Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
eyes are opened that you drew us with accords of of love and mercy that we responded to the offer of salvation through jesus through the cross through the blood he shall that cross through his resurrection that we have not resisted the holy spirit and rebelled god so many hear the gospel and they resist and rebel lord i just thank you for opening eyes and lord we just pray lord god for your kingdom to come and your will to be done in jesus name amen the battle is great but the war in victory has already won stand firm on the promises that i have given you for you are my children and you will not be defeated even though the gross darkness has covered the people the light of the gospel of jesus has covered you and you are victorious in my name stand firm stand firm stand firm and never waver from the truth that i have placed in your hearts you are my children and you are victorious never flee and never fail stand firm jesus jesus name hallelujah hallelujah anybody else feel a word from the lord this morning hallelujah [Music] praise this to the lord hallelujah thank you jesus [Music] thank you jesus hallelujah amen well i want to speak to you this morning a few minutes about something that i'll probably be criticized about but nevertheless it's bible doctrine and bible truth both in the old testament and the new testament and i think it's some things that we need to confront and just some things you need to know you know how we respond to god to his word and to his messengers will determine
everything in our lives i mean granted i know there's a lot of false prophets and false teachers and deceived people in the world who think they are speaking for god or ministers of god or prophets of god or whatever you want to call them pastors evangelists prophets apostles they they're a lot of people claim to speak for god like the pope he claims to speak for god but he's clearly speaking the words of satan okay um he's really come out clear on that here recently right but see god always knew that there were going to be false people he warned about that in the old testament all the way back in deuteronomy when he gave the law to moses that there would be false prophets and god even said what's interesting in deuteronomy even said that he would let there be false prophets among the people to prove his people to test them to see whether they really loved him or not because god wants us to love him enough to stay in the word and stay close to the holy spirit so we discern the true from the false but here's another side of the coin not only is there a danger to be deceived by a false prophet or a false teacher there's also the danger of rejecting a true prophet or a true minister of god when god sends them to you it's a great danger there and this is something that you know you don't hear talked about too much or preached about especially because most of the churches now they don't even accept the ministry of a prophet though ephesians 4 is very clear that the bible says jesus gave some to be apostles some prophets some evangelists some pastors and some teachers for the edifying of the body of christ right till we all come into the unity of faith to the knowledge of the son of god now have we all come to the unity of the faith yet is the church unified no will the church ever be unified until jesus comes no right so what that tells us is that those ministries those five ministries apostles prophets evangelists pastors and teachers that five-fold ministry that would be in effect until jesus comes back okay if that wasn't the case if you know a lot of people argue about the ministry of an apostle but they argue about that saying well there was only the 12 well really well paul was number 13 right and then we have other people named in the bible actually there's there's about 22 or 23 people named in the new testament as apostles and then in 1895 when the apostle john wrote the book of revelation and god spoke to him jesus spoke to the church of ephesus so we're talking about you know jesus was crucified about a.d 32 so we're talking about you know 60 plus years into the ministry of the new testament church and what happens
when he's speaking jesus gives a message through john to the church of ephesus and he says you have tried those which say they are apostles and are not and has found them liars now if the church had been taught that there was only going to be the 12 apostles and no more then anybody claiming to be an apostle would automatically be but he said no you've tested them you found them to be liars and you found their doctrine to be false and so the ministry of apostles the ministry of prophets the ministry of evangelists pastors and teachers it was to continue in the church now in the old covenant and in the new it's very dangerous and i'm gonna say this again it's very dangerous how you receive both god's word and the messengers god sent you i mean a lot of people don't like talk about that because you say well it sounds like you're exalting a man or a woman in the ministry no it's just a principle in the bible i didn't pick the way it's done i didn't write the book i don't call people to the ministry this is all god's work right and he's the one that calls certain people to preach and teach he calls people to have get different gifts and different positions in the body of christ and it's very dangerous as to how we how we hear remember jesus said something was interesting take heed how you hear take heed what you say take heed what you do you think about that it's one thing to be you know to be in just your own sin right it's another thing when you start doing evil to other people or start putting your mouth on it see i'm saying it's one thing if you want to hurt yourself right it's another thing if you want to start hurting other people oh what about what if you decide you're going to start tearing down god's messengers and god's people do you think actually do we think that god will sit back and do nothing oh no though the wrath he is not slack right now i'm going to read something to you we're going to turn to quite a few passages this morning but before we go to the old testament just look let's look at the new testament for a second there's some things that paul said because what i'm going to talk about today you know everybody you know in here has heard me talk about the judgment of god that's coming to america for our sins and rejection of his laws and rejection of the truth and rejecting just wanting to indulge in all kinds of evil and wickedness
