The Christian Grace Gospel, as it is taught in the American churches at the pulpits, is a huge lie from Satan. It is taking people to hell every day when they believe it.
This lie is that you are saved by grace and grace alone—that there are no works you can do that are righteous or that please God; that His salvation through His death and resurrection is all you need to believe in and that if you just believe in that, you will be saved.
These pastors say that if you add anything else to the gospel, such as works or baptism, then you are a dog,you are a liar, you are a hypocrite, and you are prideful. But what these pastors leave out is the part of the Gospel that Jesus taught about denying yourself, picking up your cross, and doing the work to follow Him.
Jesus taught this. This is not my opinion; these are not my words or my thoughts. But this is what Jesus taught. I want to read it to you.
This is what Jesus said in Matthew 16, starting in verse 24:
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself"—which is work—"and take up his cross"—which is work—"and follow Me"—which is work.
"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"
What will it help you if you look like a good Christian in church, keep up your church attendance, pay your 10% tithe every week, and adhere to biblical teachings?
What will that help you if, at the end of your life, Jesus says, "Away from Me, you who commit sin; I don’t know you"?
It won’t matter if you believed your pastor’s lie at that moment what will matter is what you did with the words of Jesus.
Did you believe His words right here in Matthew 16? Or did you deny His words to receive the lying pastor’s words?
Then Jesus goes on to say this:
"For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works"—not his belief, not what just he thought Jesus did in Bible times, but according to his works.
If your works are done in righteousness, then you will receive the reward of righteous deeds.
But if you had unrighteous deeds—if you were working the works of wickedness—then you will be rewarded with hell and damnation. You will be punished.
So don’t believe the devil’s lie that is preached from the pulpits in the church—that all you have to do is believe, but you don’t have to deny yourself, you don’t have to pick up your cross, and you don’t have to leave worldliness behind. All you have to do, according to them, is go to church, pay your 10%, believe the pastor, and you’ll be saved.
Where is your faith today?
Do you really believe in the words of Jesus?
Or do you believe in the lying pastor and these gatherings that are full of hypocrisy?
We'll praise Jesus today, everyone. We know that when we come to Jesus, we renew our mind. We have a new tongue and a new mind and a new heart. Now there are a lot of Christians, Pentecostal Christians, that think the new tongue just means speaking in a tongue that no one understands, but that their English tongue doesn't change, which is ridiculous, because if you actually come into the household of the faith and you're walking in the kingdom of God, then you will have a new tongue that edifies others as well. You'll be changed, that your mind will not be thinking like the world or how you used to think like other people in the world, and your heart will certainly be different. I want to read to you what the Apostle Paul says about this in Ephesians chapter 4. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, and the futility of their mind.
You could say here, if you have really come to Jesus, you should not walk as the rest of your fellow Americans, or whatever country you live in. You shouldn't be just pursuing what they're pursuing in the world. Having the understanding of darkness, being alienated from the life of God, because the ignorance that is in them, because of their blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, meaning you have not learned that sort of Jesus. You haven't learned Jesus with greed, with hatred, with malice. So why are we thinking like Christians in the world, if we have really received the new tongue and the mind of Jesus? If indeed you have heard from Him, and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in spirit and in mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
This is something many Christians have not put on, because they haven't been renewed in their mind or in their heart. They're not taking communion with Jesus. They're not eating His flesh and drinking His blood. They're eating and drinking the world, and because they're eating and drinking the world, they can't possibly have the mind of Christ. This is why they're still cursing, blasphemous thoughts are coming into their mind. They are exactly like the world. We need to put on righteousness and holiness, true righteousness. Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor. We need to be speaking in our new tongue with our neighbor. Whoever we come across, we need to be the light of the world. This doesn't mean that we're just speaking gibberish. This doesn't mean that we're just speaking in a prayer language.
This means that we have the new tongue, which comes from a renewed heart and mind, and now we're speaking the mysteries of God, just as they spoke in Acts, when the Holy Spirit came on them, and they were speaking to all these different nations of people in their own tongue, and they understood, and some of those people repented, and were added to the number of the new Christians. So let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
We always want to be praying and asking Jesus, that whatever we say is edifying to others, not tearing others down, not blasphemous of course, not gossipy, not envious words, but words that are building each other up, and helpful to the body of Christ, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. You know a lot of Christians, they are grieving the Holy Spirit, especially with the TV, with movies, with their entertainment. They're grieving the Holy Spirit, because they say, well I don't say those words, I don't think those things, but they allow those things to play on their TV, and they're paying their money to watch these movies that are blaspheming God, speaking evil continually, and because they allow this stuff into their household, they themselves are no longer holy or pure as well. They are allowing that into their mind, that garbage, instead of allowing holiness and righteousness to shine through them. So we need to make sure that we don't grieve the Holy Spirit, by listening or acting like the devil.
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. In some place, Jesus says that He will forgive, the same way that we forgive others. And that is a word, because if we have bitterness in our heart towards others, we can know that God will not forgive us. So we need to make sure that if we have hatred in our heart, or bitterness towards others, or seeds of unforgiveness, that we make sure that we forgive before the sun goes down, that we can have communion, and not be eating and drinking judgment on ourselves. So what tongue and what mind have you received? Have you really received the mind of Christ? Have you received the tongue that comes from Jesus when we receive the Holy Spirit? Or do you still have a tongue of envy, and bitterness, and hatred? Are you still thinking like the world? Are you thinking racist thoughts, or thoughts that put others down? Make sure that you're not thinking yourself better than others. A lot of Christians just hope that judgment comes on the world.
