In this sermon, the speaker discusses the importance of understanding and following the teachings of Jesus Christ. They emphasize that everyone who has heard about God is under the grace and truth of Jesus Christ and will be judged accordingly. The speaker also mentions that some individuals claim to believe in the plenary verbal inspiration of the received text but do not follow it, which they find contradictory. They highlight the significance of dwelling in the consuming fire, using the example of the three Hebrew children who remained faithful to God even in the face of persecution. The sermon concludes by emphasizing the importance of knowing and acting upon the message of the overcomer in order to receive glory from God.

Lord, the attention to details in our lives, Lord. We appreciate that. We appreciate it, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God, for your answers to prayer. I pray you'll bless each family here, Lord. Be with them and their loved ones, Lord. Give peace and safety and health. At home and on the highway, Lord. Help. We need help and protection with our families, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. I pray, Lord, as we continue tonight, exactly what you have in mind will be spoken, and it will be just exactly what the Holy Spirit has ordained for tonight, Lord. I ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Is Isaiah there? Yeah, I want him to hear this. He's part of the revival generation. Yeah, I like that term. That will work. Well, I don't know why, but as I prayed tonight, I felt quite clear on Joel 2, and I know Stan will pass out. He's heard this so much. Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel. Daniel, Hosea, Joel. I've preached this so many times, but not recently, but I think this is what God wants us to elaborate. Okay, Joel 2, this is where we get the passage where we get what we sing Blow the Trumpet in Zion, and all the kids do their motions and all that comes from this chapter, and because of the first chapter, many people believe that this is referring to locusts, but there are so many passages that say the same thing, that it's what you call an example of multiple application. Multiple application where a passage of scripture can be applied in more than one way. There are several instances of this in the scripture, and in the Old Testament, not the New, in the Old Testament, and what it is, it's kind of like God has concealed his messianic purposes in things that were local and understandable to Israel after the flesh. The messianic is found in there, and the passage will go back and forth between the two, and the only way you can tell is by the Holy Spirit, and of course that's what it says in 2 Peter, in the first chapter, no prophecy came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, so you can't have a private interpretation of the scripture where one person says I think it means that, only the Holy Spirit can give you the right thing, so you can judge yourself. What this is talking about, and I might give you an example of other passages, now this is talking about the army of the Lord, and as far as I can tell from the scripture, this is when it says, when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall you appear with him. Now think about that for a minute, when Christ who is our life, that's Colossians 3.4, when Christ who is our life shall appear, then you shall appear with him. Now that isn't preached very much, because what is preached is that the Lord is coming to take his waiting bride to heaven, but there is no scripture for that, none, nowhere does it say the Lord is coming to catch away his church to heaven, there is no scripture that teaches that, can you believe that? A thing that's commonly preached is that, there isn't one passage that says that, but there are several in the Old Testament, and a few in the New, that speak about the coming of the saints with Christ, and when you think about that, coming for what? And to do what? And in what form? To what end? I mean, we can understand if it said that he was taking his church to heaven, that that was so we could all go up there and be in the paradise of God with Christ and be at peace from the world, we could understand that readily. But when it says that we will appear with Christ, when Christ who is our life shall appear, Colossians 3.4, then you will also appear with him in glory, then that is hard to picture, and I don't know whether it's because our tradition has taught us the opposite, that when Christ appears we're all going to go to heaven, or what, or why the reason is that that's so difficult to picture, but there are many passages in the Bible that tell us that the appearance of the Lord will be first to his church, to judge the sinners in the church, that's why it starts off and it says blow the trumpet in Zion, see, and it says the same thing in Jude, after speaking about sinners in the church, and that by the way is in Jude 14 and 15, verses 14 and 15, and the preceding verses, now this is very important to understand, because people just look at this and say, oh well, I hope we go to grandma's for Thanksgiving kind of thing. This is very critical in Jude, notice that this judgment, Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied about these men, and these men refer to those in the assemblies of saints who had eyes full of adultery, who spoke evil of the devil, you know, they railed against the lords of darkness, which the Bible speaks against, not in favor of, says even Michael didn't dare say such things as these people say, with their eyes full of adultery, and they had walked in the way of Balaam, that is they got money out of their preaching, and they, who was the other one, Balaam and Korah, and who was the third? Cain, Cain, who was living in jealousy, and murdering and slandering the man that God had chosen, Abel, and then they perished in the same saying of Korah, that is they were rebellious, and so we have those three kinds of people in every assembling of saints, are they up there? Back up a little, back up to about verse 11, and I think you'll find these three rascals, they take the way of Cain, that is they are envious of those whom God blesses, and you'll find that in every assembly of Christians, you'll find people that are envious of those whom God blesses, and they will gossip and slander and kill them with their tongue, and then you will find those who rush for profit into Balaam's error, that is trying to make money out of the ministry, you'll find that in the assemblies of saints, and you will find they have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion, that is they will be constantly criticizing the ministry that God has chosen, and saying they can do just as well, and who do these people think they are, and they've gone too far, blah blah blah, so you will find those three in just about every assembly of Christians, those who are jealous of the ones that God blesses, obviously blesses, those who are anxious to make money out of the things of God, and those who are criticizing and causing division, you'll find those in every church, they're in the first century, they're in the 20th century, they'll be in the 21st century, and a little bit before that, I didn't intend to preach on it, but a little bit before that, maybe verse 9, it says they pollute their own bodies, they reject authority, whenever you see anyone rejecting authority in a church, because I don't have to obey the elders, there's no reason I have to obey the elders, they're in trouble with