And he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak.
Now this probably looks a little bit familiar to you.
Turn to Ephesians chapter 6 if you would.
Ephesians chapter number 6, the title of my sermon is this,
The Cloak of Zeal.
That's the title tonight.
The Cloak of Zeal.
Look if you look at Ephesians chapter 6, you see,
it probably stood out to you the similarity of the verse that we read in Isaiah 59
with the famous passage in Ephesians chapter 6 about the armor of the Lord.
You see, the New Testament is oftentimes taking things from the Old Testament
and clarifying them, embellishing them.
Much of the New Testament is quoting the Old Testament.
Much of the New Testament is explaining the Old Testament,
is clarifying the Old Testament, is shedding its light on the Old Testament.
And so this passage in Ephesians 6 is a reference back to Isaiah 59, 17.
It says in Ephesians 6, 13,
Therefore take unto you the whole armor of God,
that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth,
and having on the breastplate of righteousness.
That's what is said in verse 17 of Isaiah 59.
He put on righteousness as a breastplate.
Keep reading.
He says, And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Why the feet?
Because you use your feet to give the gospel, my friend.
You say, wait a minute, I thought you used your mouth.
You've got to go ye therefore, into all the world, and preach the gospel to everyone.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Hey, you go preach the gospel, it has to do with your feet.
But the next verse he says, Above all, taking the shield of faith,
wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery dots of the wicked,
and take the helmet of salvation.
Same thing we saw in Isaiah 59, 17.
I'll read it for you.
He said, And an helmet of salvation upon his head,
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Turn to one more place.
1 Thessalonians 5.8.
Go back toward the end of your Bible a few pages.
1 Thessalonians 5.8.
The Bible reads in 1 Thessalonians 5.8,
But let us who are of the day be sober,
putting on the breastplate of faith and love,
and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
So this is a consistent idea throughout the Bible.
This idea of us as Christians putting on a spiritual armor,
you know, having our horns gird about with truth,
a breastplate of righteousness, a helmet of salvation,
the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
But there's one thing that's mentioned, two things really,
but in Isaiah 59 he mentions being clad with the cloak of zeal.
Now it's not mentioned in Ephesians 6 or 1 Thessalonians 5,
but this is another element here, this is another ornament.
What is zeal?
Well, I think the best place to define zeal is kind of Revelation 3.
Turn to Revelation 3.14,
and we're turning to a lot of passages in this early part of the message,
but I want you to understand what zeal is.
God commands us to be zealous.
This is one of the places where He does command us to be zealous.
God tells us, yes, have the shield of faith,
yes, have the breastplate of righteousness,
but He said He put on the cloak of zeal,
zeal as a cloak.
Look at verse 14 of Revelation 3.
And unto the angels, the church, and the land of the sea is right.
These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness,
the beginning of the creation of God.
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot.
This is the opposite of zeal right here.
That thou art neither cold nor hot.
I would therefore, he said, I would thou work cold or hot,
so then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot,
I will spew thee out of my mouth,
because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods,
and have need of nothing.
And knowest not that thou are wretched and miserable
and poor and blind and naked.
I counsel thee to bind with me gold, trite, and fire,
that thou mayest be rich,
and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed,
and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear,
and anoint thine eyes with thy salve, that thou mayest see,
as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.
Be zealous, therefore, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If any man hear my voice, and open the door,
I will come in to him, and will sup with him,
and he with me, to him that overcometh
will I grant to sit with me in my throne,
even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father
in his throne.
He that hath near let me hear what the Spirit saith
unto the churches.
God here is rebuking.
Jesus Christ himself is rebuking a church,
saying, you're neither cold nor hot.
You're half in, half out.
You're watered down.
You're lukewarm.
And he says, you need to change.
You need to repent.
He's saying, change?
That's what repent means, change.
Be zealous.
Repent.
Quit being watered down.
Quit being half in and half out.
Have some zeal in your life.
Be zealous about what you're doing.
What is zeal?
Zeal is a fervent passion, a desire, an excitement
about what you're doing.
Now, think about the piece of armor
that we just talked about.
We talked about a breastplate.
We understand what it's for to protect the vital organs
in the front of your body.
We understand what a helmet is for to protect your head
and your brain from injury.
We understand what shoes are for to protect your feet.
What is the purpose of a cloak?
Is a cloak really going to protect you
from a sword thrust or a spear that's coming at you?
A cloak is made of fabric.
There are two purposes of a cloak throughout the Bible
and just the use of the word.
Two purposes of a cloak.
What is a cloak?
A cloak is a cape.
It's an outer mantle.
A cloak, kind of like Elijah wore a mantle.
It's an overgarment.
And really, if you saw a soldier wearing a cloak,
what would you know about that soldier?
You probably know that he's the boss.
I mean, you probably know that he's the one in charge
because not every soldier's going to be wearing a cloak.
Not everyone's going to be wearing it.
And so the cloak of zeal is representing leadership.
It's the person.
Because it can be used for two things.
Number one, it's an ornament.
It's a decoration, if anything.
To show, you know, you'll often see a bunch of soldiers
and then one of them is wearing the cloak of leadership.
It represents leadership in the Bible.
You say, prove it.
Well, remember Elijah handed that cloak,
gave the lead to Elisha, right?
And he took the mantle of Elisha and carried the mantle
and then they looked to him and said, hey,
the spirit of Elijah rested on Elisha.
And he took over.
You've heard of people picking up the mantle, right?
Picking up the mantle of leadership,
carrying the torch for someone else.
And so the cloak can be used, number one,
as a sign of being the leader, as a sign of leadership.
But number two, a cloak can be used to hide something.
You know, you've heard of a cloak and dagger.
