All right, I want you to turn
back in your Bibles to the book of Revelation chapter 3, see
if we can make our way through our last and final consideration
of the church at Sardis. As I've been sharing with you
about the seven churches of Asia Minor, just in case we don't
understand the basic premise for which the book is given,
is that our master is always present in his church. to purify
it and to protect it from assault and scandal, from deviation from
her calling and her purpose. And the master is present, as
I use the metaphor of a resident landlord. He owns the premises. He owns the people. He owns everything
in the church. And so he is present to take
care of it because he has an objective, as we're going to
see today. And that objective I'll set up front just in case
you aren't able to hold a couple of thoughts between now and the
end of the message. If you want to take something away from the
message, here's the objective of our Savior for His church. He will have a church at the
end of the day that is without spot and without blemish or any
such thing. It is for this reason He is present
in His church working. He will have a church that will
redound to his glory. And that's why if you are really,
truly saved, he deals with you the way he does. He will have
a bride for whom he will be able to say, my beloved is mine. And I am my beloved. See, that's
reciprocal. My beloved is mine. And I am
my beloved. And everybody in the world knows
that's my beloved. And everybody in the world should
know that the beloved says, that's my beloved. That means, in other
words, people ought to know that we are the church of the living
God and we are the bride of Christ exclusively. And if we don't
understand monogamy, and I don't think we do in the 21st century,
the church ought to understand monogamy. It ought to understand
absolute commitment to one man. So that we are not meandering
all over the world trying to please anyone but our husband
And I think the lord jesus christ is a great husband He is a great
friend. He's a great savior. He's a mighty
god. He's a wonderful counselor He's
a healing balm. He is everything to us christ
is all But in the context in which we're talking, he is a
great, great and wonderful husband. Wonderful husband. And you know
what that means? That means he pays attention to his bride.
So now you can elbow your husband. He pays attention to his bride.
He regards her welfare. He cares about her comfort. He regards her security. He makes
sure she has everything necessary for her to fulfill her calling. Are you with me so far? So just
in case you don't understand the Jesus of the Bible versus
the Jesus of this present generation, which Jesus of this generation
doesn't really care what you do. Now, my wife wouldn't go
for that with me. She would not go for me doing
whatever I wanna do. And I wouldn't go for her doing
whatever she wants to do. See because the God we serve
you still believe that right is a jealous God And you know
what Paul said in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 verse 1 2 & 3 I am
jealous for you and my job as the Lord's folkman. I'm his watchdog
I'm his little shepherd to hunt down the sheep and run them back
into the fold You know those shepherd dogs that chase down
the sheep and when they get knocked away and run them back into the
boat Aren't those some wonderful dogs? That's ingrained in their
DNA they will run with all their might to catch up with that sheep
and herd him her back into the fold. That's all preachers are
who preach the gospel. We're sheepdogs. Our job is to
hunt you down and run you back into the fold. We're ourselves
out getting you back in because we do know that we wander as
sheep. We wander. Sheep wander. Don't
we? And as I'm reflecting upon our
series, I was sharing this on the Friday study, by the way,
if you weren't here on Friday, you better get this tape. It was
hot, wasn't it hot? Friday was hot. Somebody else
taught on Friday. We were reflecting upon the one
thing that the devil is entirely committed to do in your life. And if he can achieve this one
goal, he can be sure that when your projectory is altered that
you can miss heaven. He has one objective of which
he uses all his arsenal to accomplish and that is to distract you from
the one most important thing so that you end up in hell. His
goal is to just get you off course by one degree. Are you hearing
me? The goal of the devil is to distract
you. If you don't understand that
doctrine, get it. It's the five D's of the devil.
All he wants to do is keep you from looking to Christ and get
you wrapped up and distracted by everything else that's almost
as important as Jesus. That's all he wants you to do.
In the garden were two trees in the middle of the garden.
Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of trees everywhere
else. Two trees in the middle of the garden. And all he needed
to do was keep Adam and Eve from one of those two trees. And they
lost the whole thing. Am I making some sense? He called
her before she could get to the tree that would have sealed their
eternity. And that's what the goal of the
devil is for you and me, to get us distracted by things that
are almost as important as God. And if he can do it, we're done.
We are done. And you need to know that, child
of God, As we are going through the book of Revelation and dealing
with the church at Sardis, we have now come to our third message.
And what our Lord has said to Sardis, fundamentally in his
warning of her, constitutes two things by way of recall so that
we can get into our last three points. First and foremost, he
tells Sardis that her condition is not as she thought it was. Remember that? You think that
you are alive. But you're dead. He spoke to
her condition spiritually. He let her know that she was
not demonstrating the vitality of life that accompanies true
salvation. That's a very ominous, ominous
consideration. And it's something worthy of
our reception as children of God. You may very well be born
again. You may very well be saved. But
if you are You never tire of someone exhorting you to make
your calling and election sure. In fact, the only reason you
would be wearied of someone telling you make sure is that you are
already dead. Or if not dead, that was their
condition, remember? You're dead. And you need to
strengthen those things that remain. Or if you're not dead,
you are so radically presumptuous You are so radically presumptuous
that what you have can't be taken away that you're not watching.
Remember that was his imperative. Watch. Watch. Watch. Verse 3. Watch. Listen to what
he says. Sorry, verse 2. Be watchful.
Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain, which are
ready to die, for I have not found your works complete before
God yet. Let me try that not in a very
practical way again for those of you who don't study your Bibles
seriously or are not acquainted with the depths of the language. The idea of I have not found
your works perfect before God simply means in this context
your life is not over with yet. You are not done with your assignment. You haven't completed your task.
So as to sign your name at the bottom line saying, I have checked
off all of the boxes to which God has called me to be to do.
Now, this means to finish, to complete a task, to be done with
your assignment. That's all that it means. And
so the Bible is clear about that. We have an assignment, don't
we? We have a race to run, don't we? We have a calling to fulfill,
don't we? We have a work to accomplish
as the people of God and when we're done for all intents and
purposes we can go home But I did give you the text to affirm that
did not talk to us about the Apostle Paul Didn't Paul tell
us in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 to Timothy right before he was beheaded
by Nero. He says Timothy I have run my
race You know what that construction means I finished he didn't say
I'm running he says I have run I You know, when you come to
the finish line, you're done. He says, I have fought a good
fight. He didn't say I was fighting.
He says, I'm done. I didn't put my gloves down. He asked. He said, I have finished
my what course. See, I don't think a person in
this room can say that there might be one or two of us on
the brink of glory that can say we're so confident that our work
in the Lord is accomplished that I'm ready to go to glory right
now. But I don't think a person in this room can say that. I
think all of us are keenly aware that we are still smack dab in
the middle of what God has called us to do. For some of us, we
don't even know what God has called us to do. So I'm saying
that it's imperative for you not to play games with the word
of God because you're going to have to stand before him one
day. Give account for the things that you have done in your body.
