Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
Lord, praise you, Lord. Praise you, Lord. We worship you today. Lord, truly help us to lay it all down at your feet. Help us lay down every sin, every distraction, every hurt, every offense, every pain, every trouble, anything, Lord, that would pull us away from you, from your word, from the truth, from your presence, Lord, we ask you to help us lay it all down. Lord, you want us to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. You want us to seek you for a greater anointing, greater power. Lord, you want us to truly continue to die to the flesh, to resist the flesh, and the devils and the demons, and just the worldliness that tries to creep into the church and our lives as Christians. You want us to lay it all down, and to just be completely devoted to you, on fire, Holy Ghost filled people. I pray this for all of us. I pray that this for those watching and listening, those who will watch and listen. Pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Um Baby, if you would, I might need my Bible. I got I got most of the scriptures on the PowerPoint this morning, but uh I may need it. You never know. Um want to welcome everyone here to Fire and Grace Church this morning. Uh those who were able to make it, and those watching and listening. Uh we know you're out there all over the place. Um do have a message to share with you this morning and I can honestly say I can honestly say that uh I know that it's from the Lord even though I'm going to revisit uh a message that I preached all the way back at our first Bible prophecy conference back in 2012. Um, some of you may have heard that, some of you may not have. But of course I've mentioned some of these truths as we're going to get into a little bit of the 10 virgins issue this morning, but I really there's there's a new little twist I want to get in here and that's uh what I've entitled this this morning, The Price of the Anointing uh and the foolish virgins. The price of the anointing. Can I just say at the outset of this that uh not every Christian's anointed by the Holy Spirit. Now you're going to think there are people out there who think that that's just absolute heresy and blasphemy right there. Oh, but wait a minute Pastor Dean, if
I'm born again I have the Holy Spirit. Oh, you have the Holy Spirit for salvation. Yeah, you may be saved now whether you make it into the kingdom of heaven or not, that's a different story. We're going to talk about that today, too. But the anointing is something different. The anointing of the Holy Spirit, I'm going to give you a definition that I feel is biblical and I'll prove this out as we get into this message today. But this is what I wrote and for some reason this slide just would not work this morning, but I have it here in my computer. I wrote said, "The anointing is the active power of the Holy Spirit upon and working through a born-again believer in Jesus Christ. The anointing can be increased, decreased, and even completely lost. And Satan hates the anointing of the Holy Spirit because he used to have it, but he lost it. I'll show you that verse in just a second. I'm going to add this, too. And dead lukewarm Christianity hates the anointing of the Holy Spirit because it exposes their emptiness. It exposes their facade. And according to Jesus, if we if we just look at the parable of the 10 virgins, he said five were wise and five were foolish. I'm going to get into what that all that means, but think about that. That's a declaration that half the church has lost the anointing or doesn't have it all together. And we're going to talk about that, but let's look at this verse real quick here. Uh this passage here. Hopefully, there we go. This is Ezekiel 28. And this is talking about uh Lucifer before he fell. And I just wanted you to see the devil once had the anointing and the power of the Holy Spirit upon him. Because God created him with built-in tabrets and pipes. I believe there were three archangels that God created, Michael, Gabriel, and his original name Satan's original name was Halal or Haylel, that's probably better way to pronounce it, which means praise, by the way. And we know from this passage in Ezekiel that he was built with tabrets and pipes in him. So, he was, I believe, the archangel and the leader of worship and music in heaven. Michael is the leader of the host of heaven. He's the warrior. And Gabriel, the messenger. Um and it's interesting that I I believe that because remember it says 1/3 of the angels rebelled and went with Lucifer, probably the 1/3 that were under his authority uh in heaven. And let me just say this, if heaven can lose 1/3 of the angels, then guess what?
So does the church. At times. But let's read this. This is Ezekiel 28 speaking of Halael who became Lucifer, Satan, the devil, the dragon, the serpent. He says, "Thou has been in Eden, the garden of God, and every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, the topaz, the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, the carbuncle and gold. The workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou was created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth. And I have set thee so. Thou was upon the holy mountain of God. Thou has walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou was perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created till or until iniquity was found in thee." So Satan he Here the Lord says, "You were the anointed cherub that covereth. You You had built-in tabrets and pipes. You were perfect in wisdom and beauty until until the day that iniquity, sin, rebellion was found in him." And so Satan lost the anointing that he had. I'm going to tell you right now, you can have the anointing of the Holy Spirit and you can lose the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And most of the church world does not have it. They have a big show, but they don't have the anointing. And that's what we're going to look at today. Let's Let's Let's move on. We got a lot of scriptures to cover. Let's look at Acts 10 36 through 42. This makes an interesting statement. And let me just say the anointing of the Holy Spirit is for destroying the works of the devil. It's for destroying sin in your life. It's for destroying sickness and disease. It's for destroying demonic oppression and possession. The anointing is to get something done. The anointing of the Holy Spirit, He will lead you into all truth. If you're not being led into all truth, do you have the anointing? Probably not. But here, this is just a a great passage. Peter preaching here. Says the word which God sent it to the children of Israel preaching peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. That word I say you know which was published throughout all Judaea began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil. For God was with him.