You've heard of people, you know,
a cloak of maliciousness, the Bible says.
You know, you're trying to hide behind something, right?
You're trying to cover something.
Obviously, that's not what God's talking about.
Well, look, if you would, at 2 Kings, chapter 10.
2 Kings, chapter 10.
So a cloak is something that denotes leadership.
It denotes a leader, like Elijah was a great leader.
Elisha was a great leader.
It's something that a soldier wears when he's in the lead,
when he's taking the lead.
He wants people to see him.
He wants people to follow him.
That's what it's talking about.
Look at this great verse in 2 Kings 10 and 15.
And when he was departed then, this is talking about Jigu,
he lighted on Jonadab, the son of Rechad,
coming to meet him.
And he saluted him and said to him,
Is thine heart right as my heart is with thine heart?
And Jonadab answered, It is.
If it be, give me thine hand.
And he gave him his hand and he took him up into the chariot
and he said, Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord.
So they made him ride in his chariot.
You see, here's a man who got people to follow him.
Here's a man, Jigu, who was a great leader.
Now he made some mistakes later in his life,
but at this point he was doing God's will.
He was a great leader for God.
If you remember, he was in the house, dining.
He was a general in the army, and he was in the house,
dining with many of his soldiers and so forth.
And a young man ran into the room with a box in it,
and nobody knew what was in the box.
And the man ran in and said, I have an errand under thee, O captain.
And he said, Well, which of us are you talking about?
Because there were other captains and other generals in the room.
And he said, I'm talking to you, Jigu.
And he said, I want to speak with you in private.
And so this young man took Jigu up into the upstairs room
of the place where they were dining,
and he opened the box, and he had a horn of oil,
and he poured that horn of oil upon Jigu's head,
and he said that he was anointing him the king of Israel.
Thus saith the Lord.
You are going to destroy the wicked house of Ahab.
You're going to destroy these idolaters.
And basically it was a coup d'etat, a revolution,
overthrowing the wicked leader at the time.
So the young man leaves the room, doesn't talk to anybody else,
jumps on his horse and heads on his way.
Well, Jigu comes out and he sits down and starts to eat like nothing happened.
They said, Well, what did that guy say to you?
And he said, Oh, you know the man and his communication.
Because it was a well-known guy, a young guy, a preacher,
one of the prophets.
He said, You know who that guy is.
He's just trying to blow it off. He just keeps eating his food.
And they said, Well, it's false.
Whatever that guy said, it's false.
Because they knew him, and they didn't appreciate his religion or whatever.
And they said, Well, it's false.
Tell us what it was, though.
And he said, Well, you know, he told me that I was going to be the next king of Israel,
you know, that we're going to take over.
Well, as soon as they heard that, all of a sudden it wasn't false anymore.
And they blew the trumpet, they took off their jackets and threw them on the ground,
they rolled out a red carpet, and they said, Long live King Jigu.
Right? Now that guy was a leader.
Tell me that guy wasn't a leader.
And the guy can just, over a meal, just say, Oh, right, you know, that guy said that I was going to...
They didn't care what that young guy said.
But when he said anything about him being king,
about him getting rid of the idolatry and the wicked that caused him to hang out,
man, they jumped on board. They followed him, right?
They jumped, they said, Man, let's go.
They didn't even have to say hardly anything.
They're throwing down their jackets, throwing out the red carpet.
We want to follow you.
Why did they love him?
Why did they want to follow him?
Why did they jump on his bandwagon?
Because he was a man of zeal.
I love what he says to John and them.
Hey, come with me and see my zeal for the Lord.
Hey, hop in, buddy.
I'm going to show you what it's like to serve God.
I'm going to show you what it's like to be zealous for God.
We live in a time of watered-down Christianity,
half in, half out, half on, half off,
lukewarm, soft-soaked, soft-cell.
I mean, I'm sick of it.
I want to be all the way in, on fire, zealous, living for God.
I want to go out and knock the doors, preach the Gospel to every creature
until I'm blue in the face.
Hey, I don't want to be watered down.
I want to have zeal for God.
I mean, look, if you want to go to some dead church,
they're all over the place.
You want to go to some watered-down church
where you can sit back and relax,
and you can go week after week after week after week,
come in the same, you leave the same,
nothing changes, nobody ever gets saved,
nobody ever gets baptized.
Hey, this isn't that kind of a church.
I'm going to tell you something.
Every leader, every real leader has zeal as a cloak.
They wear a cloak of zeal.
You see, nobody's going to follow you
if you're not excited about what you're doing,
if you don't believe in what you're fighting for.
Nobody wants to follow you.
Why would people go out into battle,
if you think of a military sense, like a historian,
why don't people want to go out into battle,
risk their lives,
for something that the leader doesn't even believe in?
I mean, think about it.
For something that they're not even excited about,
something that they don't even feel strongly about.
And you see, that's why you see so many churches that are dead,
because the people in the pew aren't really even that excited to be there.
The pastor by the pulpit's not even really that excited
about getting people saved or doing anything for God.
He just cares about his cush life, his cush paycheck,
his cush little office, his fancy car,
and the people in the pew are happy to just sit there and relax
and go through life comfortable.
Look, being hot is never comfortable.
You live in Arizona, you should know that.
And being cold's not comfortable either.
You know, you want to be like Obeilas, you want to be just right.
But I'm going to say something.
Hey, God commanded us to be cold or not.
Neither one of them's comfortable.
What's going to provoke you to want to be hot or want to be cold?
Zeal.
Passion, right?
Excitement.
Believing in what you're doing.
Arter.
Zeal.
This is what we're talking about tonight.
Being zealous, putting on zeal as a cloak.
You say, I don't want to be a leader.
I don't want people to follow me.
Sure you do.
Of course you want people to follow you.