and god's going to judge our nation but what we need to understand is there are judgments of god in chastisement and correction that god brings into the lives of individuals as much as he will judge a nation he will judge a church he will judge a denomination he will judge and individuals he will judge right and this is something that we don't talk about because we want to take the one side of jesus the nice side the side that says love your enemies bless those that curse you do good to them that persecute you and all that and all that's true we're supposed to do those things i'm not saying that we don't but there is the other side of the coin where people who want to persecute believers who want to attack ministers of the gospel who want to try to destroy the ministry there is a point where god's patience lifts up off of that and i've seen it over and over again i could give you so many examples this morning of where i've seen people instead of receiving the message and receiving a prophetic word and humbling themselves and repenting of their sin and getting right with jesus i've seen people not want to hear the message that god had for them then they attacked the messenger that god sent them and then god has to judge them see there's there's no avenue once you reject god's word and god's message to you you have no other recourse if you don't accept mercy and you don't repent and change your ways and humble yourself then you will be judged personally god will either bring correction and chastisement in you or he may even judge you even to the point of sickness and death he will allow y'all think i'm making this up right i want you to turn with me let's just look at a few scriptures this morning before we before we go to the old testament go to first corinthians chapter 10 say preacher you're getting on something heavy this morning yeah because um the lord's about to deal with some people and it's not going to be pretty when he does it first corinthians chapter 11. we'll go there first let's look at this this is a new testament passage and this is something we we haven't had communion in a while we need to have communion around here but i don't do communion very much because it can get you killed okay but let's just read this passage in the new testament the apostle paul writing under the inspiration of the holy spirit talked about judgment god's judgment coming to who to people who call themselves christians who were in sin and wouldn't repent and
wouldn't deal with issues in their lives and we're still coming into the church and taking the lord's supper unworthily and let's read this now this ought to be familiar but verse 23 paul wrote this for he says for i have received of the lord that which i also delivered unto you that the lord jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said take he this is my body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me and after the same manner also he took the cup and when he had substantiated this cup is the new testament in my blood this do ye as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you do show the lord's death till he comes now verse 27 we you know people churches do communion services we've got lutheran churches we've got episcopal churches we've got methodist church we've got baptist church we've got catholic church they all do their communion services but they few of them continue reading this right he says wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the lord unworthily that means you're not living in obedience and holiness to the best of your ability you're not living a life that is truly dedicated truly humble truly submitted to the lord jesus and you're just trying to participate in the blessings of the house of god while you enjoy the pleasures of sin in the world okay so it says you come into the house of god and you want to partake of the lord's supper and you do this in an unworthy manner you're living a hypocritical life you're a bad witness out to the world to the community and you come in the house of god and you want to take one of the most powerful one of the most intimate parts of the church and you want to take that without true repentance without true humility without true brokenness without truly coming to jesus and letting him wash your sin away and you determining to repent and turn away from those sins that's what's talking unworthily you're not you're not living in a worthy manner as a christian so he says if you take this unworthily you will be guilty guilty of the body and blood of the lord you know what that means that means you are guilty you become guilty participant in the crucifixion of jesus because you're putting him to a public and open shame that you're not living the christian life but you're going to come and partake of the blessings of the church and of christianity knew and see what the world thinks is that god just loves everybody unconditionally and there's no rebuke there's no correction there's no judgment to the individual you can do you can sin the way you want to sin god just loves you and god is just merciful no friend god will not only judge a nation
he will not only judge his people as a whole like he did israel in the past but god will judge individuals and how they received his word and how they received his messengers and here we going to say look at this this is it gets it's scary because he says whoever takes this bread or drinks his cup unworthily is guilty of the body and blood of the lord he said but let a man examine himself first that means put yourself to the test before you take this are you living the christian life in a worthy manner he says let a man examine himself and let him so eat and let that bread and drink that cup for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily listen now eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the lord's body and he says for this cause some of you are weak and sickly there for this cause many he said look at that word many for this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep or are dead okay folks this is the new testament church this is paul writing by the holy ghost to a new testament church to a bunch of holy ghost-filled tongue-talking miracle-working faith-filled individuals who couldn't give up their fornication who couldn't give up their uh you know here's another thing they loved to criticize paul even though he was the founder of that church the apostle of that church and great miracles happened and thousands of people got saved under his ministry and yet they there were people in that church criticizing and attacking paul verbally and there was all kind of things fornication going on incest going on drunkenness going on and paul goes you there because of this because you're living in this manner he says and you're taking the lord's supper unworthily many of you and and and church historians say that probably by this point the church of corinth could have been around 40 000 people because it wasn't like you know you had all these individual churches it was called the church of corinth right the christians in that city and he says for this cause many of you are weak sickly and some are dead for this reason and look what he says you're eating and drinking damnation to yourself for if we would judge ourselves we should not be judged but when we are judged we are chastened of the lord that we should not be condemned with the world so he's saying god will let you be just see here's the here's the good news god was letting some of them be weak and some of them be sick that was mercy