Now, wait a minute. Is Jesus not or was he not God manifested in the flesh? Absolutely. Never was he anything less than that. But when he came here to do his ministry, he chose to do his ministry as a man. Just a man anointed. Why did he do it that way? Why did he choose to do it that way? Because he was being an example for us. That's why he said, we'll see the verse in a the works that he did, he said, we shall do also. He wants us to be like him. Well, let me tell you what Jesus was like. Jesus spoke the truth, no matter who liked it or no matter who didn't like it. In fact, most of the time, he upset the entire religious establishment. The anointing will speak the truth that hurts your feelings. The anointing will upset the demons that you listen to, that you let oppress you or possess you. The anointing will upset your life if it is not right because the Holy Spirit is in the business of breaking that oppression of Satan and the works of Satan off of you and the lies of Satan off you to get you into the place you need to be. And let me just say this, the church of Jesus Christ, more than anything else, the Christians in this world, we need the anointing and the power of the Holy Spirit more than anything else or we are nothing more than a social club with a motivational speaker CEO leading us. And I don't care if I offend the entire lot of them. The fact is, if they're up there talking about how to deal with stress at work instead of dealing with the problems in the church, which is sin, sickness, and demons, and they're not calling people to repentance, then it a useless operation. And that is the fact. It is It really we have the wise virgins and we have the foolish virgins. We have the wise church, the anointed church that has the oil and the anointing of the Holy Spirit and we have churches that do not. That is a fact and it's not hard to figure out which one's which if you read the Bible. If you read it's particularly the New
Testament, it's not hard to figure it out. Yet, so many Christians walk around thinking this Joel Osteen mega church Christianity is anointed. It's not. You say well, Pastor Dean, now some of these churches people get saved. Let me tell you why that happens. Let me tell you why that happens. If they dare speak the basic gospel message, somehow, some way the gospel itself has power. I have heard stories of drunk people in drunk tanks, you know, arrested with other drunks as one drunk, a backsliding Christian, starts preaching the gospel while they're, you know, in between throwing up from their drunkenness and people get saved. Because the gospel, the basic gospel message of Jesus Christ has power. But does that mean a church is anointed? Does that mean a church has the power of the Holy Spirit? Does that mean after you get saved, or you might by accident or in spite of them get saved in what church like that, that they won't kill you with the doctrines of men and false doctrines after you get saved? I got saved in a Southern Baptist Church right down the road here. Had we stayed in that Baptist Church, they would have killed me with their false doctrines of once saved, always saved, and we don't believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit or the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or casting out demons or anything else. So, they had the basic gospel message. But, what people want to do now is, "Oh, well, they preached the gospel message and somebody got saved." They must be good. We must just tolerate the rest of their heresies and false doctrines and traditions of men and dangerous theology. Will somebody please stop this madness? It's not just getting saved. Jesus said we must continue in his word and be his disciples. We must endure till the end to be saved. But, Pastor Dean, it's by grace through faith, not of works. Be careful twisting that one out of it. No, you can't earn it. But, you sure can lose it. I've used the example many times. The Garden of Eden. Did Adam and Eve
earn being created new, brand new creatures? No, they were sinless, new creatures in perfect relationship with God in a perfect place in a perfect environment. They only had one commandment to to about. Just one. And they chose to disobey that one. And the first lie Satan, which is the lie that is in most churches today, what would say God said don't eat of that tree over there, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the day you eat that tree, you will die. Don't Don't eat it. Satan comes along and says, "You know what? You can eat it and you won't die." The churches now say, "Hey, you don't have to obey God. You don't have to repent. You don't have to worry about sin. You're once saved, always saved. You're eternally secure, no matter what you do." Was that God's message to Adam and Eve? No, you're going to die. What does death mean? You're going to be separated from me. Cuz they didn't die physically, did they? So he was talking about something else. Some other kind of death, it's called spiritual death. Spiritual death is when you are separated from God. Now God quickly in the garden when Adam and Eve came out and he said, "What have you done?" And they came out and they confessed their sin, he finally said, "You know what? Yeah, we ate the tree." It says that God clothed them with coats of skin, meaning God himself killed an animal. I believe he clothed them with the wet the blood wet skins. And he was teaching them a lesson sin has something has to die. And really they should have died, but God went and killed that animal in their place and clothed them with the coats of the skins to shed that blood to show something's going to have to die for your sins. Something's going to have to shed blood for you. And that was the beginning of the gospel message. But see, we got a lot of people out there that they don't even believe they're supposed to they have to repent anymore. We'll deal with that more in a second. Let's keep going here. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil. A church that has the anointing, a Christian that has the anointing, you're going to be going forth doing something. You're going to be preaching the truth, no matter who likes it and no matter who doesn't, and people are going to get healed. People are going to get delivered. The oppression of the enemy is going to be broken cuz that's what we're supposed to be doing.
Jesus here. Let's read that We're going to go through Luke 4. I want you to see this right here. Because this scenario, this whole scenario of Jesus is the same scenario we face. Especially if you ever do get the anointing of the Holy Spirit on you. I'm going to talk about how you how you do that here shortly. But let's read this. Luke 4 13 through 15 here. Jesus, when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season and Jesus returned in the power of the spirit into Galilee and there went out a fame of him throughout all the region round about and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. Uh you know, ain't it how nice they put that there? It wasn't exactly Well, maybe he was glorified at all of all, meaning they spoke of what he was doing, but he wasn't loved of all. Cuz they wanted to kill him in Nazareth. But let's keep going here. So, Jesus came back in the power There's another way to say the anointing of the Holy Spirit on your life is the power of the Spirit. Look if if I'm going to just say this, if if the power of the Holy Spirit is running low in your life, it's time to make some changes. Let's keep going. Let's keep reading this. So it says he, speaking of Jesus, came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." Now let me say this real quick. Do you see when Jesus stood up and said, "The Holy Spirit, God has anointed me to do something, to preach the gospel." What gospel did he preach? Repent and believe. He didn't just say believe, he said repent and believe that I am he, that I am the one. If you don't believe that I am the one, you will die in your sins. He said, "The Spirit had anointed him to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives." The church doesn't preach deliverance to the captives. Nor do they do the next thing, to set at liberty anybody and them that are bruised. Or the recovering of sight to the blind. The lukewarm church, Jesus said it in John 3, I mean in in Revelation 3, he He to church, he said "You're blind, and
you don't even know it." This is the state of things. So, he says the anointing, can I say this, the anointing is to preach and teach and to set the captives free. To set people in liberty who are bound up from their sins, from their demons, from their sicknesses. This is what it means to be anointed of the Holy Spirit. It means something is different about you. It means the words that come out of your mouth, the message, the gospel, the word of God that comes out of your mouth has power behind it and causes something to happen in the lives of the hearers. Let me tell you, if you're really preaching the gospel, if you're really preaching the word of God, the first thing that should happen in people's lives is the conviction of sin. It should cause absolute misery. You think preachers today want to cause misery in the lives of their congregations and visitors? No. They want to make everybody feel good. Happy. The gospel will first completely disturb you. True preaching and teaching of the word of God, if you are lukewarm Christian living in sin, you will be in the most disturbed, uncomfortable position you've ever been in. If you get in a service or you start listening to a preacher who is is pointing out what's really going on in your life. That is the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will make you miserable in sin, lukewarmness, and worldliness. Because the Holy Spirit is not because he wants to destroy you, it's cuz he wants to change you. He wants to get you out of that. You know, I tell people, you know, John Wesley, the great John Wesley, you say all the time, you can never convince someone they need the cure for the disease of sin until you convince them that they have the disease. Cuz everybody thinks they're good. And yet the Bible says, there's none good, no, not one. Well, I'm not as bad as the next guy. Right? I'm not that bad. This is what most of And this is what Christians believe.
