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.