trying to get their attention see i know a lot of people right now people in this region people even my own family members i know people that are playing this game with god they're playing games and i don't know what's craziness is in their head that they think that they can play with god play this lukewarm halfway christianity and think they're going to get away with it no friend god is going to personally judge you and judge me by how we receive and either obey his word or how we reject it and reject his messengers oh boy i see i'm going somewhere with this right now let's back up to acts acts chapter 5. again new testament see i'm convinced a lot of people say why don't we see more people healed in the church because they're eating and drinking damnation to themselves because they won't repent they won't ever break free from their sins they won't ever get serious about really loving the lord with all their heart soul mind and strength and forsaking their lust and and their evil desires and really getting on fire for god you know i've seen people i've seen people go up in church you know get call for the elders to come and anoint them with oil and pray the prayer of faith and i've seen people do that and not get healed and the bible says you're supposed to get healed but people aren't getting healed why because they're eating and drinking this damn nation this ju the judgment of god is on them and they're christians and do you know that are entire denominations and preachers that don't even believe that god will judge a christian and i just read it to you now we had another couple of christians here right oh boy say amen or old me right acts chapter 5 verse 1 but a certain man named ananias and sapphira and his wife sold the possession and kept back part of the price his wife also being privy to it brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles feet but peter said to ananias why hath satan fill thine heart to lie to the holy ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land was it remained was it not thine own and after it was sold was it not the in thine own power why have you conceived this thing in your heart you have not lied unto men but unto god and ananias hearing these words fell down and gave up the ghost he died and great fear came on all them that heard these things now this is this gives you here's an edifying prophecy you want to edifying prophecy all right edification exhortation and
comfort prophecy here's one for you sapphira walks in this is about the space of three hours after or the young man arose that's right wound him and carried him out and buried him so they had a funeral three hours later his wife shows up doesn't know her husband's dead and buried for sinning in the church it says and it was about the space of three hours after when his wife not knowing what was done came in and peter answered and senator tell me whether you sold the land for so much and she said yay for so much now see here's where most of the church world is they think peter should say you know god just killed your husband but he's a loving god and he's merciful and you'll be all right no here's a prophecy for you new testament prophecy then peter said unto her how is it that you've agreed together to tempt the spirit of the lord behold the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door and shall carry thee out then fell she down straightway at his feet and yielded up the ghost and the young men came in and found her dead and they carrying her forth buried her by her husband and great fear came upon all the church and upon as many as heard these things now folks if they weren't christians why did fear come on the church they found out god is not playing games here and i'll tell you something else too god is not playing games with people who threaten the soul-saving mission of a church or a minister he is not playing games with that okay let me show you something else now let's back up to the old testament now we'll come back to go to genesis chapter 20. now this is something i've never preached on before i never mentioned in a sermon in 26 years of preaching but this story to me is almost funny because let's remember and this is about abraham when you get back to genesis 20. let's remember something about abraham i love this a lot of people say what's the old testament pastor you're going to there that's old testament doesn't apply to us wrong oh especially when we talk about abraham because what do we find out about abraham in the book of galatians and jesus talking about him in john 8. what did we say he said abraham saw my day oh boy the bible talks about abraham's faith the gospel was preached to abraham and that abraham's the father of our new testament faith 400 plus years before the law came into being so abraham walked in the reality of new