You know, what did Paul say of himself? Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Look what he says here. It goes on to say, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And so, Jesus closed the book and gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. Now, why would they fastened on him? Many times Jesus had gotten up to read as his custom was. Why this time different? Cuz this time he came in there with the after the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He came in there after a season of fasting and prayer. He came in there with the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit on him. So, when he got up and he read the scriptures, something was different than all the other times he'd done it since he was a child. And then they said, "Look." He said and then he added this to it. See, he he really hurt him when he said, "This day this scripture is fulfilled in your ears." And all bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. Why were they gracious? What's the word gracious there mean? It means they were anointed. They were powerful. They were different. But see, here's what happens to to the foolish virgins. Do you know what happens to them? They recognize when the anointing's on somebody, but then they immediately revert to the flesh. And they said, "Is not this this Joseph's son?" They talked themselves out of understanding God's doing something here. So many Christians just do the same thing. I Years ago, I mean, I'll give you an example. Years ago, we had a lady in when I pastored church in Montgomery, we had a lady and I've shared this before, but this lady, faithful, came to our church regularly. Her daughter, grown daughter, in her 20s, did not come. So, I think she visited maybe once or twice. Anyway, she got pregnant, the daughter did, and she was about 6 months pregnant and got word, you know, went to doctor, they couldn't find a heartbeat, went through all the tests and all the ultrasounds and all this stuff, and the docs finally said, "Baby's dead. We need to remove the baby from the dead baby from your womb." I'm not joking. This is So, so, so this girl, her mother calls me telling all this, crying her eyes out. I said, "Well, it was Wednesday night. I said, you tell her to come to prayer meeting Wednesday night." And to just believe that that there's nothing impossible
with Jesus. So, the mother brings her daughter, her grown daughter, to prayer meeting that night. She's crying her eyeballs out. And so, I remember specifically, we prayed for her. And these are the words we pray. We said, "Lord, you said the works that you did we shall do also, and even greater works than these. Jesus, you raised the dead. So, we pray for this baby in this womb to be raised from the dead in the name of Jesus." And we said to this baby, "Arise. Live in Jesus' name." That was on Wednesday. By Sunday, I get a phone call. She's gone back to the doctor, and the baby is fine. Heartbeat is there. The doctors are like, "Well, I guess we made a mistake." But you know what's amazing? That that young lady that had her baby brought back to life by the power of the Holy Spirit, and a church that believed in the power of the Holy Spirit, and had the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and had the faith, never came back to church again. And soon thereafter, her mother left over some stupid frivolous thing. Go figure. This is what I'm talking about. Is this not Joseph's son? Can I just tell you this, and I'm going to speak honestly? If you ever find a believer, a pastor, a minister, a fellow Christian, that has the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit on them, you better recognize that that didn't come by accident, nor did it come easy, nor did it come cheap. There was a price paid to have that. God doesn't just blindfold himself and drop it out of the sky. No, he anoints people that are hungry, thirsty, that seek him, and I'm going to show you, that love him, that obey him. Not perfect people, but people that hunger and thirst for him and want to obey him and want to walk in faith and want to step out of the boat. People that have been through hell because the demons hate anybody pursuing God for his glory and his anointing and his power to work in them and then through them. This does not come cheap, nor does it come easy. It comes with a lot of pain and a lot of suffering. So, if you see a church or a Christian or a pastor or a minister or an evangelist or somebody and the anointing and power of God's flowing through them and people are getting saved, people are falling down weeping, the lukewarm and the and the backsliding Christians are weeping their eyes out and and and coming to repentance and you see people getting healed and you see people getting delivered from demons, let me tell you
something, that person, that evangelist, that pastor, that church, that Christian has paid a price to have that anointing on their lives. But so many Christians say, "Oh, no big deal." Good luck with that. Good luck. I I I I don't understand. But what I was going to say, I don't understand the schizophrenia that is within the the spiritual schizophrenia that's within people that call themselves Christians. But, it's there. Or I should say bipolar Christians. They'll just flip on no matter what. No matter what miracle's been done. No matter what anointing is there. Boy, we've seen that. We've seen that. We've been doing this church what, 10 years now? Almost 11. Ooh, boy. They'll flip on you quick. Now, let's keep reading. Let's look at Jesus. Now, remember Jesus came in there anointed, power of the Holy Spirit upon him, right? And he's just speaking to what he's just reading the Bible and they're just like, "Wow. What is this? Something's different about this guy. Wait a minute. Is this not Joseph's son? He's been doing this since he was a little boy. What is going on?" But, Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life, and the anointed Messiah and prophet here didn't stop there, did he? No, he went right for the dagger, right for the juggler. And he said unto them, "You will surely say unto me this proverb, physician, heal thyself. And whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, uh do also here in thy country." And he said, "Verily, I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country, but I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias or Elijah when the heaven was shut up 3 years and 6 months when great famine was throughout all the land, but unto none of them was Elijah sent save to Sarepta, the city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them were cleansed saving Naaman the Syrian." Now, Jesus spoke exactly what the word of God said about Elijah and Elisha. He just pointed out something that they'd overlooked. That there were many lepers in Israel, but God only healed a Gentile. That there were many widows in Israel, but God only sent Elijah to a Gentile woman. Jesus spoke the truth. The anointing was on him. The spirit of
wisdom and revelation, and he speaks this word to them, the last word that a proud, spiritually proud Jew wants to hear. God was moving and he bypassed you, the Jews, and went to the Gentiles. Now, instead of humbling themselves and saying, "Yes, that's what the word of God says. I pray, Lord, that it doesn't happen to us." It says, "They All they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath." Everybody in church got mad at the preacher that morning and rose up and thrust him out of the city and led him to the brow of the hill where upon the city was built that they might cast him down headlong. They were going to kill him. Boy, we went from a shift there, them wondering at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth, to "We must kill him now." Even though he has spoken the truth of the word of God to us, he just spoke the truth that we didn't want to hear. Let me tell you, the truth that you don't want to hear comes from the anointing and leading of the Holy Spirit cuz he knows you need to hear it. It's the truth you don't want to hear. It's the truth you need. Because God's always going to do that to break down your false belief systems, your pride, your self- your self- trusting self-righteousness. And only the Holy Spirit can do that. But he's going to use somebody to speak into your life. You know that person that irritates you cuz they always expose what's really going on? They always cut through all the junk and get right to the heart of the matter? See, that's the truth you need, but they you you'll either humble yourself and receive it or you hate them, get angry and hate them, and want to kill them. Trust me. The greatest persecutors coming to Christians will not be the Muslims. It's going to be the foolish virgins cuz we wouldn't give them our oil. Let's keep reading this. This is just too good. It says, "But he passing through the midst of them went his way." And he came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and he taught them on
the Sabbath days, and they were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was what? With power. To me, this is all that matters. I have prayed and sought God for this for years that my word would not just be the enticing words of man's wisdom, but that they would be anointed and empowered by the Holy Spirit to make people miserable until they repent. Until they get out of lukewarm Christianity. Until they quit being satisfied with lukewarm watered-down Christianity. Powerless Christianity. The The The greatest enemy of the church is being satisfied with less than what we are supposed to have. But they were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with power. And in the synagogue there was a man which said which had a spirit of an unclean devil and cried out with a loud voice saying, "Let us alone. What have you to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the holy one of God." And Jesus rebuked him saying, "Hold thy peace and come out of him." And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him and hurt him not. And they were all amazed and spake among themselves, saying, "What a word is this? For with authority and power, he he commandeth the unclean spirits and they come out." And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about. Now, think about this. Here is a sign of the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit on Jesus. Demons begin to cry out and serve it. People get delivered from this demon. This is unheard of in 99.99% of churches in the Western world. What does that tell you? This should happening. At Skyfall, some of you didn't see. But when that when Saturday night when we had the deliverance service, there was a woman who came forward, and I know she won't mind me sharing this, but her name was Tamara, and and the day before, well, 2 days before at the picnic, she had shared with me how she had grown up in a multi-generational Mormon family in Utah. I mean, serious generation. And Mormonism is based I mean, Joseph Smith was into divination. He had his Jupiter stone. He was He was so advanced in his occult arts and ability that when he joined the Freemasons, they
automatically made him a 33rd degree Freemason. And that's why Freemason symbols are all over Mormon temples. Mormonism is demonic from the get-go. But they're convinced that, you know, and this precious lady, you know, grew up in it, convinced it was the church. But you know what began to get her attention that something was wrong in their church, in the Mormon church? She said, "No one got healed. They claimed to be the the church of Jesus Christ." But she said, "I never saw anybody get healed. I never saw the gift of tongues, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I never saw anybody delivered from demons. I never saw a miracle. If we're the real church, where is the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit?" And this began her quest to find out. And then she said, "This led me to listen into you, Pastor Dean." And she said, "That's when I finally understood the gospel message and got saved." She's crying at the picnic telling me this. But on Saturday night of the deliverance service, she came forward and was sit right in the middle of that whole crowd down there. And she's on the floor on her knees and I start praying over her and binding the demons of divination and witchcraft and freemasonry and Mormonism and boy the demons start coming out of her. She's coughing her guts up, crying out stuff is leaving her. She's getting free. That's church, folks. That's church. You will not see that at the Highlands or First Baptist or First Methodist. You will not ever see it. Why? Because that's the church of America. Oh, but we got fun things for the kids to do on Wednesday night. Yeah, I know. Load them up on candy and let them play demonic video games in the church. Yeah, that's revival. I'm going to tell you something else. Youth groups are demonic, really. Where is Show me in this book right here. Every church must form a youth group. Where is that?
