Jack Hibbs - It's Time to Do What You Know
You guys okay? For real, you guys good? How many of you have come to the church in the last six months? You’re new here? You’ve been here for the last six months? Raise your hands. Don’t be shy. I’m not gonna bother you. Okay, great. Excellent. That means you’ve come to this church during this series. In a couple of weeks, we’re going to dive back into what we normally do, and that is a chapter-by-chapter, verse-by-verse study, and we’ll be heading into the book of Philippians. It’s going to be a tremendous time. Great book.
Today we put a bookend or a capstone upon this series. I want to be very careful that I don’t go into the preaching or teaching mode as tradition would have it, because I want today—and I’ve begged the Holy Spirit to make today—as though you and I were sitting across the table with coffee, talking about the things of God. And so, six or seven months ago—you need to know—this was born out of, quite frankly, an awareness that came to me on this campus or in the local stores, meeting up with people, and the issues that gave birth to this doctrinal series so troubled me.
And I want to both address that today, recap where we’ve come, and challenge you in the end. I am absolutely committed to the teaching of God’s Word. I pray in such a way—so much so, without apology—God’s Word is true. The Bible says, «Let every man be a liar,» right? That means God alone speaks the truth. We know no truth without God’s truth, and without doctrine we have no hope.
This morning you’re here—and look at you—godly group of people. First service, you’re amazing. But you’ve come to hear from God. You believe your Bible. You believe God, and you come to church. This is an accent—this is salt and pepper to your Christianity this morning. But you’ve come to hear from God, from His Word. And when I say salt and pepper, I mean that every day of the week for you as a believer, you’re living your life, you’re learning from God, you’re walking with God.
And what is called these convocations—that’s what it is when God’s people come together. It’s a convocation. We’re commanded in Scripture to convocate. We would call that the general assembly or church, where a couple of times a week—for some of us—we come together and we look at God’s Word to have Him speak to us. But He’s always speaking. But these concerns spoke to me.
And so this series that we end today came out of conversations that just happened between myself and others in this community. And three things have not escaped my memory. Number one, I heard this: the Jesus of Islam and Judaism and the cults—it’s the same Jesus, right? I also heard this: all I have to do is ask Jesus to forgive me, and He forgives me, right?
And then what might be the genesis for all of these ill and wrong views and thoughts and sentiments is: I just simply ask my friend to believe in Jesus, and he got saved. That’s all that was said. No. No to these. No, no, no to these. Thus we embarked upon this doctrinal series that I said in the beginning I was willing to empty out this church so that the truth would be told.
So that I, on the day of judgment as a pastor, would not have to stand before God and be in great trouble for never asking you or never making it very, very super-duper clear to you what are the essentials of Christianity. And I got to tell you—listen—we’ve been in this, actually seven months, and we end today. But really, this is not the end, because it is incumbent now upon you.
I’ve only put oil under the wheels. It’s now time for you—if you never have—to embark upon your own consistent, continuous study of the doctrines of God. Because, my dear friend, from the beginning I said you cannot claim to believe in that which you cannot defend or define. When you say you believe in Jesus, you and I live in an age where we have to ask, «Jesus who?»
Because, as Paul the apostle warned, there are many Jesuses out there in the world today. And so there isn’t a day when you say things like, «All I’ve got to do is ask God to forgive me,» right? Wrong. There is no salvation—as we’ll be reminded in a moment—without repentance. You can’t get saved unless you know you’re absolutely lost, and that lost condition is what offended and separated you from God.
And then when we say, «Well, you know, I just asked my friend if he believed in Jesus. He said yes, so he’s going to go to heaven"—that is not salvation. That is not preaching the gospel. That is not evangelism. The Bible says that the devils believe and tremble at the name and thought of God, but they’re condemned to hell.
It is absolutely essential—and I’m preaching, literally teaching to the choir today. You, this church—if you’re visiting, just listen—but today is church as it were in the home. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 27 verse 23 that it is incumbent upon God’s ministers to be diligent to know the state of your flocks and to attend to your herds. That’s an important thing God wants us to understand.
And this is where we embarked upon, by way of remembrance. Church, we talked about the need for you to know about the revelation of God, and that’s where we started. But remember, with each of these points, there’s no ending to your in-depth study. It will take you the rest of your life to fathom the depths.
Number one, as we looked at the revelation of God—the Lord, He is God—and the characteristics of God. And we looked at the amazing thing, Christian, regarding God: that all about Him is the fact that He’s all-knowing, He’s all-powerful, He’s everywhere. The characteristics of God. The revelation of God.
The next thing we looked at in that series of ours is that you needed to know all about God the Holy Spirit. We talked about who He is—the Holy Spirit. Listen, some of you have come out of faith groups that do not acknowledge the Holy Spirit. Some of you—I know, we’ve talked together—no, no, Pastor, we were taught in our upbringing that it is an «it.»