Is that all right? See, I'm one of those preachers that live
day and night very much concerned that I am going to have to give
an account for those souls who stand before me and That you
will have to give an account and when you stand before Jesus
on the last day My master will say did my servant tell you the
truth the whole truth and you're gonna have to say yes or no and
And then I have to come to him and answer for having either
cut the word of God in half and parts and pieces and percentages
and giving it to you in piecemeal so that you didn't have the whole
truth, which is what goes on in religion today. And then you
will face God having never had the whole council preached to
you. And guess what? He's going to throw me in the
deepest hell for not telling you the truth. for not telling
you the truth. And so I say, as you and I are
gripped by the word of God, as we are here, what verse two is
simply saying, and our Lord in his mercy is simply saying, don't
take your clothes off, you're not done. You know, when you
are working in the house all day, you wives who still do it
according to the Bible, because most wives, you know, they ain't
at home, they're working. But just let's pretend you're
at home and you're taking care of business and you know what
your chores are, right? You will not go to bed until
you have accomplished those essential chores. You're not taking your
slippers off. You're not taking your house
robe off. And our Lord, in an analogy in the book of Song of
Solomon, had to deal with his bride. He comes knocking on the
door because he wants to talk with her. And she says, I don't
want to get up. I'm already getting ready to
get in bed. I don't want to have to put my shoes back on and my
gown back on and come open the door for you because my feet
are going to be soiled. Well, if the husband's coming
and knocking on the door, stay with me now, your business ain't
done. Am I making some sense? Your
business ain't done. Your business is not done until
you are in the bed and he's in the bed. Oh, see, that's gonna
mess with some people again. I understand. I'm using you now. Now, hurry up. Hurry up and transfer
it from your husband to the Lord Jesus. That'll make it more comfortable
for you. Hurry up and transfer it. Cause see, I actually know I
live in a generation that is not operating out of biblical
principles in any area of life. The handful of brothers and sisters
that are trying to do it right in this generation, you are an
anomaly. You are a small fragment of this
broken world system. And when you guys try to do a
biblical husband, biblical wife model, you are glorifying God,
you are glorifying Christ, you are glorifying the gospel. The
benefits of doing it right are enormous in terms of your witness.
And everybody else living a broken life. hoping that they get in
on the postures and the broken planks of the ship, simply because
we are not willing to operate out of biblical principles. Can
I keep talking to her? When my voice goes hoarse, I
will stop. Our master is speaking to his
bride because he's with her. It's not like she's doing the
work by herself. Now this is gonna hurt two husbands,
but the husband is working with the wife. to take care of home.
Lord, I am with you, sweetie, always and to the end of the
earth. You won't have to do one chore
in the house by yourself. I'm with you when you sweep the
floor. I'm with you when you cook the
food. I'm with you when you wash the clothes. I'm with you when
you take care of the children. I'm with you when you take care
of this. I'm with you when you take care of that. And if you
need anything else, I'll give it to you to make sure you get
the job done adequately because I am for you. This is what the
bride groom says to the church of the living God. That's why
he's here. Are you hearing me? That's why he's here. And so
when he tells her, you need to be careful to watch. Watch verse
3 remember therefore how you have received and heard and hold
fast and repent If therefore you shall not what's the word
watch which brings me to the next concern. They were unaware
They misunderestimated their spiritual condition. It was dead
They thought they were fine because they had a reputation in the
community for being a nice church I'm going to show you how that
works here in a moment Sardis had a reputation in the community
the church in Sardis for being a nice church and But a nice
church, ladies and gentlemen, is not a gospel church. A nice
church is not a biblical church. A nice church is not a church
that Christ established. Because whether you know it or
not, Christ was not nice. He's the most controversial person
in the world. And so when we talk about a nice
church, oh, that's a nice church. If we are a nice church and that's
all folks get out of grace, we have missed the point a million
miles. What we want to be is a biblical
church. We want to be a gospel preaching church. And if we are
a gospel preaching church, will you hear me? We're going to make
folk mad. We're going to offend people
by nature. Can I tell you why? Because we're going to simply
open the Bible and say what the Bible says, plain and naked,
and let men and women deal with it. And the word of God cuts
us all down. We are all wrong. We are all
sinners. We are all broken. We are all
bankrupt. We are all backwards, twisted,
distorted in every other analogy you can use for what the consequences
of sin has done to our humanity. And when God saves us by His
grace, He is redeeming us, restoring us, fixing us, recovering us. We are in a recovery process.
Are you hearing me? So when we preach the gospel
to this generation, we are not accommodating the culture. We
are not affirming the culture. We are not telling the culture
it's all right for you to live like hell. We're not telling
you that. We're telling you you need to
be rescued because your sin is sinking you deep into the pit. And we're telling you also we
need to be rescued. And the difference between us
and them is we are already in the rescue process. I'm on the
ship headed to glory, and I'm tossing life rafts out, pulling
sinners in along the way. Come, be rescued with me by the
grace of God. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? But we are not affirming this broken, God-hating, unbiblical
culture we're in. That's not Christianity. It's
not biblical. So saints, we see these are the
things that Christ is talking about. We're going to get this.
The problem with Sardis is this. Sardis thought that the main
purpose for which it existed was to get along with the culture,
the church at Sardis. And as a consequence, the light
had gone dim. The history of Sardis is a marvelous
history. I don't want to go too in depth,
but it gives us enough rich background for us to know that it was a
well-to-do city, very prominent. It existed long before Christ
came, 700-800 years before Jesus. In the 6th century BC, it was
prominent. It was prominent all the way
up to the time of the church at Sardis in the first century
BC. Very famous, famous city with a lot of history to it.
One of the things about the church of Sardis which is an application
here is this. It was a city on a hill. And so what we call that is an
Acropolis. Last week we talked about the
Necropolis, the place of the dead. Remember that? But now
we're talking about the Acropolis. And the Acropolis is the height
of which a city is situated. Now the city is situated on a
huge hill. We have images of that. A huge
hill the city is situated on. And that city being situated
on the hill means that they feel as if they are out of reach of
the enemy. Out of reach. Now the image you're
looking at doesn't give you the actual scenario. This here, however,
will serve my point. What you see here is a wall at
the top of the hill. This wall surrounded two thirds
of the city of Sardis. So that what Sardis presumed
was that the only way that the enemy could get in was through
the front door. Now, You don't know the height
of this particular area of the mountain but it's high enough
that in those days very few persons would even dare to ascend that
side of the mountain because there's nothing to get a hold
of. Can you see that? Very few persons would work trying
to scale that wall in order to penetrate the city. Secondly,
the watchmen who walk on the wall, that's what you have a
wall for, to walk the wall and look, could easily see down and
see any of the enemies coming. Good night. The watchmen would
watch and see, and they would know that there's a good percentage
of the fact that if some did try to scale that wall and failed,
they'd fall to their what? Doom. That's right. But if you
and I are presumptuous, remember we talked about that last week,
presumptuous is assuming that we're all right when there's
nothing in our life that corresponds with that assumption. If you
and I think we're all right, then what we might be inclined
to do is not watch that part of the city. Are you following
me so far? So when our Lord says, watch,
here's what he's saying, you need to stay on the wall and
watch every part of the city because there are thieves always
trying to break in. Now here is the ludicrousness
of this particular proposition. Sardis over the 800 years before,
700 years before the church's time in first century AD, Sardis
had been penetrated by people scaling this very wall twice. During the days of Artaxerxes,
the Persian ruler, they scaled this wall twice and took the
city of Sardis. Twice in the history of Sardis,
almost an 800-year history, they had had those walls scaled only
twice. But twice is enough to let you
know you need to be watching. See, it's kind of like America. See, America is just like Sardis.