testament gospel before the new testament ever came into being now i don't have time to get into this i preached this before but the bible talks about this character named melchizedek who appeared to abraham and this melchizedek says was the king of salem or the king of jerusalem and he was the king of righteousness and he is the king of peace and abraham gave him tithes and this melchizedek blessed abraham and this melchizedek brought bread and wine and they set down and fellowship together now if we didn't have the new testament we didn't have the apostle paul by the inspiration of the holy ghost giving us some clarity on who this melchizedek was we'd have to guess but in hebrews chapter 7 he's very clear that this melchizedek had neither father nor mother nor beginning of days nor end of life there's only one being in the universe that melchizedek could be and that is god almighty the lord jesus christ in his pre-incarnate self preaching the gospel sitting down with abraham and said my name jesus right now is hidden but you will know me as melchizedek but but melchizedek jesus sat down they had communion with the bread and the wine the gospel was preached to abraham by jesus himself he had new testament faith before it ever came into being okay that's why it says he is the father of whoever is in faith in jesus christ is the seed of abraham amen somebody said that's good preaching so when we read the old testament especially when we read about abraham you can always know abraham walked with god and had the relationship with god that a new testament believer has a walk of faith a walk that can hear the voice of god a walk of intimacy a walk of friendship he called god called abraham his friend why because abraham was willing to obey abraham was willing to submit abraham was willing to sacrifice anything he wanted to do it god's way and not his way amen he was a man of god he loved god he feared god he respected god and he did everything now was he perfect man no but he wasn't fooling around and playing around either now this story is hilarious because abraham showing his humanity here gets a little afraid and tells a fib now let me you know there's a big difference between telling fib and bearing false witness against your neighbor we'll deal with that in a minute right well let's read this this is good somebody says good chapter 20 genesis 20 verse 1 and abraham journeyed from this toward the south country and dwelled between kadesh and sure and sojourn and guru and abraham said unto said of sarah his wife she is my sister and abimelech the
king of gir and i guess that's garrar or whatever sent and took sarah now abraham was afraid that if he said that she was his wife because she was beautiful they would kill him and take her that was a common practice in those days so abraham had a little fear man he's human right so the king of gerar or gerrard however you say that took he said he you know he said she's my sister so that was his little fib but god came to abimelech in a dream by night and said unto him behold thou art a dead man the woman which you have taken she is a man's wife think about this is god comes to this king in the night and says you're a dead man how would you like to have that dream in that vision of revelation from god you're dead you've got another man's wife now were there people back in that time committing adultery of course adultery has been being committed all the way back why did this one why was this one so severe because abraham and sarah were to be the mother and father of the nation of israel god had promised abraham your seed will be as the stars of heaven you will bring in righteousness basically abraham and sarah were to bring in to be the lineage of the messiah jesus so this is the plan of salvation this is god's plan to get people saved throughout the generations throughout history through abraham and sarah's obedience and through their faith and through the seed of abraham and the seed of israel to bring forth the messiah jesus christ this is the plan and what happened was here abimelech didn't know that he wasn't just going to commit adultery the simple sin of adultery but he stepped in the middle of god's plan of salvation and was threatening to mess that up and god said to him that night you are a dead man now get it in your head folks and those of you listening god almighty has not changed the new covenant has not changed him he is still a god of love and mercy and he is still a god of judgment and wrath you pick which one you get oh come on now you pick you choose see some folks think when it says choose life or choose death that comes to be with god because god's
going to give you either one he can give you eternal life or he can give you eternal death in the flames of hell he can give you either one choose you this day whom you will serve choose life choose blessing choose my word let my laws and my commandments and my testimonies be what you adhere to give your heart and your ways to me or you choose death follow satan follow your own flesh follow your own desire follow richard let your mouth speak evil of things of god and people of god and let me tell you what's going to happen there'll be a day god says you're a dead man now abimelech god scared the life out of him just about verse four says but abimelech had not come near her and said and he said lord wilt thou slay also a righteous nation so united to me she is my sister and she even herself said he is my brother in the integrity of my heart the innocency of my hands have i done this and god said unto him in the dream yeah i know that you did this the integrity of your heart for i also withheld thee from sinning against me therefore suffered therefore suffered i thee not to touch her he says now therefore restore the man his wife for he is a prophet and he shall pray for thee and thou shalt live if you restore her not know that thou shalt surely die you and all that is yours not is god playing look at verse eight then abimelech rose up early in the morning and called all his servants and told all these things in their ears and the men were sore afraid and abimelech called abraham and said what have you done unto us and what have i offended thee that thou has brought on the on on me and on my kingdom a great sin and has done deeds into me that ought not to be done and of course abraham said to him verse 11 because i thought surely the fear of god is not in this place and they will slay me for my wife wow and of course god has smote the household of abimelech with judgment that no one could have uh children and in verse 17 it says this and so abraham prayed unto god and god healed abimelech and his wife and his maidservants and they bear children for the lord had fast closed up all the wounds of the house of abimelech because of sarah abraham's wife so god had god had already started his judgment and this man didn't even know what he was doing oh boy somebody say hey man or oh me
