Title: Christ, The True Vine Meta: John 15:5 - I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Tags: true,vine,John,fruit,Christian,salvation 1 00:00:01,080 --> 00:00:04,250 I'll be preaching from John 15, 2 00:00:04,250 --> 00:00:08,613 the text that Brother Anthony read. 3 00:00:11,223 --> 00:00:18,943 This sermon I prepared actually for a series of meetings in Rhode Island two weeks ago 4 00:00:18,943 --> 00:00:22,283 and it was supposed to be the first sermon and it ended up being all five. 5 00:00:22,283 --> 00:00:25,790 So I don't think I'll get through my notes today 6 00:00:25,790 --> 00:00:29,789 unless you're willing to stay for about ten hours. 7 00:00:29,790 --> 00:00:33,110 And the reason why it took so long to get through this text 8 00:00:33,110 --> 00:00:36,537 is that it's like looking through a keyhole. 9 00:00:36,538 --> 00:00:40,217 I want you to think about this. It's like looking through a keyhole 10 00:00:40,217 --> 00:00:43,238 into an entire universe. 11 00:00:43,239 --> 00:00:51,338 Because in this text is summed up exactly the purpose 12 00:00:51,339 --> 00:00:58,557 and the means that God is using to achieve that purpose in you for His own glory. 13 00:00:58,558 --> 00:01:02,578 That God has called you to bear fruit 14 00:01:02,579 --> 00:01:06,598 and you can bear fruit. You will bear fruit. 15 00:01:06,599 --> 00:01:13,179 He has called you to stand in His presence clean and without spot. 16 00:01:13,179 --> 00:01:16,089 Jesus Christ did not shed His blood for you 17 00:01:16,089 --> 00:01:19,774 so that the very first thing you see when you walk into glory 18 00:01:19,774 --> 00:01:25,245 is a scowl on His face because of all your failures. 19 00:01:25,246 --> 00:01:27,976 I want you... Well, let me put it this way: 20 00:01:27,976 --> 00:01:35,459 As a servant of Christ, I will not have you condemned. 21 00:01:35,460 --> 00:01:44,919 As a representative of Jesus Christ, I will not tolerate a believer walking in condemnation. 22 00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:49,085 Why? Because of what Christ has done. 23 00:01:49,086 --> 00:01:53,926 There is a true humility in Christianity. A true humility. 24 00:01:53,926 --> 00:01:59,679 There is a true recognition of our sin, a true brokenness, a true repentance. 25 00:01:59,679 --> 00:02:03,859 But it is not onto death. It is not onto defeat. 26 00:02:03,859 --> 00:02:12,802 It does not drive a believer to wallowing in some mire. 27 00:02:12,803 --> 00:02:15,603 Those who claim to know Christ and bear no fruit are unconverted. 28 00:02:15,603 --> 00:02:19,853 I'm not speaking of them. I'm speaking to you. 29 00:02:19,853 --> 00:02:21,443 Many of you who've come to know Christ, 30 00:02:21,443 --> 00:02:24,278 your lives have been changed and you are bearing fruit 31 00:02:24,279 --> 00:02:29,311 but when you look in the mirror, you feel so dark. 32 00:02:29,312 --> 00:02:34,682 You feel like such a shadow. You feel so dirty. 33 00:02:34,682 --> 00:02:38,942 And there is a voice. There is always a voice 34 00:02:38,942 --> 00:02:45,812 taking everything you think about yourself and using it to drive you away from Christ. 35 00:02:45,813 --> 00:02:51,753 Any voice that under any circumstance drives you away from Jesus Christ 36 00:02:51,753 --> 00:02:54,415 is the voice of the deceiver. 37 00:02:54,415 --> 00:02:57,750 Every aspect of your life, 38 00:02:57,751 --> 00:03:02,081 every victory and every failure has an intention 39 00:03:02,081 --> 00:03:06,633 and that is to drive you harder to Christ. 40 00:03:06,634 --> 00:03:09,286 You're walking in victory? 41 00:03:09,287 --> 00:03:11,157 Then know that it is not your own. 42 00:03:11,157 --> 00:03:15,973 Let it be a reminder to you that it would drive you to Jesus Christ. 43 00:03:15,974 --> 00:03:18,097 You're sensing a defeat? 44 00:03:18,098 --> 00:03:21,208 You've been swallowed up in a besetting sin once again? 45 00:03:21,208 --> 00:03:26,916 Do not stay there! Let that drive you to Christ. 46 00:03:26,917 --> 00:03:33,817 Because you have been bought with a price in order to bear fruit. 47 00:03:33,817 --> 00:03:38,310 Now, I say "bear fruit" instead of saying "do great things". 48 00:03:38,310 --> 00:03:42,573 "Do great things" has become a cliché in western evangelism. 49 00:03:42,574 --> 00:03:47,164 It means all sorts of unbiblical things for the most part. 50 00:03:47,164 --> 00:03:53,429 God has not called you probably to do great things as the world sees it. 51 00:03:53,430 --> 00:03:58,770 Or called you to do great things as most evangelicals would see it today. 52 00:03:58,770 --> 00:04:07,035 God has called to bear fruit that when He walks by your tree it is a beautiful aroma. 53 00:04:07,036 --> 00:04:11,035 It pleases Him. 54 00:04:11,036 --> 00:04:14,116 And that's really all you're concerned about, isn't it? 55 00:04:14,116 --> 00:04:17,566 Pleasing Him. 56 00:04:17,567 --> 00:04:22,993 And if you're pleasing to Him, what more do you need? 57 00:04:22,993 --> 00:04:27,455 If He loves the fruit on your tree, 58 00:04:27,456 --> 00:04:30,876 let every other person turn up their nose and walk away, 59 00:04:30,876 --> 00:04:34,256 it should not diminish your joy. 60 00:04:34,256 --> 00:04:38,833 It's for Him. 61 00:04:38,834 --> 00:04:45,734 Now we'll look at this text. He says, in verse 1 of chapter 15: 62 00:04:45,735 --> 00:04:50,204 "I am the true vine." 63 00:04:50,205 --> 00:04:56,191 Now, I'm not going to get finished with this, I can see that right now. 64 00:04:56,192 --> 00:04:57,772 "I am the true vine." 65 00:04:57,772 --> 00:05:01,532 Here comes these statements. These "I AM" statements. 66 00:05:01,532 --> 00:05:04,322 Why are they so important? 67 00:05:04,322 --> 00:05:08,632 Well, I know that those "I AM" statements identify Him with deity. 68 00:05:08,632 --> 00:05:13,472 They identify Him with the Yahweh statements - "I am who I am." 69 00:05:13,472 --> 00:05:17,608 But let's put it a little bit lower on the shelf. 70 00:05:17,609 --> 00:05:23,148 Why is Jesus saying "I am so important"? 71 00:05:23,149 --> 00:05:26,959 Because you're not. 72 00:05:26,959 --> 00:05:30,389 Because I am not. 73 00:05:30,389 --> 00:05:33,329 You see, every time you look in the mirror of God's word, 74 00:05:33,329 --> 00:05:35,669 if you're an honest man, if you're an honest woman, 75 00:05:35,669 --> 00:05:39,929 you have to sit there and go: "I am not." 76 00:05:39,929 --> 00:05:42,654 Paul even said it in Philippians chapter 3. 77 00:05:42,654 --> 00:05:46,204 He had not attained it. He had not come to perfection. 78 00:05:46,204 --> 00:05:49,084 He had not come to be exactly like Christ. 79 00:05:49,084 --> 00:05:52,785 Even in his own life to the very end there were some deficiencies. 80 00:05:52,785 --> 00:05:58,041 He was not, but that's OK when He is. 81 00:05:58,042 --> 00:06:00,892 When Christ is. 82 00:06:00,892 --> 00:06:04,472 That "I AM" is another one of those keyholes, isn't it? 83 00:06:04,472 --> 00:06:08,998 You look through it, you think it's just two tiny words 84 00:06:08,998 --> 00:06:14,278 but then all of the sudden it opens up into the full revelation of who Christ is. 85 00:06:14,278 --> 00:06:18,078 See, one of the things that I believe that 86 00:06:18,078 --> 00:06:21,358 Anthony has been seeking to do over this last year 87 00:06:21,358 --> 00:06:25,668 is to get you to look though a keyhole. 88 00:06:27,058 --> 00:06:31,627 Because there's really only one thing that can fill you, 89 00:06:31,628 --> 00:06:33,608 that can feed your hunger. 90 00:06:33,608 --> 00:06:35,538 And it's not a thing, it's a person. 91 00:06:35,538 --> 00:06:37,588 It's Christ. 92 00:06:37,588 --> 00:06:40,468 Let me put it this way, in the way the Puritans used to speak. 93 00:06:40,468 --> 00:06:42,969 Since you have been converted, 94 00:06:42,969 --> 00:06:47,389 you have become a creature - good language - 95 00:06:47,389 --> 00:06:54,429 you have become a creature of such a sublime nature 96 00:06:54,429 --> 00:07:00,315 that you can no longer be satisfied with anything other than God. 97 00:07:00,316 --> 00:07:05,556 And if you can be satisfied with something other than God, 98 00:07:05,556 --> 00:07:07,749 you ought to tremble because that may be an evidence 99 00:07:07,749 --> 00:07:12,749 that you are not converted. 100 00:07:12,749 --> 00:07:15,269 You see, when you begin to understand this, it changes everything. 101 00:07:15,269 --> 00:07:16,589 You go: "My life's not complete." 102 00:07:16,589 --> 00:07:20,619 Of course it's not. You live in the fallen world. 103 00:07:20,619 --> 00:07:22,769 "My job doesn't fulfill me." 104 00:07:22,769 --> 00:07:25,869 And if it could, you'd be lost. 105 00:07:25,869 --> 00:07:29,799 "The ministry doesn't fill me up, it doesn't feed my hunger." 106 00:07:29,799 --> 00:07:32,279 Moses had the biggest ministry any man has ever had 107 00:07:32,279 --> 00:07:34,659 and yet he said: "Show me Your glory even if it'd kill me 108 00:07:34,659 --> 00:07:37,649 because ministry is not enough." 109 00:07:37,649 --> 00:07:40,299 You say: "My wife doesn't complete me." 110 00:07:40,299 --> 00:07:44,299 If she can, you're an unbeliever. 111 00:07:45,683 --> 00:07:48,228 You see, you've been recreated 112 00:07:48,228 --> 00:07:54,248 and the only one who can satisfy you is Christ. 113 00:07:54,248 --> 00:07:58,608 And that's why it is useless to go to these other things. 114 00:07:58,609 --> 00:08:02,789 Let me let you in on something about the Christian life. 115 00:08:02,789 --> 00:08:05,719 Because sanctification is progressive, 116 00:08:05,719 --> 00:08:12,901 you will spend the greater part of your life chasing other things. 117 00:08:12,902 --> 00:08:19,702 And those other things will leave you empty and that is why, the why, of trials. 118 00:08:19,702 --> 00:08:24,432 That is the why of wins stronger than you can handle. 119 00:08:24,432 --> 00:08:28,240 They are all intended to blow you back to that one keyhole. 