1 John 2, and let's read the
first two verses. My little children, these things
write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only,
but also for the sins of the whole world, my little children. The word there is darlings, my
little darlings. John had preached to these people.
They had heard his message of Christ. He, like John the Baptist,
had proclaimed, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the
sins of the world. And they heard him preach. They
believed his message. And John said, you are my little
children. I have begotten you through the Gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But you know, more than anything,
they are God's little children. They are God's little darlings.
So often in this epistle you read that whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ, he is born of God. That was one
of John's favorite sayings. You are born of God. He that
loveth is born of God. You are God's little children
of His own will begot to us with the Word of Truth. We are born
of God, born of His Spirit, born of His Word, being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of the incorruptible by the Word
of God. We are in as real a sense, brothers
and sisters, begotten of God in a spiritual sense as we are
begotten of our Father in this earth. There is a new man, there
is an inner man, there is a new creature within every believer,
and God is his Father. God has begotten him. And God
says to him, Each of them, my little darlings, my little children,
God's little children. Who is a Christian? He's God's
child. What is the church? Who's the
church made up of? What is the kingdom of God? What
is the kingdom of heaven? It's God's little children. No
matter where you find them in all of this whole wide world,
No matter what age they live in, no matter what nationality
they are, no matter what the color of their skin is, no matter
what position they may hold in this world, they are God's little
children. I tell you, one of the most affectionate
ways in which the Lord Jesus ever addressed His little flock
was like this. Little children. Little children. Little children, I'm just with
you for a few days. Just a while am I with you. And I said to the Jews, you can't
follow me. Now I'm saying to you, you can't
follow me. But I give this commandment to
you, little children, love one another. Love one another as
I have loved you, my little children. I can't think of a more affectionate
name than for a father to take his child up on his lap and in
his arms and say, you're my little darling. You're my child. And you know, brothers and sisters,
you'll never be turned out of this family. You'll never be
demoted from being a child of God. And what higher designation
could ever be bestowed upon anybody? Children of God. Oh, glorious
calling. I tell you, I'd rather be designated
the children of God than to be a mighty cherub that covered.
Or to be a mighty angel, elect angel, wouldn't you? Oh, children of God, my little
children, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon
us, what manner of honor, what manner of dignity, what manner
of calling that you should be called the sons of God, children
of God. Oh, truly, it is a glorious calling. My little children, this is the
way John addresses them. And this is one of his favorite
sayings. And I want to spend this morning's
message just for a few minutes and simply look at the places
in this epistle where he addressed his little children. This is
one of his favorite ways to address God's little children. Take your
Bibles and look at them with me quickly. Look here in chapter
2 and verse 12. My little children. I write unto
you, my little children, because your sins are forgiven you for
His sake." This is so wonderful because he says, you're little
children. You're just little children. But I tell you what
you can do, brothers and sisters. You can find the newborn babe
in Christ. You can find the one who would
just come from the womb, as it were. And that person can have
the assurance that all his sins are forgiven. A young believer,
a newborn babe, forgiven all his sins? Why, there are people
that work all of their life. This is their goal. This is their
aim, to have their sins forgiven. And someday, hopefully, to have
the assurance of it. But they labor in vain. This
is the most precious thing about being a child of God. This is
where we begin. This is not our end, to hope
someday that God will forgive our sins. Little children, your
sins are already forgiven you. As soon as you come from the
womb, or as soon as the Holy Spirit wrote in you this heaven's
birth, you were forgiven all your sins. Isn't that wonderful? I tell you, you're a child of
God this morning. You may be a babe. You may have
just been born. But you have as much right to
have assurance that your sins are forgiven as this great apostle
did. As that old saint that has labored
for 50 or 60 or 80 years, you have just as much reason to have
assurance. There is no child in the Father's
house who is still guilty. All their sins are forgiven.
Ain't that wonderful? Little children? Little children? And I tell you, if the Lord holds
nothing against His little children, you better not. My dad was telling
me one time about this fellow who made a profession of faith
during one of their meetings, and he wanted to be baptized.
And he took him down to baptize him, and the preacher started
questioning him his past life. and refused to baptize him because
he said he'd had a wife before he married this wife. And says,
you've got to go straighten all of this out. And the poor man
says, I can't straighten it out. He didn't have to. It's gone. It's forgiven. It's washed. And don't you dare hold anything
against each other. Don't bring anything up in his
past. It's gone. It's gone. Little children. Little children.
