To turn back in your Bibles to
the book of Deuteronomy chapter 7, Deuteronomy chapter 7, I want
to close out on our thoughts over the last couple of weeks
out of that text. And of course, if you know your
Bibles well enough, you realize that Psalm 135 hinted at the
same ideas that Deuteronomy chapter 7 has rendered to us, and that
is God has chosen a people for himself, and he has chosen them
unto great blessings. Only God has called his people
to know who they are in him. And that's why the title of our
message today is Chosen to Know. Chosen in order to know. It would be a sad case scenario
if someone had all of your eternal welfare in view and also possessed
everything by which your eternal welfare could be endowed, granted,
and favored with the blessings and a bounty and an abundance
of those things which they have prepared for you, but not tell
you what you have. It wouldn't be fair to who you
are in them or according to their purpose in your life, I don't
think, for them to have prepared for you such a magnificent future,
such a grand future, without at least letting you know some
things about who you are in that plan. Does that make some sense?
So today's message is chosen to know, and we are taking up
from where we left off last week, where the proposition was that
God has elected us, he has chosen us in Jesus Christ in order that
we might know who we are in him. Now the, Exercise that the children
of Israel has gone through thus far in the land of Egypt. We
are working through our series on our excursion through the
wilderness, learning how to operate under God's covenant purposes
and God's covenant plan. and the children of Israel at
this point in time in Deuteronomy chapter 7 are in a place where
God is reminding them, He's reminding them of what He has done for
them and what He is going to do for them with regards to their
inheriting the land that God has chosen for them. And what
God has plainly told them in Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 6
and 7 these words Deuteronomy 7 verse 6 for you are a holy
people unto the Lord your God the Lord your God has chosen
you to be a special people unto himself above all the people
that are upon the face of the earth I want to quote that again
and I want you to think about the proposition that is inherent
in our title chosen and know For you are a holy people Unto
the Lord your God the Lord your God has chosen you to be a special
people unto himself above all the people that are upon the
face of the earth now Saints what's going on in the book of
Deuteronomy and Numbers and Exodus is is a process of regimentation
on the part of God towards his people. You know what a regiment
is? It's a structure of discipline
by which you come to learn how to behave a certain way because
you have been called to a certain task. Now this structure of discipline
called a regiment is really a regiment in identity reinforcement. Identity reinforcement. And what do I mean by that? God
has to teach his people, not only them 3,500 years ago, but
us today. He has to teach us who we are
in him. He has to instruct us as to who
we are in him. Do you guys know what an identity
is? An identity is a proper representation
of an original design. An identity is a proper representation
of an original design. When you identify something,
here's what you are saying about that something you identify.
This is that because it represents that. When you identify a person,
you are identifying a human being because they are a replication
of the first human being on planet earth. Identification falls out
to be everything that's made. The goal of Adam was to identify
everything that God made because it would be reproduced over and
over and over again. And if I were using the title
of our message, which is basically sort of an emphatic proposition
chosen to know, if I were to turn that around and make it
an interrogatory or an investigatory statement, I would say, do you
know who you are? Do you really know who you are
in Christ? Has God taught you who you are? That's what he's doing with the
children of Israel. And by the way, the group of children that
God is dealing with here in Deuteronomy 7 is not the same folks he was
dealing with at the beginning of their excursion. Deuteronomy
7 is the second giving of the law of God and we are several
years into the wilderness soldier. Guess who he's talking to? The
children that were 20 and under whom the Lord did not destroy
in the wilderness because their foreparents had rebelled against
God the moment they came out of Egypt. Remember God allowed
40 years to go by in order for those people who did not believe
God to waste away in the wilderness. You guys remember that? He said,
because you did not believe me, you will perish in the wilderness.
Remember Hebrews chapter 4 verse 1? He says, for unto them the
gospel was preached as well as it is unto us, only they did
not enter into God's rest because of what? Unbelief. Now the people
that didn't enter in are the people who refuse to recognize
God's calling on their life. They're the ones who failed to
realize what it means to be called out of darkness into God's marvelous
light, to be on a trajectory for an inheritance of land which
they didn't earn, they didn't provide, they didn't build, they
didn't procure, they didn't establish, all by the grace of God. They
failed to recognize their what? Identity. These people continued
conducting themselves as if they were Egyptians. Do you remember? Two months in, God has taken
Moses and all the elders up to Mount Sinai to manifest His glory
to them and to give them the covenant that He should give
to the people. Remember the king-servant paradigm? The father-son paradigm? The husband-wife paradigm? Those
are the three covenants that dominate the whole world, and
this is how God deals with us? Well, while God is up In the
mount with Moses and the elders, giving the treaties or the covenant
by which the people of God were to identify themselves and serve
God, they're down at the bottom of the hill making a golden calf,
worshiping a pagan god that they had learned about in Egypt. God
had to destroy that generation because they failed to recognize
God's electing love in Jesus Christ. Are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? It was the children that God
allowed to go through the 42 encampments, and they are now
at the preparation for entering into the land where God is telling
them, I want you guys to know who you are. I want you to know
who you are, because if you don't know who you are, when I bring
you into the promised land, you're not going to act right. And I'm
here to tell you, when God reveals to us in the Word of God, The
fact that he has chosen us in Jesus Christ Before the world
began he has revealed to us the fact that he has elected and
chosen us in Order for us to be able to accomplish the purpose
for which he has called us You guys remember what the Bible
says in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3 God had blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus according
as in the continuity consistent with his objective of having
chosen us in Jesus Christ before the world began in order that
we would be blameless and holy before him in love. You know,
he made manifest his electing love to us in order for him to
reveal to us who we are and where we stand with him before God. When you and I ask the question,
who are we in Christ? What are we to respond? Well,
if an individual asked me, Jesse, who are you in Christ? You know
what I'm going to tell him? I am a child of the living God.
I am a child of the living God by virtue of my relationship
to God, the father, through God, the son, Jesus Christ. I know
who I am. I know that I have been bought
by a price, the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. I am a son of
the living God. Every believer should be able
to say, I know who I am. Not only that, every believer
ought to be able to say, and I know what I believe. My belief
is rooted in God's thesis. God's thesis is the word of God. It is the divine depository of
truth that we have in a set of propositions by which I might
know who God is and who I am and who I am in God. It's called
the word of God. I believe the word of the living
God. It is divine truth by which I
acquire wisdom. counsel, understanding, might. And God's depository of truth
is also his dissertation to me. You know what that means? God
has written in his word how I might obtain eternal life through Jesus
Christ, my Lord. All scripture is given by what? Inspiration of God Almighty.