Because you ought to be saying to somebody that you know,
you ought to be saying to your friends, once you win them to Christ,
you ought to say, hey, come with me and see my zeal for the Lord.
Come out soul winning with me and see my zeal for the Lord.
Come knock the doors with me.
You can be the silent partner.
I'll do the talking.
But why don't you come out and see what it's like to win somebody to Christ?
Why don't you come with me and see my church's zeal for the Lord?
Why don't you come with me and see what real Christianity is about?
What it's really like to live a righteous and holy and godly life,
not just some kind of a show up on Sunday, put on a show.
Hey, but to be real every day, to read the Bible,
to meditate upon it day and night, to memorize the Bible,
to pray, to fast, to work, to strive for the gospel.
Hey, that's what I'm talking about, zeal.
We need to turn up the heat in our churches.
We need to get things going.
I mean, people get too comfortable.
You say, why do you call this Bible memorization?
Hey, I'm trying to get you zealous.
Oh man, memorize the whole chapter of the Bible, Hebrews chapter 1?
Do it! Do it!
You say, oh, it's too hard.
Well, we wouldn't want you to have to do anything hard now, would we?
I'm sorry that we asked you to do something hard.
You know, nobody's making you do it.
But you can do it or not do it.
But the point is, of course it's hard.
That's why we want to do it, because we're zealous.
Because we don't think that the Bible is a book that sits on the shelf or on the coffee table.
We think that God said, thou shalt meditate therein, day and night.
These words shall be in thine heart, Deuteronomy chapter 6.
We're supposed to know the Bible.
We're supposed to meditate on the Bible, day and night.
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scorpion.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night.
And that's Christianity.
Hey, meditating on the word of God day and night.
Hey, going out of the highways and hedges and compelling them to come in to my house may be filled, God said.
Hey, come with me and see my zeal for the Lord.
That's leadership.
And by the way, he didn't say, hey, go over there and show me some zeal.
He said, no, come with me and see my zeal.
See, a true leader leads by example.
He doesn't just sit around telling people what to do.
You know, he's not just going to lay back and say, okay, you do this and tell me how it worked out.
You do this, you go over here, you go over here.
Hey, the real great general is right at the front lines, right?
He's leading the charge.
He's right there in the trenches with his men.
He's got zeal on as a cloak, and he says, come with me.
Follow me, like Jesus said, and I'll make you fish as a man.
Not go fish, let me tell you how to do it, and then you can go do it.
No, just follow me.
Follow me and I'll make you fish as a man.
And so, zeal as a cloak.
Now, before we go any further, we'll turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 9 in the New Testament.
2 Corinthians chapter 9, I'm going to show you another instance where the Bible talks about
zeal or the cloak of zeal in reference to leadership.
You do want to lead other people.
You want to lead other people to get saved like you got saved.
You want to lead other people to go to church like you go to church.
You want to lead other people to get baptized like you've been baptized.
You want other people to follow you out of this whole wedding.
You want them to follow you to church.
If you're a mom or a dad and you want your children to follow you,
and you want to lead them, hey, kids are going to follow the parent that's filled with zeal,
that wears the zeal as a cloak.
Yes, the helmet of salvation.
Yes, the breastplate of righteousness.
Yes, feed child with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Yes, the sword of the Spirit was the word of God.
Yes, fill loins, bread of God with truth, but clad with zeal as a cloak.
Zeal is what I'm talking about tonight.
Look at 2 Corinthians 9 verse 2.
The Bible reads,
For I know the forwardness of your mind,
for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia,
that Achiah was ready a year ago, watch this last praise,
and your zeal hath provoked very many.
See, your zeal can provoke other people to live for God too.
This is what leadership truly is.
Leadership is not a title that goes beyond, you know, pastor.
That's not leadership.
A title doesn't make you a leader.
This is what makes you a leader.
Let me give you leadership and that's when people follow you.
That's what leadership is.
If people follow you, you're a leader.
You can have whatever title you want.
You can go get whatever kind of training or education
in some school somewhere that you want.
That's not going to make you a leader.
Zeal is going to make you a leader.
I mean, you can go get your BA, your BS,
and that's really what it is anyway,
your MA, your DD, your PhD, your THD,
D-A-B-C-D-E-F-G.
You know what?
I don't need letters of commendation for men
to say that I'm a leader.
You don't need to go get some shingle for your door.
That's not going to make you a leader.
Hey, what's going to make you a leader is zeal.
What's going to make you a leader is when people follow you
like they follow Jesus and they go out and win souls to Christ.
Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ.
Follow me and I'll make you to be fishers of men.
Not some title, not some education, not some classroom.
I remember I took a class on leadership one time in school.
I walked out.
I walked in and I was thinking,
I'm looking forward to this class
because I don't really know what leadership is
and I want to learn how to be a leader
and I want to learn what leadership is.
And so I went to that class
and I stayed an extra semester.
I walked out and I still didn't know what leadership was.
But today I know what leadership is.
It's when people follow you. That's all it is.
It's not something that can be taught in a semester.
It's not something that you read in a book.
It's not something that you hang on the door of your office.
It's not something that you put after your name when you sign your name.
It's something that makes people follow you
and it's called zeal.
It's called passion. It's called caring about.
It's called loving the Bible.
It's called loving soul winning.
And so it's not something that you can bottle up and sell
or mail in for.
They have these mail in college degrees now.
This is the thing with Bible colleges.
You read these books and you mail in
five box tops off your Wheaties box
and you send in enough UPC symbols
and send them a couple grand and they'll give you a Bible college degree.
You know what you can do with your Bible college degree?
You can put it on your wall
and you know what Paul said about it? This is what he said.
He said, I count all things but loss
for the excellency is enough.
