All right, in 2 Thessalonians
3, we're about to turn the page on that. But what I wanted to
do since I prepared this portion of it in verse 16 and 17 of chapter
2 is to call your attention to it as well. When we were in chapter
2, we actually developed in verse 15 the paradoxes, the concept
of traditions in the biblical sense. Over in verse 15, know
that if you have any history in theology, you will note the
historical arguments that surround verse 15. We tried to dispel
those notions a couple of weeks ago. I'm just gonna read it.
I do this just for conscious sake, just in case a brother
or sister is listening. And I just try never to pass
over scriptures that are controversial or difficult just because it
would be easy to do. I don't like to always grind
at them because they have often been settled, but it's good to
make comment on them. I really do want to get into
verses 1 through 5 of chapter 3, so I'm hoping to be able to
do that. But in verse 15 of chapter 2, notice what it says. Therefore,
brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions. which you have been taught, whether
by word or our epistle. The Greek term is paradoxes,
and it means the teaching that was passed along. The teachings
passed along. The preposition para is like
many prepositions It is a transient preposition. We use the term
whenever we are attaching something or combining two thoughts. It
is a combining preposition para. It's rooted in the term parable,
and it means to come alongside of. This is where in the most
prominent Greek term that we use in the New Testament with
the preposition para, we use the word parabola or the term
paraklesis. Parabola is from which we get
our literal term parable, the parable. And a parable is a story
alongside of a concept or a truth to illustrate or augment or develop. So when the scripture says in
the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and without a parable,
Jesus did not teach. What it meant was that he didn't
always teach in parables exclusively, but that when he taught a doctrine
or a concept, what he would do is throw along a parable on the
side of that teaching to illustrate it or develop it. That's what
a parable is. The verb in the word parable
is the Greek word bole, from which we get the term throw.
For us in the English are European culture, bowling is the same
idea. Parabola, bola is to throw alongside of something. So when
you are using the little clause for instance, and then you illustrate
something in order to teach something, that's the idea of a parabola.
In our particular Greek term, paradosis, dosis, our root word
here, rooting out here has to do with teaching or doctrine. teaching or doctrine. So we have the paradoxes. And what we said a couple of
weeks ago was that it's important if you're going to study scripture
comprehensively to really have been taught or exposed to what
we call systematic theology. So I would encourage you again
this fall when we start our systematic theology class that you would
join us. And I'll ask the question now,
if you are a student of the Bible and you really do enjoy the Bible,
haven't you found that you run across things in the Bible for
which you have no answer? You struggle with how to interpret
it or what it means. And to be honest, you run across
passages that in your mind contradict each other. Isn't that true?
I mean, we don't like to say it, but it's just true. One of
the reasons why you would want to learn what we call systematic
theology is because with systematic theology, you can be helped to
understand how to properly interpret scripture to be able to get behind
a statement or a verse or a passage of verses that you are struggling
through. For instance, with verse 15,
If we were going to do a full exegesis of verse 15 in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2, what we would ask is when Paul says that they were
to hold to maintain the traditions, we would ask what season is this
imperative or this command given? And what I mean by that is this.
Are we in the Old Testament or are we in the New Testament?
Because covenants will mean a lot in terms of how we begin to interpret
that passage. We would ask the question when
Paul says traditions, are we dealing with Old Testament revelation
or New Testament revelation? And then we would ask if we're
dealing with New Testament revelation along the spectrum of the time
after our Lord's ascension, to the time where the scriptures
were what we call completed or canonized the 66 books that you
have. Somewhere along the spectrum
of our Lord's passing his word to the disciples, that's John
17 verses nine and following. Father, I pray not for the world,
but I pray for those whom you have given me out of the world.
I also pray for those whom I have given your word to them that
whoever believes on me through them also might have the blessing
of eternal life. Meaning that he prayed for the
ministry of the apostles and those who would believe on Christ
through them. Now, in order for people to believe
on Christ through the apostles, Obviously the Lord Jesus Christ
would have had to deposit into the life of the apostles some
body of truth and doctrine for them to communicate, right? So
I have shared with you in what we call bibliology, one of the
disciplines of systematic theology called bibliology, how the Bible
was put together, which to me is really a precious study and
course that every Christian should know. You should really know
how your Bible was put together. It would give you a little bit
more of authority when you speak to people about the scriptures.
How often have you been confronted with the question? Well, the
Bible was written by men. How do we know that we can trust
it? Right. Well, with Bibliology,
it actually gives you a much more confident position from
which to say, we know that this is the Word of God. Because with
Bibliology, you learn the origin of the Scriptures. You also learn
the process by which the Scriptures were put together, you learn
the specifics of how the books were organized, structured, both
in the Old Testament and in the New. And you are given biblical
passages to substantiate what we call the origin and the canonization
of the scriptures, the authority of the scriptures. You want to
be able to say, you know that the Bible is the word of God. But what you also need to know,
because people make this mistake, is that The vast majority of
the church up until about the last 1300 years, until the last 800 years, the vast majority of the
church in terms of the laity or the common people did not
have the scriptures in hand like you do. So if one were trying
to fight for the authority of scripture minus everything else,
you would have a problem with the history of how God worked.
You would have to know that behind the written word is the living
word and behind the living word is the spoken word. And behind
the spoken word is the authority of God who spoke through the
prophets. And then he spoke to us in Jesus
Christ. That's what I meant by the living
word. And then he finalized the whole of scripture, which gives
us the testimony of the living word and the spoken word. Are
you guys following what I'm saying? And if this is true, then there
are implications to this process that we have to take into mind.
Namely this, that God saw fit to develop a people both in the
Old Testament and the new by virtue of oral transmission of
truth. That's the term tradition. God
saw fit to save men and women from the days of Cain and Abel
all the way up to the coming of Jesus by the oral proclamation
of his word in the mouth of his prophets. And very often the
people of God were merely subject to the prophets. Are you guys
hearing what I'm saying? And so then we said it a few
weeks ago, faith comes by what? And hearing by what? And so now
watch this. I want you to get this. This
is very important. Watch this now. It means that faith can
be communicated to the soul by the vocalizing of divine truth
that's given to a person from God in order for it to be transmitted
or communicated to another person. We are not necessarily bound
by the written text, what we call scripture, for God to have
communicated. And especially prior to what
we call the canonization or the whole record, our volume of scripture
we have in our present hand. So from the beginning of time,
God spoke through the prophets, didn't he? Isn't that Hebrews
chapter one? He spoke to the fathers through the prophets.
In these last days, he has spoken to us in his son, That's the
Lord Jesus. He became for us, according to
John 1, 14, the word made what? Dwelling among us. And he becomes
the consummation of the revelation of the Old Testament, the embodiment
of the revelation of the Old Testament, visibly manifested
to the apostles who now receive his word and pass it along to
the New Testament church orally. And as God moves them, they are
inspired to write down as they instruct the churches of Christ
how to live out the gospel. So can I explain this a little
bit further just to help you? So here's a local church, right?
Jew or Gentile and maybe a mix in the New Testament who have
been providentially exposed to one of the apostles. These apostles
are ordained and appointed by God to preach the gospel with
power. Men and women are converted and
brought to a saving knowledge of Christ. They may not have
any New Testament writing whatsoever. In fact, they may not even have
the Old Testament writing if they are not part of a Jewish
culture of which the gospel mandate was to the Jew first, then also
to the Gentile, right? But as the Gentiles were being
brought into the faith, it is extremely likely that they did
not have their hands on scripture in the one-to-one ratio that
you and I have our hands on scripture, which means often the people
of God were utterly dependent upon an accurate recollection
and oral representation of the gospel in the mouth of the apostles
and those who said they knew the apostles. In fact, that's
the whole premise upon Second Thessalonians, when the apostle
Paul opens up in chapter two, when he says, do not be soon
shaken by word or by spirit or by letter as from us suggesting
that the day of the Lord has already come. So what is Paul
doing? He's going back and he's explaining to the church at Thessalonica,
you've got these guys coming in who call themselves apostles
and they're saying that they have received a word from the
Lord. But if their word from the Lord doesn't correspond with
our word from the Lord, don't listen to them. Are you guys
understanding what I'm saying? Now, all of this is taking place
almost exclusively in the realm of oracular communication. The
epistles primarily were correctives. The epistles were primarily correctives,
correcting the false teachings that had crept into the churches
after the apostles had planted and established the churches.
