Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
You deserve the glory. You are worthy of it all. You are worthy of it all things. You deserve the glory. We're going to do one more song. I think we need to worship for a few more minutes. I felt we didn't need to be in a hurry this morning, so let's worship. Y'all got that one. Rest on us. Oh, you don't? I thought you did. No, it's okay. How about Breathe? Do y'all know that one? Let's do that. That one was on my mind, too. It's all right. How many remember 1980s wrestling? Down in Georgia, I don't know if y'all had it in Alabama, but they had a Southern championship. I don't know if he had a Southern championship, but they had a guy on there called him Flying Brian. Y'all remember him? He'd fly off the edge of the ring, and so that's kind of how I come in this morning, so I apologize. I kind of come in like Flying Brian and kind of flop my first match. Thank you, Lord. He's worthy. Amen. Amen. The song says he's the air I breathe. You know, he's everything. Everything. We're nothing without him. We can do nothing without him this morning. It takes him. Amen.
You're me. This is the end. This is the air I breathe. Your holy presence. This is my daily bread. Thank you, Jesus. This is my daily bread. You're there. The fee. Let's just tell him this morning he's holy. Love him this morning.
Thank you for what you do. Thank you for your son. Holy Father of you. We pray that you will lead us and guide us into all truth. Lead us and guide us into your will and truly help us, Lord, to never lose the fear and reverence and respect we should have toward you. Your word. Your holiness. The fact that we will stand before you one day as judge. We want to hear well done. Good and faithful service. Lead us and guide us. I pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated this morning. Thank you, Johnny and Julie. Good to see everybody here today. Marriage boot camp seemed to go well yesterday, I think. Amen. I'll tell you one thing. You got plenty of scripture yesterday. That's for sure. You ought to be fully loaded and ready to roll. I hope everybody has their Bibles with them today because we may read a good bit. I'll try not to keep you till three o'clock. Do my best. I want us to turn first to First Peter chapter four. Something I think the Lord's been stirring in me now for a few weeks and I guess it's time to share it with you. I remember reading this when I was very young, new in the Lord, and I just have to say it's scared to mess out of me. But it should because we should never lose the fear of God because if we do, we're going to end up offering strange fire before the Lord. And that's what I'm going to talk to you about is about strange fire because right now in the church world, it's like a minefield out there and I don't care what denomination you come from.
It's a minefield. And most of the problems that are out there now, not just spirits of deception or spirits of error, but it really all comes from a central point. And that is that they've lost the fear of God. Now, one of the signs you don't hear talked about much of the end times, and I do believe we're in them, no doubt, is that judgment begins at the house of God. So let's go to verse 17, First Peter four, 17. It says for the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God. And if it first began at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear? Wherefore, let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing as unto a faithful creator. Now, I want to back up a little bit and go through this because I remember reading this and thinking, man, you can't play around with this thing. Not that I thought you could, but that reinforced it. I think we're living in a time right now where I thought a few years ago, I said, well, Lord, it seems like all the false teachers and the lukewarm pastors and the mega church theology and all that looks like they're just flourishing. It's like there's no judgment. There's no fear. And the Lord reminded me, and I think it is Psalm 92, if I remember correctly, but there are several places in the Psalm where he says when you see the wicked spring forth like the grass, when they're flourishing, it's because they will soon be cut off. And what we're watching right now, I don't know if some of you are realizing it, but minister after minister, big time minister after big time minister now is getting exposed. If they've got sexual sin in their lives, if they are mishandling funds, if they are, you know, grooming young women and men, if they're doing these things. It's starting to all come out. I mean, think about I think about gateway church was one of the biggest mega churches in the country and their pastor going to prison. The truth came out. Took a long time for it to come out, but it came out.
Mike Brown, I thought I never thought Dr. Michael Brown would be one of them. It's it's truly that one's truly shocking because that's a guy that was kind of mentored by Leonard Ravenhill wrote books at Leonard Ravenhill indoors before Leonard Ravenhill passed away in 94. And those books are solid. They're solid teaching on repentance and living for God. But Mike Brown's problems were going on during the Brownsville revival. Some things I found out this week that he knew about a predator in his ministry and they fired him and this predator goes to work at an orphanage in Haiti. And he doesn't warn anybody about this predator and then tells them when it all comes out the truth that they're molesting kids in this orphanage. And he's one of them tells the parents not to take legal action and not to talk about it on social media. That was in 2010. Of course, the thing went down. I warned about Mike Bickle in 2012 in the book. I wrote polluted church. You know, what's interesting is I sent the polluted church to Dr. Michael Brown before it was published and he refused to endorse my book because I named names. One of which he covered for Mike Bickle, his friend. But think about it. That took 2010. That's when faith was born. So 15 years. Sometimes we don't know about things for a long time. But see, here's the thing. Jesus said that everything done in secret is all to scare the crap out of some folks. Everything done in secret spoken in secret is going to be at some point be shouted from the rooftops. So think about it as kind of how the water, you know, what causes a wave is that the beach starts coming up like this and the water is pushed that way. It's kind of what's happening. We're getting to the end and everything now is going to get pushed up like a wave and it's going to become obvious. So to all these ministers out here, I don't care if you're Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Charismatic, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Roman Catholic, I don't care what you are. If you got secret sin, especially as hurting little kids, your day is coming shortly. You're going to be exposed. It's going to be shouted from the rooftops because judgment must first begin at the house of God.
