Edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
Praise God. We worship you. Jesus. Give unto the Lord. Oh you mighty. Oh, the glory to the Lord. The glory to his name in the beauty of his greatness. Lord, we worship you. We worship you and we give you all the glory. We worship you. We worship you and we give you praise for Jesus. The voice of the Lord is above many waters. The God of glory thunder in your voice alone. There is honor and strength dividing the place of my heart. We worship you. We worship you. Heat. Heat. You're holy. Let's tell them. Oh, you're holy, Lord. Lord, break me and pull down and break our man.
Victory today and in Jesus forever. We worship you Lord. We worship you and we give you all the glory. We worship you. We worship you. You're Lord. We worship you Lord. We worship you and we give you all glory. Let's worship the Lord. Amen. Lord, we worship you Lord. We worship you and we give you praise Lord Jesus. Lord, you're holy, Lord. Say that one more time. Holy, holy, Lord. You're holy, holy.
Amen. You're holy, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. Thank you, Father. Yeah. Go ahead. Give the Lord praise. Yeah. Thank you, Jesus. The way, the truth, and the life. And somebody say, "It's good to know the one true God." Amen. Thank you, Lord. Amen. It really is. Hallelujah. Well, you may be seated this morning. We welcome everyone to Fire and Grace Church. Those watching and listening this morning, we welcome y'all. Yes, I said y'all.
That's what we That's the way we say it around here. Um, everybody good? Well, y'all see I got me a little prop I've I've used before this morning to illustrate something. Um, this morning when I was uh praying and I started praying in the spirit, that means praying in tongues. And I just felt the Lord lead me to this particular, I guess you'd say, um, issue. Uh because it seems that we're living in I think we're living in a time I I've never seen us in a time where more people are deceived but a lot of that is self-deception. You know the Bible says this and we can go uh to the book of James and I didn't really plan I think it's James 1. Yeah. 122 or so where it says, "But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only." What? Deceiving yourself. Now, think about that. The devil's working to deceive you. There's all kinds of false prophets and teachers trying to deceive you. You don't need to help them, right? You don't need to help them. But I'm going to explain to you, and this of course should be self-explanatory, but not always. But just remember this. Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. So that means that you should be endeavoring to know the word of God, understand the word of God. so that you can do the word of God. So that you can put it into practice. See, the problem in America, the reason you want to know the reason we don't have revival is because we're content to live without it. But why are well why are we content to live without it? We because we just don't do what the word says to do. If if all Christians in America would do what the word of God says to do, there would be revival. For instance, just like one command Jesus gave, Luke 18, men ought always to pray and not to faint. Imagine if every Christian was praying like God wanted them to pray. We might have a national awakening. But what we have in this country of ours and especially in Europe as well and across the world is we have this self-deception. We got a lot of people that hear here hear here hear here hear here hear here hear here hear here hear here hear here hear here hear here hear here hear here hear here hear here hear here hear here hear here hear
but they don't do and therefore what they do in that process by not doing is they deceive themselves and so now you've got the trifecta the devil the false teachers and you helping And we got these people and and so this is what bugs me. This is what bugs me more than anything else in Christianity is you have people that are blind yet they keep saying I see. That's why I got these up here. Now, what would you think of a blind person who kept insisting that they could see and they wanted to drive you around like Frank and this is Christians. I see. I see. I see. And you're blind. blind and a leader of the blind. And why is that? Because you refuse to rightly divide the word of truth. And let me explain how religious deception takes place. Religious deception takes place when you take a passage and there are other passages that appear to contradict it and you don't reconcile those passages by studying it out and using proper hermeneutics, context, grammar, the definition of words, so on down the line. I am blown away by how many people read one verse and they think, "Okay, I got it. I understand. I know." And they walk around just like this. I see. I see you don't, Pastor Dean. I've been in this five years, but you've been at 40. But I see better than you. I've been studying it for 40 years, but Oh, you've been studying it. Oh. Oh. For about a year, but you got it. Okay. the pride. Put up Obadiah. Yeah, let's do a Obadiah verse. Only one chapter, verse three. Obadiah says to the people, "The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee." Or what is pride? Pride is when you think you are something when you're nothing. You think you know something when you don't know. It's when you walk around blind saying, "I see." Oh, I know a few verses, so I see.