And it is what? Profitable for doctrine, reproof,
correction, and training in righteousness that the man or the woman or
the people or the family or the church of the living God might
be perfect. Perfect. Thoroughly furnished
unto all good works. See, I know who I am. I know
what I believe. And I know what I'm called for.
Do you know what I'm called for? I'm called to glorify God in
this body, which is His. I am to glorify God in all things. Whatsoever I do, in word or deed,
do it all to the glory of God Almighty. See, I kind of know
what I'm about, don't I? I know whose I am. I know what
He said. I know what my purpose is. I
also know my destiny. I know that my destiny is paradise. It's glory. It's to be in the
presence of the ineffable bliss. It's to stand before God fully
clothed in the glory of God given to me by the merits of Jesus
Christ as his son in order to behold his glory for all eternity. I know who I am. I know what
I believe. I know what my purpose is, and
I know what my destiny is. Do you? Now, saints, when you
get a grip on your identity, because I've just shared with
you my identity, You will know how to live your life. You will
know how to live your life when you know who you are and see
this idea of identity reinforcement. Follow me now is the battle that's
going on all over the world today. I've told you this years back,
had a young man come to me. He's 27 years old now. He's not
16 or 15. He's 27 years old. And guess
what he says to me? He professes to be a believer.
He says, pastor, I don't know who I am. Can I tell you what
his problem was? He never was taught by the Spirit
of God who Christ is and who he is in Christ. He never came
to know or believe what the Bible says about who God is and what
his people are. See, because when you know your
election of God, guess what you know? You know who you are. You
know whose you are, you know why you are who you are, and
you know what you're up to, and you know where you're going.
And I want to make sure that you understand this because a
lot of people don't. This is why we shared last week that
you don't want to fall prey to a common love theory. See, when
God loves somebody, he does something for them. See, love doesn't just
leave you hanging. Am I making some sense? Love
doesn't leave you hanging like this pagan generation of folks
who want to do something for you, but they can't. Now, I know
if you and I desire to do something for someone, but we don't have
the ability to, what we will say is, I would do it if I could. Isn't that right? I would do
it if I could, but there is no if I could with God. When God
sets his love on you, he's going to have you. No such thing as
God wanting to love you. God wanting to choose you. God
wanting to save you. God wanting to deliver you. God
wanting to convert you. God wanting to use you. God wanting
to take you to glory. Either God's going to take you
to glory or you're not going. You're not going. Now I can say
this because God has revealed to me in his word who he is.
And God don't lie, change or fail. And He's immutable, unchangeable. And with Him there is no variable
of turning, no shadow of darkness. God is all light. And when God
speaks, listen to me, God's telling the truth. See, and I can be
certain of who I am because I am certain of who He is. See, the
Bible's already told me I was created in His image and in His
likeness. I was created to have dominion and authority and to
replenish the earth, to replicate the God that made me. Isn't that
what he told us to do? Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. For the gospel is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believes. And when you understand
that you were begotten by the gospel, by the God who begot
you through the gospel, your job is now to affirm every one
of God's elect in their identity in Christ. See, remember, identity
simply means that you are an accurate representation of the
original design. So that when a person says to
you, you are a child of God, you'll be able to go, I know
I'm a child of God because this is what it looks like. A child
of God looks like the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the revelation
of the invisible God. He is the true icon of God. He is the only exact representation
of the authentic article that can't be seen or comprehended.
Which means, if I'm going to be like God, I've got to be like
Christ, because Christ is the authentic way. Christ is the
authentic truth. Christ is the authentic life.
Am I making some sense to you guys right about now? See, you
know, and if you don't believe me, you still have a problem
because your mom and daddy had you. And whether you want to
accept it or not, you are an exact representation of your
mom and your daddy. So folks can identify you based
on your biological predisposition. See, because identities fall
into a lot of categories. Can I keep talking? Identities
fall into a lot of categories Every species brings forth after
it's what that's the law of God in Genesis chapter 1 4 times
starting at verse 11 Let every seed very herb bring food for
fruit of its own kind so human beings create human beings animals
create animals fish create fish and then we have in our present
world a an amazing thing that goes on in society. Not only
are we clearly identified by our biological predisposition
based upon that first and original design called Adam, but you and
I have in our culture sociological identity patterns. Folks who
are bound to a certain category of identity based upon sociology. Like you and I are called Americans.
and Americans act a certain way, good or bad. Am I telling the
truth? Europeans are called Europeans because they act a certain way.
These are psychological, sociological identity factors. They are reinforced
in those social groups by certain predispositions, certain patterns,
certain behaviors. This is how he's European, she's
European. We have our identity factors
in our gender. Men are men and women are women.
Now I'm getting into some shaky ground right about here. I'm
getting into some real shaky ground. But nevertheless, when
we, listen, when we follow the original design of a man, you
will know what a man is by the original design. When we follow
the original design concerning a woman, you will know what a
woman is by the original design. Now the enemy has gotten into
the equation and thought that he would like to play like God. So he wants to create people
in his own image and in his own likeness. So do you know what
he does? He goes around redefining people,
re-identifying people, telling them that they are this. And
once a person, because they don't know who they really are, buys
into the proposition of the devil, buys into the sociologist, buys
into the scientist, buys into the psychologist, buys into the
educator, buys into the politicians, all of the change agents of our
present culture, people in mass are transformed into an identity
contrary to what God has called them to be. Now ladies and gentlemen,
when you are called to manifest your identity according to the
original design, but someone stands in the gap between you
and the original author of the design and tells you that you
are something that you're not, you know what they make you out
to be? I want you to get this now, a liar. So today we have
idols, idols of nations, idols of countries, idols of people
all over the earth created in the image of something contrary
to what God has decreed. Am I making some sense? And when
once a person has bought into that form of identification,
they are then bound to operate in that and that's what we have
in our society. Now, Israel had fallen prey to
that when they were in Egypt for 400 years. Egypt taught Israel that they were
Egyptian when originally they were Hebrews. By the time the
true and the living God brought them out of Egypt into the wilderness,
they were so fixed in their false identity that when God stepped
away for a few minutes to talk to his leaders, they showed their
true colors and bowed down to a golden calf and said, you are
our gods. You have delivered us. Am I making
some sense? And the Bible tells me in Romans
chapter 1 that our present culture, our present world is under the
same delusion and lie that Israel was, and especially the church.
