When Paul wrote to the Galatians
because he was concerned for their souls, concerned that they
might be deluded by men who preached a false gospel, deluded by men
who would turn them away from the simplicity that's in Christ,
he said, am I become your enemy? because I tell you the truth.
Well, I want you to buckle your seatbelt and hang on. For some
of you, this is going to be a rough ride. And I hope I'll not become
your enemy for telling you the truth. The title of my message
is Saying and Knowing. Saying and Knowing. Or you might give it this title. Honesty before God. Our text is 1 John 2, verses
3 through 6. With wise, God-given, inspired
discrimination, the Apostle John draws a clear line of distinction
between saying, I know Christ, and knowing Christ. The one who
knows Christ, he acknowledges as a heaven-born soul, a true
believer. But the person who merely says,
I know Christ, deceives his own soul. If you hide in a refuge of lies and
cling to a false religion, a false profession, a false hope, a false
refuge, and continually shut your mind and your heart against
Christ and the gospel of His grace, pretending that salvation
is yours, when you know nothing of God's grace, you only deceive
your own soul. Only your own soul. Let's read
the text together. First John chapter 2 verse 3
and Hereby We do know that we know him If we keep his commandments
His word obey that which is revealed in his word He that saith I know
him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and The truth is not
in him But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love
of God perfected, brought to its consummation, brought to
its end, brought to its goal. Hereby we know that we are in
Christ. We know we are in him. He that
saith he abideth in him, ought himself also to walk even as
he walked. Now it seems to me that John's
purpose, his constant aim all the way through this epistle
is to point out the difference between fact and delusion, reality
and profession, between those who say they are in Christ and
those who are in Christ. Now let's look at some scripture
here. In the sixth verse of chapter one, John's been talking about
those who walk in the light and have fellowship with God. And
then he makes this statement. If we say, if we say we have
fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not
the truth. In our text, he speaks of those
who know Christ and adds, he that saith I know him and keepeth
not his commandments is a liar and his truth is not in him.
And further on in verse nine, speaking of those who have the
light, the apostle says, he that saith he is in the light and
hateth his brother is in darkness even till now. And once more,
look at chapter four, verse 20. If a man say, I love God and
hateth his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom
he hath not seen? Now, the one thing John is showing
us is this. It's one thing to say you know
Christ and something else to know him. It's one thing to be
something, but it's quite another thing just to pretend to be. And the fact is almost everybody
just pretend. About everything. Almost everybody just pretend. They're like actors on the stage.
They're just playing a role. They just pretend. This is precisely
what James tells us. Turn over to James chapter 2.
Hold your hands here in 1 John. James chapter 2. Verse 14. What doth it profit,
my brother, though a man say he hath faith, and hath not works? Can faith save him? Verse 17. Even so faith, if it hath not
works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say thou hast
faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy
works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest
that there is one God, Thou doest well. The devils also believe
and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man,
that faith without works is dead? Many there are who say they have
faith, but few have faith. If we say that we have fellowship
with God and walk in darkness, We lie. We're not telling the
truth. If we say that we have no sin,
no sinful nature, no depraved nature, we deceive ourselves
and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned,
that we're not guilty sinners, that we are not by choice and
by practice, day by day, by nature and by conduct sinners, we make
God a liar. We lie and we deceive ourselves
and we make God a liar and his word is not in us. That's not
my judgment. That's God's Word. That's God's
Word. We live in a day of sham, pretense
religion. The world's full of it. The world's
full of it. I was talking to a very good
friend of mine yesterday, a preacher friend. I made a statement the
first time I preached for the folks where he pastors and he
said, I've had to answer that more times. He said, it's a constant
source of trouble to some folks. It's a statement I make almost
everywhere I go. I make it deliberately. It's a statement that causes
lots of folks concern. I made a statement that not any
such thing as a saved Armenian. Well, you can't say that. You
can't. God Almighty tells us plainly. God Almighty tells us plainly
that it is Antichrist to put man in the house of God and worship
him as though he were God. And this religious age worships
man's will. This religious age honors man's
will and has no regard for God's will. This age seeks to promote
man, exalt man, lift man up, have no regard for God. The worship
of yourself is not salvation. I don't care if you call it worshiping
Jesus. The worship of your works is not salvation. I don't care
if you call it worshiping Jesus. The worship of a God who cannot
save is not worshiping God. I don't care if you call it worshiping
Jesus. No such thing. This religious age is a sham
age of pretense religion. I want to talk to you about it
a little bit, and I want to talk to you about it plainly. The
Scriptures, we hear our Lord say over and over and over again,
beware of false prophets. Beware of false prophets. They
come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ravening wolves.