Now, let's let's take an immature young person and make them a youth pastor over a bunch of immature young people. See how that works out. Let me tell you how it works out. Fornication, drugs. I could spend a while on the youth groups. They're of the devil. Oh, yeah. But, see, in America, you say that right now, that's that's like blasphemy to them. Yet, it's not in here. It's a tradition. Say, "Well, okay. Maybe it's harmless. Maybe it's been good in some churches, but it's a tradition of men. It's not a doctrine of the New Testament church to have a youth group." Or children's ministry. You know what the children's ministry is? I'm sitting right here learning to hear the pastor talk. And let me tell you, our children for the last year the children that have been in this church, understand, you know what? We have to respect the pastor, too. And we have to be in church like the adults, too. We don't get to go out and have a special thing because those adults don't know what they're talking about. See, that's the attitude a lot of youth groups is, "Oh, we get to have our own thing cuz the adults don't really understand us." We've all been stupid hormonal teenagers, so don't think we don't understand you or your generation. There's nothing new under the sun. You're driven by your selfish desires and the lust of the flesh. We understand it perfectly. And it's in overdrive. And you need to sit by your parents in church and behave. I mean, I was in church at that little Baptist church down here in in fifth and sixth grade, and what are we doing? Passing notes and talking about dirty stuff in church. Every one of us need to be sitting by our parents, need to be slapped upside the head. I know I know churches that have had I know churches that have had youth, male and female, sleepovers in the church. And let me tell you, kids were slipping off, if you know what I mean, pairing up and slipping off. For those of you in the north, that means hooking up. That First Methodist in Opelika, when I was growing up here in junior high and high school, every Friday night had a dance.
Secular music dance in the church, and we went there to pick up the girls drunk and high every Friday night after the football game. At the First Methodist Church here in town. And that was in the 1980s. Ouch. Oh. Yeah, that's what you call a foolish virgin church right there. Sorry, no anointing, no power, no truth, no morality, no standards, no fear of God, no holiness, no righteousness. But it's church. And the kids are having fun. While we crank AC/DC in the church, Highway to Hell. I'm not joking. And the guy that was doing it still around here right now. I better stop before I say what I really think. Um John here. Let me tell you, there's a problem. If you have a problem with me naming what these churches do around here, what they believe, what they preach, you got a problem with that? I don't care. Colorado Springs, you guys from Colorado Springs? Oh boy, that church, New Life. New Life Church, Ted Haggard. Lot of you don't know, Mr. Ted Haggard was busted in a homosexual affair, doing drugs with a homosexual prostitute, which he denied, which he finally had to admit. But you do a little research into that church and you start finding out they had a pedophile on staff. The church tried to cover up for his pedophile behavior, then helped him leave the country and avoid prosecution. Guess who was the youth pastor at that church during that time period? Chris Hodges, the pastor of Highlands. Just wait till I go through that in detail. I'm waiting for something. There's one thing I'm waiting on. Oh, Pastor Dean. Oh, yeah. They already hate me. So, I'm just going to dump it on a little heavier. See, you know what it is? The truth. Bunch of effeminate preachers with spirits of homosexuality on them.
And you start doing a little research, you find out where they got it. I ain't ashamed to be a man. John 14, Jesus said this, "Believe me that I am I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very works' sake. Believe me for the work's Believe me Why is he saying believe me for the work's sake? What works was he doing? Casting out demons, healing the sick, working miracles, preaching the truth that they didn't want to hear, that made them want to kill him. "Believe me for the work's sake." He said, "Verily, verily, truly, truly I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do because I go to my Father." What works did Jesus do? The first thing he did was preach the truth of God's word. He pointed out sin, hypocrisy, false religion, blind religious leaders. He exposed it all. And he also healed the sick and cast out demons and did miracles. That's what the church of Jesus Christ is supposed to be doing, the works he did. Plain and simple. And if we're not, or if we're falling short, it's time for us to get in the place of prayer, or repent of our unbelief, repent of our laziness, repent of our slackness, repent of our lukewarmness, our worldliness, our wasting of time. And let's cry out to God until he baptizes us with a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit, until the power of God's working through us, and somebody's getting saved, and somebody's getting healed, and somebody's getting delivered from demons, and miracles are happening. True miracles. Not the counterfeit Kundalini nonsense of Bethel or any of these other charismatic churches that have gotten far off base because they've opened the door with all kind of Eastern mysticism. I'm not going to throw out the true gifts and power of the Holy Spirit because some Pentecostal and charismatic churches have gotten into the false and the counterfeit. The moment we do, we become powerless, empty shells. You know, I remember years ago when when Jehovah Witnesses Jehovah Witnesses come to my door. You know what I would do to them? They got a screwed-up translation of the Bible they use called the New World Translation or something like that. Now, they've recently changed it. I guess cuz you know, they might have done it because of me. I don't know. Cuz so many Jehovah Witnesses would come to my door with their screwed-up
translation, but they forgot to take out Mark 16:15-20. This verse right here, I think I think I put it right here. Yes. Where Jesus said, "Go you into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name, they shall cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents. And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. And they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." So, then the Lord, after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up in heaven, set on the right hand of God, and they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, confirming the word with signs following. Listen, this is what we prayed for at Skyfall, that God would confirm his word with signs following. I have testimonies of people being healed of blood clots, people repenting and being delivered from homosexuality, people healed of arthritis. This is Christianity. Jesus said it here. But see, the the the Jehovah Witnesses would come to the door and I'd say, "Hold Take your Bible out. I won't even use mine." Take your Bible out and turn to Mark 16. And read that for me right there. Just 15 You read it to me. They'd read it to me. You know, they'd always have They'd always have a you know, a more seasoned Jehovah Witness with a less a lesser one. You know, cuz they're training them, right? And it would always shake the lesser one. It was hilarious to watch. They'd start looking at the other one like, "You see this?" I'd ask him I'd always say They'd read this to me. These signs should follow them that believe. In my name they cast out demons. Lay hands on the sick, speak with new tongues. I said, "Does this happen in your church?" It's all I'd ask them. "Does this these things Do these things happen in your life in your church? Have you ever seen one of them happen?" Well, I knew that they didn't cuz the Holy Spirit's not in that church. Cuz it's a false church. It's a heretical church. It's a false doctrine church. I knew the Holy Spirit's not there cuz he's the spirit of truth. They said, "No." I said, "Well, it happens in mine, so I'm good." And then I start telling them stories and testimonies. I said, "You're in a And then I tell them, you're in a false religion. Your religion denies Jesus who he is. He's God in the flesh. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He still heals. He still delivers people from demons. He still baptizes people in the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in another tongue. This is what he does, and this is what we're supposed