God, they have to repent of that, God sets people over us who have many many faults, and it's very difficult to take orders from them, God if he's a lover of anything, it's a lover of authority, and rulership, and God says you just do what they tell you, that's what Jesus said to them, do what they tell you, but don't do like they do, do what they tell you, because God, no one is in a position of authority without God, remember that from Psalms, from ocean comes, neither from the east nor from the west, it's God who puts up one sits down another, so when we rebel against the authority, we're rebelling against God, and then we see Michael the archangel, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against Satan, and said the Lord rebuke you, and yet we have people today that are attacking the principalities over various geographical regions, oh Lord, and then if you go back a little bit, it talks about, as we're talking about the things in the churches, gave themselves over to sexual immorality, some place in there it talks about to have eyes full of adultery, I don't know where that is, but I know it's in there, oh there's one there somewhere in Jude that says that they turn the grace of God into, where is that one, verse 4, you can change the grace of God into a license for immorality, and it's being done in America all the time, people are saying well I'm saved by grace, so I really shouldn't do these things, but if I do, grace, I'm forgiven by grace, that's turning the grace of God into a license for immorality, whoa, huh, when was that, really, did they, for goodness sake, it's always been my feeling that the book of Jude ought to be in every shop window in America, because it nails what's going on today, sure, it turns the grace of God into immorality, absolutely, well we're saved by grace, yeah, but you can turn it into immorality, because the grace of God, according to Titus, teaches us to live honorably, so that's a tremendous delusion in our time, so we see what types of people these were in the churches, he's writing about the churches, certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you, and also the book of 2nd Peter says almost the same thing, speaking of people in the churches, it says these are as brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed, in 2nd Peter, talking about Christians, not awful, so if you want to run it back up now, we can understand verses 14 and 15 better, grumblers and fault finders, boy isn't that a picture, these are the men who divide you, do not have the spirit, interesting, now notice that Enoch the 7th from Adam, now we do not have the book of Enoch, it's not, it's in the Apocrypha, but it's not in the canon of sacred scripture, some people read it, I guess you can get it if you want to, they probably have it up in Point Loma, the book of Enoch is in the Apocrypha, I've read some of the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha, and it's just not up to the standard of scripture, as you can tell, it's just not there, so I think they did a good job with the canon when they decided on the books that we have and the 66 books we have, I think they were right on, I read some of the other when I was in Bible school and I'm not impressed about it, but Jude does quote from the book of Enoch here, and he says Enoch prophesied about these men, what men, the ones we were just talking about, I guess they had them back in the time of Enoch, these men usually refers to the antecedent, which are these wandering stars for whom black is darkness, I don't know whether that's talking about the lake of fire, or possibly the outer darkness, by the way the outer darkness is never applied to unbelievers, always to the believers, but it mentions the outer darkness in the New Testament, it's never talking about unbelievers, it's always talking about believers, and so maybe that's what this is referring to, the outer darkness, possibly, it doesn't say anything about the lake of fire here, so that's why it says, blow the trumpet in Zion, all right, now, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones, when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall you appear within, that's the purpose for the appearing, not to take his church to heaven, that isn't scripture, there's not a scripture for that, it's this reason, the Lord is coming with thousands of his saints to exercise judgment on the sinners in the saints, in the churches, that's what she say, to judge everyone and to convict all the ungodly, of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, there's a lot of ungodlies there, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him, and these are the blemishes in our love feast, and boy, I'll tell you that not all churches are like this one, if you've been in some others, you'll find out that you'll be totally wiped out with the things you see going on, they just are not right, they don't make any pretend to be even holy, so we've had a lot of preaching about holiness here, and it has paid off I think, okay, any questions so far? Now a verse comes to mind, this is taking a different track than I had planned, but do you have up there, can you search and find Isaiah where it says fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites, is that 32, no that's not 32, it could be 29, fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites, did you find it already? Okay, it's on Isaiah, but it's very apropos to what we're talking about, so let's look for a moment again, if you have your Bible open to Joel 2, blow the trumpet in Zion, blow the trumpet in Zion, the trumpet is blown in the church, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's not blowing today, and we'll be sounding more and more through the choruses and other things until God's people wake up to the fact that there's something different is happening, today in the churches, blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on my holy hill, let all who live in the land, that is in Judea, and today it would be in the churches, and God's people tremble for the day of the Lord is coming, it is close at hand, now we've been taught of course that in the day of the Lord will be a happy time, and we'll all be caught up to be with Jesus, but that is not what the Bible talks about, and by the way, the Bible never, never, never says days of the Lord, it's always day of the Lord, it's always one time, and Amos says, what profit is it to you the day of the Lord, it will be darkness and not light, and as a man ran from a lion and a bear bit him, so the reason for that is the coming of Christ will be a time of judgment, and the judgment will be exercised at the hands of the saints, yes, Isaiah 33, 14, this is very apropos, this is one of my favorite of all, favorite of all favorites, Isaiah 33, 14, I'll have to add this to this great, this is scripture that I have, let's never know what God is going to direct, the sinners in the world are terrified, isn't that awful, all those cigar chewers in Florida, the sinners in Zion are terrified, and why are they terrified, they're terrified because of the day of the Lord, that Jude was talking about, when you can imagine when the Lord appears with his holy ones, and the churches by that time are so apostatized, they're apostatized now, but they're going to be a lot more apostatized by the time the Lord comes, positive that they're saved by grace, positive that they're doing everything perfect, and all of a sudden Jesus appears with all these holy saints, God's untouchables, people that they have known