They want to see other people hurting. But Jesus said that He came to save people, not to destroy them. Remember when the disciples asked about the Pharisees, should we just call fire out of heaven and kill them all? And Jesus didn't say, yes Peter, send fire out of heaven. But what did Jesus say? If we remember what Jesus said, He said He came not to destroy people's lives, but He came to save them. We need to be praying that people repent, and that they come to the Lord, and are saved by His grace and His mercy. Of course God's judgment is going to come on the wicked. God's judgment is already here. But we as Christians, who want to be fruitful, are to be calling others to repent. We always want to be hopeful. Love hopes all things. It wishes for repentance. It hopes that people come into the household of the faith. We want to make sure that we're no longer conformed to the world, or acting like worldly Christians, but that we are conformed to the likeness of Jesus, and that we really receive the Holy Spirit, that baptism of the Holy Spirit, that we know happens when we have a transformed tongue, and a transformed mind. So I want to pray for those of you that want true repentance, that want to be part of the household of the faith.
"Lord Jesus, I pray for those that are here today listening, and they know that they have sin in their life. They know that they have messed up. They know that they have had thoughts and words in them that are not pure, but they know that they want your righteousness. They want to eat your flesh, and drink your blood. So I pray for someone who is listening today that wants to be pure, that wants to be purged and purified, that you would purify their heart and their mind, that they would be renewed, that they could have communion with you Lord Jesus, that they would eat your flesh, and drink your blood, and come part of your new covenant. I pray that we would be lights to others, that your Holy Spirit would be shining through us, that more people would be added to our number, that they would see our good works, and that they would glorify our Father in Heaven. In your name I pray, Lord Jesus. Amen."
Well, praise Jesus today, everyone. I just had a short message that I wanted to share, and it's about practicing righteousness and not practicing ungodliness. See, of course we get better at what we practice, and even if we are dedicated to the Lord Jesus, if we don't continue to practice our new tongue, if we don't practice speaking to others about the truth, then we will get out of practice, and we'll be more timid to share the truth, and then suddenly we'll find ourselves just thinking and saying worldly things, and we need to make sure that we're always in practice for what we really know is important.
The other day, I had a good friend come over, and he noticed that I had a large pile of wood that needed to be burned, and I plan to one day do it, but I don't just burn large piles every day, although I do it maybe a few times a season, but my friend, he has a business, and he is always doing burn piles, always brushing, always cleaning stuff up, and he quickly that day asked me if I wanted to light up that burn pile, and it was a burn day, so I said, sure, let's do it, and he jumped right on, you know, right on it, and we lit up that burn pile, and we cleaned up the area, and made the property look really good around my house, and that was really a blessing to me, it was a blessing from the Lord that that friend had that on his heart to do, but I thought to myself, he's doing this all the time, and he's excited to do it, he's excited to help a brother, he's in practice for things that are good, and we want to be in practice for things that are good, and not practicing things that are unrighteous, a lot of people have addictions, and they're practicing things that are ungodly, and because they have a habit of looking at pornography, or a habit of cursing, or a habit of taking the Lord's name in vain, or gossiping about others, they practice those things constantly, and instead of being a light to the world, and being helpful, and quick to do work that is righteousness, they are quick to do things that are evil, and perverted, and hateful, so if we are the children of the light, we need to be quick to do what is right, and we need to practice what is right, and of course we will get better at doing what is right, and we'll get better at resisting what is evil, see there are some Christians that think that once you put your faith in Jesus, you will no longer be tested, and you will automatically do what's right, that's not true, you will know right from wrong when you come to Jesus, but you have to practice good, and you have to refrain from evil, and as temptations continue to come at you, you will get better at resisting temptation when you choose to stand with Jesus, the more that you resist that temptation, the more you make a pattern of righteousness, but the more that you fall into temptation, the more you'll make the pattern of ungodliness, so we want to have patterns that encourage others to follow the Lord, that are edifying to ourselves, so we need to make patterns that each day when we wake up, we give our life to the Lord, we pray and say, Lord have your way with me, and let me be an encouragement to others, we need to make the pattern of guarding our hearts against evil, guarding our eyes and our ears, that we're not listening to music or watching things that are ungodly, and getting all the things out of our life that cause us to stumble, so the areas that cause us to stumble, and the things that cause us to do wickedness, and then we need to actively be pursuing righteousness, because it's not enough just to not be sinning, just to be avoiding things in the world that are ungodly, but Jesus calls us to bear good fruit, so how do we do that? Well in the morning we pray and we say, Lord make our lives fruitful for you, let me be a vessel of honor that can be used for you, and whoever I come into contact with, let me be salt and light that I can bear good fruit for you, that there may be more people that enter into the light of the truth, and there may be some days that the Lord has someone in your life, that then you can be a witness to, and then maybe other days there won't be anyone in that aspect, but in other aspects of your life you'll be able to grow, but in everything we need to live as unto the Lord, and practice righteousness, and not practice ungodliness. I see far too many people that are practicing ungodliness, and they think themselves to be Christians. I see people with shirts, and they're Christian shirts, and they have Bible verses on them, and these people are supposed to be Christians, they're supposed to be the children of God, but they're cursing, they're disrespectful to others, they don't have the light of the true God in them, they're not living the gospel, so practice what you preach, live for the Lord Jesus, and you will get better at what you do, you'll get better at encouraging others, you'll get better at resisting the devil, because whatever we practice we get better at, and as we make those habits we'll want to do those things more.