Now I'm not saying that some people in the congregation didn't
have the scriptures. What I am saying to you is that in the
early church and throughout major portions of the first millennium,
that the people of God didn't have a prolific accessibility
to scripture like you and I do today. You and I are more culpable
today of a knowledge of God in a right way because we have the
written word of God. The people of God often had to
struggle with being part of extremely poor indigenous cultures around
the world where all they had were either fragments of scripture
or merely the traditions passed along to them by the apostles,
those who knew the apostles, those who knew those who knew
the apostles and so on. And this is what Paul is saying.
Paul is saying to the church at Thessalonica, hold on, look
at it at verse 15. Therefore, brethren, stand fast
and hold the traditions which you have, here it is, are you
ready? Been taught. Whether by word, there it is,
or our what? And they wouldn't have had the
epistles until now. As you and I are reading 1st
and 2nd Thessalonians, they wouldn't have had 1st or 2nd Thessalonians
until now. And according to the historical
data, 2nd Thessalonians came really close on the heels of
1st Thessalonians because the church was experiencing lots
of problems. What am I saying? I just want
you to understand this as we move forward. In the early church,
the struggle that they had to go through is not the same struggle
that you and I go through today. In the early church, the struggle
they had to go through was making sure that the message that was
passed along, the teachings that were passed along, corresponded
to apostolic doctrine. Are you guys hearing me? Okay,
that's good. I just want you to know that.
So when you read a verse of scripture like 1 John chapter 4, verses
4 through 6, Verses 1 through 6 where the Apostle John says
beloved believe not every spirit But try the spirits whether indeed
they be of God or not Every spirit that comes into the world is
not of God in that word spirit there corresponds to teacher
It's not a demon. It's not an angel. It's not a
celestial being it's a teacher Beloved believe not every spiritual
one everybody who says they have the spirit everybody who says
they're called to teach is Examine them and then what he says over
in verse six is there's two spirits in the world the spirit of truth
and the spirit of what? And here's what he also says
in that same chapter beloved if they do not hear us They're
not of God and the us in that context are the Apostles so what
the apostles had the authority to do was to actually use their
teachings as the plumb line of testing all the other teachings
and If the teachings that were taking place in that first century
did not correspond with apostolic doctrine, they were to be rejected. Isn't that what Paul said in
Galatians chapter 1? Galatians chapter 1 as he dealt
with the church at Galatia he says if any other person bring
any other gospel to you then that which we have already preached
even if it be an angel let him be what occurs that's how serious
this was but you see how diligent the early church had to be with
hearing they had to be careful and so I say that because I often
what people will assert, particularly outside of what we call the evangelical
church, which is the Bible-centered community of believers, is that
when Paul said, hold fast to the traditions, it would assert
that we can hold fast to the scriptures, plus those extra
biblical past practices that are alleged to have taken place
alongside of the scriptures, even up to the present day. One
of the things that hallmarks the New Testament church as well
as our evangelical church. And this is certainly a foundational
principle that started in the Protestant church. And that is
this, we believe in what is called sola scriptura, our scripture
alone as the final and sole authority for faith and doctrine, that
we do not equate the traditions of men with the teachings of
scripture. We do not make what men have
practiced in their paradoxes for hundreds of years equal to
the authority of scripture. And yet in churches like the
Catholic Church has no qualm with that. And so they have multitudes
of books outside of the scriptures that are called pseudepigraphs
and apocryphal books of which they have traditions of men's
and practices that are contradicting the scriptures. And yet, because
they hold them in equal value, they will derive from those passages,
practices, which they engage in even presently in the Catholic
church for which a Protestant Christian who is knowledgeable
of his Bible, when he goes into that community and watch what
they do, will quickly understand that that church is not established
on scripture alone. Now having said that, it is true
also in many evangelical churches that while they will allege that
they believe the Bible, in fact they have teachings and practices
that take place that are extra biblical of which They also become
equal in their authority with the scriptures that if people
do not adhere to and embrace the practices that are taking
place in that church, they are in danger of excommunication
and heresy or heterodoxy. And again, we are now outside
of the range of scripture. We have to be extremely careful
not to fall prey to that. All right, look at verses 16
and 17 so we can begin to move into our next chapters. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our father, which has loved us and has given us
everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your
hearts and establish you in every good word and word. This here
is a blessing. This is called a benediction
on the part of the apostle Paul to the church at Thessalonica.
Notice what he says. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our father, which hath loved us. Do you guys see
that? Which hath loved us. In your
outline, I have verse 16, father and son. Do you see that? Father
and son. And I, I call this what, what
I call the, and I want to talk about this more particularly
on Sunday. I call this a family assurance,
father and son. Now the apostle Paul is identifying
two persons of the Godhead here, the father and the son, and he's,
blessing the church at Thessalonica through these two persons of
the Godhead. And he's speaking to the church
at Thessalonica about the love that the father and the son have
towards the church. Are you with me so far? And here's
what he says. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ himself
in God, even our father. Now watch this. He gives a descriptive.
This is a descriptive which hath loved us. So you notice, if I'm
gonna be right in describing the love, I need to put a D here
and understand that we are talking about the what? Past tense, right? Which hath loved us. So as he
introduces us to the Father and the Son and says, we pray that
the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father bless you, let me remind
you that the Father and the Son have already loved us. Now this is important. This is
important because very often because of who we are and how
naturally inclined to self-centeredness we become, we can easily relate
to God on a premise of, are you loving me now? This is a whole
lot of our humanistic, emotional, psychological theology today. Does God love me now? And how
are you loving me now? In what way are you loving me
right now? Are you guys following me? But
here's what I would have you to do in your own time. I'm not
going to develop this. If you go through the scriptures, particularly
the New Testament, this is true of the Old Testament to wherever
it speaks of God's love for his people. Now watch this now. The vast majority of the time
it is in the past tense. that when God calls you to remind
yourself of his love for you, he calls you to look backwards
to what God already did in terms of his love for you so that you
don't judge the Lord by feeble means and get caught up in circumstances
and events determining whether God loves you today and hates
you tomorrow based upon your circumstances. God's love is
fixed, it's permanent, it's immutable, and it can be detected, it can
be recovered on your part and mine when we look back to what
he did. For the children of Israel, you
know what God often did when he gave a superscription or an
announcement of his presence? He would say, I am the Lord,
your God, which has brought you out of the land of Egypt. You
shall have no other God before me. You know what he just said?
I have loved you. Isn't that wild? Listen to this.
Here you are slaves in Egypt, groaning and moaning because
you are building bricks without mortar and Pharaoh is beating
you down. God broke in on the greatest
nation in the universe and delivered you by a mighty hand and an outstretched
arm Brought you through the Red Sea and then into the wilderness
and then into the promised land and whenever he gives you a calling
card He says remember I'm the God that delivered you Why are
you asking do I love you? Are you hearing me? So now the
Old Testament deliverance of Israel out of Egypt corresponds
to the New Testament deliverance of all of God's elect at Calvary. This is why in your outline it's
very important for you to hear this. If you and I are going
to be stable in our relationship with Christ, we have to understand
a cross-centered love. Do you see that in your outline?
