Ten Shekels And A Shirt by Paris Reidhead (FULL SERMON)

and today I'd like to speak to you from the same 10 shekels and a shirt if we find it here in chapter 17 judges chapter 17 I'll read the chapter then I will read a portion also from the 18th of the nineteenth chapters at the background night declared a line and there was a man of mouth Ephraim whose name was Micah a little background if you please there was a situation where the amorite refused to allow the people of the time of Dan to any freedom access to Jerusalem and they crowded them up into not Ephraim the sad thing when the people of God allow the world to crowd them into an awkward position and so they were unable to get to Jerusalem and if we find that out of this come the problems were about to see there was a man of Mount Ephraim whose name was Micah and he said unto his mother the eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from the avowedly style Christmas and fakest of also in mine ears to all the silvers with me I took it and his mother said blessed be thou the Lord my son and when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother his mother said I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the Lord from my hand for my tongue to make a graven image in a molten image now therefore I will restore it unto thee yet he restored the money unto his mother and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to the founder who made their of a graven image in a molten image and they were in the house of Micah and the man Micah had in house of God and made an effort and a Seraphim resisters incidentally the images that Rachel brought remember the images literally the word and he consecrated one of his sons who became as free in those days there was no king in Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes and there was a young man out of Bethel in Judah of the Judith who was the Levite and he sojourned there and the man departed out of the city from Bethlehem Judah to soldier and where he could find a plane and he came to Mount Ephraim to the house of Micah as he journeyed and Micah said unto Him whence cometh thou and he said unto him i am a levite of Bethlehem Judah and I go to stored Strowger and where I may find a place and Micah said unto Him dwell with me and he offered me a father and the priest and I will give thee 10 shekels of silver by the year and a suit of apparel and I victuals so the Levite with him and the Levite was contented well was a man and the young man was unto him as the one of his son and Micah consecrated the Levite and the young man became his priest it was in the house of Micah then said Micah now I know that the Lord will do me good seeing I have a Levite to my priests in those days there was no king in Israel and in those days the tribe of the Danites taught them an inheritance to dwell in for under that day all their inheritance had not fallen unto them among the tribes of Israel and the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts men of valour from Zorin from Rochdale to spy out the land and to search it they said unto them go search the land who when they came to mount ephraim to the house of Micah they lost their when they were by the house of Micah as they knew the voice of the young man the Levite and they turned in liver and said unto Him who brought thee hither and what make us now in this place and what has fell here and he said unto them doth stand off the old micah with me and if hired me and i'm his priest and they stood on him as council we pray thee of God that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous and the priest said unto them go in peace before the Lord is your way wherein he go and now if you'll go over to the latter part of the chapter verse 14 and answered the five minutes went to spy of the country of lash and said unto their brethren do you know there is in these houses and effort and teraphim and the graven image the molten image now there are considerable therefore consider what we have to do and they turned the other words and came to the house of the young man the Levite even under the house of Micah and saluted him and the six hundred man appointed with their weapons of war which were of the children of man stood by the entering of the gate and the five men that went to spy out the land went up and came in thither and took the graven image in the effort in the teraphim in the molten image and the priest stood in the entering of the gate where the six hundred men were appointed with weapons of war and these went into Micah's house and fetched the carved image the after the teraphim in the molten image then said the priestesses unto them what do ye they said unto Him hold thy peace lay down hand upon thy mouth and go with her and be to us the father in the priests it is better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man or the talbiya priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel and the priests heart was glad and he took the ephod and the teraphim in the graven image and went in the midst of the people so they turned and departed and put the little one in the cattle and the carriage before them well there's the story this isn't part of the actual history of the judges this is a gathering to gather assume the counts that enable us to see the social condition in that period when every man did esteemed right in his own eyes and there was no king in Israel and so we understand that Micah was unable to get to Jerusalem and perhaps for some kind of devolved reason he decided he would build a replica of the temple on his own property and so he built what he