and despised and slandered, and Christ appears with all these untouchables, how do you think the people in the churches who have lived by guile, manipulation, and all the other things that Jude mentioned, are going to feel when the Lord comes, and here, they've been jumping up and down next to their pew, trying to get off the ground, and the Lord appears, and instead of receiving them joyously, what they need is fire, I talk Sunday night, will you hear Andrew Sunday night, about there's an aspect of Christ we don't understand, and that's the fire pot and the flaming torch that passed between the parts of the sacrifice in Genesis 15, the church has no idea that Christ is a fire pot and a torch, they have no idea, that concept of Christ, of a great and dreadful destruction, that black darkness that came on Abram, they don't know anything about that at all, and they're expecting in their lightness, and their silliness, and their foolishness, and telling jokes from the pulpit, and all the other things that goes on, and the trumpet's going to sound, and they're all going to be happy campers, all going up in the air, and God, in advance of his coming, is going to warn his people that this is not the way it is, and the groundwork's being laid for that now, and some people are explaining that grace is not what we think it is, we're off base terribly, and God's people, for the most part, are not at all prepared for the coming of Christ, because they have not been disciples, they have not been disciples, preachers preach discipleship, their congregation wouldn't know what they're talking about, you're not even a Christian, you don't even start until you're wrecking yourself dead, take up your cross, and start out after Jesus, now how many people in our nice churches are going to buy that, and they're going to mock, and they're going to continue with their adultery, and their flirtations, and their imaginations, and their rebuking of powers that they know nothing about, and all the rest of the nonsense, and here Christ comes, and instead of receiving them, you've buried your talent, you don't have enough oil, this is what you've been doing, you've slandered your brother, and I told you slander was guilty of death, you did all this, that's what the church in America is facing today, the Lord is to come tonight, that's what most of the church in America is facing, this destruction, at the hand of God, God will never change his word, and his word is clear, and it's not being obeyed, it's being obeyed with the mouth, but not in practice, and everybody plays the game, sometimes the ministers play the game, they preach the cross, but everybody knows they're not doing it, and they're not really serious, that I'm okay, you're okay, am I right or wrong? Tony, I've got some stuff for you here, want to, this is from your friend Merle, thanking you for your kind things, I'm raving on and on here, but, I mean, this is a serious matter, and so somehow between now, and the coming of the Lord, the Christian church has got to be awakened, to the other side of Christ, instead of the nice shepherd, in the long white robe, and the sandals with the little children, it's the smoking fire pot, and blazing torch, that's better, he's called in the Old Testament, the furnace of Israel, and when John saw him, he fainted, so imagine if the apostle John fainted when he saw Jesus, who was a holy man if there ever was, what's it going to be like for the average church member in America? So, anyway, there's a job to be done, okay, so the sinners in Zion are terrified, trembling grips the godless, now this is in Zion now, already, this is not in the world, who of us can dwell with the consuming fire, that's that other side of Jesus, he's a fire pot, he's a blazing torch, our God is a consuming fire, that's Jesus, we don't picture him that way, good old Jesus, good old Jesus, he'll take care of everything, sure, your life will end up in prison, there was a lady who used to say that, she ended up in prison, that actually happened, she's a Christian, but she didn't do what God said, she just said, well, good old Jesus will take care of it, he sure did, who of us can live with Jesus, and remember the Lord said in John 14, 3, I'm going to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you may be, and that's in the fire, that's where he wants you, to be able to live in this fire and to be happy, he showed us that with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, didn't he? The four of them were walking around in there having a wonderful time, well, wouldn't you, if you were in there, the fire couldn't hurt you, and the Son of God was in there walking with you, and you're looking out at these poor people with their mouth dropped open, including the King of Babylon, the greatest power in the world, and here you are, and nothing can hurt you, woo, look at us in here, we're having a great time, yeah, that's what they did, they were young men, you know, they weren't frozen yet in adulthood, so I imagine they did some capering in there when they realized that it wasn't hurting them, I mean, it would make anybody feel pretty good, so that's what it means to dwell in the consuming fire, is to be just like those three Hebrew children, and they were wonderful men of God, because they had said to the King, well, whatever you do, whether God delivers us or not doesn't make any difference, we're not worshipping you, that's amazing, so they got their reward, boy, what a testimony they had, imagine what they had to tell their grandchildren, well, Sarah, when I was young, let me tell you, they never forgot that all their life, they were people set apart after that, alright, now, then it tells us, he who walks righteously, speaks what is right, rejects gain from extortion, that is, he does, and you can do that in the ministry, Andrew, believe me, it's done all the time, where the people are extorted, the minister is ambitious, and he rails at them from two hours on Sunday morning to give more money and to work harder and get out and bring them in, that's robbery for burnt offering, it's extortion, all he's doing is building a monument to his own glory and beating the people over the head, have any of you ever been in a church like that? I have, it happens, it happens, I don't kind of down the ministry, it can happen to any of us, we get carried away and think God wants us to be a great person, God is not interested in our becoming a great person, I don't know, he's interested in himself becoming a great person, okay, if I be lifted up, I'll draw men unto me, not if you're lifted up, you'll draw men unto me, if I'm lifted up, I'll draw men unto me, so we got to be careful not to extort and to beat people to get what we want, it keeps us hands from accepting bribes, that is we can't be bought, you know, there's sister so and so, well her husband just died and she's inherited five million dollars and the pastor knows it, do you think he's going to say anything to offend her? Maybe he knows there's something she does that's not right, do you think he's going to mention that and her with five million dollars and paying her tithes every week? Forget it, it takes a strong minister, a strong minister to preach the truth to anybody and everybody without showing favoritism and don't think that people like that don't try to bribe the ministry because they do, they've got their subtle ways of putting pressure on them, you know, come up after the service and say boy I sure am comfortable, but I really have in mind I'm going to donate a stained glass