to do, and this is what we're supposed to have as Christians, as a church. I mean, I know for some of you in here today, you're you're Pentecostal Charismatics, not Charis-maniacs, Charismatics. And this may be old news to you, but it's not to a lot of people who watch and listen to us. Any church out there that denies these things is denying biblical Christianity. I'm sorry, this service is going to be a little long today. Now, Jesus said he was he was anointed. Bible says Jesus was anointed. He said we're supposed to do these things. Paul stated Let's all let's read this. Paul stated this about himself and his his ministry team. Romans 15:18-20 said, "For we He said, "For I will dare to speak of those things which Christ hath I will not, I'm sorry. Dare to speak of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed through mighty signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit, so that from Jerusalem to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ." Won't everybody just leave that up for a second? I want you to just listen to this verse. Paul said, "I'm not going to talk about things that God has not done through me." But I'm going to talk about what God has done through me to make the Gentiles obedient. And he says, "Through what? Mighty signs and wonders." By the power of God. By the power of the spirit of God. And he says, "That is what it means to fully preach the gospel." Somebody ought to say amen right there. Amen or oh me. How do we have entire denominations of Christianity and seminaries and Bible schools and colleges that tell you that God does not heal or do miracles or no one gets baptized in the Holy Spirit and speaks in tongues anymore? To the point they will say those things are of the devil. Christians will say Let me tell you what that is. That is a foolish virgin who has no oil. Pasadena, they're going to kill you. Bring it. Old foolish virgin.
Let's keep going. First Corinthians 2:3-5. What did Paul say here to them? This should be your prayer. This should be your desire. He said, "I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling." Let me tell you many times I don't feel adequate to be a pastor. I don't feel strong enough. I don't feel like it. I know what Paul's talking about about standing up to speak in weakness and fear and much trembling. But he says, "My speech and my preaching was not with the enticing words of man's wisdom, but in the demonstration of the spirit and of power." Why? So that your faith will not stand in the wisdom of men and their crafty little sermonettes for Christianettes. Your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. I don't want your faith in me because I can craft some some witty little sermon. I can do a series at the movies. This is the craftiness you see, enticing craftiness of men, because they are devoid of the power of the Holy Ghost. And some of these pastors bring in they manage to entice in some real Christians, and some real Christians come in and they have their small groups and they ride on their coattails. Believe me, I know. Cuz I had them do it to me when I was a young Christian, on fire, casting demons out of people, healing the sick, seeing miracles, because I'd been fasting and praying for weeks on end and weeks on end and weeks on end. And then a pastor who's dead, foolish virgin, said, "Come on in to our church." Cuz see, he didn't have it. But I came in, deaf lady gets healed, young people start getting saved, but he's riding on my coattails. And the Lord told me, "Leave." That's what they do. That's how some of most of these churches survive because they've duped enough real Christians to live off of their coattails. But the leadership has nothing. They're just empty. Cuz they would offend too many people if they preached this to from the pulpit. Oh, me. Got quiet in here for a minute. I will not get through all this today, I don't think. Can you imagine? I want to read this from the Apostle Paul here. Second Corinthians 1 16 through 23. He's talking about his
ministry team. See, cuz I'll get you oh, Pastor Dean, he's prideful. He's prideful. He's arrogant. He's talking about Oh, I hear it all the time. But it's the same It's You know what? We might get to it. We might be able to get to it. I don't know. But King David, you know, when when Samuel anointed him, and it said the spirit of God came on him and left Saul. And David's father sent him to with some supplies and some stuff for his sons at the battle. And he went to the battle and he saw the He heard the Goliath mocking the armies of God and them just cowering in fear. And David said, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. What will be given to the man that kills this guy?" And his brothers come out and "We know the pride that's in your heart. What are you doing here?" And David just I love David's response. "What have I now done? Is there not a cause? Is there not a reason? Are you guys going to say You know why his brothers accused him of pride? Because they were sitting there in fear of the giant and he didn't have it. You know why he didn't have fear? Because he knew the spirit of God was upon him. And he said, "You know what? In the name of the Lord, I will defeat this giant." And people call that pride. No, it's not pride when you know that you're anointed. How did David know he was anointed? Because he had been spending time in the wilderness alone with God and he had had the anointing come on him help him kill a bear and a lion with his bare hands to protect his sheep. He knew God was with him and there's nothing wrong with that. I know God is with me and upon me and in me. I know that I am anointed of the Holy Ghost AND I DON'T CARE IF THAT OFFENDS YOU. I want you to be. I want you, you, you, everybody to be. But it's up to you. Look what he says here. And he And to pass by he said, "We're going to pass by you into Macedonia." Paul's writing to the Corinthians. And to come again out of Macedonia unto you and of you to be brought on my way toward Judea. When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness? I love this about Paul. You do I use lightness? Am I a weak tiptoe-er through the tulips to not upset you? No. He said, "Are the things that I purpose do I purpose according to the flesh? He says that with me should be yay and yay and nay and nay. See, he says, "But as God as God is true, our word toward you was not yay and nay. Inconsistent foolishness.