Now, I know that not everything that claims to be a church is, but if it claims to be, then God's going to say, OK, you're taking my name, so I'm going to hold you accountable. And see this right here again, it ought to put the fear and trembling in all of us, especially if we're playing to be super Christian while doing all this stuff behind the scenes. You all hear me? I hope so. I want to read this again. For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God. And if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God obey? There is a present tense Greek verb, which means ongoing continuous action taking place in the present. So he's talking about those that don't have a current obedient walk in the gospel of Jesus Christ. What's going to their end going to be if they don't have that? Here's the thing. Many of them named the name of Jesus, but they do not obey. They believe in him, but they don't obey him. And he didn't say believe here. He said, what's the end going to be of them that do not obey continually the gospel, the message of Jesus Christ? And then he says this, if the righteous, the ones who are obedient living for Jesus scarcely be saved. I remember looking this up when I was like 19 or 20 scarcely with great difficulty. It's what this word means. Why is it so difficult? Because we live in a sin ridden world and part of our being, our flesh is the enemy. And then there are very powerful enemies called demons and fallen angels. So the deck is stacked against us. And unless we are truly submitted to loving and after Jesus, we don't have a shot to make it. See, this thing is kind of made where you got to go all the way. I think I remember Jesus saying that, right? This halfway stuff he called being lukewarm and you get spit out. But how many churches today are filled, filled to overflowing multiple services? And they never hear this.
They don't want to scare anybody with the truth. They don't want to make anybody uncomfortable. And really what they're saying is I don't want the fear of the Lord in my church. And yet the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And when you're in the heat of a season of temptation, let me just assure you, the only thing you got to keep you from going over into the abyss is the fear of the Lord. That's it. Because if you have no fear of the Lord, you will have no true fear of letting sin just take over your life. And this is not for somebody who fears the Lord and may stumble and fall. There is grace and forgiveness. You get up, you ask the Lord, you repent and you keep going. But what I'm talking about is that people think I can do whatever I want. I could just, oh, it's no big deal. And they think God's grace, just, oh, God's grace will cover it. I can just keep doing what I want. No, we can't. And I'm terrified for people like that. He says, if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Well, we know, right? Then godly and the sinner are going to end up in hell for eternity. The smoke of their torment will rise day and night forever. What he's showing you here is what he later says in 2 Peter, that it will be worse for those who knew but did not truly live for God, that did not fear God enough to depart from evil. You've got to hate sin. I've said it many times, you've got to hate it like it's a rattlesnake. And only weird people love rattlesnakes. I'm a country boy and I don't like rattlesnakes. Let's go to 2 Peter and read that real quick, something I've taught on and preached for years. A lot of people don't remember who this is talking to, but 2 Peter 2, verse 18, actually, we'll back up to verse 17, because he's talking about prophets and teachers who don't have the truth and are not telling the truth. And he says this, he said, they are wells without water. Can I pause for a minute right there? Wells without water. Think about that. Look like a well, but when you look down and search down deep, there's nothing there that's going to give you life.
The problem is a lot of people go, well, that's a well, so it must be water in it, but they never look any further. A lot of people sit around the well waiting for water. They don't get any. They wonder why they're drying up because these churches don't have the fear of the Lord. Period. If a church, you can sit in a church for a year and never feel convicted, never feel uncomfortable, never tremble inside of you. That's a well without water, folks. You hear me? Church should make you uncomfortable sometimes. You should never come to church and feel comfortable if you are living in sin, habitual lifestyle of sin. You should never feel comfortable. You should never walk away saying, no, that sermon made me feel so good. I'm going to go back and get in my sexual sin with my boo. That church did not do its job. All right. Let's read this. Second Peter. We're going to read it down. We go down back to verse 17. These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with the tempest, whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, great little sermonettes for Christianettes, they are lured through the lust of the flesh, through much wantonness, meaning their own covetousness. They are luring with these great little sermons, those that were clean. Whoa, pause. Who's being lured away? Those who were clean, meaning those who were washed in the blood of Jesus. Those who had their sins washed away. The devil's not after the unsafe, folks. He's got them. He's after you. He still wants to lure you away. And what he does is he puts up these wells without water, these churches without word, without the fear of the Lord. He sets them up all over the place. They're all over the place. Every denomination now. There's plenty of wells without water out there. And people think, well, Pastor Dean, you just hate all other churches. You think everybody should come to your church? No, not really. I think you should find a church that preaches the word of God from Genesis to Revelation and that warns people about damnation, that talks specifically about sin, calls people to repentance, and lets people know that you have to walk with Jesus and do the will of God for your life.
If they don't do that, well without water. You hear me? He says they speak these great swelling words of vanity. They allure through the lust of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escape from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are servants of corruption. While they tell you, God loves you just the way you are, accepts you just the way you are, if you pray that little prayer with me at the altar, you're saved once and for all. Once saved, always saved forever. They promise you liberty while they live in sin, behind the scenes. While they're grooming 12-year-old girls, they're preaching you great. Think about this. Robert Morris built a ministry in the tens of thousands, attending a megachurch, when he had groomed a 12-year-old girl, had sexual relations with her, from the time she was 12 to the time she was 16. And it was one of his friends' daughter, and they trusted him enough to have him stay in their home, and he's doing all this while he's preaching. That's offering strange fire. It's a wonder that God didn't just kill him straight up. I don't know why the Lord let some of these people continue as long as they do. Truly a sign of mercy. And y'all know what mercy is. See, everybody's taught you. How many of you have been taught, I just want to see a show of hands, that were taught that grace is undeserved favor? How many of you have ever taught that? Everybody in here? That's not true. Grace, if you just look it up, I remember hearing that when I first came back to the Lord all the time. Grace is unmerited favor. And I was like, let me look it up. Nineteen years old, let me look it up. Imagine that. A teenager figured it out. Looked it up. Grace, Charis. Strong as Greek dictionary. Power from God. God's influence upon the heart and its reflection in your life. Oh, that doesn't sound like what they've been telling me. But every Baptist church, every Baptist seminary in the country would tell you
grace is unmerited favor. It's not. Never has been. Never will be. Grace, in fact, is the Holy Spirit. He's called the Spirit of grace. He gives us the power when we yield to Him. He gives us the power and influences our heart to do the right thing. We still have a choice to resist Him or go with Him. Right? Mercy. The definition of mercy is undeserved kindness. So, see, that's the correct. If you want to say unmerited favor or kindness from God, that's mercy. Meaning you deserve judgment, but you get blessing. And a lot of people, what they do is when God does something like that, when He's merciful, they take it for granted. And then they've come up with doctrines where they think mercy is just sprinkled on everyone that everyone is just going to get it from here until eternity. And the Lord even says there's a point when every person's life, every nation's life, every church's life, when mercy is over and judgment will happen, just ask Sodom and Gomorrah, Nineveh, Pompeii. Pompeii was warned by Christians that they were going to be the next Sodom and Gomorrah and they didn't listen. And then He says this, While they promised them liberty, they themselves are servants of corruption, for of whom a man is overcome with the same he has brought into bondage. And then He says this, For if after they've escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them. Nothing about this passage teaches that you are once saved, always saved, eternally secured, no matter how you live. In fact, if you were cleansed from the pollutions of the world, that means you were born again, you repented at some point, the blood of Jesus cleaned you and washed you up, and then you decided to go back and live in those pollutions again. And it says if you go back there and you're overcome, the latter end is going to be worse within the beginning. It had been better for you to never known Jesus the way than to have known Him and turned from Him. This is why the fear of the Lord is not in 99% of churches now,
because this doctrine that came from Calvinism and that got modified by the Baptists has been in Presbyterian churches, it bled into Lutheran churches, Baptist churches, Nazarene churches. And then what happened was you had the Pentecostal churches, the Pentecostal churches that came along after Azusa Street in 1906 did not teach you were eternally secure no matter how you live. They actually preached you could fall away from God and end up lost. Then there was a little thing, there was revival across the country and the Pentecostal churches grew and flourished under great persecution across America from 1910 and on. That's where my great aunts got saved, some people that came from Azusa Street were doing Brush Harbor meetings out in the country here, and that's where they were born again. They were Methodists before they got saved. Y'all caught that. But then the Charismatic Movement came along. And the Charismatic Movement in the late 60s came from the Jesus Movement, then the Charismatic Movement into the 70s and 80s. There's a lot of good things that happened. There were 10 million converts in the Jesus Movement, but 9 million of them didn't stay with the Lord. They backslid. Not a good record. The Charismatic Movement, what happened, is a lot of people in the Baptist churches and the Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopal churches, different ones, even Roman Catholic, a lot of them heard preaching and teaching on the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the gift of tongues. They began to see miracles and prophecy and interpretation of tongues. They began to see the supernatural, and many of them truly got filled with the Holy Spirit. And then they came over into Pentecostal churches, but they didn't let go of the doctrines and traditions of men that they learned in their previous denomination. So they began to actually water down the Pentecostal churches, and that's why most of them now are ashamed of the gifts and teacher eternally secure no matter how you live. A little history lesson. Church in America. What's sad now is, is that about 20 or 30 years ago, all those churches decided we wanted to be the biggest church in town. And they developed a formula. Bill Hybles. What's that? What was his church? Willow Creek, up in Chicago. Decided he'd go around, take a little survey, and go around to his community, his wealthy community in Chicago. He wasn't going around in the south side, I assure you.
But he was going around in the wealthy sections, asking unsaved people, what do you want out of church? And then he crafted his church after those surveys. And basically what unsaved people wanted out of church was not a lot of Christian symbolism, you know, no crosses anywhere, no scriptures hanging on the wall, really short sermons, entertainment, flash, you know. And guess what happened? He grew a monster church. It was a monster, all right. And then the greedy little preachers that run around, let me tell you, if a preacher's goal is to build a big church, he's a little greed monster. Because he wants to look like he's the biggest thing in town. He wants to make a lot of money, build a big house. I'm telling you. So he's got it. And what they do is, they cloned that monster. Everybody started copying Bill Hybles. Now this is important because I'm going somewhere with this. So everybody started copying that pattern. And actually Bill Hybles got it from Robert Shuler, who was a complete heretic. And they have used this, and it's called the Seeker Sensitive, Seeker Friendly. I call it the Church Growth Cult. And here's what's so sad. I had a friend of mine, and he may be watching. He's not saved yet. He'll tell you. He admits it. He knows he's not saved. And he called me the other day to let me know that my best friend that I grew up with, Billy, that I led to the Lord a long time ago, who's a minister, that his son died. Horrible situation, like 24 years old. And then my friends telling me, you know, I got married. I said, yeah, I saw that. Happy for you. Congratulations, all that stuff. And then he tells me, he said, you know, we're going to church once in a while. I said, really? I said, where are you going? He said, well, you're not going to like it. I said, let me guess. I said, yep, the Highlands. He goes, man, that's a whole production. He said, it ends at the exact same time. The music, he said, I said, yeah, I call it McChurch. It's a franchise. You just got to do everything exactly the same. I said, it's McChurch. I know. He said, man, the sermons are really short. He said, you still preaching for two hours? I said, no, now it's three. He thought I was serious for a minute.
Because they came one Sunday. And I said, yeah, I know. And then he goes, well, it's working for him. How many people go to your church? You get what I'm saying? Now, this is coming from an unsaved person. And I just didn't say anymore. Because I just thought, I know he's not saved. He does not understand this at all. But see, that makes that unsaved person happy. I'm going to church, man. Do you know I'm going to church now? See, I scare the hell out of Roy. And he don't care. My wife's looking at me. Don't say his name. He don't care. He and I go way back. I mean, there was four of us that were very close. Billy, Roy, Craig, and myself, we were like this. So he's one of them. I can say anything to him. He can say anything to me. But it's just the truth. Now, don't get me wrong. I know some good things can happen in these wells without water. You know? I mean, if you're in, you know, a nuclear blast, you can jump in and maybe it'll protect you a little bit. Then we learn that from Wolverine. Right? Isn't that what happened? Oh, some of you caught it, I know. But I want you to go with me. Go to Leviticus. Well, first of all, not Leviticus. Let's go to Exodus, chapter 20. Then we'll go to Leviticus, 24. I'm sorry. And it's not even 12 yet. So y'all can't say I've preached an hour yet. Exodus 24. I'll try to do this quick for y'all. This is the kind of stuff that should make you fear the Lord because here's what the Bible says about, in 1 Corinthians 10, about the Old Testament, that these things that happened unto them are examples unto us. And therefore, our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. So we don't live under the Old Testament, but we learn very powerful principles from the Old Testament, and we do learn some things from this. So let's read verse 1, and it says, this is the Lord speaking to Moses. And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the Lord, thou and Aaron and Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship ye afar off. And Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come nigh,
neither shall the people go up with him. And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments and all the people answered with one voice and said all the words which the Lord hath said we will do. Boy, they sound like a fired up church right there. Man, everything the Lord said, we're going to do that. I would say, man, we are having a revival. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord and rose up early in the morning and builded an altar and under the hill and twelve pillars and according to the twelve tribes of Israel, and he sent young men of the children of Israel which offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood and put it into basins and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar and he took the book of the covenant. Somebody say the book of the covenant. That's what you're holding in your hand right now. That's what we called the book of the covenant. And it read in the audience of the people when they said all that the Lord has said we will do and be obedient. Man, all y'all hadn't even said that yet this weekend. And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it upon or on the people and said behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you concerning all these words. Then went up Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and the seventy elders of Israel and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under his feet as it were paved work of sapphire stone. That's the firmament where his feet rest. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid down his hand and they also saw God and did eat and drink. And so the Lord said unto Moses come up to me into the mount and be there and I will give thee the tables of stone and a law and commandments which I have written that thou mayest teach them. And Moses rose up and his minister Joshua and Moses went up to the mount of God. And he said unto the elders tarry you here for us until we come again unto you behold Aaron and her are with you if any man have any matters to do let him come unto them. And Moses went up into the mount and the cloud covered the mount and the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it six days and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud and the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel and Moses went into the midst of the cloud and got him up into the mount and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights. So there's a reason I read this. I want you to turn to Exodus 32.
They had just said everything that the Lord tells us we will do. They just saw the glory and fire and power of God descend upon the mountain. The elders saw his feet upon the firmament. I believe that was a vision the Lord showing them like an open vision. And he tells them, hey, me and Joshua are going up here to talk to the Lord a little while. You guys go back and handle business. Aaron and her is here. So that means that Nadab and Abihu were there and saw all this. They heard all this. They were part of those people that whatever the Lord says we will do. Called by God. God called them out. Aaron, you and your sons are going to be my priests. Took them up on the mountain. Saw God's feet. Saw his glory. Saw his fire. Saw his power. How many people have not seen anything like that? They said we will be obedient. Don't say it if you don't mean it. Exodus 32 verse 1. And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron and said unto him, Up, make us gods which shall go before us. For this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not or we don't know what has become of him. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings which are in your ears of your wives, of your sons and your daughters and bring them unto me. And all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them unto Aaron and he received them at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool. I love the fact that he fashioned it with a graving tool but then he said to Moses, I just threw this stuff in the fire and this calf came out. Sounds like some of you. I just fell. We just both fell on the floor and now she's pregnant. And when Aaron, this calf, he fashions a graving tool. He made a molten calf and he said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it and Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. This is just mind-blowing. And the Lord said unto Moses, Get thee down. Oh, I'm sorry, I skipped. And they rose up early on the morning and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings
and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Now that rose up to play, we find out later, is that they began having a fornication and adultery party. And the Lord said unto Moses, Get thee down for the people which thou broughtest up out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them and have made them a molten calf and worshipped it and have sacrificed thereunto and have said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Therefore, let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them and I will make a great nation, make of thee a great nation. Now, I'm not gonna read all this. We know the story. But Nadab and Abihu were there watching their father do this. Y'all understand? Then they watched Moses come down from the mountain and then the Lord kills 23,000 people for this sin. But for some reason, he spares Aaron and it was probably because Aaron, it was being the high priest represented Jesus in this scenario. So he wasn't going to deal with Aaron about it. But he killed all these people. Judgment fell on all these people because they got into idolatry and sexual immorality. And I think about these churches out here, these wells without water. What are their idols now? A lot of them, it's their pastor. A lot of them, it's the size of their church. You know, as long as it's a pretty church set up on a hill somewhere, that way they can feel good about telling their neighbors where they go. Right? So much of this church entity is idolatry. Here's what's wild. He could have made anything. But he makes a golden calf. I mean, one of the gods of Egypt. So he said, let's create something just like the world. Let's do it. Just like the world, the ungodly do it. And let's do it and call it a feast unto the Lord. Most churches, so-called evangelism program is a marketing program. How to influence and manipulate people to be there. Not how to get saved. Not how to repent. Not how to fear the Lord. Not how to cast out demons
or resist the devil. But let's just see how beautiful we can make this golden calf. But see, to make that golden calf, it takes a lot of money. So what'd they do? Give, give, give, give, give. The horse leech. Give, give some more, give till it hurts. That's why I refuse to do that. Even though there's no sin for a church to say, hey, yeah, it takes money to do things. Skyfalls cost us anywhere between $15,000 to $40,000, depending on what we have to do. But you don't hear me, give this, give that. Let me get your earrings. Get your rings. There are churches that do that. I've seen it. I've been in churches where they started, folks started bringing that stuff up to the altar. Yeah, one pastor locked some folks in till they would give everything. Trying to raise $40,000. Yup, locked them in. He got it. Probably scared them. Thought he was going to pass out the Kool-Aid next. But let's go over to Leviticus chapter 10. Not even 12. I'm doing good. Leviticus chapter 10. And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them, his censer, and put fire there in, and put incense there on, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is that that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me. And before all the people I will be glorified, and Aaron held his peace. And Moses called Michelle and Elzephen, the sons of Uzael, the uncle of Aaron, and said unto them, Come near, carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp. And so they went near and carried them and their coats out of the camp. And Moses said, as Moses had said, And Moses said unto Aaron, and to Eleazar, And Ithamar his sons, Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes, lest ye die. And lest wrath come upon all the people,
but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewell the burning which the Lord hath killed. And ye shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and die, for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you. And they did according to the word of Moses. Strange fire, they offered strange fire. Now, you have to understand that the censors and putting incense therein and doing this before the Lord was part of their priestly duties. But there was a time for it. There was a place for it. And they just decided of their own accord, this is what we're going to do. Now, I believe, you cannot agree with me if you want to, but I believe the reason that they did it is because they lost the fear of God. How they lost the fear of God after seeing 23,000 people judged before them, I don't know. But maybe because they saw their father do the molten calf and he didn't die, they thought maybe we can get away with just doing what we want. Well, see, this is what's dangerous. There's a lot of churches out here that they have board meetings and they decide this is the vision of the church, basically their plan to build a big church. And here's how we're going to implement it and here's how we're going to market it. And here's basically how we're going to manipulate the people to give what we need. I've been in these meetings. I remember I was a young man, I got taken to one in Montgomery. I remember they had bumper stickers. We build for his glory. And I thought, no, you don't. I said, no, you don't. I knew in my spirit, I had been fasting and praying a lot and I just, the whole thing just stunk to high heaven. And they were trying to build this, you know, multi-million dollar building, I'm talking about like in the tens of millions in the fanciest area of Montgomery, you know, right next to the richest man in town. That whole, I mean it was just disgusting display of let's make us a golden calf. If we make the calf pretty, everybody will come, right? If we look like we live like kings and they'll come here and want to find out how they can prosper like we prosper. The only thing was is that they weren't prospering. They were borrowing a bunch of money to do all this and had a big bond issue on it and then the guy that did the big bond issue for it ran away with the money that they did come up with. And it set a halfway built building,
never finished, ugly monstrosity to the point, and it stayed there for a number of years until the richest family in town, the Blunt family had it leveled and built a very nice park in Montgomery where it sat. And I thought the judgment of God fell on that golden calf. But what happens is not a lot of, the Lord sometimes backs away like with Aaron. He didn't judge Aaron. And why does the Lord back away sometimes? I think he backs away from some of these things and he lets them get away with the golden calf and lets them get away with offering strange fire so it'll test your heart. He leaves some of them to test what are you running after? What are you chasing after? He's got to leave some. If you want to live a Christian life that has no fear of the Lord, you can find them everywhere, everywhere. You have to be a person no matter where you live or what you're doing that understands I will never, ever, ever let the fear of God, that respect for him, that reverence, that trembling at his word, I will never let that leave me because the moment you do, wisdom has left you. You are now a fool. And see, there's just not, you know, I'm going to get, I'm sure I'll get some hate mail and stuff. And, you know, I get accused all the time of, oh, Pastor Dean, you just think you're the only church. No, I don't think that. I just know we're one of very few. We're now a massive minority that will even tell you this stuff. They don't talk about this. Proverbs, what is it? Is it 16-6? I don't know why this, this is one of those verses that I always get the numbers turned around. Put up 16-6, I think that's it. Yeah, that's it. By the way, my contacts down here, somewhere in my eyeball. But I can still read with the other one. By mercy and truth, iniquity is purged.
And by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. Let's just leave that up there for a minute. By the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. So what happens in a place where there's no fear of God? Somebody tell me. They don't depart from evil, do they? Nope. That's why the elders can be committing adultery and everybody knows it and nobody does anything. That's why the pastor's son can be sleeping around with the youth group. Oh, y'all don't shout me down while I'm preaching good now. Got kind of quiet in here. You know, what I love is what Sal and Daniela told me. They said what got them, they were listening, you know. I think they came across us because of flat earth and biblical cosmology. But they were listening. They started listening regularly, but they're still living up, what, north of Atlanta a little bit? Kennesaw. And they were listening one time, you know, and still having some services. That's beer if you all don't understand that. And I talked about being a drunkard. No drunkard will inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5. If you're a habitual drunkard, you're in danger of judgment. That brought the fear of the Lord and the conviction of sin into their lives and they realized we've got to put this stuff down and get serious about following Jesus. And that's when they got married, they got in ministry school, and God turned their whole life around. And Sal will tell you, if that hadn't happened in their lives, that he would be in prison now. Probably until he's about my age, yeah. And that God intervened in that to the point he doesn't even have a record. And the Lord told me he was going to do that for him. And he is a man now that loves the Lord with all of his heart. And God's blessed him with plenty of children and a wife that loves the Lord. And it could have been a disaster, but it was because of the fear of the Lord and the conviction of sin, and he responded to that. See, God's way is usually always opposite
of the way most of the world and most of the church do things. Christians can't have demons, so nobody gets help. Always saved, always saved. So why should we talk about sin or hell? See, what you believe is why it's important to have sound doctrine. What you believe will be what you live out. And that's why actually Calvinism is collapsing. The Presbyterian churches are dying faster than any group of churches, because you can't say God chooses some for heaven and chooses some for hell, and that's just the way it is. And there's nothing you can do either way. You'll never know really if you're chosen or not, right? And that if you are one of the chosen, you might have some way of figuring that out, then it doesn't matter what you do after that. Your election is sure, right? You're going to heaven. So a lot of them are like, well, if I'm one of the chosen, then I can live like I want. And that was the realization that the young people came to in the 1700s in the colonies. They were taught Calvinism by the Presbyterians, and that's what they were taught. And all the young people figured it out. Well, I can do whatever I want then. And so it just became wickedness abounded, especially among the young, until God moved on, believe it or not, a Presbyterian, to preach a non-Presbyterian message centers in the hands of an angry God, Jonathan Edwards. And if you read that sermon, nothing about it sounds Calvinistic. And that sermon brought such the fear of God upon the people that that message brought about the first great awakening in America, the American colonies, and led to the revolution and led to our country being born. It was a revival of the fear of God, period. You know, Pastor Wally preached this at Skyfall. He went through so many scriptures. I couldn't stop him. He went way past his time. And I was like, we got to stop this guy. So y'all should have it if you were at Skyfall, or you watched Skyfall. He covered it thoroughly. But this is the root of the problems. Because if you fear God, that means you respect what he says in the Bible enough to make changes in your life. And also to let go of some things
you believed that were false. You have to be willing to let go. If the Bible says differently, like I can't tell you how many people over the years I've had to break free from the false doctrine of once you're saved, you're always saved, no matter how you live, or unconditional eternal security. It has been my mission to destroy that false doctrine in people's lives. Because once that gets corrected, I see a lot of people get right with the Lord. Truly become disciples of Jesus Christ, and not just churchgoers. See, these wells without water, they're fine with you setting up your little camping chair and sitting around the well. As long as you throw the money in, and the wishing well, people just wishing they're going to make it. Let me tell you, I don't want to wish. I want to know. Amen. So in honor of my friend Roy, I'm going to end this sermon under one hour. Because I think I've made the point. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And if you don't have it, listen to this. This will be my closing, scary thought. If you don't have the fear of God enough to obey Him, and you try to do ministry, you are offering strange fire. And the Lord is not going to be happy with you. Now, you may get judged instantly, like Nadab and Abihu, or God may wait like He did with Aaron. And just because He waits doesn't mean you're okay. Ecclesiastes 8, 10. Put that one up, Jordan, if you would please, or Daniela. Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the hearts of the sons of men do evil. Let's see how high. Is that 10? Yeah. No, no. I guess it's one more, 11. Yes. Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. So sometimes delayed judgment men think that judgment's not coming. Don't ever think you can get away with the golden calves, the idols, doing things your own way, rebelling, being disobedient, following the doctrines and traditions of men instead of following the Bible. Don't think you're getting away with it.
Just because judgment didn't happen immediately does not mean it will not come. God said, though, in the last days, I believe it has to be specifically the last days. Judgment must begin at the house of God. It's beginning. Oh, it's beginning. Just wait. There's going to be more. Not just Mike Bickle and Gateway Church and IHOP and LOHOP and TD Jakes. I'm going to tell you. Well, I won't say it. Names you know out there that there are days coming. I'll just leave it at that. There are days coming. Y'all remember back, we still met downstairs. So this was before 2018 because we moved, we rented the whole building in 2018. But I remember talking about Andy Stanley in like 2016, 2015. And I said I discerned and perceived on him just an effeminate homosexual spirit. Now his church has gone full, LGBTQ, affirming, hiring counselors. I mean, and I know the guy, his gay is. He can be. Or at least he acts it. And it's sad. How can, and it's still a mega church. They seem to, so many people seem to not care. Isn't it amazing? This little shift started, I remember the church that my wife was going to when we first met because they found out their son was a homosexual. The pastors all of a sudden became okay with homosexuality and started preaching that from the pulpit. See, that shows you there's no fear of God whatsoever. So let's stand. We're going to do a song today. Now I know some of you wanted to get prayer yesterday, but I told you to wait till today. And so if you were at the marriage conference yesterday and you did not get prayer, I want you to get up and come down here. Let's just do some songs that we do on Wednesday night. We're going to do a few because I'm going to run in here and get this contact out of the behind my eyeball. Huh? I might need assistance. But just come up here. Y'all can line up right across here and just leave me some room to get in here. And we'll come back and pray for you. It'll take me just a second. But y'all just start something. Let's pray first, though. Father in heaven, we love you and we thank you. God, we do fear before you, Lord.
We respect that you are not just some Santa Claus in the sky that wants to just give us everything, but that you are the creator, God Almighty. You expect us to respect you and your word enough to tremble in fear before it, to have a healthy fear that responds, that we don't just throw it aside and act frivolous and like we can do anything we want, any time we want. And so, Lord, I pray that the true fear of the Lord to send upon us and stay upon us, and that you fill us with that revelation and understanding, because it is the beginning of wisdom. We believe that. And we don't want to be fools in the last days. We don't want to be the foolish virgins that think we're going, and then we don't. Lord, we want to be with you. And, Lord, we know judgment is beginning at the churches now, and then you're going to judge the world system. And then we're all going to stand before you to give an account of our lives at the judgment seat. So, Lord, let us have the true fear of the Lord that departs from evil, that truly repents, that truly hates sin, and that we refuse to allow it to become a lifestyle, repetitive, habitual, practicing it, lead us into true repentance and true deliverance. In Jesus' name, amen.
I think we need to do that one again.
This is such a good song. You know why I think it's such a good song? It covers everything, even when it's our time to go be with Him. You know, that's not going to be a bad day, because I promise you, if you love Him and you're walking with Him, you're only going to be with Him when He has appointed it. Nothing's going to happen until it's your time, and that day is going to be good. I'm going to tell you what. They put me in the guillotine. I'm going to be smiling. They're like, I'm going to see Jesus, and then I'm coming back to see you. You're not going to get rid of me, amen. Let's do this. This is so good. Let's do it one more time. We'll dismiss after that.
There's a word of prophecy that was given to Cherie earlier, and she sent it as a text, and my wife sent it to me. I'll read it here, but it's interesting, because these are some of the things that I was thinking today. But this was the word of the Lord, spoke to Cherie this morning. He says, I inhabit the praises of my people. I am in the midst of you. Come to me, children. I will protect you. I am for you, not against you. I love you. I love you. Obey me, children. I will direct your path if you obey me. Amen. So that is a word to the church this morning. Amen. All right. Well, y'all know the rule around here. Hug some eggs before you leave. If you want to stay and hang out afterwards, go to whatever local restaurant around here. You want to go grab something, come back, and go around that way. Is there an announcement? Do I have it? Is there an announcement, babe? No. What? Oh. Oh, yeah. The prayer tent. Oh, and by the way, not only Tuesday, May 6th, they're going to be out there praying. That's the state house where our legislators go to. They all walk by this corner. So they've been out there. They do it lady down south once a month. So if you want to do this, you want to join Nancy and Faith. And I may be there that day. I don't know. I have to look at my schedule. But May 6th. But May 8th, too, we're going to be there. We're going to set up. I'm going to do a little political meeting there on May 8th out there on the state house steps to make sure all the legislators have to walk by my banner. So, but that's on May 8th. This is May 6th. What time do y'all do that? Is it? There it is. Okay. Twelve to three. All right. Twelve to three in Montgomery. That's on South Union Street. I think it's 11 South Union Street, isn't it? Yeah. But South Union Street is, if you go down 85 to Montgomery, you get off at Exit 1. The last exit before 65. That's Union Street. You take a right. It's a one-way street. Takes you right down in front of the right. Takes you right there. So, all right. So if you want to show up for that on May 6th, go ahead and do that. And on May 8th, I'll be out there irritating state senators and state legislators. All right. All right. Love y'all. God bless. Oh, by the way, when you go to the restaurants out here and you come back, this door will be locked. So, go down and come around to the back door. That's the fellowship hall down there. But this will be locked because people walk up
and down the street all the time. So, we lock it when no one's up here. All right. All right. Hope y'all make it come back. I already did it. But hug some necks. I'll do it just in case. Hug some necks before you leave. I know some of you may have to go if you do. It's all right. Yes, sir. I was thinking about it.