And there's something else here in chapter 2 and verse 13. Look
at this one. This is something that's precious
also. I have written unto you fathers, because you have known
Him, that is, from the beginning. You old fathers that's been on
the way for a long, long time. You know Him. You know the Father.
I have written unto you, young men, because you have overcome
the wicked one. I write unto you, little children,
because you have known the Father." Now, here's something else that's
wonderful. Not only is all their sins forgiven them, but he says
here, you newborn children of God, you know the Father. You've not had to go to your
commentaries and read them, you don't have to pore over all these
books for ten or twelve years and gain the knowledge that you
know God. As soon as you're born of Him,
you know Him. The Spirit of His Son has been
sent into your heart And you know Him. You cry, Father, Father,
brothers and sisters. You don't grow into the new birth. We grow in the grace and knowledge
of our Lord and Savior. But my soul, we know the Father
in heaven because He has made Himself known to us. No man knows
the Father but the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son will reveal
Him. I tell you, we know the Father
in our spirits. We learn more about Him and more
about His grace and His faithfulness and His attributes. But I tell
you, you're just as much a child of God when you're first born
as you'll ever be. And you may know more about Him,
but you won't know Him any better and any more than you'll know
Him in your spirit. When He sends the Spirit of His
Son into your heart, cry, Father, Father. I had a lady tell me
the other day, the Lord saved her daughter, and she said later
on she got the Holy Ghost. That's what she was trying to
tell me. You can't know the Father apart
from the Holy Ghost. If you don't have the Holy Ghost,
you don't have the Father. But as soon as He gives you a
new birth, He gives you that spirit of adoption, and that's
that spirit that says, Father, Father. And I tell you, if you're
a little suckling on the breast, or you're learning to crawl,
or you're walking, and you're an old person, if you're a little
child, God is your Father to one just as much of another. And he looks at that little child
hanging on the breast, and he looks at that old man walking,
and he says, you're my little darlings, all of you. All of
you. My little darlings. Look what
he says in chapter 2, verse 18. Little children, it is the last
time. And as ye have heard, that Antichrist
shall come, even now. are there many Antichrists in
the world, whereby we know that it is the last time. John takes these little children
and he speaks to them like you would your little child. Your little child is naive. He's
sometimes foolish. He doesn't know very much about
what's going on. He's so dependent. You instruct your little child
about dangers. You teach him. You warn him.
John is writing here to the little children to warn them, to encourage
them to be on the lookout against that and against those who are
antichrist. The devil, Satan, the spirit
of this world, the people who are against Christ, against the
gospel of Christ, the cross of Christ, and the kingdom of Christ. He was right in here to instruct
the little children and to teach them. Dear brothers and sisters,
we are all little children if we are in Christ. Don't ever
grow weary of being instructed. Don't ever grow weary of being
warned about danger. It's all around us. There are
evil spirits all around us. They hate us. They hate Christ. They hate His cross. Don't ever
grow weary of being told that and warned about that. And don't
ever grow weary of teaching others and instructing others. Teach
one another. The little children need to hear
it. They need to be instructed. My
little children, there are many dangers all around you. You're
so vulnerable. The devil is so smart. This world
hates Christ. They promote lies. There's false
Christs being promoted. There are false gospels being
propagated. Be on the lookout. Be careful. Don't be deceived by them. Little children. Little children. You know these great apostles,
they treat the church. And the Father in Heaven treats
the church. Just like you, in your wisdom, treat your children.
If you see dangers that you're afraid they'll be exposed to,
what do you do? You take time to teach them and
warn them and instruct them. Because you don't want them to
get hurt. You don't want them to get injured. My little children,
my little children, And look what he says here in chapter
2 and verse 28. Here's another place. My little children, your sins
are forgiven you. My little children, you know
the Father. My little children, be careful, be on the lookout.
In verse 28 of chapter 2, my little children, now my little
children, abide in Him that when He shall appear, You may have
confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming." My
little children, you're in Christ. Stay in Him. Stand in Him. Continue in Him. Walk in Him. Abide in Christ. As you have
received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, and listen to this,
rooted and build up in Him and establish in the faith as ye
have been taught. And be thankful. Be thankful. Live by the exercise of your
faith in Jesus Christ. Always be looking to Him. There's
nothing apart from Him. There's nothing short of Him.