He said, what things were gained to me,
the accolades that I received in the Jewish religion.
I'll tell you what he said.
You can turn there if you want.
He said, but we are of the circumcision
which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus
and have no confidence in the flesh
though I might also have confidence in the flesh.
If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof
he might trust in the flesh.
I more circumcise the eighth day
of the stock of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin,
an heaver of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee,
concerning zeal, persecuting the church,
touching the righteous riches of the law, blameless,
but what things were gained to me, those iconic laws for Christ.
Yea, doubtless I count all things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord,
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things in New Calvary,
but dumb, dumb that I may win Christ
and be found in him not having my own righteous riches of the law,
but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteous which is of God by faith,
that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection,
and the fellowship of his sufferers,
being made conformable unto his death,
if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead.
Not as though I had already attained to you,
you were already perfect, but I follow after,
if that I may apprehend, that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ Jesus, brethren, I count on myself
to have apprehended, but this one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind,
and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press forth the mark for the pride of the high calling
of God of Christ Jesus.
I took away my college degree.
Gamaliel took away my BA.
Gamaliel took away my DD.
Gamaliel took it away.
The school of the Pharisees, the school of Judaism,
the school of false religion,
they disowned me a long time ago,
but he said, it's worth less than dumb to me.
He said, I want to follow Christ.
Forget the things that are behind.
Forget college.
Forget Gamaliel.
Forget the Jews' religion.
He said, I want to follow Jesus Christ with my life.
It's all a bunch of dung, he said.
It's all a bunch of garbage.
He said, I am pressing forward to living for God.
Hey, go ahead and mail off for some piece of dung.
Go ahead and mail off to one of these Bible colleges.
Maybe they'll send you a piece of dung in the mail.
You know, I just want to see their face
when they walk in the post office
to mail you your degree.
Is it liquid, fragile, or perishable?
Well, I don't know.
It's a piece of dung that I'm mailing.
I mean, that's what it is.
Oh, man, I can't believe you'd say that.
I can't believe that people would say,
pay good money to get a piece of dung in the mail.
That's what I can't believe.
I'm just saying, that's what the Bible said.
I didn't write the Bible.
I'm here to tell you tonight
that you can have the dung of a title,
or you can have the leadership,
which is a cloak of zeal.
You see, don't tell me about soul-winning.
Show me how to win souls.
I've had so many people in my life come to me
and they were going to tell me how to win souls.
You know what I mean?
They were going to tell me how I'm not doing it right,
or I don't know how to talk to people,
I don't know how to progress,
and I always tell them the same thing.
Don't tell me, show me.
Show me how to do it, right?
Don't tell me how to do it, show me how to do it.
I mean, look, I run a business,
I have employees,
and when I train them, I show them how to do it.
I don't just tell them, do this.
I go out of the field and say, look, this is how you do it.
Show them how.
They see you doing it, and they do it the way that they saw you do it.
Otherwise, they don't do it right.
You tell them how to do it, they don't do it right.
You show them how to do it,
oh, okay, I see what you're doing.
That's leadership.
Show them.
Not just Ivory Tower somewhere,
Pastor DDD,
giving his marching orders,
hey, you want to learn soul-winning?
Come soul-winning with me.
Come soul-winning with the other people in this church.
We won't tell you how to do it, we'll show you how to do it.
We'll go out and do the work.
That's what leadership is.
And it's not just a pastor,
it's not a title, it's you.
You be the leader in this church.
Why don't you stand up, sir, and lead this church.
Lead us to greater heights of soul-winning, whoever you are.
Lead the way, show us how to do it.
Show us your zeal for God,
young man.
Show us, teenager, be thou an example of the believers.
Let no man despise you.
Show us your zeal, teenager.
Show us your zeal, young man.
Show us your zeal, old man.
Show us your zeal, dad.
Show us your zeal for God, and we'll follow you.
I'll follow you.
Show me some zeal, anybody in this church?
I'll follow you.
You're the pastor.
I'll follow you if you show me some zeal.
Ladies, go out there and lead souls.
Did you notice the ladies that said,
hey, I want somebody in Christ today?
That's biblical.
This is what was spoken of by the prophet Joel.
Remember?
He said these men are not drunken as you suppose in the day of Pentecost.
He said this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.
When they were winning people to Christ
in different languages,
they weren't tongue-talking like a bunch of Pentecostals
and blah, blah, blah, and falling on the ground.
They were speaking languages.
It lists 17 foreign languages that they spoke and actually have to do.
But let me tell you something.
It wasn't just Peter.
Contrary to what you may have heard in the sermon,
Peter didn't preach in that 3,000 people state.
He preached in 17 different languages
and had 3,000 people say it.
Peter stood up and just explained what was happening.
He said this is that
which was spoken by the prophet Joel
and to have come to pass in the last days
sayeth God that I will pour out my
spirit upon all flesh.
Your young men shall prophesy.
Your old men shall dream dreams.
He said upon the servants and upon the handmaidens.
Did you hear that?
Handmaidens.
I'm not a maiden.
He said upon the servants and upon the handmaidens
I will pour out of my spirit
and they shall prophesy.
Did you hear that?
He said your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy.
Acts chapter 2.
We're not talking about a woman behind the pope of preaching in church.
A woman is supposed to keep silent in the church
for it's not permitted unto them to speak.
That's what the Bible says.
They're to learn in silence as also sayeth the law.
But, when it comes to going out
and winning souls, ladies,
if you have the desire to speak,
why don't you go out and preach the gospel to somebody
and win somebody to Christ?
And that's why this has always been a church of soul winning ladies.
I mean, here's one of our first members
right here, Amanda.
This church has been around for three years.
She's been coming since the second Sunday
of our church's existence.
