity, less the substance,
because the real substance is Christ. He's the real Jew. The problem, however, is that
they don't want a Messiah that says, I'm making room for everybody
to be a Jew. Black, white, male, female, Gentiles
of every kind can now become part of the Commonwealth of Israel.
They didn't like that because they didn't know how to negotiate
dying to self and living in Christ and taking up a new identity
in order to have a larger family. So they wanted to own the stewardship
of the gospel, the archonomos. They wanted to rule the gospel
and tell us that this is what it looks like to be a Christian.
You have to be a Jew slash believer in Jesus, which is a prevailing
doctrine that takes place today in our culture. In fact, you've
got this weird thing going on in Christianity where the emphasis
is on a whole lot of Judaism in terms of its outward structures
and forms and even its nomenclature and terminology. As I told you
before, people tripping over the distinction between the word
Jesus and Yeshua, as if somehow you quoting the word Yeshua makes
you holier than saying Jesus. When such arguments are so fallacious
grammatically that it doesn't even merit challenging, but because
of our ignorance as Christians, some of us have to say, now,
hold on now, don't, don't be moved because he can quote a
few Hebrew words. Anybody can do that. So you guys have heard the argument.
Jesus is a, a late English translation that came up just a few hundred
years ago. So what? What's the point? What's your argument? God mandated
the gospel to be preached in every language. Every language. Even the new people groups that
are being conceived right now, their language will be used for
them to comprehend the glory of God. As the nucleus of this
prophecy was fulfilled in Acts chapter 2, when 17 nations heard
in their own dialect, their own language, the wonderful works
of God. So what? Our English language
is late. It's not exactly new because
those of us who know language knows that our English language
has its roots in Latin, has its roots in a German, has its roots
in the Greek language, going back to the Phoenician language,
going back to the Hebrew language. The roots are all there. How
do I know? Because God in his mercy saved
one family thousands and thousands of years ago when he destroyed
the world in a flood. And that family was the family
of Noah. And he had three boys. Their names were Shem, Ham, and
Japheth. They were all full, 100% blood
brothers. And they three spanned the earth.
The Japhethites went up north, the Hammites went way down south,
and the Shemites hung out in the middle between the northerners
and the southerners. The Shemites being our Jewish
brethren, our Hebrew brethren, our Abrahamic brethren, bleeding
over down into our Hammite brethren, and then bleeding up to our Japhethet
brethren, which goes all the way from Europe, all the way
up to the Netherlands, all the way up to the Greenlands. What
are you saying, pastor? There's only one race. Only one race. We all bear the
same blood. It's crazy how we can fall into
non-empirical, anti-biological arguments around ethnicity. When
we all came from the same daddy, first Adam, then Noah. Now, I'm
a little darker than my light-skinned Caucasian brother, but we still
all part of the same family. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? And Jesus mandates our understanding of ethnicity that
way. He mandates that we drop these
false dichotomies of pseudo-ethnic distinctions when they have no
basis in history, no basis in prophecy, no basis in biology,
and no basis in the crosswork of Christ. This is the battle
we have to fight. The problem, however, is you
have this one group who fiercely opposes anyone telling them that
they're no different than anybody else, and they're called the
Jews. The very fact that you have a
Jewish nation is the perpetuation of apartheid. That's exactly
right. It's sad, but it's true. I'm
laying this down to help you understand that When we are soft
on Judaism, as if somehow they are actually a different ethnic
group than the rest of us. First of all, we're buying into
a lie and we're opposing the gospel for our own selves. You
guys got that? We're opposing the gospel. If
our Jewish brethren can have their own state, then our African
brethren can have their own state. and our European can brother
and can have their own state. And you got all kinds of folks
ready to advocate apartheid all over the world now. Is that true?
Right. But when once you and I affirm
apartheid all over the world, then we become radically divided
and unable to do the gospel to the glory of God in the centrality
of Jesus Christ, who is the mediator of all mankind. We lose the gospel. The moment you accept a distinction
between ethnic groups and perhaps a subtle superiority of one over
the other, whether it's your black race or your Aryan race
or your Anglo-Saxon race or your Jewish race, you completely demolish
the gospel. You have no more gospel. Do you
guys hear what I just stated? You have no more gospel. Because in Christ, there are
no distinctions. If any man be in him, he's a
what? Right. See, and I don't think we own
that doctrine in all earnest when we go to fighting for our
pigment distinctions. I don't think we own the gospel.
I don't. And I think as long as you fail
to own the gospel, to the extent that you are willing to die of
your own ethnic pseudo ethnic distinction, you really can't
have Christ. And this is why God used Paul the way he used
Paul to give us 80% of the New Testament because Paul was willing
to die to his Jewishness and Thus he becomes for us an epitome
of an example of commitment to God through Christ Becoming all
things to all men that if by any means he might win some And
the reason why the gospel will not advance today in our world
is because we don't have a radical crystal centric theology that's
willing to die to the flesh. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? Because we don't have a radical crystal centricity
that's willing to die to our old man and our false distinctives
and our superficial categories. We can never ever impact people
with the gospel so that they can rise up out of their own
ethnic insecurities into the reality that comes with Jesus
Christ. All right, enough of that. Going
back to Acts chapter 15, let me see if I can work through
my points there. I stated that so that you can understand that
when you have a proper interpretation of scripture, You have a greater
sense of unity and harmony in the text because you're not building
your mode of interpretation on a flawed premise. If your premises
are flawed, your interpretation of the Bible is going to be filled
with contradictions and pitfalls and, and, and, and, and things
with which you would call paradoxes or tensions when in many cases,
it's just simply a matter of not having a proper premise.