For when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, but
they became vain in their imagination, and their foolish hearts were
darkened. And they changed the glory of
the invisible God. Changed it. into an image made
like unto man, corruptible man, beast, creeping things and birds
of the air. You know what we call that? A
lie. The whole human race is lying
on God today. You know the big lie that mankind
is falling prey to? I am what I wanna be. Are you guys following me so
far? So they are, as it were, their own authentic original
article and they are reproducing themselves into whatever they
want to be. If today a man wants to be a woman, he can be a woman.
If tomorrow he wants to flip back, he can flip back. Vice
versa. Or in between. Or metro spectrum. All these are lies. The sad reality
is Israel fell into that problem. And God said in Isaiah chapter
one, around verse three or four, do you know an ox knows its master? And an ass knows its owner's
crib. But my people don't know. They have no idea. They don't
consider. And that's where we are in the
church today. Folks are being made over into all kinds of images. rather than the image of God's
darling son, Jesus Christ. Can I tell you why? Because they
have never learned or experienced God's electing love in Christ. Now what I want to do with you
today is affirm that opening proposition. When you and I fail
to realize who God is, what he's up to, why he's up to it, you
will fall prey to a level of compromise that will ultimately
discover that you don't know God at all. And you will make
choices that will indicate that you are operating out of a lie
rather than the truth. Let's work through our outline
a little bit to grasp this. The first proposition was very
clear. God reveals our election in Christ in order that we what?
Might know who we are. God reveals our election in Christ
in order that we might know who we are. Turning your Bible to
John chapter 10, I want you to see what Jesus says in John chapter
10 verse 3. The Lord Jesus speaking concerning
his office as the great shepherd of the sheep says in John chapter
10 verse 3 these words. Listen to it. My proposition
is God does reveal to us our election for the purpose of us
knowing. He says over in verse 1, verily
verily I say unto you The person that enters into the door of
the sheepfold, enters not into the door of the sheepfold, but
climbs up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber.
He was describing the false teachers and false prophets of his day.
But the one that enters in by the door is the shepherd of the
sheep. To him the porter opened it,
and the sheep hear his voice. Now watch this, saints. And he
calls his own sheep by what? Name. Do you understand what
that's saying? That when God calls you through
the voice of Jesus Christ, by the gospel, he identifies you
for who you really are in him and you respond. You say, yes,
Lord, your servant is listening. I know it's your voice because
I know who I am. I'm yours. He calls them all
but see now if I am married to a woman named Barbara Gistan
and she lives in my house and I'm on the third floor in my
den and she's on the first floor hanging out with our children
and I call upstairs and I say Susan And my wife responds. I have either lost my awareness
of her identity, or she has lost hers. If she doesn't respond,
it's because she knows I'm not her husband. Christ knows his
sheep, and his sheep know him. It's amazing that this religious
age doesn't know the truth of the gospel, nor the voice of
the shepherd, But it's quite obvious that they have a problem
because they don't know themselves. They still are creating what
we call designer Christians. But it ain't but one kind of
Christian. The man or the woman that looks like Christ. My sheep
in my voice. I call them by name. I called
them by name. They know Him. He knows them.
I like the way the Lord did it in John 1, 47 through 51. Go there. As our Lord is gathering
together all of His soldiers, 12 men that are gonna help Him
turn the world upside down, He did the same thing with each
one of them that I'm talking to you about. He called them
by name. And they responded according
to who they were. They didn't say, who you talking
to? The text tells me when Christ
called James, John, and Peter straightway, they dropped their
nets and followed him. And he called all them to himself
and they came. On this occasion, the momentum
of Christ calling his people to himself is spread abroad.
And Peter and James and John are now calling other men to
come to Christ. Because you see, when Christ calls you to come
to him, guess what you're going to do? Kind begets kind. You're
going to call others to come to Christ. When Christ calls
you to come to him, you're gonna call others to come to him. And
they started calling brothers like Philip and Nathaniel. And
they called brother Nathaniel over in chapter 1 verse 47. And
listen to the exchange. This is a beautiful statement
and reaffirmation of what I'm getting at about the necessity
of comprehending our identity in Christ. Verse 45. Philip findeth
Nathanael and saith unto him, we have found him of whom Moses
in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the
son of God, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him,
can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Now see, that's
a legitimate believer. He don't trust nobody, especially
when the reputation is bad. Because see, we had already told
you a thousand times that grace, Christ grew up in the hood. But Philip not wanting to argue
with him said, you come and see. How compelling is the person
of Christ when he's calling you to himself. He is so compelling
that you who are the mediator between the master and the sheep,
all you got to say to people is, come and see. Come and see,
because if you are Christ's sheep, you're going to hear his voice
when he talks. I ain't got to persuade you. All you need to
do is come and see for yourself. The master has the ability to
reveal his glory to you and let you know who he is and who you
are. Am I making some sense? This
is why all we tell people to do, come hear the gospel. Because our master speaks through
the gospel of the glory of God in Christ and his sheep what
hear his voice? we got to try to persuade people
argue with people Hong Kong people drag people and If you don't
like the fact that the master grew up in Nazareth, that's your
problem You shouldn't worry about where he grew up. You should
worry about where he's going because where he's going is where
all of his sheep are going in Fact you grew up in the hood,
too This whole fallen world is a hood compared to glory. Am I telling the truth? This
whole fallen world is a hood. Well, I live on the nice side.
Ain't no nice side. It's all sin. There ain't no
nice side. Listen to the word of God. Listen
to the word of God. Verse 47. And Jesus saw Nathaniel
coming to him. Lord, see me coming to you. Isn't that good? He saw him. before they even had a conversation,
Christ saw him coming. God sees all of his elect coming
to him way back, even when you were in trouble. Remember when
the spirit of God started breaking you down and stripping you of
all your false refuge and had you wondering about why you were
in the mess you were in? And as you were seeking help
from every resource, it all failed you. And you found yourself only
calling on God And you were a long way off, but God started bringing
you to himself, didn't he? God saw you before you saw him. God saw you before you saw him.
Listen to it. And Jesus saw him coming to him
and said unto him. Now I want you to watch how our
master reinforces the identity of Nathaniel. which he does with
every one of his people. Behold, an Israelite indeed,
in whom is no guile." Isn't that beautiful? You know what Jesus
is doing? He's exercising the role of the
Son of Man, the first Adam, the Son of God. You know what that
authority was? To name everything. For whatever
he named it, it was. And he tells Nathaniel, you are
a true believer. When Nathaniel heard this expression
of the explicit identification of his person given to him by
the master, will you notice how he responds? Listen to what Nathaniel
says. And Nathaniel said unto him,
how do you know me? And Jesus said unto him, before
that Philip called you through the gospel, When you were under
the fig tree, I saw you. I told you God's elect were chosen
in Christ before the world began. He saw us in himself before God
created the universe and he called us to himself in time and he
identified who we are. Here's Nathaniel's response.
