Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

No Second Chance Pt.4

Do you want to be a part of the harvest? I'm looking forward to it. It's not enough just to share and have our own lives ready and being harvested, but the Scripture says that we are to be bringing some sheaves with us, preparing to meet the Lord in the air. We talked Wednesday night about what was following in sequence to that: the judgment seat of Christ. All of our works are going to be judged and tried by fire, the Scripture says. Each one of us needs to begin to prepare ourselves for that appearing before the Lord. There's nothing greater than to be able to stand before Him, to hear the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant," then be able to look around you and see people that are there in His presence because of your faithfulness. Is it worth it--all that the prophetic word went forth and spoke this morning that it's going to cost us to finish this race for one soul? I think it's worth it. Forsaking all and following Him not only for yourself, but to be able to see one that's there because you were faithful. I think it's beyond measure. I don't think that there's anything that we can identify right now (the birth of a child, our marriage, whatever it is). There's nothing that's going to compare to you being able to look over and see one person that made it because you did your job. Think about it. That's what our task is here. We need to be busy about His business.

Let's turn over to Matthew 25 again and then also 1 John, chapter 3. We'll look at a couple of our foundational Scriptures so that we can continue our study here in preparation for the Lord's coming. We titled this when we started, "No Second Chance," out of 2 Thessalonians. There's not going to be a second chance for those of us who have heard and yet counted the blood of Jesus an unholy thing, those who have rejected this gospel and lived to themselves. Those of us that sit in this room week after week, we will give an answer for our deeds. Some are not going to make it. You will not receive another opportunity. God will then turn us over to strong delusion so that we will believe a lie; those who will deny everything that we've professed as truth today. It's a sobering thought, and yet it's a very sound and easy to understand part of the eschatological doctrine.

I John chapter 3 says, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: [Oh, what a privilege.] therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." That's one of the quick ways to check your standing in the kingdom: how the world responds to you. If the world loves you and thinks you're great and you're one of them, then you're probably not part of the kingdom. They didn't know Him, didn't love Him, didn't understand Him; and they shouldn't us. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."

We've been talking about the coming of the Lord, and that He is going to come in an hour when you think not. The cry of men's hearts is going to be, "Peace and safety!" All things are going to continue as they have, as it was in the days of Noah. They'll be eating and drinking, and marrying and giving in marriage until the day that they entered into the ark. Here we are living in this particular time. We've talked about the bizarre time that we live in, that nobody's ever lived in from the creation of man. Knowledge has increased to the place where man believes now that he can live forever through all of the genetic engineering. They say that they've broken the code and it was simpler than they thought. We live in that hour. The hour in which the prophet said men would be "running to and fro." In other words, there would be no limit to our communication and to our ability to unify in our human identity--where we can just see each other as the creators rather than the creatures, and boast in our goodness and in our humanity. It's an interesting hour that we are living in.

We as a people are so far removed from that, and looking for the soon coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our treasures aren't here on earth; they're in heaven. We're not earth dwellers. We have nothing in common. What is important to them is not important to us. So we pray, "Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus." Since our treasures aren't here, we look up, for our redemption is drawing nigh. The Lord said that He was going to appear to those who are looking for Him, and to those who love His appearing. We've been trying to realize the need to stir our hearts and to return to our first love.

Very frankly, every one of us is vexed on a daily basis and the sins and the weights that do so easily beset us affect every one of us. Every day we go into this environment, we are affected. What do we do to cleanse ourselves, and to take off these weights that have been put upon us just from the day's activities? If you've lost your first love, you're not spending that time in purifying yourself as He is pure, in preparation because you love His appearing. The things of this world just continue to weight you down, and now you've lost your joy and peace; you've lost your desire for the Word, and prayer is just kind of something now that's scheduled in. His presence isn't the only thing that brings you satisfaction. There's not a willingness to sell all that you have to obtain the Pearl of Great Price. Until this teaching started, when was the last time you prayed, "Come quickly, Lord Jesus"? People are just getting a little bit comfortable with this life's existence. The treasures have changed to house, family, things, and vocation.

