Likewise also these filthy dreamers
defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he
disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a
railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuked thee. But these
speak evil of those things which they know not, but what they
know naturally as brute beast, in those things they corrupt
themselves. Filthy dreamers, filthy dreamers. You know, up to this point, this
is about apostasy. This is about men that crept
into the church, heretics, people who deny Christ, deny the gospel,
deny the grace of God. And that's why he wrote that
we should earnestly contend for the faith. that was once delivered
to the saints. God sent the gospel. The first man that heard the
gospel, of course, was Adam, when God clothed his nakedness.
That was the first one that God preached the gospel to. And then
we've had the gospel preached to us now, and it's passed on
from generation to generation. And the gospel's never changed.
It's never, ever changed. Abraham before had the gospel
preached unto him. And that was hundreds of years
before the law was ever given. And so that's what we're talking
about, contending for the faith. But he gives us some identifying
marks of these type of men that come in among the church and
slip in among the Lord's people. And he says in verse 4, he gives
three marks for these certain men that crept in unaware. First,
he says they were ungodly men. ungodly man, lacking a reverence
of God, no regard for God, no fear of God. Secondly, they were
lawless. They turned the grace of God
into lasciviousness. They believed that the grace
of God freed them from all external authority. They became authority
under themselves. You know, when they took grace
and presumed upon it, they just became an authority under themselves.
Grace freed them from all authority, all external authority, all commandments. And then not only that, but it
says, and they denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
They were deniers of God, deniers of the Lord. And they were deniers
of God in their deeds and how they acted. And that's why he
says they despised dominion. They revealed that they were
serving other masters rather than the Lord Jesus Christ. I
don't want no other master. Don't want no other Lord. You
remember when a man was a slave, and at the end of seven years,
he is allowed to go free. And if he had a wife and children
when he came in, they could go with him. But if he had a wife
and children that was given to him by his master, they had to
stay. But when he got ready to go, if he loved his master, if
he loved his master, what they would do is they'd take him to
a door and put his ear up against a post and drill a hole in it.
And that hole, every time you saw a slave or a servant with
a hole in him, he says, I love my master. I want to be under
subjection to him. I don't want to go out free.
And these men wasn't that way. They didn't have that hole in
their ear. They didn't have that hearing ear that Christ gives
them. He didn't mark that ear. And beloved, whenever a man denies
Christ, denies God, denies the Lord Jesus Christ, they're serving
other masters. And one of the things that I
said about Brother Scottie is that he was obedient, he was
faithful to his master. He was faithful to the charge
that God gave him. God gave him a charge of the
gospel. Gave him a charge to a church.
Gave him a commandment and a charge to be true to the word of God
and the gospel. And that man did that faithfully,
year in, year out, decade in, decade out, and died on the battlefield
contending for that blessed faith. And we want no other master than
the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not going to deny him by
how I act if I can help it at all. And then he gave us three
examples, three explicit warnings about these kind of people and
people who deny the faith, people who don't contend for the faith
and turn away from the faith and become apostates. First of
all, they were destroyed because of unbelief. It says there in
verse five, remember the last part of the verse, destroyed
them that believe not, even though they were brought up out of Egypt.
And then those that rebelled against God, in verse 6, the
angels which kept not their first estate, and rebelled against
God, rebelled against His authority. What happened to them? Kept in
everlasting chains. And then the sexual perversion
of those people that denied the faith, turned from the gospel.
Talking about Sodom and Gomorrah, giving themselves over to fornication,
going after strange flesh. Strange flesh. And so now he
continues to describe these apostates, these heretics, these people
who turn from the faith, who turn from the common salvation,
who deny the faith, who turn from it and follow these men.
And he gives some descriptions of them continually. He says
in verse 8, likewise. Likewise. When he says likewise,
he said, like these that I just mentioned. unbelievers destroyed,
angels that rebelled against authority, Solomon and Gomorrah
who went after strange flesh, and sexual perversion. He says
likewise these filthy dreamers, likewise like these people. He
describes their sinful conduct, and he does it in three ways.
First of all, he says these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise
dominion, and speak evil of dignities. Three ways. Likewise, Like those
in Solomon and Gomorrah, and the reason they defiled the flesh,
these filthy dreamers, they defiled the flesh, that's the first thing
they did. Like those people in Solomon and Gomorrah, they defiled
their flesh. They went after strange flesh.