Nathaniel answered and said to him, Rabbi, you are, tell it
now, the son of God. See what he just did? God confessed
through Christ who he was and he confessed that Christ was
the son of the living God. He knew that only God could reveal
his true identity. There was a corresponding affirmation
then of not only his election, but the divinity of Jesus Christ.
Y'all got that? In other words, when you understand
that God chooses, he calls, he saves, he sanctifies a man or
a woman, you are talking about the true character of God. And
again, one of the problems in our present generation is not
only do they know, not know, nor believe in the glorious doctrine
of election, but they know not, nor do they believe in the glorious
God who elects. I submit to you that there is
a corresponding error there, that if you don't understand
biblical election, you don't understand God. For to understand
the God of the Bible is to understand that God sovereignly chooses
whom he will save. when he will save them, how he
will save them, where he will save them, and leaves the rest
to perish under the wrath of God because of their sin. Y'all
got that? The God of the Bible is sovereign. Until you understand
that, you've got a pagan God or a God of your own vain imagination. The God, listen, how many of
you in here know the Lord Jesus Christ? Don't be ashamed to raise
your hand. You might be lying, but just in case. Hear me now. Hear me now, if you know Christ,
if you know Him, it wasn't an accident. And you didn't do God
any favors. And you didn't sneak up on God.
You didn't negotiate with Him. He didn't look upon you and save
you because you were better than someone else, wiser or mightier. God didn't say, now let me see
who would let me choose them. No, if you know Christ, it's
because he deliberately and intentionally hunted you down. Not because
he didn't know where you were, but because he knew where you
were. And he called you to himself by the gospel. Your salvation
is not an accident. The love of God is not powerless
that it cannot save those whom it has elected. Are you persuaded
that what I'm saying is the truth? See, when God saved you, that's
the thing that delighted you. God saved me. That's the thing that blows us
away, right? Because as he said to Israel, I didn't save you
because you were mightier or stronger or better or wiser because
God don't save on those grounds. I saved you because I loved you.
Isn't that what the text says? I saved you because I loved you.
And I love you because I chose you in your father's way before
you had a beginning. I'm fulfilling a covenant promise
between Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that's why you're saved.
And you and our child of God are not saved because we made
a decision for Jesus. We are not saved because we cried
and booed and hollered, you know, I accept you, Lord. No, we're
saved because he made a decision to save us in Christ before the
world began. We're saved because of Jesus.
That no flesh should glory in his sight. Y'all with me so far?
So, Jesus Christ becomes, for you and me, the object of utter
adoration. Utter adoration. Because God
has chosen to love you with an immutable, indomitable love.
You're going to glory and nothing's going to stop God from getting
you there. Now watch this. This is what makes me feel so
good. And it's not based upon works of righteousness, which
I have done. See, God's not going to decide not to save me because
of my foolishness. It was only his mercy. It was
only his grace. It was only his determination,
his will, his decree, his covenant, which he made with himself before
the world began. Now, if that shakes you up, you
need to get a grip because that's what grace is. Grace is operating
outside of the reality that you don't deserve it. And here's
the other aspect of God's grace as we move into point number
two that I have to drive home. In God's good grace, he has determined
not only to save you, but to let you know who saved you, how
he saved you, and why he saved you. Then he gives you instructions
to behave in accordance with the manner in which he saved
you. Are y'all all right with that? Cause I'm getting ready
to bring you to that point now. This is going to hurt a little
bit, but that's, you know how we do. God has chosen to operate out
of a father son paradigm with us. He's our father and we're
his sons. Am I telling the truth saints?
I just need some folks that are willing to hear the truth today.
Do you know what that means? That he has called for us to
operate out of what we call the obedience of faith. That means
we are to join God in his agenda so that he can be glorified in
our life since he saved us to be glorified through us. Is that
okay? And that's what we're dealing
with now, which brings me to our second point, germane to
where we are in our culture today. I really do believe that our
culture is messed up today. I was talking with one of my
brothers this morning as we were preparing to worship, and we
were speaking about how many Christians right now are bemoaning
the change agent celebration that's taking place around same-sex
marriages. And I've told the brothers on
Friday and I told the brothers on Saturday, I say, don't get
mad with the folks in the white house or in the courthouse. Don't
get mad with them. Don't get all upset and twisted
out of the way and fall out and boohoo because men are marrying
men and women are marrying women. Don't get mad at them. Be sorry
for them. Grieve the fact that they don't
know who they are. Be sorry for them. Sigh and cry
for all the abominations that are done in Israel according
to Ezekiel 9. Be sorry for them because the wrath of God is upon
them. But don't get mad like somehow
if it wasn't for the grace of God, you wouldn't be there. Am
I making some sense? Don't get, listen, don't turn
to homosexual foolishness Into a hobby horse for you to jump
on and pretend that you're self-righteous cuz you're not Am I making some
sense This is just one manifestation of a litany of manifestations
of rebellion against God. What's yours? See what our Christian Church
better do is get back on point You better get back on point
Because our church is, listen, we look worse than the world. Stupid, acting foolish, out of
order, having no consistency in our identity. One day we're
this, the other day we're that. We're all jacked up. And our
message is even more convoluted than that. Why would any of those
people out there want to be in here or where we say we are when
we don't even know ourselves? Am I telling the truth? See,
what I want grace to do is settle down and get back on point with
the gospel and get back on point with the power of the gospel
and the glory of the gospel and the God of the gospel. Because
the only thing that's going to save those poor folk out there
that really think they know who they are is the gospel. And the church has lost the gospel. It's peddling lies. It's peddling
facades. As the prophet Ezekiel says,
it is tempering the wall with untempered mortar, and the wall
is still falling down. My people are healing the wounds
of the people slightly, saying, peace, peace, when there ain't
no peace at all. See, because we don't believe
that the gospel can actually take a homosexual and make him
a heterosexual. that it can take a lesbian and
make her a woman, that it can take a confused person in their
sexual identity disorder and clean them up and show them the
glory of God in the person of Christ and make them want to
be just like Jesus. We don't believe that, so we
don't preach it anymore. And can I put the fault where it
really belongs? It's not at the White House or
the courthouse. It's at the church house. It's at the church. The church has been called to
be the steward of priestly prophetic ministry by which a dark world
headed to hell is given the light of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ by every member in the body. So in that dark
world, they can follow that light and be led into the house if
they want to be saved. But when you cut the lights off,
