In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the mercy and love of God towards humanity. He describes a scenario where Jesus breaks through the enemy's stronghold to wake up and shake the listener who has been consumed by the world's mindset. The preacher warns about Satan's tactics of putting people to sleep and highlights the need for repentance and turning back to God. He paints a vivid picture of the consequences of turning away from God, comparing it to a person who has been brutally beaten and left with wounds and bruises all over their body.

The following message is provided by Eternal Weight of Glory. For other sermons, teachings, and articles, please visit EternalWeight.com. I want to talk about the subject of apostasy this morning. There have been four great apostasies in the 6,000 years of man's history. The first one was during Noah's time. The second was during Jeremiah's time. The third was in the days leading up to the first century. Jesus Christ came, John the Baptist before him. And we are in what the Bible terms the great apostasy. We are in the throes of it right now, and we don't hardly realize it. Even as the people in those times didn't realize it, we don't realize it. And I want to zero in on one particular aspect of the apostasy, which I'll get to in a minute. Paul said that in the last days perilous times would come. Dear ones, that is complete and pure and utter truth. Perilous times, and he wasn't referring to the judgments of God that are going to fall upon this earth. He wasn't referring to earthquakes or people going crazy because the enemy is gaining power and stirring people up to do crazy things. He wasn't talking about persecution. He's talking about the worst kind of peril that anyone could face. Spiritual peril. The peril of being lost. If you'll open up to Jeremiah chapter 8, I'm going to use that second great apostasy, if I could call it that. Really there's only one great apostasy, and we're in it. So that should tell you something. But I want to use this one as an illustration of what we are facing today. What we see going on around us today. Now the situation during Jeremiah's time, Jeremiah ministered for some 50 years. He had been warning the people of Israel for some period of time. And he was telling them that if you don't repent and amend your ways and get back to the ancient paths, I'm telling you that the nation of Babylon is going to come in here and is going to devastate the land. Babylon is going to destroy our nation. Well the problem was, you know, back then was really it's human nature, but we'll grab a hold of anything. And in their particular case, Babylon was hundreds of miles away. Now in our day and age where a jet fighter covers hundreds of miles in minutes, you know, that doesn't seem like any big thing. But back then, they would have had, you know, the Babylonian army would have to go all the way up Mesopotamia, up to Assyria, come down through Syria, Damascus, and into Israel. You know, they were a long ways away. And it was very easy for the people of Israel to kind of solace themselves that, well, I don't know. It doesn't seem so bad. I'm not sure that there's any danger imminent. You know, there's Jeremiah. He's the only one that believes this way. I mean, the entire nation feels like we're with God. You know, and then you've got Jeremiah, this radical, this fanatic preacher who's always preaching doomsday, you know. And he's got a few little people around him. I mean, come on. He's just out of balance. And we don't really have to take his words all that seriously. Well, that was probably the prevalent thinking of the day, you know. And so I'm going to pick this up, Jeremiah 8, verse 4. Basically, for several chapters, there's been a theme. And then he takes a kind of a side path for a few minutes, a rabbit trail, and shares some things. And he picks it up again here in verse 4 of chapter 8. Let's just go through this for a minute. The Lord is now telling him, you know, giving him a word for these people, his people. You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord. Do men fall and not get up again? Right off the bat, the Lord is appealing to their just practical nature, you know. And he's basically making a simple point. No one just falls down on the ground and just lays there. They don't just stay there. They get up, you know. And he brings it home, a point here that he wants to make. Does one turn away and not repent? So to him, to the Lord looking at this people, they've gone astray. And, you know, in the picture in my mind's eye is the entire nation just kind of marching away from the Lord in a sense. And he's saying it's normal to stray. We're all lost sheep, and that's typical for people to stray. But, you know, it just makes sense to turn back to me. And then he says an interesting thing. This is the Lord speaking. I have listened and heard. They're not speaking what's right. There's no one repenting of his wickedness. Now, the picture is the Lord stooping down to listen to these tiny little specks called men. He's bending down, and he's listening. He wants to hear what's going on amongst his people. He says, I've listened, and