Peter said, as there were false prophets among the people of
Israel, there should be false teachers in your midst. And by
the time Jude wrote his epistle, he said that which our Lord and
Paul and Peter and John warned us would happen has come to pass.
These evil men have crept in unawares, seducing silly women
laden with iniquities. And the first thing I want to
say about it is this. The religion of this day It's sham. It's fake. It's counterfeit. It's pretense. Just go where
you want to. Go where you want to. Turn to
Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. Look at verse 18. Now Paul's talking about preachers
here. He's not talking about pimps and pornographers and prostitutes.
He's talking about preachers. about preachers Philippians 3
verse 18 for many walk of whom I have told you often and now
tell you even weeping that is I tell you this not because I'm
delighted that so I tell you this because I'm brokenhearted
that it's so that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ
they're the enemies of the cross of Christ he opens the chapter
by saying beware of dogs especially the ones that wear collars You'll
catch that in a minute. Bill had dogs. He's talking about
preachers. And he calls them dogs because
that's the term used in the scriptures to represent male prostitutes.
These fellas prostitute God. They prostitute the gospel of
God. They prostitute the things of
God. They haunt Jesus to the highest bidder. They're just
prostitutes. Beware of them. They're enemies
of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction. Now, here's
the key. whose God is their belly, whose
God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, because
they only care about earthly things, who mind earthly things. There's more hypocrisy and sham,
show, and pretense in religion today than in any other time
in any age. The religion of this age is as
fake as a $3 bill. When I was down in Nara, preaching
down there, Brother Norm Day had written to me just before
I got there. He said, he said, did you know Billy Graham's grandson
is going to be preaching across town from you? And he understood
my thoughts concerning it. So what? I'm not in competition
with these yahoos. I don't want what they've got.
God save me from what they've got. God save me from what they've
got. Why is there so much tomfoolery
going on in the name of religion? Why is it so common everywhere? It's amazing to me that in the
area where there should be total honesty with God, there's just
no honesty. God knows all things. God looks
on the heart. Man looks on the outward appearance
and he's impressed and he's just all goggle-eyed and awed by what
the religious world does. God looks on the heart. All things are naked and open
to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. He's not deceived. He's not bought. In the area
of religion, we should have total honesty, total honesty with God,
total honesty with others, total honesty with ourselves, and truthful,
candid, relationships with one another. In this area, where
men should be totally honest, there's more pretense and hypocrisy
than there is anywhere. I've been around a long time.
I've been preaching the gospel for 44 years. I've traveled all
over this country preaching the gospel. I preached in a lot of
other countries. And I know that religion today
especially the television variety. Religion today, the preachers
and religious leaders of this day are dishonest, just dishonest,
flat dishonest. If you fall for it, you fall
for it because you want to. Anybody, anybody, anybody ought
to be able to see through it. Big business, contemporary, let's
have a good time with Jesus religion is taking the world by storm.
You know, we live in a kind of conservative area and I was surprised
first time it came up, folks started having contemporary services. Contemporary service, you meet
for the old fuddy duddies who don't like to clap their hands
and dance while they worship. You old fuddy duddies, y'all
come to the standard service. We're gonna have a contemporary
service. If you look the word contemporary up in the dictionary,
the word that precedes it's contemptible. And that's what it is. The religion
of this age is contemptible, Don. It's just contemptible.
I hold it in absolute contempt. I have, oh, you ought to respect
other people's religion. Tell that to Elijah when he's
on Mount Carmel. Now, I hold it in absolute content. Preachers
and religious leaders are totally dishonest with God and totally
dishonest with people. They claim to be what they know
they're not. They claim to do what they know
they don't do. They claim to feel what they
know they don't feel. They claim to experience what
they've never experienced. They claim to see what they've
not seen. They claim to hear what they've not heard. They
claim to do things they can't do and know they can't do. Let
me give you some examples. These days, we're full of fake
healers. I didn't say faith healers, fake
healers. Fake healers. I wouldn't say too much about
this. We don't have any problem with
that in this congregation, but you're subjected to it all the
time. I know you're subjected to it all the time. You have
folks and family, neighbors, friends, folks get upset, you
just say anything at all concerning, it's fake. It's fake. This modern,
Pentecostal, charismatic nonsense is fake. Back when folks talked
about it with good sense, they called them holy rollers and
laughed under the sleeve. It's fake. It's just as fake
as it can be. Come around and talk about healing
folks, these religious promoters of self, the con artists that
claim to be able to heal sick people. They can't do that. They can't do that. If they could,
They'd go up here to Ethan McDowell, walk up down the hall, heal folks.