120 00:08:28,240 --> 00:08:30,072 To Christ. 121 00:08:30,073 --> 00:08:33,452 To looking at Him. 122 00:08:33,453 --> 00:08:36,833 He says: "I am the true vine." 123 00:08:36,833 --> 00:08:40,533 As opposed to what? You see, we have and opposition here. 124 00:08:40,533 --> 00:08:43,493 Now if He'd said: "I am a vine," 125 00:08:43,493 --> 00:08:46,103 the world wouldn't have a problem with Him. 126 00:08:46,103 --> 00:08:48,753 Even if He said: "I am the vine." 127 00:08:48,753 --> 00:08:51,213 But He says: "I am the true vine." 128 00:08:51,213 --> 00:08:52,983 And here He is drawing a contrast. 129 00:08:52,983 --> 00:08:54,393 Do you see that? A great contrast. 130 00:08:54,393 --> 00:08:59,500 Jesus is telling us: "There's a bunch of vines out there that aren't true." 131 00:08:59,501 --> 00:09:03,500 You have found many of them, haven't you? 132 00:09:03,501 --> 00:09:09,453 You may be even right now tangled up in a whole bunch of them. 133 00:09:09,454 --> 00:09:13,084 Always looking for fruit. Always looking for life. 134 00:09:13,084 --> 00:09:15,254 Always looking for meaning. 135 00:09:15,254 --> 00:09:22,234 You will not find it in any vine except Jesus Christ. 136 00:09:22,234 --> 00:09:25,934 And that's what's so dangerous about western evangelicalism. 137 00:09:25,934 --> 00:09:28,464 They're giving you more than Jesus. 138 00:09:28,464 --> 00:09:31,594 They're giving you entertainment. They're giving you seminars. 139 00:09:31,594 --> 00:09:33,054 They're teaching you how to do things right. 140 00:09:33,054 --> 00:09:34,514 How to have your best life now. 141 00:09:34,514 --> 00:09:38,794 All sorts of things so that you think you're being filled 142 00:09:38,794 --> 00:09:41,484 but you're being filled with things that cannot fill. 143 00:09:41,484 --> 00:09:45,084 You're being deceived. You need to be left alone. 144 00:09:45,084 --> 00:09:48,883 You need to be given Christ. 145 00:09:48,884 --> 00:09:51,684 And you need to learn to feed from Him. 146 00:09:51,684 --> 00:09:55,744 He says: "I am the true vine." 147 00:09:55,744 --> 00:09:58,924 Now, in the earlier part of the service, in the prayer service, 148 00:09:58,924 --> 00:10:01,244 Anthony read from Isaiah 5. 149 00:10:01,244 --> 00:10:04,114 We can also read from Psalms 80 150 00:10:04,114 --> 00:10:06,964 because there's something very important that we see there. 151 00:10:06,964 --> 00:10:10,315 When Jesus says "I am the true vine," 152 00:10:10,315 --> 00:10:13,365 His Jewish listeners were understanding something 153 00:10:13,365 --> 00:10:15,105 that maybe we wouldn't understand. 154 00:10:15,105 --> 00:10:20,165 You see, in Isaiah, we are told that God went to Egypt and He brought out a vine. 155 00:10:20,165 --> 00:10:23,756 That vine was Israel. 156 00:10:23,756 --> 00:10:28,326 And He did absolutely everything imaginable 157 00:10:28,326 --> 00:10:32,456 for Israel to prosper as a vine. 158 00:10:32,456 --> 00:10:35,533 But in the end, we see in Isaiah and we see in Psalms 80, 159 00:10:35,533 --> 00:10:37,743 in the end, what happens? 160 00:10:37,743 --> 00:10:42,224 The vine is destroyed. 161 00:10:42,225 --> 00:10:46,665 And it's destroyed not just by opposing forces, 162 00:10:46,665 --> 00:10:51,754 but the vine is destroyed by God. 163 00:10:51,755 --> 00:10:53,925 And there are some things that we can learn. 164 00:10:53,925 --> 00:10:55,755 Many things, but we're not going to touch them today. 165 00:10:55,755 --> 00:10:58,465 There are some things that we can learn from this. 166 00:10:58,465 --> 00:11:02,149 Number one, 167 00:11:02,150 --> 00:11:10,044 there is no human or human institution 168 00:11:10,044 --> 00:11:19,323 that will every be able to supply your need of spiritual life. 169 00:11:19,324 --> 00:11:21,644 Israel was the best of the best. 170 00:11:21,644 --> 00:11:26,284 So many time people misjudge the whole biblical presentation of the nation of Israel. 171 00:11:26,284 --> 00:11:29,348 Especially when we get to Romans chapter 3. 172 00:11:29,348 --> 00:11:30,688 Let me just give you an example. 173 00:11:30,688 --> 00:11:32,898 Let me turn there real quick, you don't have to turn there. 174 00:11:32,898 --> 00:11:34,428 But just let me read a text to you. 175 00:11:34,428 --> 00:11:36,238 "Now we know that whatever the law says, 176 00:11:36,238 --> 00:11:37,878 it speaks to those who are under the law 177 00:11:37,878 --> 00:11:39,258 so that every mouth may be closed 178 00:11:39,258 --> 00:11:42,008 and all the world may become accountable to God." (Romans 3:19) 179 00:11:42,008 --> 00:11:45,518 Now, you read that and you think it's talking about you. 180 00:11:45,518 --> 00:11:47,618 Well, not directly. 181 00:11:47,618 --> 00:11:49,188 Directly it's talking about Israel. 182 00:11:49,188 --> 00:11:51,479 Israel was the one under the law. 183 00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:53,400 And what it's basically saying is this: 184 00:11:53,400 --> 00:11:55,740 Israel was a people called out by God, 185 00:11:55,740 --> 00:11:57,100 they were given oracles of God, 186 00:11:57,100 --> 00:11:59,450 the revelations of God, the temple service, 187 00:11:59,450 --> 00:12:01,510 everything else from God. 188 00:12:01,510 --> 00:12:03,800 Everything God could do, He gave it to them. 189 00:12:03,800 --> 00:12:05,570 And they were under the law. 190 00:12:05,570 --> 00:12:08,440 They weren't like us vicious pagan gentiles. 191 00:12:08,440 --> 00:12:13,927 They were under the law and they failed in every part of it. 192 00:12:13,928 --> 00:12:15,308 So what is he saying? 193 00:12:15,308 --> 00:12:19,138 Gentiles, look at the best of the best. And they failed. 194 00:12:19,138 --> 00:12:21,508 Now put your hand over your mouth, 195 00:12:21,508 --> 00:12:24,957 because you would do even worse. 196 00:12:24,958 --> 00:12:28,368 You see? There is no human institution, 197 00:12:28,368 --> 00:12:32,008 there is no man that you can lean on, 198 00:12:32,008 --> 00:12:39,087 no person, no thing of this human fabric that is going to fill you, 199 00:12:39,088 --> 00:12:41,398 that's going to be able to provide life. 200 00:12:41,398 --> 00:12:45,488 Only Jesus Christ and Him alone. 201 00:12:45,488 --> 00:12:49,147 He's the true vine. That's what He calls Himself here. 202 00:12:49,147 --> 00:12:51,187 But also, He's the bread of life. 203 00:12:51,187 --> 00:12:52,467 Listen to what Jesus said. 204 00:12:52,467 --> 00:12:56,807 Jesus said to them: "I am the bread of life." 205 00:12:56,807 --> 00:13:04,569 Right there is enough to stop any accusation against the deity of Christ. 206 00:13:04,569 --> 00:13:08,773 Jesus Christ is God in the flesh or He just blasphemed with that statement. 207 00:13:08,774 --> 00:13:10,394 Do you hear what He's saying? 208 00:13:10,394 --> 00:13:12,634 People say: "Well, I'm not sure there's a lot of references 209 00:13:12,634 --> 00:13:14,514 in the Bible to Christ's deity" 210 00:13:14,514 --> 00:13:16,814 Here's one right here. You just need to understand. 211 00:13:16,814 --> 00:13:18,514 Any man who stands up and says: 212 00:13:18,514 --> 00:13:22,744 "I am the bread of life" 213 00:13:22,744 --> 00:13:26,094 is taking the place of God. 214 00:13:26,094 --> 00:13:30,561 And in this case it is a man claiming deity 215 00:13:30,562 --> 00:13:33,072 And rightfully so because He is. 216 00:13:33,072 --> 00:13:36,272 He is the bread! 217 00:13:36,272 --> 00:13:39,602 Believers, I always hear believers: 218 00:13:39,602 --> 00:13:43,902 "I'm so hungry, I'm so thirsty." 219 00:13:43,902 --> 00:13:48,983 You go into a supposed Christian bookstore today. 220 00:13:48,984 --> 00:13:53,729 I mean, it'll make you weep. 221 00:13:53,730 --> 00:13:59,225 Most of the bookstores are filled with so-called Christian pop psychology. 222 00:13:59,226 --> 00:14:02,503 It's not even good psychology. 223 00:14:02,503 --> 00:14:07,078 It's not even good wrong psychology. 224 00:14:07,078 --> 00:14:09,198 You go into a Christian bookstore, 225 00:14:09,198 --> 00:14:16,128 most of the books are written about how empty we are, how thirsty we are. 226 00:14:16,128 --> 00:14:20,448 And then someone's contrived some new system 227 00:14:20,448 --> 00:14:24,457 of Christian thought in order to fill you. 228 00:14:24,458 --> 00:14:27,458 You know, Jesus was never empty. 229 00:14:27,458 --> 00:14:32,344 He was never thirsty in the sense of inwardly. Why? 230 00:14:32,345 --> 00:14:35,115 Because He knew God. 231 00:14:35,116 --> 00:14:36,276 As a man, He knew God. 232 00:14:36,276 --> 00:14:37,636 Not just because He was deity 233 00:14:37,636 --> 00:14:38,896 But because He knew God 234 00:14:38,896 --> 00:14:43,045 and He has always set Himself to do the Father's will. 235 00:14:43,046 --> 00:14:46,203 Why are Christians so empty? 236 00:14:46,203 --> 00:14:52,613 And why will all those silly little books never fill you? 237 00:14:54,125 --> 00:14:56,255 Because you need more than a book. 238 00:14:56,255 --> 00:15:01,516 You need more than four points or five ways or ten steps. 239 00:15:01,517 --> 00:15:08,359 You need Christ. 240 00:15:08,360 --> 00:15:09,220 He's the bread of life. 241 00:15:09,220 --> 00:15:10,820 He's the fountain of living water. 242 00:15:10,820 --> 00:15:11,720 Now, listen to this: 243 00:15:11,720 --> 00:15:14,370 "Now, on the last day, the great day of the feast, 244 00:15:14,370 --> 00:15:16,480 Jesus stood and cried out saying: 245 00:15:16,480 --> 00:15:23,621 If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." (John 7:37) 246 00:15:23,622 --> 00:15:26,832 Every time you're thirsty, where do you run? 247 00:15:26,832 --> 00:15:30,972 Usually to someone else to complain how thirsty you are. 248 00:15:32,426 --> 00:15:38,545 Or maybe even you run to Scripture to try to find a verse. 249 00:15:38,546 --> 00:15:40,776 Or maybe you look for a certain aspect 250 00:15:40,776 --> 00:15:45,906 of propositional truth in systematic theology. 