Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Unfruitful Works of Darkness Pt.3

I forgot the epistle from Tony I was going to share tonight. We'll be sharing it with you probably Sunday. A lot of great things are going on in Africa. A tremendous work is taking place. The church in Eldoret is just consistently growing, and it looks like Father is leading us now to another piece of land. Can you say "praise God" for that? We're not only looking for the land to have the fellowship, but there is another thing that we knew we would be doing. We didn't think it would actually manifest this quickly, but we are being pursued so rapidly by pastors for training, that it would give us an opportunity to put up a training center and begin to bring men in and train pastors over there. They're just chasing us down, and much of it is because of that gift that Father has opened for us, the Revival Springs. Some of you got to see the magazine, I think, that Tony brought back. The guy has been ministered to by our tapes and by our books. Now every month he gives us pages in this magazine (really that we couldn't afford) for teachings that go across the nation, into Tanzania, and into Uganda. I don't know how many of you are familiar with different Christian magazines, but it would be like having two or three pages in every Christianity Today or Charisma magazine or some of the other big magazines. I haven't read them for so long, but it is a great open door. We've shared with you before, we already have seven churches that are part of us. We haven't officially made them a part, but they have said, "We are a part whether you like it or not, praise God." They're chasing us down with an "I will not let you go until you bless me" spirit, just like Jacob. We are doing everything we can do to shake them, to run them off, and they won't go away. We make things more difficult, and they say, "That is what we need. That is the Word of the Lord, and that is what we are looking for." It is an exciting thing. Continue to lift up their hands.

We received some good news about the Lord apparently doing a great work in Ron's life last weekend. As you have been interceding, we are believing God for a complete wholeness and work of grace, humility, and life to be poured into him for the glory of God. So just keep holding him up and loving him. That is what we're believing for. There are a number of good things. Forbe is doing a tremendous job. He just got back from a little bit of rest, and things are going tremendously in Eldoret. The work in Buhuru, Pastor Aggrey is under some real heat. It is an exciting thing to see as he is being opposed-a church right in the middle of ninety percent Muslim population, and he is in there preaching Jesus. Many of the children that were in the youth ministry were forbidden by their Muslim parents to come back, and Aggrey went to every house. Now, he didn't just send word. He went to every house and told those kids, "You're coming with me. We're going to the house of the Lord." They just took them, and they came to church. The Muslims said, "Hmm. We have never seen it on this wise." As the Word of the Lord says, "At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow." There is a war going on there. Hold him up.

Cha-cha is in real peril at this time with the family ordeal and is standing fast. His father-in-law is now demanding five cows for just the fact that his daughter is-I can't remember what the term was, but his daughter has been embarrassed by being called away from the family traditions, etc., and Cha-cha says, "No cows. One Lamb has already been offered up to purchase her. She is not her own; she is bought with a price. She doesn't belong to you, Dad. She belongs to Jesus." That war is continuing and so are the traditions of these Maasai warriors. These folks are the real deal. This isn't National Geographic; this is like they're killing you. We just need to lift their hands up, hold them up, and believe God to do a great work. That is a little bit of a summary. Aren't you glad you are in Sterling? Some of you ladies are worth five cows, but the closest thing to a cow we have is the steaks down at Sweetwater Tavern. We'll take of all our cow offerings down there.

Let's turn over to the book of Ephesians and see what we have for tonight. On your way to Ephesians, stop at 1 John, Chapter 1, verse 5. "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.... But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." As the apostle John is speaking in that first epistle, we remember why he was using that terminology. The Gnostics, the mystics of that day, would use that term all the time about "light" or "illumination, knowing beyond another's revelations." John is basically saying there is a revelation beyond anything that you can comprehend. "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." There is no a truth that isn't exhausted in Him, that doesn't originate in Him, or, as the apostle says, "All things were made by him [and for him]; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men."

As John is warring with the Gnostics, he is talking about this great illumination, the truth. Today in our secular humanist institutions, God's truth (His Word) is being mocked. Man, through his knowledge, through his pursuit of technology, through science, thinks he has really done something. We've gone into the subatomic realm. We're talking about all the genetic engineering that goes on today in the sciences. Everything that man is patting himself on the back for that he is discovering, God created. Man hasn't created anything; we are discovering. Yet man has vaunted himself and thinks he has accomplished something because he has come to a fraction of the knowledge of what God has given us. "The heavens declare the glory of God" (Psalm 19:1).

