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1 Corinthians 14:6,25 -God's Mouthpiece- Part 2, Pastor Rick Beaudry 2024-10-13
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Alright. First Corinthians chapter 14 verses six through 25. Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together? First Corinthians 14 verses beginning with verse six. Now brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you except I speak to you either by revelation or by knowledge or by prophesying or by doctrine? And even these things without life giving sound whether pipe or harp except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harp? For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? So likewise ye except ye utter by the tongues words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken for ye shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world and none of them is without signification. Therefore, if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speak of the barbarian and he that speak of shall be a barbarian unto me. Even so ye. For as much as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. Wherefore, let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. For for if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the understanding also. Else, when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupy the room of the unlearned say amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayeth. For thou verily give us thanks well, but the other's not edified. I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all. Yet in the church, I had rather speak five words with my understanding that my voice I might teach others also, then 10,000 words in an unknown tongue. Brethren, be not children in understanding, howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men. In the law it is written, with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people, and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord. Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believeth not. But prophesying serveth not for them that believeth not, but for them which believe. If therefore the whole church become together into one place and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned or unbelievers, will they not say that thou art mad? But if all prophesy and there come in one that believeth not and one unlearned, he is convict convinced of all, he is judged of all. And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest and so falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth. Father, thank you for your holy word. We pray that you'd make sense of all this, Lord, that you would teach us, that you'd open the scriptures to our understanding. Help us, Lord, to do everything decently in an order. Help us to not go to the left or the right, but stay in the middle in a balanced approach, Lord, entering in desirous of all the gifts that you have for us, but Lord, exercising them, Lord, in a decent orderly manner, Lord. So make us charismatic. Make us the spirituals, Lord. Let us enter into all that you have, but also, help us to stay on that straight and narrow path no matter how high we jump. Help us to walk straight when we when we land, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Would you please be seated? First Peter four eleven, if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. We saw last week in the first five verses speak to edify. This morning, the second point is speak to educate verses six through 19. He says, now, brethren, if I come into you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you except I shall speak to you either by revelation or by knowledge or by prophesying or by doctrine. So communication is essential. We're wanting to connect with people. We need to be able to connect and, so if you're in the dark, you need a revelation. You need light to help you if you're in the dark. If you're ignorant, which much of the church today is ignorant, you need knowledge. You need the information. If you lack direction, you need prophecy. You need the foretelling of God's word. If you have knowledge but you don't know how to use it, you need doctrine, you need instruction, you need wisdom. So Paul, is speaking to Timothy, second Timothy two fifteen, speaking to a young pastor, and he says, to study to show yourself approved. That word approved means you're going through the fire and you're you're able to handle the scripture. You have a good working knowledge of the scripture. Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And so there is no excuse for somebody that calls himself to be a pastor to not be a student of God's word. We all start at the beginning. We all start, you know, maybe you get a young pastor, I die, and you get a brand new pastor, and he and he starts out, and he's brand new in the scriptures maybe, but he still needs to be a man of the scriptures and you patient with him as he continues to study. There's no way you should ever let him wimp out and and let him get away with not teaching the bible. Don't let him introduce a book. We're gonna do a book study. Don't let him get away with it. You you know what the job requires. You know what this occupation, this calling requires. From Genesis to Revelation, you're gonna expect him to feed the sheep. If he feels inadequate, get in line. We all feel inadequate. Who is sufficient for these things? Paul asked. Our sufficiency is of Christ. So many a nights, many a times, hours and hours and hours of study to get ready to be able to bring forth a sermon. And so no wimping out. No wimping out saying, well, you know, I can't teach the book of Revelation because I was never taught it. Well, you shouldn't be in the pulpit then. You should go back to school. You should spend some time studying before you ever get into the pulpit. You know. No wimping out. Nobody can ever get away with saying one third of the bible, we're not gonna teach because after all I didn't study it. Well, it's time to study it. Get studying. Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. The people need the revelation, they need the knowledge, they need the prophecy, they need the doctrine, they need the solid teaching of God's word. And second Timothy three sixteen tells us what you're to bring. All scripture, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It means the scripture is God breathed. God breathed it. All scripture is given by inspiration. And guess what? Freud and Roy and all the different little rudimentary behavioral sciences are not God breathed. Okay? It's constantly changing like the wind and the the study of human nature. Let me give you a lesson on human nature. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. In me that is my flesh dwells no good thing. You're not gonna rehab me by giving me 10 steps or 20 steps or hooking electrodes to my head and shocking me or taking a ice pick and and give me a lobotomy. You know, you're not you're not gonna you're not gonna change me in that way. You're not gonna change me by putting a chip in my head. I have a nature, a fallen nature that I inherited from Adam, and the only solution to that fallen nature is Jesus. I need to get to know Jesus. And the only way I get to know Jesus is all scriptures given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. So there's my there's the content. There's there's what I'm supposed to be studying. The 66 books of the bible from Genesis to Revelation. I'm gonna get my doctrine. I'm gonna get my body of teaching from the word of God. For doctrine, for reproof. Why do I need the word of God for reproof? Because we do things that are wrong and I need to be confronted with aberrant behavior, wrong behavior, wrong attitude. So you're gonna reprove me with the word of God. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. If you truly love me, you're gonna use the scripture to reprove me. For for doctrine of proof, for correction. So you're gonna correct me for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be equipped. I need to be equipped. I need to have the goods. I need to have the body of doctrine to be able to determine what's right and what's wrong in the world in which we live. He may be equipped for every good work. So it's the word of God that's illumining my heart and mind. It's the word of God that's transforming and changing me and helping me to understand, what God's will is, for my life. In Matthew eleven twenty five, Jesus said, I thank thee, oh father, lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, the religious leaders. The religious leaders didn't get it. They weren't connecting. Jesus would teach, he'd demonstrate, but it just wasn't getting through to these guys. And you revealed them unto babes. Under the babes, the the Jesus looked upon the multitudes and he looked with compassion because they were sheep as sheep having no shepherds. The shepherds had abandoned them the same way as in Jeremiah's day. The religious leaders abandoned the sheep. The false prophets were preying upon the sheep, fleecing the sheep, but not teaching, not feeding the sheep. And so too in the time of Christ, but the babes, the the people were were hungry for God's word and said, a man spake this way. They were amazed at the way that Jesus taught, the way that Jesus, you know, brought forth the word. And what was the difference? They were willing. Are you teachable? Are you do you have a teachable spirit? If you're not teachable, willingness to learn, then, you know, you're not gonna be able to weather it here at Calvary Bremerton. You're