thought would be an appropriate building and he made the instruments of the tabernacle for these this was part of the furnishings the effort included among them but then he also gathered some of the things and the people around in the terrace and the images which brought it forbidden what you see nevertheless there was this desire to get along as best he could so he took a little bit of the world and a little bit of Israel as that which has been revealed by God and he sought has mixed them up until he had something that he thought might please the Lord and then of course he was delighted beyond words when a wandering young preacher came along from Bethlehem Judah he was a Levite his mother was of the tribe of Judah though he himself was a Levite God had given permission through Moses back to leave I might marry into other tribes and they might have joined themselves to other tribes so this young man didn't like the living and every Levite was provided for but he had wanderlust and an itching court and so he started off to see if he couldn't do better for himself than was being done he felt that being a Levite was good but as there should be opportunities associated with him and soul and he came to the house of Micah and there he waited there he was invited in and asked to become the priest and Micah made a deal with him said you'll be my priest be my father increase then I'll give you ten shekels and a shirt it says assuit but you understand as the people of the day wore what would be called a jalopy along the sort of an outside well I was going to say nightgown I don't know if that's exactly what it is but it's appropriate at least something like that and so he gave him a suit of clothes or a change of apparel and his food and ten shekels a year this was pretty good living for him and so he decided that he would stay there and enter into the mixture of idolatry and so on that was in the house of Micah but the people of Dan came along they were supposed to have driven out the amorite but the amorite for too difficult so they wanted to find someone that was a little easier to get out to move and they came to as you've read to Micah's house and the Levi told him to go ahead and then you find as they discovered that there were some people after the manner of the zidonians at Laish and they were peaceful and no one was there to protect so they figured this would be a very good place to take some land for themselves and when they came was a man that were set out to conquer this area they figured that since they'd found the land through the young Levite it would be splendid to have his assistance and so they went into the house of Micah took all the things that he had made and it cost a good bit of money because there at least 200 shekels had been given for this one piece of furniture and so they just took it all made it theirs and took the Levi's rather hard and Micah but you'll notice that the young Levite was able to adjust himself to this it was amazing how flexible he was and how easily he could accommodate himself to such changes when there was a little rationalization along the way as soon as he could begin to see that it was far more important to serve a tribe in a one-man family and he could minister to so many more why he could see the wisdom of this and he could justify it and though is no real strain of conscience and he could make the adjustment hold his hand over his mouth while he took the furniture out as a little chapel that Mike had built but he was a wise man on the left a rather than go along it's a front which put him in a place of danger or sarire which put him in a place of danger I say he was a wise man he put himself right in the middle so that it might have sent any of his servants to get him he was safe but soldiers on every side what can we call it and how will it apply to our day and generation would I be out of line in order if I were to talk to you for a little while about utilitarian religion an expedient Christianity and a useful God I would like to call attention to the fact that our day is a day which the ruling philosophy is pragmatism you understand what I mean by pragmatism perhaps as pragmatism means if it works just true if it succeeds it's good and the text of oral practices all principles all truth so call all teaching is do they work do they work now according to pragmatism the greatest failures in the of the ages has been some of the men guarded honoured most for instance whereas Noah was a mighty good ship builder and his main occupation wasn't shipbuilding it was preaching it was a terrible failure as a preacher he his wife and three children as their wives as all he has seven converts in 120 years you wouldn't call that particularly effective most Mission boards with actually missionaries to his draw long before this I say as the ship builder he did quite well but as the preacher he was a failure and then we come down across the years to another man by the name of Jeremiah he was a mighty effective preacher but ineffective as far as results were concerned if you were to measure statistically how successful Jeremiah was he would probably get a large Cyprus or we find that he's lost out with the people he lost out with royalty even the ministerial assassination voted against him and wouldn't have anything to do with him he had he had everything and everything failed the only one he seemed to be able to please was the dog but he is otherwise he was a distinct failure and then we come to another well-known person the Lord Jesus strike it was a failure from the judging from all of standards he never succeeded in organizing a