Oh, but you've got to have faith to be healed. Our Lord's disciples
didn't say, if you'll believe, we'll heal you. No. The apostles, the apostles, true
apostles healed folks. These fellows are faking. They're
faking. They get in the crowd when they're trying to raise
some money. And I see somebody out there's got
a headache. Somebody got some pain in the lower back. Oh, some
of you got a, you got a bad knee. The Lord, the Lord's healing
that right now. I expect I described some of
y'all just dead. I was there right now. Got to hit somebody
and folks. Oh, and they'll have somebody
planning to come up and break their crutches over their knee. That's right. And somebody planted
in there. Come stand up in their wheelchair, shove it off the
stage. Oh, And people holler amen and wave their hands and
fall out in the aisle and send some money to them. And that's
the whole object. That's the whole object. The
fact is people get sick because God intends for them to get sick.
And if God didn't intend for you to get sick, you wouldn't
get sick. George, what you been through the last two years? If
I could, I'd take it away from you like that. But he who loves
you infinitely more than I can know is the one who sent it. God's will. God's will. And if God wills, he can heal
it, just like that. And when, uh, when James gives
instruction to folks who are sick, he used to let them call
for the elders of the church, not for a fake healer. Now go
to a show and put on a big show, call for the elders of the church
and pray over them and anoint them with oil. And if God heals,
God heals. And if God slays, God slays.
That's true of everybody. And everybody's got to die. These
fellas tell you, well, if you're sick, it's because you don't
have enough faith. If you're poor, it's because you don't
have enough faith. And the way that you show that you got faith
is take the $2 you got and send it to me. If you don't have a job and it's
a bad time, it's because you don't have faith. The fact is God does things according
to his will, exactly according to his will. He makes rich and
he makes poor. I was speaking to a gentleman
a while back, he's a businessman, he's retired, had a large thriving
business and did well. We were chatting about this very
thing. I said, I've known other men
who are just as smart as you, who work just as hard as you,
who spent their lives with not having two nickels rubbed together.
God makes rich and God makes poor. And he does it for the
good of his people and for the damning of others. The same is
true of sickness and disease. Everybody's got to die. And at
the appointed time, you and I shall leave this world. These fellas,
these charlatan preachers don't have any special powers to heal
the sick. They can't make the lame to walk and the blind to
see and the deaf to hear. They can't raise the dead. They
pretend to. They pretend to until you put
your hand on the television and feel the power of Jesus. Whoo! And they'll sell you a handkerchief,
a prayer cloth to lay on your sore spot. I actually saw this
with my own eyes. I forgot who it was, now it doesn't
matter. I doubt that he would have been to the holy land, probably
been to the beach somewhere, but they'd been to the holy land
and they went to the tomb of Jesus as if somebody really knew
where it was. They went to the tomb of Jesus
and got some dirt. Got some dirt, that's right.
And they put it in little vials, little jars, put a little string
around it. And they're selling it to folks.
Now, they can't sell it because they didn't have to pay taxes.
So they're giving it away for a love gift of $10. And if you
get this, Redneck will give you good. I'm not lying to you. Nobody'd fall for that. Folks
fall for it every day. Every day. It's just fake. It's
just fake. Charlatans. They're selling snake
oil religion. These same group, they pretend
to talk in tongues. They say, if you don't talk in
tongues, you're not really spiritual. If you don't talk in tongues,
you don't have the spirit. And they have this holy roller,
jibber jabber, just Babble, just babble, that's all, just babble.
Nothing about it, nothing about it edified, nothing about it
makes any sense, nothing about it that can be interpreted, nothing
about it in any way that's connected with what's revealed in scripture.
In the New Testament, in the book of Acts, they didn't wag
their tongues around their head and make noises. The apostles
on the day of Pentecost preached the gospel and every man heard
them speak in his own tongue. He heard them speak in his own
language. The Gentiles from their various places heard them speak
in the language they spoke. The Jews heard them speak in
the language they spoke. Every man heard them speak the
gospel in his own language. When you read in the New Testament
about a tongue, it's not talking about just noise. It's talking
about a language. I go down to Mexico and preach
down there through the translator, Brother Cody translates for me.