You can go back to our PowerPoint. America is just like Sardis.
America has felt like it could never be penetrated. It still
does right now. Most of us have lived and died
in America generation after generation, never ever feeling the kind of
pain, conflict, trouble, anguish, toil that most countries do where
bombs are dropping on them all the time. You and I have no idea
what that's like to every other day or every other week hear
sirens saying, go down now and hide in the caves or hide in
tunnels or in places where you can be protected from the onslaught
of bomb. We don't know that. We dwell
in a false security here in America. But listen to me, we've been
penetrated too. Who remembers Pearl Harbor? Why
did Pearl Harbor happen? Because we were asleep then.
Am I making some sense to you? The presumption then that the
Japanese would not attack our shores was a fallacy on our part. We were assuming that we were
too big, too bad, too sharp, too watchful for that to happen.
But that night we weren't watching. And our master said to the church
at Sardis and to you and me, we need to watch. Lest the thief
come in and take everything. Are you guys following? So there
are areas in your life where you think you've got a high wall
and you don't have to watch. It's right there the thief is
going to come in. And all you're going to know is he's come and
gone. And when he's gone, he will have
taken something. So let me tell you the difference
between a thief and a robber. The thief comes to steal. The
robber comes to kill. The thief is going to take from
you. The robber is going to hold you up by force. Are you hearing me? So when somebody
steals something from you, if they stole it stealthily, you
don't say they robbed you. You say they stole from you.
But when they come to you point blank and put a gun in your face
or a knife in your face or their own physical presence and take
something from you, they have now what? Robbed you. See, we
can learn something even in church. Ain't that right? And so our
Lord is telling us in verse three, as we get ready to deal with
our final points, I want to talk about this takeaway principle
for a few more minutes before I exhort you on those who continued
faithfully preaching the gospel there. He says, he says, repent,
and if therefore you shall not watch, verse three, I will come
on you as a what? And you shall not know what hour
I will come upon you. So now you and I know that if
the Lord says he's coming upon you as a thief, coming upon me
as a thief, we might as well call it a wrap. You know what
that means? You're just not going to know.
And as I shared with you last week, and I want to share it
again, the only warning you get is the warning I'm giving you.
That's the only warning we get. He says, if you don't watch,
I'm coming upon you as a thief in the night. Now, what that
means is in his sovereignty. as ruler over all things, the
good and the bad, the right and the wrong. You know Christ rules
over everything. Does he rule over everything?
He rules over the devils in hell, right? Do you understand that
the devil can't do one thing unless he gets permission from
Christ to do it, since he's sovereign Lord? That means if the devil
is allowed by Christ to take something from you, Christ took
it from you. Are you hearing what I'm saying? And so our master
is telling you and me, we need to be very careful about presuming
that we're all right because we didn't made a confession of
faith. I didn't been baptized. We go to church every now and
then. We know some Bible verses. Are you committed to his glory? Are you walking with Christ?
Are you sincerely trusting him? Are you walking in the calling
with which he has called you to walk? It's very important
because every day people are being stolen from in terms of
the claims of the gospel. Now let's work through this proposition.
This point number two is in your outline. I want to just scale
through these quickly. We touched on these yesterday. I just want
to nurture your mind with these again. In the warning to remove,
verse 3, part B, our master speaks to the fact that there are things
that can be taken. And we saw this principle in
Luke 8, verse 18. Remember, be careful how you
hear, right? For what measure you hear, that
will it also be measured out to you, right? He said, Be careful,
because to the one that hath, more shall be given, but to the
one that hath not, even that which he seems to have will be
what? Taken away. That's exactly right.
And I've shared with you that that model has demonstrated itself
in the scriptures every time people play games with God and
pretend to be His people and are not. Adam and Eve had the
garden taken away from them. God warned. He said, don't mess
with that tree. You know what they did? They
presumed that they knew more than God. Next thing you know,
we find them out on the street. Isn't that right? Second category. Second category. The children
of Israel given the promised land. Remember that? God says,
follow my covenant. Well, they presumed upon Jehovah
God. Next thing we know, she kicked out of the house. Babylon,
Medo-Persia, the Grecian kingdom. They didn't come back for 70
years. The final time Israel was kicked out is when Jesus
showed up. He said, hey, this is your hour,
the time of your visitation, but you're too ignorant to even
know who's here. And the kingdom was taken from
them and given to others. Is that true? Israel was scattered
to the four winds and are to this day, with the exception
of a small group of people that live in Palestine. And they,
you know, we're touting them here in America, in the West,
as if all of Israel is in Palestine. The vast majority of Jewish people
are scattered around the world. And Israel's a mess. Do you know
why? They still have not come to Christ
yet. They still have not bowed the knee to the true and the
living God. And Christ said, until you say, blessed is he
that comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna, Hosanna in the
highest, they will see no peace. May I say something to you about
America? America is in a takeaway mode right now. God's been taken
away from us for the last 40, 50 years. He's taken away from
us the peace and tranquility of a righteous nation-state.
We are no longer a righteous nation-state. We are a wicked
state. We are a criminal state. We have
done wrong all around the world, and we have not responded in
a biblical fashion. And here, from Washington down,
are we systematically removing every biblical principle that
makes a nation great. Am I telling the truth? Every
biblical principle that preserves a nation the nation that forgets
God will be turned into hell Righteousness exalts a nation
Righteousness only exalts a nation. God will not exalt you in a state
of unrighteousness And so we're going down why because to whom
much is given much is what and America has been given much We
have no gospel prophets in this world in this nation anymore.