no one's saying the right thing. There's no one repenting of their wickedness saying, what have I done? You know, it's very reminiscent of the prodigal son who, you know, when he's in the pig pen, all of a sudden he came to his senses, Jesus says. And the first words out of his mouth is, I have sinned. And it's the same kind of a thought. The Lord's looking for people who will come to that point. They've strayed out of whack. They're sliding away from him. And he's looking for people. He's listening with an ear that just can hear the tiniest peep. He's waiting to hear, is there anyone who can see the trouble they're in spiritually? Is there anyone out there who will have this thing well up inside them? What have I done? Everyone turns to his own way like a horse charging into the battle. They can't get away from God quick enough in their hearts. Now remember, this is all in the midst of a very religious culture. This is all occurring in the midst of people going to the temples, making their sacrifices, doing all the things that you do. Right in the midst of all of that, in the Lord's eyes, he's looking on their hearts. And he's seeing them turn away, shutting the doors of their hearts to the voice of the Holy Spirit. But outwardly, everything's good. You know what I'm saying? Outwardly, they're doing the right things. They look pious and religious. Then he goes on to say another illustration. Even the stork in the sky knows their seasons. And the turtle dove and the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. They know that if you go north during summer, that you come south during winter. I mean, they understand this. But my people do not know the ordinance of the Lord. He's been hearing people say this in their heart, really. How can you be thinking this way? We're wise and the law of the Lord is with us. In other words, they were holding fast to their traditions. That they had the oracles of God. They had the temple of God. That we are God's people. And they were holding to that. And the Lord's saying, what are you thinking? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes have made it into a lie. They've twisted the Word of God to say something it doesn't say. They've twisted it all to be able to fashion it into the kind of religion that they want to have. The wise men are put to shame. They are dismayed and caught. Behold, they have rejected the Word of the Lord. And what kind of wisdom do they have? They've rejected the Word of the Lord. And then he starts talking about the consequences that are coming up. They did face this. Therefore, I will give their wives to others, their fields to new owners. Because from the least even to the greatest, everyone is greedy for gain. In other words, everyone's in it for themselves. From the prophet even to the priest. All the spiritual leaders were in it for self. And here is what they were doing. And this is my text and the point I'm trying to get to right here. Verse 11. They heal the brokenness of the daughter of my people superficially, saying, Shalom, shalom. But there is no shalom. All right. That's the situation. Shalom is a very important word in the Hebrew language. If you go to Israel, it's probably the most used word because it's a greeting. And it represents what they're saying when they say shalom to you. They're saying really in a nutshell. They're getting it down to one word. I hope peace and prosperity and good things are headed your way. And that's what shalom represented was an abundant life, being secure, and being free from all the worries and concerns, and that no disease or terrible things are going to happen to you or your family. That's all represented in the term shalom. And, of course, everything changes in the New Testament. After Calvary, you know, everything goes inward. Everything was sort of outward in the Old Testament times, and it goes inward in the New Testament times. So that word, though, carries forth. It's the Greek term eirene. And eirene means inward peace, inward prosperity, inward richness of soul, inward joy, the abundant life, we call it. There was kind of a change after Calvary. Everything became inward. What I want to do is I want to use this story, this second apostasy, to illustrate what's going on today. What I'm going to do, the way I'm going to break this down into four points, is I'm going to talk about the main actors in this drama that we see unfolding before us. First will be the Jewish people, and then the false teachers, and then the Nebuchadnezzar who's inferred in this whole thing. He's not spoken directly right here, but believe me, all the way through Jeremiah, it's talked about that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, is coming in here to overthrow us. And that's the threat. So we'll get to him. And then lastly, Jeremiah is the fourth player. So let's look here for a minute at the Jewish people. Regardless of their spiritual condition, they were God's people. What that means exactly as far as eternal implications are concerned is a secondary matter. They were considered God's people. They represented him to the earth, whether they were doing a good job of it or a poor job