Only the FOOLISH Think Works Don't Matter

 

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.

Are You Hearing from God or Just Fooling Yourself?

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. 

Do You Have What it Takes to Endure to the End?

 Do You Have What it Takes to Endure to the End

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.”

Fear or Love?

 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.

Get Alone With Jesus

 Get Alone With Jesus

We’ll praise Jesus today. One important thing in our Christian walk with the Lord Jesus is to make sure that we get alone with Jesus, that we have a prayer life with Him, and that we are separate from the world. This is one concept that the American church at large does not preach because they're always too busy with their church congregation, preaching connectedness. They want you to get plugged into ministry. They want you to be connected to their Bible studies, to their mission trips, to their giving. They want you to give and to tithe to their church. They want you completely connected to their form of Christianity.

But Jesus calls us to come out and to be separate. We are called to touch nothing unclean, and unless we get alone with Jesus, we are bound to the world, and we're bound to end up where the world is going—thinking like the world, not having a changed mind or a changed heart, but thinking exactly like how everyone else thinks. Haven't you noticed that you start to sound like the people you're around? I sound like my mother tongue, the area that I was born in, and the people that I were around. And the people you're around—you'll start to sound like them, for better or for worse.

And so, if you're around people who are sinning and doing things that are evil or living out dead religion and principles of the Bible but without the power of the Holy Spirit, you will start to speak Christianese. You'll start to try to appease the people at church. You'll try to look just like them, have the same lingo. You'll be reading from the same places in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and wherever they're reading in the Bible, you'll be following along with that, and you won't be guided by the Holy Spirit, and that's a big problem.

To follow Jesus for real, to be His disciples, we have to have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us, and we have to be separate from world people. See, the closer you are to people and their sin, the more you will be accepting it. So, for example, if you don't have anyone that is a homosexual in your family, chances are you have no problem as a Christian speaking against homosexuality. But if someone in your close peers or in your close ring of people is homosexual, you'll be a lot more timid to speak out against homosexuality because there's someone keeping you in check and saying, "You can't speak out against homosexuality because it's not really a sin. Think on this side," and they will share all the arguments for homosexuality or the transgender thing.

So, the closer you are to these people, the harder it will be to see from the perspective of God and then to speak out for the things that are true. The more you'll be hushed, the more you will be quiet on the things of the truth. The devil loves it when we are connected with others and think that we're having fellowship with others because it's a way for him to manipulate, control us, and to shut us up. The devil doesn't want anyone speaking out about the truths of Jesus Christ. He would rather everyone be quiet to the truth and just believe in worldly love, acceptance, a sense of morality without receiving the power of the Holy Spirit, and just believe in whatever you want to believe—believe in the god of self.

And the more you're around these sorts of people, the more you will find that you're hushed. You have no power to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus. You won't have any rock to stand on. But likewise, if you're spending time with Jesus, if you're alone with Him, and you are disconnected from the religious crowd, you're disconnected from sinners, then you're able to hear the Holy Spirit. He is able to dwell in you as the temple of God, speak into your mind and into your heart, and then, when you leave and you go out, you're able to proclaim the good news to the world. You're able to preach the gospel from your life, and this is what the Lord Jesus desires.

He desires us to be on fire for Him—not that we would be hiding our light under a bushel, or that our light would be going out, but that we would be letting our light shine for all to see, that people would see the light and that they would come to the light. So, I want to read to you first what it says in Ephesians.

This is Ephesians chapter 5:

"Therefore be imitators of God, dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

But fornicators and all uncleanness or covetous, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor coarse jesting, (which are not fitting), but rather giving of thanks.

For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, or covetous man who is an idolator has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not be partakers with them."

See, the wrath of God is coming on the American church because they continue to sit themselves in the seat of mockers. They refuse to come out and to be separate from dead religion and things that are sinful. They accept all these things, and they say that God loves those things.

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.”

We are not to be the children of the darkness, nor are we to be coming more and more dark. We're to be coming into the light of the truth.

“For the fruit of the Spirit is all goodness, righteousness, and truth, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.

But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore, He says, 'Awake, you who sleep! Arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.'”