it's dark. Am I telling the truth? So you
can wallow in your self-righteousness or your religiosity, but religion
has never saved anybody. All we do is hoop and holler
and scream and shout and go through forms of external exercises,
but it never reaches the soul. And now what our churches are
doing is compromising biblical truth. It's throwing out the
theses. What's the thesis? The Word of
God, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance
among those that are sanctified. The Word of God, which is a light
unto our feet, a lamp unto our path. The Word of God, which
is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believes. The
Word of God is being removed from the church. We're pretending
that we have the way of salvation, and we don't have salvation ourselves
in most of the churches. Compromise therefore as God said
is certain failure. Are you back at Deuteronomy chapter
7? I want to show you this one because I need to give you the
evidence I Need you to get the evidence on this Deuteronomy
chapter 7. I'll show you what God's mind is on this We talked
about this last time and I want to just touch on the points here
Remember now the Old Testament was written with historical patterns
as lessons for us in the New Testament. Isn't that what the
Bible says? Romans chapter 15 verse 4, those things that were
written aforetime, they were written for our learning. You
know what that means? You don't read the Old Testament
and say, oh, that's about them. No. God is an eternal reality
and his truth principles are eternal realities. And what applied
then applies now. It may be in different forms,
but it's the same application. Y'all following me so far so
we can learn from old folk. Can't we? We can learn. In fact,
you better start learning for the from the old folks because
we're about to lose the last of the wise old folks Because
have you noticed the old folks at this present time Just not
wise The present old folks they're becoming rarer and rarer They're
becoming more ignorant and dumb today Then you know in us younger
people i'm talking us younger people We look to the old people for
wisdom, don't we? But we can't find them. So we're
left defense for ourselves. And I'm really talking about
the young generation. As I said to you, I'm about to do a radio
program and deal with the reason why there is no missionary work
going on of any significance to the younger generation. It's
not happening because the upline ain't ready to talk to the downline
because the upline ain't got nothing to say. So they're just creeping in the
church singing hallelujah and going back home and leaving the
downline to themselves But you see the same gospel allegedly
that was supposed to save the upline can save the downline
If the upline would believe it And so here what we're told in
deuteronomy chapter 7 this is the mind of god he said it very
plainly verse 3 after he had said in verse two, don't make
a covenant with them, neither shall you make a marriage with
them. Your daughters shall not be given to their sons, their
sons to your daughters, for they will turn your sons away from
following me. Do you see that? You know, God
sees Ian from the beginning, right? He sees that if you compromise
in the area of watching culture fall prey to an idolatrous lie,
and then you supposed to be the Christian, you allow them to
come into your home and start talking to you. You allow them
to start telling you, well, you know, it's all right. It's not
as bad as you making out. You ought to stop judging. I
mean, you know, those laws applied back in the days of the Jews.
They don't apply today. Y'all know what I'm talking about?
Those rules don't apply today. Quit being so rigid. And then
your children start to appealing to what they're saying and taking
it on and adopting it as their own worldview. Here's what God
says. Be sure that the idolatrous pagan
systems in which you and I live will, not maybe, turn your sons
away from me. Now, I already told you that
God deals with us in terms of seed. Because every seed-bearing
herb brings forth fruit of its own kind. Is that true? And the
seed of the gospel is to remain incorruptible. The seed of the
gospel then being planted in the life of God's people should
go from generation to generation as we tell the truth about Christ.
Do you know you can't mix up God's seed? God doesn't buy into
the genetically modified organisms that we eat today. The GMOs. Y'all don't know nothing about
that? That's why you're sick. God doesn't practice GMOs. In
other words, you cannot mix the gospel, the word of God, with
secular ideology, humanistic ideology, and get your high bread.
The worldly system will cancel out the gospel every time. Either
we deal with the pure, unadulterated seed of the gospel in dealing
with men and women, or lose whole generations. Lose whole generations,
which we have done most of us who by the grace of God who have
been retrieved by the gospel in this generation are Amazed
at how ignorant church folk are about the truth of us But that's
because they have been begotten by a corruptible seed. You know
what I'm talking about Your words plus God's work God having to
ask you to help him to get you saved. That's a hybrid system
of Are y'all following what I'm saying? And then you enter into
what we call a performance-based religious work with God in order
to seek his favor, and it wears you out to the point that you
are now operating in hypocrisy, or just plain mad at God, because
you're on the hamster wheel of works religion, and have never
experienced the power of God's grace, because the gospel never
came in its unadulterated form. I'm telling you the truth. Here's
what God says when he says, if you turn my sons away from you,
from me, by virtue of you compromising the gospel, marrying pagan gods,
this is what Paul said in second Corinthians six, when he says,
thou shall not be unequally yoked together. What does the table
of the Lord have to do with the table of demons? How can a light
fellowship with darkness? Are y'all following me so far?
You cannot make an affinity with this world system and expect
to end up in glory. You cannot love this world's
philosophy, this world's ideology, this world's set of presuppositions
and assumptions on the basis of what it thinks it is and where
it thinks it's going. You cannot love it and love God's
Word too, because the two are mutually exclusive. Do you know
they militate against each other? The Word of God sheds light on
the false doctrines of this system and says those things are categorically
wrong and they will send you to hell. Pastor, where does it
say that at? Proverbs 16, 25. There is a way
that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways
of death. There is a way that seems right. One of my brothers honestly said
it last night in the men's meeting, but those people are so nice. And I said, okay, let me help
you with that. He's struggling, you know, because
you don't, you really don't want to tell nice people that they're
going to hell. Come on, tell the truth now.
Isn't that hard? Isn't that hard? Isn't that hard to say, yeah,
I know you're nice, but you're still going to hell. Isn't that
hard? Stay with me now. I only did
a few honors, folks. The rest of you will pray for
you. Tell the truth. Tell the truth. You need, you
notice how you get impacted by emotionalism? Even if emotionalism
is wrapped in a very clear lie, you get pulled in because they
seem so nice. You know what I had to tell my
brother? I had to tell him this. Every true authentic Christian
who has been confronted with the truth about who God is and
who they are, this is what we know. Everybody in the world
is nicer than us. Did you get that? Everybody in
the world. I haven't met a lost sinner who
isn't nicer than me. I'm not nice. I'm not nice. So if going to heaven was based
on niceness, I'm going to hell because I haven't met a lost
person who isn't nicer than me. See, this is the lie. that good
people go to heaven. Good people don't go to heaven.