251 00:15:48,087 --> 00:15:51,907 That's not necessarily bad, but it can be. Why? 252 00:15:51,907 --> 00:15:54,867 Because if you run to Scripture and stop there, 253 00:15:54,867 --> 00:15:58,070 you've missed the entire point of Scripture. 254 00:15:58,070 --> 00:16:02,990 The point of Scripture is to send you on to Christ in a correct fashion. 255 00:16:02,990 --> 00:16:05,760 That you might feed from Him. 256 00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:08,200 Do you not understand all those texts, 257 00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:10,820 my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, 258 00:16:10,820 --> 00:16:16,040 that speak to you about Him being jealous about you? 259 00:16:16,040 --> 00:16:18,981 Being zealous with regard to His love for you? 260 00:16:18,981 --> 00:16:22,000 Don't you understand that? 261 00:16:22,001 --> 00:16:25,731 He really is jealous! 262 00:16:25,731 --> 00:16:31,461 He really will not allow anything to compete with Him. 263 00:16:31,461 --> 00:16:34,171 That's why Jesus said: "Blessed are the pure in heart." 264 00:16:34,171 --> 00:16:36,701 The idea there is an unalloyed heart. 265 00:16:36,701 --> 00:16:38,461 The idea is: Blessed are those 266 00:16:38,461 --> 00:16:41,091 who have no competing loyalties within them. 267 00:16:41,091 --> 00:16:44,932 Who belong wholly onto God. 268 00:16:44,933 --> 00:16:46,983 And you see, that's the reason 269 00:16:46,983 --> 00:16:49,663 for this tearing of the fabric in your life. 270 00:16:49,663 --> 00:16:53,301 This being tossed to and fro. 271 00:16:53,301 --> 00:16:56,091 You may think it's the world and you may think it's Satan 272 00:16:56,091 --> 00:16:57,241 and they might be instruments, 273 00:16:57,241 --> 00:16:59,031 but behind that all, 274 00:16:59,031 --> 00:17:04,072 it is God tearing you and shifting you and sifting you 275 00:17:04,072 --> 00:17:08,521 until you come to realize, maybe battered and sore, 276 00:17:08,521 --> 00:17:10,761 that He's the only one. 277 00:17:10,761 --> 00:17:15,431 He's it. 278 00:17:17,915 --> 00:17:21,365 One of the reasons why I respect 279 00:17:21,365 --> 00:17:25,795 what's being done here though the elders 280 00:17:25,795 --> 00:17:30,396 is they could give you a lot more things 281 00:17:30,396 --> 00:17:33,152 that they're not giving you 282 00:17:33,152 --> 00:17:38,592 to tantalize your flesh and to draw in a lot more people. 283 00:17:41,701 --> 00:17:45,212 They're seeking to give you Christ. 284 00:17:45,213 --> 00:17:47,453 That's what you need. 285 00:17:47,453 --> 00:17:50,353 The question is: Is that what you want? 286 00:17:50,353 --> 00:17:52,952 Christ? 287 00:17:52,953 --> 00:17:54,263 He's the fountain of living water. 288 00:17:54,263 --> 00:17:57,273 "Now, in the last day, the great day of the feast, 289 00:17:57,273 --> 00:17:59,123 Jesus stood and cried out saying: 290 00:17:59,123 --> 00:18:01,743 If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 291 00:18:01,743 --> 00:18:04,073 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 292 00:18:04,073 --> 00:18:08,689 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'" 293 00:18:08,690 --> 00:18:12,690 You... I don't know how to describe you. 294 00:18:14,336 --> 00:18:18,336 A giver-upper-too-soon, if that's a word. 295 00:18:18,336 --> 00:18:22,840 Could that be a word? A giver-upper-too-soon. 296 00:18:22,841 --> 00:18:26,800 I think I've just made a word. 297 00:18:26,801 --> 00:18:28,231 I know this about you. 298 00:18:28,231 --> 00:18:32,940 You're a giver-upper-too-soon because so am I. 299 00:18:32,941 --> 00:18:36,650 You don't fight, you quit. 300 00:18:36,651 --> 00:18:40,941 I mean, it's just like the king cried out in the Old Testament saying: 301 00:18:40,941 --> 00:18:42,321 "We're at the point of giving birth 302 00:18:42,321 --> 00:18:48,526 and yet there is no strength for the baby to be born!" 303 00:18:48,527 --> 00:18:50,487 Look at this promise! 304 00:18:50,487 --> 00:18:57,837 He says: "From your innermost being will flow rivers of living water." 305 00:18:57,837 --> 00:19:02,544 He's not talking about some age to come after some age to come. 306 00:19:02,544 --> 00:19:04,814 He is talking about now. 307 00:19:04,814 --> 00:19:07,064 And so what should you do? 308 00:19:07,064 --> 00:19:10,814 When you notice 309 00:19:10,814 --> 00:19:17,998 that there is no sense of living water flowing in and out of you 310 00:19:17,998 --> 00:19:20,898 do not be condemned. 311 00:19:20,898 --> 00:19:24,088 Do not drop your head. Do not run to the dark. 312 00:19:24,088 --> 00:19:26,458 Do not run away from God. 313 00:19:26,458 --> 00:19:27,268 Just say: 314 00:19:27,268 --> 00:19:31,611 "At this moment it's not the reality it should be in my life, 315 00:19:31,611 --> 00:19:34,311 I will run boldly to Christ 316 00:19:34,311 --> 00:19:36,651 with the biggest bucket I can find 317 00:19:36,651 --> 00:19:40,441 and I will wait and wait and wait and wait. 318 00:19:40,441 --> 00:19:47,310 I will give Him no peace until He fills me." 319 00:19:47,311 --> 00:19:49,091 You see? It's very hard for us, isn't it? 320 00:19:49,091 --> 00:19:52,121 We live in the day of microwaves and instant coffee, 321 00:19:52,121 --> 00:19:56,121 instant this and instant that. 322 00:19:57,482 --> 00:19:59,682 We have no sense of what it means to tarry 323 00:19:59,682 --> 00:20:01,902 and wait upon the promises of God. 324 00:20:01,902 --> 00:20:04,122 To grab a hold of the horns of the altar. 325 00:20:04,122 --> 00:20:09,219 "Bless me to fight like Jacob!" 326 00:20:09,220 --> 00:20:12,450 "To fight like Jacob. I will not let You go." 327 00:20:12,450 --> 00:20:14,790 Seek and grow. 328 00:20:14,790 --> 00:20:17,190 Well, I guess you could, 329 00:20:17,190 --> 00:20:21,190 but in most churches today this type of language 330 00:20:21,190 --> 00:20:25,190 has no place at all. 331 00:20:25,190 --> 00:20:28,700 No one wants this. 332 00:20:28,700 --> 00:20:33,563 They just want: "I did my thing on Sunday, leave me alone. 333 00:20:33,563 --> 00:20:36,003 Now I can go play. 334 00:20:36,003 --> 00:20:40,957 I've earned it." 335 00:20:40,958 --> 00:20:48,303 Brothers and sisters in Christ, don't ever give up! 336 00:20:48,304 --> 00:20:53,456 Take Him at His word and wrestle with Him! 337 00:20:53,457 --> 00:20:56,127 Be like a watchman on the walls of Jerusalem. 338 00:20:56,127 --> 00:20:58,897 God loves this kind of boldness. 339 00:20:58,897 --> 00:21:00,527 "I will give You no peace 340 00:21:00,527 --> 00:21:06,405 until these things become growing realities in my life." 341 00:21:06,406 --> 00:21:07,416 Growing realities. 342 00:21:07,416 --> 00:21:10,106 But listen to me, do this with joy! 343 00:21:10,106 --> 00:21:12,726 I've heard people say this. I've heard people say to me: 344 00:21:12,726 --> 00:21:14,006 "You know, brother Paul, 345 00:21:14,006 --> 00:21:18,036 the church began in the upper room agonizing, 346 00:21:18,036 --> 00:21:20,626 the Spirit would fall upon them, 347 00:21:20,626 --> 00:21:22,756 and the church will probably die in America 348 00:21:22,756 --> 00:21:26,176 around the fellowship table stuffing itself." 349 00:21:26,176 --> 00:21:28,436 Well, the second part may be true 350 00:21:28,436 --> 00:21:31,196 but the first part is not true. 351 00:21:31,196 --> 00:21:34,216 My dear friend, those apostles, the early disciples 352 00:21:34,216 --> 00:21:41,224 were not in the upper room agonizing in prayer. 353 00:21:41,225 --> 00:21:43,075 Why would they be agonizing? 354 00:21:43,075 --> 00:21:45,835 Jesus promised, didn't He? 355 00:21:45,835 --> 00:21:50,665 They weren't agonizing trying to wrench something out of His hand 356 00:21:50,665 --> 00:21:53,255 as though He was a miserly sovereign who said: 357 00:21:53,255 --> 00:21:55,625 "I'll only give you this if you inflict yourself." 358 00:21:55,625 --> 00:21:59,035 No, they were waiting in that upper room, waiting, 359 00:21:59,035 --> 00:22:02,085 and waiting many days, in one mind. 360 00:22:02,085 --> 00:22:05,625 Waiting, but waiting joyfully. 361 00:22:05,625 --> 00:22:07,025 He had promised. 362 00:22:07,025 --> 00:22:09,945 Had He ever lied to them? 363 00:22:09,945 --> 00:22:10,975 And see what the devil will do. 364 00:22:10,975 --> 00:22:13,425 He will intervene in your life 365 00:22:13,425 --> 00:22:15,355 and you'll hear a sermon like this 366 00:22:15,355 --> 00:22:18,565 and you'll get excited about wanting more from Christ 367 00:22:18,565 --> 00:22:22,445 and you'll go there for half an hour and nothing will happen 368 00:22:22,445 --> 00:22:24,265 and you'll just think that it's impossible 369 00:22:24,265 --> 00:22:28,525 or something is obviously wrong with you. 370 00:22:29,870 --> 00:22:31,600 You become disgruntled. No! 371 00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:33,690 Joyfully wait! 372 00:22:33,690 --> 00:22:36,970 And when all the horde of hell comes to you and says: 373 00:22:36,970 --> 00:22:39,920 "You fool, why do you wait at His door?" 374 00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:42,060 He promised! 375 00:22:42,060 --> 00:22:45,180 "You fool, you're a beggar, why should He open the door?" 376 00:22:45,180 --> 00:22:49,190 Because He died! 377 00:22:49,190 --> 00:22:51,860 I will wait. 378 00:22:51,860 --> 00:22:53,950 I will seek Him. 379 00:22:53,950 --> 00:22:56,070 I will go to His word. 380 00:22:56,070 --> 00:22:58,330 I will be with Him in prayer. 381 00:22:58,330 --> 00:23:01,060 I will wait upon the Lord 382 00:23:01,060 --> 00:23:07,239 because He will not grant me less than what I ask for. 383 00:23:07,239 --> 00:23:09,929 He will only grant me greater 384 00:23:09,929 --> 00:23:12,999 than what I can even conceive in my mind. 385 00:23:12,999 --> 00:23:14,939 Now, when a lot of these TV preachers say that, 386 00:23:14,939 --> 00:23:17,488 they're talking about houses and cars. 387 00:23:17,488 --> 00:23:20,288 What do we care about houses and cars 388 00:23:20,288 --> 00:23:23,568 talking about the presence of Christ? 