He hath loved us with a cross-centered love. Do you guys see that? He
hath loved us with a cross-centered love. This is first John chapter
3 verse 16 and the love of God was manifest in this that Christ
died for our sins. This is how I know that he loves
me because he what died for my sin. Nothing is more stabilizing
than the past tense love of God for you. I'll say that again. Nothing is more stabilizing than
the past tense love of God for you. Now watch this, I wanna
help you with this now. Because while God will act providentially
because he's the true and the living God in changing circumstances
and events in your life. where God will move troubles
out of the way, where God will answer prayer and God will deliver. How many of you know that God
does that? And you know, if you're saved, you have the gift of being
able to discern God's providential hand in your life. And it breaks
you and it humbles you and it gives you great joy. Isn't that
right? But come on now, tell the truth. the providential acts
of God on a daily or weekly or monthly or yearly basis, while
they are absolutely wonderful in the moment, it's kind of like
eating a plate of food. You'll get full, but tomorrow
you'll be hungry again. Am I telling the truth? And you
marvel at how last month God delivered you, but this month
you're still worrying, will God deliver you? Am I making some
sense? And it's because what you are
doing is shifting the focus of the issue of God's love for you
from the eternal immutable perspective of what was accomplished once
for all at Calvary to your daily circumstances. And people who
live in the daily circumstances of the question, does God love
me, can never ever fully experience comfort. Did you hear what I
just said? The people that live on the day-to-day
level of does God love me because I'm not quite sure I'm gonna
make it, can never enter into the comfort that Paul is saying
that God wants us to have. Look at verse 17. This God, through
Jesus Christ, who hath loved us, I'm praying that he comfort
your hearts. You see that? And establish you
in every good word and work. And I wanna simply say one more
thing about this. When Paul puts together the idea of the Father
and the Son. You guys see that? I want you
to understand this. If you ever get both the Father
and the Son together, you are legally safe from going to hell. If he ever blesses you through
the Father and the Son, what he has done is secured your eternal
justification, because while God the Father is judge, God
the Son is your advocate. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And so if I have an advocate with the father, even Jesus Christ,
the righteous, even though in myself I am guilty of transgressing
God's law, the father who is every right just to punish me
for my sins will not, yea, cannot because my advocate is his son. My advocate is the son of God,
the father. and he ever lives to intercede
for me and to stand in the gap to fill in what I cannot in terms
of my inability to correspond with God's righteous demands.
I need the comfort of not only a God who have worked in the
past, but that work which he accomplished in the past has
eternal efficacy at all times. The comfort therefore that the
believer has is the comfort that there is therefore now no condemnation
to those that are in Christ Jesus. You guys got that? Let me say
what that means too because sometimes we do really bring down Eternal
verities that have their sphere and their their efficacy in a
legal realm and we try to make them Emotional and psychological
but the concept of condemnation is not about how you feel It's
about where you stand When God says there is therefore now no
condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus what he's talking
about is the full and thorough remission of your sins based
upon the proprietary work of Christ at Calvary, so that God
can always view you as absolutely and totally righteous in his
sight. That's the further development
of chapter eight. As you know, who shall lay any
charge to God's elect? It's God that justified Christ
that died, yea, rather is risen again. He sits at the right hand
of God mediating on my behalf as my advocate right along with
the Holy Ghost. If God before us who can be against
us. See now what we're talking about
is what we call the heart of the gospel and what God did with
the gospel was to make sure that what was most important to him
was accomplished not what was most important to you. So the
old writer said, judge not the Lord by feeble means, but trust
him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence,
there stands a smiling face. Judge not the Lord by the feeble
means of the daily ups and downs, and particularly the questions
and the doubts that run through your mind because you get wrapped
up in your events and your circumstances. And Lord, you know, if you really
love me, Am I telling the truth? Where you at Lord? Well, I'm
in the same place I always been. On my throne in glory, running
the universe for my son's glory and your good. I'm in the same
place. Now I might ask you where you
at, right? I'm working through a thesis
right now on the false assumption of the equidistance of God. And looking forward to developing
that. And this is the false or what
we would consider the undeveloped notion that the believer and
God are always in the same place experientially. And therefore,
you and I never have to struggle with distance or proximity in
our relationship with God. That's a flawed notion. Positionally,
I am as close to God as any person can be. in the person of Christ,
I am equal to him positionally. But on a practical level, and
this is the relational level, there is need for me to draw
near to God so that he might draw near to me. Am I making
some sense? Because God would have with us
a relationship. Draw near to God and God will
draw near to you. Draw away from God and God will
be distant from you because you drew away from God. You guys
understand that? I love the way the old country
preacher put it. He was talking about this 65 Chevy that he used
to ride. That's a long time ago, isn't
it? 65 Chevy, big old, remember those big old steering wheels?
This is how big they looked when I was five years old. Cause my
daddy had a big old drop top Chevys, you know, riding down
the highway. And he was talking about how his wife. of 50 years
when they first met. She was so happy hanging out
with him. She'd be in the car all up against his arms and everything
while they're driving. And after about a year, she was
about four feet away. And whenever she was mad, I mean,
she was way over against the door. Now, you know how big those
cars were, right? And he would say to her, I haven't
moved. I'm still behind the wheel. The
distance took place on your part, right? and that's what God would
say to us. When we ask the question, God,
where are you at? I'm in the same place I've always been.
I'm still driving this car, but you have distanced yourself from
me. And that theology is critical too, because while there is space
between us and God, we get in trouble. Okay, so the exhortation
by the apostle Paul in verses 15 through 17 really is to continue
to hold to the gospel and be blessed by the past tense love
of God in Christ for you. And in so doing, God will comfort
your heart and establish you in every good work. Verses 15
through 17 really then are what we call perseverance exhortations. It's a exhortation to persevere
in the gospel. Does that make sense? All right,
chapter three, verse one. Let's finally break into it now.
I'm gonna read verses one through five, and we're gonna just break
open verse one for tonight. Chapter three, verse one. pray
for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified
even as it is with you and that we may be delivered from unreasonable
and wicked men for all men have not what. And so the Apostle
Paul opens up in that humble disposition of which he always
does, which was remarkable to me. Paul never failed to ask
the churches to pray for him, but we'll unpack that here in
a moment. Verse three, But the Lord is faithful who shall establish
you and keep you from evil. And we have confidence in the
Lord touching you that you both do and will do the things which
we command you. And the Lord direct your hearts
into the love of God and into the patient waiting of Jesus
Christ, or for Jesus Christ. Now verses one through five of
chapter three is a Magna Carta for the church. It lays out for
us what our responsibilities are and what God's promises are
for us. So as we open up chapter three,
verse one, I want you to notice what it says. Finally, brethren
pray for us. Paul is appealing to the churches
of Thessalonica, like he did all the other churches to pray
for the apostles. Now notice what he says, pray
for us. And then he goes on to say that
the word of the Lord may have what? What an interesting prayer. When was the last time somebody
asked you to pray for the free course journey of the word of
the Lord? That the word of the Lord may
have free course. What a prayer. So let's talk
about this. The apostle Paul is letting the
church at Thessalonica know in a very responsible way that the
Word of God doesn't prevail or advance or increase in a vacuum. That in order for the Word of
God to be successful, the people of God have to pray. I want you
to hear this now. We're getting ready to unpack
this. What an interesting prayer. The Apostle Paul says to the
church at Thessalonica, pray for us that the word of the Lord
have free course. Now the term free course can
literally be translated to run. We pray that the word of the
Lord will be free to run. You guys see that is why he uses
the word course. The English translation course
is there because it takes on the Greek term track. Oh, from which we get the term
in athletics. What track? Well, what do you
do on a track? Okay. Stay with me now. So then
what the apostle Paul is reintroducing as he gets ready to close chapter
three of the book of Thessalonians is the universal objective of
the gospel, which the believer and the church of Christ must
always keep in mind. I was thinking about this last
week when I was looking forward to actually opening up chapter
three. And here's what I want to say to us. It's important
that we as the people of God understand that God has an agenda
and that his agenda is bigger than you and me. It's very important
that you know that because otherwise our prayers will be too small
in circumference. When we pray, we won't be praying
in terms of God's eternal perspective. When you come into the church,
by the mercy of God, what you have been privileged to do is
to enter into something that has been taking place long, long
ago. As I've said before, the gospel
doesn't start with you and it doesn't finish with you. And
it would be a very good thing if all of us individually, and
certainly all of us collectively as the church, would view ourselves,
are you ready? As runners in a race. It would
be very good if out of the hundreds of metaphors in our... men's
leadership class about a month ago, I shared with the guys about
who we are in Christ. And in that statement, who we
are in Christ, I gave about 60 or 70 metaphors. The Bible has hundreds of metaphors
to describe the believer, right? You are the light of the world.