I You have no major voices speaking to the world in behalf of God
as a representative of America. Are you hearing me? No one's
speaking to the world from America as a gospel preacher. You don't
hear them standing up in that old office of prophetic utterance,
warning the nations to repent of their sins. and bowed to the
crown rights of Jesus Christ. That's what a prophet does. And
when a nation is blessed, God raises up prophets like that
all over the nation who can speak for God and say what God said,
stand in God's counsel and speak his word, as Jeremiah said. If
they had stood in my counsel and if they had spoken my word,
then I would have delivered the people. But no, they love the
rewards of unrighteousness. And the prophets prophesy falsely. And the priests tell lies. And
the people love to have it so. That's where we are right now.
That's exactly where we are. Folks go to church to be entertained.
That's where we are right now. So you're not cutting the radio
on and anywhere you flip through the dial, hear the gospel. You're
not hearing the gospel. Oh, you may hear Jesus loves
you, has a wonderful plan for your life. Don't look back, look
forward. You better look back until you made peace with God.
God's on your tail. The wrath of God is on your tail.
You better look back. Talking about don't look back,
look forward. Listen, forward is just as black as backwards
until you made yourself right with God. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? We talk about the takeaway principle.
I just want to make sure that somehow that you don't miss it.
The blessing of the gospel being given to us is certainly a gift
of God. But if the gospel is ever taken
from you, you never had it in the first place. So then our
master warns us about this in the mouth of the Apostle Paul
in Galatians 5, verses 5 through 7. The church at Galatia had
received the gospels by the Apostle Paul, remember? He had laid down
the gospel clearly, Christ alone, faith alone, grace alone, by
the sovereign work of God alone. It is nothing that you and I
do. God is the one who saves. But then here comes the Judaizers
saying, you must be circumcised. You must keep the law. You must
observe the Sabbath. And you know what Paul said in
Galatians 5, verses 5 through 7? What did hinder you from obeying
the truth? You did run well. This persuasion
did not come from God. Here's my point. If you start
off with the gospel, verse 6, if you start off with the gospel,
you are going to have the great, great, wonderful privileges,
maybe it's chapter 4, great and wonderful privileges of having
the whole truth. But if you don't take that truth
seriously, it can be taken away from you. A lot of times people
hear the message of free grace and they hear the message of
the centrality of Jesus Christ in their life and start presuming
upon grace. And over time, one or two things
occurs. I want you to get this. I've
watched this happen. They lose the sense of appreciation
for God's grace and slip into one or two modes. Are you ready?
They slip either into a licentious mode of just living a secular
carnal life as if they're all right with God. That's presumption,
right? And I'm going to give you a model of that. You know
who the model of that is? Lot. See, Lot and Abraham were
on the same premise when God had called Abraham. You remember
that? And when they had prospered under the blessing of Abraham,
Uncle Abraham, Lot and Abraham had so much that they had to
separate. Remember that? And Abraham said
to Lot, Lot, you choose which way you want to go. And the way
you go, I'll go the opposite direction. And Lot chose the
pleasant green pastures of Sodom and Egypt. Did he not? Sodom
and Gomorrah. And in doing so, he set himself up for a tragic
life, didn't he? Now, let me help you understand
the takeaway principle just in case you don't believe me in
that regard. Here's the takeaway principle
in that Lot had a wife, Lot had children, Lot had family. That's Galatians 5 verse 7 if
you hunt it down. Lot had family, and by the time
Lot was called out of Sodom and Gomorrah, all of them were burned
up. with the exception of two daughters.
You guys remember that? Now, ladies and gentlemen, that's
what we call a take-away principle. Are you hearing me? You hear
you are blessed with your Uncle Abraham, tattle, wealth, prosperity,
and then you choose to be a secular Christian. In this present generation,
we use this bifurcation called a carnal Christian. That's not
biblical, okay? But we use the term. He's just
a carnal Christian. No, a carnal Christian is an oxymoronic term
because the word Christian inherently means spiritual. Now, a Christian
might be acting carnally, but a carnal Christian, that's not
a biblical category. Are you following me? But see,
lots of churches want to identify people as carnal Christians.
No, you still lost with a tag called Christian on a carnal
lifestyle. Now Lot has certainly chose a
wrong path to go because he walked by sight rather than by what?
And ladies and gentlemen, I appeal to your reason. Could you imagine
Lot feeling good about living in Sodom and Gomorrah? Could
you? Could you imagine Lot feeling
confident in his walk with God so long as he was engaging in
that cultural practice and affirming it? There's no way. If you're
a child of God, you would be in great conflict, wouldn't you?
You'd be struggling with these hell-bound sinners, according
to Peter, and their vile practices and vile conversations, which
vexed Lot every day of his life. That's how I know I'm saved,
because I hate sin. That's the only way I know. If
you love sin, you're still lost. You can write that down. See,
true believers hate what they see, hate what they know, hate
what they do and hate what they are. True believers. Are you
hearing me? We hate it. That's what it is
meant by. He was vexed by his bondage,
vexed by his bondage. But what had he done? He had
married. He had raised a family. And you know what he did? He
destroyed his children because they grew up in that mess. They
married in that mess. And then when the Spirit of God
said, it's time to go, I'm getting ready to burn it all up. Guess
what? None of them followed him. You know what we call that? The
takeaway principle. He lost it all. He was saved. Then he had two twisted babies.
And they created the Moabites and the Ammonites. Are you guys
hearing me? This is called the takeaway principle.
Just in case a person thinks that you can just defy the exhortations
of biblical truth. You know who went through the
takeaway principle? King David. He thought he could eat his cake
and have it too. Have his cake and eat it too. And he saw that
God started taking away from him, killed his son, wreaked
havoc in the family, incest and murder. and everything going
on. Isn't that right? We call it the takeaway principle. See,
I have to say this to some of you because you really do think
you are alright so long as you can say, I love Jesus. But I
want you to be able to discern in your life when God is taking
away. Because he's the one who said,
listen, if the thief break in and steal, doth not the Lord
know? If there be evil in the city,
hath not the Lord done it? Just in case you don't know,
that's the book of Amos chapter 3. See, we believe in a sovereign
God here. That means we don't leave absolute
free agency to the devil. You can blame everything you
want to on the devil, but at some point, you got to go to
the CEO. And this is why Job, this is why Job, who went through
hell, you never find Job arguing with the devil. He always went
to God. God, what you doing? Oh, bless
Job, because he went through a period where he looked like
things were being taken away from him. But God trusted Job
such that he let him be a model of our great God and Savior Jesus
Christ. Humble Job to the ground, took
everything from Job, took his health, took his wealth, took
his family, didn't take his wife. That was to test him even more.