window and then leave my money to the church, is there any way I could get my window name on that window? Hey, you know, so you got to die, all that, the bribery, all right, it stops his ears against plots of murder, that's gossip, when you pick up the phone somebody starts to run down, somebody just look at your watch and say I've just looked at my watch, I'm sorry, I've got to go, because you do, I mean, who among us doesn't have something to do, you're not really lying, whoop, just forgot, I have to hang on, after you do that two or three times, they get the message, they don't want to hear it, yeah, you stop your ears, do you ever see those little incense burners, they have them years ago with the three monkeys, hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil, we had a little incense burner like that way back before I was eight years old, all right, so see, you have got to be the one who stops it, you're not, you can't stop other people from gossiping, but you can sure stop from listening to it, so will they be offended, great, great, the Bible says faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful, and you'll be a friend of that person if you offend them enough so that they might rethink what they're doing, because that's not right, and the Bible, New Testament says, a list, gossip and slander along with adultery and homosexuality, I mean, this is the same list, and shuts his eyes against contemplating evil, this is a man who is pure, who's holy, looks on that which is holy, thinks about that which is holy, cannot be moved, a man like Ezra, a righteous person, that's the person that can live in the fire, this is the man who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress, his bread will be supplied, and waters will not fail him, and the next verse says, your eyes will see the kingdom of this beauty, they will see the land that stretches afar, in other words, it's as Peter says, that if you add to your faith all these virtues, you will not be blind, sight in the spirit realm is an effect of righteousness and holiness, it brings sight in the spirit realm, and as it said, your bread and your waters are sure, provision, it brings defense, in those days, a fortress, the idea of being a high place, a fortress, and it brings, best of all, the ability to see the king, and to live in the fire, now, the great error of today, and the reason why we have to lift up the trumpet, is because we have been taught that this has changed, that now we get all these things, provision, the ability to be with Jesus, defense, the ability to see by grace, meaning, we do not have to be righteous, we do not have to stop taking bribes, we do not have to stop extortion, we do not have to stop listening to gossip, we do not have to, we can look on evil all we want, we simply do not have to do these things, that is the historic error that has crept into Christian thinking in the last 2000 years, that God has changed, and he has never, never changed, you can find the same thing all through the New Testament, like I told you in Peter, 2nd Peter, maybe we better look at that, because it just follows us exactly, 2nd Peter, it begins, I think, in chapter 1, about verse 5, if I recall, and you will see the very same thing, in Peter, how could we Christians have gotten off so abysmally, how did it happen? How did it happen? Do you know, Colleen? I don't know, but how did the pastor get off? But how did those teachers get off? Where did it originate, Andrew? Oh, I didn't know dispensationalism came out of the haystack revival, is that the same date as the haystack prayer meeting? Well, I know that's the time the Mormon church was born, 1850, that's the time the Apostolic Brethren started, and then they had this thing about the 144,000 being raptured, 1850 was a time of tremendous ferment in the British Isles, yes. So would in every degree, whether it was the era or teaching? What I can understand is the mechanism by which Satan was able to change the basic Bible doctrine, which is righteousness, that's the basic Bible posture, into, to turn the grace of Jesus Christ into an alternative. Now, yeah, here we are in 2 Peter 1.5, oh, notice verse 4, notice verse 3, notice verse 2, where grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, his divine power, on the cap lies the D, I do, that's the convention I use, his divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness, life and godliness, through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness, through these, that is, I suppose, glory and goodness, he has given us his very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, that is the nature of God, participate in God's nature, and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. Now, see, that doesn't sound like grace is an alternative to righteous behavior. Andrew? But if you look at it through the teaching, then all of that is yours regardless of what you do, because it's all the same. No, it isn't. You add it, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, godly, brotherly kindness, love, for if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, now that's certainly not talking about grace, as we understand grace, possession, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that's telling us plainly that you can have the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ but be unproductive because you did not add virtue to that which was given you. Yes, they are, but this particular passage is stressing you're adding them. See, you do this. Of course, we do it by prayer. We do it by confessing our sins. We do it by gathering together with the saints. We do it by reading the Bible. We make every effort to add to our faith goodness, self-control, and we see that we're not controlling ourselves, then we go to prayer. We may get prayer by the elders for help, deliverance, whatever it takes, we are responsible to add this to ourselves. Yes. You notice any cult works for the aggrandizement of one man, there's usually a great stress on money. There's usually one doctrine that they hammer on and hammer on and hammer on to the exclusion of just about everything else, and the fourth characteristic of a cult is that you dare not leave it because they will warn you that if you leave it that terrible things will happen to you. That's how you can discern a cult, that it works to the aggrandizement of a person, that there's a great stress on raising money, that there is one doctrine that they really hammer on, I mean, to the exclusion of just a bit. They don't do expository preaching of the Bible, they'll keep on with something over and over and over like those dear people, and they're not really cults, but the Seventh-day Adventists do that. Almost every service you'll hear about Saturday, and then the churches that believe that Jesus is just another name for the Father, bring that up in every service, and you must be baptized again in Jesus' name, and those are characteristics of a cult. Now, those particular groups are not cults because they don't have the three characteristics. They invite you to come, but they don't put a curse on you if you leave, but I've never yet heard of a cult that didn't really curse you if you left and threaten you with all kinds of things, and also a fifth characteristic is they're kind of closed, that is, they're not anxious for the newspaper to come in and photograph what they're doing, pretty closed, and they have a kind of a special esoteric things that they do that are within them that they don't like on the outside. They're