There's nothing beyond Him. Looking unto Jesus. Coming unto
Jesus. The life I now live, I live by
faith in the Son of God. Live upon Him by the exercise
of your faith. Hope in Him. Live by hoping in
His Word. Hope in His promise. Abide in
your love to Him. Let it increase. Abide in your
knowledge of His love for you. Abide in His Word. Hold it closely
to your heart. Your Word have I hid in my heart
that I might not sin against you. Read His Word. Meditate
upon His Word. Believe His Word. Observe His
commandments. Observe His ordinances. Abide
in everything that pleases Him. And that's for His glory, and
for His cause, and the good of His people. Don't be moved away
from Christ. Don't be moved away from His
Person, His Word, and His work. Abide in Him. Continue in Him. See how he stresses that? Little children, little children
abide in Christ. And when you do this, When He
comes, and He's coming, whether He comes for you in your death
or whether He comes in the clouds of glory for you to change your
vile body, when He comes again, you abide in Him and you'll have
confidence and you'll not be ashamed before Him that He's
coming. Little children, little children,
abide in Him. Look in chapter 3 and look in
verse 7. Here's something else for the
little children. Look in chapter 3 and verse 7. Little children,
let no man deceive you. Little children, let no man deceive
you. About what? Deceive you about
what? Little children, be careful.
You're going to be deceived if you're not careful. John about
what? Well, about this, about people's
profession of faith. See what he says in verse 6?
Whosoever abideth in him does not continue in sin. His life
is not one of sinning. He is not a servant of sin. Whosoever
sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. When someone comes
to you and they say, I know the Lord. When you meet somebody
and they say, I know God. Boy, we immediately hope for
the best, don't we? The little children are charitable
people. They're loving people. And they
always think the best of people. Love thinketh no evil. And if
someone tells you, I know the Lord. Boy, you hope the best,
don't you? You just hope that they live
up to their profession. Well, John says this, don't let
your longing and hoping for the best blind you to the facts. Their lives, if it's in a perpetual
state of disobedience to God's Word, when you've Warn them when
you've instructed them in the truth and they refuse to listen? And they go on in their indifference,
they go on in their rebellion, they go on in their disobedient
lifestyle? John says this, don't be deceived
by them. Don't be deceived by them. He
said this in chapter 2 and verse 19 and 20, they went out from
us and it broke our hearts. We had such great hope for them. We saw how they began and we
thought they would continue with us, but they went out from us. They said we know the Father,
but they went out from us. They left us. They left the gospel
that they professed. They left the Savior that they
professed. What are we to think about? And
John said, when we spoke to them about it, they wouldn't turn.
They wouldn't listen to us. They wouldn't receive our instructions. They weren't humble. They never
repented. They left us for another gospel
or no gospel. They went out from us. John,
why did they leave? Well, he said, we know this,
if they had been honest, they no doubt would have continued
with us. No doubt. No doubt. Ain't that what we wrestle with?
Ain't this what we struggle with? This doubt? Oh, we know these
people and we struggle with this doubt. Do they know the Lord
or not? Their lives seem to be one of
perpetual disobedience. They seem not really to love
Christ, not really to love His Word. The Lord Jesus said, My
sheep, they hear My voice. I know them and they follow Me.
And these aren't following. They're not giving any indication.
What am I to think? Oh, don't it sometime eat at
our hearts. John says this. He says this.
If their lives are one of perpetual disobedience, if their characters
are immoral, if they have no heart to follow Christ and love
for Him, John said, don't be deceived. Don't let them deceive
you. He that does righteousness. A man who is born of God has
a new nature within him. And though he may follow, though
he may believe, with much infirmity, yet he follows, and yet he obeys,
he believes. And if a man is not following,
what are we to think? Though it may break our hearts.
We come to a time, I think, when we have to draw the line, don't
we? We have to draw a line. We have to draw the line in the
sand. We do it because we have to guard the truth. We head down
this slippery slate, this slippery road, and we say, are they just
weak Christians? Are they just weak believers?