I've given the example before, if you have never run in your life, or if you've never jogged, you probably don't want to just go out and jog a mile. If you have run when you're say in junior high, and they had you do the mile, it was all that you could do in junior high to make that mile, and then maybe you haven't run another mile in 10-20 years, and it would be like pulling teeth to get you to jog a mile, but if you start yourself in an area where you can, maybe jogging a lap, and then working yourself up to that, and you're getting back in shape, then you will enjoy jogging a mile. So what we practice we get better at, and what we practice we start to enjoy, and then the things that we don't practice, we tend to put those things on the back burner, because we start to get a mental block against those things.
This is also a big reason why people procrastinate on the things that they know they should do. It's because they're out of practice for those things, and they continue to put those things on the back burner. When I was in college, I often was a procrastinator on my work, because I really wanted to think about other things, and so if I had some kind of assignment, essay due, or test, I would often put it off until the very last night in order to do it, and then I would be so rushed to get that done, and it's because I was out of practice for studying, and that's a really bad thing guys, as if you're in college, or if you're in the workplace, and you're expected to get things done on a schedule, you should be quick to do what's right.
You shouldn't be a procrastinator, and now that I follow Jesus, I want to do everything as under the Lord. So even things like if it's a test that I'm going to turn in, if it's something for school, I want to be there on time, I want to be prepared, because I want to live as under the Lord, and be well practiced up, so that I have a performance that demonstrates the King that I am performing for. If we are Christians, we're not performing for the world, we're not just performing for a worldly boss, but we are doing our performance for the Lord Jesus, if in fact He is your King and your Lord.
You should be doing everything as unto the Lord. So don't be a procrastinator on doing what you need to do, don't be a procrastinator on doing what is right. Of course be slow to anger, but be quick to forgive, be quick to reconcile with a brother or sister that you need reconciliation with, be quick to repent of the things that you need to repent from, but don't put these things on the back burner, because far too many Christians have these mental blocks, and then they can't push through and do the things that they need to do, so instead they're trying to just appease themselves, or appease a guilty conscience, with doing worldly good works.
So we need to make sure that we actually are getting our life in order before the Lord, living holy and pure, and practicing righteousness. So that's all I have for today, I want to encourage those of you that do want to practice righteousness, so I want to pray for those of you that want to put your faith in Jesus, and live for Him, and not practice the things of the world. "Lord Jesus, I pray for my fellow brothers and sisters who are listening today, that want to practice righteousness, and who want to put off ungodliness. We want to be dedicated to your truth, we want to be filled with your Holy Spirit, and not with the thoughts of the world, or the desires of the flesh. So fill us with your righteousness, and with your truth, let us feast on your words, let us have the words of life in us, and let us meditate on your truth, and on your righteousness. May we resist evil, may we resist temptation, and continue to overcome in your name. Amen."
Well praise Jesus everyone, I see your comments coming in. Yeah praise Jesus, it's always good to be thankful. We've been getting some rain here in California, which I'm very thankful for. It's good to start the day right, and be praising the Lord, worshiping Him, and encouraging others to also follow and obey the Lord. I think we'll end this live stream here this morning, but continue to resist evil, and do good before Jesus.
He loves us, He cares for us, but He wants us to live the holy life. So let us keep our eyes on the prize, which is Jesus Christ, and keep enduring on the straight and narrow path. Yes we have to pray continually, pray continually without ceasing. If you pray and ask Jesus to fill you with His Holy Spirit, and to give you His new tongue, He will teach you how to pray without ceasing, like it says in the scripture. We want to always have the heart and mind of the Lord, and praying in His will. Alright that's it for today guys. Go in the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, honor Him, and please Him with your life, and be a light for Him.
Remember the parable of the five wise virgins compared to the five foolish virgins. One of the things that the foolish say is that your works don't matter or count, and that all God looks at is his son's death on the cross. While it is true that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and he atoned for us, we also have a cross to carry that the foolish don't want to carry because they only want to see what Jesus did. I hear these foolish pastors on the radio often. They're always speaking about God's grace, about what Jesus did on the cross, his finished work on the cross, but they never talk about our cross that we have to carry. They never talk about our works.
In fact, they call all the works of righteousness filthy, and they say you're adding to the gospel if you talk about works as if that will save you. Now these foolish, these five foolish, which happen to be most every pastor in church, most all Christians in church, they think that they're saved by grace alone, by faith alone, and they believe that if you preach about the works, you're mixing a works gospel with the true faith gospel, which in fact, these Christians are mixing up the works of the law, which the apostle Paul spoke about would not save anyone, and what the Judaizers would preach, which is that you will be saved by keeping your self from eating certain meats and circumcision. So they mix that false gospel with the gospel that Jesus actually taught of true repentance and having works of righteousness. No one can be saved without works of righteousness and by belief only, and sadly, the foolish have said in their heart that you can be saved without works of righteousness. They say that's adding to the gospel, and it will be to their own demise when they find themselves in hell, and God says away from me you who commit sin, and he will hold them accountable to their works, which they believed they wouldn't be judged by.