Far before scientists ever found out that the earth is round, the prophet Isaiah spoke of "the circle of the earth" (Isaiah 40:22). We realize the greatness of our God, yet so many times we are impressed by man's smoke and mirrors. The majesty, the awesomeness of the God that we serve, we need to stand and boldly proclaim in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation. Stand as children of light. Declare that our God is light and in Him is no darkness, His Word is truth, His ways are right, and that there is no other name under heaven whereby men can be saved but the name of Jesus-the simplicity of the message without apologies. It is not about good works. It is not about your good outweighing your bad. It is the fact that Jesus became sin with our sin that we might be made righteous with His righteousness. Man would always involve his own efforts, his own works, his own understanding, and his own morality. But there is only one way that is acceptable of the Lord, and it is the standard of perfection.

We talked in our last session about the fact that we as a people are living in a society today that is satisfied with mediocrity, comparing ourselves by ourselves. "Well, I'm just as good as this person" or, "Everybody is doing this, so this must be the new standard, the acceptable thing," and it has crept into the churches. The fact is, as we were talking in the last session, there is way too much sin in the churches today, and yet churches don't talk about sin anymore. We gave the biblical definitions of sin. Number one, sin is transgression of the law, the Bible says. Number two, all unrighteousness is sin. Unrighteousness means anything that doesn't start or have its origin, its sustenance, in God's ability and for God's glory. All that man does, all of man's righteousness, the Scripture says, is as filthy rags. So it doesn't matter how good a job man is doing. If it is of man, it is unrighteous.

As we said in our last session, it is of the spirit of antichrist, and we're facing that spirit today, beloved. It is vexing many of our minds. It is seducing us. It is wooing us. It is rocking us to sleep, and we've accepted that mediocrity when we need to be champions and to have the hallmark of perfection in our midst, pressing on toward the mark, the prize, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We are looking for God to stir up our hearts and bring us again to a jealousy for His presence and His glory; that we wouldn't be accepted of the world, but become that byword, that people would look on us and mock us, and that we would celebrate that we had been hated and persecuted for the name of Jesus because we're different, because we're holy, because we're people that trust God and have God as our source and not man. The thing that so many Christians fear today is what we're to be boasting in.

So we're asking how we can get back to that place. How can we allow ourselves to be arrayed now in this garment of light, purity, and truth? To be able to arrive there, we have to begin to shed a little bit of light on the enemy, because Satan is very effective in darkness, the kingdom of darkness. Men, John says, prefer darkness because their deeds are evil. The nature of man isn't comfortable out in the light, isn't comfortable in the presence of God's glory, to where he stands naked, and where all that he is is revealed to himself and known of others. To be able to come to the light, the first thing we have to do is to come to grips with our own depravity. We have to understand that there is no good in us. As the apostle Paul said, "In me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing" (Romans 7:18). "Well, I'm not that bad." Yes, you are totally depraved. There is no good thing in you. "Well, I'm better than this other person." Your righteousness is as filthy rags. We're totally dependant upon the finished work of Jesus. Every one of us, every one of us, is lost. Every one of us will be unsuccessful in our own efforts, in what we're able to obtain. Every one of us will be accepted on Christ's merit and not ours. We are all on an equal playing field here. God is no respecter of persons. What one person is able to accomplish, any of us can accomplish.

To every one of us, the Scripture says, has been given the measure of faith (Romans 12:3). What are we doing to stir ourselves up and step up and become those champions for God? You are where you are in this pursuit by choice. We all need to be more than we are, but you won't change without a decision, without a desire, without a goal. What is your goal, really? Are you just wandering, just day by day being tossed around in your Christianity, or do you have a goal? Do you have things to overcome? Are there things to accomplish? Is there a measure of faith that you're looking for in your life? Do you pray, "Lord, I understand that Your eyes are searching to and fro on the earth. You are looking for somebody You can use. Here am I; send me"? Are you available tonight? How many of you have really, consciously said you're going to make yourself totally available to God? As the great patriarch of old said, "It has never been seen what can be done in a man that is totally yielded to Jesus." It is available, and yet historically, for two thousand years, no one has accomplished it. Some have done better than others, have accomplished great things. It is available to every one of us. Are we going to settle for mediocrity? Where are we going to be in this pursuit of perfection?