I knocked on her door and left the invitation
just a few days after getting into town.
And she's been soul winning since day one.
Did you hear me?
For the last three years,
she has been out winning souls to Christ.
And many other ladies in this church
consistently go out saying,
oh, that's for the man. Wrong.
The sons and the daughters.
Oh, it's just for the pastor. Nope.
It's for every born again child of God.
The command of God.
Oh, I don't have that gift. It's not a gift, it's a command.
God lists the spiritual gifts
in Romans chapter 12 and 1 Corinthians chapter 12
and it's not a gift, it's a command.
There are people that you can win to the Lord
but I'll never win to the Lord.
There are people that I can win to the Lord
but you'll never win to the Lord.
There are people that would be won to the Lord
by a lady coming to their door,
not by a man coming to their door.
God wants to use every single one of us
to get people saved.
Man, woman, boy, girl.
Hey, listen ladies.
I want to get my hair cut short like Joyce Meyer
and stand by the pulpit and preach.
No, if you want to be a leader,
why don't you show us your zeal for the Lord?
You want to lead in this church?
Go out and win souls.
Go out and preach the gospel.
You don't need to get a short hairdo
and stand behind the pulpit
and have your face on some flyer
that, you know,
Joyce Meyer needs to get out of the pulpit
and sit down and shut up and let a man preach.
Sorry to say that like that,
but sometimes I get like that.
But the point is, hey, she has no business behind the pulpit.
She needs to be quiet in the church
and let the men speak.
That's what the Bible says.
If you go back to a generation,
especially in church,
a culture of men doing the talking, right?
Men leading.
It's the truth.
But you know what, ladies?
Go ahead and lead the way out of soul
and show us your zeal for the Lord.
Now, did I have you turn to Philippians chapter 3?
Look down, if you would, at verse number 6.
Now, zeal can sometimes be misplaced.
We're talking about zeal
and helping you to lead other people.
You say, oh, I'd love to be a leader.
Zeal.
Zeal is your ticket to leadership.
Are you listening?
Zeal.
It's got nothing to do with all these other things that people think.
It's zeal.
But look at verse number 6.
This is Paul before he was saved.
This is back when he was profiting in the Jews' religion
and really earning a lot of degrees and accolades.
He said, concerning zeal, persecuting the church.
Was that the right kind of zeal?
I mean, he was zealous about the wrong thing.
He was zealous persecuting, you know, the truth.
Persecuting Christianity and the church.
Touching the righteous, which is in the law, blameless.
But what things were gaining me? Those I kind of lost for Christ.
Look at Galatians chapter 1.
Just backward toward the front of the Bible, a few pages.
Go to Galatians 1, verse 13.
Galatians 1.13.
You know, who do these people think they are anyway with their master's degree?
Didn't the Bible say something about, be not ye called rabbi?
Did he say, for one is your master, even Christ?
And he said, call no man your father upon the earth,
for one is your father, which is in heaven.
Didn't he also say, and be not ye called masters?
For you have one master, and that's Christ,
and yet people will put on their wall a degree that says,
Master of theology? Master of divinity.
What, you're the master of God? That's what divinity means.
You've mastered the study of God.
I have mastered the science of God.
That's what theology means, science of God.
I am the master of theology.
You know, it's like He-Man in the Masters of the Universe or something.
Like some kind of superhero or something.
The master of theology or doctor.
I remember I won this category of Christ at my job.
His name, my name is Stephen, his name was Stephen.
And my middle name is Lee, his middle name is Lee.
My birthday is July 24th, his birthday was July 24th.
My son's birthday is September 28th, his son's birthday was September 28th.
But the simple, you know, that was all.
I thought that was pretty interesting.
And all that's true, I'm not lying.
He was several years older than me, but we had the same birthday
and our sons had the same birthday and we had a similar name.
But I one step into the Lord and we were listening to a preaching tape
driving down the road and he said, who is this?
I said, this is Dr. Jack Hyles that we're listening to.
And he says, doctor?
And I said, this is Dr. So-and-so.
And he's like, are these guys doctors?
He's thinking of the emergency room, he's thinking of a hospital.
But really, it is kind of silly.
I thought, that's kind of goofy.
Calling a preacher a doctor?
Oh, but wait a minute.
That's to show how different they are from other preachers that are not a doctor.
You know what I mean?
We've got to set them apart.
And you know, most of these Bible colleges are giving out these doctorates like candy anyway.
You know what I mean?
The honorary doctorates, they get them out.
I mean, everybody, it seems like every pastor I know is doctorate, except me.
And you know, I feel bad about it.
I'm a little bit hurt by it.
Because I can't find any other pastors that are just, you know, Brother Anderson pastors.
It seems like, how did you get a doctorate?
You know, you're 25 years old.
You know, it's like, how are you a doctor?
Oh, you know, this Bible college, you know, I mailed something to me and they mailed it back.
And you know, I'm a doctor.
Oh, wow, you know, I'm doctor.
I mean, I can't wait until one day I can be Dr. Anderson.
Wouldn't that be great?
Maybe I could check your pulse or something, too.
I mean, that's how silly it is.
It's how dumb it is.
Some title, some fancy name.
Hey, you can call me whatever name you want.
You know what I mean?
It's not really going to make any difference.
Just don't call me Reverend, because his name is Reverend.
That's what the Bible says.
I don't want to take God's name or anything.
But look at Galatians 1.13, it says,
And by the way, it's blasphemy to call somebody master or father or rabbi.
That's what the Bible says.
That was the whole point of that.
But look at Galatians 1.13, it says,
So you say, I was very zealous, but he was zealous for the wrong thing.
The Bible says it's good to be zealously affected always in a good thing.
Zeal is not a substitute for knowledge.