This is what it says in James chapter 2. “What does it profit my brethren if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, depart in peace and be warm and filled, you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say you have faith that I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God, you do well, even the demons believe and tremble. But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only.”
This is the big scripture that Christians in church do not like. In fact Martin Luther wanted to take this passage out of the Bible. Christians don't like the fact that Jesus will hold them accountable to their works, they like to say by faith alone. But their faith is worthless because they have no oil in their lamp, they have no works of righteousness. So this is an important verse to learn and to memorize, it's James chapter 2 verse 24, which is “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”
The foolish say in their heart, I don't have to have works of righteousness, that's adding to the gospel, they will find themselves in hell. Jesus also taught this. If you want to look at Matthew chapter 16 with me, I'll read to you what Jesus said about this. This is Matthew 16, I'm starting in verse 24. Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. ”
Taking up your cross is a work, it's not the work of the law, but it is the work of righteousness. You have your cross to bury as a Christian. And then Jesus says, for whoever desires to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. So how do you do that? You lose your life by taking up your cross, not by being foolish and thinking you're saved by just believing alone, but you're saved by this gospel that Jesus is teaching right here, by picking up your cross. “Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Now listen to what Jesus says next. For the son of man will come in the glory of his father with his angels, and then he will reward each according to his works.”
These are the important passages that the Christian church that has grown foolish and blind and deaf and hard of hearing refuses to preach, because they believe in the easy grace gospel. They want people to give them money. They want to get warm bodies in pews and in seats in their church. So they refuse to teach the full gospel. It's only half of the gospel to say Jesus died on the cross and that Jesus loves you. The other half of the gospel is that God is just. He brings about his judgments, and that every man also has a cross to carry, and you will be judged according to your works.
So do we have works of righteousness? Are we putting the old man, that is the man of sin that we once were, into the grave? Are we putting down the flesh and letting righteousness arise in us? Are we picking up our cross and carrying it for the Lord, or are we living like the foolish Christians that don't have oil in their lamp but think that because they know what Jesus taught that they're going to heaven? Don't be deceived by the pastors that are lying on the radio or the pastors that are lying on the internet. We need the works of righteousness in us. This is the gospel that Jesus gave.
This is what the early apostles taught. We have to have the works of righteousness, and we can't confuse that with the works of the law. Some people are confused, and they say, well, how did the apostle Paul preach one gospel that we're saved by faith alone, but then James teaches this works thing? And what people are getting confused is what Paul was speaking is about the works of the law, which no man will be saved by. You're not going to be saved by keeping yourself from eating pork. You're not going to save yourself by trying to go to church on Saturday. You're not going to save yourself by slaughtering animals.
So by the works of the law, no man will be justified. But what they get confused is with the works of the law versus righteousness, the works of righteousness, which we need to have if we want to enter the kingdom of God. And if we have faith in Jesus, if we love Him, we will pick up our cross, we will deny ourselves daily, and we will have these works of righteousness because the Holy Spirit is working in us. I hope this encourages someone to put on the full armor of God to start resisting Satan and overcoming temptation and all the evil that's in the world. And I want to pray for those of you that do want to overcome in Jesus' name and believe the gospel and pick up your cross. “Lord Jesus, I pray that more people will be added to the body of Christ, that more people will come to believe in you, that they will pick up their cross, that they will put down the old man, that they will bury the old, and that you will remove it from them as far as the east is from the west.I pray that people can be set free from demons, from bondage to sin, from bondage to false religion and false ideas. I pray that the ungodly teachings will come out of them, that they will just be set free from these things, these shackles. I pray that more will just be receiving your true gospel, picking up their cross, and living by the Holy Spirit, that they will be indwelled by you. The only spirit that we want in us is your Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost. We want to speak in our new tongues. We want to be baptized in your spirit. We want your wondrous works to be in us so that more people may hear the gospel being preached and that they also will be saved by your wonderful arms of love. So, we love you, Lord Jesus. We pray for your true church, and we pray for more people to be saved in your name. Amen.”
If you want to know what the works of righteousness are, you need to go back and look what Jesus taught. I'll read one thing that Jesus taught on that. In John, I'm turning there, Jesus says this in John chapter 15, which have to do with the works of righteousness. This is not the works of the law, but the works of righteousness that you need if you will be part of the five wise virgins. John chapter 15, starting in verse 1.
“I am the true vine. My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, He prunes that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. That is, if you believe in the words of Jesus, abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me.”
This is another big problem in the Christian church. They are not abiding by the words of Jesus. They're abiding by their doctrines. And as soon as you join yourself to a church, you follow that church where that church is going. If you want life, you need to be connected to the vine so that you can follow the vine where the vine is going. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. So don't connect yourself to a church. Connect yourself to Jesus Christ.
So Jesus says, “abide in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you.”
Here's another problem. These foolish Christians ask for all sorts of things that are not in the will of the father and they never get their prayers answered. And so that's why they get deceived thinking, well, I guess maybe God isn't real. They're always praying in their own will, the will of their organizations, the will of their churches, but they don't know Jesus. So they can't have their prayers answered. They can't possibly hear from God or hear their or get their prayers answered without having the oil in their lamp.