You are the salt of the earth. You are this, you are that. You
are vessels unto the Lord. You are servants of God. You
are trees of righteousness. I could go on wells of salvation.
many things we are of which if you were to grab hold to these
indicatives and Take each one of them and do word studies.
You would be amazed at all that you are in Christ Are you hearing
me? You would be absolutely blown
away by what God thinks of you as a believer in Christ I mean
I just ran off about 30 or 40. And then when I opened up the
concordance, it was way too many more for me to deal with. And
I allowed myself to worship at that point because I once again
was reminded that God sees in me way more than I see in myself. But I said to myself, Lord, if
you ever give me the time, I'm going to develop every one of
these indicatives of which by analogy you describe who I am
in Christ. And I'm making these assignments
for our men study to over the next year that every man will
have to develop one of these particular analogies that describe
who we are in Christ. And I might say now in terms
of this study, It is not a new thing or a New Testament thing
for us to be called runners. Stay right there. For to be a
runner is to simply be an evangelist. To be a runner is to simply be
an ambassador. To be a runner is to simply be
Someone who bears what? Good news. Blessed are the feet
of them that preach, proclaim, publish good tidings. In the
Old Testament, the concept of the gospel, the term good tidings
is the way that is translated. And it had to do with an individual
who either ran with a message from the king or the captain
in the midst of war or in preparation for war or in the success of
war to let the people know the victory that had already been
accomplished or would be accomplished. In any event, when the news came
to whom it was targeted. It was good news. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? Now watch this. But in order
for that news to get there, it required a runner. Every believer, therefore, who
is a gospeler, an evangelist, a euangelon, is a runner. That's what you've been called
to do. Somebody ran to you with the gospel and gave it to you,
called you to shout hallelujah. They pass that baton to you,
and it's your job to pass it to somebody else. Now, interestingly
enough, however, what the apostle Paul is doing, which is to exercise
our senses, is to suggest not in this context that you and
I are the runner, but God's word is the runner. Isn't that interesting? Listen to what he says, and I
want this to come home to our thoughts. Finally, brother, pray
for us that the word of the Lord may have free course, literally
may run. Pray for us that the word of
the Lord may run. So I want us to work through
this a little bit. Liberating the gospel's agenda
through prayer. Do you guys see that? That's
the first point in your outline, chapter three, verses one through
five, liberating the gospel's agenda through prayer. Can we
do that? Can the people of God, in conjunction
with the imperative or command from God, pray and the Word of
God be liberated to run? Can that happen? Are there biblical
examples of that? Acts chapter 12 is where I'm
at right now. If you haven't been there, go there with me.
I'll show you what I mean in Acts chapter 12. This is going
to open up our understanding also of how important the concept
of prayer is in this task of the word of the Lord running.
Acts chapter 12. Some of you have been there before.
This will be a blessing to a lot of you who haven't. And this
is a really good challenge. Chapter 12 is a really good challenge
because it will teach us something about the way God works synergistically
with his church to advance the word. Now about that time, Herod
the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church.
He killed John. He killed James, the brother
of John, with a sword. And because he saw that it pleased
the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. Then were
the days of unleavened bread. And when he had apprehended Peter,
he put him where? And delivered him to four quaternions
of soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter to bring him forth
to the people with what objective? To kill him. So now think about
this with me. If Paul, who hasn't come on the
scene yet, he's not in this band with the Jewish believers, if
Paul's prayer was that we pray that the word of the Lord have
free course, you understand that by implication, the word of the
Lord is going to be resisted and hindered and obstacles are
going to be set in its way? and there's gonna be stumbling
blocks and causes that would stop the word from going forth.
Is that proposition acceptable in your ears? I want you to hear
what I'm saying right now. This is important. You and I
might think that God has determined that he's going to see to it
that his word is successful apart from means, but you would be
wrong. If you study your Bible carefully,
God has chosen to accomplish the cause and success and termination
of his word, that is the gospel in the midst of conflict, in
the midst of opposition, in the midst of adversity, in the midst
of resistance, in the midst of warfare. Are you hearing me for
a moment? All right. So if I'm sounding
aloof and distant, can I make some personal application so
you can get this? All right, we share the gospel
with people we love, like our sons and our daughters and our
children and our brothers and our sisters and our loved ones,
right? And we are under the notion that just because we shared that
word with them, that God now is going to use that word to
save them. But do you understand that the
distance from God's decree to your mouth, to their heart in
conversion is a distance that includes opposition and hostility
and conflict and adversity and obstacles and stumbling blocks? Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Are you hearing? See how important this subject
is? We are praying, we are asking you to pray for us as the Apostle
Paul, that the word of the Lord may have free course. So this
is a good lesson for us to think through a number of things. What does it mean for the word
of the Lord to have free course, and how important really are
my prayers to that end? Well, in chapter 12, the secular
authorities and the religious authorities have been able to
hinder the word of God by killing one of the apostles. The secular
authorities and the religious authorities, here Raj, he's a
secular religious authority in Jerusalem, is now setting up
to kill Peter. Are you hearing me? Now, listen,
these are apostles now. This is not Pastor Jesse, you
know, they can take me out and you know, God will still get
it. But we're talking about now a major assault on the course
of the gospel. We're talking about a serious
opposition to that nucleus that Jesus had passed the baton to
12 men and by one secular religious authority who is now taking on
the image of the beast, Revelation 12 and 13, is opposing God's
mouthpiece by which the gospel goes forth. If we sit around
and do nothing, we could well expect, expect that if they have,
that is the wicked one, free course, they kill up all the
apostles. Isn't that true? they kill up
all the apostles. So in this harrowing situation
where we are seeing the political, secular, religious authorities
opposing the gospel, they are killing God's precious servants
in whom he has deposited the truth. What are we going to do
about it? Well, the text tells us, doesn't it? Look at what
it says. I'm going to keep reading verses
four and following. And when he had apprehended him, that
is Peter, he put him in prison and delivered him to the quaternium
of soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter to bring him forth
to the people. Peter there, you see how religious
folks are? We're gonna do Easter, but after
Easter, we're gonna kill this man. Peter therefore was kept in prison.
I want you to hear this. Are you ready? But prayer was
made without ceasing. of the church of God for Him. Do you see it? But prayer was
made without ceasing of the church unto God for Him. But prayer was made without ceasing
unto God by the church for Him. So now, has there been anything
of this nature to transpire in your life of which it compelled
you or impaled you to pray without ceasing until the word of the
Lord terminated as it ought to have. You see the challenge here?
Has there been any situation in your life where there was
mortal and eternal danger on the object of your love for which
it drove you to pray without ceasing that God would do something
to intervene? See in this year is a perfect
analogy of the exhortation to pray that the word of the Lord
have free course. Is that right? And what is the church doing
praying? Without what now isn't that amazing? Okay. So now help me brothers and sisters.
I'm in the 21st century right along with you. And as I'm thinking
about this, I'm thinking about a number of other things and
I know last Sunday's message was really challenging. It was
really tough because we had to deal with half-hearted hearing
and all kind of carnalities. But we had to actually take a
good look at what's going on with us because if we don't see
things the way they really are, we will ultimately be deceived,
right? And led down a wrong path. Why isn't it? Let me put it this
way. What does it look like for a
church to pray without ceasing. And what are the conditions that
would merit that? Talk to me. We are in the 21st
century. We are American Christians. We
are in ostensibly the greatest country in the world. We have
at our disposal all sorts of technological and agricultural
and domestic resources. Our lives are fairly comfortable,
aren't they? Fairly comfortable. Is there
anything with which you can imagine that would occur in the life
of the church for which it would cause the church to stop everything
and pray without ceasing? See, what's going on in our lives
that we can't imagine a season of ongoing, unending prayer that
the word of the Lord may be released the obstacles and the hindrances
and the adversity and the resistance from it terminating in terms
of its goal to save sinners. What's going on that we don't
feel like that kind of urgency is necessary? Isn't that a good
question? So I leave that with you to think
it through because what it really amounts to is this. Here's what
it really amounts to as we get ready to break into the passages
a little bit further. What it really amounts to is
this. I think that what the enemy has been able to successfully
do, and I'm not calling for any action, but I am calling for
thinking. I think the enemy has successfully
persuaded us to develop a dichotomy. between our secular life and
our spiritual life. And there is such a gap between
the two that the two don't overlap. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
That over here we have our secular life and it has demands that
are virtually inviolable. And what I mean by that is you
couldn't imagine yourself being drawn away from what you do in
your secular vocation. for the cause of Christ over
here in this spiritual dimension. That's huge, isn't it? See, and
with that kind of thinking, here's what's going on. The enemy has
basically placed the church by virtue of the intricate matrix
and web of 21st century life on a reservation. The enemy has
placed the church on a reservation. You know how we did our indigenous
Indian brothers and sisters, we took their land and we gave
them whiskey and cigars and we quieted them down with a little
money and we gave them casinos and we got them addicted to getting
high so that they wouldn't have to really have to work through
the pain until they got angry enough to rise up and say, hey,
Cause you know, if you can kill the pain, then you can stop the
anger. And if you stop the anger, then you will stop the zeal.