389 00:23:23,568 --> 00:23:27,948 Him using us, His pleasure? 390 00:23:27,948 --> 00:23:30,128 Do you see that? 391 00:23:30,128 --> 00:23:33,088 Oh, brothers and sisters. 392 00:23:33,088 --> 00:23:38,177 So much for you, so much! 393 00:23:38,178 --> 00:23:44,339 So much to those who will enter in. 394 00:23:44,340 --> 00:23:46,770 To those who will fight. To those who will tarry. 395 00:23:46,770 --> 00:23:51,915 To those who will study His word and pray. 396 00:23:51,916 --> 00:23:54,696 Now I want to talk for a moment about 397 00:23:54,696 --> 00:23:58,233 the counterfeit cisterns. 398 00:23:58,234 --> 00:24:03,643 One of the great hindrances in our lives are counterfeit cisterns. 399 00:24:03,643 --> 00:24:08,403 Things that are brought into our lives that hold no water, 400 00:24:08,403 --> 00:24:10,434 cannot quench our thirst. 401 00:24:10,434 --> 00:24:13,174 They're like mirages that will dry up. 402 00:24:13,174 --> 00:24:15,504 They're everywhere. 403 00:24:15,504 --> 00:24:20,038 Even good things that are a gift from God 404 00:24:20,038 --> 00:24:22,258 can be nothing but mirages 405 00:24:22,258 --> 00:24:25,038 if seen outside of His presence and His will. 406 00:24:25,038 --> 00:24:26,054 Let me give you a couple: 407 00:24:26,054 --> 00:24:32,745 Children, marriage, a good job. 408 00:24:32,746 --> 00:24:34,836 They can all be temptations. 409 00:24:34,836 --> 00:24:39,036 To do what? Turn your eyes from Jesus. 410 00:24:41,673 --> 00:24:45,672 Blessings, health. 411 00:24:45,673 --> 00:24:46,824 I'm not saying these things are bad. 412 00:24:46,824 --> 00:24:47,704 These things are wonderful. 413 00:24:47,704 --> 00:24:50,754 I have some of them and I'm glad. 414 00:24:50,754 --> 00:24:54,263 They can be temptations. 415 00:24:54,264 --> 00:24:57,354 That is why you will see - 416 00:24:57,354 --> 00:25:01,214 and Jawett points this out very good in his little book School of Calvary - 417 00:25:01,214 --> 00:25:07,617 it seems that it requires a greater degree of suffering 418 00:25:07,617 --> 00:25:12,547 to bring a man to a greater degree of the presence of Christ. 419 00:25:14,124 --> 00:25:19,146 Because we are somewhat hard-headed and callous 420 00:25:19,147 --> 00:25:21,787 and the good things, even the gifts, 421 00:25:21,787 --> 00:25:28,774 can become things that we think of more than the giver. 422 00:25:28,775 --> 00:25:32,275 Listen to Jeremiah 2:11-13: 423 00:25:32,275 --> 00:25:35,405 "Has a nation changed gods when they were not gods? 424 00:25:35,405 --> 00:25:37,265 But My people have changed their glory 425 00:25:37,265 --> 00:25:39,845 for that which does not profit. 426 00:25:39,845 --> 00:25:42,355 “Be appalled, O heavens, at this, 427 00:25:42,355 --> 00:25:45,225 and shudder, be very desolate,” declares the Lord. 428 00:25:45,225 --> 00:25:47,825 “For my people have committed two evils: 429 00:25:47,825 --> 00:25:51,045 they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, 430 00:25:51,045 --> 00:25:53,105 to hew for themselves cisterns, 431 00:25:53,105 --> 00:25:56,382 broken cisterns that can hold no water." 432 00:25:56,382 --> 00:25:58,152 Now even though this appears in Jeremiah 433 00:25:58,152 --> 00:26:00,862 in this exact form only here, 434 00:26:00,862 --> 00:26:05,544 we see this tendency always, don't we? 435 00:26:05,545 --> 00:26:07,195 We see it in the garden. 436 00:26:07,195 --> 00:26:10,095 We see it even in God dealing with Egypt 437 00:26:10,095 --> 00:26:12,065 showing His mighty power. 438 00:26:12,065 --> 00:26:15,215 We see it in Israel. We see it in the wilderness. 439 00:26:15,215 --> 00:26:18,835 We see it in the land of Canaan. 440 00:26:18,835 --> 00:26:20,505 We see it in the days of the prophets. 441 00:26:20,505 --> 00:26:22,815 We see it in our own lives. 442 00:26:22,815 --> 00:26:30,154 We have a tendency to seek out things other than God. 443 00:26:30,155 --> 00:26:32,315 And I think that the reason for that 444 00:26:32,315 --> 00:26:37,141 is the reason why we have the admonition in the book of Colossians 3. 445 00:26:37,142 --> 00:26:41,332 That we need to keep focusing on things above where Christ is seated. 446 00:26:41,332 --> 00:26:45,782 The problem is: Even though we have been renewed in our spirit, 447 00:26:45,782 --> 00:26:47,324 we have been regenerated, 448 00:26:47,324 --> 00:26:51,474 we are still physical beings who long to touch, 449 00:26:51,474 --> 00:26:54,724 long to see with the eyes. 450 00:26:54,724 --> 00:26:56,134 I am convinced that the men and women 451 00:26:56,134 --> 00:26:58,544 who have made the most progress in the Christian life 452 00:26:58,544 --> 00:27:03,314 have been those who have seen more of the other world. 453 00:27:03,314 --> 00:27:06,057 Now, I don't necessarily mean dreams of visions, 454 00:27:06,057 --> 00:27:12,076 I just mean that they have a deeper sense of what is to come. 455 00:27:12,077 --> 00:27:16,167 They've caught the apocalyptic vision of the prophets of the Old Testament 456 00:27:16,167 --> 00:27:20,855 that saw lambs lying down with lions. 457 00:27:20,856 --> 00:27:24,626 They see in the book of Revelation a crystal clear water, 458 00:27:24,626 --> 00:27:27,766 they join with Ezekiel looking at that new temple, 459 00:27:27,766 --> 00:27:30,606 they see things that are to come. 460 00:27:30,606 --> 00:27:32,086 Moses was the same way. 461 00:27:32,086 --> 00:27:35,916 He could leave the riches of Egypt 462 00:27:35,916 --> 00:27:39,930 because he saw Him who was unseen. 463 00:27:39,931 --> 00:27:41,751 And that's why it is so important 464 00:27:41,751 --> 00:27:45,191 not only to saturate your mind in the word of God. 465 00:27:45,191 --> 00:27:46,691 That is essential! 466 00:27:46,691 --> 00:27:48,091 But I want to tell you something: 467 00:27:48,091 --> 00:27:50,301 You can have 99% clean water 468 00:27:50,301 --> 00:27:53,321 but you put a drop of filth in there and it'll kill you. 469 00:27:53,321 --> 00:27:54,981 My dear friends, especially you young people, 470 00:27:54,981 --> 00:27:58,791 you will never catch a vision of God 471 00:27:58,791 --> 00:28:01,061 while you're filling yourself up with much 472 00:28:01,061 --> 00:28:04,661 of what even western Christianity says it is acceptable today 473 00:28:04,661 --> 00:28:07,691 as far as you see with your eyes. 474 00:28:09,144 --> 00:28:12,804 I'm telling you, if you want a vision of God, 475 00:28:12,804 --> 00:28:16,584 you need to get the screen cleared. 476 00:28:19,794 --> 00:28:25,684 I am just astounded at what Christians, supposedly, 477 00:28:25,684 --> 00:28:29,024 evangelicals, watch today. 478 00:28:29,024 --> 00:28:31,504 The things that they will view. 479 00:28:31,504 --> 00:28:35,374 Do you know, I can't even look at people at my Twitter account. 480 00:28:35,374 --> 00:28:38,104 Sometimes I think: "Well, who's following me?" 481 00:28:38,104 --> 00:28:41,384 I'll look and I'm thinking: 482 00:28:41,384 --> 00:28:43,704 "Well, I need to start preaching the Gospel 483 00:28:43,704 --> 00:28:45,904 because obviously some of them are lost." 484 00:28:45,904 --> 00:28:49,452 Look at the way they dress! 485 00:28:49,453 --> 00:28:54,563 You see, we need to be a holy people 486 00:28:54,563 --> 00:28:59,696 so that we might truly know Him. 487 00:28:59,697 --> 00:29:02,117 Be filled with Him, have a greater vision of Him. 488 00:29:02,117 --> 00:29:08,244 But we're always in danger of these false cisterns. Always. 489 00:29:08,245 --> 00:29:10,695 I've seen so many young men hot after God. 490 00:29:10,695 --> 00:29:13,375 I mean just following God with everything. 491 00:29:13,375 --> 00:29:17,969 And then all of a sudden young lady appears. 492 00:29:17,970 --> 00:29:18,840 There's nothing wrong with that. 493 00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:20,920 A young lady appeared in my life. 494 00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:26,827 But distracts him from the things of God. 495 00:29:26,828 --> 00:29:28,828 Young man's in college, is going to do great things. 496 00:29:28,828 --> 00:29:29,718 I remember so many: 497 00:29:29,718 --> 00:29:32,378 "We're going to be missionaries, missionaries, missionaries." 498 00:29:32,378 --> 00:29:35,638 And when they came to last year, 499 00:29:35,638 --> 00:29:39,188 I found out most of my friends had gone for interviews 500 00:29:39,188 --> 00:29:40,388 in all these big companies. 501 00:29:40,388 --> 00:29:41,648 I didn't go to any because I thought: 502 00:29:41,648 --> 00:29:45,132 "We're all going to go to China and die for Christ." 503 00:29:45,132 --> 00:29:47,672 And I'm like: "What?" 504 00:29:47,672 --> 00:29:49,976 "Yeah, well, Paul, you've got to be realistic. 505 00:29:49,976 --> 00:29:52,416 I mean, you've gone a little wild here. 506 00:29:52,416 --> 00:29:54,896 I mean, we said those things, but..." 507 00:29:54,896 --> 00:29:58,486 And then all of the sudden the things just start grabbing them. 508 00:29:58,486 --> 00:30:01,086 Cars. Homes. 509 00:30:01,086 --> 00:30:06,363 Home-owner associations. 510 00:30:06,364 --> 00:30:08,094 Now, I'm not saying everyone's called into the ministry, 511 00:30:08,094 --> 00:30:10,114 but what I am saying is: 512 00:30:10,114 --> 00:30:13,694 If you began to pursue Christ, what will happen is - 513 00:30:13,694 --> 00:30:17,024 there will come detour after detour after detour. 514 00:30:17,024 --> 00:30:18,744 Things that come into your life 515 00:30:18,744 --> 00:30:22,664 from which you will attempt to draw joy, strength and life 516 00:30:22,664 --> 00:30:25,454 and in the end they will be as bitter as gall 517 00:30:25,454 --> 00:30:28,803 in your mouth and in your belly. 518 00:30:28,804 --> 00:30:30,444 Be aware. 