In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the danger of being lukewarm in one's faith. He references a verse in the book of Revelation where God says He will "spew out" those who are lukewarm. The preacher then goes on to explain the significance of lukewarmness and why it is important to avoid it. He highlights the importance of being passionate, thankful, and devoted in one's relationship with God. The sermon also touches on the issue of hypocrisy and the need to be genuine in our faith.

Hello, welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902, or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, Ephrata, Pennsylvania, 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Amen. Praise the Lord. It's so good to be here tonight. I trust that you have been walking with the Lord Jesus Christ today, and you've been basking in His glory and in His goodness. I have experienced that as I walked with the Lord Jesus Christ today. He's given us such beautiful weather. I just thank the Lord for that. Sometimes I tend to be too grumpy. Do you struggle with that? Well, if you don't, I do. If you think preachers have it all together, and when we get ordained, we can fly to heaven on flowery beds of ease, and we have no struggles and trials anymore, you're wrong. We do. But I want to be a very thankful person, and I'm so thankful that I can be here tonight. I've been blessed by the singing, and I've been blessed by the testimonies, and I'm really blessed by you folks being here again tonight. The tent is full. I'm sure it was last night. And we're here to rally around the Word of God, to lift up the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing we would sooner do than that. Amen? Because He's the one that saved us. There's no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. That's Jesus Christ. And so we're very thankful. Well, I'm very thankful for a very kind brother who shared something with me yesterday. I think when I preached two nights ago, I said something incorrectly. I just want to correct that right now. I love when people listen. When I preach and I give a reference, you need to go there. I might say it wrong. I could be incorrect. And so we are jealous for the Word of God. We're not jealous for the speaker, and him being a good, polished speaker, not making any mistakes. It's not about the speaker. It's all about the Word of God and what the Word of God does in our lives. And so this brother said that when I was talking about eternal security, I had mentioned that there's no verse in the Bible that supports eternal security. And that brother's right. That's probably what I said. That's not what I meant to say. I'm glad that I can say I do not believe that statement. I believe the Bible, from the book of Matthew cleaned down through the book of Revelation, supports the fact that we have and can have conditional eternal security in the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe in the believer's assurance of salvation. And relative to God, we believe in eternal security. He's never going to leave us. Amen. He's never going to forsake us. God never fails us. He never drops us. He never walks away from us. Brother David said that He would never cast us from His presence as long as we walk with Him. And when we walk with Him and we meet the conditions, we believe in the believer's confidence of regeneration. What word did I use earlier? Somebody tell me. The assurance of salvation, eternal security, whatever, but not in unconditional eternal security. Alright, there's another thing that I would like to mention. We're going to get into the message very, very shortly. Please don't run ahead of me. This is part of my message tonight, and I want to explain something here tonight so that it might make sense to everybody, not only those that are inside the tent, but those who are listening on their cell phones or by a computer or whatever. From time to time over the years, we hear people saying this. Who are those tent meeting people? What are they doing? What are they preaching? What do they believe? Why do they try and procure members from other churches? Why do they divide families and divide churches? And why do they go out stealing sheep? Well, I tell you, none of that is the truth. That's not what we are all about. That's not the emphasis of what is happening here this week. So, I say that for the benefit of everybody who is listening, not necessarily or only those who are in the tent. First of all, what we are doing here this week is we are preaching the Word of God by the Spirit of God in order to bring people in conformity to the will of God. That's all we're doing. And so, you know, when we get back here to the Word of God, I had mentioned the Word of God and the importance and the authenticity of the Word of God many times over in the first sermons. And if I maintain my sane mind, I'm going to do it again. So, there's one common goal that I think all, can I say, religious or church groups have, and that is we believe in the inerrant, authentic, infallible, holy... What else? Word of God. We believe that this book that is sitting in your lap, the book that I'm preaching out of here this morning, it is the heart of God, it is the Word of God, it's the mind of God, it's His revelation to every warm body that's under the tent here tonight. And so, having said that, we believe that we need to read the Word of God and believe the Word of God and practice the Word of God. All of us believe that, right? I think the Lutherans would say that, and the Baptists, and the Mennonites, and the Amish, and the charity people, or whatever background you're from, I don't know where you're coming from, and I don't care. I do care where you're going to end up. So, I don't know your background, but there's one solid foundation that we all have, and that is we must believe the Word of God and practice the Word of God. All right, now, having said that, that's all we're doing here at these tent meetings. We are preaching the Word of God. We believe that the Word of God is the beating, pounding, pulsating heart of the Creator of God, the Father, and we love the Word of God. All we're going to do is preach the Word of God. Now, if we're not careful, sometimes we fail, and we misunderstand. Stay with me. Are you with me? Sometimes we misunderstand the applied Word of God. Here's what we do. We have our church structure. It might be Mennonite, it could be Pleasant Valley, it could be Beechy Amish, it could be the charity folks. And so, we have a little church structure, and the tendency is to get the Word of God, and bring the Word of God into the organized church structure, and fit, and adapt, and shape, and slice the Word of God into the church structure. That is wrong. That is not what we're going to do here tonight. That's not what the Mennonites ought to be doing. That's what the Amish should not do, the Baptists, the Catholics, and the Pentecostals, and everybody else. That is not what we do. But do you know what we do? We gather ourselves together, and we bring ourselves to the Word of God, and we let the Word of God be exactly what it is. We don't add anything to it. We don't take anything away from it. And we bring ourselves, our families, our church structure, and we shave, and slice, and add, and pat, and mold ourselves around the Word of God. That's all we're doing at these tent meetings. So, if you think that we're here, and we're a bunch of religious fanatics, and we're just, you know, we're just here preaching, and we're all charismatic, and we don't know what we're saying, and we're getting religious, you are wrong. That is a false accusation. All we're doing is preaching, and living the alive, beating, throbbing Word of God. Our goal. Our goal is not to steal sheep. Our goal is to save goats. That's what it's all about. Now, I don't save goats recklessly. I don't mean that disparagingly against the human race, or any man, and either a Baptist, if you are loose and hidden, either Pentecostal, or Old Order Amish, or BG Amish. I'm not here recklessly, humanly, calling you a goat. All I know is the Bible says that the sheep and the goats, and the ones on the left and the ones on the right, and you've got to take your pick tonight, whether you're going to be on the left, whether you're going to be on the right. Listen, if you're on the outside of the fold of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you are not living your life in accordance with the will, and the power, and the glory of the authentic Word of God, you are outside of God's ordained authority, and you're a goat. You're lost. Now, I didn't say that. That's what the Word of God says. So, we are not here to steal sheep. We're not here to divide churches. We're not here to divide your family, whoever's listening in on cell phones, and pagers, and computers. We are here to preach, and to practice the Word of God. And remember, we have one common basis. We all go back, and we say the Word of God is the Word of God. So, all we want people to do is to read, and believe, and do the Word of God. That's all. And so, unfortunately, we have churches, and we have church structures, and groups, and people who do not fully practice and preach the Word of God. So, this is going to bring a division. Jesus said it's going to bring a division. And if it brings a division, that's not our fault. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. That's God bringing that division. Are you with me? Do you know what I'm saying? Alright. I just wanted to straighten that out tonight. And then, you know, if you're here tonight, if anybody's here tonight, and they get saved. You come to this meeting, and you're a Mennonite. I'm going to pick on the Mennonite, because I'm a Mennonite. I'm not ashamed to be a Mennonite. And so, you're here tonight. You're a Mennonite. And so, you get, and you are lost. You were a hypocritical Mennonite. You were empty, and you were unsaved. You never experienced the glory and the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, then you get saved. You get full of the Holy Ghost. And you start loving the Lord Jesus Christ. And then you go back to your home church. And if you find yourself at odds in your home church. The home church that should be preaching, and facilitating, and promoting the Word of God. And after you're saved, you go back to that home church. And they don't facilitate, they don't support your personal life. After you are living under the Word of God, and separation occurs. Don't say then that it's the tent meeting people that's casting you out of the church. It's not us. We are not seeking sheep. Then it's the home church. If they do not pursue you, and facilitate you, and support you in your conversion, in the fact that you have gotten a hold of the Spirit of God. Then, it's the church. It is not us here tonight, or the people who are operating the tent. Then that is a home church problem. Just let me make a little illustration. That's why we have Amish, and Mennonites. That's why we have the Anabaptist people. Because, way back there in the Reformation, the great state church, the Catholic Church, was not living under the glory, and the power, and the authority of the Word of God. And so we had the Reformation. And maybe that has to happen again. And it is happening today in Lancaster County. People are getting saved. And church groups are not excited about when their members are getting saved. And so it's going to cause a Reformation. But you know, when people get saved from these churches, whether it's a Mennonite church, or Baptist, or Beachy Amish, or the Charity Church, when people get saved, and they're not supported, like I said, then they are forced to leave. Maybe. That is not the fault of what we are doing here. That is a defective emphasis in that church, because they are not operating under the will and power of the Holy Scriptures. I just wanted to make that clear tonight. I didn't waste your time. I think that is part of what I wanted to say tonight. What I want to talk about tonight is lukewarmness. I don't know what comes to your mind when you think of lukewarmness. That little verse. You don't need to turn to it. In fact, you can go to Revelation. Please, go to the book of Revelation. If you've got your Bibles along here tonight, I want you to open up your Bibles. Don't just take it from me verbatim, because you know I make mistakes. I have apologized for one already, and there could even be more. I want you to go into the Word of God. Go into the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 3, verses 14 to 20, 14 to 20. Now, while you're going there, if you can flip your hands, if you can multitask and listen to my voice at the same time. Remember, we're studying that little verse there in 2 Corinthians. Which chapter? Say it. Chapter 7, verse 1. There is the Bible. There, brother Paul, under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, is telling us that we need to cleanse ourselves from all what? Filthiness of the flesh and filthiness of the spirit. Now, I'm going to ask you a very important question tonight. We're not going to dwell on this long. Have you done that? There could be somebody in the audience here tonight. There could be a warm body sitting in the audience here tonight who has read over that 25 times or 50 times and has never appropriated the cleansing blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Did you cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the mind? Now, we already discussed that, right? The other thing I want to look at real quickly here, that is, the verse says that we need to go on perfecting holiness. Now, I don't know what you think that word perfecting means or what holiness means. When we perfect something, we bring it to the highest degree. Oh, help me out. The highest degree possible. That didn't sound right, brother Mel. What am I trying to say? When you perfect something, you polish it, you move it, you arrange it. You just bring that thing to maximum power. To maximum efficiency. And that's what the Word of God wants us to do. I'm not making this up. This is what your Bible says. This is what the Bible says that the Mennonites carry. This is what the Bible says that the Baptists carry. This is what the Bible says that the Amish people carry. That we need to cleanse ourselves. This is what God is telling us here tonight. And we need to perfect holiness. Now, let me ask you this question. What holiness is He talking about? Well, that's too vague. Whose holiness? Pardon? God's. Yes, yes, yes, yes. God's holiness. He here is talking about the holiness of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, listen. Stay with me. We go back there to 1 Peter. And there the Bible says, Be ye holy as I am holy. So, I don't know why we hear people say, Oh, he's just getting holy. Why say, we had better been getting holy. Amen. I don't know why people scoff. I don't know why the unholy people scoff at those who are trying to be holy. When God says, I want you to be holy as my Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is holy. Some people scoff at that because they don't understand the holiness that we can have in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Did you know throughout the Pauline epistles, He says, in Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus. How many times do you know? Well, I'll tell you tonight. Write it in your Bible. Brother Ed, you ought to know. There's a lot of Pleasant Valley people here tonight. I'm blessed by your support and the support on the phone and on the cell phone. People calling me, praying with me. 153 times in Christ Jesus. Now, you know, there's a lot of people that don't understand the glory and the power and the dynamics of being in Christ Jesus. Stay with me. When we are in Christ Jesus, we need to be and we can be a holy people. Amen. We can perfect. We can bring our holiness to the highest level possible. That should be the strife, or I mean, that's what we should strive to be. Every Christian here tonight, we need to be striving to be holy people. Now, go back there to Revelation. We want to talk about lukewarmness. Revelation chapter 3. Going to read that here in just a minute. Revelation chapter 3. Now, I think I already said it. I don't know what comes to your mind when you think of lukewarmness. Theologically speaking, not philosophically. Philosophy and theology are not the same. Theologically speaking, theology is the study and the practice and the understanding of the Word of God. Theologically speaking, there are four basic points within the Word of God that tell us what lukewarmness is. And what I want every person here tonight to do is you study your own life, not the person that's sitting beside you, some other person that goes to your church that you're wishing would be here. I want you to study your own life according to, in relationship, the moving, living, thriving Word of God, and you decide whether or not you are lukewarm. All right? That's what you need to do. I gave you an assignment. So, we can discuss what the word means more literally here when we are finished reading this verse, these few verses right here. Now, those of you who want to, you don't need to. Those of you who want to, you can stand while we read in reverence the Word of God. If you don't want to stand, stay sitting. Sometimes a change of position helps us. All right? Are you in Revelation chapter 3, verse 13, 13, verse 13? I want you to see this. All right? Let's read this together. Read with enthusiasm. Remember what I said of the night. Here we go. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches, and unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write these things, saith the old man, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God, I know thy works, that thou art neither hot nor cold, I would thou work cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth, because I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And anoint thine eyes with thy salve, that thou mayest see as many as I love, I repute and chasten, be zealous therefore, and repent. I want to thank you. You may be seated. That was the reading of the Word of God. And now we're going to preach out of the Word of God. Now, before we go any further, there are some beautiful, important things that we want to hold under God's microscope again tonight, so we understand what He's saying. But before we do that, what does the word, in your mind at least, lukewarm mean? Let me say this while you're thinking, and you can answer me sometimes. I need help to preach. And when I preach, I like to make dialogue because you folks give me a lot of ammunition, a lot of good thoughts, a lot of good adjectives. Brother Mike, I need it all. Preaching, you know, we just need help. We need more thoughts when we preach. Now, let me say this too. This is the only place in the Word of God where you will see the word lukewarm. I don't think it's another place in the Word of God. I think it's only in once. Now then, listen. There are many, many other insinuations of lukewarmness, but this is the only place where you're going to see that word. And those of us who love bibliology, that is very interesting. In fact, that's the only place in the Word of God where you're going to find this word. Now, this word in your mind means what? What do you think of when you think of somebody who is lukewarm? Go ahead. Tipid. Yeah, it means lukewarm. That means right. Yes. Again, spiritually speaking. Casual. Wow. Apathetic. Who cares? Lazy. Backsliding. Cool. Indifferent. Uninterested. Again. Mike. Blah. Yeah, blah. Duh. Who cares? Everybody else is doing it. It doesn't matter. God's sleeping. I can father with God on the day of judgment. You know, everybody else is doing it. I guess I did say that. Lukewarmness here means to be moderately warm. Of course, we know indifferent, possessing little enthusiasm. I think I already mentioned that on the very first night of this revival meeting. And you know what really bothers me is when I see so many people who claim to know the Lord Jesus Christ being so uninterested in the things of him. Why is that so true? Where is our appetite? I ask you tonight, where is your love? Did you lose your first love? Are you building on your first love? How much do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? Get this and get it really, really good. On a scale between 1 and 10, be honest before God tonight because he's here inside this tent. And believe me, I cannot see into your heart. And you're not answering me. It doesn't matter if I can. But God the Father, he can come down. He doesn't even have to come down here. He's up there and he can see into your heart and he knows where your passion is. He knows where your love is. He knows what makes you tick. He knows what turns your crank. He knows what you do in your spare moments. He knows what you've got hidden beneath the seat of your automobile and what you do when you think nobody else is looking. God understands all that. God can see all that because he's God. I can't. You can't. God can. He's God. Nobody else is God. He never shares his glory and his power and his authenticity with anyone else, including Lucifer. God does not do it. He is God. He can see us. So you need to answer tonight whether you are lukewarm, indifferent, possessing little enthusiasm. I think the Christian ought to be a thankful person. I think, you know, the Bible says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. I think our lifestyle Monday through Friday ought to be such that people from the back of my head, 200 feet away, can see that I'm converted. Because I want to tell you what, when Jesus Christ, the Holy Son of God, the person who created the world and everything that is in it, when he's speaking into existence, when that type of power comes into a bag of bones like yours, a bloody rebel type bag of bones, and you get saved and you get plugged into God Almighty, I'm going to tell you, a change takes place in your life. And if that change took place in your life, people are going to see it. Somebody said, even the dog didn't have to run away from me after I got converted. Even the dog knew that he got converted. And maybe the sister's cows knew that she got converted too and she didn't like milking. Maybe I don't know what she did to the cows. We should not lack little, we should not possess little enthusiasm or lack zeal for the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what lukewarm means. Now, let's go in here a little bit. I want to notice a few other things. In verse 14, And unto the angel, the church of the Laodiceans. Now, I don't know a whole lot about eschatology, and this sermon is not going to be about eschatology. But here, someone had said that, you know, we have the seven angels, we have the seven churches, we have the seven areas, and the church of the Laodiceans is the church of the last times. Is that true? Isn't it? Is it exactly in chronological order, air-wise, according to the time that we're in? I'm not sure. I sort of think it's right. I think we live in the age of the Laodiceans. I think that is right now, and according to the way He describes the heartbeat of the Laodiceans, I believe we're sitting in it right here tonight. I'll show you what I mean under God's Word when we get there. He's talking to the church of the Laodiceans. Now, there's another thing I want to show you. In verse 15, He says, I know thy works. I don't care who you are tonight, where you are in your Christian life, God the Father, I've already alluded to it, He can see into your heart, He sees your actions. Brother David said in the book of Psalms, He even knows our thoughts so far off, what He means by that is even before we think them. I don't know how God can do it. I don't understand God to that dimension. All that I know is that God knows what I'm going to think tomorrow, and tomorrow didn't even come yet, and I didn't even think the thoughts of tomorrow, but God can do it. Here the Bible says that He knows our works. He knows our intentions. He knows our thoughts. Now listen, here's what I want to say about that. To those of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ and have washed our robes in the blood of the Lamb, I love that verse. To know that no matter where I go, I'm mowing the lawn, I'm driving down the road, I'm on a forklift at work, or I'm behind the pulpit or whatever, that God knows my works. I love that divine, holy, open, powerful, intimate relationship with God the Father that everything I do, everything I think, He can see me, Brother Mike. That is a comfort to me. Amen to you, saints. That is comforting to know that no matter what is happening to me, no matter what I'm going through, tears and sorrows and darkness, God knows it all. That is comforting. But I want to say here