gonna you're gonna find a place that is more conducive to whatever it is you're looking for. But when we come through that door there, we're coming here because we're a teaching church, a bible teaching church. That's why we're here. It's no surprise. Been doing it for almost thirty years, and that's becoming more and more rare as time goes on. But I'm so thankful that there's still a few people here that want to know God's word. It's a blessing for me to be able to have somebody to, you know, to teach God's word, to study God's word, and to teach. I have no visions of grandeur. This church is never gonna grow in the way that I teach. Never gonna happen because the people don't want it. There's an apostasy of falling away from the truth taking place. And so I'm I'm I'm not gonna knock on doors in Kitsap County and ask people with a survey of what they want in a church. Not gonna happen. That's what Rick Warren did close to thirty years ago. He knocked on doors. And what he found is people want small, little, tiny, you know, very little amount of the word. And they want lots of music. And they wanna feel good about themselves. So what he did is he took Protestantism and caused it to focus on Catholicism. To get the Protestant church, the apostate fall away falling away Protestant church, which Martin Luther is based upon doctrine. The just shall live by faith. But no, we're gonna change it back to works. And so he he coined a phrase, it's deeds not creeds. Creeds is teaching. So he wanted to get the churches away from teaching and focus more on a social gospel of doing good deeds. And Bill Heibel's before him would preach sermonettes for Christianettes and the their their emphasis was upon the seekers. Get the seekers in. Well, that's not the objective. We preach to the unbeliever. We preach the gospel, but we're to go and make disciples of all nations, which means they're to be students. The pastor is to teach the word of God, to educate to educate the body of Christ. So when years ago, when the mayor of Bremerton were downtown, he says, well, you know, what what is your church like? What's it like? And I says, well, it would be like a high school or a college class. People coming to learn the word of God. And we teach, you know, every night of the week back then, and, Wednesdays in the old testament, and and Sunday morning, Sunday night, you know, in the new testament, and, new believers classes on Monday nights, and ladies classes, men's classes, and always the content is the word of God going through the word of God, and then outreach concerts, and outreach efforts to the unbelievers, and prophecy conference, and marriage marriage retreats and stuff to strengthen the marriages and all. We we tried to cover it all, but everything was based upon the teaching of the word of God. Even if we have a let let's say the craze right now is pickleball. Pickleball. You guys wanna learn how to pickleball or softball? We're gonna have a Christian softball league. Before we get out there and pitch the ball or do anything with the ball, we're gonna have a little bible study. We're gonna bring the word of God in it. And you're gonna be able to get a bunch of guys that normally don't like the word of God, but if Calvary Bremerton's doing a pickleball, we're gonna open the pickle jar, we're gonna eat some pickles. Right? We're gonna we're gonna eat the word of God. It doesn't have to be an hour long, but a little devotional, a little time of getting into the word to focus and maybe a little bit of the gospel if we know that we've got some unbelievers there and that God's using the hook, he's using the bait as pickleball to get them there. We wanna share the good news of Jesus Christ, invite guys to church and all church leagues, and of course, Calvary Bremerton to smoke all the other churches. We'd be the best at it. Right? Because we're competitive. Right? We get the trophies. Get the t shirt. But you gotta be teachable. When I was in school, you know, grade school, high school and all that, I was teachable to a point because it was imposed upon me. I had to. And then there's certain certain studies, certain classes that get ahold of you, and you're curious and and you wanna learn more. But when I became a Christian, holy moly, something something really changed in me. A voracious appetite began to develop in wanting to know Jesus. It wasn't just facts knowing about the Bible, knowing about Jesus, but getting to know Jesus. That desire within me, teachable spirit that I'd go to church and pastor Chuck as my teacher would take me through the scriptures and just the the way that I began to grow and and get to know him. And I I quoted for you last week second Peter chapter one, I'm gonna do it this morning, because a lot of times people today, they'll say that the bible's inadequate. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for proof, for correction, for instruction righteous that the man of God may be equipped thoroughly furnished for every good work. And yet people say, well, wait a minute. Who wrote the bible? Men wrote the bible. No. It's God breathed. They recorded. They wrote down what what the holy spirit was, imposing or or transmit transmitting to them, inspiring them. And, and as it's written down, then we trans we translate in other languages and we have the word of God and it's not the word of minutes, it's the word of God. You have to have a confidence in the infallibility, the inerrancy of God's word that you can base your life upon. And so when when I was in school of ministry, for instance, I had a teacher that came in there who was a psychiatrist and, he began to undermine the confidence that that we as Christians were gonna have in the word of God. And he began to try and impose upon us that there's new studies and new things that we're learning, you know. And and part of this was born again lesbians. And, they were having problems in their communication. And what would you guys do if you had a woman that, called you and said, I I I'd like you to meet with my partner. We're having trouble in our marriage. We're having trouble in our relationship. Well, what is a problem in communication? And then I raise my hand, and I say, well, doc, the problem's not communication. The problem is they need to be born again. And then all the guys turned around. There was 24 guys at that time. They turned around and laughed at me, mocked me. By the end of the second year, he was gone, and there was only 13 students to graduate after after that. Pretty basic. Pretty basic. The the problem isn't communication. Number one, that relationship's not a godly relationship. They need to be born again. They need to come to repentance. Real simple. Real simple for me. But this guy was bringing it along as it's new information. This is new. We got new insights. No. There's nothing new about that. Just as old as as sin is sin is sin is sin. You're not gonna change marriage. Marriage is God's idea. I don't care if it's Obama says you got it wrong. No. Marriage is what God says. One man, one woman, one lifetime. The two coming together as one. So we don't need to be confused about gender or marriage or any of these things that the Lord lays out. So first Peter, second Peter chapter one verse three verse two. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God of our Lord Jesus Christ, of our Lord, of Jesus our Lord. According as his divine power, notice, has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue. So I'm able to say, doc, there's no inadequacy here. We got everything we need for life and godliness right here in the word of God. The creator of the universe has instructed us that you're gonna have everything you need if you purpose to get to know my son through the study of his word. Everything will be there. He's given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that has called us unto glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceedingly great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature. Remember how we started out talking about we're a fallen nature? What's the solution? You need a new nature. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. The old things are those lesbians need a new heart as we sang. Create in me a clean heart, oh God. They're just like an adult or a fornicator, a thief or a liar. We need a new nature. We need to be Nicodemus. You must be born again. There's the solution. Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And so don't ever ever ever let anybody try to convince you that the word of God's inadequate, that these guys are smarter now than Jesus. Pastor Chuck tells a story of a guy that said, well, you know, we've got more information than Jesus now. And pastor Chuck hung the phone. I can't talk to anybody that's got smarter than Jesus. You know? And so you try your your best, but and what's funny about about the whole psychiatry thing that the church has brought in, they bring psychiatry into the church, the self help, the feel good therapeutic messages. It's always changing. The word of God doesn't change. Change is not. The problems are the same. The solutions are the same throughout all of history. You're a sinner in need of a savior. You're filled with pride. God's gonna humble you. It's not in your communication. It's your selfishness. And the word of God is God transforms and changes us. We're able to, be transformed, a metamorphosis change of the image of Christ. When, when it was codependency, you know, they ran with that. When it was self esteem, they ran with that. When it was, depression based upon, poor serotonin, you know, levels, there's no test for serotonin. Diabetes, there's a test, no test for serotonin. It's subjective. And now years later, after fighting that, and so many people leaving the church because I saw it undermining my relationship with Jesus. I saw it undermining the joy of the Lord, which is our strength. I want people to know that depression, discouragement is normal. This idea that you're always gonna be up is a fallacy. And so I take you to Psalm 42, why art thou cast down on my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? David's talking to himself. You ever talk to yourself? How many voices are talking back? Careful there. Careful. Hope thou in God. He gives the solution. Get your eyes off yourself. If you're looking within, you're gonna get depressed. If you're looking at the soap operas and comparing yourself, you're gonna get discouraged and depressed. But if you focus upon Jesus and just focus on falling more in love with him and getting to know him, pretty soon the fruit of the spirit is joy and love and peace. The fruit of the spirit in Galatians five. So what happens? What's the dynamic when I come to church and I get my eyes off myself and I begin to worship. Hook me up to something. Hook me up to something and look at the brain waves and the chemistry, the chemicals that come into my gut rather than bitterness and anger and dejected. There's something clicking. There's something changing in me where I'm getting my eyes off myself. Now I'm worshiping the true and living God. My focus is upon him. There's there's some chemistry taking place. We agree. We agree to a certain degree there's chemistry in the brain. Good and evil. Good good and bad. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. What's your thinking? What are you thinking on? What are you meditating on? What are you allowing into your your you know, your ears, your eyes? In Psalm one, it says, blessed, oh, how happy is the man who walks not in the council of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law does he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree that's planted by the rivers that bring forth its fruit and in a season, it leaf shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Takes time. Doesn't happen overnight. God's concerned in changing you from within. Like that tree, the the life, the vine, and where the branches and the fruit emanates, but the ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Don't settle for a impotent Jesus. Don't settle for an impotent Christianity that doesn't have the power to transform and change you and to change your marriage. Don't settle for the rudimentary philosophies of this world as Paul writing to the church at Colossae. Always changing. Then they move in a direction where, alright, these pharmaceuticals aren't working. We can't we can't hold you together. We're gonna have to give you more and more. And then what? Then they admit. They admit recently. All these years of fighting this, they admit recently. No. I did nothing for serotonin levels. It was a lie. Let me tell you something. I went on a cruise one time, a pastor's cruise, and I went to a meeting in Seattle with pastors, and I brought this topic to them. It'd be like bringing in COVID right now. They don't wanna talk about it. And what I discovered was the pastor's and the pastor's wives were all on the psychotropic drugs. Boy, were they mad at me. Really difficult, really hard to find somebody that would let that go. So my question is, what difference is that than you smoking your weed or drinking your alcohol to be able to cope with life? If Jesus is inadequate, if the life of the spirit's inadequate, let's just pack it up and get get out of here. Let's go do something else. But he's more than adequate, isn't he? It's been so hard to watch the dummying down. It's been so hard to watch the apostasy falling away from the truth when I know that I know that I know what he's done for me, what he's done for my family, what he's done to so many people throughout history, and what he continues to wanna do through the gospel. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. Where? Within the gospel. You wanna be right with God? Respond to the gospel. And it's not a 20 percenter, and then you need 80% help from the world. It's 100%. He's the only one that can transform and change you from within. If you have a physiological problem, that's different. Get the broken arm fixed. But behavioral? Can't measure the behavioral. They don't have the means. They don't know why some of us are prone to depression or discouragement and such, and others, you know, maybe it's maybe it's you need more sunshine. Maybe you need to move to California. May maybe you need to move somewhere where you have the greater amount of sunshine to help you, you know, get through these winters here. It is it's ominous. It's difficult. It can be real difficult, but all I know is that body, soul, and spirit, if I do what I can with my body, with exercise and eating right, soul is the mind, the will, the emotions, if it what's what I'm allowing into my life with the word of God, then my spirit. And no matter how difficult it is to live here, for some, others, no problem at all. You're ready to start the fire going again. You like the rain. Well, others of us, we endure. But we're not gonna wimp out. We're not gonna quit. We're not gonna leave our post. And it's in those dark times, those difficult times that our roots grow deeper into Jesus because we depend and rely upon him even greater extent. Life's easy for me when I'm riding my bike along the beach. What do I need to draw near to Jesus? But when life gets tough, when life's difficult, I mean, I I need to draw closer. I need to draw near. This isn't a picnic. This isn't a game. It's difficult doing the church here for thirty years in Kitsap County. There's a lot of dying to self. My outward man's perishing, but my inward man's being renewed day by day. That's a work of God's spirit. Proverbs sixteen sixteen says, how much better it is to get wisdom than gold and to get understanding rather than to be chosen than to be chosen than silver. The Psalmist one nineteen eleven, he says, thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. In our home, Jesus is the head of our home. Every decision that we make, every thought is taken captive to the obedience of Christ. If I disobey Jesus, Kathy will call me on it. She does not have to submit to me. We both are in submission to Jesus. We learn right and wrong by being in fellowship with Jesus. Our life is built upon him. He's the rock. He's the foundation of our life. And it's been tested with storm after storm after storm. But we just draw closer. The devil uses it to drive us away from the Lord, but the Lord uses it to draw us ever closer in his jealous love for us. He's more than enough. He's more than adequate. Nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus. Verse seven, and even things without life giving sound whether pipe or harp except they give a distinction in sounds. How shall it be known what is piped or harp? So music has notes. Anybody can play a guitar. I can strum the guitar. I can beat on some drums. I can blow a trumpet. I can blow the shofar. But for some, it's just noise. All you're hearing is noise because I don't hit the right notes. Because I don't know how to play. I don't have a musical ear. So can anyone hear? Can anyone understand me as I'm beating on the drums or blowing the trumpet? He says verse eight, for if the trumpet given uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? Amos three six says, shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid? So a message in the music. We need a message in the music. We need the trumpet to do revelry, you know. We need the trumpet to get people up, the soldiers up in the morning. We need the trumpet to sound the alarm, the emergency broadcast system to let everybody know we're under attack. It doesn't have to be mushy. It doesn't have to be, you know, inarticulate. There there needs to be a sound that's known that means this, communicating. And in our Christian music, in our worship music, there needs to be a message in the music. And it doesn't always have to be a song, a love song for your girlfriend. It can be a love song directed toward Jesus. It can include the cross. The song can include the blood. The song can include suffering and his faithfulness and his comfort. Themes within the scripture, themes within the bible that many wanna gloss over and they just want the warm fuzzies rather than a depth of communication, a depth of understanding of of weeping before the Lord in memory of the cross and and knowing his love for us. So likewise, you accept the utter by by the tongue where it's easy to be understood. How shall it be known what is spoken for ye shall speak into the air. So keep it simple. Preach Christ. Connect. Kiss. Keep it simple, stupid. Speak things that people can understand. Paul says in second Corinthians 11 verse three, he says, but I fear less by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted for the simplicity that is in Christ. That the false prophets would bring a different Jesus. They bring a different spirit that they bring a different gospel. And Paul's saying, I've espoused you to one husband, even Christ, that I can present you as a chaste person unto Christ. I don't want you to be seduced by the wicked one, by the false prophets that get you off kilter, that present a different Jesus. That's why I've told you over and over and over again something I learned from Walter Martin thirty years ago, more than thirty years ago. One of the ways the cults, the number one way the cults are identified as a cult is they preach a different Jesus. Even when you go to Israel and there's a a guide there, a Jewish guide, he can present Jesus as the son of God but not God. And that's a you gotta catch that. And the knock at the door, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was a god in their bible. You gotta catch that. They're presenting a different Jesus. So you've gotta know John one as the deity of Christ is proven in John one and you've got to confront them with it. You've got to take them over to Colossians one and again prove the deity of Christ in Colossians one. You take them to Hebrews chapter one and again you prove the deity of Christ. And if they can handle anymore, you bring them to Revelation chapter one and you prove the deity of Christ. You don't give in to a different Jesus. You don't give in to the Jesus of the new global religious system that's coming where we all worship the same God. Inclusiveness, everybody included. No. We preach the exclusivity of Jesus Christ. He's the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the father but by him. Why? Because he is crucified, buried, raised himself from the dead. End of story. Destroy this temple in three days, I'll raise it up. Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, the popes, all the pretenders, none of them can say destroy this temple in three days, I'll raise it up and and actually do it. They could say it, but they can't come through. No man takes my life from me. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. Who can speak like that and back it up? Only our Jesus. Amen. And then they come with a different spirit. Not just a different Jesus, but a different spirit. The spirit of the age, the age of antichrist. Men's love of self, men's love of the world, the things of the world. We're told explicitly, don't love the world. Love not the things of the world. Love of the world is enmity with God. You're an enemy of God if you're in love with this world. The little g God of the world, Satan, Lucifer is the little g God of this world. The world was promised to Jesus if he bowed down and worshiped Lucifer. Jesus said, no way. No shortcut. I'm going by way of the cross. This world's mine by right of creation and Adam forfeited it as our first federal head, but I'm the last Adam and I'm gonna go by way of the cross and I'm going to redeem this planet with my blood. In a different gospel, To Galatians chapter one, Paul's talked about them being bewitched, the Galatians. You're so quickly, you're bewitched that you believe a different gospel. If if we if somebody comes along, any of our guys or even an angel were to come along, the angel Moroni with a different gospel, let him be accursed. Don't follow a false gospel. So it's incumbent upon you and I to be taught, to learn. The first time that I encountered a Jehovah's Witness at the door, she was she was much stronger than me in the scriptures. False scriptures, but she was she I didn't know how to respond. I didn't I I wasn't I was just a brand new babe in Christ. But one thing I did have going for me is I read the gospel of John. And when she says, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was a god, boom, red flag went up, discernment. And I said, no, no, no, that a isn't in my bible. That a isn't in there. You put that in there. But after that, I I really couldn't defend much much else, but that was enough. That was enough right there. That was enough. So what it did is it compelled me to go back now and to study to show myself to be approved. I never ever ever wanted to encounter someone and be in that in that situation again where I didn't have a working knowledge of the scripture. So every question, everything she brought up, I went through and and tried to understand what I believe and why I believe it. Questions are good. That kind of stimulation is good if it compels us to get into the word. If you're indifferent, you don't care. Something wrong with you. The, debate about the rapture. You shouldn't believe in the rapture just because I believe in the rapture. All these people running around saying there the rapture isn't even in the bible and the Tim LaHaye series and Left Behind series and all that. You should be a student of the word of God and be certain, a 100% certainty that the rapture is a pre trib rapture promise. And when they say, hey, the word rapture isn't in the bible, you should be able to say the word trinity isn't in the bible. And guess what? The word bible isn't in the bible. But in Greek, if you can read Greek, it's a Greek word harpato. In Latin, rapturus, where in English we get rapture. So quit arguing from such an ignorant position. The teaching of the rapture covers a lot of different verses. The cohesiveness if you will. The blessed hope. The millennium. You should you should be able to understand what do we mean by a millennium? What do we mean? Is it the third right that Hitler wanted? Is Jesus gonna rule and reign for a thousand years? Is Isaiah 11 a picture of the reverse of the curse and the animals lying down with the children? For a thousand years, Jesus ruling and reigning from Jerusalem? What about hell? Can you explain hell? Is hell a place where a person is burned up and no more? Is hell a place where they get a second chance, a purgatory maybe, little compartment there for them? What is hell? Where the worm dieth not and the fire's never quenched. The Lake Of Fire, a place that was prepared for the devil and the fallen angels, not for humanity. But if humanity doesn't want Jesus, if they don't want heaven, if they don't want Jesus, then they can go through door number two. Their choice. I think I said it last week. I might have said it at the Monday night bible study, but a guy really got my attention when he said, if the Lord were to open the doors of hell to let people out, they wouldn't leave. Is that mind blowing? People so hate God that they chose hell because God doesn't predestine or send anybody to hell. They go to hell because they reject Jesus. They hate Jesus. That's mind boggling. That that's hard to comprehend. So keep it simple. Connect. Preach Christ. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world and none of them without signification. So each language is important. Each and every language. In first Timothy chapter four verse one, we're told in the last days that many would depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. Different voices, different influences. Therefore, if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaks a barbarian. He that speaks shall be a barbarian unto me. So it's the barbar. Somebody speak to me in Mandarin Chinese. I don't know Mandarin Chinese and I speak back to them in English and it's bar bar bar bar. We're not understanding each other. We can't connect. We might try to use sign language. We might try to point at things, write things. Nowadays, how are how are they gonna have a one world religious system and a one world language? Will it be artificial intelligence? Can you travel now and speak into your phone and it translates to somebody else in their language? The Tower Of Babel, relived? So he's saying here, if you're speaking in that way, it's not connecting. So the arrogance of the Catholic church early on speaking their masses in Latin. Latin was the upper echelon, the educated people within the culture. Koine Greek was the language of the of the common people and the bible is written in Koine Greek. And so in an English speaking community, to go to church, a Catholic church, the arrogant intellectualism of the priests who study Latin to speak only in Latin. Well, what are you connecting with the people in the audience? How come you're telling them they don't need to read their bible that the pope interprets it for them? That we'll tell you what to do. That's a means of control. That's keeping the word of God out of the people's hands so the people couldn't directly hear from God. There's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. You don't have to go through Mary. You don't have to go through a priest or a pastor or any religious person. You can boldly come before his throne of grace in your time of need. He's your heavenly father. He's your abba. And you come expecting him to give you the holy spirit to them that ask. Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. When you go through a seminary cemetery, one of the things they say is it usually takes about two years after you've been in seminary to be used of God. Because once you come out, you're you have that intellectual arrogance. You're trying to throw around Greek words and and things that people don't know what you're saying, but boy, you've got theological terms making you sound really, really smart. Well, keep it simple, stupid. Connect with the people. Take the cookies off the top shelf and bring them down where the kids can get at them. Right? Make sure that you're acknowledging that people are at various different levels of learning. So you've gotta have some milk, you gotta have some veggies, some meat, carnivores, lots of meat. Keep feeding them. Right? Help them to grow and make it understandable. Take difficult concepts, difficult truths and simplify them. Speak in their own language, give illustrations. An illustration's a window to the truth. Jesus would speak in parables and illustrations to to cause the, the truth to be seen in their own culture and things that they that they everyday occurrences, things they're well aware of. He says verse 12, even so ye for as much as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. So build his sheep up by educating them, feed them, make them the most loved and the best fed sheep in the community, not the biggest church. The more of the bible you teach, Rick Warren and the church growth movement discovered, and they told their pastors this. As they'd come together over 450,000 of them go to pastors.com to get their sermons for Sunday morning. That's why you'll notice these Rick Warren rebranded churches, whether they're AOG or Baptist or whatever they are, they stay with the similar themes come into the community. Whatever the recent talking points are, could be politics right now, I don't know. But in any event, they get these sermons by going to pastors.com. And what they taught the guys is in these church growth seminars is verse by verse teaching is death to a church. Why? Because they knocked on the doors and the people said, we don't wanna study the word of God. It's the people. The more of the bible you teach, the smaller your church will be. So where am I gonna get my marching orders as a pastor? From you? You're gonna hold your ties or or leave if I teach too much of the word? You're gonna leverage me? You're gonna take me aside when I'm outside there and tell me, hey, you you did three sermons. That's too much of the word. Church I'm from, I've watched it over thirty years. I've watched the dummying down. I've watched people fall more and more in love with the world and less and less with the word of God. I've watched the apostasy, the departure from the truth take place. So simultaneously, there's people in every community who would be what Gemma Kell calls a remnant church that can't find a church that teaches the bible anymore. A remnant church is a smaller group of people in this pocket, in this place. If I'm in Southern California, I can have a much larger church because the foundation has been laid that the word of God is the foundation. And the radio station and all the other pastors helping me would make it dominant in some ways. Even though Rick Warren was just down the street, 25,000 people going at it with his way, There's still a bunch of Calvary chapels and bible teaching churches and the radio stations and such that you still have, people being disciple, learning the word of God. But here, when we first came here, we tried to, get the CSN, the Calvary satellite network, you know, here, and we put money in and got the license and waited for it to come up and all, and eighty eight point nine, and the Calvary Chapels used to be on there exclusively, and then the Calvary Chapels got in a big fight. So now there's a few Calvary Chapel guys, and now it's the Christian satellite network. And it was it was it was becoming a standard that everything else would be measured by. Because the people, when they hear the word of God, it resonates. They know, this is what I'm looking for. I'm looking for the word of God and I'm not finding it. I can't find the church that teaches it. Well, the Calvary satellite was helping me. And then they they blew up. And the whole Rick Warren thing came in and the churches went that way and they rebrand and they changed their names and they come with this whole therapeutic feel good messages. It's social justice, doing good deeds in the community. It's not learning the word of God. It's not teaching prophecy. It's not people having a hope of the rapture and the soon return of Jesus Christ. Very difficult. But am I gonna change? No. Where two or more are gathered in his name, there he is in the midst. We were down to less than 10 people at one point. We had 86 kids in our Sunday school and I don't know how many adults, maybe a couple 100. And we got all the way down to under 10. I asked Kathy this morning when we're driving in, I said, how do you do it? How do you do this? She, I just keep going, Rick. I just keep going. What's that mean? That means you humble yourself and you walk by faith. Every time you're discouraged, every time people have a lame excuse, you keep going. You keep doing what Jesus has told you to do. You be faithful. There's nothing more important than loving and feeding the sheep, not fleecing them. You will never hear a sermon here that you hear every week in these churches where they're fleecing people for money And the people love it so they will give the money if the pastor tells them what they wanna hear because they have itchy ears. The only time we mention money is when as we're going through the bible, we come to the topic of money. We wanna feed the sheep, not fleece them, and we're not ashamed of the topic of money because where a man's treasure is, there will his heart be also. Jesus spoke a lot about money. He just didn't do it every time he met with people. Overwhelming them. He didn't represent God as being broke and unable to pay his bills. One of the earmarks of a false prophet is he'll make merchandise of you. You're just a commodity. They take marketing classes and learn how to market the people rather than feed the people. Acts chapter one, the former treaties have I made o Theophilus as Luke is writing, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach. Well, Rick Warren, we are to do its deeds and its creeds. We're to do and we're to teach. In first Timothy three verse two, when Paul's given the description of the qualifications for a bishop, a bishop is a pastor but a bishop is an overseer of other pastors. And then you have pastor in the Ephesians four, You have elder, is also pastor in Acts 20. These are people that oversee the spiritual needs of the people. You have deacons who minister in Acts six to the physical needs of the people. And the disciples said, we're gonna give ourselves to the word of God in prayer so that we can minister to the spiritual needs of the people, lest we get so busy waiting on the tables and the distribution of the goods and stuff. So we've got Philip, we've got Stephen, we've got other men that can do this deaconing and they're very powerful guys in the word also. Very powerful. Philip the evangelist and Stephen. Boy, Stephen ripped them. He ripped all those religious leaders, didn't he? But the bishop, one of the qualifications is apt to teach. He should be able to teach the word of God. That's the qualification. In first Timothy four eleven, Paul said to Timothy, these things command and teach. In Matthew twenty eight nineteen, the great commission, not the great omission. The great commission commandment, Jesus said, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you, along with you always even the end of the age. We're a teaching ministry. We have our mandate. We have our marching orders to go and teach. That's why the church developed schools. That's why the church developed in America colleges. They were started out as Christian colleges. And the churches were the schoolhouse and the first bible that our US government, you know, allowed to be printed was more bibles. Get the guffy readers and all that later, but children learned to read from the bible. And then what happened in America? The people in the fifties, the unbelievers in the fifties were more moral than Christians are today. The ones in the fifties would know that if a presidential candidate said you got fifteen weeks to do your abortion, that he's not worth voting for. The unbelievers in the fifties knew that adultery was wrong. The murder's wrong. And that murder couched in abortion funded by the US government is not a woman's right of her reproductive rights. That's an unbeliever would know that much in the fifties. Why? Because the word of God was in the schools in the fifties. The 10 commandments were in the schools. What happened? Lyndon Baines Johnson almost lost an election in the fifties as a senator from Texas. So he passed a ran a law through that would deceive the church, but basically a separation of church and state, a five zero one c three tax exempt status. You can't talk about government. You can't talk about politics. You can't talk about the secular world, but you'll have a monopoly in your little secret churches, and we won't tax you. Well, you're never taxed at that point anyway. Just by definitions of a church, you never had to pay taxes. You provided so many services in the community as a church, but you got duped. And then what came next with that privilege? That money. In '61 and '63, they removed the bible and prayer from the schools. The sexual revolution exploded in the sixties. Families, all of society rocked and reeling. Television from the fifties into the sixties began to come into the home of every American, changing the way people think. Started out with Ricky and Lucy sleeping in separate beds with pajamas up to here. And then pretty soon you got Three's Company. You're changing, gradually changing the way people think. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Amos said there's a famine in the land for the hearing of the word of God. You need to hear this. There's a famine in the land for the hearing of the word of God. You guys are unique. Very unique. I get to teach the bible because you have a desire to hear. The famine in the land is not caused by pastors that don't teach the word. The famine in the land is for the hearing of the word of God, the people don't want to hear the word. So the pastors wanna be church incorporated and make it a business and they do their marketing, knocking on doors, what do the people want? They give the people what they want. The people cannot, Paul tells Timothy, they will not endure Puget Sound doctrine. Sound doctrine means healthy, whole, something that can make you cause you to grow spiritually. They'll strengthen your family and your home and your culture. They won't endure sound doctrine but they'll heap to themselves teachers, They, the people, having itching ears. So the pastors will compromise because they get good salaries and they get to grow and they seem successful, but the people, Bill Heibel's described the seeker friendly thing as a huge lake. It looked big, but it's half an inch deep, no depth. The people didn't learn the word of God. And it was a lot of work to keep it going. It wasn't a work of God's spirit. It's a work of marketing, a work of the flesh, and you gotta keep it going. You gotta keep coming up with something new every week. Do you guys know where I'm gonna teach next week? I don't need to come up with something new. I don't need to go to pastors.com to figure out what I'm gonna teach next week. I'm I'm gonna pick it back up at verse 26. Lord willing, we're gonna go through the bible. It's it's not a work of the flesh. It's it's easy. It's simple. Just study God's word. In Micah chapter four verse two during the millennium, what's the millennium mean? It means a thousand year rule and reign of Jesus out of Revelation chapter 20. In the millennium, watch this. Watch what happens. Many nations shall come and say, come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his way and we will walk in his paths For the law shall go forth of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. These people are gonna come from all over the world to go to Jerusalem to hear Jesus teach. Teach the word of God. A church alive is worth the drive, I guess. Verse 13, wherefore let him that speak of an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. So communicate the praise. Verse 14, for if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth but my understanding is unfruitful. It's insulting. Verse 15, what is it then? I pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the understanding also to the benefit of others. So if we're gonna have an open believers meeting where we're gonna start to speak with tongues publicly, your prayer language is for you. He that speaks with unknown tongue speak it not on the men, not directed toward men, but on the God. It's your praise on the God. But if you're gonna bring it publicly, then it's still directed praise on the God and we can hear in acts two, sixteen different dialects, people hearing the wonderful things of God. So if we're gonna do that publicly, if I'm gonna speak in my prayer language, there needs to be somebody that can interpret so there's edification. So that others can hear that, hey, what what Rick is speaking, he's an English speaking person, he's speaking in French right now and he doesn't even know what he's saying, but I know French. I know that angel language, the Lord's given me interpretation, and now I can have the chance to, by course, let people know what that praise is unto God. That's what Paul's saying. Don't let it just be everybody going crazy, but let there be a point to it that others would benefit. Verse 16, else when thou shall bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupies the room of the unlearned say, amen. So how's he gonna agree with you and say, so shall it be? At that giving of thanks, saying he understands not what you're saying. So you need to communicate. You need to connect. No solo acts. Nobody standing there, hey, look at me, you know. No preaching to just the choir saying amen, so shall it be. So we wanna make sure that we're connecting it with as many people as we can, with the word of God. And this is why in the Protestant churches and many churches, this is why we have family services where you can bring your children in here if you want to. But what we've tried to do is we tried to have a Sunday school class so that the children can learn at their level. And, the King James Bible's written at an eighth grade level, in case you didn't know that. Just keep reading it until you understand it. Just keep reading it. For thou verily give us thanks well but the other is not edified, so neglected. They don't under they're not built up. That word edify, we saw that last week means a construction term to build up, so they're neglected. In Hosea four verse six, my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. As we said, the Catholics wanted to keep the people dummy down, easier to control. Their for their lack of knowledge, they're destroyed. I thank my God, verse 18, I speak with tongues more than any you all. Paul's for the speaking of tongues. A lot of the guys today think the cessationists that the gifts of tongues has ceased. The gifts have ceased. They don't want anybody speaking of them. If you have a prayer language, if you sing or in a different language, don't bury it. Use it in your personal time with the Lord. He's pro tongues. He says, I I speak more in tongues than all of you. He says, yet in the church, so he's differentiating when he's on his own as prayer time. Yet in the church, I'd rather speak five words with my understanding that by my voice, I might teach others also than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue. How many have been to church services when you were a Pentecostal and a big large amount of the service was the exercising of people speaking in tongues. Was it week after week after week, did the pastor ever have a chance to teach anybody and go through the word? Very difficult. And yet dreams and visions and I think and I think and I think and YouTube prophets, they're everywhere. People having dreams and visions. It's a con. Jonathan, I think. Yet in the church, I'd rather speak five words with my understanding that by my voice, I might teach others also than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue. So Nehemiah eight verse eight. Now somebody in our church fellowship years ago, a real sweet man and his family, they took this next section of scripture in Nehemiah chapter eight, and they printed it out for me, and they matted it, and they put it in a behind a glass on a frame and had it in my office. And it was a real blessing that they understood, the function that God has given me within the body. Paul describes our function as pastors in acts 20, you know, for the space of three years, I ceased not night and day to give you the full counsel of God. But in Nehemiah, there was a famine on the land for the word of God. They spent seventy years in Babylon and so Nehemiah is the governor there as he's, was the cup bearer for Artaxerxes and on March fourteenth four forty five BC, the command went forth to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. And so Nehemiah gets to go and rebuild the walls, and then Ezra, the priest, gets to go and begin to work on the temple, the rebuilding of the temple. Well, there came a point in time in chapter eight that they broke out the word of God. How much of the word of God do you think those in captivity heard while in Babylon? Not a whole lot. So they read in the book in the law of God, now notice distinctly, not just a random, distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. So the priest is reading it, but he's but he's trying to make it clear that they're grasping. They're grasping what's being said. And Nehemiah, which is the tereshatha, which means he's the governor, and Ezra the priest, the scribe, the Levites that taught the people said unto all the people, this day is holy under the lord your god, mourn not nor weep for all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. Now I've seen a lot of you fall asleep when I'm teaching. I've seen you smile and I know that you love Jesus, and I know that you love his word because you show back up. So every now and then, people will show up and there might be a whole back row of family, a new family. Afterwards, people say, oh, look, there's a family there and a family there. Oh, look, Rick. And I'll say, let's see if they come back next week or the week after because my gift is always thinning them out. But I'm not gonna let I'm never ever ever going to let the numbers of people or their expectations or whatever. If it's not a biblical expectation, they're not gonna be able to to influence me. Not to watering down the word of God. This type of teaching outlined here is called expository or exegetical, which means it's explanatory. It's interpretive. It's like a expositional good writer rather than a speaker, but a writer, a journalist will do an expositional writing, maybe in college you had to do this, where you have to provide the facts. Inductive means you're taking the text expositionally from the text. You're not imposing an eisegesis, it's an exegesis, you're exegeting the text, taking from the text and open and explaining from the text. And you can use support material which is the bible where the bible sometimes says things more than once and you bring in the support material from other verses, that's cross referencing. I do a lot of that. And you can take keywords and you can look at the Hebrew. This is what this word means and this is what this Greek word means. And very important that that we that we understand words, that we understand grammar, that we, look clearly where a thought begins and a thought, you know, ends or contrast or comparison and that's a called inductive bible study. Today, you have to define the word love because love is used in so many different ways. I mean, you, get