And then Jesus says, ‘by this, my father is glorified that you bear much fruit. So you will be my disciples. As the father loved me, I also have loved you abide in my love.” And here's what Jesus says about abiding in his love in verse 10. “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy remains in you and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment.”
So what is Jesus talking about? Is he talking about the 613 laws of Torah? Is he talking about you'll be saved if you just keep the 10 commandments? Because that's not what Jesus told the rich young ruler. The rich young ruler was still on his way to hell, even though he kept all 10. Jesus said, “come and follow me”. So what is Jesus? What is his commandment? He says, “this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you”. It sounds simple enough, but to actually learn how Jesus wants you to love him and how Jesus wants you to love others will take your lifetime and it will take your whole life being laid down in order to learn this. You can't possibly learn it by keeping Torah. That is why the Pharisees who kept the Torah and who kept the 10 commandments also were able to murder Jesus thinking that they were doing it in the name of God.
They had no love from the father. They did the works of their father, Satan. And most of the Christian pastors and organizations today are following their father, the devil, and they don't have the commandments of Jesus, even though they keep the law of Moses. They keep the 10 commandments. So Jesus says, “this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this to lay down one's life for his friend. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you”. Here is another problem. You can't know what Jesus is commanding you if you are one of the foolish virgins with no oil in your lamp. You'll run around all day spinning your wheels in religion, trying to do religious things to appease your conscience, and you won't have a word from God. So if you don't know what Jesus is saying, you can't be his friend. You're not obeying him. And the five foolish couldn't obey Jesus because they had no oil in their lamp. They could never hear the Holy Spirit. So what wisdom says is, if you want the truth, you need to seek out Jesus Christ and receive his spirit so that then you will know the truth. Truth is Jesus Christ. If you hear truth, you'll hear his voice. If you don't hear the truth, you will not hear his voice, and you'll probably be just like the Pharisees who were ready to murder the messenger.
So Jesus says, “you are my friends if you do whatever I command you”. So you need to learn what Jesus is commanding. “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends for all things that I heard from my Father I have made known to you”. And Jesus will still make known to you his truth. All the truth that God ever wanted to speak to you is not recorded in the scripture. He wants to have a living relationship with you for all eternity. That is why there is an eternity, so you can be with God. We are not climaxing by just reading the Bible, as Christians think. Too many Christians think that the very crux is the Bible.
They think that God only wants their nose stuck in the Bible, and they continually go back to Bible study, and they are ever learning, without coming to the knowledge of the truth of Jesus Christ. These sorts of Christians think when they die, they will stand before the Bible, and the Bible will judge them, and that the Bible will have a relationship with them. They think God is the Bible. How sad and deceived these Christians are with no oil in their lamp and no love in their hearts. Jesus says, “you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another”.
This is Jesus speaking his commandments to us. So the question is, do you have the commandments of Jesus in your heart, or are you deceived by the Judaizers and false Christians and the false gospel that says one or the other? Either you are saved by faith alone, that you don't have to do anything for Jesus, or on the other side that says you're saved by the works of the law of Moses, that you're saved by circumcision, that you're saved by keeping the Torah, that you're saved by all of these rites and rituals and practices. The law could never save anyone.
That's why Jesus didn't come preaching the law as salvation. He came preaching his gospel. He came preaching about his death and his resurrection and the new covenant. We need to come into the new covenant if we want to receive him, which is that Jesus died on the cross, he resurrected, and if we put our faith in him as the perfect sacrifice, then we will be saved. But we need to endure with him to the very end. All of the kingdom parables that Jesus taught, these are to point us to him and what will happen in the end times and how to know him in the end times.
But Jesus did not come preaching that you will be saved by keeping the commandments alone, or that you would be saved by keeping the law of Moses, that is the 613 laws of the Torah. Salvation comes by Jesus Christ. So get to know the kingdom parables, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. Learn what he means. Go back and read the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Pay attention to what Jesus actually said and learn what Jesus's commandments are.
If you live on Jesus's words, if you eat his flesh and you drink his blood, then you'll partake in the new covenant and you'll be saved. There'll be life running through your veins. Life will be running through you and that living water will be in you bubbling up to everlasting life. But if you believe in the false gospel, you'll end up getting more depressed, more confused, you'll be allowing more demons into you, you'll be hearing more demons, and you'll be working yourself into the grave. I had this thought the other day of two men carrying a burden. One man was carrying the burden of his cross. The other man was carrying the burden of the world, carrying this burden on their back. But the man carrying the burden of the world, the more he carried it, the more the world on his back drove him into the grave. The man with the cross on his back, the more he walked, the more he approached the kingdom of God and he entered into everlasting life.
Jesus talks about his burden being light and that is because if we follow him, even though we're picking up our cross, he sustains us to the point where we walk into everlasting life with him holding his hand. But if you have the burden of the world on you, which is sin and doubt, accusations from satan, all of the burdens of the guilt of sin, those things will weigh you down all the way to the grave and bring about everlasting damnation. So which are you carrying? Are you carrying the burden of the world on your back, or are you bearing the cross on your back? As for me, I want to be taking up my cross daily, having the works of righteousness that Jesus calls me to do, and not believing anything false because if you start to pick up the burdens of the world, you're in big trouble. But if we carry our cross and we walk with Jesus and eat his flesh and drink his blood, we know that we have everlasting life. I hope this encourages someone today in the Lord to walk by faith and bear their cross, to deny themselves daily, pick up their cross, and follow the Lord Jesus because he is the only truth, he's the only way, and he is the only life.
