Please take your seats and take your windows and you'll find your windows close by. Please turn them to number 260.
Number 260 is able to deliver the number 260.
This is the grandest stage of the year.
Lord, my God, what an awesome wonder!
Let's sing it out in this verse.
O Lord, my God, what an awesome wonder!
Consider all the worlds thy hands have made.
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder.
Thy path throughout the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, my Savior come to thee.
How great thou art, how great thou art.
Then sings my soul, my Savior come to thee.
How great thou art, how great thou art.
When through the woods and forest plain I wander.
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down the lofty mountain grandeur.
And see the brook and feel the gentle breeze.
Then sings my soul, my Savior come to thee.
How great thou art, how great thou art.
Then sings my soul, my Savior come to thee.
How great thou art, how great thou art.
When I'm learning that God has done my sparing.
Sent him to die, my sares can take him in.
There on the cross my burden proudly bearing.
He bled and died to take away my sin.
Then sings my soul, my Savior come to thee.
How great thou art, how great thou art.
Then sings my soul, my Savior come to thee.
How great thou art, how great thou art.
When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation.
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow in humble adoration.
And then proclaim, my God how great thou art.
Then sings my soul, my Savior come to thee.
How great thou art, how great thou art.
Then sings my soul, my Savior come to thee.
How great thou art, how great thou art.
Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our God and redeemer.
Sing of earth His wonderful love proclaim.
Hail Him, hail Him, highest art angels in glory.
Strength and honor give to His holiness.
Like a shepherd Jesus will guard His children.
In His arms He carries them all day long.
Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness.
Praise Him, praise Him, ever in joyful song.
Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our blessed redeemer.
For our sins He suffered and bled and died.
He our God, hope of eternal salvation.
Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus our crucified.
Sound His praises, Jesus who bore our sorrows.
Love unbounded, wonderful, deep and strong.
Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness.
Praise Him, praise Him, ever in joyful song.
Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our blessed redeemer.
End the portals, bow with hosts and the spring.
Jesus, Savior, reign in forever and ever.
Crown Him, crown Him, Prophet and Priest and King.
Christ is coming over the world victorious.
Power and glory unto the Lord He longed.
Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness.
Praise Him, praise Him, ever in joyful song.
Thank you, sing this one.
Alright, this time we'll pass our offering plates around.
As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Revelation chapter 2.
The last book of the New Testament is the book of Revelation.
Revelation chapter number 2 at the end of your Bible.
Revelation 2, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1.
Follow along silently with Brother Raymond as he reads Revelation chapter 2, starting in verse number 1.
Revelation chapter 2 and verse 1, the Bible reads,
Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand,
who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil,
and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars.
Hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted.
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works,
or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
Unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write, These things saith the first and the last, which was dead and is alive.
I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, but thou art rich.
And I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer.
Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days.
Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges.
I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is, and thou holdest fast my name,
and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr,
who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth.
But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam,
who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication.
So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
Repent, or else I will come unto thee and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone,
and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it.
And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write, These things saith the Son of God,
who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass.
I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works, and the last be more than the first.
Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou hast sufferest that woman Jezebel,
which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not.
Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts,
and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.
But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine,
and which have not known the depths of Satan as they speak, I will put upon you none other burden,
but that which ye have already hold fast till I come.
And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations,
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers,
even as I received of my father, and I will give him the morning star.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Brother Daniel, will you pray for us?
Dear Father in Heaven, please fill the pastor with your spirit and please bless us,
and give us ears to hear the wit and give us for wisdom and understanding in this service today.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. The title of my sermon this morning is The Reins and the Heart.
The reins and the heart. The Bible says in verse 23,
And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and the hearts,
and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.
Now what does this word mean? The reins. R-E-I-N-S.
It's used 15 times in the King James Bible.
But what does it mean? Well, it actually means the kidneys.
The reins are the kidneys.
Now, if you look this up in the dictionary, a lot of people will say,
Oh man, the King James Bible just uses all this archaic language.
How can we figure out what it means?
Look, typically if there's a word in the Bible that you don't understand,
you can look it up in the dictionary and almost every time it's going to give you the right answer.
The vast majority of the time.
And the dictionary that I like to use is I just use dictionary.com.
That's typically what I use.
I have the app on my phone or I just type into the browser dictionary.com.
So I went to dictionary.com and I already knew what it meant,
but I wanted to demonstrate this.
So I typed in reins and literally the first thing that popped up,
definition number one, the kidneys.
Okay, so it's not that this is just impossible to understand or too archaic.
It's just sometimes you have to look things up in the dictionary
because they're not words that we commonly use anymore.
Definition number one that came up when I typed reins into dictionary.com is the kidneys.
Definition number two, the region of the kidneys or the lower part of the back.
Definition number three says, especially in biblical use,
the seat of the feelings or affections formerly identified with the kidneys.
Okay, so what is going on here?
What is going on here?
Now, usually when you hear the word reins, you probably immediately think of a horse
and you think of like the reins, like ha.
But that's a completely different word.
Now, this word reins means kidneys and there's also a remnant of this in a lot of medical terms
because you'll hear about people having renal failure.
And what is renal failure?
Renal failure is when their kidneys fail.
Now, why does the Bible talk about the Lord searching the reins and the hearts?
If the reins are the kidneys or the lower back where the kidneys are located,
why does it say that God searches the reins and the hearts?
Well, here's the thing about that.
When you think about something, obviously your brain is the one doing the thinking, right?
When we think about the body parts associated with different things,
cognition takes place in the brain.
Our mind is where we think thoughts.
But stop and think about this.
When you have some kind of an emotional response to something,
do you feel that in your head or do you feel it in your abdomen?