519 00:30:30,444 --> 00:30:34,894 Not just of the things that are obviously bad. 520 00:30:34,894 --> 00:30:36,294 But be aware of the things 521 00:30:36,294 --> 00:30:40,484 that are even good and gifts from God. 522 00:30:40,484 --> 00:30:42,224 In Peru we have a saying: 523 00:30:42,224 --> 00:30:46,984 Sálvame de las aguas mansas, de las aguas bravas me salvo yo. 524 00:30:46,984 --> 00:30:53,104 What it means is: Save me from the calm waters, I'll save myself from the rough waters. 525 00:30:53,104 --> 00:30:55,594 And what it means is: I can recognize the rough waters 526 00:30:55,594 --> 00:30:57,134 and I can prepare for them. 527 00:30:57,134 --> 00:31:02,266 It's the smooth waters that are dangerous, that are deceptive. 528 00:31:02,267 --> 00:31:04,697 We want to go hard after Christ. 529 00:31:04,697 --> 00:31:07,007 Now I want to look at come of these really quick 530 00:31:07,007 --> 00:31:08,017 before we come to an end. 531 00:31:08,017 --> 00:31:10,837 Like I said, I'm not even going to get through the introduction today. 532 00:31:10,837 --> 00:31:16,616 But I just want to look at some common counterfeit cisterns 533 00:31:16,617 --> 00:31:20,196 First of all, religious ritual. 534 00:31:20,197 --> 00:31:22,277 When Jesus was coming down probably 535 00:31:22,277 --> 00:31:26,507 from the upper room through the Kidron valley, 536 00:31:26,507 --> 00:31:28,307 it's possible that He could see the front, 537 00:31:28,307 --> 00:31:30,153 because I've been through there, and you turn around, 538 00:31:30,153 --> 00:31:32,883 you can look at the temple mount there in the Kidron valley. 539 00:31:32,883 --> 00:31:35,793 It's way up there but you can see it. 540 00:31:35,793 --> 00:31:39,073 And it's possible that from where He was standing 541 00:31:39,073 --> 00:31:42,803 you could see the gate of the temple 542 00:31:42,803 --> 00:31:48,683 And over it Herod had created this magnificent golden vine 543 00:31:48,683 --> 00:31:51,543 that represented the nation of Israel. 544 00:31:51,543 --> 00:31:55,883 It's really possible that Jesus looked at that vine and He said: 545 00:31:55,883 --> 00:31:57,703 "No. 546 00:31:57,703 --> 00:32:00,393 I am the true vine. 547 00:32:00,393 --> 00:32:04,643 All the ritual of the temple. All the things that you see there. 548 00:32:04,643 --> 00:32:06,673 All the sacrifices, everything. 549 00:32:06,673 --> 00:32:09,503 That is not the true vine. 550 00:32:09,503 --> 00:32:13,266 It's not your tradition, it's not your heritage. 551 00:32:13,266 --> 00:32:18,410 It's not the fact that you're linked to someone who knew Me. 552 00:32:18,411 --> 00:32:22,141 You must be united to Me. 553 00:32:22,141 --> 00:32:29,033 Not ritual, not religion, not tradition, not heritage. 554 00:32:29,034 --> 00:32:32,586 You must be linked to Me." 555 00:32:32,587 --> 00:32:37,268 Now, I want us to put that in a kind of a temporary perspective. 556 00:32:37,269 --> 00:32:43,752 A false cistern can be the congregation. 557 00:32:43,753 --> 00:32:45,313 The congregation. 558 00:32:45,313 --> 00:32:48,343 You know, it's amazing, I'll go to church websites 559 00:32:48,343 --> 00:32:51,253 and I'll click on a website and what's most amazing to me - 560 00:32:51,253 --> 00:32:55,919 you see all these absolutely beautiful people smiling at you. 561 00:32:55,920 --> 00:32:57,310 Now, I know that Jesus said: 562 00:32:57,310 --> 00:33:01,420 "They will know you are my disciples by your love for one another." 563 00:33:01,420 --> 00:33:03,300 But as you look at the website, 564 00:33:03,300 --> 00:33:07,250 there's something very troubling in many of these websites. What is it? 565 00:33:07,250 --> 00:33:10,350 You see beautiful faces of beautiful people 566 00:33:10,350 --> 00:33:14,910 willing to serve you, affirm you and meet your felt needs. 567 00:33:14,910 --> 00:33:17,410 And you have to go all the way through that website 568 00:33:17,410 --> 00:33:20,340 to find something about Jesus. 569 00:33:20,340 --> 00:33:24,684 It's the congregation, the congregation, promoting the congregation. 570 00:33:24,684 --> 00:33:29,239 No! 571 00:33:29,239 --> 00:33:30,749 If you go to a congregation 572 00:33:30,749 --> 00:33:34,789 because the congregation is meeting all your needs, 573 00:33:34,789 --> 00:33:36,589 there is some good in that 574 00:33:36,589 --> 00:33:40,999 there is something very very distorted. 575 00:33:43,891 --> 00:33:47,501 It must be Christ. 576 00:33:47,501 --> 00:33:51,931 If we are to be known in this community 577 00:33:51,931 --> 00:33:55,704 it is not how wonderful of a congregation we are. 578 00:33:55,704 --> 00:33:58,764 It is how wonderful a Savior He is. 579 00:33:58,764 --> 00:34:01,384 But a bunch of smiling affirming people 580 00:34:01,384 --> 00:34:03,174 that will take you as you are, 581 00:34:03,174 --> 00:34:04,604 that's not scandalous. 582 00:34:04,604 --> 00:34:08,044 What is scandalous is the Savior we just sang about 583 00:34:08,044 --> 00:34:13,512 who died for the sins of men. 584 00:34:13,513 --> 00:34:15,543 Congregations can be a false cistern 585 00:34:15,543 --> 00:34:19,363 Also the church event itself. 586 00:34:19,363 --> 00:34:22,413 As I travel around and I'm different churches, 587 00:34:22,413 --> 00:34:24,093 and sometimes really big churches, 588 00:34:24,093 --> 00:34:28,123 and I see the preparation these people make for Sunday. 589 00:34:28,123 --> 00:34:31,333 I'm not talking about several hours of prayer. 590 00:34:31,333 --> 00:34:35,833 I'm talking about lights, music, greeters, 591 00:34:35,833 --> 00:34:37,603 chairs have to be a certain way, 592 00:34:37,603 --> 00:34:39,193 screens have to be a certain way, 593 00:34:39,193 --> 00:34:41,643 everything is ready, everything is choreographed, 594 00:34:41,643 --> 00:34:42,743 everything is done. 595 00:34:42,743 --> 00:34:46,223 It is like being in Madison Square Gardens! 596 00:34:46,223 --> 00:34:51,446 And people come in and they get wrapped up in the event. 597 00:34:51,447 --> 00:34:54,817 And their strength comes from the events. 598 00:34:54,817 --> 00:34:57,667 That is wrong! 599 00:34:57,667 --> 00:35:01,667 It must come from Christ. 600 00:35:01,667 --> 00:35:05,137 That is why often times you see believers 601 00:35:05,137 --> 00:35:07,957 who have so much of God who are rotting away in prison 602 00:35:07,957 --> 00:35:11,594 with absolutely nothing but Jesus Christ. 603 00:35:11,594 --> 00:35:13,694 One saint who spent many many years 604 00:35:13,694 --> 00:35:15,974 in an eastern European prison, 605 00:35:15,974 --> 00:35:18,734 they kept him in there winters and summers, 606 00:35:18,734 --> 00:35:21,324 no heat, no air conditioning, 607 00:35:21,324 --> 00:35:22,994 freezing to death in the snow, 608 00:35:22,994 --> 00:35:25,174 burning up in the summers, 609 00:35:25,174 --> 00:35:27,074 kept him in there often times without clothes, 610 00:35:27,074 --> 00:35:28,994 wouldn't let him even sleep in a normal bed, 611 00:35:28,994 --> 00:35:30,224 they made him sleep on the floor 612 00:35:30,224 --> 00:35:31,994 because they said he was a dog. 613 00:35:31,994 --> 00:35:33,294 Someone asked him a question: 614 00:35:33,294 --> 00:35:36,694 "What was it like to be there for so many years?" 615 00:35:36,694 --> 00:35:41,584 He said: "A thirteen-year honeymoon with Jesus Christ." 616 00:35:42,933 --> 00:35:44,423 You see that? 617 00:35:44,423 --> 00:35:46,753 Now, we ought to be a congregation that is loving. 618 00:35:46,753 --> 00:35:49,783 Biblically loving. 619 00:35:51,091 --> 00:35:53,921 We are to adorn the Gospel with our lives. 620 00:35:53,921 --> 00:35:58,091 But people should not be coming to this church because of the church. 621 00:35:58,091 --> 00:36:00,171 Or the event. 622 00:36:00,171 --> 00:36:02,011 But because of Jesus Christ. 623 00:36:02,011 --> 00:36:04,031 Another cistern that's very very common, 624 00:36:04,031 --> 00:36:04,981 not so much now, 625 00:36:04,981 --> 00:36:09,171 but back in the eighties and the seventies. 626 00:36:09,171 --> 00:36:11,971 Some of you weren't even born. 627 00:36:11,971 --> 00:36:16,684 And that was discipleship and quiet time. 628 00:36:16,685 --> 00:36:17,995 You had your quiet time. 629 00:36:17,995 --> 00:36:19,195 You had your quiet time, you've done it. 630 00:36:19,195 --> 00:36:21,842 You got your quiet time, you're walking with God. 631 00:36:21,842 --> 00:36:23,772 It's all about your quiet time. 632 00:36:23,772 --> 00:36:25,752 You read your chapter, you prayed your prayer, 633 00:36:25,752 --> 00:36:27,062 you went down through the list, 634 00:36:27,062 --> 00:36:28,172 maybe worked your workbook. 635 00:36:28,172 --> 00:36:30,862 Your quiet time. You did your thing. 636 00:36:30,862 --> 00:36:32,732 No! 637 00:36:32,732 --> 00:36:35,112 Now, we have always said, 638 00:36:35,112 --> 00:36:37,852 the pastors here, I myself in personal conversations, 639 00:36:37,852 --> 00:36:39,712 we need to be alone with the Lord, 640 00:36:39,712 --> 00:36:42,542 we need to study the Word, we need to pray, 641 00:36:42,542 --> 00:36:44,372 but you organize this thing 642 00:36:44,372 --> 00:36:47,352 into some sort of mechanical quiet time 643 00:36:47,352 --> 00:36:49,392 that you can check off your task list. 644 00:36:49,392 --> 00:36:52,612 My friend, you're missing the point! 645 00:36:52,612 --> 00:36:54,662 You're totally missing the point. 646 00:36:54,662 --> 00:36:56,462 No. 647 00:36:56,462 --> 00:36:57,352 Another cistern, 648 00:36:57,352 --> 00:37:00,922 honestly you could dwell an hour on each one of these points, 649 00:37:00,922 --> 00:37:03,502 but another false cistern, 650 00:37:03,502 --> 00:37:09,884 and this is one of the most distractive elements in the church today, 651 00:37:09,885 --> 00:37:15,453 and in contemporary western evangelicalism. 652 00:37:15,454 --> 00:37:20,098 Worldly wisdom, philosophy and traditions of men. 653 00:37:20,099 --> 00:37:22,519 And you say: "Brother Paul, how does this apply?" 654 00:37:22,519 --> 00:37:26,129 Well, first of all, many people today have not even heard 655 00:37:26,129 --> 00:37:29,459 of what we call a normative or regulative principle. 