more grace from people when you sin than if you challenge somebody in their sin. If you challenge somebody and you say that lesbianism is not a marriage as I said earlier, In that example, people will go away saying you're a hater, you're a bigot, you're unloving. No, I'm sorry, you're misinterpreting the word love. Love is not winning Obama by lighting up the White House with, you know, our rainbow when you arbitrarily change the definition of marriage when we voted on it twice and stipulated it's between a man and a woman which has been the case for over five thousand years. So who are you to come along and change the definition of marriage or the definition of male, female, son or daughter? Who do you think you are? Mister big shot? So we have to we have to hold to what words mean, what the truth mean. We have to bring the facts and let the facts be such that it exposes their lies and that's what they hate. That's why they're moving forward, the globalists, for censorship. They don't like you being a fact checker, a real fact checker, a truther, that you would use the word of God to expose the lies of of their demonic endeavor. In second Timothy two verse two, the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. So we're supposed to reproduce. We're supposed to learn the word of God and invest in others, invest in each other, and then you are to take the word of God that you've learned and invest it in your children, your family, your coworkers. You're gonna be a good teacher of the bible if you attend a bible teaching church. Psalm a hundred and forty three ten says, teach me to do thy will for thou art my god, the spirit is good, lead me into the land of uprightness. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of god. Speak number one to edify, speak secondly to educate, and thirdly, if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. Speak to evangelize. At verses 20 through 25. Verse 20, brethren, be not children in understanding how be it in malice be children, but in understanding be men. So don't be immature and and just be a show off. Seek a mature understanding of the word of God, of that which is good. That which is simple, that which is or excuse me, that which is evil. Be simple. You don't need to be a know at all of all the evil things that are going on. Hold to the truth. Be the Psalm one man. Blessed, oh, how happy is the man who walks not to the counsel of the ungodly nor stands away sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful. In contrast, but in his law does he meditate day and night. Be that guy. Verse 21. In the law, it is written with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the lord. It can be really frustrating trying to get people to hear the truth. It can be so incredibly frustrating in the time in which we're living to connect with people with truth. Because where's the authority? You have an opinion, I have an opinion, Jesus has an opinion, that guy's got an opinion, everybody's got an opinion. How do we know which one's right? Well, I would say Jesus' opinion's the one that I'd go with. I'd say the word of God is what I'd go with. And so the Lord said, you guys won't listen to me. I'm trying to speak to you in Hebrew, and you won't listen. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna use the Assyrians with the 10 northern tribes who are positioned in Samaria. And in July, I'm gonna cause the Assyrians to defeat you. And you guys are gonna be hearing a foreign entity, a foreign. It'd be like if the Chinese defeated us and now all we're hearing is Mandarin. They're speaking Chinese. They didn't even learn English before they conquered us. Are you kidding me? We gotta we gotta learn Mandarin now if we can survive. So he's saying, I'm gonna use the foreigners to speak to you, you know. And in Deuteronomy twenty eight nine forty nine, a nation whose tongue thou shall not understand. Now it's interesting this week that the nation of Israel's crossed over into Syria. What's that mean? Well, Isaiah seventeen one has never been fulfilled where Damascus, the oldest city of all antiquity, the city that the apostle Paul was headed toward, right, with letters. The church had spread out to as far as Damascus. But Isaiah seventeen one says, Damascus would be brought to a place of a ruinous heap. Hasn't happened throughout history. Could very well be you're gonna see Damascus be destroyed very quickly here. Possibly, don't know, but if the Israeli foot soldiers are coming into Damascus with their support. Who knows what might happen? But the Assyrians, they, overthrew the 10 northern tribes. They were unable to defeat, Judea, the southern out of Jerusalem. God used the Babylonians later in May to destroy, Jerusalem, the southern tribe. So as an instrument of judgment, in Isaiah twenty eight eleven, he says with stammering lips and another tongue, will I speak to this people. The Assyrians God used. And they still wouldn't hear. They still would not repent the call to repentance. Now the church the churches, the seven churches in Revelation chapter two and three, seven times Jesus and given his evaluation of the seven churches which can be telescoped throughout history, you have the early church, the first century, second century, and it can telescope to today. The church of today that's telescoped out there is the church of Laodicea, the lukewarm church. The church that says, I'm rich and increased with goods in need of nothing. We're prosperous. We're church inc. And where's Jesus? He's on the outside of that church in verse 20 of Revelation three knocking on the door saying, you kicked me out of my church. And you have a false sense of security, a false sense of being self satisfied, you're lukewarm. You make me sick. Your true condition is your naked, poor, blind and miserable. You're a miserable church. You lack power. You lack the power of the holy spirit. You're insipid. But seven times in these two chapters of Revelation, Revelation two seven, he that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit say through the churches. Seven times. He that has an ear to hear. Do you have a spiritual ear to hear? Do you have an ear that's clued in? Is God able to communicate to you his truth through the teaching of his word? He that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches. I can't make you hear. If I stay with the word of God, I have a confidence and this confidence I've had for thirty years that I've been a pastor even before I became a pastor, that God's word does not come back void. I know that God's word is pregnant with power and that God's word, if I use God's word instead of Freud and Roids, if I take God's word and I put God's word out there, that God's word sometimes is gonna land on a soil that's hard hearted and it just remains on the surface and the bird, the devil comes and takes it away. Nothing I can do about that. Then there's another kind of soil that's the rocky soil. It's where they're really excited. It sounds great. My best life now. And then the sun beats down. There's some trials on their life and it withers and dies because it had no root system. Below the surface, there was a rock ledge that didn't allow to grow deep into Christ. And the third type of soil, when I put the word of God out there, is the weedy soil, the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches. Riches aren't the problem. If riches increase, set not your heart on them. It's the deceitfulness of riches that takes the place of that uppermost place within our heart. Where our treasure is, there will our heart be also to treasure the Lord. But the cares of those like deceitfulness of riches are weeds that choke off that profession of faith and it doesn't bear fruit. The fourth kind of soil, so maybe maybe what I'm batting is two fifty, one out of four. Which percentage of the people are saved in that parable, the seed and the sower? Is it three of them or is it one of them, the one that bears fruit? Jesus said, you know them by their fruit. The good soil, some 50, some 100. And so my job is to get the word of God out there. Your job is to get the word of God out God's word doesn't come back void. Some of them be angry at you, wanna fight you, hate you, you know, throw you in jail, take the bible away from you. If it wasn't true, why would they care? But it's so true, it bothers them. But the word of God is powerful. He says verse 22, wherefore tongues are for a sign not to them that believe but to them that believe not. So a sign for judgment, a sign for conviction. They should believe but they do not. They're not believing. But prophecy, prophecy serve it not for them that believe it not but for them that believe. So the unbelievers becoming believers. They're convinced of the truth. You remember in John four when Jesus had a divine appointment with the woman at the well, and he said he had water that she could drink of, she'd never thirst again. And then he told her to, you know, bring her husband. She says, don't have a husband. Said, And well, you had five husbands. You you spoke truthfully. And then she went back to her village and said, come see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? That's what happens when the word of God's out there. When you prophesy, speak forth God's word. God's word speaks to each and every person and they scratch their head going, how did he know that? We didn't know that. It's the word of God by the Holy Spirit knows that. The holy spirit knows your knee. In John nine twenty five, the guy that was born blind, one thing I know that whereas I was