So I'm going to deal with it in our PowerPoint. If you pull
up our PowerPoint, I'm going to start right back briefly at
James explains the rules of Christ, the son of God, after he affirms
that, uh, that which Peter had stated, we read over in verse
16 and 17 of Acts chapter 15, these words, if you follow me,
Acts chapter 15, verse 16 and 17, um, And after this, will I return
and build again the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down,
and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up.
That's what Joel has stated. That the residue of men might
seek after the Lord. Do you guys see that? That the
residue of men. And that word residue in some
of our translations is translated what? Remnant. And I want to
talk about that now in relationship to the last days. Now, what I
want you to mark is that the prophecy says point a, that God
is going to rebuild the house of David in order that the remnant
might do what? Seek the Lord. Is that what it says? So there's
an object, a purpose and the design for the what remnant.
Now, what do we call a remnant? The leftovers. or the we call
it the remains in your translation it will be translated the others
whenever it's dealing with one people group and categorizing
them from another people group. So I want to talk to you about
the remnant now in relationship to these last days, which we
are saying is the gospel age, not the final days of the end
of time, which ultimately will come. But there is a remnant
purpose in the gospel age that on the one hand is designed to
cause them to what? Seek the Lord. but you're going
to see that there is a remnant who is seeking to oppose the
Lord. And the question that you and
I have to ask is, which group are we in? So I'm going to lay
down the idea of the remnant for you through a few scriptures,
simply because James has quoted Joel saying, the residue of men
will seek after the Lord and all the Gentiles upon whom my
name is what? Right. So the residue or the
remnant or the leftovers have to be identified. We started
looking at that last week in Revelation chapter 12 verse 17. I want you to see it again. Revelation
chapter 12 verse 17. I'm going to take you to the
gospel of Matthew in a moment. I just want you to see the word
remnant is used in the book of Revelation as well with regards
to how the prophecy from the days of Christ's resurrection
to the end of time would work. I want you to see how in verse
17, it speaks of the dragon. Who is the dragon? The devil.
That's clearly alluded to by the previous verses in the same
chapter. He is the serpent. He is that
great entity called the devil. In verse four, and his tail drew
the third part of the stars and cast him down to the earth. And
the dragon stood over the woman then it describes the dragon
in verse 9 and the great dragon was cast out that old serpent
verse 9 called the devil and satan so that's who the dragon
is this is apocalyptic imagery describing the fierce ferocious
destructive nature of the devil under what what is called oriental
imagery a dragon is like a snake only larger and more menacing
and nemesing. So the images of this Leviathan,
that's the way the old Testament puts it, that traverses through
the waters, devouring men who are metaphorically like fish,
but only here he's called the dragon because we are dealing
with the spiritual dimension. We are in the heavens. We are
not in a physical ocean. So he's now a dragon in the heaven,
like a flying serpent. a fiery serpent going after his
adversaries. This is the way God wants us
to depict the devil and notice how he acts. In verse 15 it says,
and the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after
the woman. We talked about that woman last
week. I told you there are only two women in the book of Revelation. The two women are denominated
by these two terms, Babylon and Jerusalem. Two women, only two,
Babylon and Jerusalem. And they are both the type and
archetypes of the whole Bible. In other words, the Babylonian
system is that anti-God, anti-Christ system that God warns about since
the fall of man in the days of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel
in Genesis 11, right? So you have your Babylonian culture
and then you have your Jerusalem model. The Jerusalem model is
God's paradigmatic, ideological, Kingdom and citizenry of those
who believe on God Jerusalem is the body of believers from
the beginning of time to the end of time because Jerusalem
means foundation of peace and Jerusalem is the city of our
God and it's the place where true believers Old Testament
and new are gathered together for all eternity and they are
called a woman the New Jerusalem the bride of Christ Revelation
chapter 19 and 20. So we know who the Jerusalem
woman is. She's the woman that had Jesus
in Revelation chapter 12, one, two, and three. The remnant church
of the Jewish believers in the first century. But she's also
the bride in Revelation chapter 22, 17, calling sinners by the
spirit of God to enter into the kingdom of God and become a partaker
of the great marriage feast that will take place in the last of
the last days. So you got two women. One is
called a whore, the other one's called a virtuous woman. Solomon
gave us several depictions of this in the book of Proverbs,
did he not? He gave us these depictions under the anointing
of the Spirit because remember, all prophecy is really about
Jesus. And it's always about the work of the gospel and it
always deals with the conflict between good and evil, darkness
and light, Satan and Christ, the false church and the true
church. If you don't understand these models, you can't understand
the gospel in the Old Testament. So in Proverbs 9, it'll talk
about the horse woman who turns a man into a piece of bread,
who leads him to hell and he does not know it. But it will
also talk about in Proverbs 14, the virtuous woman or the godly
woman who builds her house in wisdom. And then finally, Proverbs
31 does very much like Revelation chapter 22. It closes with the
prevailing work of the wise and virtuous woman. So the prophecy
of scripture is you're going to have the godly woman at odds
with the whorish woman constantly battling. But the godly woman
will win in the end. So the book of Proverbs actually
is a shadow of the book of Revelation and this motif of the two women.