church or denomination he wasn't able to build a school he didn't to succeed in getting a mission board established he never had a book printed he never was able to get any of the various criteria or instruments that we find and are so useful I'm not being sarcastic at all they are useful and our Lord preached to for three years healed thousands of people fed thousands of people and yet when it was all over there were 120 or 500 the dick Julie could reveal himself after his resurrection and the day that he was taken one man said if all the others forsake you I will I'm willing to die for you and little he looked at this one and said Peter you don't know your own heart you're going to deny me three times before the crows this morning and so all men were subhuman slapped and by every standard of our generation or any generation our Lord was a signal failure the question comes them to this what is the standard of success and by what are we going to judge our lives in our ministry and the question that you're going to ask yourself is is God an end or is the AMIA and you have to decide who very early in your Christian life whether you're viewing God as an end or a need our generation is prepared to water with signal on or anyone that's successful regardless of whether they've settled this problem or not as long as they can get things done or get the job done or well it's working isn't it then our generation is prepared to say well you've got to reckon with this and so we've got to ask ourselves at the very outset of our ministry and our pilgrimage in our walk are we going to be Levites who serve God for ten shekels and a shirt serve men perhaps in the name of God rather than God for though he was the Levite and performed religious activities he was looking for a place a place which would give him recognition a place which would give him acceptance a place which would give him security a place where he could shine in terms of those values which were important to him all his his whole business was serving in religious activities and so it had to be a religious job and he was very happy when he found that Micah had an opening but he had decided that he was worth 10 shekels and a shirt and he was prepared to tell himself to anyone who would give that much somebody came along and gave more he'd tell him to them but he putted value upon himself and he figured and his religious service and his activities was just a means to an end and by the same token God was the means to an end now in order to understand the implications of that in the 20th century we've got to go back a hundred and fifty years a hundred years at least to a conflict that attack Christianity just after the great revivals in America was finis the Spirit of God having been marvelously outpoured upon certain portions of our country there came an open attack on our faith in Europe under the higher critics the Darwin had postulated his theory of evolution certain philosophers had adapted it to their philosophies and theologians had applied it to the scripture and so about 1850 you could mark the opening of a frontal attack upon the Word of God Satan always been insidiously attacking it but now it was open season on the book open season on the church Inbal care could declare and that he would live to see the Bible become a relic and justice have its place only in museums that it would be utterly destroyed by the arguments that he was so forcefully presenting against it well what was the effect of this the philosophy of the day became humanism and you can define humanism this way humanism is a philosophical statement that declares the end of all being is the happiness of man the reason for existence is man's happiness now according to humanism salvation is simply a matter of getting all the happiness you can out of life if you're influenced like someone like Nietzsche who says that the only true satisfaction in life is power and that the power is its own justification and that's after all the world is the jungle and it is therefore up to the man who would be happy to become powerful and become powerful by any means he can use or it is only in this position of ascendancy or as we saw last night in the worship of Moloch that one can be happy and this would produce in due course to Hitler who would take the philosophy of Nietzsche as is working operating principles and guide and would say of his people that we are destined to rule world and therefore any means we can use to achieve this is our salvation somebody else turns around and says well no the end of the being is happiness but happiness doesn't come from authority however people happiness comes from sensual experience and so you would have the type of existential ism that characterizes France today that's given lies to beatnik ISM in America and to the gross sensuality of our country that since man is potentially a glandular animal whose highest moments of ecstasy come from the exercise of this gland the salvation is simply to find the most desirable way to gratify as if part of a person and so this became the the effective humanism at the end of all being is the happiness of man and John Dewey's and an American philosopher influencing education was able to persuade the educators that there were no absolute standards and children shouldn't be brought to any particular standards that the end of education was simply to allow the child to express himself and expand on what he else and find his happiness in being what he wants to be and so we had cultural lawlessness when every man could do was seemed white in his own eyes and no gods are roll over it the Bible