Are you listening to me?
Zeal is not a substitute for doing what's right.
Zeal is not a substitute for knowing the Bible.
Zeal is not a substitute for living a righteous and clean life.
You see, imagine this.
This is how I want to illustrate this.
Go to battle, and the only army you've got is that cloak.
That's not going to work, right?
What do you think is the last thing you put on?
The cloak, right?
I mean, well, I'm ready for battle.
No helmet, no breastplate, no shield, no sword, no shoes, just a cloak.
Zeal, man, I'm excited.
You know, you're going to be like charge, and then you're going to be killed.
So look, start by putting on the breastplate of righteousness.
Yeah, put on the, you better have the loins, you better have the truth.
You better have the helmet of salvation.
Zeal is not a substitute for knowledge,
but zeal is what's going to take your knowledge, your righteousness,
your godliness, your soul-winning, your truth,
and it's what's going to make people follow.
See, let me put it to you this way.
Before trying to be able to follow you, be somebody who's worth following.
I mean, if you're unrighteousness, what's the point of being zealous and getting it?
I mean, Paul was zealous, but he didn't have knowledge.
Paul was zealous, but he didn't have righteousness.
Paul was zealous, but he didn't have the helmet of salvation.
He wasn't even saved.
Paul was zealous, but he didn't have the shield of faith.
Paul was zealous, but he didn't have the sword of the Spirit.
His zeal was worthless.
Listen to this, Romans chapter 10.
Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.
For I bear the record that they have a zeal of God.
He's saying, look, I'm not going to lie to you.
The Jews are zealous.
I bear the record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish their own righteousness, right work, salvation,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.
To everyone that believeth.
For Moses described it, the righteousness which is of the law,
that the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this right sin not in thine heart,
who shall descend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above,
or who shall descend into the deep, that is, to bring up Christ again with them.
But what sayeth it?
The Word is nigh thee, even in thine mouth and in thine heart,
that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved, for with the heart man believeth not the righteous,
and with the mouth confession is made on the salvation,
for the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be saved,
for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek,
for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him,
for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,
how then shall they call on him whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher,
as it is written, how beautiful the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace,
that bring glad tires to good things?
But they have not all made the gospel, for as I say,
Lord, who have believed not forth, so that faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God.
Hey, listen to me, do you know the truth tonight?
Do you know the word of God tonight?
Are you saved tonight?
Have you confessed to the Lord Jesus?
You know the truth.
You're not like the Jews that were trying to make their own works right in righteousness.
They were trying to earn their way into heaven.
Hey, if you're saved tonight, how are they going to hear without a preacher?
Why don't you borrow a little zeal of these bunch of Jehovah's Witnesses
that are marching around the city preaching blood?
They have zeal that's not according to knowledge.
Hey, how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach, except they be sent?
And you know what that's talking about?
Right now, you're sitting in church, and Pastor Anderson is up here
sending you out soul winning.
I'm sending you at Tuesday at 5.30.
I'm sending you on Wednesdays at 5.15.
I'm sending you at Thursdays at 5.30.
I'm sending you on Fridays at 5 o'clock.
I'm sending you on Sundays at 1 and again at 4.30.
Hey, we're sending you out.
We're trying to get you to go out and preach the gospel.
How are they going to hear unless you preach it to them?
And how are they going to call our God, if they haven't heard God's word,
because faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God?
And how are they going to hear without you preaching it to them?
And how are you going to preach it to them if you don't go to a church that's going to send you?
Go ahead and go to some church that won't send you.
You can find plenty of churches that won't send you anywhere.
They'll just tell you, hey, drop a couple bucks at the plate.
Come here looking good.
You know, look good, sit here so everybody can see what a beautiful church we have.
Hey, look, you come here, you look as ugly as you want,
you dress as messed up as you want,
and I'm going to send you out to preach the gospel.
Do you care what you look like?
You know, people come for their little fashion show.
They come to throw their money in the plate.
Hey, your money pairs with you.
Who cares about money?
God put nuts to money.
Hey, go out and preach the gospel to every preacher.
That's why you're here in church, not just to pay your tithe.
Pay your tithe by all means, but that's not why.
I come to church like, oh yeah, I got to pay my tithe.
You know, oh yeah, I got to dress for church.
You know what I mean?
To me, it's more about the soul and it's more about the preaching.
And you've got to come to a church like this.
It's not the kind of church that's going to send you.
Do you think the Presbyterians are going to send you?
Do you think the Methodist church will send you?
Do you think the Lutheran church will send you out to preach the gospel to every preacher?
Do you think that the Southern Baptist church across the street will send you out to preach the gospel to every preacher?
No, but you come to an independent, fundamental, King James Bible preaching church,
they'll send you out, God willing.
They'll send you out to preach the gospel.
Why don't you borrow the zeal from the Mormons riding around on their little tricycle,
going around lying to everybody with their black trench coats on,
with their little name tag that says Elder when they're 19 years old,
trying to tell you that they're going to be their own god on their own planet someday,
trying to tell you about their funny underwear that they wear.
And yes, they do wear funny underwear.
Yes, Mormons do. They're not even allowed to.
They got funny underwear. Who knows what I'm talking about?
See, if I'm lying and everybody else in this room is lying too.
So they're going to come on their tricycle to your door and they're going to tell you a bunch of lies.
Why don't you borrow some of that zeal?
Why don't you decide that the gospel is worth preaching?
I talked to the missionary when I was in Norway and he said,
you know what, he said there are 70 Mormon missionaries in Norway right now.
There are 70 young guys in this country right now, in Norway, in this country of 4.7 million people.
He said there are 70, and he said independent, fundamental, Baptist, King James Bible preaching, two.