And you know what Job did? He stood still and took all the
hits. And you know what he said? Though
he slay me, yet will I trust him. That's called faith. You
know why? Because he knew that what was coming upon him wasn't
because of an intentional, overt, high-handed, presumptuous sin
against his God. See, we know when we're sinning
against God. Job kept asking the question, Lord, what's this
about? Because see, chastisement is designed to get you and me
to ask the question, what's this about? That's if you are born
again. If you're a dumbass, then all
you get is the bit and the bridle. See, bit and bridles steer dumbasses. But the psalmist says, don't
be like the dumbass. Isn't that right? Don't be like
the dumbass. That must be led about by bit and bridle. See,
you and I have been born again. We have a new nature. We have
the mind of Christ. We can think God's thoughts after
Him. We can listen to God. So when God acts in our life,
we can ask Him, where did I mess up at? Reveal it to me. Show
me where I'm messing up, God. Because this don't feel like
you. Now. Now. So Job kept asking and he
had learned like Paul did. After you ask three times, wait. Because God's not deaf that he
can't hear. And his arm is not short that he can't save. So
Job stood in his lot as he said, I'm going to stand in my lot
and I'm going to wait till my change comes. Because when it
comes, everything's going to be all right. And God turned
it around. Did God turn it around? God turned
it around God turned it around So I threw that cop caveat in
just to let you know Sometimes it may feel like a takeaway period
in order to get you to ask the right questions Could God want
you to talk with him? He gonna get your attention child
of God Bride of Christ he gonna get your attention because his
goal is to make sure we are without spot and blemish and that we
are a chase version of Committed to Christ and that we come to
discover Christ is enough in our life that we don't have to
have Christ plus All we have to have is Christ Are you hearing
what I'm saying? And so it's very important that
we understand the takeaway principle. So the Galatians were warned
One don't do this. So here's how the takeaway principle
goes when the gospel doesn't bring about the kind of satisfaction
It's designed. You're gonna fall into one or
two categories legalism and are licentiousness. Those are the
only two categories. So you'll see people who come
to hear the gospel and they'll say there must be more to it
than this. Well, no, there's not. Christ is it. And in him are hidden all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And in Christ are all that's
necessary for life and godliness through a knowledge of him. And
in Jesus Christ, you can have everything you need to take care
of your life. But if you want riches, If you
want fame if you want prominence if you want bling if you want
your name in life if you want to have a name And not have his
name Then you're not married. You're not ready to be married
to him Am I making some sense? Because see his name is only
glorious to his people But to the rest of the world, it's a
thing of naught. They laugh at it. They mock it.
They ridicule it They cast it down. They talk bad about it.
They stretch it in a hundred thousand different ways. They
distort the name of Jesus. Am I making some sense? Now that's
your husband there doing that too. How do you feel about it
now? Are you hearing what I'm saying?
That's your husband they're doing. That's the one who died for you.
Paid the dowry for your eternity. He summed up and secured your
eternity and they're talking about it. What you gonna do about
that now, sister? What you gonna do about that
now, brother? Are you gonna stand for your husband and say, That's
my husband you're talking about. You got a controversy with him?
I got a controversy with you. You want to talk about it? Since
you want to dog my husband, see, I have his name. I bear his name.
Can we talk about it? You don't like him? What about
him you don't like? Maybe I can explain it to you.
And if I can, I'll take you to someone who can explain to you
why he is the most controversial, but the most glorious person
in the universe. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? I'm talking about being committed to Christ and not playing
games and going to hell. The takeaway principle. So the
Galatians got wrapped up in legalism and others get wrapped up in
licentiousness. This world is filled with people
who say they love Jesus. No evidence of it whatsoever.
And they too, if they were honest, would admit that they are in
a takeaway mode. The gospel is being taken away
from them. Hebrews chapter 5 verse 11. Watch it. Hebrews 5, 11.
These were the Hebrew Christians, if you guys recall, of whom the
writer to the Hebrews had taught sound doctrine, but he warned
them that you guys are slowing down. You guys remember that?
Hebrews chapter 5, verse 11. They're speaking about Melchizedek
and the beauteous type of Melchizedek, a beautiful type of Melchizedek,
pointing to Jesus Christ, our great high priest. Verse 11 says,
of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing
you are what? Dull of hearing. Now, let me
say something about the takeaway principle in that category. If
a man does not have a love for Christ, a woman, a people, you're
not interested in his words. because to know him is to know
his word. If you're going to really have
a deep, profound walk with Christ, you've got to open that book.
You've got to seek his word. You've got to sit on the sound
teaching. You've got to go deep with Jesus. You know how you ladies say,
my husband, we don't have that great of a relationship. He doesn't
know me. Remember that? Because you need
him to know you. Come on, tell the truth. I know
I'm telling the truth. You don't want to be married
to a stranger. You don't want to try to figure him out and
him figure you out. It's already bad enough for brothers
to try to figure y'all out. It's true. But our job is to
get to know you and your job is to get to know your husband.
Am I telling the truth? And you are not secure until you know
him and he knows you. No different with Christ and
the church since marriage has its origins in Christ in the
church. Are you guys hearing me? So here
we would hanker and clamor and even get divorced because men
are not living up to the standard of your needs. And yet here's
what we do to Jesus. Blow him off. Okay, so I'm gonna
put this on my sisters, but this is on you brothers too, because
we are all in this feminine typology here as the bride of Christ.
So take the application. When you are asking your man
to know you as he ought to know you, before you ask him that,
ask yourself, Christian woman, are you as committed to knowing
Christ and Christ knowing you as much as you are demanding
your spouse? That's good, isn't it? Because
you will bury your man with all kinds of indictments. And Jesus
is standing over going, well, what about me? Am I making some sense? Can I
talk to my family today? And so the point is, is that
when you and I, over time, Gradually begin to be lured back into the
world me and my brothers talk about it all the time This 24
hour cycle that you and I live in it is rough, isn't it? I mean it takes away from us.
We barely have time for ourselves We're working sleeping eating
working sleeping eating doing what we consider important things,
right? But we seem to have very little time for the Lord Jesus
Pastor, I'm struggling to have time with the Lord Jesus. Can
I share something with you? It's not true. You're lying. You're
lying. Can I help you? I just feel like
telling the truth today. Can I do that? You're not struggling
with having time with Jesus. You have deliberately, cognitively,
intentionally, and personally chosen to do something else other
than spend time with Christ. And it shows up in your heart.
Are you hearing me? Are you guys hearing me? Listen.
It ain't but 24 hours. It's the same 24 hours you always
had. Remember that time when you said, I got so much time
in a day I don't know what to do with it. Well, time didn't
increase and shrink. Your choices did. You spend most of your time on
things that don't matter. And then you wear yourself out
and you don't have any time for Christ. You know what's happening
even there? That's the takeaway principle.
That's the takeaway principle. You know what you become? Dull
of hearing. You know what that means? When you come to church,
you can't even hear pastor. I'm dropping pearls of great
price in this place. I'm just telling you, my elders
are dropping pearls of great price. My teachers are dropping
pearls of great price. We preach Christ, teach Christ,
expound Christ, exhort Christ, communicate Christ on multiple
levels. And people barely getting it. Do you know why? Your interest
level in Christ is too low. You're dull of hearing. You're
dull of... Listen, when you are interested in a thing, you can't
be kept from it. And you gobble up, you swallow
up every drop, every crumb that comes from the master's table.