had been discounted and disallowed and disproved according to what they said and God had been dethroned he didn't exist he had no personal relationship to individual Jesus Christ was either a mess or just a man there's toes they talked and therefore the whole end of being was happiness as the individual would establish the standards of his hat interpreted now religion then had to exist because there were so many people have made their living at it and so they had to find some way to justify their existence so back about at that time in 1850 the church divided into two groups the one group was the Liberals who said who accepted the philosophy of humanism and try to find some relevance by saying something like this to their generation oh we don't know that there's a heaven we don't know that there's a hell but we do know this you got to live for 70 years and we know that there's a great deal of benefit from poetry from high thoughts and noble aspirations and therefore it's important for you to come to church on Sunday so that we can read some poetry so we can give you some little adages and axioms and rules to live by and we can't say anything about what's going to happen when you die but we'll tell you this if you'll come every week and pay and help and see with us we'll put rings on your wagon in your trip will be more comfortable and so we can't guarantee anything about what's going to happen when you die but we say that if you'll come along with us we'll make you happier while you're alive and so this became the essence of liberalism it has simply nothing more than to try and put a little sugar and the bitter coffee of the journey and tweaked it up for a time this was all that it could say well now the philosophy is the atmosphere is humanism the chief end of being is the happiness of man there's another group of people that have taken umbrage with the Liberals these group this group of my people of fundamentalists that say we believe in the inspiration of the Bible we believe in the deity of Jesus Christ we believe in hell we believe in heaven we believe in the death burial and resurrection of Christ but remember the atmosphere is that of humanism and humanism says the chief end of being is the happiness of man and humanism is like a miasma out of a tip it just permeates every place and humanism is like an infection in epidemic it just goes everywhere and so it wasn't long until we have this that the fundamentalist knew each other because they said we believe these things they were men for the most part fitted net God but you see it long until having said these are the things that establish us as fundamentalist the second generation said this is how we become a fundamentalist believe in the inspiration of the Bible believe in the deity of Christ believe in his death burial and resurrection and thereby become a fundamentalist and so it wasn't long until it got to our generation where the whole plan of salvation was to give intellectual assent to a few statements of doctrine and a person was considered a Christian because he could say aha at four or five places that he was asked to and if he knew where to say uh-huh someone would pat him on the back shake his hand smile broadly and say brother you're safe and so it had gotten down to the place where salvation was nothing more than the sent to a scheme or a formula and the end of this salvation was the happiness of man because humanism is penetrated and so if you were to analyze the fundamentalism in contrast to liberalism of a hundred years ago as this develops for a not pinpointing it in time it would be like this the liberal says the end of religion is to make man happy while he's alive and the fundamentalist says the end of religion is to make man happy when he dies but again the end of all of the religion it was proclaiming was the happiness of man and whereas the funders of liberal says by social change in political order we're going to do away with some we're going to do away with alcoholism and drop dope addiction and poverty and we're going to make heaven on earth and make you happy while you're alive we don't know anything about after that but we want you to be happy while you're alive they went ahead to try to do it only to be brought up with a terrifying shock at the first world war Natalie staggered to the second world war because they seem to be getting nowhere fast and then the fundamentalists along the line are now tuning in on the same same wavelength of humanism until we find something like this we accept Jesus so you can go to heaven you don't want to go to that old filthy nasty burning hell and there's a beautiful heaven up there now come to Jesus you can go to heaven and the appeal could be as much to selfishness as a couple of men sitting in a coffee shop deciding to go to Rio Bravo Bank to get something for nothing and there's a way that you can give an invitation to sinners that just found for all were like a plot to take up a filling station proprietors Saturday nights earnings without working for them humanism is I believe the most deadly and disastrous of all the philosophical stenches that's crept up through the grating over the fit of tale and it is penetrated so much of our religion and it is an utter and total contrast with Christianity and unfortunately it's seldom seen and here we find my cuts wants to have a little chapel and he wants to have a priest and he wants to have prayer and he wants to have devotion because I know the Lord will do me good and this is selfishness and this is sin and the Levite comes along and falls right in with it because he wants the place he wants