Let me tell you something. The Pharisees absolutely knew the Old Testament, which was the only scriptures they had at the time. They were, as Paul said about the Pharisees, they were the straightest sect of their religion. That means the most straight, direct, truthful. And yet the Messiah walks up. Don't heal people on the Sabbath. Don't open the This man's a sinner. He's a sinner. Don't listen to him. I don't care if he open your eyes that no man's ever done that miracle. Open the eyes of the blind. But don't listen. Even though the Bible said the Messiah would open the eyes of the blind. I see. I see. I'm going to get to that verse in a second. It's what the Pharisees thought. They thought they could see and they were blind. See, let me tell you the difference. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. You know what made him different than all the other Pharisees that never did see who Jesus really was? He went straight to Jesus and asked him questions. He admitted he didn't understand. We know you're a teacher come from God. So because no one can do these miracles you do except God be with him. But what he was saying was but my religious understanding tells me you are a false teacher. you're not the because you heal on the Sabbath or you don't wash your hands, you don't follow the tradition of the elders that and then Jesus explained to him that you must be born again. And then he goes to his natural understanding, how can one enter to his mother's womb a second time? See, he thought he understood things, but he didn't. Well, the only thing good for him was is that he was sitting there listening to Jesus and Jesus straightened him out. But remember what Jesus said even with think about this. This was Jesus, God manifested in the flesh, sinless, perfect lamb of God, the anointed apostle and prophet, pastor, good shepherd and teacher, perfect in every way. And you had people rebuking him and correcting him. I see better than you, Jesus. This is what blows me away. Everything. And the reason I got my books out today, I'm because I'm going to make it. Every one of these, and I actually need to write about three or four more, but I thought about it this morning. I said, every single one of these is to correct
error because somebody wants to take one or two passages and create their theology, their doctrine, their beliefs, their understanding instead of taking all of the scripture on a subject and rightly dividing the word. This one's about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues. The whole church is just about the whole church world screwed up about this. This one's about the doctrine, the false doctrine of once saved, always saved, no matter how you live. Guess what? Those people take verses sound like it's teaching that, but you got a whole mountain of verses that don't. So, you got to reconcile. You got to figure this out. That's why God made me write grace abuse. Then we got creation. Oh, Lord. And I could stay all day on that. Then we got prayer and meditation. What is biblical? What is satanic? I could go on. Deliverance from demons, the pre-trip rapture, the second coming. Now we got these people in the little season. I see. I see. I see. I'm in the little season. I'm a little season. I'm in little season. Shut up, you blind guide. I'm sorry. I didn't preach last week. So, let's read this. I want to go to Matthew 15. I'll come back to my sunglasses and white cane religion poll. Matthew 15:1 Then came Jesus to the scribes and Pharisees which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, Why do you also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, "Honor thy father and mother, and he that cursth father and mother, let him die the death." But ye say, "Whosoever shall say unto his father and mother, it is a gift. By whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus you have made the commandment of God none effect by your tradition." And then he says, 'You hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, This people drawth nigh unto me with their mouth and honorth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. If you wanted a definition of modern Christianity in America and Europe, this is it right here. They draw near to me with their mouth. They honor me with their lips. Jesus, Jesus. But their heart is far from me.
And then he says this, "But in vain." Y'all know what in vain means. In vain do they worship me. Meaning these are people worshiping Jesus. But he said it's in vain that they worship me. teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. You understand that he connects true worship to sound doctrine. Oh, somebody say, "Don't shout me down." Yeah. Y'all y'all at least moaned a little bit out there. So, y'all not Lutheran. Let's keep reading this verse 9. But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. And he called the multitude, and said to them, and understand, not that which goeth into the mount defileth man, but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth the man. Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying? See, the blind leaders of the blind, when you try to tell them the truth, they get offended real quick. Why? They don't have ears to hear. They don't have eyes to see. Yet they say, "I see." Right? And then he says this. He said, "You know, the Pharisees were offended," his disciples said. But he answered and said, "Every plant which my heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Let them alone. They be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Here's the problem. You want to you want to you want to talk about a scary verse right here. When the Lord tells his disciples that actually see to leave you alone, don't try to talk to them anymore. Don't try to convince them. Don't argue with them. They are the blind leading the blind. You do know you you do not want it to be said of you by Jesus. Just leave them alone. See, there's a point where even the Lord will say, "I'm done with this." You have the word of God. You have the prophets.
