Men, the part of the chapter I want to focus on is in verse 32 there where the Bible reads
and they said one to another, did not our heart burn within us while he talked with
us by the way and while he opened to us the scriptures and the title of my sermon this
morning is, didn't our heart burn within us?
Didn't our heart burn within us?
That's the question that these two men asked and of course the context is that they're
on that road to Emmaus and the resurrected Jesus appears unto them but they don't know
that it's Jesus and he expounds to them the scriptures from all the scriptures concerning
himself.
Why?
Because to him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth
in him shall receive remission of sins.
Then afterward when they realized that it was Jesus who'd been talking to them the whole
time they look back on that and say, well, didn't our heart burn within us?
When he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the scriptures.
So he's just kind of looking back there saying, hey, it makes sense that our heart burned
within us because it was Jesus Christ himself that was preaching to us the word of God.
Now let me ask you this question.
Didn't our heart burn within us when we've read the Bible?
Didn't our heart burn within us when we've heard biblical preaching or didn't our heart
burn within us when we were out soul winning and we gave someone the gospel or didn't our
heart burn within us when we actually won someone to the Lord for the first time or
even subsequent times, even the hundredth time or the 500th time.
Didn't our heart burn within us and didn't our heart burn within us when we sang hymns
and praises to God?
I mean, I can't even count how many times I've been singing a hymn, especially very
heartfelt hymns, maybe a song like my Jesus I love thee and had tears come down my face
or recently the great physician, a new song I learned and my heart burned within me as
I sang that song and as I heard that song for the first time.
Many hymns have caused our heart to burn within us.
You know, I remember I've been several times to performances of Handel's Messiah.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
It's basically scripture that's put to music.
It's pretty much all just directly quoted from the Bible and I'm always so moved by
it and I remember going to Handel's Messiah and just thinking about the fact that I knew
that because of the Phoenix Symphony that was playing that probably many of them are
not even saved.
They don't even believe in Jesus Christ.
Many of the people that are showing up probably don't even really believe in Jesus Christ.
They're just there to hear the beautiful music.
Many of the singers are just paid professional singers.
They probably don't even believe in Jesus Christ and I remember walking out of there
and listening to people coming and congratulating the singers and congratulating the soloists
and congratulating the violinists or whatever and just thinking to myself, give the glory
to Jesus Christ and I remember just being confused and baffled.
How could anyone have been here tonight?
How could anyone hear this music and this word of God and not believe on Jesus?
I just was perplexed that anyone could sit there and hear God's word in power and not
believe in Jesus.
How many times have I sat in a sermon and just thought how could anyone listen to this
sermon and not believe in Jesus?
How could anyone read the Gospel of John and not believe on Jesus Christ?
I mean how can you read the book of John and walk away not believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ?
How could your heart not burn within you when you read the Bible, when you read the Gospel,
when you hear these things?
I mean didn't our heart burn within us?
Look if you would at John chapter 7, John chapter number 7.
Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 says this, for the word of God is quick and powerful and
sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit
of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The word of God is powerful and the word of God pierces us and just to our very core even
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.
Look at John chapter 7 verse 44.
This is when officers have been sent to arrest Jesus Christ and some of them in verse 44
would have taken him but no man laid hands on him.
Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees and they said to them, why have
you not brought him?
The officers answered, never man spake like this man.
I mean that's right there, the power of God's word, the power of being in the presence of
Jesus Christ and hearing his word.
The reason that we're even saved is through the power of God's word.
Go if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter number 2.
Didn't our heart burn within us?
While you're turning to 1 Corinthians 2 I'll remind you of the famous verse Romans 10
17, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Why does one person believe on Jesus Christ and another doesn't?
Where does the faith come from?
Well the Bible says that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
But obviously it has to be a heart that's receptive to hearing God's word.
It has to be one who wants to know the Lord and wants to hear what God has to say and
doesn't harden their heart and reject the truth of God's word.
But faith truly comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Why do I believe in the Bible this morning?
I believe in the Bible because of the Bible.
Not because of some external evidence, not because of a fossil somewhere, not because
of a history book somewhere, not because of some piece of concrete evidence I could point
to and say, hey, here's the proof, here's the smoking gun that the Bible is true.
No, faith is the evidence of things not seen.
Faith is the substance of things to hope for.
The word of God and its power is what caused me to believe on the gospel of Jesus Christ
and to believe on the Bible.