ten shekels and a shirt in his food and so in order that he can have what he wants and Micah can have what they want they sell it off for ten shekels and a shirt this is the betrayal of the ages and it's the betrayal in which we live and I don't see how God can revive it until we come back to Christianity as indirect and total contact with a vengeful humanism that's perpetrated in our generation in the name of Christ now I'm afraid to this become so subtle with those everywhere what is it in essence it's then that this philosophical postulate that the end of all being is the happiness of man has been a sort of covered over with evangelical terms and biblical doctrine until God reigns in heaven for the happiness of man Jesus Christ was incarnate for the happiness of man all the Angels exist in the whole everything is for the happiness of man and I submit to you that this is unchristian this is man happy in God intend to make a nest but as a byproduct and not a frying product what is it was that good man that's so admired by the fuzzy thinkers of our day out there in Africa dear dr. Schweitzer bless his heart he's a brilliant man philosopher doctor musicians composers undoubtedly a brilliant man but dr. Schweitzer is no more Christian than this role and he would call it a personal insult if he were to say he was a Christian he doesn't see Christ as having any relevance to his velocity or life dr. Schweitzer is a humanist dr. Schweitzer was sitting on the bowels of both going up the broad congo river toward his station watching the belgian government officials with their high-powered rifles shooting at the crocodiles sunning on the mud flats along the river and they were expert marksmen and as they would use these dum-dum bullets that would explode inside the crocodile and just spinning up into the air from the contraction of muscles and he said how do you know so much about it well to my shame I was guilty of the same thing in the nya and they were there this was what they were Sportline they bagged them and they taped cows they put strings around the place for their gun was that a little place for the gun and then they died not so they could see how many crocodiles they killed too awful waste of life and it was there that slicer saw there the essence of this philosophy and you know what it had three words reverence for life reverence life crocodile life human life and other kinds of life my friend George Klein who was with us last week going back to the Gaboon was just about 50 or 60 miles away from dr. Schweitzer station you know dr. Schweitzer is soul convinced the reverence of life that he doesn't like to sterilize his surgery as the dirtiest surgery in Africa because bacterial life and doesn't want to surgeon he's a good bacteria was a bad so he was sort of let small grow together his organ broke someone who'd sent him out an organ and the means of playing it so mr. Kline is an expert organist and an organ repair er as well so he went over to see dr. Schweitzer and dr. Schweitzer George you think you could fix my organ he said I wouldn't be surprised let me try it so he took the back off and to his amazement he discovered a huge nest of cockroaches with characteristic American enthusiasm and zeal George started probably off with the cockroaches not the little one of them get away and the good doctor came out his hair standing straighter than had for a long time and because of his anger and he said you stop that right now George says why they're only here organy says that's all right they were just being true to the nature he said you can't kill those so one of the boys came in it's all right mr. Klein he reached down very candidly picked them up and put them in a little bag and crimps the top and he put each cockroach in and they took them out the jungle let them loose now here was the man that believed his philosophy reverence for life utterly committed to it highly consistent even when it came to the matter of a cockroach or a micro do you see this is humanism this is consistency now I asked you what is the philosophy of mission what is the philosophy of evangelism what is the philosophy of a Christian if you'll ask me why I went to Africa I'll tell you I went primarily to improve on the Justice of God I didn't think it was right for anybody to go to hell without a chance to be saved and so I went to give poor sinners a chance to go to heaven now I hadn't put it in so many words but if you'll analyze what I just told you do you know what it is humanism that I was simply using the provisions of Jesus Christ as a means to improve upon human conditions of suffering and misery and when I got to Africa I discovered that they weren't poor ignorant little heathen running around in the woods waiting for looking for someone to tell them how to go to heaven so they were a monsters of iniquity so we're living in honor and total defiance of far more knowledge of God than I ever dreamed they had they deserved hell because they uh Harley refused to walk in the light of their conscience and the light of the law written upon their heart and the testimony of nature and the truth they knew and when I found out I assure you I was so angry with God in one occasion in prayer I told him that it was a mighty little thing he done sending me out there to reach these people that were waiting to be told how to go to heaven when I got there I found out they knew about heaven didn't want to go there and they were loved their sin in water to stay in it I went out there motivated by humanism I'd seen pictures of lepers I'd seen pictures of ulcers I'd seen pictures of native funerals and