"God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. ...But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:5-7). We are called to run to that light. Ephesians, as we were reading, says this in the fifth chapter: "Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us" (Ephesians 5:1-2). He says the ones that are going to experience this visitation must realize what the enemy is-the enemy is sin. We talked about sin being transgression of the law. We talked about all unrighteousness being sin. There is a third biblical definition, and this is the one that most of us get a little uncomfortable with. We can kind of handle the others. We are able to go to the Word and find precedence, and we're able to find guidelines and principles to live by. But the third one is this: "[He] that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin" (James 4:17). Many of us live by the law and are more disciplined than others. We can accomplish certain requirements, whatever the requirements of the community are that we put forth. We see the standard of community here, and we try live in that standard. But this raises the bar: "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." So the question that we have to ask ourselves tonight is this: Am I doing what I know to do? Am I doing what I've been gifted to do? Am I accomplishing what God has sovereignly called me to do, what He has revealed to me, what I'm supposed to be? How many of us can go back in our lives in different times and say, God spoke to me here, I made a covenant with God here, I pledged that I would do this or become that?

I pledged as I sang that song as a young man. Some of you don't go back that far, but I can remember as young boy (a couple of years ago) singing, in some of the youth meetings that we were in, a very popular chorus in those days, and I meant it with all my heart. I've been reminded of it by the Holy Spirit many times over these thirty-some years. I just had my birthday, February 5, 1967, when I was born again. I celebrate that birthday every year. I don't know about you, but I celebrate it. I have a birthday party on February 5. I was born on May 7 in the natural, into death, and I was born again on February 5. I remember as a young man with tears streaming down my face wanting to be used of God. "I'll go where You want me to go, dear Lord/I'll be what You want me to be..." I meant that. I've gone a lot of places. I've been all over the world preaching this gospel, as the Word of Lord prophesied would happen. But there is so much more that I can be and so much more that I can do.

We were talking about a church in the area here, and I said, "You know, when I started with Bishop Mears, we were contemporaries." We started a lot of different ministries and worked together in different ministries. T.L. Lowry, Bishop Mears, and Dick Klein-these guys are all retired, and I feel like I'm just starting. Retired? How can you retire? You know, I'm excited. God is doing something in our midst. Are you aware of that? There is a move going on in our midst right now. I don't know exactly where we're going, but it is going to be a good place. The Spirit of God is moving here and our lives are being challenged and changed. There is a purging and a purifying, and leaven is being driven out of our midst. There is still more to go.

I want to tell some of you that are the leaven among us-and some of you have already been approached. I want to tell you something. You either change or get out, because a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Oh, we're not talking about battling carnality and having to grow, and we're not talking about failing and wanting to get up and do better. We're talking about justification. We're talking about settling for mediocrity. We're talking about embracing the world's humanism and its systems and its gods-that is leaven, not carnality. Carnality is natural to all of us. We have it in our members. We're going to fail. We're going to sin, but the good man falls down seven times and gets up. We will not allow the world in here or its philosophy. It is death. It leavens the whole lump, and so we reveal it for what it is. "All that is in the world [is], the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," John says. It is not of the kingdom of God. The spirit of fornication that Paul speaks of here (uncleanness, covetousness), dear God, if that doesn't describe our society today: fornication and covetousness.

What is covetousness? We did a whole teaching on covetousness. Basically, covetousness is idolatry. It is anything that replaces God, anything that distracts us from becoming more like Jesus. It is what keeps us from this thing that we say we want: to be like the Lord. We say we don't want to live in mediocrity. We say we're tired of lukewarmness that God will spew out of His mouth. "I want to be on fire for God, yet this thing over here keeps distracting me, keeps holding me back. That is an idol. That is covetousness." The word "covet" in the Hebrew means "to sigh." In other words, "Oh, I wish I could have that [sigh]." Whatever it is that keeps you from being content in what God is doing in your life, one hundred percent satisfied with what God has given you, to desire anything beyond what God has given you and to be dissatisfied is covetousness. He said to not let it once be named among you.