of it. They were considered God's people, and we are considered God's people in spite of the reality of our hearts and where we're at with him. And Jeremiah looked at these people, or maybe perhaps it was God who sees the intent of the heart, who sees into the inner world of every human being, and the Lord could look inside these people, and what did he see? He summed it all up with the term brokenness. In other words, the false prophets were trying to heal the brokenness. There was brokenness there. And just like is typical, and I'm getting ahead of myself, but just like is typical for false teachers, they always come in with their soothing humanistic pity and try to make people feel better. And that's what they were doing. But anyway, there was brokenness there. And this term brokenness in the Hebrew is the same word that's used for like a fractured bone. It's a very descriptive term. And when you're talking about a person's heart and their inward life, it means that it's a total mess. It's been devastated spiritually. Isaiah really says it a lot more graphically in the first chapter. That's a tremendous chapter. I've been studying it for a few days. I'm just going to read a couple of things he said. And again, it's the Lord speaking to his people. Why do you keep on rebelling? Do you want to be punished even more? Israel, your head is already covered with wounds, and your heart and mind are sick. From head to foot, there's not a healthy spot on your body. You're covered with bruises and sores and open wounds. Your wounds have not been cleansed or bandaged. No medicine has been put on them. And it's kind of a picture of if you've ever seen, it's a terrible sight, if you've ever seen a group of guys beat someone down, that is the picture here. A number of guys just start hitting and kicking and beating them down until they're just laying writhing on the floor, and every part of their body is covered with welts and gashes and bruises, broken bones. They are just a total mess. That is a picture of what we are like inside, what God sees inside when we turn away from him. That's what he's seeing. Now, we're not seeing that. We're not seeing it. We're oblivious to it for the most part. But that's what the Lord is seeing. But the problem is one of the weapons in Satan's arsenal to keep people in a false sense of peace is religion. And when I'm talking about religion, what I'm talking about is crafting a religion after your own making, crafting a religion that allows you to run your own life, make all your own decisions, do what you want to do without answering to God, and yet you have a list of rules, do's and don'ts. You create a religion that allows you to seem as though you are walking with the Lord because you're obeying these outward rules and regulations that we kind of create. And what he saw in his time was there was a religious system that allowed people to come to the temple and offer their sacrifices and do this and do that and do all these outward things and yet keep their heart far from him. As Isaiah said, because those people draw near with their words and honor me with their lip service, in other words, sing songs of praise and worship, but they remove their hearts far from me. And their reverence for me consists of tradition learned by rote. It's the traditions of man that creates false religious systems. And every one of these four apostasies I'm talking about, it doesn't just happen overnight. It takes hundreds of years down through man's history and little by little, one corruption after another is introduced until by the time God is so sick of it and he can't tolerate it anymore, not one bit more, and he has to send judgment. He has to purge the land. By the time it gets to there, it is completely dead. There's no reality inside, in the heart. It was a religious system. And we know in Revelation 17 and 18 that at the last days, John called it the Great Harlot. And that is the apostate church. It's the false church that has all the guise and all the adornment of being Christian, but the reality is in their hearts, in their hearts, they are far from him. Bottom line with apostasy is this, it's control. That's the issue. That will always be the issue. Who is controlling your life? Who's on the throne of your life? Is it Jesus Christ really, or is that just a cheap platitude that you've learned to say? Because it comes out in your daily life, the way you live your life, the way you think, the way you speak. The reality of where Jesus Christ, where you allow him, comes out in the way that you live. It's the evidence of it, but the reality happens deep inside your inner being. We're talking about what apostasy looks like, and this is what I'm telling you. That God's people, that the prevailing reality of God's people is that outwardly they continue to serve him, but inwardly their hearts are far from him. They have closed off the avenue into their hearts. They've put up walls and doors with a do not enter sign. I do not want you in here telling me what to do with my heart and what to do with my life. I run the show here. They don't ever think that way, you understand. It's just the reality of what's going