Are you guys following me? And by the way, if you ever experienced
being unsaved and unregenerate, you were part of the whore. You
were part of the Babylonian system. And then when God saved you,
he saved you out of that and brought you into the kingdom
of God. And you became part of the new Jerusalem. You are now
the bride of Christ. You are a virtuous woman. Am
I making some sense? Now with that in view, particularly
to my sisters, as we are working through women theology, one of
the things I press upon my sisters is understand your identity in
Christ and walk in it because it's very easy to say that you
are part of the Jerusalem paradigm and still be operating out of
the Babylonian paradigm as was the deep and probing and challenging
message this Wednesday, right? The deep and probing challenging
message of this Wednesday is make sure that you are not actually
simply talking about being part of the new Jerusalem, but actually
are. And so you have to learn the distinct is between the two
because the Babylonian woman is a religious woman too. She
is never not a religious woman. Revelation 17 has her with a
chalice and a chalice is a cup where in the blood is It's a
false picture and image of the atoning work of Christ. Only
it's to the destruction of the church and the demise of the
gospel and the damnation of the souls of men while that great
whore does everything she can to kill true Christians. Are
you guys following what I'm saying? So it's very important for us
to understand these motifs if we're going to make it to glory
because the devil works wildly to deceive the church and to
turn her into a Babylonian harlot. In fact, if you and I were to
follow the excursion, how the excursion works is the first
woman you actually see in the images, Revelation 12, 1, 2,
and 3, the Jerusalem woman who is said to dwell in heavenly
places. Why? Because she's clothed in the
sun. Why? Because the moon is under her
feet. We are in the heavenly sphere. And because she has 12
stars, a crown on her head, it means she's in a place of prominence
and rule and authority. The next time you see the woman
you see the harlot in revelation 17 Which by implication is this
virtuous woman in revelation chapter 12 is attacked by the
dragon all the way up to revelation 17 And many of her children fall
away and become the harlot You guys got that language Did you
guys get that and i'm gonna say it again just in case you didn't
get it the harlot always comes out of the true church The harlot is always the woman
who started off originally believing God, walking with God, but ultimately,
as Solomon says in Proverbs chapter 2, she forsook the covenant of
her youth. And now she's out in the street
practicing whoredoms with the sons of men. And this is what
false religion does. False Christianity becomes a
kind of whore for the secular world, if you guys understand
what I mean. Man-centered consumer theology, catering to the felt
needs of men and women and not to the real needs, the spiritual
needs of men and women, it turns the church into a whore where
she seals herself for the interest of men, interest of men, rather
than the glory of God. That struggle of starting off
virtuous, going apostate, then closes with great tribulation. And out of that great tribulation
comes a beautiful sister in Revelation 22, 17, walking with the Holy
Ghost. saying to men, come and drink. Ye that thirst, drink of the
water of life freely. You that hunger for righteousness
come to Christ. So you get the image in the end
of the book of an obedient church, submissive to the spirit of God,
calling the children of God from every nation, kindred, tribe,
and tongue. You guys see that big picture? It's very important
to have a big picture view in your life because you can get
lost in details. is big pictures that keep you
on the straight and narrow. This is why Christ used parables
in his teaching. Well, I wanna show you the challenge
that the woman has. We just talked about the serpent.
Notice what it says in verse 15, the serpent cast out of his
what? Verse 15 of Revelation 12 says, and the serpent cast
out of his what? His mouth water as a what? After who? Right and we learned
last week in revelation chapter 16 verse 15 That the three entities
that we call them the unholy trinity The dragon the false
prophet right and the antichrist or the dragon the prophet and
the beast Revelation 16 15 out of their mouth came three unclean
frogs So what the book of revelation is telling you and me is that
this warfare that we are dealing with is a warfare of propaganda. It's a warfare of doctrine. It's
a warfare of ideas. It's a verbal warfare. It's a
warfare of imaginations and teachings and concepts. The UNR bombarded
by floods of information. This is what the dragon image
of the water coming out of his mouth to take her away in a flood
You guys get the image to sweep her away with the flood of ungodliness
And ungodliness has as its source doctrine and teaching and words
So what you and I have to be careful about is what we listen
to And what we watch And what we hear because words shape your
thinking. Words shape how you think. And
this is why we are told in second Corinthians chapter 10 verse
five, that our job is to cast down every imagination and every
thought that raises itself up against the obedience of Christ
and bring it into captivity. Seize every doctrine, every thought,
every practice, squeezed through the prism of biblical truth,
every assertion, every assumption, every predication, every premise,
every proposition, a man that says this is the right way. And
so what the Bible lays out before you and me is the broad road
that leads to what? Destruction. And the narrow road
that leads to life. Obviously the Bible is saying
wake up and be discerning. That's what the Bible is saying.
That you're not gonna accidentally get to heaven. That's what the
bible was saying. You're not gonna just slip up.
Oh, I made it. Whoa Whoa, I made it. No, you're not in fact the people
that are presumptuous around discernment and being critical
thinkers And radically committed to biblical truth are going to
be the ones that end up apostatizing Because the goal of the enemy
is to chip away at your convictions little by little year by year
and tell what you used to have conviction about, you don't have
it anymore. Oh yeah, I used to think that
way, but I don't think that way anymore. Well, what Paul said
in Galatians chapter five, verse 15 was, you did run well, who's
hindering you that you should not now obey the truth. You guys
follow that logic? And how the enemy is doing it
is by the flood. Yeah, I want to share something
with you back in revelation Then so then maybe verse 14 or 17.
It's in that text right there. Go back to revelation chapter
12 I just want you to see it. Um, I want you to share I want
to share with you how the devil works if in fact in revelation
chapter Uh 12 verse 15 He uses the method of um, pouring out
a flood If that's the method he used, here's his logic. You
ready? His logic is this. All I want
to do is get some. I don't have to get them all.
I just want to get some. So I'm just going to open the
faucet wide and let it all come out and whoever I get, I get.
Now watch this. Will you hear me? Watch this.
He knows he's going to get the people who refuse to take Christ
seriously. He knows he's going to get them
because there's always people who really don't take him seriously.