So here we are in a society that keeps telling us we need more-You need more; You deserve more; You deserve a break today. It is available on every street corner. All we do in our society today is stroll the malls. You can't find anybody to work unless they have a green card. I'm not making fun of them; they're the ones doing the work, and everybody else is on vacation. We wonder why our nation is being overrun and being destroyed. It is very important that we come to grips with this spirit that is vexing us. Is it affecting me-a society that is not content, that is not satisfied, that has more than man has ever had and still believes it needs more? How affected are we by that? How many of us are seeking our contentment, our joy, our peace, in God's presence and in God's provision alone? The Bible says it this way: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." If God is not adding it, then I don't want it. If God is not the source of it, I don't want it. Anything that I have in those realms of what everybody else is idolizing and worshipping, any of that stuff that I might have, I want it to overtake me; I don't want to pursuit it. If it overtakes me, it is of God, and I'll take it, but I'm not going after it. I'm going after God. Where are your treasures? Are we caught up with fornication, uncleanness, and covetousness? It is everywhere you look. I don't care what grocery counter you go to, what commercial you're seeing on TV, and, dear God, the horrors of the internet. If you don't have seven filters and fulltime guard on your computer, you aren't doing enough to protect yourself from that damnable spirit of antichrist that is assaulting us on every corner. What are you doing to protect yourself from this spirit?

Keep your finger in Ephesians here, and go over to Thessalonians for just a second. Let me show you where we are and the hour that we are living in. I was sharing this with the deacons in our meeting last night. How many of you believe Jesus is coming back? Do you? It used to be normal to ask that question, but you ask that question today and most Christians aren't excited about Jesus coming back. They're excited about their new house being built, the cruise they are going on, and the business ventures that they are involved in. The books of Revelation and Thessalonians speak toward earth-dwellers. I want out of here, and I've got more stuff than most people. I couldn't ask for anything more in the natural. I've got it made; I've got everything. I hate it. I want to go home. Oh, I'm thankful for it, but I mean-when I say "I hate it," it is just compared to what He has gone to prepare for us. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). What do I want to fool around with all this stuff for when I have something waiting for me that is beyond imagination? But while I'm here and hanging out, we'll just occupy until He comes, preach the gospel, and enjoy life. Is anybody having a good time besides me?

We are called to be ambassadors of Christ, representing a kingdom that is other than this world's kingdom. There is the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness, and the god of this world is blinding the eyes of humanity lest they should believe the glorious gospel, the Scripture says (2 Corinthians 4:4). So here is a whole generation of people that are blind, but we are children of light. We are lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. We are the light of the world, the Scripture says, yet we are being assaulted on every side by this spirit of antichrist. We have underestimated the power of Satan. Since his fall, man thinks, "We have our act together. I'm doing okay." Just let me tell you something. You are no match for the devil. "Yeah, well, greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. I've been given all power and all authority over all the power of the devil, and nothing shall by any means harm me. Resist the devil, and he'll flee." I know all those Bible verses. Why do you keep failing? Why aren't you where you should be? Why doesn't every devil come out? Why isn't every person you lay your hands on healed? There are a lot of questions to be answered, aren't there? But the fact of the matter is God's promises are true. His promises are true to a thousand generations. His Word and His promises are "yea and amen." We believe that is what is available to us, and so we pursue it preach it, and practice it. But at the same time, I believe we minimize the power that we're in opposition to on a daily basis. It manifests itself in many ways, but let me give you the general understanding here so that we can stir ourselves up in this hour.

Go to 2 Thessalonians for just a moment, and then we will look back at 1 Thessalonians. Go to Chapter 2. "Let no man deceive you. Jesus is coming back; but before He comes, there will be a great falling away. Then that man of sin will be revealed [the antichrist]." It is amazing how many secular people know the phrase "mark of the beast," and they think it is some sci-fi show. These movie producers can't come close to depicting the horrors of what Satan is bringing on humanity. Even with every special effect available, no movie producer could come close to depicting the torment of hell: the horrible darkness and loneliness of man being eternally separated from the God who loves him. Friendlessness-no one will know you; no one will love you; no one will ever remember that you existed. You will be screaming out for eternity with not one person hearing your voice, screaming in agony, pain, and torment, and nobody cares. That is what this man of sin is going to bring on humanity. The Bible says if the day was not shortened, even the very elect would not be able to stand against this power. That is why I say we have underestimated the power. Yet corporately right now and sovereignly, this power is being restrained. The Bible says that Satan comes like a flood, but God does what? He raises up a standard against him (Isaiah 59:19). That standard is the name of Jesus, the Word of God, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and the body of Christ, the church. Satan is trying to destroy all of humanity, but there is a power restraining that. Without this power, man is helpless.