why you say all this pastor [Music] because we're moving into a time of greater persecution and betrayal of course jesus prophesied this look at matthew 24. [Music] matthew 24 of course everybody ought to remember this jesus said one of the signs of the end and of his coming in verse 12 or verse 10 and then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another many false prophets shall rise and deceive many and because iniquity shall abound the love of many will grow cold but he that shall endure to the end the same shall be saved go to second thessalonians chapter 1 2 thessalonians chapter 1. see we're moving into a time of intense persecution um it's really happening all over the world i think about the christians in syria and egypt iran that are suffering pakistan that are suffering greatly but can i just tell you something these muslims that want to persecute christians and drive them out of their homes and kill them and kill steal their children and try to convert their children to islam and all this stuff can i just say that the wrath and judgment of god will not sleep very long see even though i don't agree with all the wars that the united states has gotten into going to iraq and afghanistan a lot of it i don't agree we should have done we get involved in too much stuff but within all that there is the hand of god god will use even a wicked nation like he used babylon to invade israel and to judge israel because of its sins and because it wouldn't repent and the evil it was doing well god's used the united states i think the gulf war i think the 2003 invasion of in 2002 invasions of afghanistan and iraq were not just over the political arena and whether there were weapons of mass destruction or it's the petro dollar or the oil issue i don't think i don't think a lot of that really is the real reason i think god saw a bunch saddam hussein and i met a wonderful man kurdish man from northern he's from northern iraq this past week well this week and i i when he told me he didn't tell me he was occurred at first he just told me he was from northern iraq and i said i said then you must be kurdish right and he said yes
and i said i know saddam saddam tried to wipe out the entire kurdish people and he began to tell me what they went through they were gassed um thousands upon thousands because he said they will come in saddam would come in and just kill entire cities of people said that he had many friends that were jewish he said one town saddam came in and told all the jews to get out if they didn't get out and it's such a such a time he would come back and kill them all he told me that most of his family had been killed by saddam hussein saddam hussein was an evil man he was evil to his own people he was evil to other races you know the poor kurds i mean they really faced almost being wiped out as a people like the jews did during world war ii and you could see this man telling me you know most of his family were killed and he said i stayed in in iraq alone for many years my brother had made it here and because he worked for the u.s intelligence during after the gulf war he got to come to the united states and um but saddam hussein got his judgment the wicked republican guard and the iraqi army and all their wickedness when the u.s went in god's judgment fell upon iraq okay god used the us military but it was his judgment i remember colin powell and again i'm not politically i'm not republican or democrat so i don't care but colin powell was the chairman of the joint chiefs he was still a general still over the military and they said well what are you going to do to the iraqi army at that time i think it was the fourth or fifth largest standing army in the world he said we're going to surround it and we're going to kill it and what you don't know there would be 50 000 troops uh iraqi troops on the on this little front line there'd be fifty thousand here and we just bomb them kill them all we just killed them about their whole entire army a lot of people don't know that unless you see some of the documentaries of the highway of death we've been criticized because the iraqi army was in retreat from kuwait and we just destroyed them but these were men that would go into towns and rape women they'd gone to kuwait and raped other muslim women and killed children you see what i'm saying god brought his judgment down okay and just like god used babylon to judge israel and then finally god judged babylon the same thing's going to happen to america just because we get used to judge somebody else doesn't mean god won't judge us right and i know some people may find that controversial
but you know i wish you know the muslims would quit killing christians and quit killing each other and come to know jesus and be at peace and have salvation and and find love you know this man told me the kurdish man he told me he said the muslims the arabs he called him he said i'm not arab i'm kurdish it's different he said but the arabs he said within the muslim arab community he said there's no love he said they don't love their own people they don't love anybody he said they'll kill anybody they'll kill anything and he was just like there's no love there it's amazing that amazing wouldn't it be great for those people to to come to know jesus and love but most of them will not and they will have to be judged because they will not receive it right and they want to be evil god will judge and here's the thing god judges evil see wicked listen there's one thing say for you to struggle with some sin in your life say you struggle with doubt or you struggle with fear or you struggle with lust and that's you're struggling with that and that's between you and god and you're trying to deal with that and you're trying to overcome that but it's different if you go out purposefully to harm or destroy somebody else that's when it becomes when you become wicked you're trying to do evil and harm somebody else you just cross the line and meaning god's gonna have to deal with you at some point and it won't be pretty and if you persist in trying to harm people harm their reputation harm their finances harm you persist in trying to harm them or even physically harm them mentally emotionally you go out you become a mean evil wicked person especially if you're a christian your judgment is coming first it's coming now look at this god talked to a church the thessalonians i hadn't forgot second thessalonians to a church that was being persecuted by their own people and look what he says we'll start at verse one paul and silvanus and timothy into the church of the thessalonians in god our father and the lord jesus christ grace unto you and peace from god our father and the lord jesus christ he said we are bound to thank god always for you brethren as it is meat because that your faith groweth exceedingly and the charity of every one of you all toward each other abounds so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of god for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of god that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of god for which you also suffer so god says we know that your being paul wrote to me we know you're being persecuted we know you're going through trouble in tribulation and and that you're standing strong you're standing firm and because of that your faith is growing and you love each other your church