Our doctrine has us waiting, but the parable of Matthew 25 tell us that when the Lord comes there will be ten that are waiting, but only five prepared. The five that are lost come later, knock, and say, "Lord, let us in." He is going to say, "I never knew you." Those five journeyed with the others to that place to wait. Their doctrine was a doctrine of waiting. They could recite the passages about the bridegroom coming. There was only one thing wrong: they were short of oil. They knew where to get it, but they slumbered without preparation. You'd better not slumber if you're not prepared. There's no time to rest if you're not prepared. If you don't have sufficient oil to last you, then this is the time to forsake everything else that's drawing on your time and energy and make sure you have some oil. I would admonish you this morning, whatever is necessary--take off work. You take off to go play on vacation. Take off work and lock yourself up somewhere until you have encountered God--and your life has been changed, and the course has been reestablished, and you've returned to your first love. Oh, I wish we'd all been ready.

Those five were gathered with the other five, they just weren't ready. They set out on the same course; they just didn't finish the race. So the admonition to us in Matthew 25 is having expected His return (and every man that has that hope is purifying himself even as He is pure) now there's the time of watching, as the virgins set themselves apart. They watch. In this natural course of watching, of course, there was a time of slumber. You rest. There were activities that they were involved in. We all have vocations that we are obligated to, and we're involved in these different areas. There is the principle of occupying until the Lord comes. There are things that take our time and our attention. There is that slumbering, but do you have sufficient oil?

So in Matthew 24, we find the admonition in verse 34: "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." In that twenty-fourth chapter, the Lord gives a little chronology of some of the things that will take place at the coming of the Lord. When you read chapter 24 you can get a little bit confused if you don't understand all of the prophetic statements that were made, and how this chronology of chapter 24 fits into the book of Revelation. Let's just look at the basics, and suffice it to say that the Lord was giving us an understanding of the judgments that are going to come, and the necessity of preparing our lives. It is going to take place as an event that is twofold: one that is without warning, and the other is the Second Coming (the Day of the Lord identified with the first mysterious catching away of the church).

He refers to the "generation" that sees these signs--He refers back to the miracle of the fig tree, and the reaffirming and dealing with the nation of Israel. I remember back years ago that this passage was being interpreted pretty emphatically with Israel becoming a nation in 1948. Of course, a generation to our minds is 40 years. People were pretty sure that from the blossoming of the fig tree (interpreted as the introduction of national Israel in 1948) until the Lord's coming would just be a generation, or forty years--1988. Therefore, books were written like 88 Reasons Why the Lord Will Come in '88. He didn't, because no man knows the day or the hour. Our typical generation in this day is 20 years. So when Israel occupied Jerusalem (1967), others said, "It's 20 years now. A biblical generation was 40 years, but the new generation is 20. You have 20 and 67, so you have '87/'88. It's right in that period of time." But '88 has come and gone, and here we are. "This generation" doesn't just refer to Israel becoming a nation. It was them occupying the Holy City (1967), then add 40 years, and you have 2007. We keep putting it off with numbers. That's not the issue. Are you ready today? Is your heart ready this morning? If the trumpet were to sound and the words of the Lord, "Come up hither!" were to be heard by all those that have ears to hear? Others will think it thundered, but we hear the Word of the Lord and we're changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump. We'll be caught up in the air. We'll be with the Lord, and so shall we ever be with Him.

Now what are we doing to prepare ourselves for that? That day is coming, the Scripture says, as a thief in the night. Verse 42 says, "Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." They didn't know (verse 39) until Noah and his family entered the ark. Everything was just continuing on, no signs. Oh, I hope that your hearts are sobered when you understand the truth of Thessalonians: should that trumpet sound today and you are left seated in that chair, there is no more provision for your salvation. You're lost. You're damned. You can come and cry. You can go and try to find the oil, but the door is closed and words spoken, "I never knew you." How tragic. How sober should we be?