Stop and think about it.
So let's say you get really scared or let's say you're in love
or let's say you're really nervous about something or anxious.
Or let's say you get really angry or you're depressed.
I mean, you fill in the emotion.
When you have emotions, they cause a physical response in your abdomen, okay?
And I mean this in the most literal sense.
I'm talking about the actual physical pain or twinge or feeling that you have.
Anybody who's experienced any emotions at all has felt those kind of feelings in their abdomen.
And so that's why in the Bible, it'll use language regarding the bowels.
And that has to do with like love and affection and feelings and emotion.
And the reins are the same way.
It's basically just talking about a seat of emotion.
And that's even what dictionary.com said under definition three, especially in biblical use,
the seat of the feelings or affections, formerly identified with the kidneys.
Now, they're trying to make it sound like, oh, this is just some kind of an archaic understanding.
You know, that's what they used to think or something like that.
But it really isn't a formerly or archaic because we still feel things in those parts of our body.
And what you have to understand is that it's not that they lacked understanding of science
and now that we've learned science, we know that it's inaccurate.
That's not what's going on.
What's actually going on is that the Bible's just using this symbolically.
Like, for example, when the Bible talks about your heart, it's not talking about the blood-pumping organ.
And no one ever thought that the blood-pumping organ is really the core of your spiritual being.
I'm sure somebody thought that, but I'm saying most people didn't think that.
The bottom line is that the reason why the heart is used in that way is because heart is simply referring to the core, the center of something.
So the center of our being is called our heart and our physical heart is the center of our body.
And also all of the blood in our whole body goes through our heart.
It's kind of a clearing house for all the blood in our whole body goes through the heart.
And so think about the metaphor when the Bible says,
Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life and the blood is the life.
So these things are just symbolic.
It's not that somebody actually thinks that emotions happen in your kidneys or that love happens in your large intestine
or that your soul is physically located in the blood-pumping organ.
But these are good descriptions to help us understand concepts that are not physical.
Your soul is not physical.
The spirit is not physical.
Love is not physical.
Emotions are not physical.
They're in another realm, but there are certain parts of the body that get associated with these things.
The heart is associated with our central being of who we are on the inside because it's the central organ in the body.
And the kidneys or the bowels are associated with emotions and feelings because that's where you physically feel something when you experience emotion.
You physically have a gut feeling about these things.
Now a lot of people, when they're reading the King James Bible and they don't understand something,
instead of reaching for the dictionary, which is what they should be doing,
or looking at the context or comparing scripture with scripture, which is what they should be doing,
they often think, well I'm just going to check a modern version.
The problem with that is that the modern versions are garbage.
They're poor translations and they often have an evil agenda.
And they twist scripture, they remove entire verses, they add phrases and take things out wholesale.
The new versions are very different from the King James.
So if you want to read a new version, read a new version because you want to read a different Bible
that's different than the traditional text and you just want to be a member of the Bible of the Month Club,
then yeah, go ahead and get your newfangled Bible and be sure to get the next one when it comes out
and the next one when it comes out as they keep changing what God says and making it more gender neutral
and changing doctrines with the times and softening up the passages on the Sodomites, etc.
Hey, go ahead. But if you want to understand the King James Bible, the traditional received text,
the last thing you want to do is reach for one of these modern versions.
If you want to understand the King James Bible, grab a dictionary, yes.
Ask someone who knows. Ask a mature believer or your pastor or someone else,
but don't reach for one of these modern versions.
Let me tell you what the modern versions do here.
If you look up all these verses that talk about the reigns in scripture,
in the modern versions they will change reigns to the mind.
Okay, so like for example, the ESV says,
all the churches will know that I am he who searches the mind and heart
and I will give to each of you according to your works.
The NIV, know that I am he who searches hearts and minds.
Even the New King James Version, so called, changes this to,
I am he who searches the minds and hearts.
The MEV, the RSV, the Amplified Version, Holman Christian Standard Bible,
virtually any version that I checked, and I checked 20 or 30 versions,
they all replace reigns with mind.
And in the Old Testament, they do the same thing.
And I'm here to tell you, that is not correct.
The reigns are not the mind.
That's not what it means.
And you're losing meaning by going to that translation because here's the thing.
The reigns are the seed of emotion.
That's not the mind.
The mind is thinking.
The mind is cognition.
God's not saying here, hey, I search the mind and I search the heart.
He searches the reigns and the heart, which has to do with how you feel,
not what you think.
Does everybody see the difference?
There's thinking and cognition and then there's feeling and emotion
and the reigns are the feelings and emotions, not thoughts.
It's a totally different idea.
So a lot of people, they would look at reigns and then say,
oh, let me grab a modern version.
Oh, reigns is mind.
And then they're probably going to think it's like the horse reigns.
Like they're probably going to think, oh yeah, you control the horse,
you know, the mind controls the body.
Boom.
And I've talked to several people that have that understanding
and I had to explain to them, hey, it's kidneys.
Okay.
You say, what in the world?
Kidneys.
But here's the thing.
The Hebrew mentality, that's what, just like we use the heart
and nobody bats an eye,
even though we don't think that that blood pumping organ
is actually where those things are going on,
well, back then, that's what they used in the Old Testament.
And the only reason the New Testament uses it
is because it's quoting the Old Testament.
But it's a Hebrew thing.
You know, the Hebrew idea is the reigns being a seat of emotion.
Now, if you would turn to Jeremiah chapter 17.
And while you're turning there,
I'm going to give you some scriptures where the word reigns
is referring to your literal kidneys
or that literal region of your body.