loves each other but he didn't stop there did he he says seeing verse 6 it is a righteous thing with god to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you it is a righteous thing with god and i'm going to put it in simple english it is a righteous thing with god to repay trouble to those who trouble you and the word trouble in the bottom of that verse is a present tense greek verb which means those who continually keep troubling you i mean it doesn't mean somebody that you've gotten a little tiff with at work and it's over but i'm talking about people that are trying to continually trouble you and do evil to you oh boy it is and i'm telling you even though i'm reading this there are people who will hear this that can't handle this because they think the new testament is their christian hippie it's just love all we need is love and that's it but god loves but god also chastens he also corrects he also judges and sometimes he judges unto death but it says here it is i'm gonna read it again it is a righteous thing somebody say righteous thing it is a righteous thing for god to repay trouble to those who continually trouble you see right now i'm gonna be i'm gonna be straight up honest with you i didn't know what i was gonna preach this morning but god won't let it off me because this is something i'm walking through right now some people are continually troubling me i've even had people try to get lawyers on me and now they've taken it publicly and they're trying to harm my reputation as a minister publicly lying and slandering me you mark my words down if they don't soon repent of this because people are getting saved and delivered and healed thousands of people are being touched by this ministry all over the world even in nations that are muslim nations i get stuff from all over the world and i'm going to tell you right now i've watched it in my own life people that want to open their mouths curse me speak negative about me try to destroy my reputation in ministry i have watched i've stepped away okay god let them have it i'm not defending myself in public i'm not going to even address it because god's going to
and i'm going to go ahead and tell you right now again people may criticize this but if they don't stop attacking the call of god on my life and the ministry and if they start getting and they're getting in the way of people getting saved in this region where we know a lot of people have a lot of influence and they're trying to destroy my ministry and reputation and influence god is going to remove them he's about to repay them their household with great trouble because now they took it from it being some their little personal issues now they're attacking the ministry and getting in the way of people getting saved so get ready you mark it i will tell you when it happens because i know it's coming and now you know there's a saying that we have down here in the south and i've said it several times myself you ought to know when to leave well enough alone right there is a time to shut your mouth and walk away right because there comes a point with god's people and god's ministers that you are no longer fighting a person you are fighting god and i assure you if you fight god you lose right even the great teacher gamel in the book of acts when the pharisees were losing their minds and trying to stop the growth of the church and wanted to stop the apostles and stop them from teaching about jesus and stop preaching that jesus was the messiah and they were doing everything persecuting them throwing them in jail killing stephen all this was going on and um gamel that finally stood up and he wasn't even a christian now he was just a wise teacher of the law and he said you know what gentlemen if this thing is of god you're going to find yourself fighting against god you better leave him alone and if you remember correctly if you go to acts chapter 12 and you see where where herod the king herod had killed the apostle james and see this is what god does sometimes he'll allow an evil wicked person to do evil wicked things he'll allow his people to be persecuted even some of them to die even some of them to go through great difficulty but god does not forget and when when he he pressed the issue o'hara should have left well enough alone he didn't realize that god allowed one of his leaders to be killed to be an example to the others that you may have to lay down your life for your christianity for jesus god will allow some examples sometimes so that we may follow them but when it came to peter it wasn't god's plan for peter to die right then peter had a lot of people to lead to jesus p he had a lot of sermons to
preach a lot of the some of the bible to write it wasn't god's plan god had a plan to bring many to salvation through peter so herod stepped into trying to mess up people getting saved through peter's ministry and it says an angel appeared took out a sword and killed king herod and everyone knew that god struck him down and he struck him down so vividly and so violently that he said literally immediately the worms began to eat him they saw the worms eating his body do not mess with god or god's people and certainly do not mess with god's ministers that are true god's prophets if you do it is a righteous thing with god to repay trouble to you for troubling his people man and if you don't people have i you know i just reading remember one of the i think it's deuteronomy the deuteronomy 13 or kings first kings thirteen so first kings thirteen when the young prophet goes and prophesies against bethel where they had the place of idolatry the king of israel had a place of idolatry there and the king of israel the wicked king you know that's when the kingdom divided there was israel and judah and the kingdom of israel was always wicked always had a wicked king and they set up in dan and bethel they set up a a a mimic of the their own they set up their own priest in their own worship and they basically was idolatry and this prophet stood there and he prophesied and said that josiah i mean by name he said that josiah will rise he will burn the priest your false priest upon this he'll destroy this altar and the king stretched forth his hand and basically to tell the men to take him when he did his hand withered up and the king cried out have mercy on me and the man of god prayed for him and his hand was restored but he didn't mess with him anymore huh the story i read last night let me go to second kings chapter two second kings two have we been all over the bible second kings 2 let me give you another story real quick elisha just told you about that elisha becomes god's prophet everyone knew that he was established to be the prophet in elijah's place the anointing was upon him
the power was on him everybody knew it and he was getting ready to go look at it ii kings chapter 2 verse 23 oh boy says and he went up from thence unto bethel and as he was going up by the way there came forth little children now the the king james this word here in the hebrew for children can mean anything from infants all the way to young men and young women okay so when it says this here i really believe is talking about teenagers it's my personal belief because teenagers we know can can be problematic right especially if they're rebellious into drugs and alcohol and everything else and won't don't respect any authority but here's something that happened to them so the prophet is going to bethel and as he went up from the incident to bethlehem as he was growing up by the way there came forth and i'm just going to say a bunch of teenagers out of the city and mocked him and said unto him go go up thou bald head go up thou ball head they mocked the man of god now we think oh that's funny wasn't funny for them because it says and he turned back and he looked on them and cursed them in the name of the lord jehovah and there came forth two she-bears out of the woods and tore 42 of them to pieces god killed all of them and he went from thence to mount carmel just kept walking somebody says well now this just doesn't sound like the love and new testament preaching mark it down there will be people for god to deliver you there will be people god will have to remove there's people who've been sitting in churches for years and years and years committing adultery cheating with other men's wives and women with other men's husbands and backstabbing and stealing money from the church and lying about people and destroying people's reputations and god's been merciful and patient but see what we're at the time we're about to enter into is the bible calls it the day of the lord's vengeance the day of the lord's wrath meaning he's not just going to deal with the nations he's going to deal with everybody me you everybody
right this is why the bible says in the old testament touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm because it's not going to be good for you it's not going to be good for you take god's word seriously take communion seriously take intimacy with god seriously take sin seriously i'm not saying christians don't sin we sin sometimes we blow it but you know what we we shouldn't keep doing it we shouldn't be careless reckless there's a difference between a christian sinning and a christian being a careless sinner there's a difference between fallen and a sin and living habitually in one there's a difference between struggling and being a rebel [Music] there's a difference between having your own sin but yet and then the difference and then going out and trying to destroy somebody else purposefully willfully trying to destroy somebody else so here we go mark it down i remember years ago god sent me to a methodist church i'll tell this story god sent me to a methodist church i was there for two years praying every morning at 5am praying for revival praying for god to move in that church seeing people in the community get saved people in the church in a methodist church now getting healed but half the church wanted god another half didn't and the pastor surely didn't want god i called him my nickname for him was darth vader he was walking breathing death his sermons were as dead and lifeless as could possibly be i mean he got excited about earth day he wasn't excited about jesus okay but i remember god told me after being in that church for two years praying every morning there for two hours in the morning praying for revival in that church praying for that pastor and i remember when god gave me a word to give to that church and it was very simple he said i want you to stand up on sunday morning and i want you to say there's fornication going on in this church there's homosexuality going on in this church there's drunkenness and drug use going on in this church there's even child molestation going on in this church i want you to stand up and i want you to say it and tell them unless they repent i am going to judge them and i am going to deal with them and they're going to spend eternity in hell which is very simple tell them if they repent i will forgive them but if they don't i will judge them and they will spend eternity in hell very simple message it's not hard is it not even hard to judge whether that's biblical right so i stood up in that church obeyed god in a methodist church yes i stood up and prophesied while i had to go out of town the next week i think it was like two weeks and i finally come back and when i come back
the pastor meets me at the door we were standing in the in the doorway of the church and he says i don't want you here anymore you have to leave i was i didn't want to be there anyway i begged god for two years let me leave because it was death it was a dead church but god had some people in it he loved and wanted to help and there were some fired up young people that that god used in that church to help that church you know what i did i lifted up my foot just like jesus said lifted up my foot and i did this i dusted the dust off and i said it's on you now turn around and lift you know it wasn't long after that that the man's house burned to the ground and everything in it and that was just for asking me to leave you know what i'm saying i know what it was there was a man who pastored a very large church here in opelika very large church he was a doctor of theology and the lord gave me a word that he was committing adultery with a woman in the church and told me to go to him privately and tell him and gave me the woman's name the lord told me not only was he committing adultery but gave me her name and so i wrote it in a letter and i sent it to him privately i didn't tell anyone so the lord told me you're having an affair with this woman in your church and this is her name and the lord wants you to repent and if you don't repent he's going to make this a public spectacle and you wish you had dealt with it now so instead of admitting that he was in adultery and admitting he was in sin and asking for help and asking for mercy and crying out to god and going to his elders and trying to make things right instead he publicly turns his deacon board against me and they publicly slander me all over opa-like and auburn well god's judgment sometimes he bears long i think it was about two years two and a half i don't somewhere in that range god gave him two years even after the slander even after attacking the messenger god gave him two years to get it straightened out you know what he did he didn't get it straightened out he started got in with more women in the church and got into doing obscene phone calls in the church and guess what happened he got busted by the police for making obscene phone calls they finally caught him and traced it and then it all came out how many affairs he