In chapter 25, verse 21, the words are spoken, "Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make you a ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." We understand the treasure that awaits us is the joy of His presence alone. There is one way to find out if you're going to obtain that eternal joy. Does His presence today causes you joy? Does it satisfy you? Are you looking for something else? Is your satisfaction in a person, a spouse, a child, a thing, or a possession? If He's not, if He's not our first love, then He's not our only love. He said He will have no other gods before Him. It's a powerful word that is given to us.

In chapter 25, verse 13 He says concerning the virgins, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." "Watch therefore." Those stood outside and cried just like those that were banging on the door of the ark in Noah's day. These virgins come, and they cry out, "Lord, Lord, open to us" (verse 11). "But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not." Oh, I wish we'd all been ready. There are no more chances. You can't run, get the oil, and come back.

We hear these words, but in reality what are we doing to prepare ourselves? What really is the priority of our lives, as we try to be as truthful as we know how to be with our own hearts? You can lie to everybody else, but you can't lie to yourself. You can say all the right words. You can quote the doctrine. You can defend your case--"I'm doing these things because God told me to; God's leading me," or whatever you want to say--but His Word has already established our course. Your responsibilities have been defined and the whole issue is whether we are doers of the Word, and not just hearers and parrots. Every man that has this hope in him purifieth himself even as He is pure. How tragic it is for some of us who are not only not prepared, but are causing others to stumble. It would be better for a millstone to be tied around our necks. For those who don't do these things and teach others to be disobedient, there will be an even greater judgment. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of man comes.

So, what are we doing to prepare? First of all, we have to understand the environment. We have to look around and discern the hour that we are in. Watch and pray. "Watch and pray," Jesus said in the garden, "that you enter not into temptation." "Watch therefore," chapter 24, verse 42, "for ye know not what hour." "Watch therefore," chapter 25, verse 13 says, "for ye know neither the day nor the hour." I think we ought to be watching. How many of us are presuming instead of watching? How many of us are living like those in the day of Noah: just going on, just another day, just grinding it out. The word "watch" means "to be alert, to be aware, to be on guard." Are you just stumbling through life? Are you just going through the routine? It might even be a halfway decent routine. You get up in the morning, go through your devotions--whatever it is; you read your Daily Bread, or you've got your little calendar that says to read verses 12 through 16 today (and in 72 years you'll read your Bible through, on two verses a day). Does your husband have you on a routine? Do your parents have you on a routine? Or are you watching? I want to tell you something. Mom and Dad's routine isn't going to have you ready. It's watching. It's you loving. I'm talking to the young people. Your husband's routine isn't going to have you ready. It's you loving Jesus more than you love your husband, more than you love your children, and more than you love the ease, the comforts, and the gratification you get out of serving and being recognized. I want to tell you something, beloved. We need to return to our first love if we are going to be ready when that trumpet sounds, when the voice of the bridegroom is heard. Oh, I wish we'd all been ready. "Lord, Lord open to us." "I never knew you." "But we did miracles. You did miracles in our streets, and we went and preached in your name." "I never knew you." Watch, for you know not what hour your Lord comes.

Turn over to the book of Thessalonians for just a second. It speaks along these lines, concerning our preparedness. (1 Thessalonians, chapter 5.) There are way too many things out there to distract us. What are your treasures? Where are your affections? Chapter 5, verse 1 says, "But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child." Now we all know that a lady isn't just walking along and all of a sudden, WOAH, she delivers a baby. She knows she's pregnant. She doesn't know exactly when the birth pangs are going to come. We know we're pregnant: we know this is the hour of the Lord's return. We look around and are able to discern the times and the seasons, but the day and the hour nobody knows. We're not ignorant. Look what it says. "Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness." We are the children of light. We are not ignorant, for we know perfectly the doctrine of the coming of the Lord. The call within the hearts of the professed believers that all is well, peace and safety. It's going to come as birth pangs, and they shall not escape.