I want to read to you what it says about hearing from God in James chapter 1; My brethren count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience but let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing if any of you lacks wisdom let him ask God who gives to all liberally without reproach and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting for He who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind, for let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, he is a double-minded man unstable in all his ways."
So how do we hear from God and why are so many men unstable in all of their ways?
Men are unstable when they are not hearing from the Holy Spirit and instead of letting patience have its perfect work in them, they put words in God's mouth they read the select Bible verses that they want and they think that's God speaking. They hear from a certain prophet, a certain man or certain woman and they believe that word instead of the word that comes from patience from the Holy Spirit.
So they don't learn from God through patience and trials. They're not hearing God in the very core of their being through wisdom they're hearing God supposedly through signs and blunders, their imagination they're hearing God and too many Christians are not waiting upon the Lord in righteousness through patience through trials tribulations through the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
I see Christians who are specifically in the Pentecostal group you know these people are in the Bethl church, they're in these sorts of churches that believe that they are speaking in tongues believe that they have visions and understanding from God yet they have no true patience from God and because of that they think that they are hearing God in their mind. We don't hear God in our ears we don't hear God in our mind we have to hear God in the very core of our being. The Holy Spirit speaks to our spirits not to our ears, you know who will speak to your ear is the devil, men speak into your physical ears but God speaks into the very core of your soul and so if you want truth you need to be listening for Him to speak into your soul with wisdom that is why men and women even in the church are not hearing from God they're led along by their own lusts by their own misguided understanding by their own misinterpretations of the Bible.
We need to be smart and wise longsuffering we need to wait on the Lord for His guidance and He will give liberally to you if you wait upon Him and
listen in your spirit with your spiritual ears. Don't be deceived by Christians and by the blunders and signs in the world that come from Satan. Don't be misguided by false spiritual guides/spirit guides. Make sure that you're truly led by the Holy Spirit because God knows how to lead you in your spirit. It's not about these outward signs, remember that the kingdom of God does not come with signs that are observable by men but the kingdom of God is inside you, the kingdom of God should be in your soul and there you should be understanding it, there God is working, but if you're like the people who think that God is just working outwardly these magical signs and He's like a spirit guide, you're going to be extremely deceived.
AI is one of these sorts of demons or at least what demons take on and because people want a quick microwave kind of a food from God, they go directly to AI they go straight to technology for a word from God and they totally turn their back on the truth the Living God. Jesus is the truth, He is the way He is the life not technology, not this quick microwave food from the internet. Yet how many are going to the world thinking they're going to find Knowledge from God? It takes patience like we read in James it takes long suffering it takes dedication it takes complete control over your flesh. You need to put down your flesh and in righteousness be led by the Holy Spirit.
It's easy to say "I'm being led by the Holy Spirit, I'm being led by God I listen to God..." it's easy to say that and not do it but if you are dedicated then like James says you need to be patient, you patiently wait upon the Lord and He will give you wisdom if you are serious to listen for the wisdom that comes from God.
That doesn't mean that you just do nothing, it doesn't mean that you just pray on your knees in your room all day, but it also means that you get up in obedience DO the things that the Spirit of God put on your conscience to do that you know that you know is right to do. Many Christians know what they should do and they don't do it and then the things they know they shouldn't do they do those things. We need to make sure that we cast out the Devil by doing what is good and rejecting what is wrong, as simple as that. So I hope this encourages someone to receive the wisdom that comes from the Lord. Jesus Christ is alive, He is the Truth He is the Life and He is the Way. May the grace of Jesus be with you.
Praise Jesus this morning everyone. The other day I was remembering back on my life when I was younger and I remember a few times where I was very encouraged to spread the gospel to people. Not because my church told me that I should or my parents told me that I should tell people about Jesus, but simply because I wanted to. And I remember a few of the first times that I shared Jesus with people. A couple times that come to my mind is one time when I was really young, praise Jesus everyone, I shared with my brother before Y2K. Do any of you remember that? I'm sure if you're older than 40 you'll remember the whole Y2K scare. And a lot of people went into a panic during this time of Y2K, which was year 2000. And there was this whole scare that people thought it was the computers were going to all be shut down because it was going to reset, remember that? People were panicking thinking that it was going to go back to the year zero and that maybe the whole economy would be disrupted due to Y2K. But if you can remember what happened, nothing happened.
But for a month before or a few months before Y2K happened, everyone was going into that panic. And I took the opportunity to tell people about Jesus, that possibly the Lord's return was happening imminently, that it could happen right at year 2000. And I told people this. And I remember one night, late at night, staying up and talking to my brother about Y2K and the return of Jesus and how it could be right on New Year's. And I remember my brother being panicked and wanting to give his life to Jesus right then. And as I recall of some of these experiences, telling people about Jesus and his return in end times, what I recall is people for a moment being genuine, wanting to repent, people for a moment wanting to get right with the Lord. But the only reason, guys, that they wanted to get right with the Lord was out of fear. Now, clearly we have to fear God and love him. We have to have both of those elements to our faith. If you have one without the other, you'll be in great trouble. And as I recall, okay, there was another instance where I knew someone from high school, and this guy came over to my house. And again, I told him about end times, and we stayed up late into the night talking, doing a sleepover. And through the night, I talked to him about Jesus's return and the uprising of the antichrist. And I just spoke about end times and the things that I knew were true from the Bible. And this guy listened. And like my brother, he also went into a panic. He was panicked and he wanted to repent. But these guys' repentance only lasted for an evening. And then by the next day, when the Lord hadn't returned, or by New Year's, when the Lord hadn't returned at Y2K, they went straight back to their way of worldly living. It wasn't enough to carry them through life. If we want what it takes to carry us through life, we need Jesus's true love.