tonight, if you're here, sinner, friend, or you're listening on the telephone, you're looking on the computer, and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is faithful. He's going to come down in your life and He's going to put guilt in your life. He's going to put... well, maybe Satan puts the fear there. I didn't think that through totally. But you're going to have guilt and fear in your life. And this fact is going to make you miserable, the fact that God knows your works. You know, we hear testimonies of people who have gone to church all their life, and they knew about God. They knew about the Word of God, but did not experience God in their hearts. And you know, the testimonies that we hear, here, night after night, the people are miserable. They are fearful. And that's exactly how those people feel in the presence of God, knowing that He's a loving God. He's also a just God. He's a God that hates sin. He loves the sinner, but He hates the sin. And that makes us fearful. There is a dreadful looking forward to when people have sin in their life. And maybe there's somebody here tonight, you've got sin in your life. You are worried that God is going to know your works. God is reading your mind. He knows what you're going to do and think tomorrow. You've got to be miserable in such a state, and you know it. I don't have to stand behind this pulpit and tell you that. You know tonight, if you've been religiously carried to church, you know the truth. And if you don't accept the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ and the everlasting gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, in your heart, you are like a man most miserable. You know it. The Holy Spirit's going to do that to you. But to those of us who are saved, to know that God is walking with me, listening, looking, that is such great comfort. Now, let's look at verse 15 a little more closely. He says He knows that we're neither hot nor cold. He tells us that I wish that you would be hot or cold, so then that you are lukewarm and neither cold or hot. I will what? Say this with me. I will spew thee out of my mouth. Now listen, this is something that makes God sick on the stomach. I don't know what it takes to make you sick on the stomach. Maybe a road kill. Maybe an accident. Maybe the suffering of another human being. You know, we get sick on the stomach. It's distasteful. We hate it. It's a strong dislike. Well, you know, here it tells us that God gets sick on the stomach also. He says that I am sick on the stomach. I will spew thee out of my mouth because you are neither hot nor cold. And so what God is telling us, here listen, I want you to get this really good sinner friend, lukewarm person, if you're here tonight, and a little bit later, we're going to get to really what lukewarmness is. But let me just say this. God would rather have that we are totally outside of the church, not pretending to be spiritual, not pretending to be saved, not pretending to be a Christian, than pretending to be one and staying in the church. So, I think what God is telling us is take your pick tonight. In fact, that is the title of the sermon. Hot or cold, take your pick. What you don't want to do, if you don't want to make God sick on the stomach, is sort of stay in the church and drift along in your hypocrisy, in your sin, in your two-timing love affair with Him and the world. I guess that's sort of impossible. Just do that, and that makes God sick in the stomach. He would rather have us be out and lost away. Or, of course, He wants us to be hot and on fire and to be walking with the Lord Jesus Christ in the dynamics of the Holy Spirit. I ask everyone, buddy, tonight under this tent, is that you? Are you walking with the Lord Jesus Christ? Is your heart pulsating with the will and the doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ? That's your choice here tonight. You don't have to do it. You can sit on that chair if you've got sin in your life. You don't have to walk up front. You do not have to give your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. But if you're not, you're going to go to hell because all of those people who do those abominable works the Bible says are going to be outside. They're going to be outside, the book of Revelation tells us. They will not be in the fold. Hot or cold, because you're lukewarm, I'm going to spew thee out of my mouth. Look at verse 17. Because you say, this just reminds me of Lancaster County churchality. Is that a word? Churchitis? Churchality? We'll be made at one tonight. We're going to make up a few words. Is that alright? Verse 17. This reminds me of us because we say, oh, I'm rich and I'm increased with goods and I have need of nothing. I go to church, I've been raised in a Mennonite home and I've gone to charity all my life and I'm a good person and I've been raised Amish and I do this and I do that and there's a lot of things I didn't do, the vile, ugly things, the good things I've never done and I've given a lot of money in the offering and I'm increased with goods and I have need of nothing. That's the mentality I see today in a lot of religious groups. That's the mentality today, unfortunately, we see in too many professing Christians. I have need of nothing. And maybe there's somebody here like that in the audience tonight. Maybe that's you. You're living your religious life. You're living your church life as though you have need of nothing and don't even know the desperate straits that you might be in in the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ. If that's you, you've got to get up off that seat tonight. You get out of that complacency. You get out of that religious, demonic stupor and come here and fall on your face before the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the cross. Calvary is still available tonight. If you're lukewarm and you are just a religious person feeling you have need of nothing and you don't know, look at verse 17, that you are wretched. What else? Miserable. Poor. Blind. Naked. Listen, let me ask you a question. How much worse can it get than that? How much worse can it get than that? You know what? Listen, I think the most miserable people in the world are those who want, the old cliche, a foot in the church. Now, when I say the church here, I mean the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are people among us who they want a foot in the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ because they don't want to go to hell. I want to go to heaven. Everybody, most people that we talk to, we say, I want to go to heaven. I don't want to go to hell. So, we want one foot in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the same time, we have a foot over here, we call it the world, the prince of the power of the air. We want to follow the flesh. I like my pornography. I want to do what I want to do. The hatred and the sleaze and the jealousy and the bitterness and the pride keeps me shackled to the devil. And there we are, one foot looking religious, one foot over here in the church, and those people are really miserable. But you know why? Because they know better. They know at least a little bit what the Word of God says. And I think those people that want a foot in the church, a foot in the kingdom, and a foot in the devil's kingdom, and a foot in God's kingdom are the most miserable. In fact, even more miserable than the people who are out there have never even tasted of the kingdom of God. Don't do a thing about it, who are totally out in sin. Those people seem to be more satisfied than people like you and people like I, who know better. We know the truth. We know the truth can liberate us. But there we sit in our hypocrisy. We sit in our church-itis. We sit there in our religiality. And we're proud and we say, we've always done it this way. What do you mean I'm a 60-year-old grandpa? You're telling me that I'm not spiritual-minded? You're telling me I can't do this or that? Those people are like these here in Laodicea. Miserable, poor, blind, naked. Maybe that's you here tonight. I would to God He'd open up the windows of heaven and pour out His Holy Spirit, pour out conviction and make you miserable tonight that you could see that you're blind and lost and empty and depressed and naked and