Bad people don't go to heaven. Saved people go to heaven. And
the reason people aren't being saved is because we are not telling
them they are hell bound sinners. Am I making some sense? See,
we're deluded today. That strong delusion that causes
people to believe a lie is draping the whole culture and even the
church. So we are modifying the gospel. Here's the evidence that
you have modified the gospel and that our generation is in
trouble when God told Israel don't do it Your sons will turn
away from following me and if their sons turned away from following
Jehovah You know what Israel would have failed to do they
would have failed to make it to ad33 Because the sons perpetuated
the generations that led up to God's Son am I making some sense
God said when I get you into the land I want you to know who
you are, why you are there, what your purpose is, and to stand
for me. Because to do so is to make sure
the seed come to whom the promise is really made. If your sons
are turned away, there is no hope of salvation for anyone. For the children, the men bore
the seed that led to the Savior, who is the seed of the woman.
Am I making some sense now? That's the whole point. God sees
the end from the beginning. And here are the three evidences.
I'm not going to be long with them because I want to work through
the rest of my point. When we compromise, we can be certain
that failure will occur. Three things will occur. We will
be deceived. Deceived. They will deceive you.
Read it for yourself. Deuteronomy chapter 13. Now,
if a prophet comes along and he brings you a sign or a wonder,
and this is what goes on in our Christian churches all the time.
Folks pretending that they got God's elbow. especially in your
big churches. For some reason, people think
that they are impressive because they know God better than you
do. Am I telling the truth? And it goes on in every church.
This person will walk up to you and say, you know, God gave me
the gift of prophecy. Whoop-dee-doo. He gave me the
gift of revelation. I have the gift of this and I
have the gift of that. And when you listen to them,
they don't even know the true gift, which is Christ. They don't
even know the gospel, the basis upon which all the gifts are
given. They can't quote the truth of the scripture to save their
life, but they got some special revelation from God. Now, you
know what that is? Deception. It's called the humanism that
has entered into the church and turned people into little Messiah
complexes. This goes on in your churches.
Men and women, especially today, a lot of women want to be prophetesses. Prophetesses. Deuteronomy chapter 13 says they
will come in and then they will sneak into your family and get
your family. See now the enemy works in the
family to divide the family because I want you to get this now, all
false prophets and prophetesses, I want you to hear me now, are
nicer than your pastor. They are more pleasant to listen
to. They are kinder. They make you feel good. I don't. You got that? And they will enter
into your family and divide your family up and deceive your family. And you'll know it because your
family will turn away their ears from the truth. Little by little,
they will say, well, I don't want to hear that anymore. You're being deceived. And you
know what happened? You opened the door for all of
those false philosophies to come in and gradually strip you and
your family of a love for the truth that you might be saved.
A strong delusion, a working of error, that's what it means,
has gotten a hold of you and drawn you away. You know what
God told Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 13 to do? When you find
out who that prophet is, don't talk to him. straightforward isn't it listen
if we got to kill all the false prophets today in the world the
church would be better off it would be a lot smaller but it
would be better off and do you know what did at the
end of Deuteronomy chapter 13 God says you are to do this because
I am the Lord your God I the Lord your God am a holy God you
will serve no other gods but me And I'm telling you, there
is a whirlwind blowing in our present generation. Western,
eastern churches everywhere are being deceived by feel good,
smiley, smiley, emotionally affirming false prophets and false teachers.
Deception is one of them. The next thing that goes on,
here's how you can also know. This is Nehemiah chapter 13.
Nehemiah 13, I want you to go there. This is where God has
to re-establish his witnesses, his witness to the people of
God as he is restoring Jerusalem. Nehemiah chapter 13, verses 23
through 27. I want you to see this. You've
been there before, but I want you to see it once again, how
that God told his people to return back to the land. But as they
were returning back to the land, some of their laborers had to
work to see what the condition and the status of the people
of God were. And in the days of Nehemiah,
what we discovered is that Nehemiah had seen a group of people who
had compromised, just as I am talking. Nehemiah chapter 13.
verse twenty-three. Listen to what it says. This
is Nehemiah and his reformation. I love Nehemiah. He was straightforward.
He would pluck people's beards out, beat them down, and then
he would pray to the Lord. Remember what I did for your
glory, Lord. I love that brother. Read it for yourself three or
four times. Lord, I grabbed him. I wouldn't let him go. I laid
hands on him. And when I was done, he was through
in the ministry. See, and our Bibles are written
from the Hebrew to the English in a much softer connotative
fashion. In the original language, it
would have been much more brutal terminology. Let me put it that
way. And I'm going to talk about that as the last point. See,
because how do you do what a Nehemiah did? And what a Daniel did? And what Ezra did? and what a
Ruth did. And all the people who knew their
God and knew their identity did. Unless you love the Lord your
God. Are you hearing me? Listen to the language. Give
me a little bit more of your time. Here it is. Verse 23. In those days also I saw Jews
that had married wives of the Ashdod and the Ammonites and
of Moabites, of the Moabs. And their children, I want you
to hear this, this is an indication of how you know your children
are losing the truth of the gospel. And their children spoke half
in the speech of Ashdod and could not speak in the Jews' language,
but according to the language of each people. You know what
that means? They started off with biblical
theology, but as they got older, they started integrating into
the culture. And what you don't use, you what? And he that doth
not have even that which he has will be taken away. So that your
children start adopting the language of the culture, the language
of the world. And as we learned last week,
they don't even remember Bible verses, let alone quote them.
And that'll happen to you too, where you are not committed to
devotion to the true and the living God by way of his word.
Listen to me. Thy word have I hid, hid, hid
in my heart that I might not sin against you. Thy precepts
have I sought. Thy statutes were my delight.
They were my counselors all the day long. Your word was my precept. Your word was my counsel. Your
word was my delight. It was the grounds upon which
I was kept in all my troubles. Apart from God's Word, we can't
know God. Apart from God's Word, we can't sustain our fellowship
with God. Am I making some sense? What you don't use, you lose.
And the sad story is, is we now have a generation of children
who grew up in church, but didn't grow up in the gospel. They didn't
grow up in the Word of God. And we thought churchianity was
going to keep them, but see the ferocity of this secular culture,
the ferocity of this secular culture is way too powerful for
mere religion because the lust of the flesh in this culture
in which we live, this seductive culture, this sinful vile culture,
is way too powerful than mere churchy anity to bring men and
women out or to keep them out. That's why they're sucked up.
Am I making some sense, ladies and gentlemen? Couldn't even
quote a Bible verse. Isn't that sad? Couldn't quote
a Bible verse. You know our children are in
trouble when they have been deceived by the philosophies of this world.