Or is it that they just do not have a new heart, a new nature,
a love for Christ? Which is it? And after a while,
when their lives Do not indicate that they love the Savior and
they believe Him and they will not follow Him. We draw the line
in the sand and we say with John, whosoever abideth in Him does
not continue on in a life like that. They do not. Whosoever knows Him, whosoever
is born of Him, He does righteousness. Or Ralph Barnard used to say,
a believer's life is like the old Mississippi. I often wondered
about that until I took a plane ride west one time, and we flew
over the Mississippi. And I looked down at the Mississippi.
They said, the Mississippi is underneath this. And I looked
down, and I'm telling you what, that old river is just like this.
There's places it goes north, cuts back north. But you look
at it, it's always going south. That's the bend of that river.
And you follow it, he comes out in the Gulf. He goes all the
way from the north up in Minnesota and goes all the way down in
the Gulf of Mexico. That's what the believer's life
is. There may be twists in it. There may be bends in it. Sometimes
he may be parked on the side of the road. But I tell you,
he's headed towards Christ. He's headed towards heaven. That's
the bend of his life. And John said, when you see a
man like that, he's your brother. He's a little child. He's in
this family. But if he's headed south, if
he's headed north, if he's always going north, that's where he's
going to wind up at. Be not deceived, little children.
Let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous. even as Christ is righteous. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ, he hath not the Father, nor the
Son. If I go off into sin, brothers
and sisters, if I go off into sin, and I won't turn when I'm
reproved, And I rebel against the Word of God. And I'm not
humble about it. Don't you let me deceive you. Don't you say, I think old brother
Bruce is all right. Oh, I know that now the course
that he's taken. No, no, no. Don't you do that. For truth's sake, don't you do
that. Don't you be deceived by me.
Because if my life is one of serving sin, then I don't know
the Lord. And don't you let me deceive
you. And don't you let anybody else deceive you. Look in chapter 3 and verse 18. Look at this. Little children. My little children. My little
darlings. Let us not love in word. That simply means that you don't
love just because somebody tells you to. I may get up here this
morning and say, Glenn, love old Larry. That ain't why you love Larry.
And you don't love somebody because I tell you to, because I think
it's good to, or it's a good theory. I can tell you maybe
how you should love somebody. I can tell you how to manifest
that love. We can teach young women how
to love their husbands, but we can't put that love in their
hearts. They've got to be born of that. Love not in word, just
because the preacher preaches on. I'm going to try to do what
the preacher said. He said love, so I'm going to try to love people.
You can't do it. You've got to be born that way.
Love not in word. Don't love in tongue. Don't just
tell somebody you love them. Boy, somebody made a statement. I don't know exactly how it went,
but they said, if you tell somebody you love them, And you're not conscious of what
you've just told them. You've just degraded the whole
concept of love. That's what John's saying. He's
not saying, don't tell the brethren I love you. That's good, ain't
it? The Lord asked Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, I love
you. I love you. We tell each other
that all the time, don't we? But aren't you conscious of it
when you tell somebody that? Because the whole concept of
it is precious. I love you. Oh, my soul, what
have I just said? I love you. But don't just love
in word. But love in deed. And this word
deed means toil. It means to toil. It means to
work, to do. Remembering without ceasing your
work of faith and labor of love. It means we show each other. I tell you when people will see
your love, and I tell you, it's proven over and over again in
this congregation. When somebody gets in trouble,
that's when you show them. When you've had to put legs and
hands, when you've had to stay up, when you do something for
somebody else, and it takes some work, it takes some toil, but
you do it! And nobody knows about it. Nobody's going to commend you.
Nobody's going to pat you on the back. But you've exerted
some energy. You've spent some strength. You've
labored. Why? Because you love somebody. I tell you, the cause of Christ
in this world is not always easy to uphold, is it? Seek Him the
real good of His church. It's easy to say, I love you.