It doesn't mean that our faith is irrational or illogical, it's very rational, it's very
logical but it's based on the power of God's word.
It's not based on human evidence or physical evidence.
The Bible is the evidence.
Why?
Because never man spake like this man spake.
Look if you would at 1 Corinthians 2 verse 1, and I, brethren, when I came to you, came
not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified.
And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration
of the spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but
in the power of God.
Where is our faith resting today?
It's in the power of God's word.
It's in the power of the gospel.
It's in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ and his death and his burial and his resurrection.
Didn't our hearts burn within us?
Well if our hearts burned within us, that's a good thing.
God wants our hearts to burn within us.
Why?
Flip over if you would to Matthew chapter 22, Matthew 22.
While you're turning there, the Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 12, and now
Israel, what did the Lord thy God require of thee?
But to fear the Lord thy God and to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve
the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul to keep the commandments of
the Lord and his statutes which I command thee this day for thy good.
Look at Matthew 22 verse 36, master which is the greatest, which is the great commandment
in the law?
Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.
That's the greatest commandment.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all
thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
So if God's greatest commandment to us is to love him with all of our heart and with
all of our soul and with all of our mind, then of course God wants our heart to burn
within us when we read his word.
He doesn't want us to be lackadaisical.
He doesn't want us to be apathetic about him.
No, he wants us to love him with all of our heart and our heart should burn within us
when we hear his word, when we read his word, when we commune with him in prayer.
Our heart should burn within us.
It's a good thing if our heart burns within us.
However, with all that being said, and that's all very important, but we need to understand
that emotion and feelings have often led people into false religion, false doctrine, and into
bad decisions in their personal life.
It's great that our heart burned within us, but we need to understand that emotion, feelings,
and things of that nature have often led people into false religions, false doctrine, or just
bad decisions in their life.
Now let me give you a great example of this.
The Mormons have a thing called the burning in the bosom.
The burning in the bosom, right?
And this is why they believe in Mormonism because when the Mormon missionaries come
to their door, they don't come with any kind of a high pressure compelling people to be
saved or persuading them or preaching hard or anything like that.
They show up and they just say, hey, look, here's all we want you to do.
We just want you to read these verses and whatever, chapter 10, verses 4 through 6,
and just pray about it and pray for God to show you.
And then they're going to get the burning in their bosom and then they'll know that
the Book of Mormon is true.
This is where the faith of Mormons really truly rests, in praying about the Book of
Mormon and experiencing a burning in their bosom.
I remember I met a girl in high school that I was friends with for about a year and a
half before realizing that she was my second cousin once removed.
I had no idea.
And here we've been friends all this time.
But I found out she was my second cousin once removed and it turned out she was a devout
Mormon.
And that made sense because a lot of my ancestors from Idaho were devout Mormons.
And so I sat down with this girl and a friend of hers one time.
The friend of hers was more like an agnostic, didn't really believe anything.
And I sat down, the two of them, and I spent two hours preaching the Gospel to them, just
for two hours straight.
This is when I was a teenager.
I was 16 years old, 17 years old, and I preached to them for two hours straight.
And this Mormon girl, what I said really shook her and moved her.
I mean it really made an impact.
But this is what she finally said at the end.
She said, you know what?
She said, it doesn't matter what you show me in the Bible, I will never change what
I believe because I know what I've felt.
Because I know what I've felt.
Doesn't matter what the Bible says, I know what I've felt.
And this is the way Mormons believe.
They really point to that burning in the bosom as, look, if you talk to them, you'll find
out.
They'll bring that up to you as the evidence.
If you really get to know them and really talk to them, they'll come out with that.
And that's what they'll try to use to get people into their religion, that burning in
the bosom.
Listen, that is a bad place to place your faith, and let me explain to you why the burning
in the bosom is completely different than the hearts burning within the disciples in
Luke chapter 24.
Let me point out some obvious differences.
First of all, Jesus didn't come to them and give them a scripture and say, go pray about
this and you'll experience a burning in the bosom.
He didn't predict a burning in the bosom.
He didn't tell them, hey, if you have a burning in the bosom, that's how you'll know it's
true.
But not only that, it says very clearly in Luke 24 that Jesus actually used the scripture
to help them see the truth of what he was saying by comparing scripture with scripture.