You catch it. Ain't a crumb touching the ground when you hungry for
Jesus. Ain't a crumb touching the ground when you hungry for
Jesus. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to yourself. You are
in a takeaway mode. God's taking away from you right
now. It's the truth. God on his truth. And the bad
thing about it is we're headed closer to Jordan every day. I
can even hear the, I can feel the temperature of Jordan right
now in my own life. That river, I can feel the temperature
of Jordan. Didn't used to 10 years ago when
I was a young man, but now I can, I can feel the temperature and
I hear the, I hear the waters. Am I telling the truth? Oh folk,
am I telling the truth? I can hear, I can smell that
muddy water called Jordan calling me. And that's why I'm saying,
Lord, make me that old horse. Let me run faster on my way. Don't take from me, give to me.
Strip me of everything that's unnecessary and give me all that
you have for me. And this is what he's doing in
the church And so becoming dull of hearing means that you lose
an interest in the gospel and therefore you lose the gospel
you lose being able to retain those profound truths that are
connected together by the Spirit of God and Scripture that take
you deeper into Christ and once you do that you lose opportunity
to share the Word of God because if you don't know him you can't
explain him to nobody and All of the controversial doctrines
and teachings and practices going on in our culture right now,
the Christians should be able to answer those things. But your
Bible is gathering dust. Your concordances, your lexicons,
your inner linears, your computers, they're gathering dust because
you're not studying. You are not preparing yourself to give
an answer. And can I share something with
you on that point? That's why I use Luke 10 as a premise text
for where we are. Our master was happy. when he
sent 70 men out to share the gospel everywhere. And they came
back happy because they were successful in their preaching
of the gospel and breaking down the kingdom of hell as they did
it. He was so happy. He said I see
I see Satan falling from heaven like lightning Why because the
gospel's being preached in Jewry. It was a precursor of it going
around the world Why must the gospel go around the world for
Christ's glory to be manifested to every nation kindred tribe
and tongue So his elect can be drawn out of that mess and brought
into the blessings of the promises of God in Christ So that he can
have a world one day where in righteousness dwells to the glory
of God so he can say it's finished come up hither." That's his joy. His joy for us was his joy for
his father. The church is supposed to be
about the master's business, not on vacation. The master's
business. Somebody gonna say, Pastor, don't
believe in vacation. Stop that. See, the problem is, is we don't
reason real well. So I have to put those caveats
in. Take a vacation. You need it. Your body wears
down. I'm talking about in the tenor of your life, are you committed
to the cause of Christ? Are you hearing me? Your days
are numbered. Your days are numbered. Plus,
there is a point at which you get too old. And when you have
carved out in your life bad practices, you never come out of them. My
heart grieves right now for the people I have known ever since
I've been saved. See, as I help, as we help start
new ministries all over the place, and we're doing that, one of
the things we're helping the young men who are starting these
ministries to understand, you're going to have to do 10-15 years
of just laying a foundation before you build a solid gospel church.
Because the vast majority of the people coming through your
church, they're coming to go. They're not coming to stay. They're
coming to go and the few that are coming that are going to
be around many of them are going to be hit miss and hitters hit
and missers Because they have bad practices in their life See
if you don't carve out a pattern of priority for Christ first
seek ye the kingdom of God and his righteousness Whatever pattern
you carve out is going to cancel out the gospel in your life.
I So you just are hidden and missing. Just tell the truth
then. Told you, honest people ain't going to hell. You go to
heaven, but tell people on your way you're one of those hit and
miss Christians. Tell them. Sometimes on, sometimes off.
What kind of Christian are you? A hit and miss Christian. Sometimes
I come, sometimes I go. Sometimes I'm here, sometimes
I'm not. Sometimes I read, sometimes I don't. Sometimes I believe,
sometimes I... That's the kind of Christian you are. See, so
you can warn the other people who are serious about Christ
not to follow you. Can I keep talking to you? See,
because I need a few good men and a few good women that's willing
to lay down their life for Christ. Let me share a principle with
you. If you seek to preserve your life, you're going to lose
it. You can't live this little pittance of 70 or 80 years, half
for Jesus and half for yourself. You're going to lose it. Christ
said, but if any man, if any woman, if any family, if any
church, will lose their life for my sake. They will preserve
it unto eternal life. That's the standard right there.
Are you guys hearing me? That's the standard. And he set
the model. And the disciples set the model.
Did they not? They laid down their life. So what I'm trying
to do before I go to my last couple of points, I'm going to
keep you today because I feel like preaching. Is that OK? Now stay
here. Stay here. What I'm trying to do, I'm trying
to help a few people be delivered from false religion and hypocrisy. Because see, it's the hypocrisy
that's going to send you to hell. And in the process, you're going
to lose everything along the way because God is not mocked. He's just not mocked. Are you
hearing me? So, you will lose the clarity of the gospel that
the writer to the Hebrew says you're dull of hearing. Verse
12, listen to it. You're dull of hearing. And because
you're dull of hearing, when the time you ought to be able
to tell somebody about Jesus, you got to hear the gospel all
over again. And are become such as have need
of what? And not me. I've been going to
church for 750 years. Well, where you at in your walk
with Jesus? I'm still on the milk. You know what that means, right? You know that, right? You know
you jacked up. Technically, we would say you are probably not
saved. This idea of not growing over 20 years, I'm saved, but
I'm not growing. No, the word saved means life.
Everything that live grows. Everything that live grows. You're
not living, you're dead. Are you hearing me? So important
for me to tell the truth on this because we got a lot of people
who are not simply grappling with the truth the scripture
So let's get to our last point on the takeaway and close out
with the blessed commendation that our master gives around
these matters the loss of the gospel and true believers Isaiah
chapter 57 verses 1 through 6. I'm just gonna read a few verses
there jump over to 2nd John 8 and then 1st Corinthians chapter
3 this here we're talking about the takeaway principle right
and what I am saying is when we are operating out of that
we are losing zeal for Christ clarity of the gospel and there's
a loss of the gospel at large this is what we call apostasy
and finally true believers now I want you to mark this watch
this now this is certainly true in a local church setting but
this can be true in your life as well meaning When you are
first sincerely pursuing Jesus, God will open the door for earnest,
sincere, and legitimately Christ-seeking individuals to enter into your
life. And you know why they will be there? To help you grow. And
you will have been glad to have them in your life. Because they
will wisely, or sometimes unwisely, check you when you're thinking
wrong. They will jack you up and help
you get right. And you will thank them for that.