And we want that light of the world to be in us. If you have no light, then your whole body is full of darkness. You have no testimony. And the closer you are to people who are living a sinful life, the more your light will diminish. The more your light will turn black. The more your salt will become saltless. And then how can you flavor that salt again? It's good for nothing but to be thrown out onto the dung pile.

“See then that you walk not as fools, but as wise, circumspectly, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.”

I also want you to look with me at what it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 6:

“Oh, Corinthians! We have spoken openly to you; our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. Now in return for the same, I speak as to children—you also be open. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God.”

The temple of the living God is not brick and mortar. It's not the church that sits on the corner downtown. But the true temple of God is you, if you are willing to receive the Holy Spirit and come out and be separate from worldliness.

“As God has said, ‘I will dwell in them and will walk in them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’ Therefore, come out from among them(—which is false believers—)and be separate,’ says the Lord.

‘Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. and I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters’, says the Lord Almighty.”

We need to make sure that we truly come out from dead religion, that we come out from worldliness, so that we don't become like these people who have no relationship with God but who go around playing the Pharisee, preaching the Bible as if the Bible and being biblical will save anyone. These Christians do read the Bible; they get everyone on a reading plan. They can read through the Bible in a year or a few years, but what does it matter that you're like a Pharisee when you don't have the love of Jesus in you and you have the love of the world in you? And you think just like the world and just like all your fellow sinners who know the Bible, who know the scripture, but don't have any genuine relationship with Jesus Christ.

We need to come out and to be separate so we can get alone with Jesus and have a word from God. So I want to encourage you today to come out and to be separate from the world. Come out and be separate from church. Be separate so that you can get alone with Jesus and have revelation from God.

When you die, it's not going to matter that you tithed to a church or that you had a good pastor or that you read the Bible once every year. What's going to matter is if Jesus knew you and if you were pleasing to Him. So the question is: Are you pleasing God because you're separate from ungodliness and that you've made yourself a temple for the Living God? Are you separate, and are you pure before Him?

So I want to pray for those of you that want to be connected to God, that want to receive the Holy Spirit, that want to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, and those of you that want to touch nothing unclean.

“Lord Jesus, I pray for Your church, Your true church, that they would truly come out from religion and become the body of Christ. I pray for those who are listening today that want to see the light, that want to know the truth, and who don't want to be deceived by the things of this world. We know the devil is a liar; it is his native language. So we pray that we are not deceived by Satan, but that we truly come out and are separate, that we touch nothing unclean, and that You will receive us, and that You, Lord Jesus, will become a father to us, and that we will become Your sons and Your daughters, and that You will dwell in us and be walking in us, and that Your Spirit will be breathing life into us. I pray that we will be connected to You, eating Your flesh and drinking Your blood and walking in communion with You. In Your name, I pray, Lord Jesus. Amen.”

We need to have communion with Jesus. This is what Jesus initiated with the Last Supper. He broke bread, He broke that bread, and He said, "This is my body, which is broken for you." It's the bread of the New Covenant. And He broke it and gave that bread to His disciples to eat, which was His body. And then He poured the cup for His disciples, which is the wine of the New Covenant, which represents Jesus's blood. And they all drank from it. And Jesus told them that every time they ate and drank, to do it in remembrance of Him, and that we should always be remembering that Jesus paid the price for us. He atoned for our sins. He died on the cross. He resurrected that we would also partake in the bread and in the wine, that we would drink of His cup and also take up our cross, that we would be broken and then established on the rock of Jesus Christ, that we would be in communion with Him and not in communion with the world.

We need to hear as Jesus hears. We need to see as Jesus sees—not as the world sees, not as the world loves or eats or drinks—but we need our communion with the Living God.

Well, praise Jesus today, everyone. I hope this encourages someone to truly come out and to be separate, not to fall to loneliness. You need to know that Jesus is always with us. He will never leave us. He will never forsake us, even when all the religions become apostate, even when all the falling away happens, which is happening right now. The Christian churches have fallen away from the truth of God. They've gone apostate. They've gone dark. They have no more light of Jesus.

The world is steering more and more away from the truth and into the Antichrist governments. But we, as the children of God, need to be strong in the Lord, shining our light for Him, that all may see and that more people in these end times that we live may come out and be separate and touch nothing that is unclean so that the Lord will receive us.