was having with how many women in the church and so he was fired and it was a public disgrace shook that large church shook the whole community up because he went to jail and then he had to go to mandatory counseling issues my friend issue you don't deal with your stuff god sends people to you to warn you to deal with the stuff you don't deal with it then you just then that's one that's bad enough but then you start attacking the messenger god sent you oh i just need to step back away from you because calamity and discipline and chastening and correction and judgment is going to rain down on your head and you better hope it's just correction and not a final judgment right see this is what christianity they can't handle anymore today god is our father yes he is does he love us yes he does does he want us to be saved and go to heaven yes he does that's his whole desire that's why he sent his son his only begotten son to die on a cross for our sins to be raised again the third day to buy redemption for those who would accept it and follow him he did all that he commended his love toward us already but those who rebel those who are wicked and evil those who try to destroy other people with their mouths or whatever he may give him a little space of time but then it's going to run out the man that keeps cheating on his wife the woman that keeps cheating on her they may think they're getting away with it for a while sooner or later it's going to come out one scripture i love from the deuteronomy he said this be sure the sin you won't confess the sin you won't repent of the sin you won't give up be sure your sin will find you out i remember david wilkerson preaching that and i'll never forget he's the first he's going to find you that's going to find your family and he's going to find your business he's going to find your job he's going to find everything i've watched men think that they can cheat on their wives and i've watched them they they were successful at work they were successful at everything they put their hand to they were blessed they had houses and cars and and boom when god finally put that sword down on them and exposed it and everything blew up in the face i've seen them lose everything lose their job lose their house lose their cars lose their wife lose their kids lose everything
is it worth it lose their soul even it's not worth it there's nothing in this world worth that boy so many people are going to be judged and go to hell because they loved sex or money or fame or position more than they loved god and they were willing to cheat lie steal run over anybody sleep with anybody to get it and they're not going to like what the payment they get back there's a day of reckoning folks and some of it you get here before hell amen let's pray father in heaven we thank you lord that your word is true the good and the bad the mercy and the judgment the grace and the justice you are not mocked god what a man sows that shall he also reap if a man a woman sows to the wind you said they'll reap the whirlwind lord you said it's a righteous thing to repay trouble to those who trouble your people and persecute your people where paul prayed in second timothy 4 he said alexander the copper smith did me much evil the lord reward him for his works yes we're entering into a time of persecution and god wants christians to bless their enemies and love those who curse them but god's also going to deal with some of those who are persecuting especially the ones who say they're christians and they're persecuting so god i pray in the name of jesus that you be our shield and our defense you convict us of sin you help us deal with our own lives help us to not become wicked vengeful people who hurt other people or try to destroy other people lord i pray in the name of jesus that you will deal with even our church there's issues in our church here fire and grace church there's issues of motives there's issues of just things that we want instead of wanting god lord i just pray you deal with deal with our church and lord i just pray in the name of jesus i pray for our enemies i bless those who curse us i pray god that you will work in their lives i pray you will open their eyes and touch their heart but i also pray lord if they won't repent if they want to rebel if they want to persist
even resisting your dealing in your conviction then yes lord deal with them especially if they're hindering people from getting saved from trying to stop a ministry deal with them and i pray this today in jesus name amen amen [Music] see how i think about people there are people that are going to think that god's going to let them think they're getting away with it that's even worse it's even worse for god to just wait and let you keep doing it and thank you getting away with it because all it tells me if god waits is that a bigger hammer is coming down it's kind of like a sledgehammer you know we got the five pounds you got the 10 pound ones you got the 15. you got the big boys it takes a little longer to get those big ones up and back and steady but when they come down and we all choose big hammer little hammer all right i'll take the little hammer and guess what you know what we all get judged and corrected by god it's just how severe is it going to be god said if if he doesn't correct us man if he doesn't chasing us and whip us and do some things to get our attention he says we're illegitimate children so all of us get judged for things but again it's different than getting a little whipping from the heavenly father and him wiping you out because you are harming his church and his people oh boy all right