And so we got most of our Indian coaches drunk most of the time,
and they're just fine sitting on a log. wondering what happened,
how did all this get taken away from us? And all these strangers
come in and take our land. I'm just telling you the truth.
You may not like it, but I'm telling you how it is. This is just what
happens. And this happens all around the world where power
is able to oppress the poor. That's what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes
5. And when that poor people are
marginalized and excised from the larger culture, they don't
feel any kind of mandate. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
There's no mandate for them. Listen, there's no mandate for
them to recover what they lost. And so in a real sense, the church,
particularly in America, has lost the mandate. We're on the reservation and
we're working inside the reservation, you know, probably, if the analogy
follows, to deal with a bunch of sick folk that's, you know,
that's that's the alcoholic and got psychological problems and
different abnormalities. But there's no recovery of anything
that requires the components that are accompanying what we
call legitimate evangelism, because legitimate evangelism is not
an accommodating message. It's not an affirming message.
It's a confrontational message. Am I telling the truth? And so
here is what I know that we don't really want to find ourselves
getting into, and that is taking the kingdom of God as serious
as it should be taken. So I think that what we are experiencing,
particularly in America, before I go back to my text, is the
gradual incremental muffling and silencing of any real influence
on the part of the church. So that what's happening, if
we use the analogy of the land of Palestine where Israel was
to go in and they had inheritances carved out for the 12 tribes,
all they needed to do was to go take the land and it was good,
right? But they never could do it because
they didn't want to pay the cost for taking the land. They didn't
see the mandate as being that important. They got into the
land and they were ready to operate out of what we call the dialectic.
And that is a compromise of maintaining relations, mutual relations with
the sworn enemies of God until at last the gospel was gone.
As God told Joshua to tell the people, if you let them stay
in the land, they will be pricks in your side and thorns in your
eyes, and they will overtake you and you will be their slaves.
Am I, am I, am I telling the truth a little bit? Am I telling?
So, so here's, here's what the mandate was in the first century,
which really is still the mandate today. And I'm not getting into
the pragmatics, but what I, what I asked God to do for me and
for his people is to show me the truth that we are missing,
that will set us up to fail, to accomplish what you have called
us to so that I can tell your people. Because if God bothers
me, I'm not going to be bothered by myself. I'm going to bother
you, too. I'm sorry if he bothers me. I'm
a bother you. And if you don't want to be bothered,
then don't listen to me. But I'm a bother you if God bothers
me, OK? When Paul says, pray that the
word of the Lord may have free course to me, he's asking for
us to do the least and most logical thing we can possibly do. And you know what that is? Pray. That's the least and most logical
thing we can possibly do. Because when he says that the
word of the Lord may have free course, you can be sure of this.
He wasn't even remotely suggesting that angels were gonna be flying
over people's homes, dropping the word. He's including people
who would be called to preach and teach and lead and therefore
suffer for the cause of Christ. But in order for them to actually
do their job with success, are you hearing me? Somebody would
have to what? Pray, right? So what if in all of our churches
throughout the nation of America, For the last 40 years, we have
been lulled to sleep where we don't do midweek prayer service as an exclusive ministry itself. Am I making some sense? What
happened to that element of our calling by which the word of
the Lord could have free course? Where are we at as a body of
Christ where we don't think we need to devote ourselves to prayer. How much success have we accomplished
in terms of the gospel that we are free in our conscious not
to pray? Either we are so successful that
we are spending most of our time doing backflips thanking God
for the conquering work of his grace in the life of everybody
we know or we have been deceived. Right. And what we are watching
take place is the silencing of the gospel incrementally throughout
the land on a legislative level that is on a political level
on a social domestic level, that is, in conversation between men
and women, in an ecclesiological level, on an ecclesiastic level,
that is, in the church, that the church doesn't speak in terms
of a drive and a compulsion to want to see the Word go forth.
And it appears like we are also probably blinded to the needs
of those nearest to us for which we are not compelled to pray. Am I making some sense? So I'm
in trouble when I am not compelled to pray every day for my children. I'm in trouble when I am not
compelled to say, Lord, save my children. Am I telling the
truth? Somewhere I have failed to understand
that that's the least and most appropriate thing I can do. And
then whatever else I can do. So you see what Paul is asserting,
brethren, and I'll share with you a few verses on this, is
that the Word of the Lord can be hindered and it will be hindered
if we don't what? The Word of the Lord can be hindered
and will be hindered if we don't pray. Let me read the rest of
this portion here in these next few verses so that you can see
the success of what occurred. through verse 12. And then I'm
going to show you a couple of verses along the lines of how
important it is for us to pray for the free course, the run,
the run of the word of the Lord. And when Herod would have brought
him forth, that is Peter, the same night, Peter was sleeping
between two soldiers bound with two chains and keepers of the
door kept the prison and behold, the angel of the Lord came upon
him and a light shined in the prison. And he smote Peter on
the side and raised him up saying arise quickly. And his chains
fell off from his hand. I want to ask somebody, I want
to ask you, Do you actually believe this? Do you believe verse six
and seven? If there's one person in the
room who don't believe this, I'm ready to stop and develop
this right here. But if I had everybody believing
that this is something that God does, then I can keep reading.
Can I keep reading? Okay. I know somebody had a hand up
over here. All right. And the angel said unto him,
gird yourself and bind on your sandals. And so he did. And he
said unto him, cast your garment about thee and follow me. And
he went out and followed him and did not know that it was
true, which was done by the angel, but thought he saw a vision.
And when they were past the first and second ward, they came unto
the iron gate that led into the city, which opened to them of
its own accord. And they went out and passed
through one street and forth with the angel departed from
him. And when Peter was come to himself, He said, Now I know
of a surety that the Lord has sent his angel and delivered
me out of the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the
people of the Jews. Verse 11 describes what God does. When his people pray. To deliver
men and women out of bondage. Right, I don't have to develop
this, this is an elaborate analogous description of the salvation
of a sinner who is under a death sentence, of which if God does
not extricate him, he will certainly die. Right? If God does not extricate him,
he's bound between 24 to 48 soldiers, he's gonna die tomorrow. If God
doesn't intervene today, he'll die. And in so far as his role
in the advancement of the gospel, it stops right there. And all
that was required for heaven to come down and to deliver this
man was the prayer of the church. So then, you know what the text
tells me? We don't believe God. Can I get a witness? If I am
not praying, you know what? I don't believe God. I don't
care what you say. Do you know what these people
who prayed believed? That God, now watch this, they
knew that the next day Peter was gone. And you know what else
about their prayer that was remarkable to me? James had already been
killed. You know what? That didn't stop
them from praying. because the mandate was still
given. Pray that the word of the Lord
may have what? Free course. Well, they got one,
but we still got 10. So they prayed and God manifested
honor to their prayer by delivering Peter out of the hand of Herod. Peter lived a long life after
this, didn't he? Did Peter from this point on
thank God for prayer? Did he thank God for the prayers
of the church? Did Peter, when he got 50, 60
years old, say, Lord, I show thank you for those praying saints
that night. Did he see? And when you and
I know that God had worked through prayer to deliver us from a situation
that in terms of our ability was impossible, we thank him
for the prayers of the saints, don't we? Because we know that's
how God works. Listen to what it says, verse
12. And when he had considered these things, he came to the
house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark,
where many were gathered together, saying, as Peter knocked at the
door of the gate, praying, I'm sorry, gathered together, praying.