656 00:37:29,459 --> 00:37:31,289 And what that means is 657 00:37:31,289 --> 00:37:34,319 just what can you do in a church service. 658 00:37:34,319 --> 00:37:36,199 Now, I disagree with people who try to 659 00:37:36,199 --> 00:37:39,289 strictly fight back and forth on this matter, 660 00:37:39,289 --> 00:37:40,779 some people splitting hairs, 661 00:37:40,779 --> 00:37:45,249 but the whole point of this debate is simply this: 662 00:37:45,249 --> 00:37:48,009 how are we supposed to have church? 663 00:37:48,009 --> 00:37:51,849 Can we just do what we think is right in our own eyes 664 00:37:51,849 --> 00:37:54,549 or should we follow the dictates of Scripture? 665 00:37:54,549 --> 00:37:55,449 Worship. 666 00:37:55,449 --> 00:38:00,829 Should we just do what is most appealing to contemporary men 667 00:38:00,829 --> 00:38:04,139 or should we go to the dictates of Scripture? 668 00:38:04,139 --> 00:38:05,979 Everything about church. 669 00:38:05,979 --> 00:38:10,494 Are we just left out there on or own to do what we want 670 00:38:10,495 --> 00:38:15,835 or the latest psychological fat that is passing through Christendom 671 00:38:15,835 --> 00:38:20,325 or does the Scriptures teach us what we are to do? 672 00:38:20,325 --> 00:38:22,815 And the Bible is clear on the matter. 673 00:38:22,815 --> 00:38:23,915 Paul told Timothy: 674 00:38:23,915 --> 00:38:27,355 "In case I don't come, I'm writing to you about all these things 675 00:38:27,355 --> 00:38:32,437 so you will know how to conduct yourself in the household of God." 676 00:38:32,438 --> 00:38:40,160 They were not left to the baptized secular psychology. 677 00:38:40,161 --> 00:38:43,491 We are not left to study contemporary trends 678 00:38:43,491 --> 00:38:45,271 and then see how we ought to change 679 00:38:45,271 --> 00:38:46,841 the Church of Jesus Christ 680 00:38:46,841 --> 00:38:51,031 in order to fit the desires of carnal men. 681 00:38:51,031 --> 00:38:54,223 You see that? 682 00:38:54,224 --> 00:38:57,374 The church today is filled with this type of thing. 683 00:38:57,374 --> 00:39:00,624 Let me give you another one 684 00:39:00,624 --> 00:39:03,904 churches that almost seem entirely built around. 685 00:39:03,904 --> 00:39:05,834 And again, I have no problem with these ministries, 686 00:39:05,834 --> 00:39:07,654 some of them are wonderful ministries, 687 00:39:07,654 --> 00:39:10,534 but if they get out of order, they're wrong, 688 00:39:10,534 --> 00:39:15,241 and that is, well, financial peace. 689 00:39:15,242 --> 00:39:17,412 Or marriage. 690 00:39:17,412 --> 00:39:18,382 "Why are you in this church?" 691 00:39:18,382 --> 00:39:21,622 "It fixed my marriage. It keeps my marriage healthy." 692 00:39:21,622 --> 00:39:23,162 "I learn some great principles here 693 00:39:23,162 --> 00:39:24,542 about how to conduct my life 694 00:39:24,542 --> 00:39:27,122 and my business and this and that and everything else." 695 00:39:27,122 --> 00:39:31,518 My dear friend, may all that rot with you. 696 00:39:31,519 --> 00:39:33,589 That's idolatry. 697 00:39:33,589 --> 00:39:35,769 Now, a person who comes to know Christ 698 00:39:35,769 --> 00:39:36,789 and is known by Him, 699 00:39:36,789 --> 00:39:38,919 a person, who has been transformed, 700 00:39:38,919 --> 00:39:41,949 yes, these areas of their lives will be transformed, 701 00:39:41,949 --> 00:39:45,949 but I do not want Jesus Christ riding in on a coattail 702 00:39:45,949 --> 00:39:50,433 of some plan of how to get you solvent economically. 703 00:39:50,434 --> 00:39:53,834 Or even to fix your marriage. 704 00:39:53,834 --> 00:39:56,034 It is all about Christ! 705 00:39:56,034 --> 00:39:57,454 To the point that we can say 706 00:39:57,454 --> 00:40:02,614 even the good things are rot compared to Him. 707 00:40:04,710 --> 00:40:06,210 It's all about Christ. 708 00:40:06,210 --> 00:40:08,660 And I'll tell you this: 709 00:40:08,660 --> 00:40:09,920 I'm not speaking as a prophet 710 00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:11,300 but more as a student of history. 711 00:40:11,300 --> 00:40:13,360 You mark my words. 712 00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:16,580 It won't be long. 713 00:40:16,581 --> 00:40:20,711 Persecution begins in this country. 714 00:40:20,711 --> 00:40:25,791 And it won't be long and it strips everything from you. 715 00:40:25,791 --> 00:40:33,693 And most of the evangelical church goes totally apostate 716 00:40:33,693 --> 00:40:38,427 and little groups are left to be berated, 717 00:40:38,427 --> 00:40:42,527 then you will see that Christ is enough 718 00:40:42,527 --> 00:40:47,340 when you have nothing else but Christ. 719 00:40:47,341 --> 00:40:50,151 Another is supernatural experiences. 720 00:40:50,151 --> 00:40:51,691 We're praying for revival, 721 00:40:51,691 --> 00:40:53,341 we're praying for the Spirit of God 722 00:40:53,341 --> 00:40:54,771 to fall down upon this place 723 00:40:54,771 --> 00:40:56,491 and we believe that the Spirit of God 724 00:40:56,491 --> 00:40:59,051 can so manifest Himself here 725 00:40:59,051 --> 00:41:01,861 that it could lay us low. 726 00:41:01,861 --> 00:41:03,791 Not praising God for a new Mercedes 727 00:41:03,791 --> 00:41:10,781 but lay us low with His holiness, with His love. 728 00:41:10,781 --> 00:41:13,171 We believe God can manifest Himself 729 00:41:13,171 --> 00:41:14,401 but I want to tell you something: 730 00:41:14,401 --> 00:41:16,821 Some people spend their entire life 731 00:41:16,821 --> 00:41:19,321 jumping from one experience to another. 732 00:41:19,321 --> 00:41:22,581 Their desire, their cistern, is experience. 733 00:41:22,581 --> 00:41:25,071 I know some people who started out well 734 00:41:25,071 --> 00:41:26,951 and have gone astray 735 00:41:26,951 --> 00:41:30,770 because all they talk about now is revival. 736 00:41:30,771 --> 00:41:33,611 They want revival, revival, revival. 737 00:41:33,611 --> 00:41:39,290 I don't want revival, I want Christ! 738 00:41:39,291 --> 00:41:43,581 And if we have Christ, there will be revival. 739 00:41:43,581 --> 00:41:45,682 There will be revival. 740 00:41:45,682 --> 00:41:47,962 Another, and I want you to listen to me very carefully, 741 00:41:47,962 --> 00:41:50,852 especially those of you who are parents, 742 00:41:50,852 --> 00:41:52,312 especially with children, 743 00:41:52,312 --> 00:41:55,942 there is a cistern that is false and deadly 744 00:41:55,942 --> 00:41:57,312 and I see it growing, 745 00:41:57,312 --> 00:42:01,644 and I see it growing especially among homeschoolers. 746 00:42:01,645 --> 00:42:02,775 And this is what it is: 747 00:42:02,775 --> 00:42:04,505 Moralism. 748 00:42:04,505 --> 00:42:07,015 And I want to read to you something I've written here. 749 00:42:07,015 --> 00:42:09,645 Those who delight in the ethics, 750 00:42:09,645 --> 00:42:13,585 rules and principles of Scripture, 751 00:42:13,585 --> 00:42:19,985 their Christianity is primarily a list of why's, do's and don't's. 752 00:42:19,985 --> 00:42:22,685 They react to the demise of western culture 753 00:42:22,685 --> 00:42:25,185 by trying to rebuild its foundations - 754 00:42:25,185 --> 00:42:28,805 the foundations of founding fathers 755 00:42:28,805 --> 00:42:33,185 by means of teaching ethics. 756 00:42:35,824 --> 00:42:39,674 And often times they'll quote Deuteronomy 6. 757 00:42:39,674 --> 00:42:41,034 "Teach these things." 758 00:42:41,034 --> 00:42:42,324 When you go out of your house, 759 00:42:42,324 --> 00:42:43,144 when you come into your house, 760 00:42:43,144 --> 00:42:45,574 when you sit down, when you stand up, 761 00:42:45,574 --> 00:42:49,114 and they miss the entire point of Deuteronomy 6. 762 00:42:49,114 --> 00:42:50,494 What are they supposed to be teaching? 763 00:42:50,494 --> 00:42:57,226 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength." 764 00:42:57,227 --> 00:43:00,307 You see? Principles are not enough. 765 00:43:00,307 --> 00:43:04,807 Not even biblical principles can save your soul. 766 00:43:04,807 --> 00:43:09,227 No, biblical principles cannot change your inner man. 767 00:43:09,227 --> 00:43:13,227 What we're talking about here is looking onto Christ to be saved 768 00:43:13,227 --> 00:43:15,447 and continue looking onto Christ. 769 00:43:15,447 --> 00:43:17,297 And yes, study the Scriptures. 770 00:43:17,297 --> 00:43:18,757 Study the principles. 771 00:43:18,757 --> 00:43:21,547 Learn the wisdom of Proverbs and all these things. 772 00:43:21,547 --> 00:43:25,387 But all these things point to the Master. 773 00:43:25,387 --> 00:43:28,357 And the True Changer of men. 774 00:43:28,357 --> 00:43:31,177 I would rather have my household, 775 00:43:31,177 --> 00:43:33,427 well, as it is, 776 00:43:33,427 --> 00:43:37,367 rather wild 777 00:43:37,367 --> 00:43:42,633 but children knowing there is a passion for Christ there. 778 00:43:42,634 --> 00:43:44,914 Yes, taking holiness seriously. 779 00:43:44,914 --> 00:43:48,234 Yes, raising up our children in fear and admonition of the Lord. 780 00:43:48,234 --> 00:43:56,034 But yes, letting them see a real passion for Christ. 781 00:43:59,028 --> 00:44:01,788 These Scriptures talk about Him. 782 00:44:01,788 --> 00:44:04,128 These Scriptures send us to Him 783 00:44:04,128 --> 00:44:05,188 because an honest man 784 00:44:05,188 --> 00:44:06,638 when he looks at all those principles 785 00:44:06,638 --> 00:44:08,408 and proverbs and everywhere else, 786 00:44:08,408 --> 00:44:10,898 and he sees he doesn't match up, 787 00:44:10,898 --> 00:44:13,258 where is he to go? 788 00:44:13,258 --> 00:44:15,068 He must go to Christ. 789 00:44:15,068 --> 00:44:17,368 Must go to Christ. 790 00:44:17,368 --> 00:44:20,618 You know, it is so clichish but it is so true. 791 00:44:20,618 --> 00:44:26,113 It is just all about Christ. 792 00:44:26,114 --> 00:44:27,784 A person. 793 00:44:27,784 --> 00:44:28,834 That's why I always tell people: 794 00:44:28,834 --> 00:44:35,323 Christianity is not necessarily an ethical or moralistic religion. 