blind, now I see. Verse 23, if therefore the whole church become together into one place and all speak with tongues and there come in those that are unlearned or unbelievers, will they not say that you're mad? It'd be confusing. It'd be chaotic without an interpreter in a public setting. But if all prophesy, so rather than speaking in tongues, if you're all prophesying, speaking forth the word of God and there come in one that believeth not or one unlearned, he is convinced or convicted of all, he is judged of all. So he feels naked. He feels exposed. How do these people know I was having problems in that area of my life? How do they know that was going on? Because in Hebrews four twelve, it says the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, dividing asunder of soul and spirit. You see, the Freuds and the Roids, they can't really get into the brain. They can't get into the soul, but the word of God is a divider, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, a divider of the soul and spirit. The word of God's able to penetrate, able to reach these places of person's being, to communicate to that person. Elon Musk is not gonna be able to get there. They can't mechanically do this. This is a work of God's spirit. So the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword piercing even dividing the sunder of soul and spirit and of joint marrow and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in this sight, but all things are naked and open under the eyes with whom we have to do. Bank on the word of God. Proclaim the word of God. Preach the word of God. He says verse 25, and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest and so falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth. And so the unbeliever becomes a believer. He's in a place where the secrets of the heart are revealed and it wasn't because you told the pastor and then the pastor put it into the sermon. Alright? I wouldn't do that. No. It's the word of God that reaches within that person's being and there's things that you never told anybody that the word of God's exposing to you. He knows that only God could reveal such things. In John six forty four, Jesus said, no man can come to me except the father which has sent me draw him and I'll raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets and they shall all they shall be all taught of God. You see, I'm supposed to just be a conduit. You and I are just a conduit. If we stay with the word of God, then the Holy Spirit's able to speak through us and people are taught of not Rick Bodrey, you're being taught of God. It's simply a forth telling of God's word. It's the word of God by the Holy Spirit that's teaching you in me. So they're taught of God. Every man therefore that has heard and learned of the father cometh unto me. So you've been taught of God. Now if I go away from God's word and I say, hey, I I think this and I had a vision. I had a dream and I ba ba ba ba ba That's babble. That's just babble. You you be a Berean. You call me out on it. If I ever tell you, hey. I had a vision, and I wrote a book. Now I'm gonna do a seminar. Based on what? What? What? I'm to believe you? I'm not a cult leader. I'm not gonna try and influence people with dreams and visions that I have because I'm so much more spiritual than you. How many people are duped and persuaded and moved in these directions? They're having visions of revival in America. We're gonna take over America. They're telling people what people wanna hear. Whole lot of disappointed people. I'm simply telling you based upon the word of God that Jesus is coming again. I want your hope to be in him. Now if you have a dream, if you have a vision, it's okay to share it, but just don't speak in the first person, thus saith the Lord. Allow some time to take place. Let's see if it happens. If it happens, now you're gonna be able to say, like Peter said on Pentecost, this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. You're gonna have scriptural basis to prove that that activity or whatever they were doing or that dream or that vision that has scriptural authentication. Or as we look at prophet prophets that foretell, that foretell the future, they have to be 100% right if they're foretelling the future. How many YouTube prophets want their prophecy scrubbed because it didn't happen the way they they said it was gonna? Let me give you one example, the blood red moons. How many did the blood red moon thing? I mean, there's so many of them. They come through the church all the time. And you notice how I hold back and I have to let the craziness go through? And then I I'd say, didn't happen the way he said it, he sure sold a lot of books, didn't he? Lot of books. So the unbelievers can be amazed at the way God reveals his heart. You've been taught of God. You've heard and you've learned. Jesus said in John six thirty seven, all that the father gives me shall come to me and him that comes to me, I will no wise cast out. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God, God's mouthpiece. Romans ten thirteen through 15. Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And how's he gonna call on the Lord if he doesn't believe? And how's he gonna believe if he hasn't heard? And how's he gonna hear if there isn't a preacher? And how's he gonna go preach if he hasn't been sent? As the scripture has said, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. That's you and me with the word of God. Our feet are beautiful. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. It's God speaking through you. Be bold. Be bold. Plant your feet and preach the glorious gospel. It's the gospel that people need to hear in these last days. It's a gospel of peace, gospel of love. It's glad tidings of good things in a time of such negativity. It's the power of God under salvation. It's the gospel as it goes forth that'll transform and change lives. Don't worry about America. God's got that. Think in terms of each and every person upon this planet. And one by one, the Lord's commissioned you and I to go to those people that he brings in our path with the glorious good news of his love for a world that's perishing. How are they gonna hear without a preacher? And how are you gonna preach unless you've been sent? And Jesus said, go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all things I commanded you along with you always even the end of the age. In a mark, he says, preach the gospel to every creature. Preach and teach. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. Allow God to speak through you. He's gonna have an angel during the tribulation period, give the everlasting gospel over the planet. But presently in this dispensation, he's counting on you. He's counting on me. And he doesn't want some priest up there, bogarting the joint, you know. He wants all of us to be involved. Can I say that? You guys don't even know what that means. No. Just kidding. Let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you for the joy and the blessing of being with a body of believers, Lord, where we all have the confidence in you, Lord, our sufficiency is of Christ to speak forth the word of God, to preach the glorious good news of your coming kingdom, to help educate people concerning prophecy. So many people don't know. And and Lord, you've been teaching us. You've been getting us ready. And Lord, you tell us to be able to give an answer to people of the hope that lies within us. So Lord, equip and strengthen us. Continue to give us divine appointments to share the good news of your coming kingdom. It's not gloom and doom, Lord. It's glorious. You're coming again. And Lord, you're we're your bride. We've got our oil, and we're looking, we're watching. And Lord, we wanna occupy till you come. We wanna share the glorious gospel. Anoint and use us to share the gospel this week, Lord. Use us as your mouthpiece, Lord. While your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed, if there's anybody here this morning, you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, Christianity is a relationship, not a religion. And you can come into that relationship with him by responding. As many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God. It's incumbent upon you to receive him now. He's presented himself. He's made himself aware to you. He's revealed himself to you by his spirit and now you come trembling in repentance and turning from your sin, crying out, God be merciful to me a sinner and he hears that prayer, he hears that cry And he'll respond to that cry, he'll wash and cleanse you of your sins, he'll come into your heart and life, he'll cause you to be made new, to be born again. Anyone here this morning, just lift your hand up, we wanna pray with you. Anyone this morning? Father, thank you once again for the joy and the blessing of having my name written in the lamb's book of life and knowing that I know that I know that I know as you said it is finished, the work is complete, and Lord I can enjoy you and the splendor of eternity for forever, Lord. So great a salvation. Thank you for the relationship that you've drawn me into, Lord, that you're keeping me in, that Lord I'll enjoy forever. Thank you for saving me, Lord. Thank you for saving us. In Jesus name we pray, amen.
About This Podcast
Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Sunday Service
Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, teach the Word of God cover to cover, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes on Mondays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.