And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to
hearken, to hearken named Rhoda. And when she knew Peter's voice,
she opened up the gate for gladness, but ran in and told how Peter
stood before the gate. Hey, y'all ain't gonna believe
this. Peter, right outside. We praying
and he right here. Now watch this. And they said
to her, girl, you mad. In the ghetto language, you crazy.
But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said it
is his angel. See how mystical we get? But Peter continued knocking.
And when they had opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.
They were astonished. Go with me in your Bible. The
first Thessalonians chapter two, the apostle Paul speaking to
the church at Thessalonica about the importance of praying that
the word of God has free course could do so because he has also
experienced this hindering of which he had already reminded
the church at Thessalonica as well. If we don't pray, what
we can expect at the hand of God in His chasing of us is defeat. Do you believe that? If we don't
pray, we can expect that God will teach us through defeat. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 2,
notice what it says over in verse 18. I'm going to start at verse
17. Are you there? But we brethren
being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart,
we endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desire. Now verse 17 has to have a context
for you. If you read the book of Acts, the original account
where the apostle Paul and Silas and Timothy had been called,
beckoned by the vision to come to Thessalonica and preach the
gospel to them, you would understand that they obeyed the spirit and
went to Thessalonica, Philippi, Thessalonica, and preached the
gospel to both of those cities. And the gospel was established
in those cities, but it was in the midst of great conflict.
I mean, intense warfare, because paganism was rampant at that
time. And wherever the gospel actually
takes place in a culture, and this is how you know when you
have authentic revival versus a pseudo revival, where the gospel
takes place in the culture, there is a moral transformation of
the culture. When the gospel actually establishes
itself in a culture, it is not merely that a church pops up
in the neighborhood. Did you hear me? It is not merely
that another church pops up in the neighborhood, but the life
of God in that church working in the people of the church permeates
the culture and as a catalyst begins to change the culture
morally, destroying the idols, the indigenous idols that keep
people blinded from the truth basically through the propositions
of the gospel as we share the word of God with men and women.
What God does, even in the midst of hostility, is open the eyes
of sinners to the reality of the glory of the true and the
living God in Jesus Christ so that they look over at those
idols that they made and come to despise them as abominable. See, it's the preaching of the
gospel that reveals the glory of God to lost sinners by which
now they get to estimate in a proper fashion the abominable things
that they have engaged in in their dark life. There is no
other way to equate what you are doing of which in your former
ignorance you call precious. There's no way to equate it in
its accurate assessment apart from a revelation of God's glory.
God's glory has to be revealed to men in order for them to see
sin as sin. Am I telling the truth? Let me
say it again, because I want you to get this. And these are
the things we've got to pray for. What we've got to pray for
is for God to work through his word to manifest his glory. Because where the glory of God
is manifested, then the idols are seen to be what they are,
sin. And when hearts are changed,
sin becomes abhorrent to the heart that's changed. There is
no way to break away from the idol apart from the power of
God. There's nothing that's going
to extricate you or deliver you or separate or free you from
the witchcrafting powers of idolatry that drape our lives and keep
us in bondage and distracted from God other than His glory. What saves a person out of darkness
is a manifestation of God's glory. Isn't that what happened to you?
God caused the light to penetrate your heart and it opened your
eyes and you saw the darkness for what it was. Now, I know
you know this because I'm singing to the choir, but here's the
problem with what I'm saying to us. If we're not careful,
even those statements which were gloriously transforming in our
own life become nothing but religious cliches. If we're not careful,
we will fail to see in our own lives a diminishing of the glory
of God so that God is no longer glorious to us. Am I telling the truth? He is
no longer glorious to us. Listen, I'm telling you, you
can't stop someone from glorying in the God of glory who has seen
his glory. You can't stop that. And the
person who is filled with that revelation is going to be a blessing
to some necessarily and a problem to others necessarily. And that's what God called us
to be. a blessing to some and a problem
to others. This is how you know you have
become a burning bush. Otherwise, nothing is happening
in your life. Am I making some sense? And so
this is what the apostle Paul said to the church at Thessalonica. He says, brethren, we were taken
from you for a short while. Remember, Paul had to run because
they were trying to kill it. He left Timothy and Silvanus
there for a minute, but he says, my heart was always with you.
And I've always desired to be there with you because my time,
which he was so short, I wasn't even sure if the gospel got planted
or not. But here's what he says. The
reason was in verse 18. Wherefore, we would have come
unto you, even I, Paul, once and again. What's the last line,
but Satan, what hindered? Do you see it now? You may be super sophisticated
and don't believe in a devil. But if that's the case, that's
all the reason in the world for me to believe in one. Because
his job is to deceive you into thinking that he doesn't exist.
But just like we cannot deny the works of Christ. He said,
if you don't believe me for my word's sake, believe me for my
work's sake. We cannot deny the works of the
devil. And the works of the devil is
to blind men and women to the glory of God. So we look out
at the vast burgeoning culture that you and I are part of and
ask the question, how many people among the masses of people that
we know really actually see the glory of God? We can know whether
or not people, hear me now, whether or not people are under the control
of the wicked one and he has successfully worked to hinder
the cause of the gospel or not. And if we draw the conclusion
that the wicked one has blinded the minds of those that believe
not, And he has hindered the gospel by all kinds of things
that we could braise up. I don't want to do that. I'm
going to open the floor for questions here in a moment, but next week I'm going
to, I'm going to come back and I want to talk to us about some
of the practical things that the enemy uses to set obstacles
up so that people don't see his glory. Cause you need to know
what they are. Don't you think you need to know? I think we need
to know. I know, you know, already some things in your own life,
but we want to look at those things because we want to determine
whether or not we have obstacles in our way that's hindering us
from praying as we ought to pray, are being part of the advancement
of the cause of the gospel. I'll tell you, and this is not
tooting my horn, and I hope you don't think that this is the
case, but God has showed me that as even the apostle Paul didn't
mind using himself as an example to encourage the saints in the
scriptures, so I am under obligation to do the same thing with you.
So for 35 years now, I have waken up every day under a great burden
to see the gospel advance everywhere. And very few times, if I recall,
have I ever gotten to a place, and I don't think it's ever been,
I'm just searching my heart right now, I don't think it's ever
been a time in my life that I have thought, okay, okay, God has
shown up in such a powerful way that he's answered my prayer
to manifest his glory to the generation in which I live. I
don't think yet I have seen God show up in this generation since
I've been alive. I'm not saying he hasn't saved
people. Don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about that. But
I'm talking about in a way in which this culture, this nation,
this world needs to see God. Am I making some sense to you? The God of glory who manifested
himself to the saints of the Old Testament and in a sparse
way manifest himself through the preaching of the gospel to
me and others 35 years ago. But in terms of a overall cultural
manifestation of God's glory, in my own experience, help me
now, I'm gonna open the floor right here. In my own experience,
the whole of my church experience, in my cultural experience, has
been the advancement of the kingdom of darkness and not the kingdom
of light. Where I am today in this hour,
in my mind with the knowledge I have of politics and the knowledge
I have of our government situation and knowledge I have of the churches
of Christ around the world, in my mind, I am in darker times
today than I was at my conversion. Which means part of my heart,
part of my heart is reserved waiting for an outpouring of
the Spirit of God. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
There's a part of my heart that always is reserved. It doesn't
get excited about what we're doing at grace. It doesn't get
excited about what I'm doing around the world or what I'm
doing around the nation. My heart doesn't get excited
about that. It's kind of like when you see
the Lord's vineyard, the way the Lord sees it, As Solomon
said, and I went by the vineyard of the slothful and I saw, lo,
it was all broken downs and thorns and nettles was everywhere. And
I was instructed in my mind, I'm thinking, you know, just
to be able to pull a few weeds up here and see a little weed
here doesn't at all begin to bring about a rejoicing when
the vineyard is so messed up. And it gives me a reason every
day to do all that I can to actually broadcast and communicate the
truth. Because one of the bigger problems
for me is that I don't see men who are called to preach casting
the vision correctly. I just don't see men saying the
church is in the condition that it really is. on a broad spectrum
scale. There are few men who know the
truth, but the vast majority of men act like the Lord is just
abundantly present and blessing everywhere. Well, either I don't
know the Lord or they're lying. Am I making some sense? Either
I don't know God or I'm on the wrong planet. Where is this? The Lord is moving among us. I've been hearing this for 30
years. And when I go in amongst those places, lo, I don't see
the movement of God. I see the movement of the flesh.