Let them hear them. Remember the rich man? Oh, but if one goes up from the dead, they'll listen. No, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. What was God saying? They won't listen to the word. They're not going to listen to one that rises from the dead either. Let's go back to this. Go over to second Timothy. I I tell you what, before we go there, go to John 9 real quick. I need to give you this before we John chapter nine. Jesus had just healed the blind man that had been blind from birth. And the Pharisees were losing their minds, right? And because many people were believing that Jesus was the Messiah, right? But I want you to go over to this verse 39. Well, this is after this whole confrontation with the Pharisees and the man himself. And Jesus said this. He said, "For judgment I am come into this world that they which see not might see and that they which see might be made blind." So we're talking about there's a lot of people no one sees. We are all blind before we come to Jesus. We are blind. Satan has blinded the mind. But what the Lord is saying here is the ones that claimed to see. No, they are not. And he says, "And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words and said to him, are we blind also?" And Jesus said unto them, "If you were blind, you should have no sin. But now you say, we see. Therefore your sin remains." See, they were walking around blind saying they could see. And Jesus said, "Your sin remains." But the people that admit, "Lord, I know I don't see what I ought to see. I know I don't understand what I ought to understand." Only humble people, who admit that, can have their eyes truly open to see.
I'm going to tell you why so many over the years, why God has opened my eyes to so much truth from his word. It's simple. I admit it. Lord, I know I don't see everything as I ought to see it. I don't have it all figured out. I have not apprehended. Please teach me. Open my eyes. Help me see what I don't see. And I just marvel at people who are not like that. They are absolutely convinced. They know everything there is to know. Now they will you you say, "Oh, you think you know everything?" Oh, they go, "Oh, no, no, no." But they do. They act like that. They live like that. Just get into a debate with a Calvinist or a Baptist preacher that believes once saved, always saved. or a staunch assembly of God that believes in the pre-trib rapture nonsense or these fools online that can't seem to understand that women can prophesy and teach and preach. I just marvel I marvel at it at the arrogance I see you don't, Pastor Dean. What you doing letting that woman in the pulpit and you got two verses against 20 and you don't know how to reconcile them. You don't know how to rightly divide the word of truth. But I'm the problem. And God said he was going to pour out his spirit on your sons and daughters. And you just can't seem to. It just can't get through your stick, your thick religious skull. You are a Pharisee. Thank you. You see, and probably God's going to bring a woman to give you the truth that you won't listen to. Mhm. might even end up being one of your own daughters or your granddaughter. Just like it was three women that went to the tomb and came back and said, "He is risen." Angels appeared to us said, "Go tell his disciples." And they didn't listen. Three women know.
Christianity didn't make women secondass citizens. Joe, that's Islam. Pharisees said, "We see. Are we blind?" They were so offended because they they were convinced they could see. Go to second Timothy. Now you know in Titus he said this. He said, "A man that is a heretic after the first and second admonition reject knowing he that is subverted." Here's the thing. If you are in error and you're in deception, according to that instruction from the Apostle Paul by the Holy Spirit to Titus, you only got one or one to two to three chances maybe to get it right. I mean, you got corrected twice. You know why? Because God didn't really want his servants wasting his time on people who refuse to hear, refuse to see, refuse to humble themselves and learn. Move on. Here's the charge. I've read it many times. many many many many times over the last almost 40 years now. 2 Timothy 4:1 I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom. Preach the word be instant in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. And then he says this to to Timothy says but watch thou in all things endure afflictions. Who do you think is going to be giving him afflictions? The the Pharisee Christians among them said do the work of an evangelist. make full proof of thy ministry. Now, back up to chapter two. Chapter 2, verse 15. He says this, "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, but shun profane vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will
eat as doth a canker of whom Hymenaeus and Philetus who concerning the truth have aired, saying that the resurrection is passed already." Boy, these are the little seasoned people. It's already happened. and they overthrow the faith of some. But you see, what does he tell him? Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Oh, if I could ever get everyone to understand this. Maybe y'all do. Maybe there's somebody out there that needs to hear this. But the word of God, God has made the word of God a puzzle and the pieces are all scattered on the table for and there's pieces of this over here and over here, over here, over here, right? And there's a lot of people, they pick up a piece and they go, I know what this is. Let me tell you about it. Let me tell you, if you don't have that that picture on the box of what it is, you don't know what it is. But the word of God is this puzzle that's scattered about. And you have to take the pieces that go together and put them together. And you have to do that long enough before you start even getting a partial picture of the truth. I got one verse. I got the truth. No, you don't. See, this is this is what I marveled at. Here I am. I'm a young I'm a young preacher, 19 years old when the Lord called me to preach. All I'm doing is reading and studying the Bible. Lord wouldn't let me go to a church for a year. I know not. I know why now. They would have screwed me up so bad. I'm just reading the Bible. I come back to Alabama, run into one of my old Baptist friends, and I hear this doctrine about once saved, always saved, no matter how you live. What? I knew that didn't go with what I'd been reading. And then of course they started arguing with me, the deacon at First Baptist Church, the pastor at First Baptist Church. I mean, I started getting into these de I'm 19. I'm 20 years old. I'm like, wait, what's going on around here? And the next five years of studying this out, one of the things I realized, if you have one verse over here, it sounds like it's going this way. and a verse over here, it sounds like it's going that way.
