Amen.
Let's look back at verse number three, where the Bible read,
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,
and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day,
according to the scriptures, and that he was seen of Cephas,
then of the twelve, after that he was seen of above five hundred
brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present,
but some are fallen asleep.
After that he was seen of James, then of all the apostles.
Now in 1 Corinthians chapter number 15, it's very well known for being
the resurrection chapter.
It deals with the subject of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the Apostle Paul, he's dealing with these Corinthians saying,
Hey, there's some people in here that are denying the resurrection,
and in fact, if you deny the resurrection, you're denying the gospel.
If you're denying the gospel, then whatever belief you have is vain,
because it's not even going to save you.
You can't be saved if you don't believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Now one of the important aspects of being an apostle
is the fact that you had to have seen the resurrected Jesus Christ.
So with the gospel, Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose again,
but then he showed himself unto a select number of people.
These are going to become the apostles of Jesus Christ.
And what's an apostle?
Well, an apostle is one who literally witnessed the Lord Jesus Christ,
they witnessed his resurrected body, and then they went out preaching
and testifying of what they had seen.
They testified, Hey, we were with Jesus Christ.
We saw him crucified.
We saw him die.
Not only that, we saw him rise again.
He ate with us.
We touched his body.
He was there.
He's alive.
He ascended up into heaven.
And then they do what?
They preach the gospel.
You need to believe on him to be saved.
You need to believe the gospel, believe the death, burial, and resurrection.
That's why you have people fall down to the apostles' feet, and they say,
What must I do to be saved?
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
Who could you ask better than the person that actually was there with Christ
and saw the resurrected Christ?
Hey, I bet they have a good idea of what you have to do to be saved, don't you know?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
But we see even Paul, the apostle, he also saw the resurrected Lord.
Look at verse 8.
And last of all, he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time.
So in Acts chapter number 2, whenever the Holy Ghost comes upon the early disciples,
they're filled with the Spirit, and they preach the gospel in other languages.
And they say, These guys are drunk.
But then when Peter, he's explaining it to them, they're not drunk, as he supposed.
But he's saying, Look, this is the prophecy of the book of Joel.
When they're going to preach the word of God, they're preaching young men and young
women.
And whenever he's talking about what's happening, in Acts 2 31, it says he's seeing this before
spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his
flesh did subruption.
This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses.
So Peter said, Look, all of us that are preaching, we all literally witnessed Jesus
Christ.
But you know what?
In order for Paul to also be an apostle, he had to be a witness.
That is why Jesus Christ appeared to him, showed himself unto him, so that Paul could
also be an apostle, and go out and be a witness of what he had seen.
Now today, you have a lot of people, they'll call themselves apostles.
It's ridiculous.
Why?
Because they haven't seen the Lord Jesus Christ.
Many times, they don't even claim to have seen the Lord Jesus Christ, which right there
in that disqualifies them from being an apostle.
And we see Paul, he's saying, Well, I was born out of due time, meaning I wasn't with
the rest of the guys necessarily, but Jesus still did appear himself to me, and I am an
apostle.
But look at verse 9.
For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because
I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace which was bestowed upon me
was not in vain.
But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was
with me.
So here's a question.
If Jesus Christ could appear to anybody after he had already ascended, then why
doesn't he just appear to all of us?
Why doesn't he just appear to, why doesn't he just constantly make all of us apostles?
Why doesn't he just show up right now, and we all become apostles, and we can all have the
apostolic gifts and go out?
The apostle Paul is bringing in a very important point, and he's not trying to be prideful,
but he's just speaking through, the Holy Ghost is speaking through his mouth and letting
us know a few facts about Paul.
Paul did more work than any of the other apostles.
He was the hardest worker, and in fact he says, but you know what?
I'm not really deserving of being called an apostle.
I persecuted the church of God.
I have a bad past.
I wasn't with these guys.
I was fighting these guys.
You know what God did?
He bestowed grace upon the apostle Paul.
You know, God would have been justified to just kill Paul right away.
I mean, he's fighting the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's killing Christians.
He's consenting under the death of Stephen, so he's doing a lot of wicked things, and
God could have just said, hey, you're doing wickedly, dead.
You know what God did?
He gave Paul a lot of grace, and then he ended up showing himself unto the apostle
Paul.
And then Paul says this very important statement, hey, his grace was not in vain.
What does that mean?
He's saying, well, God showed a lot of grace on Paul, but we notice that Paul, after
seeing Jesus Christ, after being saved, after being converted unto the truth, he
didn't go and just start fishing.
He didn't go and just waste his life.
He didn't go and just stay in Jerusalem and beat his head against the wall for the
Jews.
He went out and greatly labored for the Lord Jesus Christ, and God's grace was not
in vain.
That's why God gave him the grace.
God looked at the apostle Paul and said, you know what?
If I give this guy grace, he's going to serve me for the rest of his life.
He's going to be one of the greatest Christians to ever live.
He's going to constantly go out and preach the gospel.
He's going to be a faithful servant unto me.
That's why God was gracious unto the apostle Paul.
Paul didn't waste the grace that was given to him.
You know what?
When I look at Christianity today, I think, unfortunately, most Christians waste the
grace that has been bestowed upon them.
You have a lot of grace that's been bestowed upon you.
If you think about all the sins that you've been in the past, all the wicked things
you may have gotten, you know, done, gotten into, things that you've done, I've
done, if we really looked at it, we'd say, wow, by the grace of God, I'm standing
here today.
By the grace of God, I have the things that I have.
I have a beautiful wife, and I have beautiful children, and I have a church that I can go
to.
God's blessed me with a great job, and God's blessed me with all these things.
It's by his grace.
But you know what?
The question is, is his grace in vain?
Am I wasting the grace that he's bestowing upon me?
You know, the apostle Paul, he was given a great opportunity, but he did not waste
that opportunity.
And sometimes in our lives, we may experience a lot of suffering, a lot of pain, a lot of
anguish, moments in our life when we wonder, why am I here?
I would rather just depart and be with Christ, which is far better.
But if every single one of us had already departed to be with Christ, there would have
been 86 less souls in heaven yesterday.
So it's more needful that we abide in the flesh, not for, you know, own personal
gratification, but rather to pull people out of the fire and to save people.
And you know what?
That grace is not in vain when you go out and preach the gospel and get someone saved.
You say, man, my life is so hard, and I have so much struggles and so much pain
and so much anguish, and everything's just hard, and you know, work's terrible, and
I don't get much sleep, and I have all these problems, but then I got someone saved.
You know what?
You know that toil and turmoil and struggle and pain and suffering?
You know what?
It's going to be worth it.
It wasn't in vain.
And God gives us grace to still abide here, not so that we can just satisfy the lusts
of our flesh, but rather that we can go out and do works for Him, not take for
granted the grace that He gives us every single day.
He has new mercies every morning.
Why don't you say, hey, I'm grateful for the mercy that He's given unto me, so I'm
going to continue to abound in the work of the Lord.