on. They don't have those thoughts. Well, of course, Satan is the author of false religion, and it's his devilish breath that he breathes on people that gives them that spiritual stupor and puts them in a sense of false peace. And Satan has his ministers. And that brings us to the second group, the false prophets. Satan has his agents, wolves in sheep's clothing, angels of light. Satan and his minions are experts at putting people to sleep, experts at it. They know just how to do it. They have just the right formula, the right tonic to dabble into your soul and put you into a sound sleep. Now, in this particular case, the people are in great need. They have been beaten down to the ground. It's like the Good Samaritan story, the guy who had been beaten by the robbers. There he is, just all beaten and busted up. And they can see that, I suppose, but their solution is to come on and pat him on the back. Oh, it'll be all right. You know, the people are backslidden. Oh, no, don't worry. Don't be too hard on yourself. You'll do better. You'll be okay. And they pat them on the back and encourage them. Now, this isn't the gift of encouragement like Barnabas had. Barnabas was an encourager, but a true encourager in the Lord always encourages you toward the Lord. A faith, a flatterer, encourages you in your sin. Big difference. Big difference. We need encouragers. Absolutely. Thank God there's not a bunch of Steve Gallagher's running around. We need men with the gift of encouragement, the real gift. But we don't need flatterers. And, of course, Jeremiah referred to them when he talked about their lying pens, the way they twist Scripture. This is what we see prevailing today. And, again, dear ones, I'm not up here telling you, you know, something I've contrived or whatever. It is what the Word of God foretold. Everything else is in place for the last days. Why would you doubt this? Paul said, and you've heard it a thousand times, but you need to hear it again in this context, for the time will come when they will not endure. In other words, they can't take sound doctrine. It's too burdensome. It's too heavy. Why? Because their hearts aren't with Jesus. They want to do it in their own strength so they can control everything, so they can't endure sound doctrine. But wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. And, again, those myths have been supplied by the false prophets. The false prophets, many of whom are great preachers on the radio. They'll take half of the gospel and they do a great job of expositing, but you never hear the other half. You never hear sin confronted. You never hear worldliness confronted. You never hear them preaching about pride and selfishness. Why? Because when you start preaching like that, radios shut off because people don't want to hear it. The funds, the donations quit coming in because people don't want to listen to that kind of preaching. So they just do the positive half. God help them. I pity them when they stand before Jesus Christ who laid it all on the line. Paul also said, while they are saying, peace, Irene, and safety, then destruction will come upon them suddenly. This is reality. I hope you guys understand. I know it's not a fun message, but it is reality. It's our reality today. And where this is all heading is we get to a point where we become swallowed up by the Babylonian system. We've lost all of our safeguards, our weapons, our protections. You know, God has given us protections just like my wife shared. You just have to appropriate them. And, you know, when you appropriate them, you will have protections in place that will keep the spirit of this world at bay. I'm getting ahead of myself here again. So number three is Nebuchadnezzar who is, of course, the king of Babylon. And I think it's Isaiah 14. Actually, Lucifer is called the king of Babylon. Now Babylon has always represented the world system. Jerusalem represents the people of God, and Babylon represents those who are in an Antichrist spirit. It goes back to the Tower of Babel, of course, and it just weaves its way until finally at the very end in Revelations. What is it? It's Babylon. It's Babylon that rises up against God in the end. The Apostle John said something very interesting. I ran across this about a month ago, and I had never seen it this way before. It just hit me. This is what he said, 1 John 5, 19. He said, We know that we are of God. Now when he's talking about we, he's talking about himself, the other disciples, godly people around him. He says, We know that we are of God and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. These two phrases drive a giant chasm, a great gulf between true believers and false believers, and you can't get from one to the other. We try to make a gray area in the church where we can kind of have one foot in one world and one foot in the other, but it's just a figment of our imagination. It's an illusion because the gulf is so wide you can't put one foot over on one side and one foot over on the other. It's impossible. You can delude yourself into thinking that, but the reality is you're fully in the enemy's camp. The world is in the grip of the father of lies. It's