You got to figure out why that's going on. And what the key was, you know, I mean, a lot of people like you can put this verse up. Go uh John 6. Oh, let's just turn there. John, let me move all this. I got so much going on up here. I can't John 6. They love quoting this one, right? All right. Verse, oh, I guess we could read from verse 35. Jesus said, "I am the bread of life, and he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you that you also have uh seen me and believe not, and all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me, I will no wise cast out." And that was one of the main verses they would give me that. And I'd say and and and you got to remember in my young mind just learning the Bible and I'm like I know it sounds that way but then you got John 8 that says this John 8 verse let's see we'll go 31. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, "If ye continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." And I was like, "Wait a minute." The Lord would not contradict himself. Say, "If you believe, once you believe, you're in and that's it." and then say if you continue and I remember I'm sitting there going again Lord how how do I reconcile this and I'll never forget I don't know what happened how it happened but I found Nathan eh hands parsing guide to New Testament Greek verbs again. Why? How? Studying. There was no internets at the time, right? Couldn't just Google it. Most y'all would be lost. I actually had to study, go to libraries and things. Buy books, right? Read books. But I found out about the Greek verb tenses that I've taught y'all and I've taught in our school of ministry. But see what happened is once I found out that the present tense Greek verb means ongoing continuous action taking place in the present then this makes sense in John 6 when you go back and you go okay and my Bible now has the Greek verb tense things but let you know and
it says right here he that cometh to me verse 35 shall never hunger present tense Greek verb cometh to me cometh that verb ongoing, continuously, and currently, presently, and keeps on coming. See that verse, somebody that walks with Jesus for a little while and then turns around and walks away, that verse is not for them. Doesn't apply to them. And God made me write this book about that very thing. This whole book's about that. And how important is this? Because this is a salvation issue. This is if you don't continue walking in the truth, walking after Jesus, walking in a relationship with him, walking in obedience, walking in faith, if you choose to give up and go back to the world and live in sin like you lived before and stay there and overcome by it, you're going to hell. You're not making it to heaven. This is how serious this is. But let me just go on and tell you something right now. Every time the devil tells a lie, every time there's a deception, a false teaching, just know this. You say, "Well, it might not be a salvation issue, but I can tell you this much. Every little deception and lie he lays down is to lead you to another one. That's why you can't tolerate. God has not given us the spirit of error, but the spirit of truth. You going to follow one or the other. Can't follow both at the same time either. Y'all got quiet again. Y'all episciples. And look, I know like for instance, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the evidence of speaking in other tongues, that that is the baptism of that is the sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I don't care what you say, it is, right? But here's the thing. Yeah, that's not a salv. You don't have to speak in tongues to go to heaven. But your ability to pray in tongues in the spirit and also pray for interpretation and hear what the Lord is saying to you can help you continue. Can help you sometimes maybe not fall into sin or into error. Might help you lead somebody else to Jesus. Might help you pray for somebody when you have no more English words to speak for them. So, is it important? If it's in the Bible, it's important.
It has a reason. It's there. And I remember the people, the people that want to deny the gift of tongues and prophecy and interpretation of tongues and the gifts of healing and working of miracles and all that, they pull one verse out of first, let's go to it. First Corinthians 13. I had an argument with a pastor in Miami over this. I'll tell you how I silenced him, too. He really had nothing to say after. But they love this. And they'll they, you know, because he says, he starts in verse one, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I have become a sounding brass or tinkling symbol. Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profited me nothing. But then he goes, we go over here and he says, go down to verse eight, he says, "Charity never fails. But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is a part shall be done away. Now that they will take that right there, this is what they say. Well, since we have the Bible and it's perfect, therefore, we have no need for prophecy or tongues. But they forgot something else that's in there. Knowledge. I think that's the one they're without. Do we still need to get the knowledge of God? Yeah. So then, but here's the thing. Context is everything, right? Because you have to keep reading. When it says that which is perfect, does that mean it's the Bible? Does that mean it's the scriptures? Just the scriptures? Is that's what it's saying? No. It doesn't give you any indication in the text that is saying that. So what do we do? We keep reading. When I was a child, he said, "When I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now, we see through a glass darkly. But then, what then is he referring to?" He's going back when that which is perfect. So then, when that happens, he said, "But then face to face." Now I know in part, but then I shall know even as I also am known. Now even the theer's dictionary that they love admits that the word here perfect means that perfect state of things that will be brought into being at the second coming of Jesus Christ has nothing to do with the canon of scripture being completed.