Now watch. What is that power? What does the Bible say here? Read on. Verse 7 says, "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work." That mystery of iniquity is the spirit of lawlessness, or every man doing what he thinks is right in his own eyes-"I'm an individual. I have a right to do what I want. I live to myself; I die to myself. I'm my own god. I make my own way. I pull myself up by my bootstraps. Don't try to tell me what to do." The spirit of iniquity, lawlessness, is coming to fruition as never before in society. Society used to have structure. There used to be people that were in charge and people that did what they were told. Everybody now thinks they are equal: children not obeying their parents, parents afraid of their kids, kids thinking they have a right to their input. I remember my folks-"Don't you look at me in that tone of voice!" You roll your eyes, and they say, "Yeah, your eyes will go rolling." I like what one guy said: "When your kids have trouble hearing, heat up their butt about thirty degrees, and it'll melt that ear wax." But all of that is gone in our society. You are not to spank your children because it will "distort and warp their personalities." They're already warped; it will straighten them out! That's what the Bible says. Everything is the exact opposite of the Word of God.

Even though they weren't all Christians, society used to be governed by the Bible's principles. The principles set social order, but now they have been pulled down. There is no order. Every man is equal, and that is contrary to the Word of God. We're not all equal. There are those that are over us in the Lord. Husbands are over their wives. Parents are over the children. But not in this society we're living in. The spirit of iniquity does already work: the spirit of lawlessness, the exaltation of self, every man doing what is right in his own eyes. That's why it is so dangerous out there today driving. People don't obey the laws. They think they are the exception.

Jeff saw an accident on the way to school the other day. If this wasn't typical, dear God. Some girl was racing off to college with so many bumper stickers all over her car showing that she is a college student that she couldn't even see out her window. She was putting on her makeup, talking on a cell phone, and didn't even slow down. She just ran into the guy in front of him. I'll bet she didn't even stop. [Pastor pretends he's the girl talking on her cell phone:] "You'll never believe what just happened. This guy just stopped right in front of me for no reason!" There is no regard for other people's rights and property. Things we used to take for granted, that even unsaved people adhered to, are all gone. It is all about the deification of "I."

This spirit is seducing us on every hand, and there is one thing holding it back. What is it? The church. Look what it goes on to say. "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way" (verse 7). That word "let" in the Greek means "restrain." "Only he who now restrains will continue to restrain, or to hold at bay." In other words, when the church is removed, Satan will in full force control this world. We are the light of the world. We are the only thing keeping sanity to a certain measure. I'm saying all that to say this. Listen. What chance do you have when you get outside the church? When you want to bring in the world's philosophy, when you want to embrace something other than the restraining power (the Word of God, the wisdom of God, the holiness of God), the only thing that is keeping Satan from running over the whole world, what makes you think you're not going to be run over when you step outside of this thing? Are you going to be able to resist what all the world can't resist? No way! You're going down.

Many of you young people who think you know better, who have been raised up in this society and are being vexed, I want to tell you something. You need to get in order and do what you are told. Listen to the generation and the great cloud of witnesses that have gone before you and who by faith and patience have inherited the promises of God and have said, "This is the way; walk in it." Have enough sense to say, "That is what I'm doing. I'm not smarter than God's divine order." That is what we're talking about: we're talking about lawlessness. We're talking about generations that believe that God's order is a way to hold them down. It's a way to preserve your life! It's a way to instruct you in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect and thoroughly furnished unto every good work. It's the way to bring about a generation after you that is a godly seed that will hold to the same standards and be that restraining power until God takes us out of the way. It is God's way of keeping sin from visiting the second and third generations in our midst. We do it just like those before us. We don't have to reinvent the wheel. Be followers of those who through faith and patience are inheriting the promises of God.

How is this thing going to work? How does this take place in our lives? Go back to the first epistle in Thessalonians. Look back for just a second to the fifth chapter of 1 Thessalonians. Now remember what this church in Thessalonica is. This is that small church that was under great persecution in that day, even to the place where they thought Antichrist had already come-"Dear God, it can't get any worse than this!" They were experiencing persecution, people were being killed, people were being denied advancement by the government because of their faith, being discriminated against, and being profiled as Christians. Paul is writing and saying, "Don't you remember I said these things were going to happen? Don't worry. The Lord hasn't come yet. The man of sin can't come until you guys are taken out of the way. But be aware of the day that you're in, and don't minimize Satan's ability to come, destroy, to bring in leaven, and to rob the glory of God."