And sadly, most Christians don't have what it takes to endure to the end. They either have love or they have fear. They fear God while it looks like His judgments are coming. While the fires come down in LA, they say, the judgment of God is coming, we better shape up. But as soon as the rains come, they say, the fires have died down, we can go back to worldly living. And those who only have love and no fear, they say, God's grace is with me. And look, there's no judgment of God, so His grace is with me. I have love, I have what it takes to endure to the end. But they don't have fear of God, so they don't respect Him. And they also begin to live ungodly because they don't see the judgment that will happen if they don't live righteously. I want to read to you what Jesus said about end times, and I encourage you to read the whole chapter of Matthew chapter 24, but about this servant who fell away once the fear of God was no longer with him. Jesus says, then who is then faithful? And the wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household to give them food in due season. That means, which one of us is living on the food of life and also feeding that food to others when Jesus returns? Who of us will be doing that when Jesus returns? Who will be spreading the true gospel out of fear and love? Then Jesus says, blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. But if that evil servant says in his heart, my master is delaying his coming and begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and an hour when he is not aware of and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. That is pretty severe guys. That is not the grace gospel that we traditionally hear in church. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
So we know about these parables that Jesus taught. We know that he taught about hell. So the question is, do we have what it takes to endure to the very end, the end of the age, the end of our life? And I propose to you, it takes much more than just the grace gospel kind of love. And it takes much more than just a moment of fear of God, because many men fear God, the devil fears God, and the devil's not making it into the kingdom. And you will not make it into the kingdom of God if you just fear him in a moment in time. And too many Christians, they turn to God out of fear. You know, there's a tent revival. And so they hear the preacher speaking about hellfire and brimstone and they go, my goodness, hell is real and demons are going to take me to hell if I don't repent of my sins. So they go down to the altar and they confess their sins and they say, Lord Jesus, I repent, come into my heart.
And the pastor prays over them and he prays over all of these people with this altar call. And then they leave that tent and maybe for a month or maybe for six months, they're on fire for God. But as soon as that experience starts to dwindle down and the things of the world start to arise, those weeds start to choke them out. And their foundation was never on solid rock. It was based just on a moment of fear from a preacher speaking about end times. So you can't endure with Jesus to the end just on a moment of fear.
You have to get past this until you have a genuine love for God. How do you obtain a love for God when you don't have that? A lot of Christians, they're just fearful. They want to escape hell, but they don't have a genuine love for God. They don't have genuine love for their neighbor. And you see this kind of shallow love from Christians when they receive the fear gospel, because then they go on the street and they're preaching, repent, the kingdom of God has come. You all are going to hell. Homosexuals are going to hell. Wicked churches are going to hell. And they love to tell how others are going to hell and how they have escaped hell because of fear. But these sorts of Christians don't have what it takes to endure to the end because they haven't received the spirit of love from the Lord. We know that love is what separates us from the rest. Love separates us from the world. And when they see we have something different, then the world also desires to repent and come into this true love that can carry us along. This love has to be bought from the one who sells, but not from the ones who sell it in the world, but from the one who gives without cost. Jesus laid down his life for you and for me on Calvary.
He died on the cross. We know he resurrected on the third day. He overcame death and he gave us the new covenant, the new testament, which is if we eat his flesh and drink his blood and partake in his new testament, then we will have life.If we have read the gospels and we know the stories about Jesus, but we don't have that love and understanding of who he really is, we need to pray and to ask him to revive us. How can a dead heart beat? How can a heart that has grown cold become hot again? How can you revive that fire? It starts when you pray and ask the Lord to revive that fire in you. Say, Lord Jesus, give me what it takes to overcome.
Revive that fire in my soul so that I will become alive. And if you can pray and ask that prayer out of faith that the Lord would deliver his spirit, deliver on his promise that he would come to you and make his abode in you, then he will speak into your heart and he will start to lead you. But you have to walk by faith in him, not out of just this primitive fear of death. Of course, we have to fear God. Of course, all of us know that we're going to die. All of us are men who have breath in our nostrils. And we know that one day that we will be laid in the earth. And then comes the judgment of God, the final judgment, where we will spend our eternity, heaven or hell. And we have to fear that God has the power and authority to send us to hell or to allow us into heaven. We have to respect that and also fear that, of course. But that is not enough to lead us forward into everlasting life, because the devil is very good at making you feel like you're safe and secure. You're good enough how you are.