But here's the good news for us in verse 4: "But ye, brethren [the true church, those that are born again, those that have the spirit of God living in them, those that are seeking first the kingdom of God, those that are purifying themselves even as He is pure, those that love His appearing, those that are praying come quickly Lord Jesus], are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief." It is not going to overtake the church as a thief. We know the doctrine that states very clearly that we don't know the day or the hour, but beloved, we should know the times. We should be alive enough to look around and see what's going on in the world. We should be able to look at all that is trying to destroy us from without. We should know the warfare for our own souls that is taking place. When those around us are saying, "Peace and safety! Everything is great!" the children of light should be able to discern the hour. Children of light should say, "No! No! I'm being drawn on by the world. I am in danger. This is a serious time." They should begin to guard their hearts, fill their cruses, and be ready; for in an hour when you think not the son of man comes.

Verse 5 says, "Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness." How do I know I'm not of the night? How do I know I'm not of the darkness? Look what those people do: they sleep. If I'm not of the night, then what should I be doing? Watching and being sober. Do you see it? "Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober." The word "sober" just means "to have control of your life, to be under control and disciplined." Are you watching? Are you alert? Are you on guard? Do you understand here this morning that even your parents could be the ones that are trying to draw you away and be a stumbling block crying, "Peace and safety?" In your own heart, you know you need to discipline yourself more. They want to make life easier, yet you know it is going to require discipline. There must be prayer. There must be sacrifice. There must be preparation. Watchfulness is being alert. I just used that as an example. I don't know that that is going on here. I am just trying to show us that we have to guard our own hearts. Every one of us is going to give an answer. Don't let any man steal your crown. Don't let your husband; don't let your wife; don't let your children; don't let your parents lull you to sleep when it is a time to be alert and be sober. Don't let your friends or this society begin to rob you when it is a time to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord. The day of the Lord is at hand, the Scripture tells us.

The children of the day, the children of light, we are not of the night. We are not of the darkness. Those people are slumbering. We are to be watchful and sober. "For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night." This is that reveling spirit. "Night" is speaking of something here revealed in the next verse. The "night" is speaking of the fact that these people prefer darkness. We're the children of light. We love light. We want the truth. We want the truth. Can you handle the truth? Can you handle the truth about your spouse? Can you handle the truth about your children? Can you handle the truth about your own heart? Are you comfortable in the light? Are you comfortable when people bring you reproof and instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect and thoroughly furnished unto every good work? Do you read the Word of God to proof-text your own course; or do you go and let it be the mirror that reflects your soul, that protects you from forgetting what manner of man you really are? Children of light are truth seekers. I'm not talking about seeking the truth for everybody else, thinking you are setting everybody else straight, and that you are the conscience of God. I guarantee you that everybody here has a full time job taking care of themselves.

We're called to walk in this light. We are referred to as "children of light." It's not that we have to get into the light. We are in the light. If Christ is in us, we are already the light of the world. We walk in truth and we project the truth. We are the light of the world. We're the salt of the earth. The quest of heralding this gospel to the lost, it should consume us. It should be our passion to have somebody look on us and see the light--"You're different." A guy said that to us Saturday over at the house where the fire was. He said, "People are usually devastated by this. You're different." We were just standing there saying that it's only stuff. Somebody asked where Star and Linda were going to go. I said that we are going to put them in Tony's apartment. What a blessing it is to have that available. People that know me know that there ain't no way I'm paying for two empty apartments a month. So God has blessed and, thank the Lord, we have insurance. Star and Linda are going to have the hassle of being out of that place for a while and different things, but we have insurance. We're going to be able to replace all of that. It's a building. It's stuff. All of the furniture and those things belong to Star and Linda and that's their stuff. Stuff got messed up. This guy is looking at us like, "Don't you understand?" My whole thought is, "It's all going to burn anyway. This just got a head start." What is important is to make sure your souls aren't burning when it's all over.