Yet they've created an entire doctrine to deny the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the importance of those in the body of Christ. And this is what happens when you take one passage and you don't take the context, the grammar, the definition of words, you get false teaching. You get people running around like Kermit Frog. I see. I see. I see. No, you don't. Please don't get in a car and drive. Frank. For those of you that don't know, I got to tell this story. I told it to. So Donnie and I go play golf Friday park in a parking lot that has so many open parking places that you know we could have held Skyfall there. I have Donnie I'm in the passenger side of Donniey's car. I have the door open and I'm standing there getting something out from under the seat. So the door is only about this far behind me. Blind Frank pulls in, and I don't hear him. Pulls in, just misses my leg, hits Donniey's door, and the only way I knew it is I started hearing it cracking and popping. Oh. I said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." So, Frank stopped. Thank god he had his window down cuz he heard me and stopped. Or Donniey's door would have been all the way around to the other side. But another six inches or so and I would have had a broken leg. And I'm like, Frank, Frank, dude, it's time to surrender the license, man. You're It's He's like 80 something years old. What are you doing? I can't imagine him actually getting in a golf cart and go and hitting the little white ball. I can't imagine how I wonder if he just swings and thinks he's hitting it like he's having hallucinations or something. Don't drive if you can't see. Huh? How about this? Don't teach what you don't know. Oh, don't try to lead where you won't go. Anybody that's not baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking other tongues has no business even talking about the gifts of tongues. You don't even know what you're talking about. But we got a bunch of people in the pulpit who are not even born again trying to tell people how they should be a Christian. And they don't even know how to define being born again. This is why we're in the mess. We got all these people. I see. I see. I see. No, you don't.
And you're leading you're you're the blind leaders of the blind. And you're leading people into the ditch. And the ditch is hell, y'all. It's that great cavern of fire down in the depths of the earth. That's the ditch you don't want to be in. That's the ditch you better not be found on judgment day having led people into that ditch and think you're not going to be there with them. Go to Revelation 3. Man, it's not even It's not even 11:45. I know. Guess I'm rusty from not preaching a week. Yeah, I had a good substitute. Very good substitute. Revelation 3 verse 14. Everybody ought to know this, but I want to point out something. I've pointed out before, but I'm going point out again. He says, "Unto the church of Laodicea." Somebody say, "Church means Christians." Born again Christians. Paul talked about the church at Laodicea said his heart was heavy for him because he knew where they were headed. He said that in Colossians and he says Jesus says this AD 95 through the apostle John. He says and unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write these things sayaith the amen the faithful and true witness the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would that thou was cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because you say, I am riched and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. You say, I have need of nothing. And this, but this is what Jesus said to these Christians. He said, "Knowest thou not that thou art wretched? You're still sinners, miserable, poor, and blind. Oh, the epitome of the lukewarm Laodicean churches. They say, "I see. I see so much. I have need of nothing." And Jesus though, what Jesus says has to say to them, you are blind.
Because listen, if you were seeing the word of God as you ought to see it, then you would have the fear of God and you would not be a lukewarm Christian. See, I read this about being a lukewarm Christian, and it terrifies me. I cry out to God, "Please don't let me fall into this trap. Don't let me become blind, self-deceived, and lukewarm so that I think I see what I don't see." And these hard heads, boy, you try to tell them. Now, don't you tell me I'm lukewarm. Don't you know my family? I grew up a Christian. I've been in church all my life. I sing in the choir. I've been baptized, sprinkled. I got a choir robe. I sing specials in church. You have to go back a little bit and understand what singing specials are about. I've been around a while. I remember specials. And some special people got up and sang them, too. If they had enough money, it didn't matter what their voice sounded like. Lukewarm, though. I mean, I I think about Christians who spend no time with Jesus, no time studying the word, no time praying. All they do is what the world what they enjoy in the world. And there's nothing wrong with enjoying certain things that aren't sinful. I'm not saying that. But you spend no time with Jesus. You don't even like going to church. And I I'm I'm just like, how many how many are going to end up? And I read this last night. He says they're spit out here. Well, let me read this right here before I go to the He says, "Because you say, I'm rich and increase with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked." Here's what the Lord says. The Lord Jesus, I counsel thee. I mean, I'm telling you, here's You want some counsel? You want some wisdom? You better listen.