And so in the verses where it's literally your kidneys,
what the modern versions will often do there
is they'll just translate it as kidneys.
So when it's literal, they'll translate it as kidneys,
but when it's metaphorically used,
they wrongly translate it as the mind.
When it's not the mind, it's the reigns, which is different.
So I'll give you some scriptures.
You turn to Jeremiah 17, but in Isaiah 11, 5,
the Bible says,
And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins
and faithfulness the girdle of his reigns.
And obviously the girdle would go around
the lower back region where the kidneys are.
Job 16, 13,
His archers compassed me about.
He cleaved my reigns asunder and doth not spare.
He poureth out my gall upon the ground.
So we see there, you know, his guts are being ripped up.
Kidneys, bowels, whatever.
Lamentations 3, 12,
He hath bent his bow and sent me as a mark for the arrow.
He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reigns.
He's talking about being shot in the back, right?
Being shot in the lower back area,
shot through the kidneys.
Job 19, 25,
For I know that my redeemer liveth
and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth,
and though after my skin worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
and mine eyes shall behold, and not another,
though my reigns be consumed within me.
So he's talking about his skin being destroyed,
his flesh being destroyed,
and his reigns being consumed within him.
Talking about the literal kidneys.
Now Revelation chapter 2 verse 23
is a direct quote from Jeremiah 17, 10.
That's where Revelation is quoting.
When Jesus says,
All the churches shall know that I am he
which searches the reigns and the hearts,
meaning that not only does he know what's on your mind,
but he also, he knows what's in your heart,
the very center and core of who you are on the inside,
and he also knows how you feel.
He knows what you feel,
and I'm going to get to why that's so important.
Jeremiah 17, 7 says this,
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord,
and whose hope the Lord is,
for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters,
and that spreadeth out her roots by the river,
and shall not see when heat cometh,
but her leaf shall be green,
and shall not be careful in the year of drought,
neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
The heart is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
I the Lord search the heart.
I try the reigns even to give every man
according to his ways
and according to the fruit of his doings.
This is obviously what Revelation's referring to
because it says that he tries the reigns and the heart
and he'll give every man according to his works,
which is the exact idea here.
But not only that,
this is a great passage,
this is just kind of a side note,
but this is a great passage to prove
that Jesus Christ is Jehovah.
Because if you look here in verse number 10,
Jeremiah 17, see how the Lord is in all caps there?
That's the proper name of God, Jehovah.
It's saying, I the Lord search the heart,
and then Jesus says in the New Testament,
all the churches shall know that I am he
which searches the reigns and the heart.
And there are lots of places like that.
Go to Psalm 26.
Turn to Psalm 26 in your Bible.
Psalm 26, we're going to look,
we're looking at more passages about the reigns.
Psalm 26,
and here's the thing.
Everything in the Bible is not always going to be
just super easy to understand,
and if it were, then the Bible would be a boring book,
because we'd all master it by the time we're a teenager
and then we would just be done.
But actually we spend our whole lives studying the Bible,
and like I said, there are places we can go for help
if we struggle to understand a word.
Obviously we can reach for the dictionary.
The dictionary is not infallible,
but like I said, 99% of the time
it's going to steer you right
on what these words generally mean.
But not only that, the Bible says that God gave us
pastors and teachers also to help edify the body of Christ,
and so a pastor's job is to take the word of God
and make it understandable and break it down to you.
Now you can learn it on your own as well,
and you've got the dictionary,
and you've got the Holy Spirit,
and you're comparing scripture with scripture,
but also pastors and teachers can help that process along too.
But what we don't need to do
is dumb down the Bible so that you don't have to learn anything.
And here's what's so ridiculous about saying,
well we have to remove all the archaic language from the Bible.
We've got to get rid of all the archaic language.
Here's the problem with that.
The Bible's an old book.
The Bible's old.
It's old.
So you can't make it sound new when it's old.
Here's the problem.
Some concepts in the Bible are just concepts that are old,
and we don't really have a better modern word for it
because it's not really a thing anymore.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
Like for example, how would you translate rains?
What would you change rains to?
I'm he that searches the lower back?
You know, I'm he that searches the kidneys?
It doesn't sound right, does it?
See, rains is the word that we need.
And unfortunately we don't use it that much,
but it's still the right word.
And there are other concepts in the Bible that we have no clue
what they're like in our everyday lives.
Like the average Joe isn't really going to understand the dowry.
But yet we can't just remove the word dowry from the Bible
because that was a thing back then.
Or, you know, what's the perfect modern word for concubine?
You don't really have one.
That's why you need that biblical word concubine.
Because that actually gives us what we need to know.
Now here's the thing.
Concepts like dowry, concubine, and rains
might not be things that we think about in 2021,
but that's what they were thinking about back then.
That's what is in the context of scripture.
So if you're going to read a book that's written 2,000 years ago
or 3,500 years ago, you're going to have to obviously
open your mind to some concepts of things that were going on back then.
Okay, and all of the answers are found within scripture.
I mean, you can study the Bible and figure out what a dowry is.
You can study scripture and figure out what a concubine is.
You can look at the dictionary and figure out what the rains are,
study scripture and compare it with words like bowels and heart
and all these different things, and you can come to these conclusions
and say, okay, I get it.
That's where you feel things.
That's where you have feelings.
And these body parts, not physically, not literally,
literally a feeling, yes, but it's metaphorical of the feelings
that produce those twinges and so forth in our physical body.
So what I'm saying is it's a fool's errand to try to make the Bible sound
like it was written in 2021 because it wasn't written in 2021
and it reflects the time in which it was written.