So you look at where we are, the day and the hour, and the fact that we are children of light. Verse 8 is so important for us in this preparation. "But let us, who are of the day [the light], be sober." There it is again. Look what sobriety does. It's not just being disciplined and aware of the hour. Watchfulness is the awareness. I'm watching; I'm aware of what's going on. I see what this guy is up to. I see what the devil is doing over here. I see these circumstances. I'm alert. Sobriety is that discipline to do something about it. As I'm sober, look at what I'm supposed to do. It says, "Putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath." The hour of God's wrath, the wrath of the Lamb, the day of the Lord, the judgment that is coming upon this earth--we are not appointed to that. It is not His desire for us. Now you can get there if you want. You can be lost. You can lose your salvation and be there, but it's not what He has for the children of light. It's not what He has for those that are putting on the breastplate of faith and love. You don't have to be destroyed, but you do have to prepare. You have to do something.

This breastplate is called the "breastplate of righteousness" in Ephesians. This breastplate is the imputed righteousness: how God sees us, and what He declares us to be (sons of God, heirs, and joint heirs with Christ Jesus). It's also an imparted righteousness, which is the daily process of sanctification where we're living differently than the world. He declares us, or imputes to us, glorification (righteousness of position). He imparts to us the sanctification process (the daily walking above sin's power, the gift of God, the grace of God that's working) by this breastplate that we have on. Here it's called the breastplate of faith. It's how we perceive ourselves and how we perceive what God is doing. Faith is the substance of things hoped for; it's the evidence of things not seen. Faith calls things that are not as though they were. We are decreeing God's righteousness in us, that we can do all things through Christ, that we are more than conquerors, and that sin shall no longer have dominion over us. By doing that, we are putting on this righteousness. We're adorning ourselves in the armor of God. We're being sober. I'm checking out my heart. I'm making sure I'm right. I'm putting on this breastplate of faith and love. First of all, the returning to our first love. Secondly, a love of the brethren. A love for souls. We are not, as you'll see in just a moment, earth dwellers. We love the eternal. We are seeking the kingdom of God. Our satisfaction, our gratification is not in the temporal. This earth is not our home. God speaks to each of us and says, "Be sober! Watch! Walk in the light! You don't know what hour the Lord comes. When the trumpet sounds, you can't go get more oil."

2 Thessalonians--let me refer to it again. I want you to see this and I want you to get it into your hearts. Just look over one page to the second chapter, tenth verse. Satan is working with all power and signs and lying wonders according to verse 9, "and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth" (verse 10). That sounds a little bit like what we were just reading over there in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 8: "But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." "The love of the truth," 2 Thessalonians 2:10 says. Do you love it? "They received not the love of the truth." In other words, if you don't love the truth--the Word of God ("Thy Word is truth"), the application, walking in the light.

"They received not the love of the truth that they might be saved." This means, "If you don't love the truth enough to be saved, if you're left behind because you didn't love the truth enough to be saved." Then, verse 11 goes on to say, "For this cause God shall [now] send them [supernatural] strong delusion, that they [any who have rejected this truth] should [now] believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth [unto salvation], but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Can I ask you something this morning? In light of this, do you think that maybe some of us should change our value systems? How important is all that stuff, really, in light of this? How important is it for you to have your way in this battle you're having with somebody? How important is it for you to keep your pride. "I'm going to make sure everybody understands my position in this. I've been deprived. I've been treated wrongfully. I'm going to stand for what's rightfully mine." How important is that raise? How important is that new house? How important is whatever it is that contributes to unrighteousness in our lives? How important would it be if we really believed that He was going to come in the next moment? Would we harden our hearts and stiffen our necks, or would we humble ourselves and love our enemies? Instead of standing against them and proving who we are, would we live the gospel before them and heap coals of fire on their head through our humility? I wonder what we might do with that self-pity that we've been nurturing for so long. "Poor me. Nobody understands." I wonder if that soul that's going to be reached that you'll see at the Great Supper of the Lamb would have more value than that new six-figure job. It would be good if we were all ready.