You know, I'm going to continue to redeem the time.
You know, you validate the grace that's bestowed upon you every time you do more
works for God.
You say, man, but I screwed up, and I sinned, and I did bad, but somehow God was gracious
to me.
Well, if you go on and do another work for God, that grace wasn't in vain.
But you know what?
If you keep screwing up and doing wickedly, and God keeps giving you grace, but then you
never get back on serving God, you never go out and preach the gospel, you're not
doing any works for Him, that grace is in vain.
Go to verse 29.
And you know, Paul's making note of this fact because he's saying, well, if there
is no resurrection, okay, what is the point of me serving God?
What is the point of me being in jeopardy of my life?
What's the point of me doing all the things that I'm doing?
Because at the end of the day, if this is the only life I get to live, why not just
live it up?
Why not just enjoy the flesh as much as humanly possible?
Look at verse 29.
He's saying, why in the world am I going to Ephesus where all these people want to
kill me, where they all want to stone me, where I'm constantly under threat of death
if there is no resurrection?
I'm going to go live somewhere safe and sound and secure and just enjoy and just
have fun.
Let's just eat and drink because tomorrow we die and then it's all in vain anyways.
But you know why he says he's motivated to actually serve God?
Because there is a resurrection.
Because this physical body is temporary and when you're resurrected, you're going to
look back upon your life and you're going to say, man, what did I accomplish for
God?
What did I accomplish that's going to go with me into eternity?
In Acts chapter 19 is when Paul goes into Ephesus and the idol makers.
They're like, hey, great is Diana of the Ephesians because they're so afraid that with
Christianity they're going to stop buying the Mary statues, all the Catholic idols and
all the idols of Diana and all these things.
The people that sell them, that make them and make profit off of them, they start
stirring up the people against Paul to kill him so that he won't preach the truth, so
he won't get them onto the true living God so they'll continue to serve dumb idols.
And Paul's like, why am I constantly risking my life?
These people want to kill me if the resurrection doesn't matter.
Look at verse 33, be not deceived, evil communications corrupt good manners, awake
to righteousness and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God, I speak this
to your shame.
He's saying, look, if we start doubting the resurrection, if we start not realizing
the importance of the resurrection, it'll cause us to stop wanting to do works for
God, to stop wanting to go out and abound in the work of the Lord.
And look, these bad communications, these bad and evil doctrines, they're going to
come in and infect the church to where people aren't really wanting to serve God
anymore.
He's saying, we need to awake to righteousness.
Just like Christ arose, we also need to arise and live a new life, go out and serve
God.
Go to Romans chapter number six.
You know, we will be resurrected with Christ.
We ought not try to preserve this body, this flesh.
It's going to perish.
The only thing that we should really work for is our new spirit, you know, but you
think, well, I'm going to miss out on things though.
I'm going to miss out on all the sporting events.
I'm going to miss out on all the baseball games and the playoffs and the, you know,
the Super Bowl.
I'm going to miss out on this tournament.
I'm going to miss out on this championship and I'm going to miss out on, you know,
making all the money that I could have had.
I'm going to miss out on that second home that I could have had.
I'm going to miss out on all those travels, you know, traveling the world, going to Europe,
going to Australia, going to Africa, going to Jamaica, going to all these places.
I could have just done more and had so much more fun in my life, you know, or if
I serve God, I'm going to constantly be persecuted.
That sounds terrible.
That sounds like a bad life.
Everybody looks at me and mocks me and says, oh, you're a Bible thumper.
You're just, you know, Sunday school.
You're too good for us.
You're a Jesus freak.
You're whatever.
People don't want to live that type of life.
They have the fear of missing out in the flesh.
They have the fear of missing out in their life.
So you know what?
They don't awake to righteousness.
They want to stay and abide in the flesh.
Look at Romans chapter 6 verse 1.
What shall we say then?
Shall we contend you in sin that grace may abound?
God forbid.
How shall we either dead to sin live any longer therein?
Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized in Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?
Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism and the death, that like as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness
of life.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ was to signify how we ought to live a new life.
Walk in newness of life.
Your life should look different once you've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now some people teach that if your life doesn't look different, you're not saved.
That's a wicked false doctrine, because you know what it causes people to do?
They try to get saved again, and then they realize, well, what is salvation then?
I thought it was just believe, and there's this bad circle of just false doctrine and
heresy.
But when we realize that walking in newness of life is a choice that we have to make,
that we actually have to try hard to walk in newness of life, it will motivate you to actually
try.
Because you know what?
Apathy today is an epidemic.
People don't want to do anything.
People don't want to serve God.
They just want to press the easy one on the microwave, just for one minute.
They don't even need a minute.
They need 20 seconds.
But they just want to hit the one button, right?
I mean, people just want to walk up and just drive through, and everything just super
quick and super fast.
The one-click option at Amazon, just the one-click buy.
I don't even care what card it's on.
I don't care the address.
I don't even need to look at it.
I just want to buy, buy, buy.
Everything just is easy and quick.
They don't want to wait.
They don't want to be patient for anything.
Now go, if you would, to Ephesians chapter number 5.
With Christianity, they want the same thing.
They want to just press I'm godly button.
Oh, bam, I'm automatically godly, and I automatically love Jesus Christ, and I'm doing everything
right, and look at me how great I am.
But the reality is, being a Christian is hard work.
The first step to being a Christian is being baptized, what we just read in Romans chapter
number 6.
And the person that doesn't get baptized, let me give you some help, is not going
to serve God with their life.
I have never, never met a sold-out, godly Christian who has not been baptized.
Never happened.
Most of the time, they've been baptized like five times.
And not because they think they have to constantly get baptized.
It's because they were baptized as a kid wrong, and they were baptized when they
were unsafe.
But you know what?
When they were baptized many times wrong, they still wanted to get it right.
Why?
Because it shows their heart.
It shows somebody that actually wants to serve God.
It shows somebody that wants to walk in newness of life.
You say, hey, I'm not walking in newness of life.
I don't have any motivation.
Well, have you been baptized at least?
That's the first step.
That's the step that represents the fact that you went down in the water, you're buried
with Christ, and then as his resurrection, we walk in newness of life.
That's the first step.
And you know what?
Now that we have the new life, we ought not waste the opportunity and the grace that
God bestowed upon us.
Many people, they get baptized, and then they think, well, we just go to church.
So they got baptized, they're going to church, so now they think.
Now they think, hey, I have newness of life, and I'm doing good, and I'm doing
right.
And a lot of people, they're in church today.
I mean, if we were to count how many people in Dallas-Fort Worth were in church this morning,
I bet it's probably over a million.
Probably over a million people in church this morning, but my question is, are they
really in newness of life?
Are they really walking worthy of the grace that was bestowed upon them this morning?
You know, a lot of people have a zeal of God, but the problem is, it's not according
to knowledge.
Look at Ephesians chapter 5, verse number 10.