He speaks another tongue. You know how he learned to speak
it? Like I learned to speak English. He was raised down there and
he learned to speak two of them. They don't have supernatural
gifts in speaking in tongues. They learn to speak another language.
But in the New Testament, these apostles, as they were sent out,
were given a marvelous gift. They could go preach the gospel
to a man in his language so that they heard the gospel preached
and the gospel rapidly spread from one place to another. But
this business of speaking in tongues. Everybody I know God saved out
of that mess. Everybody I know that God saved
out of that mess will tell you flat out, I knew it was fake
when I was doing it. I knew it was fake when I was
doing it. And I say this today, everybody in the world who pretends
they speak in tongues know it's fake while they do it. I don't recommend you do this.
I think it was Sunday night. I think it was Sunday night.
It might have been late Saturday night. Went home and Shelby had some stuff
to do and I flipped through the channel and nothing on. I had
forgotten almost that Jimmy Swaggart was around. And I turned the
television on and his boy was preaching. Man, he's sharp. He learned to preach just like
his daddy. He learned to preach just like, wait, wait, God told
me to say something. And he learned how to cock his head just like
his daddy did and pick his foot up just like his daddy did. and
put on a show just like his daddy. Fake. As fake as it can be. Oh,
you better let him hear that. Let him try to do something about
that. As fake as it can be. As fake
as it can be. I tell people who are saved by
God's grace, people who trust the Redeemer, sinners who trust
Christ's blood and trust the power and grace of God the Spirit
and trust God to save them, that if you don't speak in tongues,
then you're not spiritual. Let me tell you something. If
you do speak in tongues, you're not spiritual. You don't have
the spirit of God. It's another spirit. It's another. It's the spirit of Antichrist.
If you're born again, you have the Holy Ghost. You can't be
born again without it. If you trust Christ, if you believe
God, you have the Holy Ghost. Faith is the gift and work and
operation of God, the Holy Spirit. If you know Christ, you know
him because the spirit of God has revealed him in you. If you
love God, You love him because God the Holy Spirit created that
love in you and you have the Spirit. I want to say as clearly
as I can. I want the world to hear me.
All of this happy, clappy, lift up your hands and praise Jesus,
give Jesus a hand clap, jibber-jabber, fake healer religion is as fake
as voodoo witchcraft. All of it. All of it. They talk
about having A word from God. A word of prophecy. A word of
knowledge. Turn over to the first Peter.
First Peter chapter one. First Peter chapter one. Let me give you a word here. I'm sorry, second Peter chapter
one. Verse six states, Peter said, We've not followed
cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power
and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses
of his majesty. Now, Larry, that's something.
Three men, just three, were with him on the Mount of Transfiguration,
and they saw the Son of God in the glory with which he now sits
in heaven while he was still on this earth. Ooh, you talk
about an experience. You talk about an experience.
Now watch this. We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the
Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from
the excellent glory. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. And this voice which came from
heaven we heard and when we were with when we were with him in
the mount. Now, what's his next word? What's his next word? We
have also a more sure word of prophecy. Whereunto ye do well
that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place,
until the day dawn and the day star rise in your hearts, knowing
this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private
interpretation. What is this more sure word of
prophecy he's talking about? You've got one in your hand.
You're looking at it. It's the word of God. This is
the more sure word of prophecy. These fellows who talk about
having a fresh revelation from God, a word of knowledge from
God. That means they've got something that supersedes this book. They've
got a word, a fresh word from God that supersedes what's written
right here in this book. Don't you think to believe it? Don't. think to believe. Oh,
but he's such a godly man. Moral godliness can be faked.
Folks do it all the time. I'm so sick of hearing fellas
try to defend some false religion. They say, oh, but he's such a
praise. Have you ever heard him pray? He's such a godly man. I've seen how he lives. He's
such a godly man. He prays, and he gives, and he
sacrifices, and he's always right-tempered, even tempered I tell you what,
by those standards, by those standards, that woman they called
Mother Teresa would rank real high. And she didn't know God
from a gourd. She didn't know God from a gourd. She's a papist. She worshiped
Mary. She didn't know God from a gourd.
Brother Don, you mean those things don't count for anything? I wish
I could make you understand that. They don't count for anything.
The Word of God is that by which we must judge all things. Ourselves
included. And only by the word. This is
the only way God speaks to me is by his word. He doesn't speak
any other way. Well, I was walking down the
street and I heard God and he told me to call Brother James.