Men after men, women after women, incest and perversion of every
kind was going on. And exactly the way it is today,
I mean, it's out in the open. And that's the way it was there.
And that's why the Lord said, As it was in the days of Sodom
and Gomorrah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man.
As it was in the day of Moses, so shall it be in the days of
the Son of Man. And beloved, this went on in
those days, and it was out in the open, and it's getting out
in the open in these days. And the more open and open and
more accepted these sexual perversions, the more accepted these fornication,
the more accepted these things are, the sooner that Christ is
coming. The more we know that Christ
is coming. But the reason they defile the flesh is because they're
filthy dreamers. They're filthy dreamers. They
defile the flesh. How do they defile it? These filthy dreamers,
it refers to false prophets who prophesied and preached their
dreams instead of the Word of God. How many preachers have
you heard say, I had a vision, or I seen a vision, or I had
a dream? Let me show you what God says about them in Deuteronomy
13. Deuteronomy 13. We're going to be tried one of
these days, very, very severely tried. I'm not going to mistreat
anybody, God helping me, but I'm not going to deny the Word
of God when I have to face it. Whenever we talk about sexual
perversion and men going with men, women with men, and doing
that which is unnatural, and going against the very nature
that God gave them, And, of course, they reprobate people. Those
are reprobate people. But there will soon be a time
that if you ever say anything about that and preach from it,
say anything about it, that you'll be a subject to a law and subject
to being fined or subject to having your ministry taken away
from you, put in jail. But we'll see whether we'll be
able to deal with those things or not because it's coming. It's
coming. But look what he said here about
false prophets and dreamers. He says in chapter 13, If there
arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth
thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to
pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go unto other
gods, which thou hast not known, let us serve them. Thou shalt
not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer
of dreams. Now listen to it. For the Lord
your God proveth you. That means He's trying you. When
somebody gets up with a dream, somebody gets up with a vision,
and the Lord showed me this, and the Lord showed me that,
and I had this dream, and God showed me this, took me up into
heaven, and I've seen this, that, and the other. He says, the Lord
your God proves you to know whether you love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your soul, or you're going to follow
that dreamer. Is that the one you're going to follow? Look
at Jeremiah with me. Jeremiah 25. Excuse me, Jeremiah 23. That's what he says, he's filthy
dreamers. And I'll tell you, it is a filthy,
and what he means by filth is that it's spiritual filth they're
talking about. Spiritual filth in their minds,
filth in their flesh, in their motives, in their desires. They're
not, when they're talking about that, you know, said, boy, he's
filthy-minded. He's filthy-mouthed. And that's what he means, these
filthy dreamers, everything about them is unclean, everything about
them is dirty, everything about them, they have no purity about
them, no cleanness about them, no holiness about them, no righteousness
about them, though they claim all these things. And look here
in Jeremiah 23, in verse 25. I have heard what the prophets
said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed,
I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the
heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea, they are prophets
of the deceit of their own heart, which think to cause my people
to forget my name by their dreams, which they tell every man to
his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten my name by them.
People get up and they start saying, well, the Lord showed
me this in a dream, and I saw this happen to you in a dream.
And they scare people, and they tell about, oh, I saw this glorious
dream, and I walked on the streets of gold, and oh, and I saw this,
that, and the other. And they go on and on and on,
and people say, oh, hallelujah, that fell off. God give me a
vision like that. He said, they're the prophets
of the deceit of their own heart. That's why he calls them filthy
dreamers, which think to cause my people to forget my name by
their dreams. And then in verse 28, the prophet
that hath a dream, let him tell a dream. He that hath my word,
let him speak my word faithfully. What's the chaff to the weed?