...but rather approve them, for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done
of them in secret.
But all things that are approved are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever doth
make manifest is light.
Wherefore he saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall
give thee light.
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time
because the days are evil.
Therefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
The reality is, most Christians have no idea what the will of the Lord is for their life.
Now obviously, the first thing that God wants us to do is to get saved.
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the most important thing for us to do.
But after being saved, God still has a purpose for you.
He still has a mission for you to do.
He still has a will for your life.
And the question is, what am I supposed to do?
You know, people today, they're constantly wondering, what am I supposed to do?
And because they know there's something they're supposed to do, they often fill
it.
But the problem is, they're not filling it with what this Bible teaches.
And we look at verse number 10, it says, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
You know what we ought to often do?
Check and see, is what I'm doing actually biblical?
Is the works that I'm accomplishing, are the things that I'm doing?
And I really find verses in the Bible that are pointing to the work that I'm supposed
to be doing.
People, oftentimes in churches, they'll come up with cool ideas, and then they'll get
so focused on that idea, but then when you ask them, well, where's the verse in
the Bible that says you're supposed to do that?
I don't know.
You know, we ought to constantly look back at the Bible and prove what is acceptable
unto the Lord.
And we ought not even ourselves think, well, we could never start doing work that's not
according to the Bible.
We could never get off on a bad tangent.
We could never emphasize the wrong thing.
No, Christians can constantly emphasize the wrong thing.
And so we ought to constantly be checking ourselves, examining ourselves, and making
sure that the works that we're doing match up with this book.
Why?
Because at the end of our life, I don't want to look back and think, wow, look at
all the grace God gave me.
I wasted it.
I had all this opportunity to serve God.
I mean, we're sitting here.
We have dozens and dozens of people here that want to serve God.
If we start pointing ourselves in the wrong direction, it's going to be a lot of wasted
effort.
We want to make sure that we're pointed in the right directions.
And we want to prove it.
We need to constantly evaluate, make sure it lines up with the Bible.
You know what this makes me think, though?
If we need to be careful which way we're pointed, that means if we start doing the wrong
works, that would be fake, wouldn't it?
So there's an opportunity not only for us to do good, there's an opportunity for us
to do fake works.
And in fact, most people, you know what they're doing?
Fake works.
And you ask me, hey, Pastor Shelley, what makes you more upset than anything else?
Fake Christianity.
You say, what's the title of the sermon this morning?
Fake Christianity.
We look, Jesus Christ rose again from the dead.
He did all this work.
He did all this effort.
He went through the most pain and suffering of his life.
And then he gives us all his grace.
And then you know what people do?
Fake Christianity.
They don't actually serve God with their life.
They don't actually look at the Bible and do what the Bible says.
They're not constantly evaluating themselves to the Word of God.
So there's a bunch of fakes today.
And you know what?
In Dallas-Fort Worth, there's a Baptist church in every corner.
And I see fake Christianity every single day.
It makes me sick.
It makes me so upset.
It makes me so angry that they take good people, and they brainwash them, and they
lead them into bad directions, and they waste their life.
They're going to get up to heaven, and they're going to look back, and they're going
to think, wow, I had so much grace and so much opportunity, and I wasted all of it.
Go to Revelation chapter number 3.
Revelation chapter number 3.
We're going to see some fake Christianity in the Bible.
You say, oh, fake Christianity, what are you talking about?
Look, the majority of Christianity is fake.
And look, there's a lot of varying degrees of fakeness.
There's the fakeness like the Catholic church.
None of them are even saved.
They're just pagans.
I can't even count them Christians.
Many times, they don't say they're a Christian.
You say, hey, are you a Christian?
No, I'm Catholic.
It's like, yeah, you're right.
You are Catholic.
You're not Christian.
But even within Christianity, there's a lot of people that are frauds.
They don't believe the gospel.
They're not saved.
They infect, also, the saved churches.
But let's look at a church that actually is saved and see how they also get mixed up
in fake Christianity.
Look at Revelation chapter 3, verse 14.
So God says there's a church.
They think they're doing great.
They think they're wonderful.
And when Jesus looks at them, he says, man, you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind,
and naked.
That's a horrible description to be classified.
Why?
Well, look at verse 15, though.
I know thy works.
So sometimes you'd look at this and you'd say, oh, they're just not doing anything for
God.
Nope.
They're actually doing a lot of things.
It's just not for God.
It's not actually according to the Word of God.
And you look at most churches today, they have all kinds of programs, all kinds of things
that they're doing, all kinds of works that they're doing.
But you know what?
They're not works according to the Bible.
And he likens this church into being lukewarm.
I think a lot of people, they don't understand what it means to be lukewarm or why God would
be upset about that.
Why would God say it's better to be hot or cold?
Well, if you're red hot, how could that be wrong?
If you're red hot, you're preaching the right gospel, you're doing great works for
God, you're excited, you're zealous, you're doing all kinds of things for the Lord,
that's great.
Obviously.
Okay, check mark.
Red hot sounds good.
What about the cold?
Cold is the backslidden Christian.
The cold is the guy that's not going to church, not reading his Bible, not preaching the gospel,
not praying, not singing the hymns, not doing anything for God.
He's worldly, he's carnal, he's living in the flesh, he's not bringing his body
into subjection, he's just cold, he's ice cold.
There's nothing going on over here.
He's just watching ESPN all day, all right?
He slept in this morning and he's gonna flip on the television, he's gonna watch
the football game.
This guy is ice cold.
So maybe he crawled into church on Easter, that was like the one thing.
That's why he's still a Christian, all right?
Or maybe he got saved yesterday and so he's a Christian but he's ice cold.
Well the thing about an ice cold Christian is it's not like they don't know what to
do.
It's just they're not doing it.
They know I need to go to church, I need to read the Bible, I need to go out and
preach the gospel, hey, I'm in sin and it's wicked, it's wrong, I need to clean up my life.
So when you're ice cold, it's easy to identify what I'm doing is wrong.
What I'm doing is wicked, I need to make a change in my life.
It's easy to identify how to get back on the right path.
But the lukewarm Christian, say who's the lukewarm Christian?
The lukewarm Christian is the guy that's in church this morning and he's serving faithfully
at his horrible church that doesn't do any works for God and you know what?
All the works he does has nothing to do with this book.
And that's why God gets so angry because it's so much more difficult to take the Sunday
school teacher, the woman Sunday school teacher, the electronic guitarist for the
worship experience, it's so much harder to take all these people that are serving
in their church so faithfully doing all these works to convince them everything they're
doing is wrong.
Everything they're doing is a lie.
It's so much more difficult.
The guy that got drunk at the bar and came home, you say, hey, that was wrong.
He's like, yeah, that was wrong.
You talk to the woman who's the Sunday school teacher in her church, you say, hey,
women are supposed to keep silence in the church, they're going to get offended.
They're going to get mad.
They're not ready to fix it.
And God says, you know what?