Now, if you've got a big old water hose, those water hoses
that the firemen use to stop fires thrusting at you, if you
don't have a stable foundation, you're going to be swept off
your feet, aren't you? And this is the idea only thousands of
times magnified. And this is why we see so much
defection in our churches. and so much crazy thinking on
the part of people who call themselves Christian, but you can hear in
their own thoughts and ideas how alienated they are from the
word of God. And you wonder how on earth do
they call themselves Christians when they are that radically
departed from biblical truth. Is that true? I was watching
a program the other night. It was called, I'm trying to
remember the name, Preachers of Atlanta. Right. And this young Caucasian kid
grew up in church. Mom and daddy had what was called
a prosperity gospel church. And he saw all the bad stuff
going on in the prosperity church because it's not regenerate.
It's not born again. So it's catering to the flesh. Well,
he grows up and he thinks he's called to be a pastor. Now, he
don't even have a church, but he's called a pastor. OK, that's
one problem. But so he goes around preaching
and in his preaching, he does entertainment. He's a hip hopper,
right? Hip hop. But he called the pastor. Not
married, 21 years old, he's called pastor such and such. See, this
is what goes on in your ignorant churches that do not abide according
to biblical principles. Somebody told him he had the
gift of pastoring. Doesn't have any church, doesn't
have any members, hasn't been called, hasn't had hands laid
on him, he hasn't been affirmed of men, he hasn't been taught,
he hasn't been qualified, he hasn't met the biblical prerequisites
of being a pastor, but somebody told him he was a pastor. And
he goes to his cousin's church there today. And his cousin's
church is one of those ecumenical churches where all faiths are
welcome. They call interfaith churches. Have you ever seen
those churches? And in fact, up on their stained
glass window, they have Christianity, they got Islam, they got Hindus
and Buddhists, everybody, everybody welcome. And he goes up on stage,
said, man, I love this, man. This is great, man. This is great
because Jesus is all about love, man. He's all welcoming and everybody
clapping and all excited. And I'm going now, this is a
classic patent case, a case of massive deception. This is a
classic patent case of no one in that place even coming close
to knowing the truth. Are you guys hearing me? It's
a classic case of bastardizing the gospel, stripping it of its
exclusivity, denying the purpose of the atonement and the necessity
of men to come to Christ and abandon every other form of religion.
It's a harlot's system, is it not? It's a whore's system. And everybody's good. And they're
willing to live with their contradictions and irreconcilable doctrines
in the name of love. And here's what I'm telling you,
that if you and I aren't constantly rooted and grounded in biblical
truth, we will fall prey to that out of emotionalism. Are you
hearing me? You will fall prey to it out
of emotionalism because it takes conviction to stand on true that
demands exclusivity. It takes conviction to stand
on true that says this is true and that is not. It takes conviction. And that conviction can only
come by the Holy Ghost. Only the Holy Ghost can have
you and I do what Paul did when he went down to Jerusalem and
stood before the elders and, and James and the rest of them
and said, Hey, salvation is not by Christ plus circumcision. And if it wasn't for Paul and
Barnabas going to Jerusalem, the gospel would have been lost.
even by those who were part of Jesus' ministry, James and Peter
and them. So you see how important we're
coming full circle to how important it is for us to know the gospel
and stand on the gospel? Because the propositions of the
gospel, again, are exclusive. They're not yay and nay, they
are yay. And when they say nay, they mean
nay. And you can't confound the two
and actually be a servant of Christ. Now I want you to see
what's going on here. He spews out a flood after the
woman that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood.
Carried away where? Into apostasy. And here's something
that's interesting that occurs and you can take this on as a
point of application. And the earth helped the woman. Do you see that? And the earth
helped the woman and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed
up the what? which the dragon casts out of
the earth. So what is the picture? The picture is that of the cosmos
at war. The two entities in view is the
dragon and the woman. And the earth now is actually
serving and aiding and abetting the woman by as it were intervening,
mediating and taking in the flood. You guys got that. So what is
the earth that's taking in the flood? The earth represents the
ungodly, the unsaved of this world. So watch this now. I don't have time to go back
to it, but I think it's numbers 15. You can go back in your own
time. Moses and Aaron were set up by
God to lead Israel into the promised land. But Nathan, I mean, but,
uh, Cora, Dathan and Abiram, the high priest and the princes
of Israel stood up to oppose God's leaders. If you guys recall,
and, and, and, and God told Moses, tell everybody, to sanctify themselves. And in the morning, we're going,
we're going to fix this. And, and these are, this is very
germane to what I'm talking to you about right now, because
Moses and Aaron represents God's law and gospel that Israel was
to believe in order to be saved. Korah, Dathan and Abiram represent
apostate leadership that wants to oppose the biblical gospel. and they've got a lot of people
on their side. And these people are saying,
who chose you to be our leaders? All of us are leaders. All of
us are God's children. All of us can do this. Here's
your hyper democratic spirit that rules in the church today.
Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? Go back and read it for
yourself. Amen. So here's what God told Moses,
Joe, tell those fellows that everybody that wants to be on
their side, go on their side. And everybody that's on your
side, Moses and Aaron, you guys get on the side because I'm getting
ready to do something that's going to prove that I have rejected them. I'm going to open up the earth.
The earth helped the woman. Do you see the picture? I'm going
to open up the earth and swallow them up alive. Is that what happened? Swallowed them up alive. The
earth helped the woman by taking in the ungodly. so that the woman
could continue moving through the wilderness into the promised
land. Where's the woman in Revelation chapter 12? In the wilderness,
right? God gave her two great, two wings
of an eagle. That's the Old Testament paradigm.