Is not my word like a fire, saith the Lord, like a hammer that
breaks in pieces? Therefore, behold, I am against
the prophet, saith the Lord, that steal my words every one
from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophet,
saith the Lord, that use their tongue to say, he saith, Behold,
I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord,
and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies,
and by their likeness. Yet I sent them not, nor commanded
them. Therefore they shall not profit
this people at all, saith the Lord." And that's what these
men are like. He refers to them as false prophets
who prophesied by dreams. And these false prophets were
liars. self-deceived, and Judas describing men who claimed to
have visions and dreams and substituted them for the Word of God. Anybody
that substitutes anything for the Word of God don't have nothing
to do with it. If they ain't got a thus saith
the Lord with what they're doing, just leave them alone. Leave
them be if they ain't got a thus saith the Lord. My soul, if they
ain't got a book, chapter, and verse, don't pay any attention
to them. And not only does they defile
the flesh, but look what it says else about them. They despise
dominion. And dominion means, you know,
authority. You know, I'm out of my dominion. I'm out of my district. I'm out
of my place of authority. Well, dominion means a constitutive
authority. It means a rule. They despise
authority. They despise the rule. And to
despise means to set aside something that's been established. Well,
this is the authority that's been established. This is the
dominion, God's dominion. The dominion of Christ is over
his dominion from everlasting to everlasting. And God's got
a dominion and a set up authority in this world. And these fellows,
they despise that. This established authority. This
established rule. They despise it. And they fight
against it. They rebel against it. And they
want to be the ones that has the authority and the power and
the rule. They're like geographies. Who
loves to have the preeminence and would forbid those others
to have it. And so they reject and they set
aside God's constituted authority. Now you keep Jews. Look over
here with me in 2 Peter 2 just a moment. They set aside God's
authority. First thing they set aside because
they filthy dreamers, they set aside God's Word. Set aside God's
Word. Do you know how many men in this
world get up and get up without a Bible and just get up with
a notebook or get up with just some kind of outline or get up
with a bunch of anecdotes and illustrations and have them do
a few jokes and have folks laugh and take 15 or 20 minutes and
entertain people. They're filthy men. Filthy men. Traitors to God. Traitors to
the Scripture. Traitors to the men's souls.
Butchers of men's souls. Despisers of dominion and authority. And just laugh about it and reject
it and make light of it. They use lightness. They don't
understand the authority. They don't understand the power.
They don't understand the rule. They don't understand the sovereignty.
They don't understand the power of God and His Word. That everything
God does, He does by His Word and the Holy Spirit. And oh God,
help us. Help me and help every preacher
you know. And help your children and tell
them if you're going to go any place, go someplace where they
share their Bibles and they listen to the Word of God. I'll show
you in the Scriptures that it's so. You can look at it. Turn with
me and look at this. That's what a preacher who wants
you to understand the Scriptures says. You turn here. I've got
no dreams to tell. And if I did, they wouldn't be...
it just don't even make sense. But that's what they do. Look
over here at what Peter said in verse 10. 2 Peter 2.10. Here he describes the same kind
of people, but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust
of uncleanness, and watch this, despise government, despise government,
and over the margin it says despise dominion. Presumptuous are they. Here's what they are, self-willed.
They're not even afraid to speak evil of dignities. Oh, listen, God's authority,
These men trust dreams rather than the Word of God. They become
a law unto themselves. And you know God has an order
of authority. He has a dominion set up in this
world, an order of authority. We're going to go by God's authority
or else. And let me give it to you quickly.
First of all, and I can turn to these Scriptures, but I won't.
But in 1 Corinthians 11-3 it says that Christ is the head
of every man. Man is the head of every woman.
And Christ, God is the head of Christ. Now that's the order
that God sent. And that's why God, that the
order is that first of all, Christ is the head over every one of
us. And the head means he's the one that has the dominion, he
has the authority. You know, they say, he's the head, do you
want to see the head? I want to see the boss. Well, the head
man's in that office back there, that's what they'll say. He's
the boss, he's the head man. Well, Christ is the head over every
one of us. Man's the head over woman. And that means, beloved,
that God set it up in such a way that man is to provide for woman.
He took her out of his sight, not out of his head where she's
equal, not out of his feet where she's under his feet, but out
of his sight where she can be beside him. That's the first
thing. And secondly, beloved, then you
have the parent, you have husbands and wives. And he said, Husbands,
love you wise, even as Christ also loved the church. And wise,
see that you be in subjection to your husband as unto the Lord.