You know what I mean? Two soul-willing Baptist missionaries and 70 Mormon missionaries.
Where's our zeal? Where's our fire?
Do you remember what Isaac said to Abraham when they were going up the hill and Genesis 7 pointed out?
He said, well, I see the wood, I see the fire, but where's the lamb?
And he said, God will provide himself the lamb?
Hey, today I see the lamb. Jesus Christ has already died on the cross, but the berry grows again.
Hey, I see the wood and the cross. Where's the fire? That's what's missing today.
I mean, back then, they were saying, where's the lamb?
And Abraham said, hey, God's going to provide the lamb. I'm saying, where's the fire?
Where is the fire in today's independent Baptist churches?
Where is the fire in your life that's burning in your bosom that says,
I must go out and preach the gospel while it is day, like Jesus said,
the night cometh when no man can work?
They said, Jesus, have something to eat. Jesus, rest. Jesus, take it easy.
And he said, I must work the works of my Father while it is day, the night cometh when no man can work.
They accused Jesus in Mark chapter 1 of being insane.
They said, he is beside himself. You remember that?
They said, he is out of his mind because he skipped meals, because he worked so hard,
because he was just going here and preaching there and doing this and doing that.
They said, you need to rest. You need to have something to eat.
He said, my feat is to do the will of my Father which is in heaven and to finish his work.
Now, there were times when he rested. There were times when he ate,
but he was working a lot harder than they wanted to work.
He was a lot more zealous than they'd ever seen.
You know, there was one of his disciples, and I don't really know much about this disciple,
because really the Bible doesn't say much about him.
But there's one thing about this one disciple that speaks volumes, and that's his name.
It's his name.
Anybody know who I'm talking about? Simon the Canaanite?
Now, you can look at that and say, well, okay, Simon the Canaanite, where was he from?
Canaan? You know, he's Canaan. Was he a Jew?
It doesn't sound like him. It sounds like he was a Canaanite.
It sounds like he was a foreigner, basically.
The rest of them were all Israeli Jews and everything.
You know, tell these dispensationalists to put that in their pipe and smoke it.
You know what I mean? Oh, the Jews, the Jews.
One of these disciples is not even a Jew. He was a Canaanite.
But you know what his name was called?
Because there were two Simons, if you remember.
There was Simon Peter and Simon the Canaanite.
And Jesus, he gave them a name.
I don't know if you can keep them apart or whatever.
But he said, Simon, you're going to be called Cephas.
Peter. Peter and Cephas meaning the same thing.
A stone is what it means.
But he called this other man Simon Zelotes.
Z-E-L-O-T-E-S. He changed his name.
He gave him that surname. He tagged that name on him.
You're Simon Peter and you're Simon the Zealot.
The Zealots. That's what it means. It just means the Zealous One.
I mean, what was it where Jesus looked at this guy?
I mean, why did he pick him?
We don't know much about him. Does anybody know anything about him?
I don't know. But for some reason, Jesus picked this guy.
I'll bet you it was Zeal.
I'll bet you Jesus looked at that guy and said, this guy is Zealous.
This guy is on fire. In fact, I'm going to name him Simon Zelotes.
One day, when you get to heaven, you will get a white stone, the Bible says.
And in that stone, a new name written, which no man knoweth, say to you.
God will give you a name when you get to heaven. Did you know that?
Read the Bible. Read Revelation chapter 2.
He says that he'll give you a white stone, and in that stone, a new name written, which no man knoweth.
You know, it's not going to be something that you're going to wear around.
It's not going to be something that's going to go on your business card.
It's not going to be a little shingle that you can put on your door.
It's not going to be a little frame thing on your wall.
It's going to be between you and God. That'd be a cool name.
Huh? Stephen Zealotes. You know what I mean?
I don't want to be named Stephen Waterdown.
Stephen the Mild. Stephen the Lukewarm.
I want to be Stephen Zealotes. That's a pretty good name.
I'll bet he was happy with that name that God gave him.
But, turn to one last place and I'll be done.
Titus chapter 2 is the last place we'll look at tonight.
Titus chapter 2. You see, what do you think more about this church different?
Zeal. Zeal. Zeal!
You see, zeal is not emotionalism, by the way.
This is not an emotionalistic church.
I've been to churches that are very emotionalistic.
You know, the tear-jerking sermons, the gut-wrenching invitations,
everybody comes down the aisle crying.
You know what I'm talking about?
The gut-wrenching sermon and everybody's weeping and everything.
This church is not based on emotionalism at all.
It's based on Bible preaching, Bible doctrine.
I mean, look, it is.
It's based on Bible doctrine.
It's based on door-to-door soul-winning.
It's based on personal righteousness and holiness.
You see, you're not looking at some pastor,
you're not looking at people in this church.
We don't sit around and fill our minds with the world's garbage six days a week
on the television and then come to church
and all of a sudden we put on zeal like a cloak.
I sleep in my cloak, my friend.
I wear my cloak Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
It's not something that I put on on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night.
Hey, the Bible says we're to put on the new man every single day.
Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Daily, deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Jesus daily.
What's different about faith-forward Baptist Church?
It's so emotional.
It's an emotional experience.
Somebody said to me the other day,
have you experienced the Church of Christ?
I said the Church of Christ is preaching false doctrine.
I don't care how it feels to be in that service.
You know what I mean?
Emotionalism is not taught in the Bible.
I don't believe in emotion.
I'm an emotional guy.
What is it that drives faith-forward Baptist Church?
Zeal.
Zeal, I mean, being zealous.
Not just zealous about soul and things.
Zealous about keeping God's commandments.
Zealous about reading and memorizing the Bible.
Zealous about loving one another and bearing one another's burdens.
Zealous about being the right kind of a Christian.
Zeal, my friend.