I see methods of men. I see carnal agendas. I see cultural
models and constructs that have a form of godliness. But I don't
see New Testament messianic. manifestations of the gospel. I don't see the court system
throwing saints in jail for the gospel. I don't see the kind
of, uh, savor of life and savor of death that the scripture says
the gospel would produce. I don't see the moral transformation
and even local, uh, uh, uh, counties. Do you, you'll, you'll hear about
a ministry here, ministry there on the East coast in the midst
of Midwest over the last 20 years, A lot of the so-called successful
big mega churches are out there where you can buy 20 acres for
$50. And yet when you go to those
places, you know what it is? It's just a larger reservation
of Indians contained, not having really any impact on the government. And whenever the government wants
to, he can put on his evangelical mask, go up in that church with
his big old Bible, and get the pastor to endorse his political
agenda and get everybody in the church to become liberals, Democrats,
progressives, independents, or whatever. And now they are at
his beckoning request and completely thrown off the task for which
God has raised up the church. Am I making some sense? All right,
the floor is open for 10 minutes. Got any questions? We need to
retire. Y'all want to go home. Questions? Somebody run the mic.
Come on, G. Run the mic. There you go. There you go. I'll
give you a piece of potato pie next week. Hold on. Hold on. He said is
he, uh, Curtis, David is saying, uh, is what you are describing
simply an end time prophetic fulfillment. Yes. Okay. Now,
did you guys hear that? Good. Can I, cause I want to
say something about that and I don't want to divert. Okay. Um, it could
be, but I warn you of an escapist mentality. Okay. It could be, but I warn you of
an escapist mentality. Fortunately, I grew up in the
60s with Hal Lindsey, late Great Planet Earth, 1984, and all of
those weird doctrines that emerged where a bunch of churches made
a bunch of money about the world ending. I cut my teeth on eschatology
by being part of a church and a group that was all into end-time
theology, right? And I've been into end-time eschatological
thinking for years and years and years. And one of the things
that I warn all of you about is an escapism mentality that
comes along with and eschatological thinking. This is not admonishing
you, I'm talking to us all, okay? I warn you about an escapist
mentality that is a defeatist mentality that can basically
totally hinder or thwart your call to think in terms of eternity
bound souls the way God does. Nothing can be more damaging
to an evangelical zeal then to conclude that the church is dead
universally. And the next thing that's happening
is the Lord Jesus is coming. So I'm getting ready to just
trim my lamp and, you know, sit in the corner and wait for Jesus
to come. Don't do that. Don't do it. I'll explain this
down the line. I'm looking forward to the day
when the topic in the church universal is eschatology. I'm looking forward to it. So,
you know, I don't, you know, I'm publicly, I don't mind telling
people what I believe, right? But I certainly do not, I do
not hold to a view that I have an understanding that the church
universally is on the brink of complete cessation and we are
at the door of Christ's return. I just don't believe that. I
want you to hear me. He can come anytime he wants
to. But even that if I see I could actually get into this we call
this the imminent return of Christ I don't believe that we are in
the imminent return of Christ Can I tell you what? I really
truly believe I believe that America is on the brink of death
Okay now mark this but I am not like all my forefathers who thought
when Europe was on the brink of death the world was on the
brink of death and And when Jerusalem was on the brink of death, the
world was on the brink of death. And when Rome was on the brink
of death, that's Europe, the world was on the brink of death.
I think America's on the brink of death, but that doesn't mean
the world is on the brink of death. And one of the mistakes
we can make is to think that our present generation is the
last generation. Are you hearing me? Now, if I
were expanding on the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3 and talk
about what our condition is, I would say that they are all
seven of the churches simultaneously. I could argue for that because
we have the benefit of technology and we understand the church
globally. You hear me? I could talk about churches that
are suffering for Christ today. I could talk about the segment
of the church that is cold theologically I mean, cold spiritually to Christ,
even though they have a legacy of theological orthodoxy. I could
talk about the church that's filled with paganism and feminism
and all of the stuff that dominates our social religions today. I
could talk about those, but those are segments. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? Those are segments. What God
is gonna do in the near future, I am not real sure. But I think
America is slated for a judgment, and the church will be rudely
awakened to its harlotry and whoredoms for having slept with
America and finding its comfort in American stability versus
in their relationship with God. OK? So another question. Another
question. Over here. Start with my sister
right there. Sister. Thanks again. I wish, I wish, I wish the church
would just spend a little time to pray. I wish we would see
so many deliverances. I wish. And that's what we're praying
for. Hold on. And even if America goes down
to the depths, I don't mind that. I don't, I could care less. The
church has never, never needed, a first-rate nation whose economy
runs the world for the church to live in its supernatural dimension. The church never needed that.
The church doesn't need a government that dominates the world imperially
and economically for the church to prosper. That's the whoredom
that I'm talking about. God kill that beast so the church
can wake up and live by the power of God. That's what I'm talking
about. That's what I'm talking about, because you'll find the
church more vital in third world countries where they're eating
beans and cornbread and they love God passionately. Never assume whenever the whenever
authorities in the scripture speak, whether it's the Apostle
Paul or whether it's the Lord Jesus or any of the other prophets
who make mention of one person of the Godhead, that they are
excluding the other persons of the Godhead. Never, never, ever
assume that. Never, ever assume that. Here's
how this works. The second person is talking
about the first person. And the second person is talking
about the first person through the third person. All three persons
are there. Do you hear me? And when you
guys are struggling through the Trinitarian persons of the Godhead
and you miss the spirit of God, because often you'll have the
New Testament epistles talk about the father and the son. There's
reasons for which that's the case. The spirit of God is not
like our pagan churches present him today as upfront and boisterous
and present. His job was to glorify the son
whose job is to glorify the father. The role of the spirit was to
actuate and empower the preaching and to inscripturate the works
of God. Wherever you read in the scriptures
about the Father and the Son, it's the Spirit that gave that
to you to read. His job is to work in holy men
of old, spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, to write it
down. So when I'm reading Ephesians, or reading Romans, or reading
Galatians, I'm reading the works of the Spirit of God. And his
work is to reveal the son who reveals the father. All three
persons are always there. Are you guys with me? All right,
next person. Oh, let me say something about the fields all white to
harvest. I'll let us out here in about
five minutes. As I was saying also earlier about how important
systematic theology is to give you a handle on texts of scripture
so that you don't take it out of context. I'll get you, Mother
Banks, so that you don't take it out of context. When Jesus
is speaking, the Johannine context of chapter 4 he's speaking to
the work of all the Old Testament prophets who had done the labor
of sowing the seed of the Word of God which had culminated up
to the one last and final prophet of the Old Testament which is
Christ himself and who is sowing at that very moment, and he knew
that he was about to bring a full harvest of that end time old
covenant group of believers into the New Testament fruition. When
he tells the disciples, look on the harvest, it's all white,
he was telling them in a few months, your job will be to read
where you did not sow. Other men have labored, and you
are about to enter into their labors, i.e. Pentecost, 3,000,
down the road, 5,000, wherever the apostles went, harvesting
that first fruits of the spirit in the New Testament age. Now,
having said that, after there are seasons of harvest in the
proclamation of the gospel, there is required seasons of what? Sowing in order for there to
be a harvest. That's the cycle that God works
cyclically throughout generations. You and I can ask the question,
is there a harvest to be had in our generation? Well, the
only way we can answer that question is this. Has there been a legitimate
sowing of the gospel in the life of the church over the last 10,
20, 30, 40 years in prayer, in Bible teaching, in Bible preaching,
in evangelism, in missionary works? Have many women been laying
down their lives for the cause of the gospel so that God could
blow on that seed and bring forth a harvest again and reap in many
men and women of whom we hope to be saved, our sons, our daughters,
and all of... We're sowing into our children's
lives. I told our church this back when
we were about 300 people, I said, I view you not as wheat, I view
you as seed. I don't look at grace as the
end of my labors, but my job is to equip you to be a seed
to sow into the ground that you might bring forth much fruit
and that that would recapitulate itself from generation to generation
so that maybe five generations from now our great great great
great grandchildren will say you know those folks back in
the year 2000 10 2012 long long ago back when the earth was just
crusted with knowing them those folks prayed for us and they
preached the word and they lived the gospel I'm so glad for their
labors because we got these old raggedy things called CDs and
mp3s That's the old stuff. They were using and then they
were preaching in those days That's what I'm talking about
Remember God is the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob not just Abraham
A couple more questions. Yeah, well, I know you're not
searching the scriptures carefully enough to conclude that when
God says that he's angry with the wicked every day, as he says
in the Psalms, Psalm 7, Psalm 9, Psalm 11, God is angry with
the wicked, not angry with what the wicked do, angry with the
wicked. And I've told you this before, God ain't throwing sin
in the hell, he's throwing people in the hell. Right. And in Romans
chapter nine, we were looking at that last week. Jacob, have
I loved Esau? Have I hated? So if we, if we
use what we call logical syllogism and we go, what God really means
by that, he doesn't, he, he, he doesn't hate the center, but
he hates the sin. If I follow that syllogism, what
it would mean is that God doesn't love me. He loves what I do.