Now, all the men always say, well, my wife is supposed to
be under subjection. But it also says there, Husbands,
love you wise, even as Christ loved the church. I might have
told you this before, but John Newton, when his wife died, she
died of cancer. And if I remember right, when
I read about it, He preached on Wednesday night, went in her
room, and she died that night. He stayed with her until she
died. And he mourned her and mourned her and mourned her and
mourned her until one man told another man, told another preacher,
says, I'm afraid that Brother Newton loved his wife way too
much. And that man rebuked him. He
says, loved her too much? How can you love your wife too
much? Do you reckon He loved her more than Christ loved the
church? So how do you love, you know,
how much did Christ love us? Gave everything He had for us.
Put His life on the line for us. Poured out His blood for
us. Shed tears for us. Agony of soul
for us. went unto the wrath of God for
us, hastened death for us, bore our sins in His own body for
us, and rose again from the dead for our justification, sets now
at God's right hand the intercede for us. And oh, and if you wise
would understand that, you'd say, oh, and if we loved our
wives like that, our wives, beloved, would have no problem Saying,
honey, what do you want? Honey, what do you need? What
can I do for you? That's one authority. And there's
people that despise that. Just absolutely despise it. I'm
not going to be under subjection to no man. My wife don't obey
me or else. They don't want to go by God's
order. And then there's the parent over the child. It says, children,
obey your parents. Honor your parents. When it says
obey your parents, and this is why you do it, they are in God's
stead over you. God put parents in this stead
over you. They're responsible for you,
responsible for your education, responsible for your health,
responsible to clothe you, love you, train you, discipline you.
And the scriptures not only mean when it says obey your parents,
that means to honor them, exalt them, and hold them in the highest
esteem. And oh, you see, beloved, that's
what it means. And as children, they despise
that. And the first opportunity they
get, they want out from under that. But don't despise. Don't despise though God gave
you a parent, a mother, and a daddy that loves you. Gets you the
clothes you want. Gets you a good education. And
takes care of you. And when they have to discipline
you, take that discipline and thank God for it. That's how
you grow up. And then there's the masters,
and everybody in here works for somebody else. Everybody in here
has to work for somebody else, or they have in time. Masters
and servants. There's somebody who works for
somebody else. He said, and I'll tell you what you do. When you
work for another man, don't you give them my service. You serve
them as if you're serving the Lord Himself. That's what he
said. You work just like you're working
for Christ. Don't do our service. When the boss is around, you
get real, real busy. And when he leaves, you set that
one in your bucket. Don't do that. You treat that man just
like you're working for the Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the
Lord Jesus Christ. And you masters, he says, you
masters, he says, you understand this, you treat this servant
right. Don't you get wealthy on his back. Don't you give him
half of what he's worth. Don't you mistreat him, because
you have a master in heaven too, you know. And then there's this
pastors and church leaders. That's a dominion. Some people
despise that. But it says, count them of double
honor who serve in the Lord, who serve in the Word, who preach
the Word. And obey them that have the rule over you, as they
that give an account for your soul. Those are constituted authorities
that God gives us in this world. And don't despise those. Don't
despise those. And then look what it says. Not
only do they despise dominion, but they speak evil of dignities.
You notice that's in little, it's a small D. And what, that
word speak evil means to slander, to scoff at. And I think because
of the next verse, he's talking about the angels, the glorious
ones. Because he's talking about the
next verse, they speak evil of dignities, and yet Michael, the
archangel, he uses an illustration here. He's talking, I think he's
actually talking about angels here. Because he says, you know,
we were made just a little lower than the angels. And when these
men were rebuked for their behavior, somebody would rebuke them for
their behavior and tell them, and rebuke them, and chastise
them, and tell them what to do. They would get angry, and they
would despise them, and they'd scoff at them. When they were
told that they would share in the devil's condemnation, that
they'd face the same judgment that the angels had seen, that
they would go to the same hell, that they'd go to the same condemnation,
that they were actually going to share in the devil's condemnation
itself. They laughed at it, scoffed at
it. They denied that the devil had any power over them. Why,
he said two dozen times. He ain't got any power over us.
Well, let me show you something over here in 2 Timothy. You know, when you put it in
its context, and that's what he's talking
about, this speaking evil of these dignities. You know, when
Satan came before God, and God said, where are you going, Satan?