in the grip of Satan, and that grip is growing stronger and tighter every day, just like the Bible said it would. And I want to tell you, those who are of God do not lie in the grip, in the power of the evil one. You can tell by their lives if they're of God because they're not lying in the power of the evil. When you talk to them, it comes out what's inside of them. They're not full of this world and all into this world and their heart going after the things of this world. That's not what comes out of them. Their life is all about Jesus Christ. But those who lie in the power of the evil one are not of God. It's one way or the other, and in that little comma there, in the middle of that sentence, those two phrases represent two completely distinct groups of people. And we have to decide, will we live in the power of the Holy Spirit, or will we live with a form of godliness and resist the power of the Holy Spirit, keep the power of the Holy Spirit at bay, keep him away from our hearts, and seal our doom? All right, so that's the picture, is you have God's people are in a terrible predicament spiritually. They're in great danger. But praise the Lord, he found a man who could step into that situation with a pure heart, with a genuine love for those people. And he could speak truth to them, even while they spit in his face. Jeremiah was God's representative to a backslidden people. He stepped into that culture when everyone, the king down to the lowest slave, everyone, everyone, isn't that what it said? Everyone is greedy for gain. And he stepped in with the word from the Lord. But you know, really, it was Jesus. It was the Spirit of Jesus Christ at work in his life through him and in his words. It was Jesus, the one who sat and looked upon Jerusalem and said with tears running down his cheeks, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered you under my wings. But you wouldn't. You would not. Jesus Christ is the greatest prophet who ever lived. And he came in that third apostasy. His way was paved by John the Baptist, of course. But Jesus Christ was the greatest prophet who ever lived. He was a prophet, priest, and king and the greatest of all. And you know, it's interesting. Jesus said, Don't think that I came to bring peace, shalom, Irene, on this earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword, he said. Now, I want you to listen to what Oswald Chambers got to say about this. We talk glibly about Jesus being the prince of peace. But when he comes into the world that is peaceably ruled by Satan, he comes to send a sword, not peace. The coming of Jesus Christ is not a peaceful thing. It is overwhelming and frantically disturbing. Because the first thing he does is to destroy every peace that is not based on a personal relationship to himself. The peace of physical health, of mental healthy mindedness, of prosperous circumstances, of civilization. Not one of these is peace of God. But the outcome of the souls of men being garrisoned by the prince of this world. And that says a lot. Being garrisoned by the prince of this world. Thank God Jesus is willing to step in and rescue souls. Now, just to show you the overwhelming love that constrained Jesus. And does. I want to share something that he said. And he was making a different point when he said this. But I'll show you something in it. He's talking about how Satan and his kingdom works. Okay, and it comes out of Luke 11. This is what he said. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder. Okay, now what in the world does that have to do with peace and false peace and what we're talking about? I'll show you. The possessions that Jesus is referring to is the booty. Meaning, the great war between the kingdoms of darkness and kingdom of light is all about one thing. People's souls. People's souls. That's what it's all about. That's what the battle is all about. There is no other reason for this battle. It's people's souls. Satan is in a passion to destroy your soul. And Jesus Christ is in a passion to redeem and save your soul. Your soul is the possession being spoken to. And here's the picture. It's almost like a Philistine camp, if I could say. Garrisoned, as Chambers described it. A garrison. A fort. And there's Satan in there and he's got all these captives in there. They're in the grip of Satan. They're held captive to do the devil's will. They're lying in the power of the evil one. Now here's what I want to show you. There's only one term that describes these people. This is what he said. His possessions are undisturbed. There they are. They're in the Philistine fort. This word undisturbed is Irene. It's peace. They are in Satan's grip and totally good with it. Totally good with it. Completely at peace. No concerns. Unruffled. At ease. But God who is rich in mercy. But God who is rich in mercy. You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world. Babylon. According to the prince of the power of the air. The atmosphere you were in. The suffocating atmosphere of Babylon. The spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh. Indulging the desires of the flesh of the mind. And were by nature children of wrath. But God