The Scripture speaks to us and refers to us as "children of light" that are not going to be overcome in darkness; putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and loving the truth. If you don't love the truth, you will be damned by the truth. We step back and begin to look around and ask, "How am I doing, really, then?" The Bible tells us that in this generation you and I are in, the mystery of iniquity is already at work. Look over to Timothy for just a moment. Listen to what the apostle says is going to take place in this hour. The mystery of iniquity is already at work, this secret power of lawlessness. Let me say that another way: the supernatural power of self-will. What we're talking about is every man doing what is right in his own eyes. Every man being truth to himself. Lawlessness doesn't have to do with how we function within society; it has to do with how we relate to the truth, the Word of God, the lordship of Jesus. Every man who is living to himself, rejecting the absolute lordship of Jesus, is already under the influence of the spirit of lawlessness. It's just compounding. It's just getting worse in this generation. People are getting more blatant and bold in their hatred for God and their expression of it. They call good, evil; and evil, good. Are we living in that hour or not?

We begin to look around us and we see that there's a whole perversion of what's right and just. The minds of men are being perverted by the secret power of lawlessness and the deification of man. God's Word is being mocked. The individual's rights: "Parents have no right to spank their own child. That child has rights!" "Those criminals have rights!" Freedom to express themselves, like the artist in New York who mocks the crucifixion. (It's another one of those artsy things.) The mockery of Christian dogma. This latest thing was a mockery of the Catholic Church and all of this, but that's not the issue. People equate the Catholic Church with Christianity. They have every right to mock this, but the Christian doctrine that speaks against homosexuality cannot be permitted, they say. "You have no right to speak what the Bible says about this perversion." They call good, evil; and evil, good. It's the hour we are living in.

Chapter 4 of I Timothy says, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." Here we are, and we have all of this admonition. We are children of light. We are to begin to watch and pray. We are to be sober. We are to put on the breastplate of truth and love. Each one of us is to examine our own lives. In the last days, though, "some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron." These are people that were in faith that are departing. Those that are embracing seducing spirits. Every day you and I are being seduced by demonic power, supernatural power; power that can cause natural minds to believe lies; supernatural power over men's minds to make them believe lies.  You have one protection--the helmet of salvation, the mirror of the Word of God, the indwelling Holy Spirit--or you will be seduced. You will believe a lie. You'll be overcome by the night. You'll be drunken in the night with the doctrines of men, the ways of the world. You will justify it, and you'll put little Christian twists to it; but it's not the truth. As you continually defend your hypocrisy, ultimately your conscience is seared. This is the hour we are living in.

In this particular example, Paul is addressing the Judaizers. He is talking about adding to and taking away from the gospel. He was referring to those who talked about the need for celibacy, abstinence from meats, and these different things. He's just talking about trying to earn righteousness and keeping score, instead of a full reliance upon the finished work of Jesus Christ. The seducing spirits are those that are going to cause you to trust in your own efforts: "I study, and I pray, and I do this...I just don't love people. I actually vaunt myself always, and trust in my own righteousness and expect everybody else bow their knee to my convictions, the way I see things." That is the effect of that seduction in the last days, the spirit of lawlessness, and each man being an entity to himself.

It is a dangerous hour that we are in, and we are going to finish with this for this morning. The Scripture speaks to us as the apostle relates this, about "seducing spirits and doctrines of devils." This seduction is a causing to wander, to stray just a little bit, and to move off the straight path. Has anybody around you been trying to get you to move off the straight path--make it a little broader, make it a little more palatable, make life a little easier on you? "You deserve a break today." What we're going to find out as we go on into the study tonight is that there's really no place for that in this hour. It is going to continue to escalate. Our need to press in toward the mark, the prize, is going to escalate. We must establish the value system to where now we realize that we cannot love mothers, fathers, houses, lands, wives, children, vocations or anything else more than His coming. If you do love these more than Him, He said that you're not worthy of Him.