See the Bible said in Luke 24 32, they said one to another, did not our heart burn within
us while he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the scripture.
See the thing that made their heart burn within them was when they saw God's word being consistent
and everything pointing to Jesus Christ and the power of the gospel message in all the
scriptures, and when he preached them out of the law of Moses and the prophets and in
the Psalms, and he opened their understanding that they would understand the scriptures,
that's when their heart burned within them.
That's when their heart burned within them.
Why didn't the hearts of these people burn within them because a Mormon missionary showed
up and expounded the scripture and just proved to them how Mormonism is just so biblical.
It's just all right there in the Bible because it's not in the Bible because Mormonism is
a fraud and a lie out of the pit of hell and they're going to experience more than a burning
in the bosom, they're going to be burning in hell because of that wicked religion.
And so this is totally different than a guy who just says, hey, here's a little hocus
pocus for you, you go read these magic verses, these particular three verses, not just any
verse in the Bible, not just hey, read the scripture, understand the gospel and you're
going to know it's true, your heart's going to break, but no, no, no, read these magic
four special verses, just these four, I'm sorry, two, three, good night, I can't count.
It's verses four through six of chapter 10 of whatever satanic book of their Mormon or
whatever, but read these particular verses and you're going to experience this special
burning in the, that's not what happened in this scripture.
See these people are being reasoned with out of the scriptures.
These people are not just using their heart, they're using their brain and they're actually
reading and understanding the word of God and what made them have that feeling in their
heart of just a burning was the fact that they understood God's word.
It wasn't a parlor trick.
It wasn't just I read a magic word and I felt an experience, no, no, no, they understood
the word, they understood the Bible, they understood the gospel.
That's what made their heart burn within them.
It's a completely different situation when Jesus Christ is rationally preaching to them
and showing them verses from the Bible and teaching them from the scripture.
Why?
Because the basis of their faith was not the fact that their heart burned within them,
their basis in their faith was that they believed what was written in the Bible.
If you would have asked those guys, hey, why do you believe?
Oh, because our heart burned within us when he talked to us, wrong, no.
They would say, you know why we believe on Jesus?
Because we saw it in the books of Moses, we saw it in Psalms and we saw it in the prophets
and we understood that the word of God is teaching us the truth.
Listen, our faith must stand in God's word and the power of God's word.
Now look, it's great that their heart burned within them because that shows their zeal,
their love, their excitement for the things of God, but you know what?
Our faith should never be based on that emotion or feeling.
You see, don't get the cart before the horse.
Emotion is great.
Feeling is great.
Our hearts burning within us is great, but that's not why we believe the Bible.
We believe the Bible and then our love for Christ causes our heart to burn within us
because we love him so much and when we hear those songs and when we sing those songs and
when we read the scripture and tears come to our eyes, we love him and our heart burns
within us because we love him with all our hearts, but it has nothing to do with why
we're saved.
We're saved because the Bible tells us how to be saved.
Look, if somebody asked me, hey, why do you believe salvation is by faith?
I'll say, you know what?
Because that's what the Bible says.
That's what the scripture says.
And you know what?
That's what Jesus taught people to rely on.
For example, where did I have you turn?
Deuteronomy.
Keep a finger there.
We'll come back to Deuteronomy.
Go to John chapter five.
See Jesus and the apostles didn't go around telling people to pray about the Old Testament
and then check their feelings.
Just pray about me as your Messiah.
That's not what he said.
Look what he said in John chapter five beginning in verse 37.
He said in John 537, the father himself which hath sent me hath borne witness of me.
You've neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his shape.
And ye have not his word abiding in you for whom he hath sent him you believe not.
Search the scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which
testify of me.
He's saying, look, you think you believe the Bible.
You think you have eternal life because of what's written in the Bible but you need to
go search the scriptures because you don't.
See that's what we're telling people.
When we go to somebody who thinks that they're saved and they're actually not, when we go
to somebody who's in a false denomination or following a false religion, you know what
we tell them?
Hey, you need to check the Bible and you'll see that what we're telling you is the truth.
You need to search the scriptures.
Not, well, pray about these three verses in our special different scriptures and see if
you get a burning in your bosom.
No, no, no.
We actually open up the existing scriptures that we already have from God, the Old and
New Testament, and we reason with them out of the scriptures and we teach them that Jesus
Christ is the only way to be saved and that it's not of works but that it's by faith alone.