You don't really need to fear God anymore because everything is now at peace. Even when the world isn't at turmoil, even before COVID happened, people were thinking everything is fine. And then as soon as COVID struck, then people went into a panic. We need to remember how this cycle of life works, how we become fearful and then we go back to complacency. And remember that that fear does not carry us along. And remember how in the end times, how it says in Revelation that all these judgments of God, all these terrible things will happen on the earth, and still the people do not repent and turn from their evil ways. They don't come to the light of the truth. So we need the love of Jesus. We need to pray and say, “Lord, mold us to your image. Give us a new heart. Renew our mind. Let our conscience be right before you. Speak to us so that we can hear your voice and be led along by your love, your righteousness, and your purity.” And if we receive the true things, the true food from God, then we will have the nourishment and the strength it takes to endure to the very end of our life. And I want to read to you now about this parable of the wise and the foolish virgins, because the foolish did not have what it took to get to the end. They had some form of spirituality because they had some form of a candle or a flashlight, so to speak, but they didn't have what it took to endure to the very end. Jesus said, then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, see, this is a big thing. A lot of Christians believe Jesus is going to come right back and rapture them.
But after there is no rapture, after the return of the Lord is delayed, they all slumber and slept. And at midnight, a cry was heard. Behold, the bridegroom is coming.Go out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying, No, least there should not be enough for us and you, but go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves. This parable is a bit of a mystery, guys, because you can't buy salvation like Simon the sorcerer. But in the scriptures, it does say about the gospel, go to the one who sells without cost. So the true gospel you get from you get from Jesus Christ without buying it from some pastor. You can't buy salvation like that sorcerer, but you can go to Jesus on your knees and pray to him for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and oil in your lamp. But also this parable could be interpreted to go to those who sell like Simon the sorcerer. It could be Christians telling you, go to your church. If you think your church is going to save you and the pastor is going to save you, go back to those ministries. Go back to those that you've went to all along. All along, you haven't come to the one who gives without cost. You haven't come to Jesus all along. All along, you have went to your church. You've went to your Bible. You've went to your Bible studies. You've went to your elders and your leadership. Why don't you go back to them now if that's what saves you? And I think a lot of people are going to wake up when more of these pestilences like COVID-19 hit the earth. When more of these disasters hit the earth, they're going to realize, man, my church can't offer the hope of salvation. My Bible can't save me. My pastor can't give me life. And they're going to go and they're going to try to trim their candles and they're going to find that they have no oil in their lamp. The oil that they thought was in their lamp ran totally dry because it wasn't genuine faith. It was only faith in their Bible study, only faith in their church, in their groups, but they never had true oil to sustain them from the Holy Spirit. And they will be terrified because they will know they don't have the truth. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding and the door was shut.
Afterward, the other virgins came also saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. These guys were too late. They didn't have fear and love. Maybe they feared God. But as soon as the Lord delayed his coming, that fear diminished. Their hearts became black. They began to eat and drink with drunkards. They began to look at pornography. They began to cheat on their wives. They didn't stand for the truth. They weren't preaching the gospel. They weren't separate from the world. They let evil creep into their life and they became just like the rest of the world. And then when the Lord's return was imminent, right around the corner, they had no more opportunity to get right with God. They couldn't get their candles back to light. They had no more opportunity to find their way to the door. The door was shut in their face. I hope that this will not be you, but this will be many Christians, not 50% of Christians. Most Christians will be too late. They will not be able to enter into the household of faith because they trusted in the things of the world. They trusted in things that were created. They trusted in the creation of the church, the creation of the Bible, the creations of their own mind that thought saved them. And Jesus said regarding the scriptures, these are they which testify of me, yet you're unwilling to come to me to have life. And way too many people have a false kind of faith or only faith that leads them as long as they see fearful things happening in the earth. But what you need to sustain you to the very end is the love of the Lord Jesus. You need his love in your heart. If you have not received his love today, you need to receive his love. You need to pray and say, “Lord Jesus, please baptize me in your Holy Spirit.Let me receive your love with joy. Restore my heart that my heart may not be full of sin and blackness, full of greed and the temptations of the world, but purge me and purify me and let your love come into my heart. Consume me with your love. Let me have that oil that fills me that I may have light to endure to the very end.”
So I want to pray for those of you that want to have this love, not just fear, but fear working with love that you can also follow the Lord to the very end of the age, because we don't know when he's going to come. None of us know if he's coming in the morning or at night, but we have to stay awake. We have to continue to watch and pray. “Lord Jesus, I pray for my fellow brothers and sisters that they will be filled with the love of the Lord and they would be vigilant to eat your flesh and drink your blood and be in communion with you, partaking in the new covenant. We pray that you would be filling our hearts and our minds, that our minds would be renewed in you, that we would have renewed strength, not that comes from people, but that comes from heaven, that we would have the wings as the eagle to fly with you.So I pray for people to come out of dead religion, to come out of lust, to come out of all the desires of the flesh, all the parasites of sin, that they would be made clean and that they would be able to follow you in purity, that you would fill them with the love of your Holy Spirit and that they would love you with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength and love their neighbor as themselves, such as that it would lead them to testify of your goodness, that more people would repent and come into the true body of Christ. In your name I pray, Lord Jesus, Amen.”
If the main reason you come to God is out of fear of end times and His judgment, then you are likely to fall Away. As the Lord's return is delayed, you will begin to say to yourself, "Why did I fear God?" And you will go back to living a sinful life, not fearful of the Lord's return and His judgment any longer. But if at the core of what compels you is true LOVE for Him, then you will have what it takes to endure to the VERY end.