I didn't want my fellow human beings to suffer in Hell eternally after such a miserable existence on earth but it was there in Africa that God began to tear through the overlay of this humanism and it was that day in my bedroom was the door locked that I wrestled with God for a hair was I was coming to grips with the fact of the people that I thought were ignorant and wanted to know how to go to heaven and we're saying someone come and teach us actually didn't want to take time to talk with me or anybody else they had no interest in the Bible and no interest in Christ and they love their sin and wanted to continue in it and I was to the place at that time where I felt the whole thing was the shamon Immokalee and I've been sold a bill of goods and I wanted to come home and there alone in my bedroom as I faced God honestly with what my heart felt it seemed to me I heard you to say yes will not the judge of all the earth do right the heathen are lost and they're going to go to hell not because they haven't heard the gospel they're going to go to hell because they are sinners who love their sin and because they deserve hell but I didn't send you out there for them I didn't send you out there for their sake and I heard as clearly as I've ever heard though it wasn't with physical voice but it was the echo truth of the ages finding his way into an open heart I heard God say to my heart that day something like this I didn't send you to Africa for the sake of the even I sent you to Africa for my sake they deserved hell that I love them and I enjoyed the agony to hell for them I am saying you out there for them I thank you out there for me do I not deserve the reward of my suffering don't I deserve those for whom I died and it reversed it all and changed it all and right is off and I wasn't any longer working for my cup in 10 shekels in a jar but I was god I was there not for the sake of the heathen I was there for the Saviour that had endured the agony of Hell 14 who didn't desire it but he deserved to happen because he died for them who they let me epitomize let me summarize Christianity says the end of all being is the glory of God humanism says the end of all being is the happiness of man and one was born in Hell the deification of man then the other was born in heaven the glorification of God and one is Levite serving Mike on the other as a heart that's unworthy serving the living cloth because of the highest honor in the universe what about you why did you repent I'd like to see some people repent on biblical terms again there was George Whitfield know it he stood on Boston Common speaking to 20,000 people in these said listen Senate your monster monsters of iniquity desert have in the works of your crimes is that criminals or you've been you haven't had the good grace to see it said if you will not weep for your fear and your crimes against the holy God George Whitfield will weep for you that man would put his head back that he would table like a baby why because they were in danger hell no but because they were monsters of iniquity that didn't even see this inner care about their crime you see the difference you see the difference the difference is here somebody friendly because he's going to be hurt in hell and he has no sense of the enormity of his guilt and no sense of the enormity of his Christ and no Spencer thought against siete he's only trembling because his skin is about to be singed the frame and I submit to you that whereas fear is this good office work in preparing us for grief it's no place to stop the Holy Ghost doesn't stop there and that's the reason why no one can savingly receive Christ until they've repented and no one can repent until they've been convicted and conviction is the work of the Holy Ghost that helped the sinner to see that he is a criminal before garland deserves all of God's wrath and if God were to send you to the lowest corner of a devil hell forever and 10 authorities that he deserved it all and a hundredfold or because he's seen his crime he's not been convinced he's cloth but he has seen his crime and this is the difference between 20th century preaching and the preaching of John Wesley Wesley was a preacher of righteousness that exalted the holiness of God and when he would stand there was a two to three hour sermons that he was accustomed to deliver in the open air and he would exalt the holiness of God of the law of God the righteousness of God of the Justice of God and the wisdom of his requirements and the justice of his wrath and his anger and then he would turn to sinners and tell them of the enormity of their crimes and their open rebellion and the treason in their anarchy the power of God would so descend upon the company that on one occasion it is reliably reported that when the people dispersed there were 1,800 people lying on the ground utterly unconscious because they'd had a revelation of the holiness of God and in the light of that they'd seen the enormity of their sin and God had so penetrated their minds and hearts that they had fallen to the ground it wasn't only in Wesley's day was also in America knew let's do Haven Connecticut Yale a man by the name of John Wesley Redfield had continuous ministry for three years in and around New Haven culminating in the great meetings in the Yale Bowl the first of the elbows back in the 18th century and the policemen were accustomed during those days if they thought someone on the ground to go up and smell his breath because if he had alcohol on his breath they'd lock him up but if he didn't he had Wesley Redfield's disease and all you needed to do if anyone had