miserable. Oh, I would to God that would happen to you if that's your situation here tonight. Now, we want to go on. You know, as preachers, we need to think things through. Are you with me? You know, we just can't get up behind the pulpit and say, okay, open your Bible to so-and-so and then read it, you know, and then if we're going to explain it, we've got to think it through. And so, years ago already, I had to think through why is it that God so hates lukewarmness? Why isn't it murder? Why doesn't it say murder? Why doesn't it say adultery? As much as God hates murder, as much as God hates adultery, He's talking about lukewarmness. It doesn't even mention other sins. You know, we can sit here and think, well, lukewarmness isn't that bad. He doesn't mention belligerency. He doesn't mention fornication. He mentions lukewarmness. Now listen, there are four theological reasons why God hates lukewarmness to the point where He says, I get sick. Well, the Bible doesn't say that. He says, I will spew thee. If you study that out, that means as in vomiting or regurgitating. I will, and you only do that when you're sick, right? Okay. I will spew thee out of my mouth. Now, I forgot to say this. Before we get into those four points, and we're going to look at them first, I want to say this. Maybe you're thinking, hey, what's the big deal about this thing of lukewarmness? Why are you preaching about lukewarmness? I'm going to show you something in Matthew. Get your Bibles, alright? Go to the book of Matthew. I'm going to show you this. Then we're going to come back to these four points. Matthew chapter 7. Jesus, the master missionary, tells us something right here. Before I read this, I want to ask you another question. The Bible says, few are going to find it. You know, the way to hell is broad and many are going to go to hell, right? The way to heaven is straight and narrow. Few. Few people. Many people, unfortunately, are going to hell. Now, let me ask you this question. What class of people do you think is going to populate hell? Did you know this? That there are very, very, very few intrinsic, absolute atheists on planet earth. There's going to be very few atheists in hell. Did you know that? The communists. Are they true atheists? No, they're not. How do we know? If they would be true atheists, they would say, or the Chinese, or the communists, let the Christians go, big whoop! There's no God. Let them have those house churches. Let them read that, what they would say, crazy old black book, it's a powerless, old, historic book that's written, they say, two and four thousand years ago by some guy named Moses. Let them do it! That's not what they say. Why do they do everything they can in order to stop it? Why do they kill and burn and chop asunder the people that read the book or believe the book or practice the book? Why do they do that? They're not atheists. Alright, now catch this. Now I'm going to show you something. Here's why we're talking about lukewarmness tonight. Now go to Matthew. Are you there? Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7, verse 21. 21, I want you to read this with expression. I need to hear you. I'm 50 years old. I'm an old man, almost. I'd like to hear you read the Word of God. I want to put emphasis on the pulsating, moving, living, life-changing Word of God. You heard me say that before. If I maintain my mental integrity, I want to say it again Friday night. Verse 21. Let's read this together. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. What's the next word? Many. Many. How many is many? Too much. Is that what you said, Ed? Somebody said too much. Amen. Let me ask you this question. The ten virgins. Were they atheists or were they church-going people? Were they atheists or Mennonite Jews? Or Amish Jews? I'm just tacking it together. They were the religious people. They were the Baptists of the day. They were the Jews of the day. They were the Mennonites. They were the Amish. They were the charity folks of the day. Let me ask you a question. Stay with me. How many of them got into the marriage supper of the lion? That's scary. That's scary. Now listen. I'm not insinuating. I'm not insinuating that I'm preaching to a group of rebels tonight. I'm insinuating. I do believe that there are people here tonight. Or let me say it this way. There is a great possibility that there are hypocritical, lukewarm, burned out, depressed, alienated sinners in this audience. That possibility is very, very great. Because when you get into the virgins, when you get into the ten virgins, that's five and five, brother Mel. That's annoying to me. That's why I go to preach revival. I like to stay at home sometimes too and sit out in the backyard and drink coffee in my lawn chair. I'm not doing that tonight because I believe the possibility exists that there could be people here tonight, people listening who are not saved. The Bible says, not everyone that says, Lord, Lord. Now listen. He's not talking about the Philistines here. Do you understand what I'm saying? He's not talking about the Amorites and the Amorites and all the otherites. He's talking about those who say, Lord, Lord, and that's you here tonight. That's you. It says many. That's scary. I don't like that. We've got to get real. We've got to stop bartering with God. We've got to get down into the Word of God and let the Word of God do the work in my heart that the Word of God is meant to do. But if you don't let it, it's not going to do it because God never forces people. God never forces people. We've got to break. We've got to repent. We've got to come to the end of ourselves and allow God to do, take His Word, put it in my heart and change my lifestyle. If your lifestyle did not change, you are not obeying. You are not believing the Word of God. If you've got a cell phone, you're looking at pornographic material on that cell phone, the Word of God did not change your life. You're lost. If that's what you're doing intentionally. You've got bitterness in your heart tonight. You've got marriage problems that are not being resolved because of your stubbornness. You're rebelling against the Holy Spirit. You're rebelling against the Word of God because the Word of God and the power of the Word of God and the power of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is much greater, much more dynamic, much stronger than any sin that you can sin. Don't blame it on God. Don't blame it on the Word of God. The Bible says here, He's talking to the religious people. Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, we've prophesied in Thy name. We've tasted out devils in Thy name. We have done many wonderful works. I've gone to church all my life and I didn't do this, I didn't do that. I already said that. He says, depart from me. You are a worker of iniquity. Now, I'm going to give you something for nothing. Whenever in the Word of God you read the word iniquity, iniquity always means, or usually almost always means, the type of sins that the religious people committed. Alright? There's a difference between iniquity. You know, I don't know that you read that the Philistines committed iniquity. Check it out. I might be wrong. But you read that. There's a distinction. They committed abomination. And the Philistines and the Amalekites did a lot of other things that were wrong. But when the children of Israel sinned, that's us tonight, the religious people. God calls it iniquity. And here He says, many people are going to say, oh, I went to church and I dressed just right and I did a lot of things very, very good and I never did what that brother over there did. And He's going to say, depart from me. You are a worker of iniquity. That's why I'm preaching about lukewarmness tonight. Now, I've got that settled. Wow. Almost forgot that. Four things. Very quickly. Here is why God so hates, He so hates lukewarmness in our lives. Number one, it insinuates that we are going the wrong direction. It insinuates that there was a time... Stay with me. Are you bored? If you are, get awake. It insinuates... Okay, let me start here. Physically. When your coffee is lukewarm, we usually think of it as going which direction? From which to which? From cold to hot? Or from hot to cold? Right! That insinuates that we once have tasted of the goodness and glory