I hate this lukewarm Christianity where they think they're serving me but they're serving
not me.
They're serving you on belly.
They're not doing any works for me.
They think they're great though.
They think they're wonderful.
Oh, we're so rich.
And in fact, when you look at these churches, they're filled with riches many times.
Now I'm going to give you a definition of fake.
It says, not genuine, counterfeit.
There's a lot of counterfeits out there.
There's a lot of things that are not genuine.
Here's some other synonyms, bogus, worthless, invalid, artificial, man made.
Isn't that a good definition?
Go if you would to Matthew chapter number seven.
Let's go to Matthew chapter number seven.
Now the reality is when I talk about fake Christianity, there's a lot of varying degrees.
And we see most of this, in my opinion, comes from the unsaved.
But what it does is it infects the saved.
It infects the good churches and makes them bad churches because these churches start wanting
to be like the fakes.
They want to be like the bogus.
Look at Matthew chapter seven, verse 21.
The Bible says, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter in the kingdom
of heaven.
But he that doeth the will of my father, which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied thy name?
And thy name have cast out devils.
And thy name done many wonderful works.
And then while I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work on
equity.
So we see there's a group of people, they look at Jesus Christ, they're like, hey,
we were preaching in your name.
We were casting out devils.
We were doing all these wonderful works.
We're serving constantly in our church.
He says, I never knew you.
Notice that these people, they are not cold Christians.
But you know what they are?
Lukewarm.
Why?
Because they're doing all these works, but you know what?
It's not really serving God.
And this version of people, they're not even saved because they're trusting in their
works to save them.
They're not trusting in the Lord to save them.
They're not trusting in the death, burial, and resurrection.
But notice they're doing all kinds of works.
Why?
Because they believe in work salvation.
They believe that works are going to get them there, and so they have a form of godliness
but denying the power thereof.
You know what this Christianity does?
It's a fake Christianity.
Notice, when I use the word Christianity, I'm kind of using the world definition, all
right?
I'm not actually talking about saved people.
This form of Christianity today infects actual saved Christians, and they get mixed up on
the same type of works.
Why?
Because they look at these unsaved falling all over themselves trying to earn their
way into heaven, and they think, oh, that's what we're supposed to be doing.
We're supposed to be doing the same works that they're doing.
Go to James chapter number five, James chapter number five.
Now what does the unsaved wicked do?
Well they build great palaces of churches, don't they?
I mean look at the Roman Catholic Church.
Those buildings are just gorgeous.
They're massive.
They have all kinds of intricate artwork and all kinds of money laced in their buildings.
They make them as fancy as humanly possible.
I mean they're putting as much money as possible in these buildings.
If you're going to say, what's the most expensive buildings on the planet, many times it's
the Catholic churches.
These things have so much money put into them, it's not even funny, but you know what?
Good Christians, they start getting infected with the same disease, and you know what their
goal is?
To build a super fancy gorgeous building.
That is one of their goals that they start trying to do.
But look at James chapter five verse one.
Go to now ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
Your riches are corrupted and your garments are mothy.
Your gold and silver is cankered and the rest of them shall be a witness against you
and shall eat your flesh as it were fire.
Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
Behold the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields which is of you kept
back by fraud crieth and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into
the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton.
Ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
Ye have condemned and killed the just and he doth not resist you.
Notice in verse four, he's saying most of the time rich people, you know why they're
rich?
Because they pay low wages.
All the people that built their empire and built their company and do all the real work
for them, oftentimes they get paid a slave wage.
They get paid very little.
Look at the Egyptians having the great pyramids built on the back of slaves.
Many times the rich white men of the past, they were great slave owners of the plantations.
We see even today the corporations where these guys make tons and tons of money, the
CEO of McDonald's, did his employees make a lot of money?
They're making slave wages but they're doing the brunt of the work.
And now look, I'm not advocating for a higher minimum wage, all right, I'm not saying that.
But I am saying that many time people are rich because they don't pay fair wages.
They don't pay good wages.
And in fact in verse number five, he says ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and
been wanton.
The reality is rich people oftentimes go their whole lives in misery because they're constantly
in want.
They constantly want more.
They're constantly desiring to have more money, a bigger bank account, a bigger retirement,
a bigger house, a newer car, whatever it is that money can buy.
They're constantly in want and that want is driving them to just increase riches and
gain more riches and pay lower salaries and they don't care about anything but just
all their wants and they live a whole life of misery because they're constantly chasing
their tail and they're never going to catch it.
They're never going to get it.
But you know what, churches can do the same thing where they're just constantly going
for the next building.
I've been in churches where you have a building campaign every year of that church's existence.
And as soon as we pay off that church, we're ready for the new building campaign and the
new building fund and raising more money and more money and we've got to have a bigger
building and a bigger building.
It's just they keep wanting to have want.
They don't actually want to serve God.
They don't actually care about the riches of God.
They just care about lining their own pockets and lining their own bellies and just getting
and heaping up riches unto themselves and you say where is that coming from?
From the Roman Catholic Church, from fake Christianity, it comes and infects good Christians
and causes them to be only concerned with riches, only concerned with money and the
Bible says that this church, the church of Laodicea, what they thought, oh we're
great.
We have so much money.
We don't have need of anything.
But you know what, he says you're miserable.
He says you're wretched and you know what, having those riches oftentimes will bring
you misery and wretchedness.
Go if you went to Proverbs chapter 14.
You know the Kenneth Copelands, the Joel Osteen, you're not going to compete with these guys
and they're just heaping up riches unto themselves but then we see other pastors,
they look at that and they desire that and they want that and so they're also chasing
the same dream.
They're getting their whole church to just constantly try and raise money for their new
building.
But you know what, all these people making all these great sacrifices to actually get
that building, you know what, they're not getting any works in heaven.
They're not getting any rewards in heaven.
They're not actually doing anything for God.
They're actually usually building a palace for a wicked false prophet in many cases.
You telling me that the people that sacrifice and give to Joel Osteen, they're going
to have great rewards in heaven.
They're like funding the devil.
If anything, they're going to be under punishment and chastisement of God if they're actually
saved.
If they're not saved, then I guess they'll get their punishment in hell but we see this
church has been so infected with fake Christianity, that's all they care about.
If you go talk to southern bastard convention people, you know what they all care about?
Their building campaign and their building fund.
You go talk to other Baptist, other non-denominational churches, talk to the Methodist, you know
what they care about?
Their building and their money and their riches and if they got a great building, our church
is great.
Oh, we're under construction, it's okay, you know.
If we're kind of meeting in a smaller spot, well, maybe one day we'll be a good church.
What they evaluate their church based on their building, don't they?
They evaluate on how much riches and goods they have.
That's why the Bible says that perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and deaths
due to the truth supposing that gain is godliness.
The Bible says the carnal mind thinks that godliness is a tide to money.
How much money you have?
How big a building do you have?