Redfield's disease was just take him into a quiet place and leave them till they came to because if they were drunkards they'd stop drinking and if they were cruel they'd start being cruel and if they were immoral they gave up their immorality if they were thieves they returned what they had whereas they had seen the holiness of God and seen the enormity of their sin the Spirit of God had driven them down into unconsciousness because of the weight of their guilt and somehow in his over spreading of the power of God sinners repented of their sin and came saving me to Christ but there was a difference it wasn't trying to convince good man that he was in trouble with a bad god but it was to convince Batman that they deserved the wrath and anger of a good God and the consequence was repentance that led to faith and led to life dear friend there's only one reason one reason for a sinner to repent and that's because Jesus Christ deserves the worship and the adoration and the love and the obedience of his heart not because you'll go to heaven if the only reason you repented dear friend was to keep out of hell all you are is just a Levite serving for ten shekels and a shirt that's all you're trying to serve God because you'll do your good but a repentant heart is the heart that has seen something of the enormity of the crime of playing God and denying the just and righteous God the worship and obedience that he deserves why should a sinner repent because God deserves the obedience and one that he has refused to give him not so that you'll go to heaven the only reason he repents until you'll go to heaven it's telling to try to make a deal or a bargain with God why should a sinner give up all this sin why should he be challenged to do it why should he make rest Sushil when he's coming to Christ because God deserves the obedience city demands I have talked with people that have no assurance of sins forgiven they want to feel safe before they're willing to commit themselves to Christ but I believe that the only ones who've got actually witnessed as pious spirits are born of him are the people whether they say it or not that come to Jesus Christ and say something like this Lord Jesus I'm going to obey you and love you and serve you and do what you want me to do as long as I live even if I go to hell at the end of the road simply because you are worthy to be loved and obeyed and served and I'm not trying to make a deal with you do you see the difference do you see the difference between being a Levite serving for ten shekels and a shirt or a mica building a chapel because God will do you good and someone that's repent for the glory of God why should a person come to the cross why aren't you the person embraced death with Christ why should a person be willing to go in identification down to the cross and into the tomb enough again I'll tell you why because it's the only way that God can get glory out of a human being if you say it's because you'll get joy or peace or blessing or success or fame and it's coming but us Levite serving for ten shekels and shirts the whole reason for you to go to the cross dear young person that's because until you come to the place of union with Christ and - you are defrauding the son of God of the glory that he could get out of your life for no flesh shall glory in sight and until you have understood the sanctifying work of God by the Holy Ghost taking you into union with Christ and death and burial and resurrection you have to serve and what you have and all you have is that which is under the sentence of death human personality and human nature and human strength than human interchange and God will get no blowing out of that and so the reason for you to go to the cross isn't that you're going to get victory you will get there it isn't if you're going to have joy you has joy but the reason for you to embrace the cross and press through until you know that you can testify with Paul I'm crucified with Christ isn't what you're going to get out of it but what you get out for the growing of God by the same token why or if you press through to know the fullness of the Holy Spirit why aren't you pressed to to know the fullness of Christ I'll tell you why because the only possible way that Jesus Christ will get glory out of a life that is redeemed with his precious blood is when he can fill that life with his presence and lived through it his own life the genius of our faith wasn't that we were going to go through the motions like a Levite that were hired to serve God no no the genius of our faith was that we come to the place where we knew I could do nothing and all we could do would be to present the vessel and say Lord Jesus you lack the stomach and everything that's done will have to be done by you and for him but oh I know so many people that are trying to know the fullness of God so they can use God the young preacher came to me darling West Virginia Huntington West Virginia brother Rita's I've got a great church he's got a wonderful Sunday School program dinner radio ministry drawing but I feel a personal need the personal lack I need to be baptized with the Holy Ghost I need to be filled with a stir and someone told me God done something for you and I wanted you could help me I looked at the fella you know what'd he look like me just look like me I just saw in him everything it was in me you thought I've got to say me before no listen to your heart if you've ever seen yourself you'll know that you're never going to be anything else than you were for me and my flesh there's no good thing the Blackman is like a fellow driving up in a big Cadillac you