So as we study this and prepare ourselves, we look at the hour and the seduction of the spirits of this age. People will say, "That's not really true. You need to do this. You must do that." You can take this Word out of context and make it say anything you want. We were dealing with a situation just the other day with someone here in the fellowship, trying to help them put things on course. In their eyes, they thought they were being given bad counsel because, "The Bible says that I'm the head of my house." Yeah, but you're leading it the wrong way! So, get yourself straight. Put another Bible principle into effect--get the beam out of your eye before you start trying to straighten out your house. "Well, the Bible says I'm the head of my house." The Bible says you are to love them as Christ loved the church, and die for them. In this whole process, you see, you can make the Bible say whatever you want. That would sound like bad counsel, when you tell a person who's the husband, "Step back. Stop trying to dictate all these thing until you get your own act together." If you didn't put that last part in there, it would sound like bad doctrine--until you apply some more doctrine. Then you apply the whole doctrine of doing what? Each one of us being ready for the coming of the Lord. Each one of us seeking truth. Each one of us looking to edify others. Each one of us loving as we've been loved. That has to become the whole premise of why we make all of these decisions and apply doctrine. When brothers and sisters begin to speak into your lives in this day that we're in, and they begin to speak things out of that motive of love and out of the motive of exalting the Lord and saving your life, how you respond to it is going to determine if you're a child of light or a child of darkness.

Father, we thank You for the Word of God and as we prepare our hearts for Your coming we ask that You would just refresh us in Your Word and by the presence of Your Holy Spirit. It's an interesting day that we're in, Lord: this time of running to and fro, this hour of great affluence. Scripture says very specifically that in this hour that we are talking about, men will be destroyed by their prosperity. I think we're in danger. I think we need to watch and pray and be sober. I think when we see brothers and sisters in trouble we ought to speak something. I think we need to pray a little more and wash ourselves in the water of the Word a little more. We need to ask ourselves how our relationship with the first love is. We ought to look around and see who we're hanging out with, and what direction this group's headed. I think we need to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. I wish we'd all been ready. Help us, Father. Help us, Father.

Just take a moment and begin to pray. Let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart for a moment and touch the inner recesses. Let Him begin to stir up in each one of us an awareness of where we are in this hour. Hallelujah. Father, we just thank You and rejoice in Your presence. We're delighting ourselves, Lord, that You're speaking to Your church, for Your bride is making herself ready. Those that You love, You chasten; and it's very clear that at this hour You are just cleaning us up. You're just cleaning us up. You're chastening us. You're sharpening us. You're speaking toward where we are, and we thank You for that, Father, in our lives. I thank You for the Word, Lord, being the source of strength and the sure foundation. Father, as we stand before You, the ability to seek Your face freely and not be in a stupor and not be one who slumbers; clear, sharp, knowing where we are, and what our course is, and who we're relying upon. Make it real, Father. Make it real.

As Janet plays, just continue to pray and take a few minutes. Let the Lord speak to your heart. Hallelujah. You're our delight, Lord. Hallelujah. We delight in You, Lord. Every time we step out of this place, every time we step out of our prayer closet, every time we enter the world, we're defiled. It's filthy out there. They heap upon us weights. We carry out our own sin that's in our members that loves all that the world offers us. Our body's appetite loves it; it craves it; it wants to identify with it. We walk as a new creation that keeps our members under, that reckons ourselves dead indeed unto sin and alive unto Christ. We are a peculiar people. The world doesn't receive us and they don't know us. We're a threat to them. Many times, we are a paradox to ourselves, but do you know Him this morning? Do you know Him? Is your life course changed? Is your treasure in the heavens? Is His presence your joy and your strength, and the only thing that satisfies you? The first love. Let's sing it together: "I love You, Lord/And I lift my voice/To worship You/O my soul, rejoice...." Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Lord, we thank You for Your mercy and Your grace. In this hour of grace, there's not only a second chance; there are seven times seventy. At this moment of grace, in one day seven times seventy (four hundred and ninety chances in one day--per offense, per person). But at that time, not a second chance. Help us to appropriate the grace and to be free at this moment; and to do those things that are pleasing in Your sight--to be about Your business, to make everything we do about You and about the lost souls that You died for. Every person we speak to, let us be conscious of our light shining; and the world we go into as ambassadors, we are their only hope as we present Jesus to them. The breastplate of faith and love, a love for the lost because we love the Savior. Make it real, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "Be ready." Amen. Go in peace. God's love go with you.

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