Search the scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which
testify of me and ye will not come to me that you might have life.
He's saying you don't want to come to me that you might have life.
I receive not honor from men but I know ye that ye have not the love of God in you.
I'm coming in my Father's name and ye receive me not.
If another shall come in his own name him ye will receive.
How can ye believe which receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh
from God only?
So the Bible's pretty clear why these people don't believe because the question's often
asked why does one person believe and another doesn't?
Well, it's pretty clear why these people don't believe.
They don't want to come to him.
They don't want to come to Christ.
That's why they don't believe in verse number 40.
He also said they want to receive honor one from another in verse 44.
They're the type of prideful arrogant person that wants people to lift them up and honor
them and that type of person is unlikely to believe in Jesus Christ because it takes humility
to believe in Jesus Christ.
They don't seek the honor that comes from God only.
That's why they don't believe in Jesus Christ.
Do not think that I'll accuse you to the Father verse 45.
There's one that accused you even Moses in whom you trust.
For had ye believed Moses you would have believed me for he wrote of me.
But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?
Let me ask you this, could the Mormons really say that?
Could the Mormons really say, well if you guys would have believed the Bible, you would
have believed in Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon because the Bible wrote of it.
Really?
Show me in the Bible where it tells us that Joseph Smith is coming.
Show me the verse in the Bible that tells me that there's going to be another testament
of Jesus Christ.
There's going to be a third testament.
Show me that in the Bible.
There are a ton of predictions in the Old Testament telling us that the New Testament
is coming.
Why isn't the New Testament just filled with, all right people, there's another revelation
coming, another testament is coming, another prophet.
No, the way the New Testament ends up is just I'm coming.
That's what Jesus said.
I come quickly and my reward is with me.
There's nothing about some new prophet that's going to bring a whole new testament instead
of just two testaments, we're going to have a third testament.
No, no, no, the second testament, the New Testament, that's it.
Jesus Christ died on the cross and he sealed the New Testament in his own blood.
That's it.
That's all we need, we're done, finished.
We don't need another testament of Jesus Christ sealed with the blood of a sinful adulterer
shot in a Missouri jail.
Is that the blood?
Because look, every testament, every covenant must be sanctified with blood.
Is that what's sanctified, the Book of Mormon?
Some adulterer who's married to a 13-year-old and 20 other women secretly getting shot in
a jail cell because people are sick of him committing adultery with their wives and
teaching lies?
It's garbage.
The first covenant was sealed with the blood of animals but they represented the Lamb of
God.
And then the perfect new covenant, New Testament, was sealed with the precious blood of Jesus
Christ.
And it's perfect, it's complete, it's done, we don't need a new covenant.
We've already got that covenant.
We've already got that testament of Jesus Christ.
Go if you would to 2 Peter chapter 1.
But I don't want to spend the whole time talking about the Mormons.
You know, the Mormons have their burning in the bosom but honestly there are a lot of
other people who get into false religion and false doctrine because of feelings and emotion.
For example, people walk into a Catholic church or an Orthodox church and they hear that beautiful
organ music and the stained glass windows and they walk in and they see all the religious
pomp and circumstance and they smell the incense and they see the gold and silver and precious
stones and they hear that organ playing and oh, they just know that the presence of God
is there.
That's wrong because the devil will use that stuff too.
The devil will use that same stuff.
Look up in Ezekiel chapter 28 where he talks about the devil and what do we see there?
We see him using music that he's filled with great beauty, that he's pretty much the most
beautiful of all of God's creations, Lucifer and his pipes and his music and his jewels
and gems.
They seduce and entice those who are led only by feelings and emotion.
We're not founded on the rock.
We are to be found on the rock of God's word.
We're to build our house upon a rock which is the sayings and words of Jesus Christ.
Not to build our life and our faith and our belief on the shifting sands of our feelings
and our emotion because let me tell you something, my heart has burned within me many times but
there were many times when my heart did not burn within me because our emotions and feelings
are unreliable.
They're a shifting sand.
And you know what?
There are times when our heart might have burned within us about the wrong things.
Sure our heart burned within us when we sing praises to God and when we sang blessed assurance
Jesus is mine and the tears came down our face and our heart burned within us with love
for the Lord and we read the Bible and our heart burned within us.
But what about the teenage girl who's backstage at a rock concert?
Her heart's burning in her too, right?