But boy, I tell you what, when you have to put a coat on somebody's
back, when you have to go to prison for a visit, when you
ain't got time to stop and eat, when you're so tired but there's
something else to be done for His glory that you stay up and
do it. When you fix a meal and drive
for miles just because somebody's sick and they need a meal fixed
for them. Love indeed. Indeed. That's where love shows itself
in. And in truth. Do it in truth. Do it in earnest. Do it sincerely and honestly. My little children. Look in chapter 4. I think this
may be the 8th place that John mentions it. Just a couple of
more. Chapter 4 and look in verse 4. Every time I read verse 4, I
think I chuckle. I just have to chuckle. I think
about it and I can't help it. It is so amusing to me. Ye are
of God, little children. You are of God. You're of God. You're chosen of God. Did you
know that? You're of God. You're redeemed
by the Son of God. You're regenerated by the Spirit
of God. You're of God, little children,
and you have overcome them. Who in the world have they overcome? Well, in verse 3, he's speaking
here in this whole context of this spirit of antichrist. The spirit of the devil. The
spirit of this world. The spirit of error. The antichrist. Satan. Fallen angels. These little children. have overcome
them. It's amazing to me. It's absolutely
amazing to me. There's not a charl in here I
don't think that I couldn't whip. I don't think there's a single
charl on this side that I'm looking at I couldn't whip. Some of these
fellas are getting pretty big here pretty quick. I'll have
my hands full probably. I can whip little Jillian. She can't
overcome me. She can't subdue me. That's what the word means.
You have subdued. And here the little children
have overcome Satan, these fallen angels, these spirits in heavenly
places, high places, the rulers of the darkness of this world.
Don't you know, don't you know the devil has to be terribly
frustrated? Don't you know sometimes he gets
so confounded and confused? Here this little child is. He's
just been delivered from the kingdom of darkness. And the
devil said, why? He's just a baby. He's just a
babe. You just watch what I'll do to
him. And he tries everything he can. And finally he gets frustrated
because this little baby has subdued him, has overcome him. He's overwhelmed him. And he
goes off with his tail tucked between his legs. Ain't that
amazing? You look back on your life when
you were a young convert. Aren't you amazed? There you
were Just like these little tiny infants. Like David's little
baby. Three months old. He was just
like that. He was just as dependent as that
little baby. He can't even crawl yet, can
he David? Can't even crawl. Pretty soon he'll be learning
how to crawl. That's the way we were. Little helpless infants
against the God of this world. against these spirits that hate
Christ, against the world full of lies. And here you were, a little infant,
and you overcame them. Aren't you amazed at yourself?
And here you are, here you sit, five years, ten years, thirty
years later, and you look back and you say, how in the world
did I make it? But here I am. You know how you made it, little
children? Well, John tells us, doesn't
he? In verse 4, "...because greater is He that is in you than he
that is in the world." He's been in you from the very beginning. And though you were an infant,
He was the mighty Lord. And the battle wasn't yours after
all, was it? It was His. I'll never forget,
my little grandson got out of the van one day when he came
up to visit. He said, Papi, you got a good sermon today? How
are you going to do today, Papi? I said, I don't know yet. And
he said, well, just remember this, the battle's not yours. The battle's not yours. That's
why we can look at a young convert that's just in Christ. And we're
concerned. We pray. We instruct them. We
encourage them. But we know this. The devil will
never overcome them because they have this mighty God within them. who is walking with them and
supping with them and keeping them. Little children. What an
amazing statement. You little children have overcome
them. In chapter 5 and verse 21, look
at this. I wanted to get by with this
in 30 minutes. Boy, boy. I'll never get this one in. Chapter
5 and verse 21. Look at this. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. What a way to close an epistle.
You know in the New Testament, they had trouble with idols.
You and I don't have the problem like they had. They had physical
idols in these cities. They had temples built to their
idols. They used to sacrifice food to their idols and they'd
come in and eat in the idol's temple. They made physical images. Remember Nebuchadnezzar's image
that he set upon the plain and told them to bow down to it? Diana, the goddess of the Ephesians,
they had a large temple made to her. That's one way that they
worshipped idols back then. You know you and I don't have
much problem with that, do we? With that type of idolatry. There's
still a few pot-bellied Buddhas around in the world, but they're
nothing much. But there was another type of
idolatry that the children was to be conscious of and aware
of. I want you to turn right quickly,
and I'll get through this right quickly. Look over in Deuteronomy
chapter 4. Deuteronomy chapter 4. It wasn't but a few years after
this that Catholicism was introduced into this world.