And you will be glad that God gave you Christian brothers and
sisters to help you in Christ. But then one day when you wake
up, Mr. Jekyll, Ms. Jekyll, you will start saying,
I don't need them in my life anymore. And you will abuse your
relationship with them. And guess what mature Christians
do? They're not going to chain themselves
to you. Because when once you start demonstrating
that you are not committed to this way of grace that leads
to glory, they realize that you're going to be a distraction for
them. And every mature Christian has
a pair of scissors to cut the line. I pray for you, but I'm
not rolling with you. I pray for you, but I'm not rolling
with you. You're going to tug so far after we see, because
we all have a, we all have a limit on our attention. Oh, the attention
is too great. Snap. Are you hearing me? And you are down the road and
they're that way. And all of a sudden you look
up and you have no Christian friends. Because they're not
going to let you distract them from Christ. Isaiah chapter 57
verse 1. The righteous perish it. Do you
see it? The righteous perish it. And no man lays it to heart. And the idea of perishing here
does not necessarily mean being killed or destroyed or slaughtered.
They just disappear But no one lays it to heart what this is
called the takeaway principle when God is taking good people
away from you You need to lay it to heart But you don't when
you're stuck on your own agenda. Let me go on and Merciful men
are taken away Ladies and gentlemen, will you hear me? Every one of
us needs a merciful man We need merciful brothers and sisters.
We need people who can show us mercy and remind us of the mercy
of God in Christ. We don't need people who are
going to always just agree with us. But we do need people who,
when we fall, can point us to the fountain filled with blood.
But God will take that away from you. And when once he takes it
away from you, guess what? You are stuck without even someone
pointing you to the fountain. It's a dreadful place to be so
here's what it goes on to say. I want you to hear it now The
merciful man is taken away and none are considering that the
righteous is taken away. We learned that the friday study
right taken away From the evil that is to come Do you see it
now what this also describes go with me to one more place
Um second john chapter eight. I'll skip first corinthians chapter
three. I'm gonna have you till one o'clock 10 10 more minutes
Y'all can hold on for 10 minutes, right? Pretend you're watching
your favorite soap opera, your favorite sitcom, and the extended
version with all of the junk at the end of it. You know those
movies where they have all of the crazy stuff that goes on
at the end of the movie? Just pretend you're there. Pretend
you got some popcorn in your hand and all that stuff. 1st Corinthians chapter 3 the
Apostle Paul is describing another takeaway principle of which in
this text He describes the horrible horrible reality of an individual
standing before God and all of his works being burned up You
guys remember that Here's what he says in this text starting
at verse 11. I'm going to go through verse
15 Now if any man build upon this foundation that is the gospel
of Jesus I'm sorry verse 11 for other foundation can no man lay
then that is laid which is Jesus Christ Now if any man build upon
this foundation gold silver precious stone wood hay and stubble Every
man's work shall be made what that's right for the day shall
declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire
shall try every man's work of what sort it is and What kind
of material are you using to build the edifice of your witness? What kind of material are you
using to build the legacy of your life? Is it wood? Hay? And stubble? The combustible
things that will be burned up in the fire? Or is it gold? Silver
and the precious stones that endure the test not only are
they able to endure the fire They are better for it for the
fire purges all the impurities and makes it shine even more
the kind of works I want are the works that can go through
the fire and actually appear more glorious as a consequence
of the fire than before and And this is what the apostle was
saying to the man who is calling himself a preacher of the gospel.
Its application is to you and me. Here's what he goes on to
say. Verse 14. If any man's work abide, which
he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a what? Can I share with
you what that means? Once again, that's an addition
principle. It's a reception principle. Remember, sow the seed, bear
the fruit. Don't sow the seed, nothing.
This is one of those economical principles in a theological context
that is unavoidable. Whatsoever a man sows, that shall
he also what? This is just a fundamental. It's
a fundamental. God has given us the commodity
of the gospel, has he not? He expects dividends on his gospel,
does he not? Are you persuaded of that? I'm
not hearing you. Are you persuaded? Raise your
hand. Are you persuaded? Are you persuaded of the dividends
of the gospel? Okay, you can put them back down. Because there's
a day coming where what we just did will either justify you or
condemn you. Do you hear me? It will either
justify you or condemn you. See, what I want my brothers
and sisters at Grace to do is take their Bible seriously. Because
you know what religious folk do? They pick and choose what
Bible verses they want to actually adhere to. And they build their
own nice little theological systems and throw the rest away. I want
the whole book. I want every jot and tittle.
I want every precept. I want every line upon line every
every doctrine of Christ I want because I know somehow it's relative
to his glory and my edification and the security of my salvation
And so the text tells us watch it now Here it is verse 16 verse
15. If any man's works shall be burned
he shall suffer what? That's your takeaway effect He
shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved. I yet so as by
fire. As the old prophets used to say,
there's going to be a whole bunch of people in heaven with nothing
to show but smoke. You got that? Smoke. Smoke running
up out of their head. Say it. Smoke believer. We call them smoke believer.
We smoked us some chicken this weekend for the fellowship. Some
chicken. You're going to be a smoke believer. The rest of the brothers
and sisters in glory, they won't even have to say anything. When
they walk past you and smell you, oh, smoke believer. Smoke believer. Smoke believer. I have to put
some humor on that, because I haven't had you for a long time. I'm going to wrap up by two points,
my last two points, very quickly. Point number three, go back to
Revelation 3. I'm not going to any other passengers.
because I think I made my point, how remarkable our Savior is.
And he does this because he is the most balanced, equitable
leader, pastor, shepherd, preacher and teacher ever to exist. He warns and he exhorts. Sometimes he charges and admonishes
and then he comforts. He will expose the criminals
in the church, but he will also demonstrate that he has always
had a people among these people who hear his voice. And what
comfort is this in the church at Sardis, where this church
has compromised to the point where nobody in Sardis is upset
with that church, because they're all culturally compromised. Oh,
those people up there, those are good people, the Christian
church. Now in that church is a handful of true believers who
struggle with the deadness in their church, who struggle with
the lack of zeal for sharing the gospel with the folks in
Sardis. They struggle with the compromise
in the leadership. They struggle. They struggle
with the church not doing the thing that the church is called
to do. And see, this is first century. That means the whole
aura and era of apostolic doctrine is still on them. The apostles
were zealous. Sardis is your bourgeois church,
living large in the city where everyone has everything. The
only church more pathetic than it will be the church at Laodicea,
as we will deal with in two weeks. Bourgeois Christians who aren't
offending anyone for Christ's sake. Like a bourgeois church? No way in the world would a bourgeois
church let me preach more than 20 minutes. Are you hearing me,
child of God? This is what I know a good portion
of you guys say, because you can put up with an hour and a
half preaching. I'm telling the truth. I'm telling the truth.
See, I can be honest right now. You are so situated. You are
so settled. You are so glad to be here right
now. You know you are in the right place. You know it. You
know it. Listen to me. Listen to me. You
know how precious this moment is. This is a prophetic moment. This is a revelatory moment.