He says in the fifth chapter, "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..." (1 Thessalonians 5:1-3). "Peace and safety. Everything is well. Don't worry about it. Look how we are prospering. We're able to provide for ourselves. We have credit cards. We have equity lines." What a tragedy. What a hoax. This thing is a straw man. I want you to know the prosperity is a straw man. We are a country that is bankrupt, a straw man waiting to fall down. People are all horrified that all the east coast ports have been leased out to United Arab Emirates. We never owned them anyway. We sold our souls in this nation years ago. I'll tell you what is coming in here as a dominate power: Islam. It has to. Are you sitting back, scratching your head, and wondering, How are these rag heads doing all of this? Have any of you wondered? They're not that smart. How are they doing this? You want me to tell you how they are doing it? God is doing it. Don't you understand? Read the prophets. Read what the Scripture says. This is the working of the madman, Esau. This is the fruit. They have to rise up. They have to be given power to come against Israel. That is what this whole thing is about as the world rises up in hatred toward this little tiny nation Israel. What is that all about? It is not about Jews. It is about Jesus. It is about God. It is about Abrahamic covenant. Step back and look at the big picture. See that God is ordering these things. Just shake yourself a little bit and stir yourself up. Don't let these days come upon you unaware. Jesus is coming back. Are you going to be caught watching or not? Are you going to be caught slumbering, out drinking and in a drunken stupor of this world's covetousness, lasciviousness, luxuries, and amusement? Is that day he's speaking of right here going to come upon you as a thief in the night? When they're crying, "Peace and safety," when you think you have your act together, it is going to come as travail upon a woman.

"But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober" (verses 4-6). That is all we're saying. We need to sober up. There needs to be a sobriety, a seriousness. Game time has to end. We have to be aware that people around us are being lulled to sleep by prosperity, by humanism, by compromise, by setting their own standards, by living by their own experiences rather than the great cloud of witnesses that for two thousand years has said, "This is the way, not the way you're doing it. This is the way; walk in it." You're smarter than everybody that has finished this journey and gone on to receive their reward? I think not.

So here we are, a people in our society, being bred to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think-"Look what I've accomplished. Look at my new house." Yeah, nice. Did you pay cash for it? You know, people used to pay cash for their houses. Debt is a new thing. I'm not that old, and I remember the first credit card. I remember when nobody drove cars that weren't paid for in cash-houses, a little earlier than that. People began to finance houses. Then we began to finance cars, and now we finance hamburgers. They're in the toilet before you pay for them! We think we've really accomplished something. We have our new house. How much did you put down? "Nothing." What are you paying? "Well, it's interest-only." You're renting! Somebody knows that you're totally undisciplined and that you're going to default. Then they will get it back, and that is what they are planning on. That is the plan because you're an idiot. That is why they are rich and you aren't. So much for my economics lesson. I am horrible. If you need help, talk to [the other] Scott; but I will give you some good, good economic advice: Don't spend more than you have.

Let's take it over into life. How much of your life are you spending? Are you spending more than you have? Are you using up more energy and time on nonessentials-on temporal things-than you can afford, when that time ought to be spent in building yourself up eternally, building up a spiritual bankroll, building up a surplus, to where when Satan comes you have something to resist him with? One of the deacons was counseling a young man who had fallen into sin, whose response was, "I made a bad choice." I told this deacon last night, "Go tell that young man his bad choice was not made that night. It was made the week before when he didn't prepare himself, when he didn't pray, when he didn't serve others, when he was able to be late for this, and when he did this instead." It was all those bad decisions, not that one decision. It is the bad decisions to not prepare ourselves for the big decisions, the temptations. It is the little foxes that destroy. Lives of discipline and consistency are going to prepare us in this day.

As children of the light, the Scripture says, "Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do [the majority] others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day [of the light], be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love [hope]; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation" (verse 5-9). Why would we die when He has given us armor to put on that would cause us to be able to quench every fiery dart, the sword of the Spirit by which we can resist Satan and watch him flee, as we say, "It is written.... It is written.... Get behind me Satan, for it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." That is my wisdom; that is my contentment.