They're in Rome. And it was then, that boy John's
warning, really needed to be taken heed to. Little children,
keep yourself from idols. Because what Rome did, what Catholicism
did, they made all of these little images, and they would put them around
in their worship buildings, their altars and their relics and their
crosses, and they said this was Little images that helped in
the worship of God. And a lot of people was deceived
by that. We have a warning about that
all the way back in Deuteronomy chapter 4. Look at this. Look
in Deuteronomy chapter 4 and look in verse 2. Ye shall not add unto the word
which I command you, neither shall you diminish aught from
it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God, which I
command you. Now look on over in verse 9. Take heed to yourself, and keep
your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which thine
eyes have seen, lest they depart from your heart all the days
of your life, but teach them your sons and your sons' sons."
This is where he was telling about when they stood before
Mount Sinai and he gave the law to them. Look in verse 12. And
the Lord spake unto you, Moses said, spake out of that mountain,
out of the midst of the fire, and you heard the voice of words,
but you saw no similitude, no likeness. of anything, only you
heard a voice. And he declared unto you his
covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments,
and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. Verse 15, Take heed,
therefore, unto yourselves, for you saw no manner of likeness,
similitude, on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb,
out of the mist of the fire. Lest you corrupt yourselves,
and make you a graven image, the likeness of any figure, the
likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is
on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flies in
the air, the likeness of anything that creepeth on the earth, the
likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth.
Unless you lift up your eyes to heaven, and you see the sun
and the moon and the stars, even all the host of heaven, and you
should be driven to worship them and serve them, which the Lord
your God hath divided into all nations under the whole heaven."
Verse 23, take heed unto yourselves. lest ye forget the covenant of
your God, which He hath made with you, and make you graven
images, or the likeness of anything which the Lord your God hath
forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming
fire, even a jealous God." Did you just notice that as I read
that? Did you notice the very single thing that he emphasized? You heard one thing. He emphasized
one thing. You heard a voice. You didn't
see anything. You heard a voice. And what is that, brothers and
sisters? That's this Word. Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every Word of God. It proceeds out of the mouth
of God. Don't make any kind of image.
Don't draw any picture and say it's Jesus. Don't make a mourner's
bench and write on it, Coming to Me. That's idolatry. We don't have anything to aid
us in the worship of God. We went down to Mexico. And everywhere
you went, on the Mayan ruins, they had these little fish carvings,
the fish carvings. And I said, what is that? And
Cody said, that's what they used, you know, in their worship, the
little carvings of fish. And I thought, lo and behold,
I've seen that on the back of the clergyman's cars. And you
come back over here and you say, what's that emblem there? Oh,
that's a fish. What does that represent? Oh,
that's just a symbol that we use in our worship of God. You
know what that is? That's an idol. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. We do not look at a picture and
believe in Christ. We do not come to Christ by coming
to a mourner's bank. I don't know what motives, and
I'm not judging people's motives in putting a mourner's bench
up front in a worship building. I'm not judging motive. I am
judging the fact. It's idolatry. There may be people, and no doubt
have been, who came to a mourner's bench and sought the Lord, and
He saved them. But that doesn't change the fact,
does it? We are not to have images in
the public worship or in the private worship. It's idolatry. But there is another idol, isn't
there? There's another idol to keep yourself from idols. And
boy, this is where we have problems. You know what it is? Self. Self. Paul warned us to flee
from covetousness, and here's what he said about it, which
is idolatry. Setting our hearts upon something
unlawful. Not being content with what we
have, wanting something else. Putting something else in God's
stead. Oh, Gil said this. I wrote down
a little quote here. Gil said, and listen to this.
He said, The covetous man and the idolater worship the same
in principle for matter and substance, even gold and silver. The covetous
man lays up his money, makes no good use of it, as if it was
something sacred. He looks upon it, or he thinks
about it, and he adores it. He puts his trust and his confidence
in it. And his heart is so much set
upon it that he neglects the worship of the true and living
God. Indeed, he says, no man can serve
God and mammon. What is idolatry? It's us setting
our hearts upon something else above Him. Boy, I tell you, we're in a fight,
aren't we? We're in a battle, aren't we?
One old dearest fellow said, the enemy is within me. That's
where the enemy is. He's within me. That's what we
have to fight against. Lord, keep my heart. Keep your
heart with all diligence, little children. Keep it. Keep it. Watch over it. Lay it bare before the Word of
God. Lord, search me. If there's this
idol in me, tear it from me. Cleanse me. Deliver me from it. Don't let me set up anything
in my heart to worship rather than You. little children, my
little darlings, my little darlings. Let's pray.