and power of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and I am deliberately, on my own volition, belligerently blazing a trail away from the cross and the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ and we put to open shame the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and God hates it! Is that you tonight? Is God hating your sin? He sure is. I mean, those of us who might have sinned. We are going the wrong direction. Let me show you something in Luke, please. We are not going to stay here long, but I want you to go there. I want to give you an illustration of lukewarmness, the person who is going the wrong direction. Luke 15, very quickly. You can stand to your feet if you want to. You don't have to. Those of you who need a position, a change of position. Alright, Luke 15. We are going to hasten on. Verses 11 and 12. Read this with me. And he said, a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. Alright? And then not many days after that his son took a long journey and he came into a country and there he what? Wasted his substance. Now listen, I'm going to tell you a little bit about these sons. This certain father had two sons. Alright? And the one son said, he did nice. Did you catch that? He came up to his father and he said, Father, give me. On which word is the emphasis? Me. Me. That's right. Intrapsychic ideology. That's exactly the theory under which Lucifer, the minister of music, fell from the glorious presence of God. Give me. That's what he's saying. Now listen. You can sit down. Here's this one son. He's at home with his father. He puts his feet under the table of his father. Amen? He eats his father's beef. He drinks his father's wine. He works his father's work. He is safe. Help me out. What's the more adjective? He is happy. He is a child. He's a child. He's content. That's the word I'm looking for. Who said that? Oh, Brother Danny. God bless you, Danny. He's awake. Danny didn't fall asleep. He was secure. Listen. He was at home with the father. Can I say that again? Say it with me. He was at home with the father. At home with the father. And then something happened in his heart. He decided to blaze a trail away from the secure, loving, protecting heart of his father. And if you're here tonight and you're lukewarm, you are not excited about the things of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your interest and your power and your love is for the things of this world, and you once were saved, you are blazing a trail deliberately, intentionally, by your own stubbornness, away from all the glory and security and power of God the Father. And don't think for one moment that you shall not pay an ultimate price. Get that straight tonight. You're going to pay a price when you leave the Father's table. When you leave the Father's love, you're going to pay a price because the Father hates it. Do you know what? It didn't take long. Where did he end up? Pig pen. There could be somebody here tonight in the pig pen. There are a lot of religious people even in our conservative circles that it's not nice to say to a group of Anabaptists, I'm not here to be nice. I'm not here to be liked. I'm here to prophesy about the prophesied Word of God. Do you know what? He was in the pig pen. There could be somebody here tonight that you are in the pig pen and you're down there empty and depressed and you are saying with this prodigal son, I perish with hunger! And if that's what you're feeling, you're exactly right because that's what you are. If you are walking away from God, you have left your first love. You are in the pig pen crying, I perish with hunger. That's why there's depressed people. There's far too many angry, empty, depressed people who go to church Sunday after Sunday and I wonder why? What's wrong with our churches? What's wrong with our preaching? What's wrong with our accountability? Why in our conservative circles is there so much sin? So much hatred. So much anger. What's wrong? Did God die? Did the blood get off? Is His grace no longer sufficient? What's wrong? We wandered away. Now, there's another thing. Number two, it suggests spiritual two-timing between God and the world. It's a two-timing love affair. The Bible says that our God is a... Jealous! Say it again. He's a jealous God. He's only going to tolerate one relationship. I believe this is true. God wants all of us or none of us. He would rather have us to be cold than lukewarm. He says, take your pick. Be hot or be cold. I would that you would be hot or that you would be cold. Don't be in between because when you're in between the world and the church, your carnal sin and your religiosity, you are making a mockery of my authenticity. You're making a mockery of who I am. That's what God's saying. You've got a two-timing. You've got a double affair going on. Let me put it this way. You understand. Are you with me? How do you feel, audience, when you hear that a man left his wife? There is so much of that happening in our circles today. A man leaves his wife. Has another lady. Or we hear of a young couple that maybe they're recording. And soon we hear, oh, he had another girl from another town. And we say, oh, puke! It wants to make us vomit. I can understand God. When we hear those two-timing affairs, you know what I mean? Are you with me? You know, we get sick in the stomach when we hear of families being divided. There's disloyalty. There's extra marital affairs going on. And we say, oh, this should never happen in the church. And that's true. But it's happening in the church and we hate it. It's disgusting. We get sick. We feel like puking. Alright? That's how God feels about His love. When we say that we love God, all these people, they draw a knife to me with their lips. And we go to church and we sing nothing but the blood of Jesus. And we sing, oh, what a friend we have in Jesus! And we hardly ever have our personal devotions. We spend much more time out in the shop. We spend more time, get this man, you're not going to like me. You don't got to like me for the mail. You'll never have me back so I'm going to give it all to you now! We spend more time. There are far too many men who spend more time reading the newspaper than reading the Bible. I'm going to tell you, there's something wrong with that. Where is your love? No wonder we have the carnality with our young people. No wonder we have a love for the world, a hankering for sports when we see daddy, in his own way, loving his sports. It might not be sports. It might be his farm, his machinery, his truck, his business. We have men that I think are not standing up and being the shepherds of the home, the high priests in the home between their families and the almighty living God like they should be. And then we wonder why we have trouble in the church. We wonder why we have trouble with our young people when we have daddies who have fallen to an extramarital affair with the world. That's where we need revival. Lukewarm daddies, bend-over daddies, wet noodle daddies who cannot stand up and be accounted for and say, I'm going to be the high priest in the home. I'm going to stand up and be accounted for. I'm going to be a man of one wife. I'm going to be a man of God. I'm going to be a man of the Word of God. I'm going to be a man of prayer. That's where the problem is in our conservative churches is in leadership. That's not nice to say. How can I say I'm not here to be nice? Two-timing. Go to 1 John. I want to show you something. I'm going to hurry here. Don't get too worried. I've been trying to hurry. 1 John. I want to show you something. I really want you to get a grip on this. We're talking about lukewarmness. We're talking about two-timing. Are you two-timing tonight? Now, verse 15. Did I say 1 John 2? 1 John 2. Look at it. Every Bible. I might say this wrong, so you've got to make sure I say it right. 1 John 2. Verse 15, 16, and 17. Read this with me. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love not the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but it is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. That is very, very strong language. Do you believe what you read? Do you realize that we read out of the Word of God? Right? Alright. Amen. We've got that common ground here tonight. Now, here's what the Bible says. He tells us not to love the world. Now, He doesn't stop there, unfortunately. He says, neither, say it with me, the things of this world. Now, listen. I don't know what thing is in your life. I don't know what kind of idol you've got in your life. I don't know what's taking you to hell if you're two-timing on God tonight. I don't know what that is, but I bet, no, I don't, I believe the Holy Spirit is faithful enough that if you sit on that chair, or if I stand behind this pulpit and preach, the Holy Spirit is going to rub it into my mind. I don't know what issue is in your life. What issue would be so great that you wouldn't want to repent of? What issue in your life is worth going to hell over? Let me ask you. The Bible says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. That's not really what I want. Here's what I want. Look at this. If any man love the world, finish this with me, the love of the Father is not in him. Take your pick tonight. I didn't say that. I didn't manufacture that. Don't say the Mennonites believe that. That's what the Mennonites better believe. We didn't concoct it. We didn't engineer it. The Bible says that if any man love the world, that is anything that is more important to you than your relationship with Jesus Christ, if there's an idol in your life, if there's an issue in your life, if there's a longing in your life and you never gave it over to the Lord Jesus Christ, something that's more important to you than the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and the holy, pure witness in the testimony, then the love of the Father is not in your heart. And you're lost tonight. You're lost. I don't care who you are. I don't care if you're a 70-year-old grandpa and you're a church member for 60 years. Well, I do care. But it makes no difference. Take your pick. Either we love the world or we love God the Father. Just don't try and do both at the same time. Don't do it. Don't do it. Hey, look at this. We have three things. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. What we really got there is passion, possession, and position. Say that with me. Passion, possession, position. Let me give you this for nothing. I'm speaking to a group of theologians here tonight and I know that you figured this out many, many years ago. Way back in the Garden of Eden, when the devil approached Eve, it was on those three premises. Every sin that a warm body can sin, ever since the creation of mankind 6,000 years ago, is placed into one of these three categories. Not only back in the Garden of Eden. We can come up to when Jesus Christ, the Master Missionary, when He was tented up there on the mountain, the devil came to Him on these three things, lust of the eyes and so on. It was passion. Passion to eat. Turn that rock into bread. Passion. Possession. I'm sorry. Possession. Everything that you see, all the glitter and glow, all the kingdoms of this world, are going to be yours. You can have it. Oh, we have people today that want possessions. You know, we Anabaptist people are some of the richest people in Lancaster County. And the Bible says that we shouldn't love our riches. I wonder why we have accumulated so much of something we shouldn't love. I don't understand that. Then when we have prayer meeting time, when it's time to go and distribute tracts, we can hardly pull teeth and fox ears enough to get people to come to do it. Everybody says, I don't have work. I don't have time to go to work. I've got to go to work. I've got to go to work. I don't have time for family wars to keep people safe. I don't have time for personal devotions. That's a lie. We have time to do what is most important. Every 24 hours, you have time to do it. Don't say, don't tell God, you don't have time to do it. We have time to do it. We have time to do what we deem important. I'm a nasty old preach, ain't I, Mike? Well, so be it. I'm not going to apologize. Where is your love? Passion? Possession? I want it. Position? Me. I'm the bishop. I make the decisions. God forbid. Number three, real quickly. It suggests hypocrisy. You know what? If there's anything that God hated, it was hypocrisy. Let me ask you this question. Stay with me. Whenever Jesus, in the synoptic Gospels, especially more than the book of John, which is not a part of those Gospels, as He would deal with people, there was redundantly a certain group of people that would flip, I don't know how to say it, Jesus would just, I mean, His attitude, His verbiage was just different. I mean, you know, what group of people did He say, you whited walls, you poisonous snakes, you wipers, you rattlers. Who did He say that to? Hypocrites. He didn't say that to the woman taking in adultery, as vile and as unacceptable as adultery is. He didn't. The woman at the well. Many other people that Jesus touched, He didn't talk that way to them, even though they were steeped in sin. But the scribes and the Pharisees and the hypocrites who said, we have need of nothing. We're Lancaster County Mennonites. I go to this church. I don't need it. Those people that are hypocritical. Those are the type of people who have a form of godliness, but they deny the power they're of. Listen, they pretend to be something they're not. And so what hypocrisy does, here is why God so hates hypocrisy. Listen, I'm going to tell you. Because it taints and it pollutes and it... help me out. It taints. It pollutes. It warps. Go ahead. It waters down, Mike. Somebody else. True Christianity. Do you like to be misrepresented? Suppose you're talking to somebody. You're making a public speech. Somebody didn't like you, and they say, oh, you should have heard what Nelson said. Nelson said so and so and so, and you didn't say it. Do you like to be misrepresented? No. God does not like His love and His holiness and His blood and His power misrepresented. That's what the hypocrite does. He says, yes, yes, yes. I'm a Christian. And he pretends to be a Christian. And he tries to be a Christian. Oh, I'm trying my best. And inside there is sin in his life. He is not Christian. He is hypocritical. He is lukewarm. And God hates it. He says, hey, if you're going to be a hypocrite in the church, get out or come on in. Get out or come on in. That sounds harsh for a preacher to say at a tent meeting. Those are not my words. If you're a hypocrite tonight and you're going to harden your hearts and if there's sin in your life and you refuse to get right with the Lord Jesus Christ, I would recommend, according to the Word of God, get out of the church so that you don't taint and mislead and contaminate and pollute and poison those of us who want to be alive in the Lord Jesus Christ. Take your pick. Am I making sense? Am I sane? I think I am. I'm just trying to read the audience. Okay, one more. Very, very, very quickly. Lukewarmness. Hypocrisy. It involves idolatry. One closing Scripture. Hypocrisy always or almost always involves idolatry. I already did allude to that. Go to Mark. The book of Mark. Matthew, Mark. Mark chapter 10. Maybe this is you tonight. Maybe you're a hypocritical person. Maybe you're a lukewarm person. Maybe this is you. Maybe you've done this many times. Mark chapter 10, verse 17. I want you to really get this. This is our last Scripture. Verse 17, Mark chapter 10. And when Jesus was gone forth into the way, there came one running and kneeled down to him and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? That's a beautiful question. And Jesus said unto him, Why do you call me good? There is none good but one that is God. You know, thou knowest the commandments. Don't commit adultery. Don't kill. Don't steal. Don't bear false witness. False witness. Defraud not unto thy father and thy mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, read this with me. All these have I observed from my youth up. Let me ask you a question real quickly. Did that make him happy? The fact that he didn't do all those things? Did that bring him joy? Did it bring him peace? Steve, it didn't. Or he wouldn't have come running to Jesus saying, what must I do to inherit eternal life? He did not have peace. He didn't have joy. He did not. Being a good Mennonite, being a good charity person, being a good Amish or a Baptist does not bring the peace and the joy and the forgiveness and the buoyancy