Did you hear that? But you're not going to win people
through logic. You have to overcome the shame of the word of God
being very clear that God hates evil. God hates sin and God's
wrath is upon sinners and the whole human race deserves the
wrath of God. If you're going to share with
people the gospel, Um, just say what the scripture say. You're
under the wrath of God. The wrath of God abided upon
you. And until you repent and believe the gospel, you have
no right to the love of God. Do you guys hear what I just
said? You can't, how are you going to tell people that God
loves you when God says you're under his wrath? God's love is
in Christ. So objectively we can say to
the world, to the world, God loved the world in that he gave
his only begotten son that whosoever believes on him should not perish.
Ladies and gentlemen, that's radically different than saying
God loves you. See, this is the consumer humanism that we have
to overcome when it comes to the gospel. Don't tell people
God loves you. Tell people that for God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son. That if you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, you can know the love where with
God love sinners. See now that's being biblical.
Otherwise you're giving them a false hope. Why would I tell
somebody that's on the brink of hell that God loves them when
in fact they may be the very objects of God's wrath deservingly
so of which when they wake up in hell they won't be able to
argue with God that God threw them in the hell. Men go to hell
for their sin. You know that right. Not because
God hates them. Be careful how you argue with
people. You gotta learn how to debate with people. And what
you do is you control the debate by using scriptural concepts.
So you start with the scriptures. But if as I said last Friday,
I think I said this last Friday, didn't I? If there's one person
in the Bible that God hates, that was Esau. And I know how
people jump through hoops and all that kind of stuff and talk
about how he loved Esau less. Well, oh yeah, no, oh yeah, oh
yeah. He just loved him less than he
loved Jacob. You mean, God loving you less means you end up in
hell. What kind of love is that? Right. So tell me something, you who
love to, you know, use the economy of love when you talk to people
about God. If a person ends up in hell under the wrath of God
for all eternity, what good did the love of God do for them?
What did it do? You tell me what the love of
God did for a person that ended up in hell. It didn't do a thing
for them, right? So you got to be careful because
the argument is shifting from the glory of God in terms of
his love, which flows from his character. God's love flows from
his character. God is loved by nature. You know
what that means? If God loves you, you're going
to be saved because love is an action word. Do you understand? Love is an action word. I have
love for my children and I'll tell you, I'll die for my children.
And if somebody were to come in here to threaten the life
of my child and I say I love them and I didn't jump in front
of them to flank them, you guys would quickly question whether
I love them, wouldn't you? But we get gooey with God's love
because we don't want to put people where they really need
to be. Smack dab in the anger of God's holiness so that they
can flee to Christ and find the reality of his saving love. Don't
worry about people getting mad. That's what we need. We need
people to get mad, get mad. You need to get mad. One more
question over here. Right. No, well, without a doubt,
there's no doubt about that. That's no, if we don't see the
fruit, then we know that he's not present. Yeah. And I don't
know if I would say left off the third person, the way that
you're saying it, but I would say this, that the presence and
power of God is obviously not manifesting itself in the outpouring
form of which we need it. The presence and power of God
is not manifesting itself in outpouring form in which we need
it. And so here's what I don't want to do. I don't want to deny
that God is working because we know that we see conversions,
we see salvation, but it's often in such pittance in terms of
the larger potential of what could occur that it begs the
question, how come not a whole lot more? And everybody can ask
that question of their own heart. We don't have to judge the church.
We don't have to judge the world. We can ask our own heart. How
come it's such a pittance? of passion and desire and aspiration
and zeal on my part towards God. Because each one of us who are
believers are the nooses. We are the temple of the Lord.
And we can ask ourselves individually, how come, Lord, my zeal is gone? How come my mind is wrapped up
in earthly things? How come I don't have any real
ability to prioritize the gospel as I used to, Lord? And so it
can start with us. See, and that's the other thing
I want to be careful about, too. When we talk about the church,
we're talking about the church as a whole, us included. OK? And so what we want to do in
Ezekiel chapter 9 is we were instructed before God destroyed
the church to go through the land and mark the foreheads of
everyone that sighed and cried for the abominations that are
done in Israel. So sigh and cry before the abomination. That
might lead us to prayer and God might have mercy on us. See what
we want to be able to do, and we're going to close here. We
want to be able to remember that with God, all things are possible. Is that okay? You have to believe
that with God, all things are possible. If not, here's what
you will do. You will find an aspect with which to argue, essentially
arguing yourself out of your responsibility to do what God
has called you to do. And that's what I will do too.
So I don't want us to do that. We are called to assess. The
Bible says, let the church examine itself. Let the church judge
itself so that won't be judged with the world. That's so very
clear when it is next Monday I will be dealing with the importance
of church discipline and a form of church discipline is when
we become honest with ourselves where we are so that we won't
end up being judged with the world and that's what we have
to do and then all we have to do is pray and believe God. I
believe all we have to do is pray and believe God and God
will turn things around. We don't have to make it complicated.
We don't have to go too deep. We don't have to build a theology
either of having abandoned the third person. I mean, one of
the things that I've been concerned about is a false third person
that has dominated our culture for the last 40 or 50 years.
What I want is the authentic presence of the Spirit of God
doing the work that will be incontrovertible and unarguable in terms of what
he's called to do. We'll be able to look into the
scriptures and not scratch our head and wonder what this phenomenon
is. Because in our present generation
these false movements of the Holy Ghost has created all kinds
of immorality paganism Distortion of biblical text because a false
spirit has dominated the church False conversions false deliverances
false exorcisms and the latter end has been worse than the beginning
I know that this is the case. What I want to see is the authentic
thing You know, so let's just pray about it All right, let's
close in prayer. Father, we thank you for this
time. I thank you for my brothers and sisters. I thank you for
a free country thus far to be able to talk about these things.
I thank you for giving us an interest in these things. We
could be trapped by our carnal passions and not come out on
Friday nights. I thank you for all my brothers. and sisters
who love to study your word. And I thank you that they are
willing to consider these things too, even though they are difficult
for us. Lord, we know that you have plainly
said in your word that you resist the proud and you give grace
to the humble. So we're asking you to make us
humble people because we need your grace. As we go our way,
give us traveling mercies, prepare us to worship you. On Sunday,
we pray in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you.