And so there are going to be some concepts that have to do with the Middle East
I mean, what, I guess if you're an Eskimo, we should give you a Bible
where everybody's living in an igloo, right?
And it's all about ice and snow and everything.
Folks, no, if you're an Eskimo reading the Bible,
you're going to have to read about some hot, dry places.
So we can't just make the Bible fit you.
Plus, another thing you need to understand is that the way people talk
and the way people write are two different things.
Sometimes people will transcribe my sermons
and when you read a transcription of my sermons,
it doesn't feel like you're reading a book, does it?
It feels like you're reading a speech because we talk differently.
So a lot of times people, they want the Bible to sound
not even the way things are written today,
they want it to sound like the way people talk today.
And that's ridiculous. That's not how literature even works.
So anyway, I just wanted to go off on that
because there's a reason why we're King James Bible only.
There's a reason why we're not members of the Bible of the Month Club.
Stick with the King James and you might actually learn something
about the culture in the process.
You might actually learn something about the setting of the Bible
and you're going to increase your vocabulary
and you've got the dictionary, you've got Pastor Anderson,
you've got other people to help you,
you've got your parents to explain things.
You know, just stay with the stuff, okay?
So where did I have you turn, Jeremiah 17?
We already did Jeremiah 17.
Psalm 26 says this in verse 1,
Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity.
I have trusted also in the Lord, therefore I shall not slide.
Examine me, O Lord, and prove me.
Try my reins and my heart, for thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes.
And I have walked in thy truth.
I have not sat with vain persons,
neither will I go in with dissemblers.
I have hated the congregation of evildoers
and will not sit with the wicked.
Now here's what jumped out at me
when I looked up these two verses on the reins
that tie in most closely with the Revelation 2 scripture.
Because in Revelation 2, Jesus said,
I search the reins and the hearts.
Jeremiah 17 said, I search the reins and the hearts.
In verse 2 where you're there in Psalm 26, it says,
Prove me, try my reins and my heart.
But you know what I noticed about both of these passages
is that they both reminded me of Psalm 1.
Did anybody else think that in your mind
as we were looking at this?
Because if you remember, Jeremiah 17 talked about being planted
by the rivers of water.
And this passage talks about not sitting with vain persons,
not going in with dissemblers,
not sitting with the wicked,
go back if you went to Psalm 1.
So this is one way to study the Bible
is looking for patterns and comparing scripture with scripture,
comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.
Notice that the two passages
that talk about searching the reins and hearts,
trying the reins and hearts,
they both sounded like Psalm 1.
They both talked about being a tree
planted by the rivers of water
or not sitting with the wicked,
not going with people that are ungodly.
Look at Psalm 1, verse 1.
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 scornful.
That sounds like Psalm 26.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord
and in his law that he meditate day and night,
and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.
That sounds like Jeremiah 17.
That bringeth forth his fruit in his season,
his leaf also shall not wither,
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
And what I want to point out here is the central verse there, verse 2.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord
and in his law that he meditate day and night.
And when the Bible is talking about searching
the reins and the heart,
you know, what do you delight in
is what God's searching.
Because remember the reins are a seed of emotion or feeling
and one of the most important feelings that we should have
is love for Christ, love for God,
love for the Word of God.
We should delight in the law of the Lord
and if we delight in the law of the Lord
then in his law we're going to meditate day and night.
You know, when we delight in something,
when we feel strongly about something,
we think about it a lot, don't we?
I mean, if you're in love and you're feeling
those kind of stabbing pains in your abdomen,
well then guess what?
You're going to think about that person every day.
You're going to think about that person in the morning,
you're going to think about that person at night.
What if you're scared and nervous about something
and you've got this big deadline coming up
or you're going to have to speak in front of people
or you've got to meet with the boss
and you might get fired or something like that,
you know, and you're feeling those kind of pains
in your abdomen.
You know, obviously when you have those kind of dreads
on the negative side or love and affection
on the positive side, you're going to think about that
a lot.
You're going to think about it in the morning,
you're going to think about it at night.
And what the Bible's saying is, you know,
we should delight in the Lord.
The Lord should be on our mind.
And what the Bible says about wicked people,
God is not in all his thoughts.
They don't have affection or love or emotion toward him
and therefore they don't think about him.
And here's the thing, we should actually have
all manner of emotions toward the Lord.
You know what should be in our reigns
is delight, love and affection for the Lord.
Also in our reigns we should have the dread of the Lord.
The Bible says let him be your dread,
let him be your fear.
We should fear the Lord.
We should love the Lord.
We should delight in the Lord.
We should serve the Lord with fear
and rejoice with trembling, the Bible says.
And so there's a whole gamut of emotions
that we should be feeling toward the Lord
and God knows that.
He doesn't just know what we're thinking
but he actually goes deeper than our thoughts.
He goes deeper than the heart
and even goes even deeper than that to the reigns, okay?
Something even more visceral than the heart.
It's time to think about what we think.
Sometimes what we think isn't really
the deepest part of who we are
because sometimes we lie to ourselves.
I mean think about that.
When you think in your heart
you sometimes lie to yourself, don't you?
And you kind of tell yourself,
oh well, you know, I'm only doing this
for you to be but deep down you know
why you're doing that, okay?
And so even when sometimes people are lying themselves
or kidding themselves, the Bible says
the heart's deceitful.
Above all things, who can know it?
Well, the Lord searches the heart
and he also searches the reigns.
He even goes deeper and more visceral
about how you feel, not just how you think
but how you feel.
We need to feel strong feelings toward the Lord.
We need to love him deeply
and we also fear the Lord.
Go to Psalm 7.
Psalm chapter 7.
The Bible says in Psalm 7 verse 8,
the Lord shall judge the people.
Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness
and according to my integrity that is in me.
O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end
but establish the just
for the righteous God
trieth the hearts and reigns.
My defense is of God
and I give it the upright in heart.
God judgeth the righteous
and God is angry with the wicked every day.
Go if you would to Jeremiah chapter number 11.
Actually, you know what?
For sake of time, let's just go to Hebrews chapter 4.
Go to Hebrews chapter 4.
I'll read for you from Jeremiah.
Go to Hebrews 4.
It says in Jeremiah chapter 11 verse 20,
But O Lord of hosts, thou that judgeth righteously
that triest the reigns in heart,
let me see thy vengeance on them,
for unto thee have I revealed my cause.
And then in Jeremiah 20 verse 11, it says,
But the Lord is with me as a mighty terrible one.
Therefore my persecutors shall stumble
and they shall not prevail.
They shall be greatly ashamed,
for they shall not prosper.
Their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
But O Lord of hosts, that triest the righteous
and seest the reigns in the heart,
let me see thy vengeance on them,
for unto thee have I opened my cause.
Sing unto the Lord, praise ye the Lord,
for he hath delivered the soul of the poor
from the hand of the evildoers.
Think about the confidence that it takes
for these men of God to say,
Lord, you know what's in my heart.
You search the reigns and the hearts.
I've made known unto you my cause.
I've opened my cause unto you.
You know me, Lord.
So Lord, please bless me and destroy my enemies
because you know what's inside.
Folks, that'd take a lot of confidence to say that.
You better be legit if you're gonna say that.
And not just in a superficial way in your mind
where you're kind of kidding yourself
or telling yourself how great you are,
sort of like the Pharisee that says,
oh yeah, you know, I'm a pretty good guy.
I give tithes of all that I possess.
I fast twice a week.
I'm not like this publican.
But you know what?
I'll bet you deep down that guy knew that he's rotten.
Somewhere inside him and God goes beyond just,
oh, I think I'll put money in the offering plate
in the brain.
He goes to the heart and gets the motivation behind that.
And he goes into the reigns and sees how you really feel
on the most visceral level, even in your subconscious,
the most gut feelings.
He reads that.
I mean, you think it's cool that God reads your mind.
That's child's play.
He doesn't just read your mind.
He reads your heart.
And then he reads even your guts,
which is even deeper than that.
Go to Hebrews chapter four, verse 12.
For the word of God is quick and powerful
and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even the dividing asunder of soul and spirit
and of the joints and marrow
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart,
not just the thoughts, even the intents of the heart.
Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight,
but all things are naked and opened
unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
Make no mistake, my friend,
God knows you through and through,
not even just that he can read your mind
like it's coming up as text on his screen or something
of your internal dialogue.
No, no, no, no.
He's dissecting your kidney, for crying out loud.
I mean, he sees right through you.
There's no way to fool God.
You might be able to fool your parents.
You might be able to fool your friends.
You might be able to fool the church.
But you know what?
God sees right through you,
and he knows what's going on in your heart.
Do you really love him?
Do you really fear him?
What are your emotions toward him?
God knows these things.
Everything is naked and open to him,
even on levels that we can't even understand
besides just a mental level,
even deeper than that.
Let me put it to you this way.
He knows us better than we know ourselves,
because like I said, we trick ourselves.
The heart is deceitful,
and we think we know ourselves,
but we don't know ourselves like he knows us.
You know, have you ever had to explain to someone
why they're doing something,
and they don't even understand why they're doing it?
And you're like, well, no, this is why you're doing this,
because sometimes people don't even understand themselves.
But God understands us to the core,
and even beyond the core, to the reins.
Psalm 16, and if you would, you go to Psalm 149.
This is a really important concept
I want to show you about the reins.
Psalm 16 verse 7 says this,
I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel,
and I want you to pay close attention to this phrase,
my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
Now, stop and think about this.
My reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
How do your reins instruct you in the night seasons?
What are the reins?
I mean, I guess according to the modern versions,
it's just, well, my mind instructs me in the night season,
or my brain instructs me.
Did you have something you wanted to add?
Well, your reins being your kidneys.
Your kidneys control your cortisol and your melatonin.
That's what puts you to sleep and wakes you up.
Well, that's super interesting.
I didn't even know that.
What he just shared was that basically cortisol and melatonin
are connected to the kidneys,
waking you up and putting you to sleep at night
and waking up some of those hormones
are actually connected to the kidneys.
I didn't even understand that scientific
or anatomical aspect of it.
So that's another thing where the Bible's ahead of its time,
making these kind of connections.
That's pretty cool. Thank you for that.
But here's the thing about it,
is that our reins instruct us in the night season.
When I think of the night season,
when I think about being in bed at night,
that's when you're really just by yourself
and most vulnerable and you're asleep
and you're by yourself and you're alone.
Look, if you would, at Psalm 149 verse 4.
It says, For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people.
He will beautify the meek with salvation.
Let the saints be joyful in glory
Watch this. Let them sing aloud upon their beds.
Let the high praises of God be in their mouth
and a two-edged sword in their hand.
So here he talks about singing praises to God in your bed
and then he talks about your reins instructing you
in the night season.
Obviously there's a physical component
that your reins literally physically come into play
in your sleep cycle.
But what's the spiritual meaning?
Here's what I took from this.
When I put it together with Psalm 149,
with Psalm 16 about the reins instructing me
in the night season, is that the emotional experiences
that bring us closer to God
are typically done in private, not a public display.
I believe he's talking about delighting in the Lord
when you're all by yourself.
Having feelings toward the Lord when you're by yourself,
when you're alone, praising God on your bed.