No, he didn't. No, he didn't. He might have
and often does give me a, I hope, some direction, some inspiration
to call somebody. But I've never heard God talking
this ear. And if I thought I did, I'd go check in the funny farm.
And if you think he did, you need to check into the funny
file. God doesn't speak that way anymore. Read Hebrews chapter
one. He spoke in time past like that. Now he speaks to us by
his son, through his word. And it doesn't speak any other
way. I see these preachers. It's as fake as they can be.
They pretend to be apostles. Let me tell you something. There
are no apostles today. There were 12 of them. So but
on this 13, no, there were 12. There were 12. Judas was ordained
and chosen of Christ to be in the number of the apostles. But
Paul was chosen to take Judas's place. And he was the apostle
born out of due time. What makes a man an apostle?
Three things were required. He had to have seen the Lord
risen from the dead with his eyes. That's number one. Second, he
had to be taught the gospel by Christ himself. Paul said, I
didn't learn this from any man. The Lord himself taught this
to me. The Lord himself revealed himself to me. And he had to
be sent directly by the Lord Jesus. Now, those men were apostles. They were sin of the Lord Jesus
Christ. They had special gifts, credentials to prove them to
be his apostles, men especially ordained of him to carry his
message and write out his message in the book of God. But this
religious age, there are no apostles, no apostles. Now, go back to
our text here in 1 John. And I promise you, I'll come
back to this and give a more detailed exposition of the text
another time. I want to give you the four reasons,
four reasons for this charade, this religious charade, the spectacle
that goes on in the name of God. John's speaking here and says,
we know we know him if we keep his commandments, keep his word,
keep his word, his gospel. He that sayeth I know him and
keepeth not his commandments, he doesn't what he preaches and
not what's in his book. He's a liar. The truth's not
in him. But whoso keepeth his word in him, verily, is the love
of God perfected, made manifest, revealed, brought to its ultimate
end. Hereby know we that we are in
him. He that saith he abideth in him
ought to himself also to walk even as he walks. Now here's
four reasons these fellas put on a charade. First, they don't
know God. They don't know God. They just
don't know God. How can you say that, Brother
Don? They read out of the Bible and they sing about Jesus and
God and the Holy Spirit. How can you say that? The Lord
describes them wrecks very clearly. They pray unto a God that cannot
save. Isaiah 45. Now it doesn't matter
if you call him Jesus. It doesn't matter if you call
him Jehovah. It doesn't matter if you call him El Shaddai. It
doesn't matter if you call him Elohim. It doesn't matter what
name you give him. If the God you pretend to worship
can't say He's not God. They don't know it. They don't
know nothing about God or His character. Number two. The reason for this charade is
that men They live in this sham world of religion and religious
show in pretense because they love the applause of men and
love the approval of men. They're not concerned about your
soul. They're concerned about what
they can get from you. Nothing else. Nothing else. They're motivated by power and
money. That's all. First time I preached
down in Roan Mountain, Buck Mountain for Brother Gary Perkins, there
were several preachers who attended once. And they sat around talking. And one of them seemed to be
very much moved by the message. And this is what he said to me,
sitting at the table, sitting there drinking coffee or something.
He said, I'd give anything if I could preach in my church like
you preach here. I looked at him and I said, do what? I'd
give anything if I could preach like that. And I paused for a
minute and I said, I'll tell you why you don't. I'll tell
you why you don't. I reached in my hip pocket and
pulled out my wallet. That's the only reason. That's
the only reason. That's the only reason. Just
cause you serve mammon, not God. Well, if I preach that, it'd
split my church. The church needs splitting then.
But if I preach like that, it'd destroy our church. Then the
church needs to be destroyed. I don't know why that's such
a problem, folks. Bobby, if declaring this word makes me your enemy,
I'll just have to be your enemy. I don't know what the problem
is, folks. Well, I do. They love the applause and approval
of men. That's all. Religious folks like
to be seen in men. Oh, they love to be seen in men.
One of the things makes radio programs so popular. One thing
makes the Internet blog things. That's a good name for those
theological pages on the blog. You won't get blogged down, get
involved in that mess. One thing that makes it so popular is because
you get to get on there and tell folks what you know. Oh, boy,
we love it. Here, send me a dollar and I'll
read your name on the radio. Well, Brother Bob Duff and his
wife Mary Lou want us to pray for their family, and they sent
$50. They're such a good couple. Folks
love it. They love it. Our Lord teaches
exactly the opposite. The whole religious world says,
show everybody how religious you are. Look pious. Talk pious. Dress pious. Walk funny. Talk funny. Show
what good things you are, what great things you are. Well, but
John, we ought to live blamelessly. Yeah, yeah. But you're not going
to live blamelessly so that men don't blame you for anything.