That's the Exodus paradigm, Exodus chapter 19, right? So that she
might fly into the wilderness for a time, a times and a half
a time from the face of the serpent. So you got this Neo Exodus paradigm
running through the book of Revelation, showing us that the Old Testament
is pointing to the new. Did you guys get that revelation?
So I can go on. This is why you got to read your
Bible. Cause if you don't read your Bible, none of this is going
to ever land to make sense is never going to land to make sense.
Why did God do that in the old Testament to show us how he protects
his elect again, touch not my anointed and do my profits. No
harm. My elect will not be swallowed
up by the flood. Although this flood is coming
after them. so here's the last verse that brings me back to
the remnant doctrine verse 17 verse 17 and the dragon was angry
he ought to be and the dragon was wrought with the woman and
went to make war with the remnant of her what see the word remnant
Right. That's it. That now becomes for
us a time marker. And that time marker, when we
properly interpret it, has to do with the first century saints
who were largely Jews, but a growing constituency of Christians. That
verse right there actually corresponds to the book of Acts. What's happening
in the book of Acts? The devil is coming after the
church. Is it not? The rulers of Israel,
And the Gentiles are about to do it too, coming after the church.
Why? Because the church is being burned
and the devil is always going after God's kingdom. The church
is being established and the enemy is coming after God's kingdom.
And the remnant are those Jewish believers, i.e. Peter, James,
and John, and Paul, and Mary, and Martha, and all the rest
of them who were there when Christ was born, died, and rose again,
and are part of the nucleus of the New Testament church. And
what we see in revelation chapter 12 is that the devil is trying
to wipe out that movement, but obviously he didn't Because hallelujah
you and I are part of the remnant church And we're born again 2
000 years later. And so the gospel did continue
to go forth into all the world You guys got that it's very important
to see that We were in um acts chapter 14 3 4 or 5 weeks ago
where we dealt with the concept of the kingdom Remember what
paul says through much tribulation do we enter into the kingdom?
So right now I'm talking to you about the tribulation that we're
dealing with. By the way, let me make a point
of application around the flood where you and I are, because
I made a contextual application from the old to the new, did
not. Here's the application of the flood today. What would be
the flood today? It would be the media. It would
be the images, it would be the propaganda, it would be the ideology
of this secular world system, hedonism, narcissism, existentialism,
pragmatism, all of the ideologies that basically center in you
being the source of all happiness, right? And then it pours upon
that this massive overload of image that life is all about
money and sex. Can I get a witness? It's so
pervasive that is boring to me now. Did you hear what I just said? It's
so pervasive that I'm bored with it. I used to be entertained
by it in my youth, like all of us were. But you know, even a
good thing can become boring after a while. So then when I
flip through the channels looking for something relatively productive
to watch and I see a show and then all of a sudden they go
into the same old spiel. I go, boring. Let me find something
else. Because the enemy always uses
the same tactics. The lust of the eye, the lust
of the flesh, and the pride of life. For true believers who
are rooted in God, and are seeking those wells of grace to strengthen
their soul, that diet doesn't allure us. Did you guys hear
what I just said? For true believers who know that
the diet that we need to feed on in order to be strong in the
Lord and in the power of his might and to be edified when
we're done engaging in that thing, it's not sex or money. or materialism, or the pride
of life. That's boring now. You know what
I love watching? National Geographic. Sweet. Sweet. I love that. I get so much out of zoomorphisms. It's just crazy. I see all kind
of gospel in it. the turtles, about a hundreds
of thousands being born. And they trying to make their
way to the sea. And then here come the storks and all the birds
coming after them. I'm going, make it little brother,
make it little brother, make it, go man, go. And I go, the
ones that made it, God's elect. The ones that didn't make it. And then I'm getting all teary-eyed
by the ones that didn't make it. And you know, they manipulated
it. Last week, they had the stork. It wasn't a stork. It was something
else, kind of like a stork, long beak. Had the little brother
in his mouth. He was trying to throw him up
to get him down his mouth. I said, and little brother almost
made it. Here comes the stork. He fell into a little cove of
the sand. He couldn't get out. Little bitty
thing. The bird takes him and throws him up in his mouth to
swallow him, swallow him. And then he spit him out. He was full. And he watched the little turtle
go get in the water and leave. I said, now that's straight election. Cause you and I were on the brink
of hell. We were on the brink of hell
and God allowed us to be spit out of the mouth of the serpent
and make it the glory land. Yeah. Well, that's how I spend
my time being happy. Cause the rest of it ticks me off. The remnant are described as
those that keep the commandments of God and have the testimony
of Jesus Christ, and that runs its way all the way through the
book of Revelation. I'll give you one more verse
in the book of Revelation to consider it. Look with me in
Revelation chapter 3, verse 2, where the book of Revelation
opens up, giving us a literal depiction of the seven churches.
Actually, the seven churches are the churches to whom the
whole book of Revelation is written, not just chapters 1, 2, and 3.
whole church the whole book but in Revelation chapter 3 verse
2 where the Lord Jesus is speaking directly to the church at Sardis
here's the language that he uses he says in verse 1 and unto the
angel of the church in Sardis write these things saith he that
hath the seven spirits are the fullness of the Spirit And the
seven stars that is control over the governing body of the church.