They'll look at a church and they'll say, well, that must be a good church, look how
nice their building is, look how fancy it is, look at that auditorium, that's a great
church.
Look, how nice the building is has zero impact in God's eyes, zero, none.
And most of these places that are palaces, they're wretched and miserable on the inside.
You know why?
Because they're constantly chasing that building payment.
I was working for a bank and church loans were horrible to work on.
You know why?
Because virtually every single church is on default with their building payments.
Banks hate loaning money to churches and there's all these extra programs to try and
assist churches.
I remember the church I was going to, their monthly mortgage payment was $285,000.
That's a lot.
And so you know in the summer, they started doing this thing called at the movies where
they would show Hollywood movies just to bring people in?
Because during the summer months, everybody's going on vacation, nobody goes to church
because it's so empty and shallow and fake anyways, that nobody's coming in and they're
not bringing in $300,000 every single month to pay that mortgage payment.
So they're defaulting, so they have to try and do anything they possibly can to bring
people in.
That's why they're constantly sending out flyers everywhere, they have a kiosk everywhere
to give them money.
I mean, it's all about money, they're preaching on tithing like once every couple of weeks.
Why?
Because they have this dream that they're chasing and then once you get it, who wants
it?
Who wants a $30 million special use facility?
It's worth nothing.
Nobody else wants it.
You can't even get rid of it for free basically.
Whenever a church closes down and they have to sell the building, it's for pennies on
the dollar for what they built it for, it's worthless, it's wretched, it's miserable,
nobody wants that junk.
And we're going to see in the future a lot of church buildings for sale, I promise
you that.
A lot of church buildings that they can't even get rid of.
Look at Proverbs 14 verse 12.
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of
death.
Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.
The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways, and a good man shall be satisfied
from his self.
You know, money is empty, you will never have enough.
I've never met somebody that's like, I have enough money, I'm done.
I'm never going to work again, I don't need it, you know.
They're always chasing more, everybody is.
Everybody's working for the next dollar, for the next paycheck, for whatever it is.
And you know what, you're never going to have enough.
So if you think that you want to try and get more and have enough, you're chasing
a bad dream.
You just, you'll be content with what you have, because why?
Because even in laughter the heart is sorrowful.
All these people with riches, they look like they're having so much fun, and they're
having all these parties.
They wake up in the morning sorrowful because their life is so empty and shallow and vain,
and they're never going to attain to what they want.
Go to Psalms 127.
You know what, you know why he says that this church is wretched and miserable?
Because even though they come to church and they think, oh, we have need of nothing,
they're actually sorrowful in their heart.
They're wretched in their heart, they have a miserable existence.
And their riches and their money is not going to provide what they need.
You know, one thing that I've often seen, and it's sad, it'll actually come out of
people's mouths, is the reason why they stop having children is because of money.
How can I afford them?
How can I afford college?
I can't have that many kids because I can't afford it.
You know what, they're choosing money over children.
Look at Psalms 127 verse 3.
Lo, children are in heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is His reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath this quiver full of them.
They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
You know when they say, I don't have enough money to support the children?
You know what they really are saying?
Let me interpret it for you.
I can't travel as much as I'd like if I have another kid.
I can't go on all the fancy vacations.
I can't go out to eat as often as I would like to go out to eat.
I can't drive the super fancy car that I want to drive if I have more children.
I can't have the house and the neighborhood that I wanted if I have more children.
You know what, I can't buy all the things that I'd like to buy and do all the things
I'd like to do if I have all these children.
You know what they do?
They stop having children, and then they just go on their vacation and they buy all their
goods and they have all their things and they lay in bed at night and their life is
empty and shallow and miserable and wretched.
You know why?
Because the guy that has a bunch of children, he's happy.
The person that decides to limit their family on purpose is going to suffer all
kinds of wretchedness and miserable existence.
I don't care what it was that I had to give up in the flesh.
I don't care what monetary thing I had to give up.
I would never trade my child for anything.
There's zero amount of money.
Nothing.
And obviously, you know, God's the one that opens and closes the womb.
But many times people on purpose are limiting their own family.
Why? For money.
They're wretched.
They're miserable.
They're going to hate their existence.
And when they get older and they have all their money laid up, they're going to say,
I would give it all back if I could just have one more child.
Just one more kid.
It wasn't worth it.
The vacations weren't worth it.
All the purses and the shoes and the fancy car wasn't worth it for one second.
I would do anything to have another child.
But you know what?
All these fake Christians today, they constantly are influenced to give up children.
For what?
The love of money.
Go to Proverbs chapter 19.
You know, not only do they not have the children that they should have.
Not only do they have the right emphasis that they should have.
You know what money will do?
It will give you a bunch of fake friends.
It will give you all kinds of people in your life that you think are great but they're fake.
Money brings fake friends and fake favor.
Look at Proverbs 19 verse 4, wealth maketh many friends, but the poor is separated from
his neighbor.
You know what that's telling you?
When you have money, everybody's your friend.
As soon as you lose that money, they're all going to leave you.
Why?
Because they're a fake friend.
They don't actually love you.
They don't actually care about you.
They just care about your money.
Look at verse 5.
You go to these fake churches and you know who will be your friend?
When you have money, anybody.
When you don't, no one.
You want to go to these churches and you want to have friends?
It's all about your wallet.
You know who's the most popular person in the Sunday School class?
The richest guy that gives so many gifts.
He gives a gift to everybody.
You know who doesn't have any friends?
The poor person.
It ought not so be in our church that the people you decide to fellowship with
is based on their wallet and based on their car and based on their clothes and based
on how nice they look.
James chapter 2 rips on being a respecter of persons.
When the poor person comes in, you say,
I don't want him to sit by me because he's poor.
You know what?
These fake Christians, these fake churches, they're such respecters of persons.
They only love the rich people.
You know what?
They have a bunch of fake friends.
All their friends are so fake.
It's garbage.
It makes me sick.
I look at them and I think, you don't even realize that none of your friends even like
you.
You're all self-conceited.
You all only love yourselves.
None of you are actually doing anything for each other.
It's just obvious through all your actions.
It's obvious when you go through struggles and strife and pain and real affliction who
your friends are.
You know what they're constantly trying to do?
Outdo each other.
That's what their friendship is.
It's constantly trying to do better.
Who can have the best house party?
You go to these fake churches, I guarantee, they all want you to come to their house
and show you who can throw the best party with the best gifts to give to everybody whenever
they leave.
They have the nicest backyard.
Look at what I did in my backyard.
Let's all come have a pool party.
And look, I'm not against having fun, but you can tell when people, they're just putting
on a show.
They have the coolest birthday party for their children.
They just spend thousands on their children's birthday parties to make it just so over
the top.
Look, if you have the coolest birthday parties, you're just going to spoil your child.
Let me just help you out with that one.
They have their pyramid scheme business.
They all have their own pyramid scheme business.
You come over to their house, you got to buy all their things.
Their Mary Kay and all their Scentsy and all their pots and pans.