Ephesians says this (as we end for the night) in the fifth chapter: "But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints" (verse 3). In our cleanup, what do we do? Well, we have to get rid of all, because it can't be once named. "Well, I'm doing better, only ten times." No, not once. A jealousy for God's holiness-we're a people living for the moment, an investment in eternity. Yes, it will cost something in the temporal and natural now, but we are investing in the eternal kingdom. "Those that do these things will not inherit the kingdom of Christ," the Scripture goes on and says in verse 5. For years, people have mocked those of us that believe in the coming of the Lord. They call it "pie in the sky religion" and "defeatist Christianity." They say we are to be champions and conquer the world here. If you have conquered the world, all you have-at its greatest, all the world is, is a sample of what God has created for us. It is not the real thing. It is a prototype. The real is beyond comprehension, as we sang in our chorus this evening. So what are we living for, the moment or eternity? What are you investing in, momentary pleasures of fornication and covetousness, idolatry? Don't you understand that God's wrath and judgment comes upon the children of disobedience? Not sinners, but people who say they are children but are compromising their standards. The wrath of God, the judgment of God, comes upon them. Now that is the love of God. Also, it is the chastening of the Lord. Some of you that have been recently reproved and chastened, God chastens those that He loves. You have to understand what this is all about, how great a love this is as God shows Himself on our behalf, loving and caring.

We'll close with this because I think it is so important. We will end with this verse: "Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head" (Psalms 141:5). How do you look at the wisdom and the reproof of God, the gifts that God has placed in your life to bring you the instruction of life? "He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: but he that refuseth reproof erreth" (Proverbs 10:17). In a generation of know-it-alls, we need to humble ourselves and go back to the counsel and the wisdom of God and realize there is no better way; there is no new way. This is the way; walk in it.

Father, we thank You for Your Word tonight. As we understand the urgency of the hour that we are in, the danger of that spirit of iniquity, we are a deceived people if we think we're going to stand. As iniquity abounds, the love of many will wax cold, the Scripture says. As iniquity abounds, what are we doing to cause our faith to abound? Satan is getting stronger. Are we? What would sustain you last week isn't going to get you through tomorrow. How much better are you getting? There is no limit to what faith can produce in you, what obedience can produce in you, for our faith is the victory. Sober us up as children of the day. Father, free us from this party spirit that has made us a drunken nation, a foolish nation, a people that have no perspective on reality and truth and eternity. Reestablish our eternal treasures, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's stand before the Lord tonight. As Gary plays for us, we've taken a little longer than usual. Jeff came into the meeting the other day, and he was so discouraged. He said, "I just I taught one thing ten times, and you ask a question, and nobody even knows what you are talking about!" Well, the good news is job security. The reality is we don't retain everything we're hearing. It is a reality. Of everything I spoke tonight, you will retain about 20 percent. And of the 20 percent you retain, you misunderstand 70 percent. That is very encouraging to people that do what we do, but to me all that says is that you take the same subject and teach it 70 times. In the law of averages, we'll increase what we are hearing. That is why the body is so important. We've all heard different things. We all hear with filters too. We hear the same thing, and I'll hear it differently because we filter. We filter through our own knowing, our own deceptions, our own pride, our own agendas. We hear these things and they filter as they go through. As we're hearing it, we're thinking about all the people that should really hear that, and we don't hear what was being said to us. Because of that, we need each other. We need each other to speak and remind us of what was spoken. As you go to that brother and sister and say, "When Pastor was speaking that verse, I knew it was for you." and you say, "Really? Praise God. Thank you. I receive that. I didn't hear that because I was hearing this one for you." Then we build each other up. We strengthen ourselves that God would be glorified in our midst.

We want to be like you, Lord. We're just such a mess, but You love us so much. We're so weak, but Your strength is perfected in our weakness. All You need is for us to make ourselves offerings to You, living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God. That is our prayer, Father. Let's sing together and just thank Him for what He is doing in our lives. Lord, it is our hearts' desire. I want more of you, Lord, that I might represent You better. I want more of You, Lord, that I might have some to give to those that are around me. Fill us, Lord, and use us for Your glory, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "Walk in the light." Go in peace. God's love go with you.

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