We know that they are in trouble when they are ignorant of the
gospel. And that's what Nehemiah is indicating. We know that they're
in trouble when they take up the whole idolatrous system.
One more verse, Jeremiah chapter two. Jeremiah chapter 2 here's
where God sums up now after several hundred years God has regimented
Lee told Israel who he was and who they were to be in him And
here's what God says in Jeremiah chapter 2. I'm gonna read verse
13. I want you to see this This is what God says we've been here
before but I want you to hear it. Here's what God says Let
me start over at verse 10 Pass over into the aisles of the Gentiles
and look and see Kedar and consider diligently and see if there'd
be such a thing. Here's what God is saying. Has
a pagan nation ever changed their gods? The answer is no. Listen
to what God says, ladies and gentlemen. Has the pagan nations,
Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, have they gotten rid of their
gods? No. And these were idols. As you
heard our elder read, they have eyes, but they see not. They
have ears but they hear not. They have mouths but they speak
not. They have hands but they handle not. And those that make
them are just like them. And yet these pagan nations still
in vain hold to their gods. Israel had the true and the living
God and guess what God said? They changed their glory. They
abandoned the true and the living God. Here it is. But my people
have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be
astonished. Ye heavens at this and be horribly
afraid be very desolate said the Lord I want you to get this
verse ladies and gentlemen for my people have committed how
many evils to Here's the first one. They have forsaken me They
have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and have hewed
out cisterns broken cisterns that hold no water. Isn't that
crazy? here you and I are in a wilderness where no water is
and God gives us perfectly fine vessels and that are filled with
water to drink and satiate our soul. And we turn the water of
life in for broken vessels that can hold no water. You know what
that means? You crazy. That's called insanity. You got that? But that's what
happens when you are deceived. That's what happens when you're
deluded. You would rather a facade of religion than the reality
and substance of the truth of the gospel. You'd rather a form
of godliness that has already demonstrated itself here in American
culture for the last hundred and two hundred years to be able
to change nobody Do you know most of our brothers and sisters
who are adopting this this this practice of homosexuality and
the whole spectrum? That that whole litany of of
aberrant behavior in terms of sexuality. They all grew up in
the church They all grew up in the church
That's why we can't go to him because they were wanting to
be actually saved before and leadership abandoned the gospel. And they were left to the darkness
of this wicked world system. That's what's going on. That's
why Nehemiah would grab Tobiah, Samballot, and the rest of those
wicked men and whoop their tails. I know that's bad language in
the church. Take them by the tail and throw them out the church.
Take them by the tail and read it for yourself. He did it by
himself. Took all their furniture, loaded
it up in U-Haul trucks, cleaned out the whole church. Read it
for yourself. Cleaned the whole church up.
Took big old water hoses and washed the whole church down.
Sanctified it. You know what he was saying?
My father's house is a house of prayer, not a den of thieves
and robbers. Cleaned up the church. That brother
cleaned up. And when he put the hose down, he said, Lord, remember
me. And he remembered him, because
we're reading about Nehemiah. 2,000 years later. Isn't God
good? Let me go on. True believers,
the true believer knows who he is. Do you believe that? And
they shall all be taught of God. Everyone that has learned of
the Father cometh unto Christ. You know how many? Everyone.
I'm just going to give you some examples. I'm going to roll it
off and close it out here. You know Abraham knew who he
was. God had called Abraham out of
Ur of the Chaldees, Genesis chapter 12, and let him know, I am the
Lord your God. Then God told Abraham who he
was. Abraham, you are to be the father
of a multitude of nations. Isn't that right? Abraham, out
of your seed shall come kings and nations unto me. Abraham Lee. Abraham leaves Abraham
goes to where God tells him to go his nephew lot gets into trouble
whole nother story But because he loves that knucklehead boy
He goes down and saves him right and as Abraham and his army delivers
lot here comes the king of Sodom Wanting to pay Abraham Because
Abraham delivered them But Abraham knew who he was And he said to
the king of Sodom, I don't want anything that's yours. Can I
tell you why? Because what you have is perverted. It's unclean. It's unconsecrated. Secondly, I'm not a hireling.
I serve the Lord, my God, because I love him. And I don't need
your money. I don't preach. I don't serve
God for pay. God takes care of me. God is
my shield and my exceeding great reward. Besides, if I take your
money, you'll be able to tell people behind the scene. Yeah,
man, you can pay brother Abraham off and he'll stop preaching
on us when he has to preach, which is the political corruption
that goes on in a lot of our churches. Abraham knew who he
was, didn't Abraham know who he was? Joseph knew who he was,
didn't he? We get tempted, don't we? Joseph
knew he was Sister Potiphar walking around half naked like folks
do today. Taunting Brother Joseph. Remember
that? Open, open, open, open, open. You know what he says?
How shall I sin against the God who revealed his glory to me
and told me I'm going to rule over the whole world? See, he
knew his identity. He knew who he was in Christ.
And even though he was a slave and a servant at the moment,
he knew the end game. He knew the end game. He knew
that he would be ruler one day. You know why? Because he walked
by what? You better hear it, ladies and gentlemen. You better
hear it, ladies and gentlemen. This is what God's people do
who know who they are. Elijah knew who he was. Remember
Brother Elijah? Brother Elijah, realizing that
Israel had been filled with all kinds of false prophets, 400
prophets of Baal, 450 prophets of Jezebel. Prophets everywhere all lying
on God. You know what he did. He said
come on Let's have one big old congregational meeting. Let's
find out who the true God is. Oh Isn't that good? let's find
out who the true God is now you got bill altars and I'll build
one here and y'all call on your God and I'll call on my guy in
fact take water and pour it on my because I'm getting ready
to show you that there's only one God in the universe and The
one true and the Living God will manifest himself by fire Remember
that? See, that's knowing who you are,
knowing whose you are, knowing your message, and knowing that
God will honor them who honor him. Did God honor Elijah? Did he honor Elijah? And when
Elijah was leaving, he had his servant, Elisha, to follow him
to the River Jordan. He says, if you can see me, you
get a double portion of the spirit that goes into our act study.
We'll deal with that. Elisha saw him take off. He got a double
portion of the spirit, didn't he? He got, don't you need a
double portion of God's spirit? Listen, you need a triple portion.
You need a quadruple portion of God's spirit. Anyhow, Elisha,
goes forth doing the same works that Elijah did, only manifold
more. And then here comes Naaman the
leper, and he tells him to go dip in the river Jordan seven
times. He dips seven times, clean. But Elisha has a servant named
Gehazi, who didn't know who he was. And he ran hunting down
Naaman and said, hey, now, you know, my master, he gets a little
zealous about this thing that God will take care of him. He
don't need your money. But look, we're on hard times.