He said, I'm going to and fro, seeking whom I may devour. And
he said, well, have you considered my servant Job? And God let him
at him. You don't find anybody in the
Scriptures except Christ. And here we have, he said here
in verse 2 Timothy 2.24, it says this, And the servant of the Lord must
not strive, that means arguing, debating, quarreling with people,
but be gentle unto all, apt to teach, patient, forbearing, enduring,
in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves. You know,
people outside of Christ oppose themselves. And if God peradventure, if God
may, He will perhaps will give them repentance to the acknowledge
of the truth, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of
the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. Do you remember
that strong man arm? His palace and his goods was
saved until the stronger man arm came and took him away from
him. I tell you what, everybody's taken captive by the devil, and
as long as the devil's got a fella, I mean, his goods are safe, he's
got that person right where he wants him, until somebody stronger
comes along and takes away his goods and spoils them. And that's
what Jesus says, you know, you men that despises the men, you
filthy dreamers, you deniers, you ungodliness, you lasciviousness,
you grace, miserable, wretched men with all the things you do
with your dreams and your visions and your filthiness and your
scoffing and your slander. He says, you're going to fall
into the condemnation of the devil. You're going to go to
hell just like those fellows are. No, no, no, no, no. There
ain't no way. That ain't going to happen to
us. Well, he goes like this, And he illustrates their proud
arrogance by pointing out two of the highest-ranking angels
in this world, and one of them is Michael the archangel and
the other is Satan himself. Yet Michael the archangel, when
contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses,
durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord
rebuketh thee. Now, what's he saying here? He
says that Michael himself didn't speak evil to the devil. Michael
himself never railed on the devil. He says the Lord rebuked him. And oh, and what it means, here's
Michael, and you can find Michael over in Daniel chapter 10, I
believe it is. And there he is, and he's Moses. All it tells us about the death
of Moses, the burial of Moses, is that he is up on Mount Nebo,
and God took him and buried him. That's all we know about it.
Now, I read some things about it. Some people say they found
some writings, there's some apocryphal writings, they found some historical
things, and this, that, and the other, and they said what happened
was, And Michael was going to take Moses' body and take it
and bury it someplace. And the devil withstood Michael
and started arguing with him and disputing with him and says,
Moses does not deserve an honorable burial. He does not deserve the
kind of burial that you're going to give him for God to bury.
Because he committed murder. He murdered that Egyptian and
buried him in the sand. He smoked that rock twice. He
wasn't even fit to go into the promised land. And they began
to argue about Moses' body, whether or not it should be buried at
this place, or shouldn't be buried at all. That he had dominion
over it. And they, so Michael's the archangel,
Satan was the chief of the devils, and they're disputing about it.
But I'll tell you this much, whenever it wasn't slander, But
it was that Michael did not slander the devil. The devil was slandering
Michael and slandering Moses, speaking evil of Moses, speaking
evil of Moses and his dignity. And Michael wouldn't tolerate
it. And he says, may the Lord rebuke you, the devil. That's
what he says, the Lord rebuke you. Michael didn't slander the
devil. And if the highest angel Two
archangels in Scripture, Michael and Gabriel. If the highest angel
wouldn't slander and scoff the authority of the chief of the
devils, what fools these men are to scoff or slander angels
for any authority and power that's over them. And that's what happened here.
But they speak evil of all authority. But he's using that just as an
illustration that the highest archangel wouldn't even slander
the highest basal above, the devil, the chief of the devils.
Now look what it says here in verse 10. This is amazing to
me. But these speak evil of those
things which they know not. They're just speaking evil, and
they don't know what in the world they're talking about. Don't
it aggravate you? Let me ask you this. You've heard
people talking about things that they didn't know what they was
talking about and how it aggravates you. Well, these folks spoke evil
of things that they didn't have a clue what they was talking
about. And what's not only that, but what they know naturally,
as brute beasts and those things, they corrupt themselves. These
false teachers, these heretics, have no understanding of the
spiritual realm. None whatsoever. They're natural
men speaking about things they know nothing about, speaking
evil about things they don't know anything about. They don't
know about this power of God. They don't know about the power
of Christ. They don't know about the power of grace. They don't
know about the power of the Word. They don't know about the power
of God's authority. And they, beloved, speak evil
of those things. And watch what he says here.