I know your works that you have a name that you are alive, but
you are what? Right. So he's warning Sardis
about the level of hypocrisy that puts on a front that you're
born again. But in fact, he knows that the condition of the church
of Sardis is almost fatal. Here's what he says. Be watchful. Then strengthen those things
which what that's our word remnant. This is interesting Because if
you take that text carefully What Christ did in his mercy? Was speak to the church's overall
condition with the remnant in view Your job is to strengthen
the elect because you're not going to raise the dead. Those
people who came in, pretended to be alive and then died again,
they're not going to be raised again because they were never
truly born again. The only people that are going
to survive are true believers. And when a true believer is truly
born again, you and I can get weak, but we won't die. And the
goal of the ministers of the church is to strengthen God's
people when they get weak. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? The goal of God's people is this. The goal of God's servants
is to strengthen God's people when they get weak. You and I
can't raise the dead. If a person comes into the church
and leaves the church according, and I mean leaves Christ in the
truest sense of departing from the gospel, according to Hebrew
six, there is no recovery process. Right to renew them to repentance
again is impossible seeing they have crucified to themselves
the son of god afresh The language is clear there It's saying if
men and women could actually be born again by the atoning
work of christ and so depart from him that they reject the
gospel They cannot be saved because christ will not be crucified
twice Did you get that this is a very necessary interpretation
And people wrestle with interpretation of that text and they really
should not. The Hebrew writer is doing the same thing that
all the other apostles are doing. And that is stating according
to second Peter chapter one verses two through eight, two through
10. And it's really second Peter two, 10, make your calling and
election. Sure. So when he uses the language
in Hebrews chapter six, if they should fall away, to renew them
again to a fresh repentance is impossible because it would require
Christ assuming another human nature, living a perfect life,
dying a perfect death, atoning for their sin. But that's not
going to happen. And because it's not going to
happen twice since he came once to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself, those who fall away were never ever born again. They
were just religious. You guys follow that logic. Those
who fall away were never ever born again. They were just religious.
But the warning is this. When you and I are brought near
to the gospel. And we have revelations of the
gospel, as Hebrews 6 says, have been enlightened, tasted of the
heavenly gift, partakers of the Holy Ghost. having the kind of
insightful revelations that Judas Iscariot had, and the gifts of
the spirit to be able to work and do apostolic ministry as
Judas did, to fall away like Judas did, there is no recovery
from that. You guys understand that? And
the thing about our church age that we don't get is that apostasy
is fatal. We talk in the 21st century,
like people don't end up in the lowest hell being drawn near
to Christ. There is a liability coming near
to the gospel. To whom much is given, much is
required. To him that knew much, he will
be beaten with many stripes. To him that knew very little,
fewer stripes will be rendered. You guys understand the logic?
In other words, What what the scriptures are replete and warning
us about is drawing near to the gospel and not submitting to
the crown rights of Christ So that you secure your salvation
because here's what happens when you draw near and you go through
this period of being enamored by and infatuated by and Enthusiastic
of the gospel like the parable of the sower in the seed the
seed that went on shallow ground it sprung up bore a little fruit,
but it didn't have any roots and That means it wasn't truly
born again because the root of every believer is jesus And when
you got the root, you're gonna always produce some fruit. Are
you guys hearing me? Even if you get cut down from
the top you're gonna produce fruit again because you have
a root But you can produce a pseudo appearance of self-righteousness
or religious zeal for jesus, but not having a root Eventually
tribulations gonna run you away Am I making some sense? Right
and what that would indicate is you just made a a fair show
in the flesh as second timothy chapter 2 puts it chapter 3 You
have a form of godliness, but you deny the power thereof And
that's largely religion today in our churches You draw near
to people and start talking with people you discover even though
they may go to church every week They really don't have a deep
profound interest in christ They are as carnal as any secular
person and they don't have time for Jesus. You can be sure that
person is in trouble. And this is what makes the idea
of telling people to make a decision for Jesus. and put the little
card in their back pocket, and they're good to go. Such an atrocity,
such a high treason against the glory of God, because you give
them a false hope that they're all right by a decision, when
a decision is not the basis of determining whether or not you're
born again. Am I making some sense? Am I making some sense? Right, because I get it all the
time with people. I get it with their kids. Oh, my baby accepted
Jesus when he was three years old. Doesn't mean a thing. My
baby was baptized at 15. Doesn't mean a thing. Doesn't
mean a thing. I remember going to a Billy Graham
program 500 years ago. Doesn't mean a thing. Were you
born again? And do you believe the gospel
today? Am I making some sense? See,
because if you believed it then, you'll believe it now. If you
were really born again, then you're still born again. Such
thing is losing something that God Put his precious son to death
to give you I would make God a fool Wouldn't it make him a
fool? And so it's very important for
us to understand these things be watchful and strengthen the
things which what remain that are ready to die Not dead ready
today in this year. Also is so interesting. So interesting
Because what this indicates is culture can affect all of us. Culture can affect all of us.
That means if we collectively, we've got 60, 70 people in here.
If we collectively decided to just be cold. I'm talking about
us as a group to be lethargic. I'm talking about just being
casual about Jesus as a whole group. And there were one or
two or ten of us in here who really wanted to be strengthened.
The majority of us being cold will wane on that person. It will drain that person. They
will get cold too. You can't get hot in the midst
of cold people. You can't do it. Am I making
some sense, ladies and gentlemen? You cannot get hot in the midst
of cold people. A hot cold will not retain its
heat in the midst of cool and lukewarm and cold colds. Am I
making sense? You can't do it. A lukewarm Christian
is the most dangerous person you can be around. The most dangerous
person. They will make you cold. They
will zap your strength. They will cause you to compromise.
They will take your strength away. You will doubt. dwelling
with people like that. What's the remedy? The remedy
is you becoming white hot for God. So white hot for God that
lukewarm people can't stand to be around you. Did you hear what I just stated?