being rich in mercy. Because of his great love with which he loved us. Etc. Jesus Christ came riding into the Philistine camp. Broke through the wall somehow. Gets into the tent where you're laying undisturbed. And he grabs a hold of you. And he's shaking you. Wake up! Wake up! You hear the words. But it's like they're coming through a tunnel five miles long. And it's just like this tiny little peep. You know because you're so far gone. Into the enemy's thinking. Into his mindset. Into his ways. Into his value system. You have so thrown yourself into this world system. Jesus is yelling. He's shaking you. But you can hardly hear him. And it's all mercy. That he would even bother with any of us. Alright now. I want to wrap this up. I want to wrap it up and I want to do it this way. I want to say that there's three types of people in this room today. There are those who have been to Calvary. Some of you guys have been to Calvary. You've had a breakthrough in this place. Some of you have had the breakthrough that was needed. And now the main work going on in your life is to continue fortifying you spiritually. And building you up in the faith. And getting you ready to go home. And all of that. And the second group I want to mention are those who haven't yet been there. But you're going to get there. Your time is coming. You know. You don't know who you are though. I mean that's sheer guesswork on your part and our part. But God knows. And so I'm going to lump the two of you together. You've been to Calvary or you're going to go to Calvary before your time is up. And here's my concern though. You're living in a spiritual cocoon here at Pure Life Ministries. You are surrounded with truth. You can't get away from truth, right? Sometimes you wish you could get away from truth. You're surrounded with truth here. You get it constantly. And you need it, men, because you've been laying in the power of the evil one for many years. You've been wallowing in that cesspool of deception. You have just indulged yourself with all those lies and falsehoods to the point that your whole mind has been corrupted in the way it sees things. So you need to spend a good amount of time here laying in the truth. But the time is going to come when you go home. Now some of you come from good Bible preaching churches. You have godly pastors. But others of you, it's not so much that way. But whatever the case, no matter how good your church is, this I know. This I know. There is a religious system in this country that is apostate. Hopefully it will become real to you. Not because I'm trying to sound like whatever. There are God's people out there, and there are sincere people out there in the midst of this system. There are. So don't get me wrong. But I'm telling you that the system on a whole Let me just give you a couple of examples. Who is it that rises to the top? Is it the most humble men in the land? Is it the men with the least ambition and the purest hearts? Is it the men who Jesus Christ has totally conquered inside? That's the system we live in. I mean that's just one little aspect of it. I'm not even going to get into the money involved and all of that. But whatever. There is a system out there. And here's the thing, guys. You lived in that system quite comfortably. Didn't you? Weren't you pretty much at peace? If it wasn't for your sexual sin, what hope would there have been for you? But, thank God. Thank God that you had something that even the church was so bad that even the church frowned on your life. That should tell you something right there. And it brought you saw your need, you know, because this thing was like a thorn in your side. It wouldn't let you go. Think of all the masses out there that are just living in a spiritual stupor, living for this world, who don't have a thorn in their side to cause them to wake up and search for help. You're going back into that system. Now, I do believe that some of you are going to go out of here blazing. And you are going to go out, and God is going to use you in the days ahead. I believe that. You know, you may have to go through some things and some struggles and so on. But I do believe that there are going to be men who leave this place in a powerful spirit. Or at least it will grow when you get out there. And instead of flinking under the assault and just kind of caving into it, instead of doing that, you will rouse yourself up. And you'll say, no, I'm not going to go that way again. I'm going to stand for Jesus Christ. And you'll have that kind of conviction just written across your heart. And the enemy won't be able to drain it out of you because you won't stand for it. So I'm believing that there are people like that, but there are others. And this comes out of 25 years in this ministry and many heartbreaking stories. And the story isn't over until someone dies, of course. But I can't tell you how many times, and it's not the majority, but all the thousands of men that we have dealt with at Pure Life Ministries over the years, I'm sure you can imagine, there have been many times, many, many, many, many. All these guys up here know and these counselors know how many have broken our