Zeal is what it's all about.
Knowledge and zeal.
Put those two together, it's an unbeatable combination.
Know the truth and then get on fire with it and run with it.
Right?
Know the Gospel.
Know that it's by faith alone.
Plus nothing, minus nothing.
By grace, through faith.
Everyone that believeth the Jew first and also the Greek.
Hey, everyone that believeth.
Get that figured out.
Learn the Gospel.
It's not works.
It's not turn away from your sins.
It's not join the Church.
It's not get baptized.
It's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
Hey, get that, but why don't you get on fire with that?
Why don't you get that and then why don't you go out and preach that?
Why don't you get that and run with it and win people to Christ?
But he says in Titus 2.13,
Looking for that blessed hope in the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ,
who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity.
That's salvation, right?
Redeemed from all iniquity.
And, why else did he give himself for us?
To purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Peculiar people, zealous of good works.
These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority.
Let no man despise thee.
Don't ever be caught thinking that zeal is a bad word.
You know, some people use it as a bad word.
Did you know that?
People say that, oh, he's a zealot.
He's, you know, these religious fanatics, right?
He's a fanatic.
He's a zealot.
He's, you know, he's over the top.
He's a little bit extreme.
Have you ever heard these things before?
Whoa there, buddy.
Slow down.
Don't be a zealot.
Don't be extreme.
You know what?
Jesus called a guy the Baptist.
John the Baptist, right?
Jesus called a guy the zealot.
Simon the zealot, right?
It sounds like it's good to be a Baptist, and it sounds like it's good to be a zealot.
It sounds like, I mean, look.
You put Baptist on the name of your church, you like that name so much.
I got Baptist on the name of my church, it'll be on the name of my church till I die.
I'm not going to call it community church so everybody can wonder what we believe.
Hey, it says Baptist on the side.
I like that word so much, I put it on the side.
And that sign cost $4,000, we're not changing the name of this church, okay?
And even if, hey, forget that.
Hey, I'm born a Baptist, I'm going to die a Baptist.
You know, there's only one reason why people want to get rid of the name Baptist.
Say, oh, why do you have to be a Baptist?
Only one reason why people want to get rid of the name Baptist is because they don't want people to know what they believe.
I want people to know what I mean.
To me, what does it mean to be a Baptist?
It means you believe in eternal security to believe it.
It means that you believe in baptism by immersion.
It means that you believe in salvation by faith.
It means that you believe the word of God is without error.
Man, great, throw it on the side.
Baptist, praise God, hallelujah.
Hey, you know what? Jesus called another guy the Zealot.
Why don't you grab onto that name too, right?
And make that part of who you are.
Are you a Baptist? Yes, I'm a Baptist.
Are you a Zealot? You better know I'm a Zealot.
You better know I'm a fanatic.
You better know I'm extreme.
You better know I'm over the top.
Why, thank you.
And so he says, look, Jesus Christ came to save us, yes.
And if you believe, you're saved whether you're Zealot or not.
Whether you're lukewarm or not.
Whether you're carnal or not.
Whether you're a baby or not.
But he's saying here, be Zealous.
He's saying here, I wanted to get you saved, but in addition to that, I also want to purify you.
A peculiar people, Zealous of good works.
What's peculiar mean? Unique.
We ought to be different from the world.
There ought to be something unique about God's people that's different from the world.
And he says, how are you going to become Zealous?
How do you get Zeal?
Why is it that you don't have Zeal maybe?
Maybe it's because of an impurity in your life.
Think about this now.
Here God equates Zealousness with purity.
So maybe if you have a lot, here's a theory for you.
Maybe if you have a lot of sin in your life, you're not going to be Zealous.
Because if God says he's going to purify you into somebody who's Zealous,
it sounds like living an impure life is going to kill your Zeal.
I wonder if maybe dead churches have a lot of sin.
I wonder if dead creatures have a lot of sin in their life.
I wonder if watered down, lukewarm Christians have a lot of sin in their life.
I mean, when Jesus rebuked them for being lukewarm in Revelation 3,
He said, thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing,
and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
You know, some people don't know that they're naked.
Did you know that?
The Bible says that showing your thighs is nakedness, Isaiah 47.3, Exodus 28.42.
There are women who are walking around today naked.
They don't even know it.
Jesus said, you don't even know that you're naked when you're walking around in short shorts
and putting on a bathing suit and all this stuff.
You don't even know you're naked.
That's why you don't have any zeal.
That's why you're lukewarm.
Show me the lady who's wearing short shorts and she's out in women's souls like madness.
When was the last time you saw Amanda in a pair of short shorts?
When was the last time you saw my wife in a miniskirt?
Huh?
When was the last time you saw any zealous right-wing, radical Christian that was out doing the work for God?
Naked, half naked.
You know what I mean?
See, impurity is what's going to...
Go ahead and fill your mind with smut of this world.
That's all the TV is.
That's all the radio is put down.
It's a bunch of smut.
The world would have called it porno 50 years ago.
In 1950 they would have said it's porno.
They would have thought it was an adult movie.
What did you take home from the video store 60 years ago?
That's an adult film.
That's a triple X film.
But you know what?
You're not going to have zeal like that, buddy.
You won't.
You've got to be purified to be zealous.
Let God purify you.
Let God purge you.
Get the sin out of your life.
Clean it up.
Clean up your house.
Clean up your ideas.
Clean up your thoughts.
Clean up your life.
And get some zeal for crying out loud.
The world is dying and going to hell because they're not even hearing.
Look, if somebody hears the gospel and goes to hell, I feel bad for them.
I feel a lot worse for the person who dies and goes to hell in Phoenix, Arizona.
In Phoenix, Arizona.
Because all they ever heard in their whole life...