That's not public.
There's not some webcam set up where you're,
okay, I'm streaming to everyone from my bed.
This is me praising God.
Although I'm sure somebody does that
in our bizarre society that we live in.
You know what this is talking about?
Being in bed, it's like when the Bible says
when thou prayest enter into thy closet
and when thou has shut thy door,
pray to thy Father which is in secret.
The bed is representing privacy.
The bed is representing you're alone.
At night, you slip into your subconscious as well.
Because think about all the things you dream about
and you're like, what in the world?
I wasn't thinking about that.
Well, apparently you were.
That came straight from the raids, buddy.
You know, you're thinking about all these wild things.
It's obviously, it came from somewhere.
And so at night, in bed, we're alone,
we're by ourselves, we're not putting on a show
and the emotional experiences that bring us closer to God
happen in private, not public.
Here's why I bring this up.
Today, a lot of times, Baptists would shy away
from ever talking about anything emotional
or any kind of an emotional experience
because of the fact that the Pentecostals
have kind of poisoned that well.
Where you've got the holy rollers, you know,
coming to church, falling on the ground,
barking like a dog, laughing hysterically,
rolling in the aisles.
And then you actually know these people in real life
and know that they're not reading their Bible.
They're not living for God.
They show up and have these really wild experiences
and they're crying and laughing.
And I grew up, I remember, just even in high school,
seeing fellow teenagers come down the aisle
at a public service, get up out of their seat,
come to the altar, have an emotional experience
and nothing changed in that person.
The next day, they were the same way that they were before.
You didn't see them actually serious about the things of God.
So I think a lot of people, they react to those things
and just basically say, you know, well, nuts to emotions.
It's all about fact and our brains and about logic
and rational thinking and it's all about, you know,
just faith in what God said in his word.
And look, amen to that.
That it ought to be, our walk with God ought to be
based on what the Bible says in black and white.
It ought to be logical.
It ought to be rational.
It ought to make sense.
Okay, but there is an emotional component
to the Christian life that we don't want to overlook.
We don't want to let other people who've abused it
ruin it for us.
So because someone has abused it where they basically
in public, they cry and laugh and get all wild in public
putting on a show for other people and they've abused this,
we don't want to think that there's no emotional component
to Christianity.
And another thing is that sometimes people will base
their beliefs on emotion.
Like you'll show them what the Bible says.
Like you show them, it's right here in black and white
and here's what they'll say.
Well, I know what I felt.
You know, I've had the Mormons tell me that.
I show them scripture and they say, well, it doesn't matter
what you show me in the Bible because I know what I felt.
Now look, I'm not going to base my faith on emotions.
I'm not going to just go with my gut on what the right
doctrine is if the Bible says something different.
You know, we ought to make sure that what we believe
and preach jives with scripture.
Not just, well, this feels right or this doesn't feel right.
Well, I don't care if it feels right.
If it's in the Bible, I'm going to believe it
and it's my feeler that's broken, not the Bible that's broken.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
So here's the thing.
I don't believe that emotional experiences should be the basis of our faith.
How do I know that I'm saved?
Is it because I had an emotional experience?
No.
Because there are a lot of people who had emotional experiences that aren't saved
and a lot of people that are saved that aren't very emotional
or didn't have a lot of emotional experiences.
I don't know I'm saved because of an emotional experience.
I know that I'm saved because of what God has promised in His Word.
Because I believe the promise of God, I have faith in His Word.
That's how I know I'm saved.
And I don't base my doctrines.
I don't say, well, you know, I'm going to reject that doctrine
because it just doesn't feel right.
I mean, sometimes those feelings mean something
and if something doesn't feel right,
it should maybe prompt us to do further study.
You know, if I hear something, I'm like, this doesn't feel right.
Let me search the scripture.
And then sometimes it turns out it wasn't right.
And I go, oh, that's why it didn't feel right.
But other times, something doesn't feel right,
but then I study it and the Bible's confirming it, confirming it,
my feeler was broken because my reigns were messed up.
Because your reigns aren't perfect and my reigns aren't perfect.
God wouldn't even be searching the reigns if they were all perfect.
He's searching them because there are problems there.
There are right things and there are wrong things to be found.
Otherwise, there'd be no point in doing a test.
Testing the reigns, proving the reigns would be meaningless
if they're all dialed in.
If you can just go with your gut every time,
why is God even searching the thing?
He can just stamp approved on everybody's gut.
No, he's got to try the reigns and the guts because sometimes the gut can be wrong.
So don't base your salvation on feelings.
Don't base your doctrine on feelings.
But let me tell you something, once you already know what you believe,
once you're saved, hey, we ought to have a lot of feelings toward Christ.
There's something wrong with our heart if we're cold toward the things of God
or cold toward the Word of God.
Or if we don't have emotion toward the Lord.
So we need to work on that because I can't even count how many spiritual mountaintops
I've touched by myself reading the Word of God in the night seasons,
not publicly putting on a show for other people.
Does everybody see the difference?
So are emotions the basis of our faith?
No, emotions are the icing on the cake.
But let me tell you something, I don't want to eat cake with no icing.
I don't want to eat icing with no cake.
My wife makes schnitzel and when she makes schnitzel,
the best part of the schnitzel is the breading on the outside of the meat.
That's the best part.
And you like that piece of schnitzel that's got a lot of breading on it.
The breading is the part that tastes the best.
But here's the thing, when she runs out of pork to put into the breading,
then she takes all the additional breading and just fries it by itself with no meat in it.
And it creates like this decoy.
It's this betrayal where you bite into it and it's just bread all the way through.
Now even though the breading is the best part, it's no good without the meat in it.