Her heart burned within her when she trembling and astonished hands that CD or record to
that singer to sign and she'll never wash that hand again and all that.
You know people's hearts burn within them for worldly reasons.
That's not what we rely on and base our faith on.
Does God want our heart to burn within us?
Of course he wants us to love him fervently with all our heart, with all our might, with
all our strength.
But don't base what you believe on feelings and emotion.
That's how people become Catholics and Orthodox when they walk in and they just feel that
feeling or we know of course the big one, the Pentecostals and the Charismatics.
It's all feelings.
You walk in and they get all worked up.
It's all very emotional music, very emotional preaching and it's to get you worked up and
feel something and your heart's going to burn within you and that could lead people to false
doctrine and then you'll go to somebody who's mixed up one of these false religions and
you open the Bible and you begin to reason with them out of the scripture how to be saved
and how according to the Bible they're not saved and here's what they'll say, well I
know I'm saved.
I know I'm saved.
No you're not.
No I mean I just felt the presence of God.
But how many people in a false religion, how many people who are unsaved had all kinds
of feelings but they weren't saved?
You better be basing it on the Bible, the word of God.
But not only that, did I return to 2 Peter chapter 1?
The Bible makes it crystal clear that the word of God should be the basis for our faith.
It's the one thing we can be a hundred percent sure of and put all of our trust in.
It's the rock of our salvation, not a feeling or an emotion, not even an experience, not
even something miraculous that we've seen.
Look at 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 16, for we have not followed cunningly devised fables
when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eyewitnesses
of his majesty.
For he received from God the Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to
him from the excellent glory.
This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased and this voice which came from heaven we heard
when we were with him in the holy mount.
Now this is a pretty amazing experience because this is the mount of transfiguration when
they're actually with Jesus in the mount.
Peter was literally there and he saw Jesus Christ in all of his glory just brilliant
and shining as the light with Moses and Elijah with him.
And they're all just in glory and resplendency and then a voice comes from heaven and says
to them, this is my beloved son.
They don't have to wonder is this the son of God, they heard a voice from God the Father
out of heaven saying, this is my beloved son and they saw him in all of his glory with
Moses and Elijah but yet look what Peter says next.
We also have a more sure word of prophecy.
I mean how could you be more sure than that?
Peter, you were in the mount, you heard the voice, you saw him in his glory, you saw Moses
and Elijah.
We have also a more sure word of prophecy where unto you do well that you take heed
as unto a light that shineth in the dark place until the day dawn and the day star rise in
your hearts.
What's that more sure word?
Knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation
for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Peter says I'm more sure that the scriptures are true, I'm more sure that the Bible is
true than of what I saw in that mount.
Then what I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears I will trust the Bible more.
Now the Bible is consistent on this that the word of God is the final authority.
Not your feelings, not your emotions, not what you've seen.
Look people can sometimes see things that aren't real.
People can hallucinate, people can be hypnotized, people can dream things, people can have all
kinds of experiences that aren't real.
But the word of God doesn't change.
The word of God is always powerful, it's the same yesterday, today, forever, it's always
the same.
It's a more sure word of prophecy.
Say man I wish I could have an experience like Peter that I just know that the Bible
is true.
We have a more sure word of prophecy.
That's all we need.
Go if you would to Deuteronomy chapter 13.
We have to understand also that the devil can counterfeit signs and wonders.
That's why Paul said that if we are an angel from heaven, bring any other gospel unto you
than that which ye have heard, which ye have received, let him be accursed.
Of course if an angel showed up to talk to you, there could be all kinds of glowing and
resplendency and it could be convincing if Lucifer or one of his minions, if the devil
would show up to you, you know what, that would be pretty powerful.
But you know what, that wouldn't make it right and that wouldn't make it the truth.
Because if that angel from God comes to you bringing another gospel than what we find
in scripture, he's accursed of the Lord.
He's a false prophet.
That's what Islam is.
An angel came and brought him a whole other revelation.
Mormonism, an angel came and brought him a whole other revelation.
Look at Deuteronomy 13.1.
If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams and give it thee a sign or a wonder.
What's another word for a sign or a wonder?
A miracle.
And the sign or the wonder come to pass.
I mean the miracle happens.
Whereof he spake unto thee saying, let us go after other gods which thou has not known
and let us serve them.
Thou shall not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams.
For the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul.