know to someone standing in the filling stations they pour up butter the highest octane you got that way look he wanted power for his program and God is not going to be a means to anyone's end I said I'm awfully sorry I don't think I can help you for why I don't think you're ready and all suppose you consider yourself coming up with a Cadillac you've talked about your program you've talked about your radio you talked about your sunday-school insurance very good you've done wonderfully well without power the Holy Spirit's that's what the Chinese Christian said you know when he got back to China what impressed you most about America he said the great things Americans can accomplish without God and he'd accomplished a great deal admittedly without strong now he wanted something power to accomplish his ends even further I said no no you're going you're sitting behind the wheel and you're saying to God give me power so I can go you won't work you got a slide over but I knew that rascal because I knew me and to know it'll never do you got to get in the back seat now I could see him leaning over and grabbing the wheel no it'll never do in the back seat I said before God will do anything from you you know what you've got to do I reason what I said you've got to get out of the car take the keys around open up the trunk lid and the keys to the Lord Jesus get inside the trunk slam the lid down whisper through the keyhole Lord looks fill er up with anything you want and you drive it's up to you from now that's why so many people you know do not enter into the fullness of Christ because they want to become a Levite with ten shekels and a shirt they've been serving Micah but they think if they had the power of the Holy Ghost they could serve the tribe of Dan it'll never work never worked there's only one reason for God meeting you and that's to bring you to the place where in repentance you've been pardoned for his glory and in victory you've been brought to the place of death that he might reign and in his fullness Jesus Christ is able to live and walk in you and your attitude is the attitude of the Lord Himself who said I can do nothing of myself I can't speak of myself I don't make plans for myself my only reason for being is the glory of God in Jesus Christ if I were to say to you come to be safe so you can go to heaven come to the cross that you can add joy and victory comes the fullness of the Spirit so that you can be satisfied I'd be falling into the trap of humanism I'm going to say to you dear friend if you're out here without Christ you come to Jesus Christ and serve Him as long as you live whether you go to hell at the end of the way because he's worthy I say to you Christian friend you come to the cross and join him in Union and death and enter into all the meaning of death to health in order that II can have glory I say to you dear Christian if you do not know the fullness of the Holy Ghost come and present your body a living sacrifice and let him tell you so that he can have the purpose for his coming fulfilled in you and get flow right into your lives it's not what you're going to get out of God it's what he it's going to get out of you let's be done once and draw with utilitarian Christianity that makes cloth a means instead of the glorious and it is let's resign let's tell Micah we're through but no longer going to be as pre serving for ten shekels and shirt let's tell the tribe of Dan were through and let's come and cast ourselves at the feet of the nails pierced son of God and tell him that we're going to obey him and love him and serve him as long as we live because he is worthy to young Moravians heard of an island in the West Indies were an atheist British owner had 2,000 to 3,000 slaves the owner had said no preacher no clergyman will ever stay on this island if he's shipwreck we'll keep him in a separate house until he has to leave but he's never going to talk to any of us about God I'm through with all that nonsense 3,000 slaves from the jungles of Africa bought to an island in the middle in the Atlantic and they're to live and die without hearing of Christ to young moravian heard about it they sold themselves to the British planter and used the money they received from this sale for he paid no more than he would for any slave to pay their passage out to his Island for he wouldn't even transport them and as the ship left the river at humba humba left it here in the river at Hamburg and was going out into the North Sea carried with the tide the Moravians had come from her and hoped to see these two lads off nearly 20 never to return again for this wasn't a four-year term they told themselves in the lifetime slavery simply that is plays they could be a Christian where these others were the families were there we think where they knew they'd never see them again they wanted why they were going and questioned the wisdom of it there is that gap widened and the houses have been cast off and were being curled up there on the pier and the young boys saw the widening gap one lad with his arm linked to the arm of his fellow raised his hand and shouted across the gaff the last words were from them with ease may the Lamb that was slain receive the reward is suffering this became the cause of moravia mission and this is the only reason for being that the lambs were slain they receive the reward it is suffering

Channel: SermonIndex.net

Views: 139,256

Rating: 4.9074769 out of 5

Keywords: Paris, Reidhead, Revival, Repent, God, Sermons, Jesus, SermonIndex

Id: nDQC45_RA2c

Length: 50min 59sec (3059 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 25 2012