It's like, this pot is so amazing.
It'll never rust.
You can throw it in the dishwasher and it comes right off and nothing will stick
to it.
Two grand.
You're like, it's two grand.
They got to throw in all these adjectives before they say the price because you're
just like $2,000 for a pot, for a pan?
Look, we're probably all eating metal in all of our food, okay?
I get it.
They have all their vacations that they have to brag about.
You know what?
They're just trying to outdo each other on Facebook.
Who has the Facebook family of the year?
You know, oh man, have you seen how great we are and how special and how good we look?
They have all these fancy pictures and they pay photographers thousands of dollars to get
pictures of their family to just put on their Facebook.
Why?
Because it's a show and it's fake Christianity.
It's so artificial.
Go to 1 Peter chapter 3.
Let's get a little Bible.
Not only that, what do they care about?
How they dress.
Now, look, I believe that we should dress the best of our ability when we come to
church.
I think that we should look good and we should try on purpose to be godly, to be
conservative.
We should also be modest.
We shouldn't be dressing to impress, but I do believe we should dress to look like
a normal person, to dress like a godly person, to dress like someone that's respectful.
If I were to walk in a downtown business center, nobody would look at me and think,
oh, you're just so fancy.
I just look normal, right?
I'm not trying to wear super special fancy clothes today, like the Catholic priest who's
got to wear his special woman's gown, his nightgown, he's got to look like a woman.
Why?
Just so people can look and immediately know, this guy's a priest.
This guy's a pastor.
Let's worship him and talk about how special he is.
I'm not saying that I should go around in gym shorts and a life beater.
I'm not going to walk around just looking like a punk.
I think you should still look respectful, but you know what?
We shouldn't care that much about how we look.
Our physical appearance is not what it's about.
I shouldn't be worrying so much when I come to Sunday morning church.
Well, what am I going to look like though?
What tie am I going to wear?
I care more about what I'm going to preach, what I'm going to say, what songs we're
going to sing.
That's what I'm caring about.
At the same time, I didn't just put on some garbage outfit.
I didn't put on my pajamas and show up to church.
I'm not teaching that you shouldn't dress well.
I'm just saying that that's not what I'm thinking about.
I think about that for the two minutes I get dressed or whatever it is.
Look at 1 Peter 3, who's adorning.
Let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair and of wearing of gold or of putting
on apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart and that which is not corruptible.
Even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price.
You know what these fake Christians do?
They only care about their outfit.
What are you going to wear on Easter and what are you going to wear on Thanksgiving
and what are you going to wear on Christmas?
They come to church and they spent hours on their physical appearance, but they could
care less what the Bible says.
They could care less about reading the Bible in the morning.
When they wake up in the morning, the only thing they care about is what clothes they're
going to put on.
It's fake.
It's fake Christianity and they all show up and they're all talking about what?
What they're wearing.
They don't care about what the Bible says.
Look, I'm not saying that you shouldn't look nice.
I'm just saying where's your heart because it sounds like you're getting infected with
fake Christianity this morning.
You say, hey, I didn't open my Bible this morning.
Sounds like you got a little bit of fake Christianity on.
Why don't you get your fake Christianity off and get it on the Bible and get it on
the things of God.
You think God cares that you're sitting here in your fancy outfit and your fancy clothes?
He's like, why didn't you read the Bible this morning?
Why didn't you pray this morning?
Why didn't you sing a hymn this morning?
Why didn't you do anything for God?
Why am I giving you so much grace to even have breath in the morning if all you're
going to do is care about your physical appearance?
Because when you come to church, he doesn't care about that.
He doesn't care about how fancy you look and how nice you look.
You know what he cares about?
His word.
Getting into your heart and affecting your heart.
You know what?
Women struggle with this very much, but men can as well.
We ought to put our emphasis on God's word, not get infected with this fake Christianity.
It makes me sick.
It makes me sick when I see all these people, oh, they're dressed so nice and so
fancy today down at the Catholic church.
They don't love God.
They're adorned physically, but they're not adorned spiritually.
They're not adorned with the word of God.
All the people that are going to just dress fake and act fake and all they care about
is the physical appearance, they're not going to like this church because this church is
not going to appeal to the lust of the flesh like that.
You know what we're going to appeal to?
The word of God.
You know what?
He was looking at a church and saying, hey, you guys are wretched and miserable.
Not only that, you're poor and naked.
Now were they physically naked?
No.
You know what?
They were spiritually naked.
Why?
Because they didn't clothe themselves with any of God's word in the morning.
They were only clothing themselves physically.
Do you know what money does?
It buys you nice clothes.
Right?
I mean, people have nice clothes, they have lots of money, that's one of the things
that it gets for you.
Go to Luke chapter 12, Revelation chapter 3 says, I counsel thee to buy of me gold
tried in the 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 eyesalve
that thou mayest see.
If we were able to look at most churches this morning with spiritual eyes, everyone's
naked.
Everyone's wearing nothing.
And you say, what does that look like?
Well, they don't know anything in this book.
They don't actually pray.
They don't actually preach the gospel.
They don't do any works for God, they're naked.
You know what?
They spend hours on their physical appearance and God's like, you don't even get it.
Who cares about that physical clothing that you're putting on?
Why don't you get some spirituality in your life?
Why don't you clothe yourself with God's word, with some works?
Look at Luke chapter 12.
Let's get a verse out of this.
I don't want to read the whole thing for the sake of time.
Look at verse 21.
So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God.
There's a parable that Jesus Christ gives of the guy.
He thinks his life's great.
He's going to build greater barns.
He's got so much money.
You know what?
God looks at him.
He says, thou fool.
Why?
Because he's not being rich towards God.
Because he's just chasing after the fake Christianity.
You say, what does this fake Christianity look like?
Well, how about all these stupid mission trips that churches constantly go on and you
know what they don't do?
Preach the gospel.
You know, I would tell my employer, I'd tell other people, hey, we're going to go on
a missions trip to Jamaica.
He says, hey, what are you building?
Because the world knows that's what Christians do, right?
I mean, we go across the world.
We build a well.
We build a house.
We, you know, put gutters on the little hut that we put up or whatever.
We feed them.
We bring them their little powder pack, you know, because it's so cheap and so effective.
You know, we get these little ground up meals that they put this little powder with
water, and it's like a Thanksgiving dinner.
It's like, how do you even really care about that person?
I mean, these 40 cent meals, oh, but there's all these people starving, so we're going
to give them ground up meal that's like Thanksgiving dinner.
And we're so great.
We're so godly.
You know, we're so wonderful.
Let me tell you about the missions trip we went on.
We gave a whole bunch of these powder packs to these kids, and we built them a shelter,
and they're all going to hell, right?
They didn't preach the gospel for one second.
You know why?
Because they do their alms to be seen of men.
They bestow all their goods to be seen of men.
It's fake Christianity today.
You know what?
They think they're great.
We did all these missions trips last year.