That's the remedy. That's the remedy. And being
white hot, It's not being self-righteous. It's just being a no-nonsense
Christian that's not going to play around with silly people
who actually want to play games with Jesus. I don't have time
for you. I'm going to assess you in one meeting. And the second
time we have a meeting, I'm going to be resolved to actually talk
to you about your irreverence, your slopful prevarications,
and careless attitude towards God. Cause out of the abundance
of the heart that the mouth what? You can hear it in their words,
how irreverent they are to God and how lackadaisical they are
and how careless they are. And you and I, after actually
assessing it carefully, asking their permission to say something,
have the privilege to say, You know, friend, I'm going to be
honest with you. I'm not encouraged at all by
your attitude. I'm going to just be honest with
you. I actually think you're in spiritual trouble. I don't
think you're serious about God. The way you're talking actually
troubles me. I'm scared of you. Are you here? But evil communication
will corrupt good manners. First Corinthians 15, just in
case you need a text. Evil communication will wear you, it'll wear you
down. It'll lead you the wrong way. So you and I have to be
determined to be hot so that we can discover when God puts
us in the presence of other people, that we have an assignment to
warm them up. Did that make some sense? See, cause there are Christians
who they don't even really know they need to be warmed up until
they run across a white hot sister or brother. And after a little
time of that white hot sister, a brother talking to them about
Jesus, they go, you know what? I'm so glad I met you. I'm so
glad God brought you my way. I'm so glad God used you to start
talking to me because I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful
shore. But God had mercy on me through
you, through you. You hear how important Christian
this is to be serious about Christ. Do you see that? Yeah. Be like
Athanasius. You know what he said when the
church had went completely apostate and everybody was saying, Athanasius,
Athanasius, why are you always opposing everything the church
is doing? Don't you know everybody is against
you? Athanasius said, well then, I
guess it's Athanasius against the world. And if you don't know who Athanasius
is, go look him up. Because as scripture says in
the book of Revelation, chapter 14, verse 15, blessed are the
dead that die in the Lord. Henceforth, that they may rest
from their labors, watch this, and their works do follow them. How precious are the works of
believers to God? When you go, he leaves your works
here for other people to read and testify to that you didn't
waste your time down here. And how many of the believers
works that God has left behind that have been a massive edification
to us over the last 2000 years. See what I'm getting at? Ladies
and gentlemen, this is why I keep telling us here at grace, don't
play games with your calling because you're going to leave
a legacy behind. And we want to leave a left leave
a legacy where when people hear about you or read about you That
it'd be a means of advancing them in their walk in christ
So this is where we are in our text. I got seven more minutes.
Let's go back to act chapter 15 And just touch on a few things
just a few things because I want to get to the transition. And
this is something that's quite interesting. So after the apostle
Peter, uh, Paul, not Paul, but John, uh, James lays out his
affirmation of the doctrine. Here's what is stated. And we'll
see this under our, um, first, second, third, fourth point,
a gracious rule of faith in the gospel. I'll be able to sum this
up quickly. I may take a few questions if you want to ask
some questions and then we'll close in prayer. Here's what
they stated. I'm over in verse 19. I'm going
to read verse 19 and 20 and then I'm going to jump down and read
it again in In the latter part verse 28 where the apostles will
pass these words to the gentiles He says in verse 19 wherefore
my sentence or my judgment is this this is james that we do
not trouble them Which from among the gentiles have turned to god
see that Don't trouble them in other words To tell a man that
you are saved by grace plus words is to trouble you James said,
don't trouble them. Notice what he goes on to say,
but that we write unto them that they do what abstain from the
pollution of idols. That is don't continue practicing
idol worship. When you call yourself a Christian,
don't be polluted by the idols. In other words, there is a healthy,
a biblical and a gospel separation from what you used to do. He
says we write unto you that you would abstain from the pollution
of idols and from what? Which is a marquee practice of
the Gentiles One of the marquee evidences of our being unregenerate
men and women in a Gentile culture is that we are fornicators So I'm gonna nail you with this
as I've nailed everyone I've preached to since I was 19 When we live in a gentile culture,
we were born and raised in a gentile, not a Jewish culture. We didn't
live in Israel. We lived in America. America
is a neo-Canaanite culture. Are you guys hearing me? It's
a gentile culture. What are the marks of the gentiles?
Here they are, idolatry and fornication. That's what it means to be a
gentile. What is idolatry? It's the worship of everything
else but the true God. Ladies and gentlemen, this is
what you and I were before god saved us So now watch this now
the when before god saved us the two things we indulged in
As much as we possibly could was self-gratification that's
called idolatry And it's its manifestation in a central level
is fornication This is why the pagans fornicate everywhere Are
you hearing me? Fornication is a common practice,
a common parlance among the Jesuits. It's not even viewed as a sin
today. It's not even a sin today. Now watch this. The neo-Canaanite
Gentile culture of idolatry and fornication is alive and well
in the church. It's alive and well in our churches.
Am I telling the truth? It's alive and well in our churches. Now, what that means is a lot
of people that say they're born again are not. Do you hear what
I just stated? A lot of people say they're born
again, they're not. Because to worship idols means
you have not seen the glory of God. Pull up 1 Thessalonians chapter
110. I got five more minutes. When
a man or a woman says they're a believer in Jesus Christ, Christ
reveals his glory to them in such a way that it obliterates
any desire or passion to co-mingle Jesus with other things in the
world. When Jesus gets a hold of you,
when he gets a hold of you, he becomes Lord. When you see the
glory of God in Christ, when God reveals his glory to you,
You know what happens immediately? There is a clear understanding
of the immanency of Christ and his deity and his power and his
sovereignty and every other idol that you had begins to gradually
but consistently fall away When you're truly illuminated Are
you guys hearing me? This is called the power of revelation
When God enters into your heart and reveals His glory to you,
He exposes all the idols, and the power of those idols begin
to fall, and you and I realize something has just occurred. Am I telling the truth? Something
happened. Because remember, that idol had
control. Boom! But the glory of God came
in so powerful that now you find yourself ready to walk away from
it. And you do. And you do. You walk away from
it because Jesus now becomes Lord. And in our culture, idolatry
and fornication dominates our churches. Do you hear me? And where pastors don't do what
I'm doing, they allow their churches to become Babylonian churches.