kind of secret, so the word for that, I think, is arcane, and that's how you know you're dealing with a cult, when it's not clear to everybody else, and your family tries to tell you, hey, you're in a cult, no way, and then they say, oh, you must separate yourself from your family, this kind of thing. Those are cults. Now, what we're doing in this church is very far removed from a cult, yes? Feel the Holy Spirit. Let me tell you why. I saw a movie once, and I think it was produced by David Wilkerson, and there was a man, there was a pastor, and he was marrying two men, and they were commenting, you can just feel the peace of God here. I say that to say this, Satan can emulate the Holy Spirit, and you can't tell the difference. You just can't tell the difference. So, when you see those five things that I mentioned, they are so unscriptural, that the purpose of the Bible is to test the spirits. We're not led by the Bible, we're led by the Holy Spirit, but the Bible tests the spirits, and the Bible tells us to try the spirits, and I'll tell you this, you can try the spirits every time the Lord talks to you, and He will never rebuke you, because it's in His Word. Every time the Lord starts to talk to me, I stop, and I say, Jesus, don't let me hear anything that's not from you, right in the middle of the conversation, because God will never, never rebuke you. You don't have to handle the spirit world gingerly. You don't have to handle it gingerly. You can be very robust in the spirit realm. Where people get into problems is when they peep and mutter, and they go by feelings. Oh, did you feel that? It just left. No, there it comes back again. No, I think it just left. It must have been something the creature did. Or maybe somebody else did it. He's quenched the spirit. No, it's worked. It's over here, and then someone barks like a dog, and then they say, oh, don't touch that. Don't quench the spirit. You don't have to handle the spirit realm that delicately. It's very robust, and you can just say, did that spirit, is that God talking? And God will never be offended with that. Yes. You remember what the, most of what you see slain in the spirit is emotion. It's fashionable today. If it wasn't fashionable, most people wouldn't do it. It's fashionable. Really, being slain in the spirit is when you're conscious, and all of a sudden you forget everything that happened, and you're looking at the ceiling. It's not this stuff you see where they have catchers, and the pastor puts his hand on your forehead and pushes back a little. If you're standing up straight, and somebody puts his hand on your forehead and pushes back a little, you see what happens. You're either going to walk backward, or you're going to fall. You don't want to have everybody think you're unspiritual, so as long as there's someone to catch you, you fall. That's all that goes on. It's monkey business. In many instances, in Christian churches, the people cannot distinguish among enthusiasm, church spirits, and the Holy Spirit. They're completely unable to do that. And so, an evangelist that wants to raise a good offering can come into a dead meeting and say, I want everybody that loves Jesus to stand up. Stand up. Just raise your hands. Just say, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Do you feel it now? Yes, you feel it now. Sister, you're feeling it. You're feeling it over here, aren't you? Jesus. Everybody say, Jesus. Well, you can wake up a dead church that way. But you didn't do anything but just burn a few calories. Now, sometimes you have to do that. You have to get people going. But don't confuse it with the sovereign power of God. It's just, maybe God spoke to you and said, this place is dead. Shake them up. So, you shake them up. And you just do it. But it's emotion. But you're responsible to God to bring it down. Because remember, the Lord said that when they said, we have prophesied in your name, we have done many miracles in your name. In your name. He said, I never knew you. So, you can do miracles in Jesus' name and still have the Lord not know you. So, to distinguish among enthusiasm and soulish drive and church spirits, of which churches are full. Everybody that comes in brings their own guardian angel and sometimes other stuff. And then, in addition to that, there's demons all over the place. And in addition to that, there's everything else you can think of. All work in a church. And then there's the Holy Spirit. But you don't really learn the Holy Spirit. You can't tell the difference between the Holy Spirit and a good feeling until you're quite mature in the Lord. The Holy Spirit is not like we think. He's not warm fuzzies. He's very cold. Very unemotional. He has no emotion. The Holy Spirit has no emotion. He's not a human. And he's not warm, cuddly, sympathetic. He's not that way. He yearns over us with a godly jealousy. He always is with us when we obey God. The book of Acts says, God gives his spirit to those who obey him. We are never to pray to the Holy Spirit. Never. And so, most, not most, much of what goes on in Pentecost is not the Holy Spirit. Some of it was given by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives gifts, but then you can choose to operate them in the flesh or in the Spirit. That's your choice. To wait and move in the Spirit, or to just take the gift and run out like the prodigal son and make spiritual hay. So, the only sure thing that you have, like 2 Peter says, the sure word of prophecy. It's more sure, he said, than the voice that came to us on the Mount of Transfiguration. And that more sure word of prophecy is the written word. Because once it's in writing, see, it will never pass away. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will never pass away. But our feelings come and go, come and go. So, that's why there are elders in the church, because they have learned through experience a few things, not everything, but a few things that are helpful. Our young people today are bright, full of vitamins, very intelligent, well-educated, and have a great zeal for God. The one thing they don't have is experience. And there is no substitute for that. All the brains in the world are no substitute for experience, because the devil takes advantage of you, and you're not wise to his ways, and people that have been around for a while have fallen into these traps, and they know where they are, and they're helpful. Alright, let's look at it. So, he said, but if anyone does not have them, does not have this goodness, knowledge, and self-control, which you have to add, he is nearsighted. See, remember I told you that spiritual sight is associated with virtue. He's nearsighted, has myopia, and is blind. He's not only nearsighted, but worse than that, he's blind. The Bible has these amazing redundancies in them, you know. I'll cut them in pieces and point them a portion with the unbelievers. You find these kind of, I don't know whether it's God's sense of humor or what. But anyway, maybe they started off nearsighted and ended up blind, because you don't very often see a blind person who's nearsighted, but in any case, if you want to see, isn't that right Susan? If you want to see, then do what he says, because this is in the New Testament canon. This is the word of God. If anyone does not have them, and he has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. So, the purpose of salvation and the blood is to cleanse you from your past sins. It's to forgive you and to get you started on the path of godliness. It is not a new way in which God relates to man, and that's the way it's being preached. He's changed his way of relating to man. He used to demand righteousness, but now he relates to them through grace, and that is not scriptural. I don't care if everybody in the world believes it, it's not scriptural. That much I know. Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling on election sure. Now, that's a very potent word, because that tells us that even though, according to Romans 9, the potter has made you, has foreknown you, and predestined you to be a vessel of honor, you have to validate that by your behavior. Or another way to put it is, it takes two to tango. Alright, so you're predestined, so you're a vessel of no honor, so God makes you an $800 pern. That's what you are, you're a pern, which is a fancy vase. Okay, but, you remember the old Aesop race of the rabbit and the turtle? You know, you may be a rabbit, but just don't get too self-confident, because some sluggish dude will come up and bash you up. Alright, now, for if you do these things, you will never fall. So, the assumption is, if you don't do them, if you don't add these things to your divine nature that God is creating in you, you stand in danger of falling. Now, when I wrote those ten things we had a couple weeks ago, and they'll be out in a book, in fact, I'm about ready to go to Mark now, on the spiritual survival in the coming days, and I look over, and there's not one of them that you can neglect without jeopardizing your salvation. Not one of them. Prayer, reading the Bible, what are some of the others of them that were in there, I just got through writing one, I can't remember, but you can't neglect one of them without looking at Jesus, and so on, without jeopardizing your salvation, fretting. See, now, this is God's Word, if you do these things, you will never fall, the clear, presumptive fact here is, if you don't do them, you may fall. And so, the Christian life is supposed to be a daily, diligent pursuit of righteousness and holiness in Jesus Christ, and that's what it is, that's the nature of the Christian life, is to add to your faith these things, and if you don't do them, you're blind, you put your election in jeopardy, and you may fall. You may fall. People say, well, I'm saved, I can never fall, I wish they'd read the Bible, would help, wouldn't it? It would sure help some of these doctors, that people would read the Bible, instead of their handbook. And, if that is enough, you will receive a rich welcome. So, what kind of a welcome are the American Christians going to get, who have not taken the pains to add these things to their faith? What kind of a welcome? It's not going to be a rapture all they want, that's the biggest farce that ever was. Talk about a misleading doctrine. Whoa. It's death. You have to plan your welcome. You have to plan it. Jesus is tough. Let me tell you, he's tough. We don't understand Jesus in America. We've got a Jesus that's soft. Jesus is not soft. Not soft. Does the Bible say anywhere, endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ? You will receive a rich welcome, not into heaven. Okay? That's another perceptive distortion that we have. We look at that, we don't even see kingdom. All we see is heaven, is that right? Into the eternal kingdom. Yes? I have a question about people who, I mean, I know a lot of Christians before, but it's hard for me to assume that it would take away from what Christ has done. And, I cannot, the only scripture that I know that would come close to answering that, is where it says in Ephesians, in Revelation in the second chapter, it says, you have pride those who are apostles and are not. So, if there's any condemnation on those people, it would be because they have not tested their teachers. Then, another series of verses that are related to the question, there are about four or five verses in the New Testament, Andrew says where, and I don't have them memorized where they are, but you can take my word for that. I've searched them out, that say that you're only judged in terms of what you know. Okay. The classic is the one where Jesus said to the Pharisees, he said, concerning them, he said, if I had not done among them the works which no other man had done, they would not have had sin. Just think of the power of that statement. And, it's repeated by Paul in such verses as, by the law comes the knowledge of sin. So, it seems to me clear from the New Testament that God does not condemn you for what you do not know. And, this is why I get my dandruff up over the evangelical teaching that people who have never heard the gospel are going to go into the lake of fire, because that is saying that even though you didn't know, you're still condemned, and that's against the scripture. That's against the scripture. You can't be judged by something that you don't know. I mean, that is ridiculous, or judged because you didn't hear the gospel of Christ. That is ridiculous. You know, where is he? Like in one of Sundar Singh's visions, this Hindu died, and he's looking for his gods, and I don't know, this is a vision, this isn't the Bible, so it's Sundar Singh, and I don't believe everything he said in any case, but the vision interested me because this Hindu was looking all over, and where is Vishnu or one of these gods, and they say he isn't here, and they said, and he said, well, who is here? And they said, Jesus, and he said, well, where is he that I may worship him? That makes perfect sense to me, because I'd never heard of Jesus. All he heard was of his Hindu gods, and how in the world are you going to condemn a guy if he hasn't heard? Well, anyway, get what you, keep what you get, and get what you keep, get what you keep, and keep what you get, or get what you can, and can what you get, or something, but anyway, and I had something I was going to say about that, but, and this is a very important but, very important but, and even though God does not judge you in terms of what you have not heard, for example, where the Lord said in Luke, they who knew God's will and did not do it shall be beaten with many stripes, and those who did not know his will, and yet did things worthy of stripes, will be beaten with few stripes, but they're still beaten, and the point is this, even though you didn't know, and you acted in terms of your ignorance, you didn't get the glory that you would have had, had you known. See? I don't know if you're tracking me or not, but you can't be an overcomer if you don't know about the message to the overcomer, and therefore you won't get the overcomer's reward, but neither will you be castigated for not having heard, and so there, so it is extremely important that those of us who have truth are sensitive to God, and set ourselves aside for the gospel so that as many people as possible may hear the truth, because until they hear it, how can they prepare themselves to be strong in God's kingdom? They can't, they didn't hear it, so God won't penalize them for not hearing, but he might penalize those whom he wanted to spread the gospel, and they didn't, because they were occupied with their own doings. So now, God knows from the beginning of the world he appoints us a destiny. He appoints, like he says, he makes many vessels unto honor, and some unto dishonor, and this according to Romans 9, he does according to his foreknowledge, and I think Emily stressed that the other week. He does this according to his foreknowledge. Okay, now those people have got to hear, like what you're hearing tonight, they've got to hear that they've got to add to their faith. They can't be in