Does everybody understand?
You don't want it, but if you had no breading,
now if I had to choose, what would I have? Just the breading or just the meat?
You know, you're going to go with just the meat.
You know, if you had to choose on a corn dog,
you know, let me bring it down to your level.
Since you guys aren't eating schnitzel.
Hey, if you had to choose a corn, and I love corn dogs by the way,
and my wife makes homemade corn dogs too.
If you had to choose on a corn dog, would you rather have a corn dog that's just the breading on a stick?
Or would you rather have just a hot dog on a stick with no breading?
Hey, if I had to choose, I'd take the hot dog. Amen?
Who's with me on that? Okay.
But the breading is kind of the best part.
You want the breading.
The breading is what takes it to a whole new level.
So think about this.
The hot dog is the Word of God, the knowledge of God.
And the Bible talks a lot about knowledge.
It talks a lot about knowing, scripture, reading, knowing, learning, understanding.
Look up those words in the Bible, you're going to find them a lot.
Even more than the reins, you're going to find those a lot.
So look, the doctrine, the knowledge, the cognition is the hot dog,
and the emotional experience is the cornbread on the outside of the hot dog.
Does everybody understand?
So that's what's going on here.
We don't want to just say, well, no cornbread for you or no breading on the meat.
You know, it's just all about the meat.
Folks, we do want to feel deeply when it comes to the things of God.
And God wants us to feel deeply.
And in fact, the deep feelings that we have sometimes can even say more about us than what we think consciously.
And so God, yes, He searches our mind.
Yes, He searches our heart.
But He's not the God of the reins.
And what are the reins?
They're the seat of feelings and emotions that are located in our abdomen, metaphorically speaking.
Now go to Jeremiah, chapter 12.
Jeremiah, chapter 12.
Almost done, just wrapping up a few last points on this.
Jeremiah, chapter 12.
There's putting on a show in front of other people, and then there's being emotional just between you and the Lord.
You know, and that's what actually has value.
And these type of emotional experiences can help us grow and walk with God and be a better Christian.
But they typically happen in private.
So that's what I take from our reins instruct us in the night season.
What does it mean to be instructed, to be taught?
So we learn something about who God is through emotion.
Privately studying our Bible, privately praising God, privately praying.
And so I'll submit to you, if you have no private walk with God, you're missing out on part of the Christian life.
Some people's Christian life is only public.
And I'm even talking about people that are truly saved.
People that truly believe in Christ are saved.
But don't you think that there are people who their only time they spend with God is sitting in this building right here?
You think there are people like that here today?
I'll bet you that there are.
Where the only thing that they do spiritually the whole week is show up to church.
And look, if that's all you do spiritually, hey, I'm just glad that you at least do that.
Because that's a start.
That's where it starts.
And look, I've been there in my personal life, I can remember as a teenager being backslidden
and going days without even thinking about the fact that God even exists.
And it's like on Sunday you're thinking about the Lord, you're learning about the Lord,
you're singing praises to God, you're meditating on God.
But then Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday you're just absorbed in self.
And then Wednesday night you go to church and it's like, alright, yeah, let's think about God again.
And you flip that switch in your brain and you start thinking about the Lord again.
And then Thursday, Friday, Saturday it's all about partying and having fun and hanging out and doing everything else.
And then on Sunday morning it's like you flip that switch again.
But you know what?
We ought to be on Monday morning waking up and thinking about God.
And on Monday night thinking about God.
And on Tuesday morning and Tuesday night and throughout the day thinking about God.
And having some private time where it's not Pastor Anderson preaching the Word of God to us,
although that's helpful, but rather where it's you and the Holy Spirit and God and no one else.
And it's just you and God communing.
And maybe having just a time of learning and maybe even feeling an emotional experience.
What do I mean by an emotional experience?
Being overcome with love for God.
Being overcome with joy of the Lord.
Being overcome with feelings of peace, joy, love.
You say, I don't know what you're talking about.
Well, maybe you should start spending some time reading your Bible and praying and find out what I'm talking about.
Because it's not typically going to be a church service.
Now, down at the Pentecostal church, man, everybody's rolling up and down the aisles and jumping up and down.
And you say, oh, that's because they, man, they're so close to God down there.
But then it's funny when I talk to that person during the week, they don't know if they're going to heaven.
They think they're going to heaven because of their works.
They think if they don't live right, they're going to lose their salvation.
And you see, it's like, whoa, this, you don't seem like you're close to God.
You don't know the Bible.
I'm looking at your life.
I'm looking at your doctrine and I'm not impressed.
But yet the Baptist church is supposedly so dead, you got people who actually know the Bible.
And you actually got people that are doing work for the Lord.
And, you know, I'm not saying that they're perfect, but at least cleaning up their lives and trying to do something.
But here's the thing, their emotional experiences going on down at the Baptist church,
they're just happening a lot of times in private and not necessarily open.
Now, I'm not saying that there's never a time when an emotional experience might not be public,
but I'm saying is that's few and far between.
Most of that takes place alone because it's sincere.
It's not about putting on a show for other people.
You know, it's not about just me.
I mean, do you want me to just get up every week and just start crying behind the pulpit about how much I love God?
You know, that's just like an outward display at that point.
Jeremiah 12 verse 1, I got to hurry up.
Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee, yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments.
Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper?
Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?
Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root.
They grow, yea, they bring forth fruit.
And here's the part I want to focus on.
Thou art near in their mouth and far from their reins.
You're near in their mouth and far from their reins.
Now, I think there's two different ways you could take this.
Because remember, the reins are either the kidneys or the region of the kidneys, which is the lower back.