That's all there are, Babylonian churches. a house full of unregenerate
men and women who know nothing about allegiance to Jesus, the
cross work of Christ, demolishing idols, liberating them from that
profound, intimate rebellion against God called sexual perversion
so that they now begin to walk in a relationship with Jesus
and become what the Bible calls virgins. Am I making some sense? Virgins. virgins Every true believer
is a virgin So in first Thessalonians chapter 1 10 God turned us from
idols. That's verse 9 go to verse 9
God turned us to idol for they themselves show what manner entering
in we had unto you and how you turn to God from what? Right
to serve the true and the living God now. We're slaves of God
aren't we? Oh look at verse 11 10 verse 10. Here it is And to
wait for his son. There it is That's glorious.
Think about that He returned from idols to serve the true
and living God by God's power. And there is a, there is a intentional
disposition of waiting for Jesus. I'm waiting for my husband. I'm
waiting for my husband. I'm waiting for my God. I'm waiting
for my God. I'm serving for my God. I'm longing
for my God because I want to be rescued by my God from the
rest of this mess that I'm in. Are you guys hearing me? That's
the attitude of a true believer. He's waiting. Now, when you have
that spirit of waiting, you know what that means? You have what
we call in Psalm 1 verse 1, the no factor. You know what a no-factor principle
is? When all these other idols start vying for your attention,
God gives you the grace to say what? Just say no. Blessed is the man that walketh
not, standeth not, sitteth not. There's a no factor in the soul. Do you know why? Because we're
waiting on one man. We're not going to settle for
that other stuff. So he turns us He enslaves us and he tells
us to wait. And that's the life of the believer.
Now, now what this is going to look like for ignorant people
is like, you're boring. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Cause I used to be lively. I
mean, I used to party, man. I used to roll with jets at man. What you going to do tonight,
man? I know you got it going down. Not anymore. I'm as boring
as can get. What are you going to do, man?
I'm going home, sit back, maybe watch the ball game, read, do
some homework, some labors in the scripture, kick it with the
brother in a minute. Man, that's kind of boring. Yeah,
I'm waiting on Jesus. I've been waiting on Jesus for 38 years. Been waiting on the Lord Jesus
for 38 years. And I've been doing Friday night
Bible studies for 25 years. waiting on Jesus, waiting on
Jesus. And there is something to the
perseverance of the saints. You know what that is? This is
remarkable. We have our seasons at grace
where like, like any ministry does, every believer is like
a tree. You guys know that, right? Planted by the rivers of water
that brings forth its fruit and it's what? That's right. So then
there are seasons where you may not bear much fruit at all because
it's seasonal. It's time for that tree to rest.
It's time for it to go through a whole new dynamic internally
in preparation for a new batch of fruit. But God is faithful
to bring forth fruit in its season. And over my 37 years in Christ,
he has always brought forth fruit out of the discipline of turning
from idols, serving him and waiting on God. Do you hear me? He has
always brought forth fruit. And so for believers to understand
the cycle of seasons is so critical. And this is where I love my older
brothers and sisters too. I'm just so tickled pink about
having brothers and sisters in Christ at grace, a hundred years
old. I'm getting ready to celebrate
a centennial in two months. I can't wait. How God smiles
on a man to have a sister who is a hundred years old in Christ. who passionate to come to church
and listen to this brother preach. I say, thank you, Lord. I don't
know what she finds in me, but I'm so glad to be the means of
helping her stay the course until she sees him face to face. Cause
that sister been running for a long time to be a hundred years
old. She almost twice my age. And
what I'm talking about is persevering to the end. You understand? This race is a race of patience,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And
there are patterns that he employs in your life so that you can
serve him. And once you know those faithful patterns, you
let the seasons come. You let the downtime come. We're
going to have some winters in our life. You know anything about
that? We're going to have some falls in our life, but God is
going to show up, bring some Springs and some summers. He
does it constantly for us. And so the child of God that
understands the, the rhythm and patterns of God's goodness in
our life. Cause sometimes he'll let you go into the fall season
just so you can get some rest. Does that make some sense? So
you can shut down and cozy up to him and shut your mouth. You
know, cause we love hanging out with people, but our brothers
and sisters in Christ can almost become idols to us too. Am I telling you the truth? Well,
you can let them get it away with your time with Jesus. And
then when the Lord has to do something like get you sick for
three months and it's just you and him, how sweet the fellowship
between you and God and you don't want nobody around. Is that true? And then he strengthens you again
and opens you up. And now you're ready to spend
a little time with people. They can pick your fruit and enjoy
your fruit. Cause you didn't learn some things
to tell people. This is the life of true believers. and it's strengthened
by our corporate fellowship as we come together around God's
word and come together in prayer, come together in the worship
of God, come together as we do outreach ministries and evangelism.
That's the way the church works. I hope you die serving God that
way. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank
you for this time. Thank you for my brothers and
sisters. Thank you for this word. May it bless our soul. May it
bless the souls that listen to it online and on CD. and on radio
and around the world, we pray it in Jesus name, amen. You guys
head on home.