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me, Sylvanus, and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. For all the promises of God in him are yea and amen unto the glory of God by us. Then Paul says this, "Now he which establishes us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God." Paul just finds that, "You know what? My team's anointed." Me and my boys, uh God has anointed us. And we will not use likeness. When Paul said, "Though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge." I'm not going to tiptoe around your little feelings. If you're lukewarm, you need to know you're lukewarm. If you're not going to make it to heaven, you need to know that. These churches out here aren't going to tell you that though, cuz they're going to tell you you prayed when you were 9 years old, so you're eternally secure no matter how you're living in your adultery and homosexuality and pornography and fornication and drunkenness and all the sins the Bible says if you practice you will not inherit the kingdom of God, but you don't know the Bible cuz they don't teach you the Bible. They don't tell you that. No, they tell you the doctrines of men. The most damnable demonic doctrine of hell is once saved always saved, no matter how you live. It's put more people in hell. It is a doctrine from Augustine to Calvin down through Calvinism. It is demonic, satanic, not biblical. If you believe once saved always saved, you are deceived. See? Make the poor baby cry. Let's look at the the virgins. We got to I got to hurry. The parable of the 10 virgins. Now, we're going to let the Bible interpret the Bible on this. We don't We don't make up our own interpretation. The Bible interprets the Bible. It's going to tell us parable. He's given us illustrations that illustrate that also have truth, spiritual truth. So, we let the Bible interpret the Bible. So, let's read this. Matthew 25:1, "Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto 10 virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were wise and five were foolish. And they that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them." This is so strong. To me, this is the most terrifying parable Jesus told. For Christians. So, the they that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight, the very end, where we are, there was a cry made. "Behold, the bridegroom cometh. Go ye out to meet him." Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, "Give us your oil for our lamps are gone out." But the wise answered saying, "Not so, lest there not be enough for us and you, but go you rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves." And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came and they that were ready, they that were ready, they that were ready, went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered, Verily I say to you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh. Now, let's break it down. What are the virgins? What do the virgins represent? Here we go. Paul's speaking to Christians, 2 Corinthians, not to the lost, not to the unsaved. The book of Corinthians is a letter to the church, to a Holy Ghost filled church at that. Who had all the gifts of the Spirit in it, operating in it. And he says here, Would to God that you could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me, for I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. He says, But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which you have not received, or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him. For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles, but though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge, but we have been thoroughly made manifest among you in all things. So, Paul says to the Christians, to the church of Corinth, My job is to prevent to present you as a chaste virgin to Jesus Christ when he comes. Now, if we were all sinners, we were all heathens, we were all wicked, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. How do we become a virgin, spiritually speaking? How do we become clean, pure, holy, virtuous again? We have to be saved. You have to have been born again, washed in the blood of Jesus. That's the only way you become a spiritual virgin and part of the bride of Christ or the church.
And he's saying that my job is to get you from the beginning of your faith to the end still as a chaste virgin to Jesus Christ. I don't want you to be deceived. He says, "I fear those Satan may deceive you." Just like he did Eve. What did he do to Eve? He got He deceived Eve to sin, thinking she could get away with it. Thinking it was no big deal. So, the virgins, let me say this. All the virgins, the 10 virgins were Christians. This has not This parable has nothing to do with the lost. This is the church. The born-again believers. The family of God. Let's keep going. What are the lamps? Well, we let the Bible interpret the Bible. Psalm 119 verses 104 through 106 says, "Through thy precepts," God's word, his commandments, his revelation in the scriptures, "Through thy precepts I get understanding. Therefore, I hate every false way." Not I want to try to compromise and hang out with them. I hate every false way. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." The word of God is the lamp, the Bible. The lamp. Is that what it says? Let's look at another passage here real quick. The anointing. First John 2:26-28, these things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which you have received in him abideth in you, you need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you all things and is truth, it is no lie, even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in him. And now, little children, abide in him that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. So here he's talking about the anointing teaches you. The anointing, Jesus said the Holy Spirit is going to what? Teach you and guide you into all truth. People, a lot of people try to misuse this verse and say, "I don't need any any man to teach me." No, what he's saying there is, if you have the anointing of the Holy Spirit in you, you will recognize the anointing when he's teaching you, whether it be directly in your prayer time or through somebody else. You will recognize when it is the anointing and the Holy Spirit speaking through someone else or speaking directly to you. You'll be able to know. But he's saying this anointing is concerning those who seduce you. But the anointing is the Holy Spirit.
So the oil in this story is what? In this parable. So let's break it down. The bridegroom, that's obvious, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the bridegroom. The church is the bride. He's breaking it down, the 10 virgins. That's the bride, that's the church. Virgin is born-again believer in Jesus Christ, made new and clean by salvation. The oil, the anointing power and moving of the Holy Spirit, also also as the spirit of truth. The lamps, the word of God or the Bible. Everybody see this? It's simple. So, let's look at it the story again now. So, the kingdom of heaven, not the kingdom of hell or the kingdom of the world, but the kingdom of heaven. Shall be likened unto 10 virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. So, we got 10 virgins, 10 Christians, 10 born-again Christians. They take their lamps, the Bible, and they're saying, "We're going to meet Jesus." Sounds like Christians, doesn't it? Sounds like it to me. He says, "And five of them were wise, and five were foolish." Uh-oh. We got a division in the house. You got wise ones and foolish ones. Oh, boy. Well, the house shouldn't be divided. Well, it is. Why? Some choose to be wise virgins and some choose to be foolish. There's but the wise took oil Well, let me I will let me back up. I mean verse three. And they that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them. Oh, boy. Can I preach for a minute? What's the lamp? Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. So, the five foolish took their lamps. They took the Bible. THEY GOT THE BIBLE. THEY GOT THE BIBLE. THAT'S ALL WE NEED THE BIBLE, RIGHT? That's all we need. No, I'm sorry. You better have some oil with the Bible. You better have the author of the Bible with the Bible. The Holy Spirit. Because this tells us right here it is possible as a Christian, as a virgin, to take your Bible and to run to Sunday school and not have the Holy Spirit. To not have any oil. There's a lot of Christians running around with no oil. They got their Bibles. They got their church. They got their motivational speaker pastor. They hear a sermon. But there's no oil. There's no spirit of truth. There's no
conviction of sin. The Holy Spirit Jesus said in John 16, the Holy Spirit will come to convict you of sin, righteousness, and judgment to come. Let me tell you something if the Holy Spirit's working, you're going to be convicted of sin. You're going to can be convicted of what is righteousness, and you're going to be convicted that there's a judgment day, and there's a eternal damnation. There's a real place called hell. You're going to be convicted about those things. Churches that don't speak of these things do not have oil. THEY HAVE A BIBLE, ALL RIGHT, but they have no oil. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. So the wise understood that I got to have my Bible, and I got to have the power and the anointing and the fire of the Holy Spirit in me and upon me more than anything else. I don't want to just have my Bible and not have him. This is what happens to the church. Now, listen to this. The wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. What I love about this, you know what that means? There was oil in the lamp and there was extra. They understood, we don't need a little bit, we need a lot. There's a lot of Christians trying to get by on a little bit. Can I tell you something else? There's a lot of Christians trying to live off of other people's. You can't live off of what I have. You better get your own. That's why it says here, the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. At midnight there was a cry made, behold the bridegroom cometh, go you out to meet him. Listen, this is talking about the state of the church right before the second coming of Jesus Christ, RIGHT WHERE WE ARE RIGHT NOW. Then all those virgins, this is what's scary here. All those virgins arose. Think about this. The cry that we're in the last days has awakened the entire church.