the kind of church that Sandy is describing, where they have been told if they do anything, they are subtracting from the glory of Christ. If they're taught that, they aren't going to make any effort to live the Christian life at all, for fear of diminishing the glory of Christ. Well, how unfortunate that is, and that isn't just in your church in Lancaster either. That's one of the major dimensions of the grace preaching. One of the reasons why they say that you must not attempt to do good works, because anything that you do detracts from the glory of Christ, which is completely the opposite of that. Isn't it exactly the opposite of that? So how can they say they subscribe to the plenary verbal inspiration of the received text, which they swear by, fundamentally swear by, the plenary verbal inspiration of the received text, and then they don't follow it. They say the exact opposite. Now, if that isn't enough to make a horse laugh, I don't know what is. I mean, it's a ridiculous state of affairs. So I would say that once we learn it and understand it, and God has given me many sons, I have many sons, and some daughters too, and some of them are here in the church, and some of them are out preaching the gospel. There's several of them. Men that know exactly what I teach and are preaching, like Solomon Aguirre up in Grass Valley, and the fellow up up north here, Dennis McNally, who comes down and never wants to go out. He was raised up in my Sunday school class in Fremont, and then there's the pastor in the Faroe Islands that Stan has ministered to, and then in Ed Barts, and then in Alabama. There's a number of people that are my sons in the faith, and so God is, and there may be others who are fathers also that I don't know about that are bringing forth God's words of righteousness, and so God will have his way. So if there's going to be an army, if there's going to be a Joel's army, and there's a hat full of scriptures about the army that's coming, man, and we were just talking about Jude as one example, then those people have got to be prepared. God's people are not prepared to come and execute judgment on Christians, and of course it'll begin with Christians, and then it'll go out to the whole world. Do you think that God's people, they're as soft as a teddy bear? Oh, they're so hard. Oh, that poor dear, and I know she meant well, and so on and so forth. There comes that, see, we don't look at things as God looks at them. He sees that nice little soft thing, and it's going to destroy the kingdom, and so we don't see that. Just like a good doctor that he knows what he's doing, says, well, don't cut away all of that, look at this lady's arm or something, you're going to cut it off and everything just because she has a little sore in her arm or something. He knows, and he doesn't, that she's going to lose her life, and not shortly. It could be diabetes, it could be cancer, whatever, and so he saws away. Well, we wouldn't do it, but he does it because he knows, and God knows where the trouble is. So we've got to learn a lot of hardness, not not harshness, but to follow God even though we're in the midst of a human uproar, and if we're not, we're not, we're not able to appear with Christ. How in the world are we going to appear with Christ? We better sit up in our mansion, eat ice cream without getting fat, rather than getting on the horses of war and coming down with the blood is running for 300 miles or whatever it is to the horse's bridle. There's a day coming. Whoa, what do you, Amos, desire of the day of the Lord? What profit is it to you? Whoa. Yes, Emily? And let her tell you how that impacts on the people that she knows, and because, see, you're kind of speaking in a vacuum. You haven't been there. She's been immersed in this for years, and I think if you'll talk to Sandy after the service, she might be able to tell you why, because I'm sure they're good people, why they don't do what you're saying, which is know inside of themselves, hey, this isn't right, and do something about it. So maybe you could explain that to Emily. Yes. No, but I'm going to say just what it says there, and I think that's the goodness of knowledge. But you see, the preacher is telling you. See, if people in Lancaster would read this and believe it, there'd be a problem in the church. But you see, it's like one man said, I think it was in Hewlett-Packard, somebody asked him about the rapture, and they said, well, why do you believe in the rapture? I don't know whether it was Paul or who it was over there, and he said, because he said, would you live differently if there were no rapture? And this man in Hewlett-Packard said, yes, I would. And they said, well, why do you believe in it? He said, because the pastor says so, and that finishes it. I don't want to be bothered with it. The pastor said it, that's it. And yes, I would live differently if I thought there was not going to be a rapture. I would live differently. But the pastor says it, that's his job. I pay the bills, he preaches, that's it, period. Yes, Bill? I had the same feeling many years ago when I first came in this church and was told they don't believe in the rapture. I said, what? You know, it was buried. There's a couple of things there. One is, it doesn't matter whether the rapture is before the tribulation or after. See, that's the big issue. Are you pre-trib, post-trib, mid-trib? It doesn't matter. That isn't where the problem is. The problem is the concept that when the Lord comes, you're going to go to heaven. That's where the problem is. And you see, and supporting that is the concept of grace, that even though you know you should try to do good, and you were sent to that, but you haven't, but it doesn't really matter. See, if it weren't for that, the rapture would fall apart, because it's dependent on that idea that when the Lord comes, I'll be okay, even though I haven't been a disciple. So, the problem is the nature of the day of the Lord. And the nature of the day of the Lord is not the going of the church, but the coming of the church. See, that's where the error is, is the nature of the day of the Lord, which feeds back on your concept of salvation, because the day of the Lord, when it comes, will be to judge your behavior, and it will be judged by those that have themselves already been judged. So, what you're facing is, like it says in Jude, the Lord comes with thousands of his holy ones, you see, not thousands of the believers, but thousands of his holy ones. These are people who have already been judged. Here they come from the air. They're God's untouchables. They can't be bought, and they're not coming to tell you that you're saved by grace, but to find out if you have added to your faith goodness and perseverance and everything else. That's the problem. It is an eschatology. See, there's no problem in eschatology. We'll know. And here's another problem, is that they don't think about what the purpose of the tribulation is. The purpose of the tribulation is to prepare the church for the Lord's coming. If it weren't for that, if all we had was blessing, blessing, blessing, and then the Lord came, if he were to come tomorrow, oh Lord, how many Christians have added to their faith all these things, and so they're not going to get a rich welcome into the kingdom, because that would be to break the word. So, we have to have a tribulation, and the greater the better, because you know, and I know, and I don't know if you've all lived long enough in the Lord, I don't know how long some of you have been Christians, but if you have