hearts because we loved them, we cared about them, we tried to give them the truth. And they left out of here in delusion. They left out of here with a half load, you know, just did enough to get by. And they went back out there and they found that when the powerful deception came over them, they had nothing to protect themselves from it. And they slid away. Only one thing that matters is the sincerity of your heart. The sincerity of your heart. You know, it's just in us human beings to build walls around our heart, to fortify our hearts against the conviction of the Holy Spirit. We do our best to protect ourselves from God breaking through. And some of you are going to win that battle. I could weep thinking about it. You have resisted the Holy Spirit so many times. Because even in this place, you will resist the voice of the Holy Spirit. Even here, when you're surrounded by truth, you can't get away from it. No matter where you turn, you're hit with it. You have found a way to somehow slide through. Some people just have the ability to slide through. They just can keep truth at bay. They'll nod with their head. They'll acknowledge, yeah, that's true, you know, praise the Lord, brother. I'm going on with Jesus. But inside, there's a wall. And they never let the Holy Spirit in to deal with them. You know, the point comes, the Spirit quits striving after a while. Some of you, this is your last chance. I don't mean to be overly dramatic, but I just believe that, that the Lord has finally got you to a place where He can speak to you without all the distractions. And you've got to respond to Him in this place. Because you're going to go back into a system that is going to completely cater to your flesh. And I hate to say it, but there's going to be some that the Lord has to say. Ephraim has gone to his idols. Leave him alone. He wants his own way. Let him have it. He's proven it time and time and time again. Every time I've tried to reach him, he has found some way out of the conviction of my Holy Spirit. You know, you're only deceiving yourself. But there's going to come a day when all that deception is going to be gone. And only reality is going to be there staring you in the face. And I'm talking about when you stand before God. There won't be any more lying devils. There won't be any more atmospheres that are conducive to you playing your game. Guys, trust me. I know you don't realize this because I'm not involved in your lives. But I very much care. I very, very much care. And that's what brings forth a message like this, is that I care about you. I don't want to see any of you lost. Just straggling along. Can never figure out why you can't get the victory. And I don't mean sexual sin. I'm just talking about the spiritual life, the Christian life. You just can't ever seem to arrive at it, to finish. I'm going to read these words from George Whitefield that he spoke to a crowd a couple hundred years ago during the Great Awakening. And I hope you get the sense of God's heart for you. If I haven't been able to convey it, I'm sorry. But I hope that you can get the sense of it from his words, this dear man's words. Poor soul, what a cursed condition you're in. I would not be in your case for 10,000,000 worlds. Why? You're hanging just over hell. What peace can you have when God is your enemy? When the wrath of God is abiding upon your poor soul? Awake, then, you that are sleeping in a false peace. Awake, you carnal professors. You hypocrites that go to church, read your Bibles, and never felt the power of God upon your hearts. You that are formal professors. You that are baptized heathens. Awake and awake. And do not rest on a false bottom. Please don't blame me for addressing myself to you this way. Indeed, it is out of love for your souls. I see you are lingering in your Sodom and wanting to stay there. But I come to you as the angel did to Lot to take you by the hand. Come away, my dear brethren. Fly. Fly. Fly for your lives to Jesus Christ. That is God's heart. There is a great spiritual peril. And it is this false peace, this false sense of security. Being secure when you shouldn't be secure. Lord, you see these dear souls here. Dear, dear precious souls who you love greatly, Lord. Who you love greatly. It is your love that is pleading with them today. I know that many of these men have already done the right thing. And they're fighting for a real life in God. I understand that, Lord. But there are some who haven't yet crossed that line. Haven't yet made that full surrender in their hearts. Lord, I'm praying that you will reach them right now. I'm praying if there are any visitors here today that haven't had a true life in God. But have just been playing that religious game. Keeping you at arm's bay. But going through all the motions outwardly. God, reach their heart, please, Lord. Bring the conviction of the Holy Spirit to bear upon their consciences, God. Overwhelm and devastate everything they would exalt inside them against the knowledge of God, I pray. Lord, I'm just looking to you to accomplish what you desire to accomplish. Which is always, always to salvage souls. And I leave it to you to accomplish this, Lord.