Did you see all the money we raised?
And did you see all the houses we built and the wells we built and all the meals
that we packed?
How great are we?
Oh, man.
And we didn't even take a Bible with us.
It was great.
It was wonderful, wasn't it?
No, they're poor, and they're naked.
They're going there poor and naked.
As shamed as you would be to get off a plane in Jamaica or Africa or wherever and just
walk around naked.
That's what it's like when Christians show up and they just build a well and they just
build a house.
That's not what Jesus Christ did, my friend.
He was a carpenter, but he gave up carpentry when he started serving God, when he started
doing the will of God for his life, when he started doing the works of the Father.
God did not send Jesus Christ to this earth to build chairs, to build houses.
He didn't walk around as a carpenter.
He didn't walk around as a great general contractor.
Oh, have you heard?
Jesus Christ is your general contractor and his 12 contractor friends.
All these great guys to build houses and to build wells.
That's not what the disciples did.
Go to Acts chapter 3.
They think these churches, well, we're just bettering the community.
We're feeding our community and loving our community.
They're loving them to hell.
They're giving them their last meal.
It's like the guy bragging about the one who gives the last meal as they execute criminals.
What's great about that?
As the guy is put to death.
Acts chapter 3.
Look at verse number 2.
Fake Christians ruined this guy.
All the fake Christians, you know what they do?
They would have pulled out the powder pack.
Here's the powder pack they're going to give you.
Here's five bucks.
Here's McDonald's.
Here's Slotsky's.
Here's whatever we're going to give you.
Here's some junk.
Here's a Twinkie.
Here's whatever.
So this guy, he's looking at them, he's like, oh, these are Christians?
Let's get some money out of this guy.
Let's get some goods.
He's expecting something, right?
Then Peter said, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.
And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up and immediately his feet and
ankle bones received strength and he leaping up stood and walked and entered with them
in the temple walking and leaping and praising God.
You know what he gave him?
Something good.
All the other stuff was junk and he just constantly needed that junk and Peter said,
you know what?
I'm just going to give you what I have.
It's not money.
It's not goods.
I'm not going to build you a well.
I'm not going to build you a house.
You know what?
I'm going to heal you of your disease, which pictures preaching the gospel and getting
someone saved to that spiritual disease they have of sin.
The fact that sin is going to cause them to die and go to hell.
What purpose would it have been for Peter to stand here and just hand this guy five
bucks?
Hand him ten bucks?
Oh, see ya.
You know the fake Christians, they'll feed people straight to hell all day long.
He gave them the greatest thing he could ever want and you know when we go out and
we talk to the poor, you know what they're often expecting us to do?
Give them money, give them a ride to the church, pay their bills.
There's been so many times I've come, I've knocked on doors.
They're like, hey, I've got this bill.
You want to pay my bill?
Hey, you want to feed me?
You want to give me money?
You want to do all these things?
Why?
They're expecting for us to be a fake Christian and just them to use us.
They don't actually care about us just like they can tell we don't care about them.
You know what?
The fake Christians, they're just doing these works to be seen of men and to feel
good about themselves and to brag about it.
All the money they gave and all the people they helped.
You know what?
We ought to give them the one thing they really need, the gospel.
And when you give those people the gospel, oftentimes they're very appreciative.
They say, that is what I needed.
I didn't realize it.
Thank you for coming.
Thank you for giving me the gospel.
Thank you for loving me.
They can tell that you're not there for a fake reason.
What is the purpose of me going into someone's living room and preaching them the gospel
and leaving?
What physical benefit do I get from that?
Nothing.
But that person can tell the reason I came in there to preach in the gospel is because
I care about their soul and I don't want them to be damned to hell.
And they can actually appreciate that and they actually love that.
That's real love in your heart towards people.
You know what?
These fake Christians, they just want to do everything to be seen of men, to better their
community.
How about this?
They just want to honor all the wicked and honor the ungodly.
Let's get the police chief and bring him before everybody and let's get all the firemen
up here and let's clap for the firemen and any veterans out there, can we please
have all the veterans stand?
Let's clap for them because all the freedom that we have in this country is from the
veterans.
You know what?
Let me say this.
I have no freedom today because of the veterans.
Zero.
That is a lie from the government.
That is a patriotic lie.
It's garbage.
You know what?
I have a lot of bondage because of our military today.
I have a lot of liberties taken from me.
You know what's increased with our military?
Taxes.
Oh, free.
We're so free to give money to the military.
That's not freedom.
That's a joke.
That's a lie.
You know what, when people are free, they don't need to be constantly reminded how free
they are.
Isn't the government just constantly, oh, but we're so free and we just have a free
country and we have just so much freedom and we need to celebrate all of these soldiers
because of all the freedom we get.
You know what?
I keep getting more oppressed by our military.
If I went back 100 years, I would have more freedom and less military.
So riddle me this.
How do we keep getting more military and I keep losing freedom, but then I have to praise
all of the military for all the freedom they're giving me?
Sounds like it's not working.
Sounds like I'm not getting all that freedom that I'm promised from all these liars and
all these devils going around trying to persecute and oppress me and then try to
make me think that I should appreciate it.
Love it.
Then you have Baptist church.
Let's get all the veterans up and let's just clap for them and tell them how special
they are.
I just remember when Jesus Christ was like, hey guys, let's all give a round of applause
for Pilate.
Come on, Pilate.
Come on up here.
Oh, let's get all the Roman soldiers.
Let's line them up and congratulations, guys.
Thanks for all the freedom you give us.
You think the Jews are walking?
Look at all the freedom that these Roman soldiers are giving us, but today we've got
to get all the police officers and all the firemen and all the military up and oh,
let's just clap for them.
Oh, they're so great.
They're so wonderful.
It's a joke.
It's fake Christianity.
You know what we should be looking at and praising?
All the people that went out yesterday and preached the gospel.
That's the real heroes.
That's the real fighters for liberty and freedom.
That's the real people.
Why?
Because where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
We actually liberated a bunch of souls from hell yesterday.
That's who we should be giving the glory to, but ultimately we should be going to God
because he's the one that gives the increase.
So we praise God for actually giving us all the things we have and you know what?
America has so much grace from God.
You know what we're doing?
We're wasting it.
It's fake.
It's fake Christianity.
We're not like the apostle Paul.
Go if you went to Matthew chapter 11.
You know John lost his freedom and you know what it caused him to do?
Question God.
You know, sometimes people think, well, the more freedom you have, the more Godly you
are, the more God's blessing you.
That's a lie.
John the Baptist, he's thrown in jail and he's like, what's going on here?
Are you really the Christ?
You know what's happening?
Look at verse number 2.
Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples
and said unto them, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?
Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do
here and see.
The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the limpards are cleansed, and
the deaf hear.
The dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them, and blessed is
he whosoever shall not be offended with.
You know what fake Christians are not interested in?
Preaching the gospel.
Especially to the poor.
They have no interest in that, they're not going to do it.
Why?