And oh beloved, they claim to have a revelation from God by
dreams and visions, and yet, it says here they speak evil
of those things that they don't even know nothing about. And
you know what they know, and here's what they do know, what
they know, they know naturally. Have no spiritual understanding
at all. What they know, they know naturally. And watch this,
and that's brute beast. They give in to the lowest common
denominator that's in them, as brute beasts. Do you know what
they know naturally? Just like an animal. That's what
God's viewing them as, brute beasts here. And let me show
you again over here in 2 Peter. Look in 2 Peter 2.12. They lower
themselves to the level of brute beasts. You know, and you've got so many
illustrations in the book of Acts. The way they, the way those scribes
and Pharisees, the way they and the Sadducees and Pharisees treated
the Apostle Paul and the rest of the Apostles. They didn't
think it was wrong to speak evil of those men, despise those men,
put those men in jail. Cora and Dathan and Abram, they
didn't think it was wrong to stand up and despise Moses and
his authority. And tell him, Moses, we're as
holy as you are, and we want to have a say in what goes on
around here. We want to have as much power, we want to have
as much authority to make decisions and everything goes on. And Moses,
you're not the only one that's holy around here, you know. You're
not the only one God uses. You're not the only one to understand
some things. The next day, Moses said, everybody that's on the
war site, get over here. The rest of you fellas, get over there.
At that time, Ortho destroyed 250 people, kids and all. They
spoke evil of things they didn't know. They was looking at things
naturally. And they was destroyed like brute beasts. And look what
it says here in 2 Peter 2.12. But it says there, look in verse
11, where they speak, not afraid, speak evil of demons, whereas
angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing
accusation against them before the Lord. But these, as natural
brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of
the things that they understand not, and shall utterly perish
in their own corruption. And that's what he says. It's
like natural root beast. Back over here in our text. And
it says this, when men reject, scoff and slander God's Word, go by their own dreams and visions
and self-will, have their own authority and authority under
themselves, they live by self-flaw, self-will. It's like trying to
reason with an animal, trying to reason with a beast. And that's
what he says, they're just like natural men, they're like a beast.
And you can't reason with a beast. Can't do it. And they said they'll
corrupt themselves. And you know what the scripture
said? God said this over in Hosea 4, verse 7, it says, Ephraim,
Ephraim, Joseph's two boys, Joseph didn't have a tribe, because
he died down in Egypt. But his two sons, he had Manasseh
and Ephraim, and they were split a tribe. A half a tribe. Ephraim had a half of a tribe,
Manasseh had a half of a tribe. Ephraim was the one that was
loved. Oh, he was loved. Spoken often of him. But it says
that Ephraim has turned to his idols. Some dreamer got a hold
of him. Some false prophet got a hold
of him. Somebody with a vision got a hold of him. And he turned
to an idol and got him an idol and hugged it to his chest like
that. And you know what God said about him? Leave him alone. And if a man wants to be like
a brute beast, self-willed, Have him be a law unto himself, and
scourge and devise dominion, and won't subject himself to
God and God's Word and God's order in this world? Leave him alone. Leave him alone. Our Father, in the blessed, glorious
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we deal with some awesome truths
here tonight. Truths that make our soul tremble. And yet, Lord, we need to hear
them. We need to face them. And, Lord, we know that there's
people that we know and love. They reject all authority. They
despise dominion. They speak evil of dignities. They have no sense of right and
wrong. They'll all unto themselves.
They don't want to be told about God. They don't want to be told
about Christ. They don't want to be told about their need of
Christ. They don't want to be told about their sinfulness,
their inability and their powerlessness. And when they're told, they scoff,
they slander, they laugh. And oh Lord, as this world swirls
around us and staggers like a drunk man, just barely staggered along,
teetering and tottering, stumbling and falling, and almost to the
point of falling over. God help us to be lights, to
be witnesses, to hold forth the Word of God, the Word of Life,
to be true to our Master, to be true to our Lord Jesus Christ.
To be true to the souls of men, when we have an opportunity to
speak to them or speak about them, help us, please, to glorify
Your holy name. We ask it in His name, Christ
Jesus, our Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen.