I’ve been hearing many warm and fuzzy things about Jesus. It would seem that, to some, He is nothing but a cuddly stuffed animal with some special abilities thrown in: comfortable, warm, able to keep us safe. To others, He’s like a doting Grandpa: forgetful of what we’ve done wrong, but remembering that He wants to make us happy (and seeking to do so by passing out pretty things that sparkle a lot and bring the happiness we seek). If we don’t know the Real Jesus, we get confused; worse, we spread forth our confusion.

Things that should never be uttered, have been. They go along the lines of:

“Jesus is like a cup of coffee: He makes me happy, fills me up and makes me warm all over.”

Or…”Jesus just wants us to be nice to each other and to be happy.”

Or, “Jesus said, “Judge not,” so stop judging me.”

Well, Jesus did say, “Judge not” but it didn’t (and doesn’t) mean what so many take it to mean today. While we are at it, Jesus also never said that He just wants us to be happy (or to be nice). Holy and truthful, yes; nice? No.

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“Men try to forget that there is such a thing as Divine wrath. The realization of it makes them uneasy, so they endeavor to banish all thought of it. At times they are terrified at the bare mention of Gods wrath, hence their anxiety to dismiss the subject from their minds. Others try to believe there is no such thing. They argue that God is loving and merciful, and therefore Gods Anger is merely a bogey with which to frighten naughty children. But how do we know that God is Loving and Merciful? The heathen do not believe that He is. Nor does Nature clearly and uniformly reveal the fact. The answer is, we know God to be such, because His Word so affirms. Yes, and the same Bible which tells of Gods Mercy speaks of His Wrath, and as a matter of fact, refers more frequently (much more so) to His anger than it does to His love.” – A.W. Pink

The Lord always brings man to a place of brokenness. He requires utter reliance upon Himself. There is no other way. There is no other option.

I have been taught that weakness is a sure sign that you don’t know who you are in Christ. For you would never confess you are weak if Christ lives in you because He is not weak. There is some truth to that, of course. However, over time, I have personally found this type of thinking plants such a garden of pride because you forget that it is not you who is strong – it is He and He alone.

We must never forget, and I’ll even go a step further to say, we must constantly be reminded that we are nothing without Christ. We need to be reminded of the state He found us in. We need to be reminded that if He were ever to remove His grace from our lives for one second, we would instantly become that wretch of a person all over again. Sin crouches at the door. It waits to make its move upon us. Our only protection from its repulsive grasp is Christ Jesus. Our only safe refuge is Christ Jesus. And Christ Jesus must be everything. Everything!

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Listen As You Read:

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Let us go to the Lord in prayer. Father, I come before you in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, you know all things. They are all before you like an open book. Who can hide their heart from your presence and your eye? The deeds of the most clever men are exposed before you. Your omniscience knows no bounds and if it were not for grace I would be of all men most terrified, but there is grace, abounding and glorious, poured out upon the weakest of men and abounding to your glory. Father, I praise you and I worship you and I thank you for all that you are and all that you have done. And there is no one like you in the heavens or the earth or under the earth. You are king and there is no other. You are Savior and you share that glory with no one.

Father, this night you know me and my great need of grace. Why am I here except that you called the weakest among men, the most ignoble among brothers and that by your grace, often times, the lesser teaches the greater? That is always my case and I praise you. I worship you. Father, help us tonight. To the wind with eloquence, to hell with the brilliant intellect, Father. Let the truth go forward. Let me be changed that the state of your Church be more glorious. I pray for grace upon grace and mercy upon mercy for myself and for thehearers who are present here. Help us, oh God, and we will be helped and we will boast in that help in Jesus’ name. Amen.

It is a great privilege for me to be here this evening, an astounding privilege to stand here before you and to speak about things such as revival, reformation, the working of God among his people and among men. But tonight I am going to share with you an indictment, an indictment, but it is an indictment of hope.

As I was praying through what I should do in this series of meetings I came to a great conclusion, a great burden that was laid upon my heart. We need revival. We need an awakening, but we cannot simply expect the Holy Spirit to come down and clean up all the mess we have made. We have clear direction from the Word of God with regard to what he has done through Christ, how he expects us to live, how he expects us to order his Church. And it does little good for men to cry out for extra biblical manifestation, when biblical principle is violated all around us. Read the rest of this entry »

Listen  As You Read:

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I’m going to preach a message tonight that has angered many, many, many churchmen. It has angered many of the older people. It has angered many of the youth. Many of the youth that I’ve preached this to have become fiercely angry, but the people that have become most angry at hearing this message have been the parents of youth.

I have found that there is something quite amazing among parents that, if they can get some sort of a claim out of their children that they profess faith in Jesus Christ, they seem to hold onto that and it gives them assurance and joy, and it seems that they’re bothered any time someone would come and question that claim. It seems we would rather hold onto a false hope than to hear the truth.

There are many people who do not want to hear the truth because it will shake up the false hope they have that they’re going to heaven when, indeed, they are not. There are so many people in Christianity—American Christianity—that believe themselves right with God, that believe themselves saved because they were told that by a preacher who should have spent more time studying the Bible and less time preaching.

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Listen While You Read:

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Today I would like to speak to you from the theme, “Ten Shekels and a Shirt,” as we find it in Judges chapter 17. I’ll read the chapter, and then I will read a portion also from the 18th chapter so that the background might be clear in our minds. “And there was a man of mount Ephraim whose name was Micah.” There was a situation where the Amorites refused to allow the people of the tribe of Dan any access to Jerusalem, and they crowded them up into Mount Ephraim. It is a sad thing when the people of God allow the world to crowd them into an awkward position! So the people of Dan were unable to get to Jerusalem. Out of this comes the problems that we are about to see.

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