That's not going to happen. That's not going to happen. We
saw this morning, the Nasser saw Isaiah in two because he
told him the truth. Well, but if Isaiah had lived
a little better, he would have seen Jesus in him. No, no, he
hated Jesus. People love the show. And our
Lord says, he said, when you pray, don't tell anybody you're
praying. Go home, get in your closet,
close your door. Get in your closet, close your door. I don't
get up and close my door when I'm sitting in my desk praying.
It shall be May since, that's what I'm doing when I'm sitting
there quiet and nothing going on, but I don't get up and close
my doors and I'm gonna pray for a while now. I don't even tell
her. I'm sure I'm gonna tell you.
Why do you need to know? Why should you need to know?
Our Lord said, he said, when you give, you give alms, don't
blow the trumpet and say, look here, I'm giving $1,000 to the
church today. No, no. You don't let your left hand
know what your right hand's doing. Don't let anybody know. Say nothing
about it. When you fast, don't put ashes
on your head and dress funny. No, put on your best suit and
smile big. So folks won't think you're fasting. They won't think
about what you're doing. They won't be aware of what you're
doing. Nobody needs to know about your communion with God. Nobody
needs to know about what you do alone between you and God. Nobody. Nobody. Another reason
for this sad situation is that preachers are motivated by greed,
covetousness. Hosea and Ezekiel and Jeremiah
and Micah and Malachi and Haggai Zechariah, Habakkuk, all of them,
all of them. They said all the prophets and
all the priests are for hire. They're for hire. And preachers in this generation
don't know anything about the person and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. They know nothing about the need
of redemption by his blood, let alone the accomplishment of it.
They know nothing about the righteousness of God. Nothing. They know that
God's righteous in His attribute. They know that. Every man knows
that's written on his heart by nature. And we talk about God's
righteousness and holiness. That's all they're talking about.
And we've got to do something to make ourselves like God is. You can't
do that. The righteousness of God is Christ.
He brought in everlasting righteousness. By His obedience, all His people
have obeyed. By His death, all His people
have died and redemption is accomplished. This generation knows nothing
about it. Now, what's the difference between those who say and those
who know? Well, religious people talk about
their goodness. Those who know God keep his commandment,
his word, his ordinances. Don't talk about it, they just
do it. They just do it. They just do it. Religious people
argue about truths they believe. Those who know God have the truth
in them. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Religious people talk and sing about the love of God. Those
who know God have the love of God perfected in them. Mark, the love of God been made
perfect in me. Been made perfect in me. Well,
how can you say that? You mean you love God perfectly? No, but I mean, I know he loves
me perfectly. His end in loving me is to reveal
Christ in me. God's people have his love made
perfect in them. We have the love of God shed
abroad in our hearts, creating faith in the Lord Jesus by his
spirit and assuring us that we are his. And that's what we're
told in Romans chapter five. Religious people make a show
of religion and holiness and spirituality and holier-than-thou
piety. Those who know the Savior walk
as he walked in faith, bowing to the will of God, seeking
the glory of God, serving the kingdom of God. Brother Dunn, We need some more
rules. We need to have the law preached. I can't tell you how many times
I've had folks tell me this, say this to me over the years,
if you don't preach the law, you can't get folks to tithe,
you can't get them to go to church. Well, if the law will get you
to do something that the knowledge of the love of Christ doesn't, All you've got is law. That's right. That's right. If
the fear of God's law will get you to tithe and the revelation
of God's perfect love in you in the sacrifice of his son doesn't
cause you to give yourself to him, all you've got is law. It's the law, the fear of God
getting you. It makes you pretend to keep
the Sabbath day and go to church twice on Sunday. And that's the
reason you're here. I've got a recommendation for
you. Stay home. Stay home. I'm as serious as
I can be. Or when you come, ask God to
save you because that's what you need. That's what you need. Don't Pretend with God. Don't pretend with God. He will sweep away your refuge
of lies. And cast you into hell in the
terror of his holy judgment. Except you cast yourself on the
merits of the crucified Christ and trust him, the son of God. Oh God give you grace then to
trust his side. Amen.