for any length of time, you know that the best thing that's ever happened to you is the things you have suffered. That's the best thing. Nobody wants to go through suffering. Somebody that's mentally sick, okay? I'm talking about after you've been through it, and you look back on it, and you realize what a clown I was. I mean, what a, I'm speaking myself, at the age of 45, what a clown, and I had been a Christian since I was 19, but you just don't mature that fast. I think of the things I've done, and I say, I can't believe it was me, but I know it was, but I just assumed that guy's buried, you know, I don't ever want to see him again, but the things that have changed me as a person have been very rugged, and I wouldn't care to go through them again, but I'm tickled to death that I did, because of the effect it's had on me, and so, as it says, tribulation works patience, and let patience have its perfect work. Again, in Hebrews 12, it says, if you endure chastening, you get the peaceable fruit of godliness. Well, that's what we want, but how does it come to chastening? Well, we don't like it, but we like the product, and so it's a catch-22. No suffering, no godliness. Miriam? I think that God looks on the heart of those who have a good heart. All right, it is true what Miriam says. God does look on the heart. We know that from choosing David, and we know that God respects if we have a sincere desire for him. I think God respects that, and it's as I said, God will respect that, but the rewards that you get, according to 2 Corinthians 5.10, are always based on your actions. They're not based on your motives, and all the rewards to the overcomer. None of them are based on your heart, on your motives. They're all based on your actions, so the problem with not knowing the truth is not that God will condemn you for something you've never heard, that was beyond your power, and he knew that if you had heard it, you would have received it. Obviously, that would not be equity, but the problem is if you didn't hear it, you don't get the chance to reform, and it's the acts. 2 Corinthians 5.10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done. That's what God does. He looks at your heart, and then he causes situations to arise that cause you to act out what's in your heart, and then he judges you for what you did, and not for your heart, and then there's no dispute, because you could say, well, Lord, I really meant well, but the Lord says, yes, but look what you did, and we don't like that. It's human nature to want to feel, well, I know I told a lie, but I'm really not a liar. I know I stole something in the grocery store, but I'm really not a thief. That's how it begins. We play with ourselves, and one of the big things about the Day of Atonement as we begin to go through this process of confession, is we begin to understand that kind of person we really are, and we never thought we were. I heard over the television a guy, he's a death row in Texas, and his attitude was, I don't know why I'm here, I'm not really this type of person, but he had murdered somebody, and that's the games we play with ourselves. I'm really a good person, and yet, if people were to tell you the truth of how you behave, they would say, the truth is, you're a prideful, critical, arrogant, selfish person. We don't see ourselves like that. Or you're so stuck in yourself, you would make narcissists look like a humble tramp. You know? But you don't really know the type of person that I am. No, I can't read your heart, but I can sure read your body language. And so you've got to watch that, because that is a game we play with ourselves. I'm a really good person, and God knows I'm a good person. But God's going to judge you by what you say and do. See? The things we have done in the flesh. That's what counts. And after all, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Yes? That's all deception. That's what all Satan's work is. Of course! Yeah, and you know, this happens between husband and wife. So you think, I'm really a good guy, you know, it's great and everything, I love you and all, but, or it could be the other way, the wife and the husband. Well, you may, but you don't show it by what you do. Yes, but in my heart I really do. Yeah, but you don't show it, and that's what counts. It's what you do. Not the type of person you think you are, but what you do. I'm talking about the knowledge that comes to us as God searches our heart, and we have to confess our sins. It's the, we don't say, oh Lord, I'm really a good person, but I told a lie. We say, Lord, I told a lie, which makes us a liar. And that's what we don't like. But if we confess it, God is so practical, and He said, I don't want to hear about what a wonderful person you are, this is what you did. Either justify this thing, or else confess and renounce it. You've got a choice, and if it's a deed that's worthy of the lake of fire, you have a choice of renouncing and denouncing it, but if you justify it, you'll end up in the lake of fire, because it has authority, because God has given the lake of fire authority over eight behaviors, and all of their ramifications. And nothing changes that. God is immensely practical. That's a truck. It's like a truck that drives up on your front lawn. That's the way the spirit realm is. It's not a little thing like chimes and everything that twiddles and prattles, and here it's there, and down it's gone. I mean, it's a truck. It's there, you can kick the tires. That's the way the spirit realm is. And you can deal with it robustly. And it's the best way, because if you get into the wheezy, wheezing around with a lot of whatever, you get deceived. Andrew. We're talking about living the truth, rather than worrying about those who've never heard. Exactly. Exactly. And we do all we can to take heed to that admonition. Shall we stand? That's exactly true. We need to get busy and do it. All right. But God helps us. He helps us. He helps us, and he shows us what we're really like. Lord, we do give you thanks, because you do show us what we're really like. And Lord, you love us. You love us, and you want us to be like you, to behave like you, to be in your image. And you have given us grace and truth and power of your divine nature through the Lord Jesus Christ, so we can come into your image. So Lord, as Andrew said, help us not to be occupied with hypotheses, Lord, or hypothetical situations, Lord, though sometimes they're valuable. But Lord, we need to face the truth that you are dealing with us. You're going to come. You're going to judge your church. You're going to judge the world. And you want us with you, working that judgment along with you. And that means from now on, Lord, we have to be prepared to appear with you. So Lord, help us to follow step-by-step, day-by-day, the simple tasks of the day, overcoming with the grace that you give, and realizing when we do that, we're without condemnation. Praise your holy name. Praise your holy name, Lord. Praise your holy name, Lord. What a simple, direct, clear, practical religion you have given us, Lord, that we can become better people than we started out. And we praise you for that, Lord. We praise you for that. And for Christ dying to make it all possible. Thank you for that, Jesus. Now I pray you bless each of these dear ones and their homes, giving them home safely. Give them a good night's sleep without dreams that are not from God, that they may awaken health, ready to serve you in a new day, and to add to their faith these things in Jesus' name. And everyone said, Amen.