795 00:44:35,324 --> 00:44:36,744 You think it is? You're wrong. 796 00:44:36,744 --> 00:44:40,224 Now, it has a moral, it has a defined ethic, 797 00:44:40,224 --> 00:44:44,064 but Christianity is not principally a moralistic religion. 798 00:44:44,064 --> 00:44:48,462 It is a relational religion. 799 00:44:48,463 --> 00:44:50,966 It's Him. 800 00:44:50,967 --> 00:44:53,603 Being bound to Him. 801 00:44:53,604 --> 00:44:55,294 Let's go on. 802 00:44:55,294 --> 00:45:00,764 Another horrible cistern: 803 00:45:02,352 --> 00:45:03,832 Powerful preachers. 804 00:45:03,832 --> 00:45:06,572 Or some Christian celebrity. 805 00:45:06,572 --> 00:45:08,032 Oh, they're everywhere. 806 00:45:08,032 --> 00:45:10,982 Yeah, the charismatics have their men in white coats 807 00:45:10,982 --> 00:45:13,972 that are throwing people to the ground. 808 00:45:13,972 --> 00:45:17,052 The evangelicals, they have their men with their big buildings 809 00:45:17,052 --> 00:45:19,962 and budgets and baptisms. 810 00:45:19,962 --> 00:45:22,412 And the reformed guys have their men 811 00:45:22,412 --> 00:45:26,722 with really big heads filled with a lot of knowledge 812 00:45:26,722 --> 00:45:30,572 and the smartest guy gets to preach at all the conferences. 813 00:45:34,783 --> 00:45:38,363 One of the men I admire most on this planet is doctor John Piper. 814 00:45:38,363 --> 00:45:41,283 I love him dearly. 815 00:45:41,283 --> 00:45:42,883 I respect him. 816 00:45:42,883 --> 00:45:44,733 But I cringe. And I know he would. 817 00:45:44,733 --> 00:45:46,883 No, he wouldn't cringe, he would vomit. 818 00:45:46,883 --> 00:45:47,893 When I hear somebody say: 819 00:45:47,893 --> 00:45:51,653 "Man, I got to turn on my CD player 820 00:45:51,653 --> 00:45:53,523 and I got to get me some Piper 821 00:45:53,523 --> 00:45:56,153 or I'm just not going to be strong today." 822 00:45:56,153 --> 00:45:59,439 Get you some Piper? 823 00:45:59,440 --> 00:46:02,188 What is man? 824 00:46:02,189 --> 00:46:08,560 One nose full of breath at a time. 825 00:46:08,561 --> 00:46:11,251 That's all man is, according to Isaiah. 826 00:46:11,251 --> 00:46:13,681 Now, surely in the last ten years, 827 00:46:13,681 --> 00:46:16,821 God has raised up some wonderful Bible teachers 828 00:46:16,821 --> 00:46:20,261 just recently having the men here that we had. 829 00:46:20,261 --> 00:46:22,701 Richard Owen Roberts and John Snyder 830 00:46:22,701 --> 00:46:24,611 and just these people that have walk with God 831 00:46:24,611 --> 00:46:26,301 for so many years and things... 832 00:46:26,301 --> 00:46:27,301 It's wonderful. 833 00:46:27,301 --> 00:46:30,541 My dear friend, they must drive you to Christ. 834 00:46:30,541 --> 00:46:35,700 They must drive you to Christ. 835 00:46:35,701 --> 00:46:37,191 There are no great men of God. 836 00:46:37,191 --> 00:46:40,051 There's just pitiful tiny weak faithless men 837 00:46:40,051 --> 00:46:41,521 of a great and merciful God. 838 00:46:41,521 --> 00:46:44,661 That's all that there is. 839 00:46:44,662 --> 00:46:49,207 It goes on, another is knowledge. 840 00:46:49,208 --> 00:46:53,208 The Scriptures of mere prepositional truth. 841 00:46:54,644 --> 00:46:56,634 Something you possess and control, 842 00:46:56,634 --> 00:46:58,634 you have mastered the Scriptures. 843 00:46:58,634 --> 00:46:59,824 A young man told me one time: 844 00:46:59,824 --> 00:47:03,094 "Brother Paul, I just want to master the Scriptures!" 845 00:47:03,094 --> 00:47:04,724 I said: "What?" 846 00:47:04,724 --> 00:47:06,484 He said: "I want to master the Scriptures." 847 00:47:06,484 --> 00:47:10,943 I said: "Son, I want the Scriptures to master me." 848 00:47:10,944 --> 00:47:14,694 You never master Scriptures. 849 00:47:14,694 --> 00:47:18,283 With that head of yours? 850 00:47:18,284 --> 00:47:19,454 That heart of yours? 851 00:47:19,454 --> 00:47:22,624 You're going to master the Scriptures? 852 00:47:22,624 --> 00:47:26,179 Let the Master master you. 853 00:47:26,180 --> 00:47:29,202 And just knowledge, knowledge, knowledge, knowledge, knowledge. 854 00:47:29,202 --> 00:47:31,452 And oh my dear friend, knowledge is so essential. 855 00:47:31,452 --> 00:47:33,602 There is no divorce in biblical Christianity 856 00:47:33,602 --> 00:47:35,802 between the mind and the heart 857 00:47:35,802 --> 00:47:38,052 as contemporary evangelicalism might present it. 858 00:47:38,052 --> 00:47:39,722 No, absolutely not. 859 00:47:39,722 --> 00:47:45,059 But it is not about just how much you know. 860 00:47:45,060 --> 00:47:48,009 It's not. 861 00:47:48,010 --> 00:47:54,161 It's about Him. 862 00:47:54,162 --> 00:47:58,812 The last one is 863 00:47:58,812 --> 00:48:02,562 a Laodicean self-reliance. 864 00:48:02,562 --> 00:48:06,262 Or self-direction born out of western materialism 865 00:48:06,262 --> 00:48:09,094 and a can-do spirit. 866 00:48:09,094 --> 00:48:11,254 Pragmatism. 867 00:48:11,254 --> 00:48:13,194 Church growth. 868 00:48:13,194 --> 00:48:16,434 And what do I mean by that? 869 00:48:17,688 --> 00:48:19,498 My dear friend, is it not true, 870 00:48:19,498 --> 00:48:21,938 many of you who've been Christians more than a few years 871 00:48:21,938 --> 00:48:24,048 you'll testify to this. 872 00:48:24,048 --> 00:48:27,138 You find some little country church somewhere 873 00:48:27,138 --> 00:48:28,848 just the kind of a normal church, 874 00:48:28,848 --> 00:48:30,688 some sincere people in it 875 00:48:30,688 --> 00:48:33,708 who love the Lord. 876 00:48:33,708 --> 00:48:37,468 And then one day someone who's really beloved in the church 877 00:48:37,468 --> 00:48:42,570 falls sick with a fatal disease. 878 00:48:42,571 --> 00:48:44,531 Isn't it amazing? 879 00:48:44,531 --> 00:48:48,670 The revival that breaks out in the church? 880 00:48:48,671 --> 00:48:51,431 People going to their knees, crying out to God. 881 00:48:51,431 --> 00:48:54,011 Why? Because they've finally been put in a situation 882 00:48:54,011 --> 00:48:56,091 where they can't do anything. 883 00:48:56,091 --> 00:48:58,071 They're Americans. 884 00:48:58,071 --> 00:49:00,381 They can do anything. 885 00:49:00,381 --> 00:49:04,141 "We can fix it, we can make it right." 886 00:49:04,141 --> 00:49:06,331 Can-do spirit. 887 00:49:06,331 --> 00:49:08,481 Then all of a sudden a strong wind comes 888 00:49:08,481 --> 00:49:12,481 that no one can take care of. 889 00:49:14,854 --> 00:49:19,438 What Reepicheep told Eustace when he was a dragon? 890 00:49:19,439 --> 00:49:21,879 Chronicles of Narnia. 891 00:49:21,879 --> 00:49:23,389 He said: "Eustace..." 892 00:49:23,389 --> 00:49:25,609 Eustace was a little boy who was turned into a dragon. 893 00:49:25,609 --> 00:49:27,859 It's a long story. 894 00:49:27,859 --> 00:49:30,759 And Reepicheep was a talking mouse. 895 00:49:30,759 --> 00:49:34,179 Comes up to him and says: "Eustace, 896 00:49:34,179 --> 00:49:38,932 extraordinary things happen to extraordinary people." 897 00:49:38,933 --> 00:49:40,443 What he's saying is this: 898 00:49:40,443 --> 00:49:42,943 In order to become that extraordinary person, 899 00:49:42,943 --> 00:49:45,093 you must go through extraordinary things. 900 00:49:45,093 --> 00:49:48,153 And often times very very hard. 901 00:49:48,153 --> 00:49:52,082 And in Christianity that is true. 902 00:49:52,083 --> 00:49:55,903 The closest I have seen revival in the United States 903 00:49:55,903 --> 00:49:59,863 is when a church gets to a point 904 00:49:59,863 --> 00:50:03,903 where church growth isn't going to help, 905 00:50:03,903 --> 00:50:06,253 where no one can help 906 00:50:06,253 --> 00:50:08,183 and they only have God. 907 00:50:08,183 --> 00:50:12,183 This is why Jesus says this, 908 00:50:12,183 --> 00:50:14,063 well, let me read this first. 909 00:50:14,063 --> 00:50:16,249 "Because you say I am rich and have become wealthy 910 00:50:16,249 --> 00:50:18,129 and have need of nothing, 911 00:50:18,129 --> 00:50:19,969 and you do not know that you are wretched 912 00:50:19,969 --> 00:50:23,719 and miserable and poor and blind and naked." 913 00:50:23,719 --> 00:50:28,179 You see, there is a sense in which just being able to meet together 914 00:50:28,179 --> 00:50:32,319 without fear of persecution hurts us. 915 00:50:32,319 --> 00:50:34,159 I remember in Peru, during the war, 916 00:50:34,159 --> 00:50:35,359 when it was so horrible 917 00:50:35,359 --> 00:50:37,259 to stand for a couple hours in line 918 00:50:37,259 --> 00:50:38,399 just to get a bag of rice. 919 00:50:38,399 --> 00:50:39,779 People dead all over the place. 920 00:50:39,779 --> 00:50:40,819 Bombs blowing up. 921 00:50:40,819 --> 00:50:43,379 26 thousand people were killed. 922 00:50:43,379 --> 00:50:46,209 Windows of our church blown out. Dead threads. 923 00:50:46,209 --> 00:50:48,009 Everything you could imagine. 924 00:50:48,009 --> 00:50:52,859 Fellowship in that congregation was so sweet. 925 00:50:54,596 --> 00:50:56,746 I remember a thing, it'd come against me 926 00:50:56,746 --> 00:50:58,206 put out by one of the terrorist groups 927 00:50:58,206 --> 00:50:59,236 that they were going to kill me. 928 00:50:59,236 --> 00:51:00,896 I realized that I could not leave 929 00:51:00,896 --> 00:51:02,846 because if I left, I couldn't come back. 930 00:51:02,846 --> 00:51:05,176 If the pastors had to suffer it, I had to suffer it. 931 00:51:05,176 --> 00:51:08,496 And one day, after hiding out for two weeks in this small room 932 00:51:08,496 --> 00:51:11,556 I decided: "I'm going to church." 933 00:51:11,556 --> 00:51:13,906 And one of the brothers found out about it. 934 00:51:13,906 --> 00:51:15,356 I said: "I'm going to church and I'm going to preach." 935 00:51:15,356 --> 00:51:18,526 I said: "I did not come here to hide in a room." 936 00:51:18,526 --> 00:51:20,045 And so I'm walking down through there, 937 00:51:20,045 --> 00:51:21,575 walking down the sidewalk, 938 00:51:21,575 --> 00:51:23,815 and four brothers meet me. 939 00:51:23,815 --> 00:51:24,805 And then, as we're walking, 940 00:51:24,805 --> 00:51:26,885 one of of them standing here, one of them standing here, 941 00:51:26,885 --> 00:51:28,935 one of of them standing here, one of them standing here. 942 00:51:28,935 --> 00:51:30,335 And they keep getting in my way. 943 00:51:30,335 --> 00:51:31,275 Little Peruvians. 