Think about that. You can go down the street to First Methodist, First Baptist, the Highlands, you can have Do you believe, pastor, you can take a survey, do you believe we're living in the last days? Oh, yes. You know why? Cuz the signs are so obvious. The prophecies that have been fulfilled, that are being fulfilled, that are in the process of being fulfilled, are so obvious now. That everyone's awake to the fact that we're living in the last days. If not, they're truly blinded. So, all the virgins, all the true born-again Christians awaken. Yes, it's the last days. Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. How many of you know what trimming the lamps mean? Cuz we're talking about oil lamps here. So, the wick, what happens is and especially if you don't have enough oil, but at all times you still have to trim the wick the wicks will burn sometimes unevenly. And then if they start burning unevenly, then they start producing smoke. Well, maybe we can cut it off. We just shut it. But they trimmed it Think Think about this. That's what what it means. If If the word of God's the lamp, and all of them woke up and all of them trimmed their lamps. That means when you trim the lamp, you're trying to even the wick out so it'll give more light. So, they actually go get their Bibles and actually start studying and maybe a little bit more. See, this is This is what's terrifying. They have their Bibles. They're awake to the fact we're in the last days. They're Christians. They even realize, "Wow, maybe we need to get this lamp out and trim the wick off and look at it a little more." But they become people ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Why? Cuz look what happens here. And the foolish said to the wise, verse 8, "Give us your oil, for our lamps are gone out." Oh my word. The lamps have gone out. What is that talking about? Jesus said this to the church of Ephesus. I don't have this slide, but this is This is Revelation 2. He said this to the church of Ephesus. And he said to this church, he said, "You You You have wonderful things about you. You hate some things I hate. You do You have wonderful works. He said, "But I have somewhat against you because you have left your first
love. He says, "Repent and do your first works, or else I will come unto you quickly and remove your lampstand." People say, "God won't take anything away." Oh, yes, he will. I'm going to take I'm going to take your lampstand. I'm going to take your light away from you. What happens if God takes away your lampstand, your light? Means you won't see. You will walk in darkness. I'm telling you it's already happened to a lot of churches. He's already taken their lamp. They are totally blind, walking in darkness. You want to know how we know? Well, let let let me give you an example of one. Yeah, since we I love to name names. Hillsongs. The lamp's gone. When a pastor when when when when a pastor can cover up the pedophile sins of his pastor father, when he can stand up there and say Allah and the God of the Bible Yahweh is the same God, when he can let a a pastor under him, one of his pastors, associate pastors, and and and and uh satellite church condone homosexuality and all other kinds of sin, the lamp's gone. There's no oil there. I don't care how beautiful their songs may be. There's talented musicians in the world and talented singers. No, it's happened. The most terrifying thing. Give us your oil. Our lamps are going out. And then the wise say, "Nope. Can't do it. I can't give you my relationship with God. There's no way for me to do that cuz it's mine. I can't cut it off. I can't hack it up. It's mine developed over many years and much time. You have to have your own. Here's the sad thing. Here's the most terrifying thing in this story. They tell them to go buy. You know, I call this the the price of the anointing. What he's saying is you got to pay the price to have your own relationship with God, faith, anointing, power. It takes time and prayer. It takes time fasting. It takes time working through and dealing with
with besetting sins and getting victory. It doesn't happen overnight. And the problem is is that these people, a lot of them, are running out of time. They will not have time to develop that relationship with God. Yet some of them are going to try. And wait a minute, Pastor Dean. God's so loving and merciful and forgiving. They're trying to go get the truth. They're trying to go get the Holy Spirit. They're trying to go get the oil. And yet it says while they went to buy the bridegroom came and shut the door. People Some people will say, "Well, they just missed the rapture." What did What did they came back knocking? What did the Lord say? He didn't say, "Oh, you missed the rapture. You can get the next train." You know, that these people got three and five and six raptures and all this nonsense. No, there the rapture's at the very end. Not before the tribulation, not before the Antichrist, at the end. But when they came knocking again the Lord said, "I know you not." So, wait a minute now. So, he didn't know them. No, he knew them. The Lord knows everyone. And he knew they were virgins. And he knew they had their lamps. And he knew He knew the whole thing. What is he saying here? You didn't have a relationship with me. You didn't develop a relationship with me. You didn't care about that. You cared about everything else. So, guess what? In a spiritual sense, in a relationship sense, I don't know you. You ain't getting in. And good old-fashioned Alabamian. And then he says, "Watch therefore, for you know not what hour or neither the day nor the hour when the Son of Man cometh." This is terrifying. See, the five fully and completely thought they were going to make it. They were in the church, had their Bibles, trimmed their Bibles. I'm saved. I was born again when I was nine. Don't let this be you. Hey, Pastor Dean. You mean I It's more You mean walking with God is more than saying a prayer when I was nine years old and signing
the Baptist card or being baptized? Yeah, sure do. That's works. Call it whatever you want to. Play your theological monkey gymnastics if you want to. But this is Jesus and he's warning us. You going to be the wise and have the anointing, the oil, plenty of the power and the anointing and the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, allowing him to lead you into truth, allowing him to lead you into repentance, being obedient. You know, I don't know if I have that verse next. Let me skip down to it. Oh, I passed it. Right here. Acts 5. See, you want you want the anointing in your life? You want the Holy Spirit in your life? Let me give you the key to it. Obey. You can't be a rebel. Obey the written word and obey the leading of the Holy Spirit or you will dry up in the desert. The rebellious dwell in a dry land, the psalmist said. Right here. Acts 5:27-33. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest asked them saying, "Did we not strictly command you that you should not teach in this name? And behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us." Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, "We ought to obey God rather than men." What if they all said it at the same time? The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things and so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him. Ouch. And when they heard that, they were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them. Peter says, "You know what? We saw. We are witnesses of his crucifixion and his resurrection of the righteous prince, the Messiah, THE ONE PROPHESIED. WE SAW HIM. We know him. You killed him." And we are witnesses of these things and so is the Holy Ghost who God gives to them that obey him, meaning you don't have the Holy Ghost and we do. You want to upset the religious, lukewarm, dead, spiritual leaders and establishment in Christianity, just tell them you don't have the Holy Spirit.
You think you do. They thought they did. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the leaders of They thought they had it locked down. We know the scriptures, you don't. God's on our side, not yours. Let me tell you. Were they casting out demons? Nope. Were they healing the sick? Nope. Did they even Were they even able to recognize the Messiah that they thought they knew about from the scriptures? Nope. They hated him and murdered him. And if Jesus walked into our local mega church and preached what he preached in the New Testament, they would run him out the door, they would call the police, they would have him arrested. I'm a little fired up today. I guess I need to quit. You're a foolish virgin. If you don't have the Holy Spirit in your life. If you deny and reject the baptism of Holy Spirit, the gift of tongues, yes, if you deny it, you're a foolish virgin. If you teach against it, you say it's of the devil, you're a foolish virgin. Let me tell you this. And I You know what? I hope y'all just let me Let me finish. We won't get to David and Saul. I'll give you that. But let me show you this. You want the Holy Spirit to obey him, right? Let me tell you here's the other thing. You want the Holy Spirit in your life, you better hate wickedness, hate sin, and love righteousness. Speaking of Jesus, he says, "Thou has loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore, God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." You you you you got to if you want to have the anointing, you you going to hate sin and wickedness and evil. You're going to hate false doctrines. False doctrine is evil. See, people wonder why I get all fired up about once saved, always saved. Cuz it leads people to hell. There's no you don't you don't make peace with heretical Christianity. That's pure weakness. You don't tolerate it. See, people think I'm I'm I'm harsh because I simply will not tolerate this nonsense that masquerades as Christianity. Matthew 26, you want the anointing? You better be a person who will spend time in prayer. Right here.