You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey
his voice and you shall serve him and cleave unto him and that prophet or that dreamer
of dreams shall be put to death because he has spoken to turn you away from the Lord
your God which brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house
of bondage.
To thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in so shall
thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.
Look God commanded you to walk in a certain way.
You love the Lord.
You love his word.
You believe on Jesus Christ.
You know you're saved.
Then when somebody comes to you with something else even if they come to you with signs and
wonders God says, nope that's just a test to see if you really love the Lord if you
see that false lying sign and wonder come to pass.
Believe them not.
Believe the Bible.
Well why should we?
Hey you believe the Bible and you reject anything that goes against the Bible even if it's accompanied
with what?
Signs and wonders.
Look what does the Bible say in Second Thessalonians 2?
Turn there.
Second Thessalonians 2.
Think about in the Bible when the devil did signs and wonders.
How about in Exodus when the sorcerers of Pharaoh the Bible says that they were able
to do things quote by their enchantments.
So I don't believe it was just a sleight of hand.
I think they really were doing lying signs and wonders through their enchantments through
sorcery through witchcraft where they turned water into blood where they threw down their
rod and it turned into a serpent and of course Moses serpent ate their serpent.
What now?
But you know they could turn it into a serpent they could they could bring forth frogs that
you know there were certain things they couldn't do.
They couldn't bring the lice.
They step back and say wow this is the finger of God.
Certain things they couldn't perform.
But the Bible tells us that even in the future the devil will do more lying signs and wonders
when he sends the Antichrist and the false prophet and the Bible says that he do with
great wonders so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight
of men and deceive with them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which
he had power to do in the sight of the beast.
He's going to do miracles signs and wonders and he'll deceive people and that's still
coming and people are going to fall for it.
Second Thessalonians 2 verse 8 talking about the same thing and then shall that wicked
be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy
with the brightness of his coming.
Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying
wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness and them that perish because they receive
not the love of the truth that they might be saved and for this cause God shall send
them strong delusion that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned to believe
not the truth but add pleasure and righteousness.
What do you notice as being the similarity between Deuteronomy 13 and Second Thessalonians
2?
In Deuteronomy 13 he said that when the false prophet does lying signs and wonders it's
to test you whether you really love the Lord your God.
You remember that part?
And then notice the people that are being deceived in Second Thessalonians 2 why are
they deceived?
Because they receive not the love of the truth.
They add pleasure and unrighteousness.
They didn't love the Lord.
They don't love Jesus Christ.
They don't want him.
They don't want to come to him that they might have life.
They're like the people in the parable that said we will not have this man to rule over
us.
They don't want Jesus.
They don't love him.
So they choose to believe the lie.
They follow the lying signs and wonders.
You say well I know what I felt.
Doesn't matter what you show me from the Bible.
I know what I felt.
Well the Bible says in Proverbs 28 26 he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.
He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool but who so walketh wisely he shall be delivered.
What's he saying?
Use your brain.
Don't just follow your heart.
Use your brain.
So of course our heart burned within us.
It's great that our heart burned within us.
Our heart continually burns within us because we love the Lord.
Because God's word has power.
Because the hymns have power.
Because preaching has power.
Our heart burns within us.
But do we base what we believe on feelings and emotions and the fact that our heart burns
within us?
No.
Now let me give you an illustration that I think really illustrates this well.
Because we don't want to go to the other extreme that I think a lot of people go to because
they see the burning in the bosom of the Mormons and they see the Pentecostal Charismatics
who is just all about their feelings and they go too far the other direction and they want
to just eliminate emotion or eliminate feeling or completely downplay the importance of feeling
and emotion.
Well here's the thing.
Feeling and emotion are important because God wants us to love him with all our heart.
And our heart should burn within us with love for the Lord.
Love for our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Love for the gospel.
Love for soul winning.
Love for the lost.
Our heart should burn within us.
So we don't want to go to the other extreme.
So here's an illustration that I think will help you see what I'm saying.
Okay let's take for example the man-woman relationship, right?
Let's say we have two people that want to get married and they love each other and then
they get married and they continue to love each other.
Well think about this.
Should that decision or that relationship be based 100% on feelings and emotion?
I mean should I just decide who I marry 100% based on feelings and emotion?
If I just feel strong feelings toward this young lady or that young man, depending on
what gender you are, should that be the determining factor?