944 00:51:31,275 --> 00:51:32,485 I'm like: "What are you doing? 945 00:51:32,485 --> 00:51:35,674 I can't walk. Get out of my way." 946 00:51:35,675 --> 00:51:38,312 They said: "No." 947 00:51:38,313 --> 00:51:40,392 I said: "Why?" 948 00:51:40,393 --> 00:51:45,517 They said: "We know what's been said. 949 00:51:45,518 --> 00:51:47,908 It will have to hit one of us before it hits you. 950 00:51:47,908 --> 00:51:50,363 You are a pastor." 951 00:51:50,364 --> 00:51:54,144 That type of thing is born out of need. 952 00:51:54,144 --> 00:51:55,564 That is why in the book of Luke, 953 00:51:55,564 --> 00:51:56,794 and Luke does something very strange here, 954 00:51:56,794 --> 00:51:59,164 because when we get to the beatitudes in Matthew, 955 00:51:59,164 --> 00:52:01,414 Matthew says: "Blessed are the poor in spirit." 956 00:52:01,414 --> 00:52:05,713 Luke says: "Blessed are the poor." 957 00:52:05,714 --> 00:52:07,524 And don't just think he forgot "in spirit," 958 00:52:07,524 --> 00:52:09,324 he's trying to do something here. 959 00:52:09,324 --> 00:52:12,644 Using the words of Christ, inspired by the Holy Spirit, 960 00:52:12,644 --> 00:52:14,344 Christ was meaning something different. 961 00:52:14,344 --> 00:52:15,754 The whole idea is: 962 00:52:15,754 --> 00:52:17,034 My dear friend, there's a sense 963 00:52:17,034 --> 00:52:19,814 in which when poverty comes upon you, 964 00:52:19,814 --> 00:52:23,154 when you have nothing, 965 00:52:23,154 --> 00:52:26,294 no one can help you but Christ, 966 00:52:26,294 --> 00:52:30,123 then Christ becomes precious to you. 967 00:52:30,124 --> 00:52:35,548 Persecution has never hurt the Church, only prosperity. 968 00:52:35,549 --> 00:52:36,419 As a matter of fact, 969 00:52:36,419 --> 00:52:39,029 I believe it was what brother Roberts was teaching 970 00:52:39,029 --> 00:52:43,588 that the very thing that we most try to avoid 971 00:52:43,588 --> 00:52:47,768 is the very thing that most makes us holy. 972 00:52:50,060 --> 00:52:51,350 Now, these are false cisterns 973 00:52:51,350 --> 00:52:55,389 and we need to be very careful of them. 974 00:52:55,390 --> 00:52:58,640 The next part of this, it goes on for about two hours, 975 00:52:58,640 --> 00:53:01,780 but let me condense it in about three minutes. 976 00:53:01,780 --> 00:53:05,920 It's this: 977 00:53:08,059 --> 00:53:09,929 He is the vine 978 00:53:09,929 --> 00:53:13,299 and the Father is the vine dresser. 979 00:53:13,299 --> 00:53:17,169 Now, the vine provides power and life. 980 00:53:17,169 --> 00:53:20,349 The vine dresser provides direction. 981 00:53:20,349 --> 00:53:22,289 He shapes and molds. 982 00:53:22,289 --> 00:53:25,189 He makes that vine go where He wants it to go. 983 00:53:25,189 --> 00:53:27,089 And here's the cycle of the Christian life 984 00:53:27,089 --> 00:53:30,039 when you look through that keyhole of John 15, 985 00:53:30,039 --> 00:53:33,598 here it is: 986 00:53:33,599 --> 00:53:36,669 You have been united with Christ. 987 00:53:36,669 --> 00:53:39,179 He is the vine, you are the branch. 988 00:53:39,179 --> 00:53:44,871 But here is where the agricultural metaphor kind of... 989 00:53:44,871 --> 00:53:46,151 doesn't apply. 990 00:53:46,151 --> 00:53:49,441 Branches do not have to keep abiding 991 00:53:49,441 --> 00:53:52,471 but you are told to abide. 992 00:53:52,471 --> 00:53:53,201 And that is this: 993 00:53:53,201 --> 00:53:56,711 As a branch, you have the tendency 994 00:53:56,711 --> 00:54:00,081 to distract yourself from Christ. 995 00:54:00,081 --> 00:54:01,971 And in distracting yourself from Christ 996 00:54:01,971 --> 00:54:06,490 you lose all purpose and all power. 997 00:54:06,491 --> 00:54:08,741 The vine dresser, the Father, 998 00:54:08,741 --> 00:54:11,191 in His providence, 999 00:54:11,191 --> 00:54:17,485 He is working everything to push you back to the vine. 1000 00:54:17,486 --> 00:54:22,493 And so you come to the vine and the sap - 1001 00:54:22,493 --> 00:54:26,423 the divine sap, the Holy Spirit, the life of the vine - 1002 00:54:26,423 --> 00:54:30,053 flows into you. 1003 00:54:30,054 --> 00:54:32,064 Living in the place we do 1004 00:54:32,064 --> 00:54:35,014 and still being not totally redeemed, 1005 00:54:35,014 --> 00:54:37,164 we still have a body of flesh, 1006 00:54:37,164 --> 00:54:39,084 we have a tendency to be distracted 1007 00:54:39,084 --> 00:54:41,484 and in being distracted we lose our purpose, 1008 00:54:41,484 --> 00:54:44,174 we lose the life. 1009 00:54:44,174 --> 00:54:47,364 And the Father, in His providential work, 1010 00:54:47,364 --> 00:54:49,754 is pushing us back to the vine. 1011 00:54:49,754 --> 00:54:54,784 Everything in your life that is shadow, 1012 00:54:54,784 --> 00:54:58,164 everything in your life that is weakness, 1013 00:54:58,164 --> 00:55:01,844 everything in your life that is sin - 1014 00:55:01,844 --> 00:55:07,801 do not allow that thing that's in your life that's sifting 1015 00:55:07,801 --> 00:55:09,481 to cause you to get over here 1016 00:55:09,481 --> 00:55:12,591 and separate yourself even further from Christ. 1017 00:55:12,591 --> 00:55:15,421 Every weakness, every shadow, every darkness 1018 00:55:15,421 --> 00:55:19,191 is set to show you your weakness. 1019 00:55:19,191 --> 00:55:22,951 Your total inability to live the Christian life. 1020 00:55:22,951 --> 00:55:27,251 And it is the Father pushing you back to the Son. 1021 00:55:27,251 --> 00:55:30,951 Pushing you back to the Son. 1022 00:55:32,435 --> 00:55:34,835 This is why, again, 1023 00:55:34,835 --> 00:55:38,335 that some of the believers that have been most fruitful 1024 00:55:38,335 --> 00:55:43,085 since the ascension of Jesus Christ 1025 00:55:43,085 --> 00:55:49,650 were people who experienced extraordinary difficulties. 1026 00:55:49,650 --> 00:55:52,400 Extraordinary problems. 1027 00:55:52,400 --> 00:55:57,950 Or in themselves had extraordinary weakness. 1028 00:55:57,950 --> 00:56:00,630 Why do we kick against the Scriptures 1029 00:56:00,630 --> 00:56:05,424 and say that they something they do not say. 1030 00:56:05,425 --> 00:56:07,675 Let me give you an example. 1031 00:56:07,675 --> 00:56:09,885 I'm going to give you a word 1032 00:56:09,885 --> 00:56:12,975 and then you just in vision in your mind, 1033 00:56:12,975 --> 00:56:15,395 what do you see when I give you this word? 1034 00:56:15,395 --> 00:56:18,235 Samson. 1035 00:56:18,236 --> 00:56:20,194 You think of an Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1036 00:56:20,194 --> 00:56:23,400 a Jewish Arnold Schwarzenegger. 1037 00:56:23,401 --> 00:56:24,361 Well, if that was the case, 1038 00:56:24,361 --> 00:56:26,241 then how is it that the Philistines didn't know 1039 00:56:26,241 --> 00:56:29,181 where his power came from? 1040 00:56:29,181 --> 00:56:36,731 He was probably just like a rural agricultural guy in Peru. 1041 00:56:36,731 --> 00:56:40,711 Probably about this tall with really thin arms. 1042 00:56:40,711 --> 00:56:44,381 Where does he get his strength? 1043 00:56:44,381 --> 00:56:46,051 I don't care how many muscles you have, 1044 00:56:46,051 --> 00:56:48,091 you can't pull up the gate of a city 1045 00:56:48,091 --> 00:56:50,261 carry it on your back up a hill and throw it down. 1046 00:56:50,261 --> 00:56:52,101 I don't know if anybody's ever told you that 1047 00:56:52,101 --> 00:56:56,520 but physiologically it's impossible. 1048 00:56:56,521 --> 00:56:58,071 He didn't do it by muscles, 1049 00:56:58,071 --> 00:57:01,508 he did it by the power of the Spirit. 1050 00:57:01,509 --> 00:57:03,289 Paul the apostle... 1051 00:57:03,289 --> 00:57:06,229 I'm so tired of going to conferences on Paul the apostle, 1052 00:57:06,229 --> 00:57:08,269 his mighty intellect, his this, his that. 1053 00:57:08,269 --> 00:57:09,729 Everything they talk about 1054 00:57:09,729 --> 00:57:13,421 is the very thing he doesn't talk about. 1055 00:57:13,422 --> 00:57:15,712 He talks about his weakness, 1056 00:57:15,712 --> 00:57:17,482 when God made him weak. 1057 00:57:17,482 --> 00:57:19,042 God turned him over 1058 00:57:19,042 --> 00:57:21,462 so that he feared for his life every moment. 1059 00:57:21,462 --> 00:57:25,802 He was basically all his Christian life in the mouth of a lion. 1060 00:57:25,802 --> 00:57:28,382 Why? So that his confidence wouldn't be in himself 1061 00:57:28,382 --> 00:57:33,327 but in He who raises the dead. 1062 00:57:33,328 --> 00:57:35,508 You know, Spurgeon... 1063 00:57:35,508 --> 00:57:37,128 It's my favorite preacher. 1064 00:57:37,128 --> 00:57:39,388 But boy, when a lot of these biographers get to heaven, 1065 00:57:39,388 --> 00:57:41,958 Spurgeon is probably going to punch them. 1066 00:57:41,958 --> 00:57:43,678 Because they talk about Spurgeon's intellect, 1067 00:57:43,678 --> 00:57:45,668 they talk about his great photographic memory 1068 00:57:45,668 --> 00:57:47,348 and all these different things. 1069 00:57:47,348 --> 00:57:51,517 Spurgeon would have talked about his weakness. 1070 00:57:51,518 --> 00:57:55,618 Your weakness is a catalyst 1071 00:57:55,618 --> 00:58:01,478 to push you to grab harder onto Christ 1072 00:58:01,478 --> 00:58:03,618 so that you might be filled. 1073 00:58:03,618 --> 00:58:06,134 Let's pray. 1074 00:58:06,135 --> 00:58:08,785 Father, I thank you for Your Word. 1075 00:58:08,785 --> 00:58:11,975 Lord, I pray that You would use it as an encouragement 1076 00:58:11,975 --> 00:58:14,785 in the life of Your people. 1077 00:58:14,785 --> 00:58:18,515 Lord, most of all that they would run, run, run, 1078 00:58:18,515 --> 00:58:22,515 always run to You and never from You. 1079 00:58:22,515 --> 00:58:26,515 In Jesus' name. Amen.