Because they're interested in everything that is fake.
Now for the sake of time, I'm not going to be able to finish the rest of this, but
go to 2 Peter chapter 1.
We see that there was five different things that he describes them as.
I broke them into three parts.
He said that they were wretched and miserable.
Those are basically the same thing.
He said they were poor and naked.
Well, if you're poor, you're probably more likely to be naked than if you have lots
of money.
Lastly, he said that they were blind.
The reality is that these fake Christians, they're so blind today, they don't realize
that they're poor.
They don't realize that they're wretched.
They don't realize how miserable and all the pain that they have.
They think they're great.
That's why they're lukewarm.
They don't realize the situation they're in.
That's why it's better to be cold, because at least when you're cold, you realize, I'm freezing.
I'm not doing anything for God.
But they have no vision why most of them are unsaved.
Fake Christianity is filled with unsaved people.
Not only that, they have fake Bibles, and when you have a fake Bible, you're never
getting any of the truth, so you're never going to be awakened to righteousness.
The Bible says that thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
Without this book, you're going to be blind.
Look at 2 Peter chapter 1.
Let's look at verse 5.
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and your virtue knowledge,
and your knowledge temperance, and temperance patience, and patience godliness, and a godliness
brotherly kindness, and a brotherly kindness charity.
For if these things be in you and abound, they make you, that you shall neither be
barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But he that lacketh these things is blind.
So we see, you know why they're blind?
Well, they don't have a King James Bible, first of all.
Second of all, they don't have any virtue.
You know what virtue is?
It's standards, saying they actually have some principles based on the word of God.
How about just knowledge?
They don't know any of the Bible.
They're just blind because they don't know what this book says.
But then they have to have temperance.
When you have the knowledge of God's word, it helps you have some self-control in
your life, some restraint, and when you start doing that patiently, you gain
that patience.
When you start doing it successfully, when you're restraining yourself for a long
period of time, after you gain the temperance and patience, you know what becomes of you?
You become godly.
You have godliness in your life when you're actually following God's commandments.
And when you realize the importance of following God's commandments, it'll cause
you to love others.
That's where the brotherly kindness comes into play.
But at the top is charity.
Now go to 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
It's the last place I want you to turn, 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
We notice that the person that is blind has no charity.
But if we were to look at the fake Christianity today, here is where the lukewarmness comes
from.
They think they have charity because of their works, but God looks at your heart.
Why are you doing the things that you're doing?
Why are you giving all this money to the poor?
Are you doing it to be seen of men, or are you not telling everybody about it?
Are you going out and doing a missions trip to get people saved, or to brag about the
new well that you built?
Are you actually building a building to house more people to come to church and serve God,
or are you building a fancy building to look how fancy your building is?
Why are you doing the things that you're doing?
What are your works accomplishing?
Is God's grace in vain in your life?
Are you a fake Christian today?
Did you put on your clothes to look fancy for everybody in church, or just to be dressed
modest?
Did you clothe yourself with the Bible this morning?
Why in the world did we have the resurrection of Jesus Christ?
Well, first of all, to be saved, but secondly, for you to actually serve Him, to actually
do something with your life, and not make it all vain.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 1.
Though I speak of the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become
a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and though I have all faith so that I can remove mountains and have not charity,
I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be
burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
That sums up these fake Christians.
They go and they give all their money to the poor.
I've heard these fake Christians are like, man, I can't wait to sell my house and
give all my money to the poor and just help everybody and go on these missions trips
and buy them stuff and build them stuff, and I'm just going to give all these goods.
I'll even give my body to be burned.
I'll even lay down my life for these people.
You know what they won't do?
They won't just open their mouth and preach in the gospel.
They won't actually just show them how to be saved.
They don't actually have any real charity in their heart.
If you actually love people, you won't care about all those other things.
You know, you'll care about their soul, and you'll want to get them saved.
You'll open your mouth and make known the mystery of the gospel.
Why did Paul go to the Ephesians and preach to them?
It wasn't to get their accolades and say, oh, Paul's so cool.
He didn't build them cool houses.
Let me build you a cool statue for your idols.
No, he's preaching the gospel under threat of death.
Why?
Because he cares about their soul.
Why would I go on a missions trip to get them saved?
I don't care if they like me.
I don't care if they think I gave them all the things they wanted.
In fact, they're expecting something different.
If I show up and say I'm a Christian from America, they're going to be like, can I have 100 bucks?
Can I have some food?
Can I have a toy?
They just want all the carnal things, don't they?
If I'm silver and gold, have I none?
That which I have, I'll give you a Bible.
I'll give you the word of God.
You know, it profits you nothing when you're doing things to be seen of men, and that's
what fake Christianity is, and it makes me sick.
I go to the store, and I see a bunch of fake Christianity.
What are they doing?
They have a booth out there, and they're giving money.
They're giving food, food stamps.
I go to a restaurant.
I see all these fake Christians.
They're just talking about their little group that they have and all these fake ... It makes
me so angry that I want to scream sometimes, all right?
My secular job gives back to the community.
Do they love Jesus?
No.
You know what?
Another thing, I'm not going to have you turn there, but I just want to mention one
last point.
The Bible says, he that saith he is in the light and hated his brother is in darkness.
These people, that really sums up fake Christianity, they actually hate people.
You say, why?
Well, because they're blind, and it's because they don't want to preach against sin.
The Bible says in Leviticus 19, verse 17, thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine
heart.
Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon them.
People would come to this church and say, you hate everyone.
You're just sitting over there screaming and yelling and calling things out, and you're
calling the Catholic church out, and you're calling these other churches out.
You must just hate people.
You have so much hate in your heart.
No, you know what?
The person that hates is the one that won't actually preach against sin, that won't actually
warn about them and say, hey, what you're doing is wicked, it's wrong, quit dressing
for men, start dressing yourself and clothing yourself in the word of God.
You know what?
Stop going on your stupid missions trip and building a well and actually preach the gospel.
You don't even have to go anywhere.
Just knock on your neighbor's door and preach him the gospel.
You know what?
Why don't you go to church for the right reasons to serve God, to have newness of
life.
If you haven't been baptized, get baptized.
You know what?
God didn't give you all this grace, but you just go around and live a life of luxury,
and we live in America today where you can just live a life of luxury and pleasure
and fun and wealth, but then people, they live their lives in misery.
The world will only give you misery.
Riches will only give you misery, and these fake churches, they're just leading you
down a path to be wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Father, so much for your word.
Thank you for the gift of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank you for the resurrection.
I thank you for knowing that we also will be resurrected with you one day, the redemption
of our physical body.
I pray that we would not take that lightly, that we would not make your grace bestowed
upon us in vain, but rather we would constantly prove what is acceptable unto the Lord Jesus
Christ.
We would constantly prove our own works, make sure that our works are matching with
the Bible.
That way, when we look back on our lives, we won't have wasted the opportunities that
you've given us.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Let's go to our last song.