Buy of me gold tried in the fire. That means to endure the trials you're going through that thou mayest be rich and white raignment righteousness of the saints. Living righteous that you might be clothed that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And he says and anoint thine eyes with eyes sal that thou me thou mayest see. What is the anointing? It's the Holy Spirit. Seek him. Ask him. to open your eyes to see what you don't see, to show you the real you. Not the religious you, not the Pharisee you, not the lukewarm you, but the real you. And you know what you'll say about yourself if you really see? You'll say, "I'm wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Lord, please help me. I want to see. Holy Spirit, give me eyes to see." And you know what you need to see more than anything? Your own heart. Not somebody else's, yours. You got to get the beam out of your own eye first before you try to help your brother or sister get the speck out of theirs. It's not that you don't try to help them get the speck out of, but get the beam out of yours first. And that can only come by being honest with yourself. I am full of envy. I am full of pride. I am full of lust. I am full of anger. I do have forgiveness issues. I do get offended easily. I need to change. Jesus, help me change. Change my heart, oh God. Renew a right spirit within me. I don't care how long you've been saved, your heart is still deceitful and desperately wicked. It will deceive you, lie to you, make you think you're not like other men. Can you imagine that Pharisee praying, "I thank you, Lord. I'm not like this sinner of his public. I fast. I tithe." Who's he sound like? He sounds like a good Baptist. That's right. They don't fast anymore. No. Um, maybe a Daniel fast.
I'm sorry. They're pastor Dean, you just offensive. Yeah. So is Jesus. See, I'm going to tell you right now, the humble ones when they hear me preach, they don't get offended. The Pharisees do though. You're just too harsh. You shouldn't mock people. You shouldn't call them fools. Everything they telling me I should do, Jesus did. Problem is, you just can't take it because you're a Pharisee. You're a hypocrite. You're a pretender. Pretenders get their feelings hurt. What does it say in Psalm 119? Those who love the word of God are not easily offended. Matter of fact, says nothing will offend them. See, if you love the Bible, oh, but wait a minute. Pastor Dean overlooked me. He didn't pick me for this. You know what? You should be going. Well, that's fine. Ain't no big deal. In fact, I should want to be right here doing nothing until God says for me to do it. But the prideful person will be going, "Ah, why didn't he do that? Doesn't he know I'm not like these others?" Maybe Pastor Dean knows that's what's in your heart. And before honor, there's humility. So sometimes what y'all don't know is when I'm preaching, I do by the Holy Spirit perceive your thoughts. It's a weird thing. Yeah. It's a It's a word of knowledge opera. That's why sometimes I'll say certain things it's directed and you say, "Well, I wonder if that was directed me." Probably was, but not knowingly. All right. as as the old saying goes, right? If the boot fits, right, go ahead and wear it. See, humility. I I can I you know, I know I got a lot of areas I need to grow in that I need God to change in me. I ain't sitting here thinking I got it all together. I don't. My wife, she she if she would say it, she won't say it though because she's a good wife. She would never bring up my faults to any of you because she's a good wife. But I got them and I don't want to have and I want the Lord to change me. I want to be better and I don't want to be prideful.
Now let me tell you something about the ministry too. The ministry can be a big big big pride issue. Be a big envy issue. It be a big resentment issue. I my church ain't as big as their church. What am I doing? And all this stuff. Let me tell you when you're truly free from all that. If you're called to the ministry and you you want to tell you when you're really free from when you don't want to do it and you say, "I'm only going to do this when I have to do it." Right? Cuz I ain't trying to put myself up front. I only want it if God puts me up front. See, I look back. I remember when I was a young minister and I was going to the Brownsville Revival and I thought that was one of the greatest things in the world. Now it wasn't perfect either. It had its issues, but God was moving so powerfully and I'm in my 20s. Steve Hill's in his 40s and John I think was in his Pastor John was in his 50s or 60s. I don't know. Anyway, and I'm just I'm just man, the power of God's moving, coming down. People are coming from all over the world. I'm just like, "Wow, wouldn't this be awesome? Oh man, I'd love to just have a revival." I was pastoring a church in Montgomery, Alabama. Oh, I wanted it. But let me just tell you, I look back now and go, if God gave me what I wanted, then it would have crashed and burned so fast. I wasn't ready for it. I couldn't have handled it. And I thank him that he didn't give that to me because I would have ended up hurting more people. I wasn't in the place to handle it. But see, what's funny is in my 20s I thought I was. That's why I love that that sermon I did a while back on the stages of Christian growth. You got the babe, then you got the children, then you got the young men, and then you got the fathers. And we all go through these stages of growth. And the babe grow is wonderful. Though you're vulnerable, but wonderful because everything's new and woo the milk is good and you're learning so much so fast and it's just wonderful. Then you enter into the children's age and says start figuring out but yet I still struggling with some of these sins and things. And that's you learn about man I got to I got to I got to tighten up. I got to buckle down. I got to It's a fight. It's a war. It's a trials. You get out of the honeymoon stage. Then you have a difficult stage. Then you you come into knowledge of how to fight. It says about the young men said they they know the word overcome Satan. Oh, we learn spiritual warfare and deliverance and we that's the stage where we think we know everything.