You know it just feels right.
Well do it then.
Follow your heart.
Should it be based 100% on that?
No, no, no.
Because we need to make sure that it's also based on this, right?
You know want to make sure, hey wait a minute, is this person saved?
Because you might feel so good about it and feel so strongly and when you get around him
or her, your heart burns within you.
But what if they're not even saved?
What if they don't even love the Lord?
What if he doesn't even have a job?
What if he's a loser?
What if she's a skank?
You know what if all these reasons why you shouldn't be with him or her, what if your
parents are giving you all the reasons why?
The church is giving you all the reasons why.
The Bible's giving you all the reasons why.
Are you just going to follow your feelings, follow your emotion, follow your heart?
That's just like Mormonism.
That's like being a charismatic or a Pentecostal.
That's like going into a Catholic church.
Who cares that the Catholic church completely contradicts the Bible on most points?
It feels right.
The Book of Mormon feels right.
The charismatic Holy Roller Church just feels right, wrong.
Because it doesn't matter if it feels right, it still might be wrong.
And if you trust in your heart, you're a fool.
Walk wisely and be delivered.
But at the same time, on the flip side of that, a lot of people go to another wrong
extreme where they basically don't listen to their feelings at all.
They don't listen to their emotions at all.
And they find somebody that looks good on paper and they marry that person without their
heart ever burning within them.
And that's just as big of a mistake.
Just as big of a mistake.
Don't marry somebody that you don't love.
Don't marry somebody that you're not excited about.
Don't marry somebody that you don't have feelings for.
Yeah, and you know what?
If you get a bad feeling, you've got to trust your gut.
If you get a bad feeling about someone, that's a good warning system that we have also that
warns us to get away from bad situations.
So we don't want to make either mistake of just completely following our heart and emotion.
But we also don't want to just discard heart, discard emotion, discard feeling.
Love isn't a feeling.
Yes, it is.
Yes, love is a feeling.
And you know what?
You say, well, I love the Lord and there's no feelings.
I just do His commandments.
He's not really pleased with that because He wants you to love Him with your heart and
your mind and your soul.
He wants us to feel strongly about Him.
He wants to feel strongly about each other.
So you don't want to just follow your heart, but at the same time, you don't want to just
completely ignore your heart because of the fact that you have to have some chemistry
with the person that you're going to marry and spend the rest of your life with.
There needs to be some chemistry there, amen?
There needs to be some feelings.
There needs to be some emotion.
There needs to be real burning love there because, look, there are all kinds of fish
in the sea.
That's the person you're going to spend the rest of your life with.
You want to make sure that you pick somebody.
I'm not saying that it has to be some Hollywood feeling.
Some people, they raise that bar so high that because they don't tingle every time they
see or think about that person, and then they never end up getting married.
They're 40, 50, 60, and it's like, I'm still looking for that feeling.
I still haven't got the burning and the bosom.
People often take things to wrong extremes.
What we want to do is use our brain to figure out whether this person is even eligible
to even think about getting romantically involved.
Are you listening, young people?
Before you even think about going on a date or think about getting emotionally or romantically
involved with someone, first thing, don't go to your heart.
First thing, go to your brain for a minute and figure out, is this person even eligible?
Number one, are they saved?
Then ask yourself a few other questions about them and also figure out, hey, has this person
already been married before?
These are good things to check on and ask yourself.
Once you figure out, okay, this person's single, this person's available, this person's a Christian,
this person loves the Lord, then you spend time with that person and see if there's something
there.
You see if there's chemistry there.
See if your heart burns within you, but you don't even check for the burning in the bosom
if they're not saved.
You don't even want to get close to that person.
You don't even want to entertain that thought if they're not even saved.
Get them saved and then we'll talk.
But I'm telling you, there are people out there who go to this other extreme.
There's a book out there, I Kiss Dating Goodbye, and it's just everything's about, you just
got to just, it's all just a checklist.
I've met people like this and they wonder why they can't get any girls to go out with
them or marry them.
They go on the first date and it's like a checklist.
I'm looking for somebody who plays the piano, who's saved, who wants to be a pastor's wife.
You want to have an unlimited number of kids.
You want to have 10 plus kids, right?
This is how you're going to dress.
This is how you're going to act.
This is what you're going to do.
It's like, if you meet all this criteria, then you're the one for me.
That doesn't feel very loving.