Jesus went to prayer. "Oh, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass or be nevertheless not my will, but thy will." He come find it unto his disciples, find it them asleep, and said, "What could you not watch with me 1 hour? Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." This happened in the Garden of Gethsemane. You know what Gethsemane means? Olive press. It's literally the place where the oil is made. That is the place of prayer. Jesus is telling her, "You better watch and pray. The flesh is weak. If you're not people of prayer, your flesh will be attacked. You will be weak. You will not have enough of the oil, the anointing of the Holy Spirit in your life. If you're not a person who what? First obeys, loves righteousness and hates evil and wickedness, and a person who spends time with God, private time. You let your prayer life suffer, you will start the anointing of the Holy Spirit will start decreasing in your life. Here's another one, worship. I got to do this. This is why I said I got to do this. But Elisha was there with the kings. And said, "As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee. But now bring me a minstrel, a musician." And it came to pass when the minstrel played that the hand of the Lord came upon him. That's the anointing came upon. So, true worship, true worship music, anointed worship music can help you. But notice this. Here, Jesus said what? "You worship." He told the woman of Samaria, "You worship you know not what. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now we is when true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." Let me tell you something. These churches that worship, worship, worship, but there's no truth, it's not worship. True worship is in spirit and truth. Hillsong's has great worship music. No truth. Goodbye. God is a spirit they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. Now, let me show you something right here. This will be the last scripture, I promise. I'm quitting after this. Jesus said this Matthew 15:7-12, "You hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you saying, 'This people draw nigh to me with their mouth, they honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.'" These are foolish virgins. They talk about Jesus. They got the lamps. Why is their heart He says, "They talk about me, they honor me with their lips,
their heart's far from me." Cuz their heart has idols and sin. Lukewarmness, worldliness, empty Christianity is their idol. They love it. And then he adds this, "But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." If a church teaches the doctrines and commandments of men in place of God's word, their worship is vain. You know what vain means? Worth nothing. Empty. So, let me just go on and tell you. I know. I know I'm See, I just cut through all of our little societal pandering, our cultural pandering of what we think is Christianity. If a church is teaching false doctrines like once you're saved, you're always saved no matter how you live your life, no matter what sin you are living in, and they think they're worshipping God. They think they're serving God. No. It's in vain. If they're teaching you, no, there's no signs and wonders, gifts of the Holy Spirit or miracles, let me tell you what, it doesn't matter if that's a family member that teaches you that. See, some people are still married to certain compromises in their lives and don't want to call it like it is because they got a family member who believes this stuff. Can I just say that the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, cuts through all the junk and does not care about your emotional attachments to people. Truth is truth. Well, it's my mother. Well, it's my father. I want to be sure we can play play Scrabble together. So, we better not talk about the elephant in the room. Oh, Pastor Dane, can't they be a Christian even though
they believe this stuff? Yeah, they're Christians, foolish virgins. Wow, they're I I they're watching now. A lot of them are watching. Oh, what we got 15 20 people in here today? Our church is small. We have thousands that watch though. And several thousand of them are just strictly cuz they can't pull themselves away. Even though they just do opposition research. That's all it is. Now, I'm hoping that some of them will be shaken loose from the side of the foolish virgins before it's too late, before there's not enough time. See, that's why I talk straight. You know why do I talk straight? Well, cuz Jesus did and Paul did and Peter did. I just see that that was their example. Because there is no time left for me to tiptoe around your emotions. Or worry about offending you or hurting your feelings. But honestly, it's because I care enough to try to jar you out of the deception and the lies and the emptiness. You know, I was telling some of our ministry school students the other day. I said, "You know what modern Christianity is in America now in the West? It's pretty much a vaccine. It's a vaccine to keep you from getting full-blown Christianity. See, what is a vaccine? A little bit of the disease, a real vaccine, mind you. But it's a little bit of the disease so your immune system will rise up and build an immunity and can you from getting the full-blown disease. Remember the in in Acts Tertullian, the lawyer, when he was accusing Paul, said this man he said Paul was a Christian disease, a plague. He spreads Christianity wherever he goes. And Paul was like, "Yeah, that's right. I give them the full-blown version, too." But the mega-church Christians, the First Baptist Christians, the Methodist Christians, the modern Methodists, John Wesley would roll over in his grave if he saw what was going on in Methodist church now. They would. But this stuff
I know the truth hurts. Pastor Dean, you're so mean. That's why people leave your church. That's fine. Cuz you know what? My desire is to you know you know you know what people it was in the movies. I think it was I can't remember the movie now. You know when people start having a full-blown like panic attack, freaking out, something bad's happening, you know, and they're just freaking out. And the person runs over and grabs a hold of them and slaps their face to smack them out of it. That's me. I'm trying to help you. I know I slapped your face. But I'm trying to save your life. It is what it is. You know, the Bible says this. Says that there would come a day when people would despise those that are good and have a form of godliness, a form of Christianity that would deny the power. We are there. We are there. And there is such hatred if you dare try to preach, teach, and live the real thing. The fruit of the foolish virgins. And let me add this. You cannot live very long with a foot in each one of those worlds. You have to pick. I pick my side till Jesus comes. Let's stand. What you should be asking yourself, where do I What do I want to see in my life? What do I want to see God doing in and through my life in this next year, in the next 2 years, in the next 3 years? And if you look down that road and you say, "You know what? I want to be a Christian that's leading people to Jesus. That's bringing conviction to the prodigals and the backsliders and the lukewarm and they're coming out of that. I want to see miracles. I want to see people healed and delivered from demons in Jesus' name. If that's what you want, then you got to start paying the price now. Cuz God doesn't just drop it on you. You have to go after it. Let's pray. Father, we thank you today. We thank you Lord that your word your word cuts through all of the religion, all of the deception,
all the emotional excuses and weakness of humans and our thinking and demonic thoughts that that the devil brings and ideas and doctrines of men. Your word just cuts through it all. And I pray Lord today that those have been listening to this or those who will hear it. Those here today, Lord, that we will all break down on our knees, humble ourselves, and repent. And get quickly on the side of the wise virgins. Full of the Holy Spirit, plenty of oil, plenty of power, and your presence and your glory and your anointing to set the captives free. In the mighty name of Jesus. We have We just don't have much time left. The bridegroom will return. And for many it's going to be too late. Lord, we pray that they would awaken now and repent. And we pray it in Jesus' name.