Think we can fix every situation because we know how to bind the devil and cast him out. Went through that stage too. Then you come back to the father stage. Guess what the father stage is? Right back to where the children were. Says the same thing there. You can go to first John read and just said they think thank thank God their sins are forgiven. You come back to the place of just realizing I ain't nothing. I ain't no better than anybody else. I need his forgiveness. I need his cleansing. I need my eyes open all the time to stuff I don't see. See, but now at the father stage, you have a little bit of wisdom to know what stage you were in and what stage somebody else is in. It also help you be patient with people because my wife will tell you how many times I said they're just babies. And that's not to insult anybody, but that's just the stage that a person's in or they're just children. Oh, yeah. Or they've reached a young man and say they think they know something now. If they keep following Jesus, they're going to come back to the I don't know anything. And you know what? That's when you can help somebody. That's when you really help somebody. And this is why I I I'll tell you this. I've asked the Lord, you know, I saw a lot more miracles and healings in those early years, the 80s and 90s. And I said, 'Lord, why don't we see as many of those things now as we used to see? And he told me one day, he said, 'You in a different season now. See, Jesus is we we forget this, but it said the the ministry of John the Baptist said John did no miracle, yet he was the greatest of all the prophets. Oh, why do you think that is? Because you, this is the way God looks at it. God looks at it like, I don't want to have to do signs and wonders to make them believe. They should believe no matter what, whether they get the miracle or they don't. The three cities that had he where he did his greatest miracles that said they didn't repent. Bethsaida, Capernaum, Chorazin did his mo most of his miracles and they
didn't repent. Think about that. All kind of people healed, delivered from demons, dead raised, crippled walking, blind seeing, deaf hearing, leprosy healed. I mean, revival in three cities. And yet Jesus had to rebuke them harshly because they didn't repent. What if God called you to the ministry and he never did a miracle for you? What if he called you like Ezekiel and said, "I'm going to send you this people over here and none of them are going to listen to you. But I'm sending you." Yeah. So quit running around claiming to see. You're an embarrassment to yourself. You're not being honest. Think about all of us when we thought we could see. We thought as Christians we understood creation. Where my sunglasses? Oh yes. So, let me tell you about planets and galaxies billions and billions of light years away. Let me tell you about dark energy and dark matter. And that was me. I thought I knew something. The wisdom of this world foolishness with God. God's word is simple. When he said the earth's immovable and fixed, still and at rest. When he said he made sun, moon, and stars, nothing else up there. And the dark clouds, that's it. It's only 12. Y'all getting quiet. I have to laugh, man. I would say something, but I better not see all this space movies and nonsense. But see, again, to the world, we're supposed to appear as fools. Fools for Christ.
They're right, Ken Ham. No, we're going to try to fit their stuff into our stuff so that they will love us and respect us. What you think that is? That's a blind person going, "I see. I see. Don't you know what we see so much? We spent $100 million building an ark in Kentucky and teaching nonsense. Teaching stuff's not in the Bible. But we are a biblical creation. No, you're not. No, you're not. But we got astronauts coming to testify. Oh, that's good. There ain't never been a man to lie in the pulpit. But you know what? I think a lot of them think I see, you know, prior to 15, I thought I understood biblical creation. I didn't at all. Not even a little bit. say, "Pastor Dean, that ain't important. That ain't the issue. Doesn't matter what shape the earth is or the the the cosmology." It doesn't matter. You know, between 2015 and now 2026, I've seen more atheist, agnostics, newagers, new a ancient alien believers come to know Jesus than in all of my previous years combined. So, it does matter. Truth matters. Truth matters. Biblical truth matters. Christians should stand on biblical truth. I don't care. The Bible says there's no such thing as pink elephants and they say the pink elephants are in the sky. The Bible's true. And there's some kind of deception going on. The firmament is real. There's a dome over us. There's no such thing as billions and billions of light years away. There's no such thing. It's it's it's fables. It's fairy tales. It's nonsense. But yet Christians, but the NASA told me. Okay. What did God tell you? What does the Bible tell you? You know, it's going to come down this we're going to stand and I I this will be my last verse because I I did want to go to this 2 Corinthians 5 and it's only five after y'all hung on pretty good.