I'll take the money. Give me give me the money and
I'll put it away for a rainy day. I mean, after all, my master
did heal you. You know why guys, I did that
because he didn't know God and he didn't know what it means
to be a true believer. He lusted after riches because
he didn't have the true riches. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying?
You know, another person who did the same thing, Judas Iscariot. He had the tag on his door, Apostle
Judas. He met with the son of God himself,
God in the flesh. He did ministry with him. He
was called an apostle, but because he didn't know who he was in
Christ, he sold out for 30 pieces of silver. You remember Esau
and Jacob? Jacob was a rascal, but he knew
who he was in Christ. You better rejoice in that, because
Jacob is you. Esau, however, sold his birthright
for nothing. A little bowl of soup. And this
is how you can tell in this present generation where religious folk
are selling out the gospel just for a little carnal pleasure.
Am I making some sense? Now let me say one more thing
because this is critically true. There is a whole litany of evidence
of those who know their identity in Christ as a consequence of
knowing who they are in Christ. They love God. and they serve
God passionately and exclusively. Are you hearing me? Because that
is a covenant requirement. I want you to hear me. Because
we're in bad times. You're going to see some folks
who you think are true believers, they're going to fall away. Because
they have failed to make their calling and election sure. I
want you guys to hear me now. I know what I'm talking about.
The way you make your calling and election sure in a dark pagan
world Like it is today Is to be even more zealous for christ
When it is dark you cut the lights on full bore Are you hearing
what i'm saying? And when the lord your god says
to you I am the lord your god. I am a jealous god You know what
that means? You take him seriously. Don't
play with your God. He was jealous enough to send
his son to hell for you. Jealous enough to snatch you
out of the fires of hell, out of the pit of darkness, out from
under the wrath of God. Jealous enough to swallow up
Jordan that you might be with him today. Is that zeal? Is it
zeal when a God loves you enough to take your place on Calvary's
tree, bear the wrath of God to make you a son of God? Is that
zeal? Is that love? Is it appropriate then for us
who know the love of God to also love Him in like manner, not
the same quality, not the same degree, but in similar fashion? Isn't it only appropriate that
we are zealous for the God of glory, the God of electing love,
the God of all grace, the God of the gospel of salvation? Isn't
it worth it for us to be the kind of wife to the bridegroom
Jesus Christ? that we are committed to him
and his glory alone. Isn't it worth it? See, I quoted
a few of them, but I just want to quote a few more and just
a couple strategically strategic persons. The proposition in point
number five is when you know who you are in Christ, you will
be just as zealous for God as he is for you. Do you guys know
that brother Phineas numbers 25? Y'all don't know him. If
you haven't read your Bible in a while, you probably don't even
know where numbers is, but look it up in the back of your Bible.
And when you get the numbers 25, I want you to read the account
where God has sent the plague on his own people because they
have committed whoredoms called bail PR. They have been deceived
by the prophet to think that they can have God and commit
fornication and adultery to kind of contemporary, right? and God
sent the plague on him. And there was this priest, he
corresponds to the preacher, who thought he could put his
tent right over against the tabernacle of God and have a woman, have
a woman in his tent. Now he's in his tent with his
woman doing his thing. And you know what? All Israel
is looking and ain't nobody doing nothing. while the plague is
spreading all through Israel and killing people. You know
what that means? When you and I have compromised
so long the gospel, we don't have power to tell people they
are wrong. We don't have power to tell our
corrupt church leaders they are wrong when they're committing
adultery and fornication and whoredoms in the church. But
there was a brother named Phineas. You know who Phineas was? It
don't matter. It's his zeal that you need to
know about. He rose up when he saw no one else, and he took
a spear. You know what he did? He ran
into the tent with the spear and thrust both of them through.
Oh, that's so violent, pastor. But it pleased God. Thrust them
through. Y'all got that? Both of them
at the same time. How come? Because they were stuck
together in iniquity. And when he killed them, you
know what God said? Phinehas has made an atonement for all
Israel. You know what we call that? Jealous
for God. Jealous for God. You know who
else was jealous for God? Paul, that brother who was Saul. Jealous. The reason why you and
I have the gospel today was because of him. Jealous. I become all
things to all people that if by any means I might win some.
Give my life for the gospel sake. I give my life for the Church
of God I give my life for the one who loved me and gave himself
him. That's the Apostle Paul He said I have espoused you as
a chaste virgin unto Christ. Isn't that what he did? You know
who else was zealous? I mean I can give you a whole
list. I'm done here My Lord Jesus Christ. I Love him. He left the eternity Came down
to here into this broken world grew up in Jerusalem He knew
the church was his father's house. Remember what he did early on
in the book of John? He went into the temple. He stood
around and looked at all of the false prophets and false teachers.
He says, well, I ain't got but three and a half years. I better
get to work. You know what he did? He pulled down a bunch of
switches. You remember how the old folks
used to tear that butt up? He pulled out a bunch of, do
you believe the Bible? This is, this is a man. He got
a bunch of switches, and he started going through the church. Can
you see it? Can you see it? Put it in slow
motion. Can you see it? Tearing it up.
Can you see it? Knocking stuff down, kicking
stuff over, whipping them, grabbing people, throwing them out, tearing
up the whole church, just tearing it up. You know what the scriptures
is? For as it is written, the zeal
of my Father's house has consumed me. Got it? Do you know why He did it? Because
He knew His identity. He knew He was the Son of God. He knew He was God come in the
flesh. He knew He was the revelation
of the invisible God. He knew He was the exact representation
of the God of glory. He knew that He had come to finish
His Father's work. He knew that He had come to lay
down His life as a ransom for many. He knew that he had come
to lay down his life for his sheep. He knew that he was going
to rise again from the dead. He knew he was going to ascend
into glory. He knew he was going to send
the Holy Ghost and gather other sheep which are of my fold. Them
I must bring in and there will be one shepherd and there will
be one sheep. He knew who he was when the rulers
were trying to tell him he was submales. He's a child of fornication. He's a winebibber. He's a glutton. He's a sect leader. He's a deceiver. He's a Samaritan. He has a devil. You see, the world will try to
define you. But Christ knew who he was. He
said, I am. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. I am the door
to the sheepfold. I am the good shepherd. I am
the resurrection. I am the life. I am the truth. I know who I am. I know who I
am. Do you know who you are? Amen.
Amen. Amen.