I think one way that you could take this is that you're far from their reins as in you're not whipping them.
You know, you're not punishing them.
You're not chastising them like they're getting away with everything.
Because that would fit the context here.
But another probably more likely explanation of what this verse is saying, when he says,
you're near in their mouth and far from their reins, is what Christ said when he said,
these people honor with me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
You know, and he mentions them dealing treacherously, which treacherously is kind of like being a hypocrite
because you're outwardly one thing and you're secretly something else.
That's what it means to be a traitor, right?
You profess one thing and then you stab in the back.
That's treachery.
And so this could be talking about people who talk a big talk about the things of God,
but God's far from their heart, God's far from their reins.
They don't actually feel love.
They might say, oh, I love you, Lord.
I love Christ.
I love the Lord.
But in their heart and in their reins, they don't really feel that.
They don't actually feel that way.
And it's hypocrisy.
People draw nigh with their mouth and honor him with their lips, but their heart is far from him.
And then the last mention of reins, just because I wanted to cover every single time the Bible uses the word reins,
you don't have to turn there, but in Proverbs 23 verse 15, it says,
my son, if thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice even mine.
Yea, my reins shall rejoice when thy lips speak right things.
You know, my rejoicing is going to be a deep rejoicing all the way down in my guts,
you know, all the way down in my reins and in my heart.
So here's the conclusion.
We need to rejoice in the Lord.
We need to delight in the Lord.
We need to be passionate about the things of God.
And God knows if you're lukewarm.
No matter what emotions you're going through of doing service for God,
he knows the reins and the heart of how you feel whether you're lukewarm.
If you've lost the first love, he can find that in your reins.
He can find that in your heart.
And the Bible says this in Mark 12 30, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart
and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength.
This is the first commandment.
So what's the most important commandment in the law?
To love the Lord God, not just with your mind,
but to love the Lord with your mind and your heart and your soul and your strength
because he searches the reins and the hearts.
He knows how you feel about him.
If you're bitter toward him in your heart, he knows that.
If you have a bad attitude, he knows that.
Or if you just feel nothing because you just frankly don't really care about the things of God that much
because you care more about video games and you care more about being popular
and you care more about making money and you care, you know, what is truly important to you?
Because what's important to you is what you're going to think about all the time.
It's what you're going to spend time doing.
And at night in your subconscious, you know, you better be dreaming of soul winning, my friend.
You know, dream about the things of God.
You want to love the Lord with your heart, with your soul, with your mind, with your strength.
Hey, I want a love for God that's in my mind.
The Bible, let's say love him with your mind.
So don't just have some irrational, illogical, well I don't care what the Bible says, this is the God I believe in.
You made an idol of your own mind.
Love him with your mind, meaning understand him, learn the word of God, learn the doctrine.
Well, I'm just not into the doctrine.
Then you don't love God with your mind if you're not into the doctrine.
Well, you know, I'm into Christ, but I'm just not into any kind of theology.
Well, I'm not interested in man-made theological systems, but I am interested in knowing the doctrines of the word of God
because I want to love the Lord with my mind.
But not just with my mind, I want to love him with my heart.
I want to love him with my soul.
I want to love him with all my strength.
And you say, well, where did the rains fall in that?
I would put the rains under the strength.
Because if you think about it, another seat of strength is our core, or our abdomen, or our back.
You know, when we think of, you know, the biggest muscle in the body is the gluteus maximus.
And we think about the largest muscle groups in our body are in our back and in our backside, but even in our back itself.
You know, deadlift anyone?
And so our back represents strength.
When he's saying, love the Lord with all your might, love him with your strength, that's a feeling, am I right?
That's not mental, that's a feeling.
That's a feeling that comes from our gut, right?
It's a visceral feeling.
Loving God. And you know what?
That's the one thing you can't fake.
You can fake things in your mind.
You might even be able to fake out your heart because your heart's deceitful, so your heart can do some faking out itself.
But you know, the one thing you can't fake, nobody's got their kidneys under that much control.
You can't fake the kidneys, my friend.
You can't fake the reins.
And so, go ahead and get a modern version and you'll lose, everything I preached this morning just went out the window to you.
This whole sermon was made possible by the King James Version, which accurately reflects the Greek and Hebrew,
the Greek word unequivocally means kidneys.
The Hebrew word unequivocally means kidneys.
The King James is accurate in English, you don't lose anything.
The modern versions, this whole sermon goes out the window.
So, uh, this sermon was brought to you by the King James Version.
And the original Greek and Hebrew.
Uh, these new versions have lost something when they just changed reins to mind because it's not the mind.
It's pretty much the opposite of the mind on the spectrum of cognition versus gut feeling.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and thank you for giving it to us in our own language, Lord,
that we as English speakers could understand your word without having to learn Greek or Hebrew.
We don't need a foreign language.
It's a small thing to ask for us to just grab a dictionary every once in a while, Lord.
Thank you for giving us the word in our language.
And Lord, I pray that every single person who's here would not just know the doctrine and,
and know facts about you, Lord, or even believe in you, but that they would also feel deeply
and that they would love you with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Lord, help me to love you with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength.
And in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Amen. Let's take our hymnals, please, and turn to hymn number 250.
Hymn number 250, Burdens Are Lifted at Calvary.
Sing it on this first verse, hymn number 250.
Burdens Are Lifted at Calvary.
Days are filled with sorrow and care.
Hearts are lonely and drear.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Calvary, Calvary.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Cast your care on Jesus today.
Leave your worry and fear.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Calvary, Calvary.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Troubles sold, the Savior can see.
Every heartache and tear.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Calvary, Calvary.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Can I get singing this morning?