of God the Father and the Holy Ghost. It does not do it. That's why we have empty people, angry people, depressed people, schizophrenic people. In fact, I don't care for all those humanistically manufactured 19-letter words that really can be reduced down basically to one little three-letter word, S-I-N. Well, now you know where I stand on modern psychology. Maybe I offended someone. And there is something. We need help. Sometimes we need the medical profession. But I'm afraid many times people have sin and depression and guilt in their life and they run to the deacon and they run to the bishop and that's not all bad. They run to the psychologist. We go to the psychiatrist and we get drugs when we need the liberating blood of Jesus Christ. So we have a lot of empty, sick people in our audiences tonight who are just like this man. He didn't do all these things. He was a good man and out boy. He didn't commit these things. And yet he comes running to Jesus and he kneels down. Oh, good Master, what do I got to be saved? Here's the answer. Here's what we're trying to close. And Jesus beholding him. What's his next words? Love, Tim, sin. Sin or friend. If you're here in the audience tonight and you're listening or you're watching, whatever, I want you to know, sin or friend, Jesus loves you. He hates the sin in your life. He has gone to extremes in order to save you from that sin. But he loves you. He hates the sin, but he loves you. Here's what he's telling this man. Jesus is looking at him and he says, he loved him and he said unto him, One thing you lack. I want to ask this audience, the people here tonight, is the one thing in your life that you lack is the one thing that you didn't do? Is there one sin in your life that you've never confessed? Is there something hidden, twisted in the recesses of your heart that you never gave up? You never brought it out. You never repented of it. You never put it under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Tonight you can do it. Amen? Tonight you can do it. You get off that chair and you come up front and you fall on this carpet and you put that one thing that was depressing you, smothering you, killing you, you put it under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ tonight, one thing that you lack. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to go and sell what you have and give to the poor and you're going to have treasure in heaven. You're going to have peace and joy and ecstasy. You're going to have everything that's in the heart of God. You're going to possess everything that's in heaven. You're going to have your treasure in heaven. One thing I want you to do. Go sell out! It's a sad story. Look at this. Verse 22, And he was sad at that saying, and he went away greed. Read that with me. For he had great idolatry. My things. I don't know what is in your life tonight. I don't know what idol you have tucked away in your life tonight. You think you have it so securely snugged away that nobody sees it. And that might be true, but don't forget to look up. God the Father can look into your heart and He knows what's in your heart. He knows what you've got snugged away in there. Maybe tonight you've got to give that one thing away. You've got to get rid of the idolatry. I don't know what it is. Your wardrobe, your truck, your image, your pride, your religiosity. I don't know what's in your life. I don't know what's holding you in bondage, but tonight there is one that's greater than your bondage. The gates of hell cannot prevail against the gates of heaven. There is releasing tonight. There is unshackling tonight in the eternal gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came to set the captives free. He can free your life. He can save you. You can get rid of that sin, these shackling things, that lukewarmness, that two-timing. You've got two affairs going in your life. He can free you from that. I don't care how old you are, where you've been raised in church, what your religious background is, if you're here tonight and you're a sinner, you can be set free. You can be cleansed and made whiter than snow. That's the everlasting gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we're preaching here tonight. Have you experienced in your heart the everlasting gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Did you, I ask? Did you? Why not tonight? If you're lukewarm, you wandered away from God, and you've been boxing your way through life, and oh no, and you didn't have joy, and you didn't experience buoyancy, and you're not in love with the Lord Jesus, you lost your first love, you've got sin. Maybe you're a young person here tonight, I don't know what age, and you feel the Lord Jesus calling you. This is for young teenagers too. This is for those, anybody, first timers, recommitments. If your heart is pounding and the Holy Spirit is working in your life, you want to get off your chair and you want to come up front, because tonight you're answering to God. Amen? We're answering to God. Shall we close our eyes? Heavenly Father, You're a great God. You loved us with immeasurable, unimaginable volumes of love. You've searched through Heaven and You've found the supreme sacrifice, Your only begotten Son. And there His blood was shed on the cross. And now You call all men unto Yourself. He was lifted up and if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto myself. And Jesus Christ, You've been lifted up. You've been nailed to the cross. You died. You've been resurrected. You're ascended. You're sitting at the right hand of God the Father. And tonight you are interceding, you are pleading for any rebel, any sinner, any hypocrite, any lukewarm person here tonight that never got jackhammered loose, that never got up off their seat, those who are pretending, those who have fallen away, Mennonites, Amish, Lutherans, Baptists, Catholics, whatever it is tonight, God, open up the windows of Heaven and pour out Your grace and Your mercy and Your convicting power. Make us miserable. Deal with us tonight, God. It's much better to feel miserable now than go to hell and feel miserable forever and ever. Oh God, this is Your people. This is Your, this is Your, this is Your invitation. Won't You come and bear Your arms, make them strong tonight, walk up and down the pews, let it begin behind the pulpit. Oh God, search out the sinner, draw him unto Yourself. Oh God, may revival take place tonight. Maybe there are fathers here who have neglected Bible study, who have neglected the pleading and the teaching of their children going off to work. Oh God, whatever idolatry, whatever sleaze, whatever sin is under this tent tonight, God, shake it loose. Lord, please search us tonight, oh God, and see if there be any wicked way in us and lead us then into the ways of everlasting peace. God, have mercy on us. God, have mercy on us. Don't come until this invitation is ended. In the name of Jesus, Amen. Okay, where's our song leader? Just as I am. Just as I am. Get to your feet and come up front. Come quickly. Let's sing Just as I am. Let's sing. Just as I am Won't you come? Thou'lt my need But that thy blood Was shed for me Amen Thou bidst me come to thee O Lamb Just as I am Somebody else. Come quickly. And wishing not To rid my soul Of one dark lot To thee whose blood Somebody else. Come quickly. Amen. Each spot. Don't sit there. Don't sit there in your stubborn sin. If you've got sin in your heart tonight, you can get free. There's freedom. There's power in the blood. This is not going to go on. I do not want this to be an emotional thing tonight. Don't sit there in your sin. Another verse. Just as I am Thou'lt talk about Amen Conflict Somebody sing praise God. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. First yet. Where's our song leader? Just as I am Poor, wretched, blind Sight, rich, healing Somebody else yet. Come quickly. I need indeed You need to sing a verse that says there's power in the blood. And you know, we just need to sing this. And the invitation is still going. Sing it with your heart. There is power in the blood. Sing it. Would you be free From your burden of sin There's power in the blood. Power in the blood. Would you live Amen. Victory win. There is power, power Wonder working power That's it. We're over. It's finished.