I tell you what, I broke a sweat preaching today. He says this here. Verse six, therefore we are always confident knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, that means believing God's word from the heart. We walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord because we love Jesus. We'd rather be with him. Wherefore, we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Now let's just stop right there. It says we labor whether we are absent with if we're absent from we labor that whether present or ab we may be accepted of him. Now the word labor there means we put forth the effort. When I stand before God I want to be accepted of him. I want to hear. Well done, good and faithful servant. Watch what I want to hear. He said, we're going to stand there. And it's not about just losing some rewards as the Baptist teach. That's another big doctrinal error. But we are going to give an account what we did in our body. And that's why over and over again, Ephesians, Corinthians, Galatians, don't be deceived. Don't let any man deceive you. Practicing adulterers, whoreongers, fornicators, idolattors, covetous, greedy people. The money is their god. He goes down to witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, sedition, heresies, envying, lying, murders, drunkenness, which I have told you before, as I've also told you in times past that they which do practice habitually such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. You're going to stand before him. What did you do in your body? Did you lead others astray? Were you the blind leader of the blind? Thinking the whole time that you could see
because you deceived yourself and you didn't study to show yourself approved. man, the people that are going to go going to stand in front of Jesus like and he's going to say, "You led people astray." And he's going to say, "Look down at your hands." You're going to open your hands. There's going to be blood all over them. Depart from me, angels, come get this one. Take them out of here. There will be weeping and nashing of teeth. Jesus warned. Can you imagine thinking you're going in and being carried out? It ain't worth it. That's why you better be praying. Help me see what I don't see. You would rather see it now and deal with it now than find out at the judgment seat of Christ. Let's stand. If you kept reading in 2 Corinthians, he talks about being reconciled to God. Matter of fact, it's a command down there. He says, "Be ye reconciled to God." In verse 20, "Be ye reconciled to God." That's not a suggestion. That's commandment. What does that mean? What does reconciliation mean? A husband and wife, maybe one's just been in sin, evil, adultery, selfishness, wickedness. It's destroying the relationship. They're about to end in divorce, but somebody repents for real and it's reconciled. Meaning they both come back into agreement with each other and what is right and what is holy. Being reconciled with to God means you come back. You just come into agreement with the way he looks at things, the way he sees it. Not the way you see it, not the way the Baptists or the Catholics or the episcopal, not the way they see it, the way he sees it. And you say, "God, here here's what's beautiful." He says, "If you do that," when he says this, I'm going to read this verse. He says verse 18, "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled unto us himself by Jesus Christ, having given to us the
ministry of reconciliation, to we that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and he hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christstead, be ye reconciled to God. He says right here, the beautiful thing is this. Meaning, if you'll just come back to him, he doesn't have a list made out. Just going to wipe it away. It says not imputing their trespasses. Meaning he he's not holding all with that you did in the bank account and gonna make you pay up. You just come back into agreement with him the way he thinks. And the word of God is what he thinks about all these different things. And you say, "I'm wrong. You're right. Forgive me. Help me. I repent. Be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ." Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you today and we want nothing else but to be reconciled and to stay reconciled to you through Jesus Christ. our faith in the blood shed on the cross, his resurrection, his righteousness, and that we admit that we don't always see as we ought to see, and we don't know as we ought to know, and we don't have everything figured out, and we don't even see sometimes our own heart and the sins in our heart. So Lord, give us your anointing, the anointing of your Holy Spirit, the eyes, that we may see that we don't end up the blind leaders of the blind that we don't end up Pharisees, Christian Pharisees. Lord, I pray this over this body. I pray this over those watching and listening. And if this message made somebody mad or upset or if any good tells you right where you are, Holy Spirit, I ask you to do your work in their hearts. Bring them to the place they can be reconciled. That they can come back into agreement with what your word says, the truth, and that the truth would set them free. Now we pray this today in Jesus name. And everybody said amen and amen. All right. Give the Lord praise. Hallelujah.
Oh, I don't want to be a lukewarm Christian. While I think I'm not. We all right. Real quick, babe. Did you want to come? Hug some necks before you leave. Then telling y'all bye. We got other announcements to take care of.