That's not very romantic.
Then they wonder why that's the first and only date.
You don't want to go to the opposite extreme.
Now think about once you're married because obviously you don't want to fully commit yourself
to someone or even commit your heart to someone until you're married because until you're
married, it's not a done deal.
You might think it's not going to end, but it might end.
Oh no, I'll never break up with this.
You might.
Oh, thou 15 year old, 16 year old, 17 year old.
You don't know if it's going to end.
You don't fully get invested.
You don't fully give your heart to someone until you're married.
Then once you get married, then you fully give your heart to that person.
That's when you're locked in and it's still death do us part.
Once you're married, right, shouldn't your heart burn within you?
Doesn't our heart burn within us for love for our wife or love for your husband?
It ought to.
Our heart ought to burn within us and so we don't want to throw out emotion completely.
Emotion has its place and not only does emotion have its place in our marriage and not only
does emotion have its place in choosing a spouse and not only does emotion have a place
in our religion and in our walk with God, it doesn't just have a place.
It's absolutely essential.
It's essential.
If you don't love the Lord your God with all your heart, you're not going to keep the commandments.
If you don't love the Lord with all your heart, you're not going to keep serving him.
If you don't love the Lord your God with all your heart, he's not pleased with you
because that's the first commandment.
That's the most important commandment.
That's the great commandment.
You know what?
I don't care how good of a provider you are.
I don't care how good of a husband you are in the sense that you provide and you are
nice to your wife and you give her what she wants, you give her what she needs.
You know what?
Don't love your wife and if your heart doesn't burn within you, she's not going to be happy
and you're not doing everything you need to do as a husband.
Even if on paper you are, hey, I'm paying the bills, you know, I'm going to work, I'm
opening the door for you, I'm being polite, I gave you a birthday present, I remembered
your anniversary, but hold on, did your heart burn within you?
Or same thing to the wife.
I cook and I clean and take care of the kids, everything.
Yeah, but did your heart burn within you?
You better have love for your husband.
You better have love for your wife.
Why?
It's not just part of it, it's essential and God wants us to love him and not just this
love that's only reduced to just actions because we hear, hey, love is a verb and love is an
action.
Great, I'm for all that, but don't forget what love actually is too, a feeling, an emotion,
a feeling.
Don't just discard that.
Don't throw that out.
I mean, look, if you don't know what I'm talking about this morning and you're married, I feel
sorry for you and I feel sorry for your spouse.
If you don't know what it's like to have a loving relationship, you know, and look, maybe
your spouse is cold, you know, maybe you need to take the step to being a little warmer
and to loving with all your heart and with all your soul and that your heart would burn
within you and that hopefully that your spouse's heart would burn within them.
But you know what?
Does your heart burn within you at church?
Does your heart burn within you when you read the Bible?
Because you know what?
If your heart never burns within you when you read the Bible, you're probably not going
to read it that much.
And if your heart doesn't burn within you about your wife, you're probably not going
to want to spend a lot of time with her.
You're probably not going to spend a lot of time with him if it's your husband.
And it's probably not going to be that convincing when you do because people can see through
you, especially people that you live with.
And if your heart doesn't burn within you, you'll get out of church, you'll quit reading
the Bible, you'll quit soul winning.
Why?
The love of Christ constraineth us to do the works that we do.
How do we get back to the first works?
We get back to the first love.
And so there's got to be love in our marriage and love in our church.
And yes, that love is manifested by action and you know what?
If we don't feel the love, sometimes we can do the actions and then the love will come.
You know, we do the first works and that's how we get back to the first love, amen?
So I'm not saying, hey, don't do nice things for your spouse unless you feel it.
No, no, no.
Do nice things for your spouse until you feel it.
But you better start feeling it at some point.
You've got to.
You must.
Well, I don't know how.
Do it.
Figure it out.
My heart doesn't burn within me.
Look, are you saved?
If you're saved, then you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you.
And when you meditate on the Lord, when you meditate on the gospel, when you sing the
hymns of the faith, when you read the Bible, your heart is going to burn within you.
There's going to be times when the tears flow.
There are going to be times when you feel strongly.
And God wants us to feel.
And not to just be a bunch of mathematicians about our marital relationship, all scientific
and mathematical about it, or about our walk with God.
So the question of the sermon is this, didn't our heart burn within us?
And I answer, yes, absolutely, absolutely.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.