This is a moment of discovery. This is a moment where God is
speaking to you. And for children of God, we aren't
going anywhere when God's talking to us. I don't even want to go
to the bathroom, even though I need to. Am I telling the truth? See, it used to be that way.
Used to be that way. I'm going to let you out of here,
though. I want you to come back next week. Point number three,
our PowerPoint. Point number three, the recognition
of those who remain. Listen to verse four. You have
a few names, even in Sardis, which have not, what? Defiled
their garments. Do you guys see that? You have
a few names, even in Sardis, which have not defiled their
garments. And they shall walk with me in white, for they are
worthy. PowerPoint, please. Listen to
me. I want you to hear this. Our
master identified a people who were committed to his name. And
then he told the folks at Sardis that they have not defiled their
garments. Don't you want to know what that means? Don't you? Hold on. You think you know? See, I just, I want my people
to be real today. Because see, we read our Bible
verses, we don't know what they mean. You just want to go to
lunch. This is very important right
here. Don't you think? It's very important right here.
They have not defiled their garments. Well, one thing that means is,
as I said to you earlier, the condition of our walk, how we
appear is very important to Jesus. His goal is to make sure we are
without what? Spot and blemish or any such thing. The text here
is indicating that there are people whose walk with Christ
is such that their garments are not defiled. Implication, a whole
bunch of those folks in Sardis, their garments are defiled. Is
that true? Second implication to derive
from that is this that he says such as whose garments are not
defiled. They're walking with me crazy Master speak to your people See what I mean We we take the
rock and we throw it on the water and it skips over the top of
the water We all excited about the rock skipping over the water,
but we don't even know what's in the water. I Don't you want
to understand what our master is saying there? What does it
mean for me to walk with him in such a way that my garments
are not defiled? It's incredible. Isn't that powerful? He says they're worthy. It causes
me to shake in my boobs. It should cause you to shake
in your boobs. There's some people who are worthy, he says, and
because they're worthy, they're going to walk with me. Lord,
have mercy on me. Because look, if I can, if the
Sardis can get their condition wrong by a million miles, telling
people they're alive when they're dead, they can walk around town
with their garments filthy, nasty, stanky, rotten to the core and
not even know it. They can walk around town and
people see blood and stains and dirt and feel all over their
garments. I'm telling you the truth and
not even know it. They think they're all right.
Their garments are funky. Disrespectful to the master Now this is not
the garment of salvation. This is not the garment of christ
righteousness This is not the garment of the believers unity
in christ. This is the garment of the believers profession Your
profession as a christian is a garment Like everybody has
a job a vocation and you generally wear a uniform your profession
is your garment And when people look at the way you live, what
you say, how you act, what you do, how you manage your time,
they look to see whether or not your garment corresponds with
your profession. And if you're living a secular,
carnal life as those people were in Sardis, you have soiled your
garments. You've stained your garments.
Now watch this, states. We all, from time to time, who
are true believers, stain our garments. Are you hearing me? Stay with
me. Can I teach you a little more?
Stay with me. Sometimes we stain our garments in the presence
of others. See, our Lord is not, he's not
what we call an existentialist. We are, carnal people are existentialists. What that means is we're only
concerned about what people see of us externally. Our master
is not like that. He judges the heart. He weighs
the spirit. He goes far deeper than our actions. He goes to the motive. Is that
true? So there's an aspect, there's a dimension, there's a space,
a place where you and I can soil our garments. And nobody see
it but Jesus. Am I telling the truth? So he
could tell the Pharisees who appear to everybody else to be
righteous. your dead men's bones, your graves, your open supplicants,
your tombs, you look good on the outward, you're filthy on
the inside, you're a bunch of maggots on the inside, you're
worms, you're vipers, you're snakes on the inside. Are you
hearing me? Garbage soil in his presence. And then the public manifestation
of it, public manifestation of it. When you say you believe
God in his word and you live in open, defiance of every statue,
every precept, every moral and ethical ordinance of the gospel.
When you call to walk in the light, but you're walking in
darkness. When you call to tell the truth, and you're telling
a bunch of lies. When you call to integrity, and you're walking
in hypocrisy. When you call to exhort people
to come to Christ, and you're compromising the gospel everywhere
you go. Are you guys starting to hear me? And we all do it
from time to time. Not a person in this house that
knows Christ does not know the failure, the power failure of
not telling the truth when you should have. Not cutting that
TV off when you should have. Not cutting that radio off when
you should have. Not cutting that internet off
when you should have. Not having that conversation
with that person when you shouldn't have had it. And then starting
a pattern, a trend of that. Your garments are filthy. before
God and even in your own conscience. And you are emboldening the wicked
to say, Oh, is that how Christianity rolls? That's cool. I don't even have to do that.
You know why? Because the same way he rolling is the way I'm
rolling without Jesus. So I'm gonna give you one comforting
word in this. There's a method of garment cleansing that we
need to practice. Every day of our life if we are
serious about not losing the gospel Can I tell it to you? We better before the Lord God
Almighty and his son Jesus Christ Who is our great high priest? Whoever lives to make intercession
for us Who stands when his people stand for him and bows down when
they call upon him he can hear them 24 hours a day We better
every day of our lives, when we are aware of it, the stained
nature and defiled nature and soiled nature of our garment,
we better come to Christ. Call on Christ. Ask for mercy
from Christ. Confess our sins to Christ. Acknowledge
our error before Christ. Say, Master, Master, I have not
done that which is right before you today. I messed up today. I'm in bad shape today. Have
mercy on me today. Take my garment and wash them
in the blood of the Lamb today. Today, right now, the way you
walk with undefiled garments is to wash them in the blood
of the Lamb every night and every morning before you put them on
in the blood of the Lamb of Christ is the way you wash your garments.
Every day of your life. Every day of your life. Every day of your life. Every
day of your life Because we want to be serious about christ I'm
messed up, but there's a blood There is a fountain Filled with
blood can wash the deepest stain so long as you believe it So
long as you believe it and if you believe it, you will apply
to it And my wife is over there teaching the children. We had
to actually work through forgiveness this morning She's finding a
way to teach the children what forgiveness is. She said that
husband almost called me daddy husband. What is forgiveness? I said forgiveness is three things.
Forgiveness is letting it go. Letting first, I'm sorry, no,
letting them go. That's what our word means to let them go.
If you want me, let these go. It means let them go. You got
that. That's point number one. Secondly,
let it go. That's point number two. The
third one is find a way to recover it. Forgiveness is letting them
go, letting it go and finding a way to recover it. Ladies and
gentlemen, that's the whole of our salvation. That's what God
did to bring us back in his presence. He let it go. He let us go and
he brought us back. Did you guys hear that? That's
what forgiveness is. That's what God does. That's
what you need. That's what I need. I would finish
the last point, but I'm done.