Praises from Men Vs. God
Well,
praise Jesus today everyone. Either we live for the praise of God, or we live
for the praise of men. And the praises of men will come to an end. They will
leave us feeling very empty and void. At the end of our life, it will come to
nothing if we've lived for the pleasure of men. A lot of people, they go to the
rodeo to win a belt-buckle and all they have is a belt-buckle and they don't
even need them. Or they went to the Olympics and they got gold, silver, or
bronze and that medal sits on the shelf covered in dust. They ran a race, they
played soccer, they got a trophy, and that trophy is eventually forgotten
about, sits in the attic. All the praise of men becomes worthless in the end.
It becomes vanity, it becomes something that temporarily puffs us up, but in
the end doesn't help us in regards to life. The only thing that will matter are
the things that we did for God, things that we did in Jesus Christ. Everything
else is like chaff that will be burnt up.
I want
to read to you what is written in John chapter 12. I'm starting in verse 37:
37But
though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him:
38That
the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who
hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?
39Therefore
they could not believe, because that Esaias said again,
40He
hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see
with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I
should heal them.
41These
things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him.
42Nevertheless
among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees
they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue:
43For
they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
This is
the same problem we have today guys. You know there are men that are living for
the praise of men, but there are also men and women, Christians in particular,
that the sort of way they are living for men is in fear. They don't think they
fear men, they believe and confess with their mouth in Jesus, they confess the
Bible, they confess they believe in God, but at the end of the day, they fear
what people think, they fear their pastor's opinion, they fear being thrown out
of church. If they were to stand up for Jesus and confess that Jesus is true,
that hell is real, that demons will take you to hell, that sin leads to hell,
they would be ostracized, they would be cut off from the churches because
Christians love sin these days. They love their apostasy, they love rotting,
and if you stand up for the truth and you just point out the obvious, you'll be
in big trouble.
We need
more men and women who will stand up for the truth of God, not just people's
opinions, not just stand up to do Bible study. You know for years, Christians
have thought that if they just became more biblical, they would become more
godly, and this is proven to be false. The Pharisees thought this as well, they
thought that they were more biblical than the disciples; the disciples were not
educated; if we just get those disciples and that Jesus educated, we wouldn't
have this guy going around preaching this nonsense. And the people that feared
the Pharisees put themselves under the authority of the Pharisees, so that they
could learn like them, they could understand the scripture like them, and those
people didn't hear the truth of God, they didn't want to hear Jesus, the Savior
of the world. That's also why Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, he was fearful.
He feared the Pharisees, what they thought, what they would do to him. And I
don't know if he was more fearful of his physical health, or if he was just
fearful of his contemporaries, people saying, “Oh, Nicodemus, now you believe
in this Jesus too? Get out of here!”
But
today, the sort of persecution that most Christians will face is not immediate
beheading or hanging, or their family being killed or crucified, but what they
fear is being ostracized, thrown out by their friends, their family, their
church, being disowned by people that they want respect from. And at the end of
the day, most people fear men, and what men will do to them, rather than they
fear God and what He can do to us in hell.
If we disobey God, if we don't call on Him for
our salvation, then our whole bodies can be thrown into hell. After our
physical body dies, our spiritual body can be thrown into everlasting hell,
where the worm does not die, is what Jesus said, and where the fire is not
quenched. So we need to fear God, who is able to destroy both body and soul in
everlasting hell. Who do we fear today? Do we fear the pastors? Do we fear
being biblically correct? Do we fear what men think, that we are educated enough
and that we know the scriptures enough to make good-sounding arguments? Or do
we fear God? Are we making sure that we're in right relationship with Jesus
every day, that we're confessing the sin that we need to confess, that we're
repenting of what we need to repent from, and that we're living on the straight
and narrow path?
I want
to pray for you if you're a Christian today that is in sin, maybe you don't
have the fear of God in you, but you need it. I want to pray for you that you
can walk the straight and narrow path, come out from the demonized world, and
be set free to follow Jesus Christ. “So Lord Jesus, I pray for your true
church. I pray for the true body of Christ that wants to live holy and pure and
be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. I pray that you purge people,
that you purify them from sin, that you call them out of sin, and that chains
are broken in your name and people are set free from their demons and their sin
and addiction. I pray that we can walk in the newness of life with you, Lord,
and not listen to the accusations of Satan, that we will not fear men, what
they can physically do to us, or what they can do to us socially, or whatever
the case may be, but we pray that we fear you and we trust you, Lord, and walk
with you until the very end. I pray this in your name, Lord Jesus, for your
church and for all of those who want to believe in your name. In your name I
pray, Lord Jesus, amen.”
I was going to end this video here, guys, but
I see a comment there at the bottom. Len? You say, I want to know what you
think about the true church going to a funeral in a Catholic church. The reason
why I want to answer that question is because this actually happened to me
personally. I was invited to a Catholic funeral and because I knew the people
personally, I decided to go. I went there a couple years back, maybe three
years ago, something like that. It was pretty interesting because I wouldn't
otherwise have went. I wouldn't have gone to this funeral unless I was invited
and actually when I got there, they went through, you know, they go through
that Catholic prayer, the rosary and their Hail Marys, and during that time I
had to walk out. It's like a seance, guys. The Catholic church is so apostate,
the churches are so against God. When they went into their little seance of
their Hail Marys, I took my family and I walked out of the funeral and we
played on the playground outside. And after they were done with it and ready to
share about personal things about the person's life that passed away, my family
and I came back in and we listened to people's, their personal testimonies
about this man and how good he was and everything. And I didn't think I was
going to get to speak too much at this Catholic funeral, but near the end, one
of the people, well, the person in the family, the spouse of the one who died
asked me to come forward and give my testimony and any word that I had in
regards to Jesus. So I got up in front of the crowd and was able to share my
personal testimony and how I had talked to this guy about Jesus before he died.
And I got to just share the truth about Jesus. And I had everyone's ear in the
audience. And afterwards, I had quite a few people talking to me. I had a few
people upset, telling me basically not to talk about Jesus or against false
religion.
It
ruffled some people's feathers, but for the glory of Jesus. And there were a
few people that were very encouraged, you know, younger people that were in the
crowd that were seeking for the truth. And it was a blessing. So if the Lord
leads you to go to a funeral, whether it's Catholic or Baptist or whatever it
is, go to that funeral. Jesus would go to funerals. He would go to different
events. That doesn't mean people would approve of Him there. And that doesn't
mean that He would approve of them. But He would go out of the love of His heart.
So if Jesus calls you to go somewhere and you know that it's really of Him,
then He will be with you. He will let your light shine for Him there. So take
encouragement in that. We can't let little things like that condemn us. There
are some people that are easily condemned. But if we're with Jesus and He has
us go somewhere, then go there with the boldness of Christ and just stand for
Him, stand for His truth. Otherwise, if the Lord hasn't called you, then don't
get wrapped up with people that are going to deceive you or try to pull you
back into church or deceive your family.
I stay
away from church and religion. It can be kind of this force that tries to pull
you and your family back in. They will try to make you feel guilty. And Satan
has every single one of his members trying to convince you and your family to
come back. But if you know that it's a calling of the Lord for you to go and to
do something at church to witness against them, to speak truth, then go with
the power of the Holy Spirit. But the Lord has to lead you. He's the one that
leads us whether we're leaving or whether we're going to preach somewhere or
whatever we're doing has to be done in the Lord. So thank you for that
question. All right, well, keep praising Jesus. Stay close with Him. I got to
go today, guys, but be filled with the Holy Spirit and continue to endure with
Him this year.