It’s an impersonal power. It’s like, «Luke Skywalker and the force be with you.» But it’s not a person. Oh no, no—He’s a person. And we looked at the details about the Holy Spirit. And when we end today, we’ll be going back to the Holy Spirit. He is the very One that opens your eyes to your need for salvation.
Maybe you’re here today and you’re thinking, «What on earth am I doing here? This guy mentioned sin, and two minutes into his message I’m highly offended. Oh my goodness—you know, I need God.» Yeah, listen—the Holy Spirit is speaking that truth to everybody, but not everyone’s open to hearing Him.
The Holy Spirit is the One that we are to be relating to. Jesus—listen—Jesus is enthroned in heaven above right now. It’s your relationship with the Holy Spirit right now. How close are you in your—as Charles Spurgeon said—your intercourse with the Holy Spirit? Is God so real and personal to you?
If He is, it’s by the Holy Spirit at work in your life. Never, never fall for the lie—never swallow the lie of the enemy that says, «Well, the Holy Spirit—you need to be kind of scared of Him. You need to be kind of a little intimidated by Him.» I know—listen—I know pastors who in services, they’re fearful of the Holy Spirit taking charge.
I beg the Holy Spirit takes charge in these services of ours. I don’t want to show up unless He’s here. I can only do what I can do. You and I can only do what we can do. It’s up to the Holy Spirit. He’s alive. And without the Holy Spirit present in this church, using the Word of God—you say, «Why do you give so many verses in your messages?»
Because—look—I may be ugly, but I’m not stupid. I figured something out: a lot of Bible—Holy Spirit can use it. I believe somebody can come up and be almost flat-line dead and on a breathing machine if necessary for them to be alive, but give a Bible verse, and their ministry will be effective.
You can talk about all the worldly stuff in the world, and it won’t help anybody. But when the Holy Spirit lifts the verse up off the Bible and embeds it upon your heart, it’ll change your life. It’s awesome. Number three, we looked at the need for us to know all about the gospel truth—the amazing gospel that «for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever"—
it’s available to anyone who will ask, anyone who will seek Him—that they would not perish but have everlasting life. The gospel—it’s the very reason why ministry takes place at all. Jesus said that the gates of hell will not prevail against His church. Why? Because—listen—we talked about this: there are churches that started and failed.
What happened? We’ve all seen church startups, and then they blow away. What’s the difference? What happened? Churches will come and go, but Jesus says, «I will build"—qualifying statement—He will do it—"My church. I’ll build it,» Jesus said. And the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.
If there’s a church of 10 people or a church of 10,000 people—if it’s—listen—being built by Jesus, you can’t stop it. When does a work die? When it forgets Jesus. Jesus, in His own writing in the last words of Christ in the book of Revelation, warns the church at Ephesus of a grave danger: that they had left their first love.
Their relationship with Jesus was no longer hot. And the very thing which Bible doctrine should create in your life is a drive to get to know God more. I need to say this now because my wife’s not here—she’ll be here at second and third. Peter tells us that we need to have hot hearts.
He uses the word—in the old King James, I believe the old King James version—is «fervent hearts.» The word in the Greek is «hot"—hot hearts. Tozer talked about those hot hearts as being the fellowship of the burning heart. He said all those who know that have a hot heart for God—there’s an attractiveness, there’s a relationship with that.
So yesterday—and it wasn’t because my wife was here at this amazing conference that you all ladies had—but she came home, and oh—don’t get any ideas—I was studying the Bible, nothing happened. But she walked in, and she’s just so beautiful. Man, you’re beautiful. «Oh, what do you—what are you saying that for?»
You know, the conference was about intimacy and all. «All right, and no—I got work to do.» But you know, this is what 36 years of marriage will do for you. I just kept—you know—I got to look at her, look at her again. She drives me crazy. And you know what? You think about what God has engineered for us in relationship.
And then you think about the relationship that God has engineered for us forever. Jesus drives me crazy. «See, what do you mean?» He’s so kind. He’s so forgiving. He’s so loving. You know what? He’s always talking to me. You know what my stupid problem is? I don’t listen all the time.
He’s always talking. He’s so excited, and He says things like this: «Hey, Jack, come here. Come over here. Let’s take a walk.» Always the fellowship of the burning heart. He’s inviting you. Listen, why is this important? Do you know this? Do you know what it’s like?
If you don’t have this—listen—God is speaking to you right now. If you don’t have this, get it. It’s available. It’s free—free for the asking. You may be a Christian, but your life is sterile. That gospel truth transforms your life, which led us to number four: being born again—all about being born again.
My dear friends—listen—so many—and I know I’m gonna get in trouble when I say this (it’s okay, it’s worth it)—I know you, I’ve met so many of you—not all of you, but so many of you—attend local Catholic churches in the region, and you’ve told me you come here for Bible study. I’m blessed by that.
I’m not disparaging that. And then you go to Mass. Listen, we’ll take you any way we get you. Because Jesus said, «Unless you’re born again, you’ll not see the kingdom of heaven"—born from above, born anew, born a second time. The meaning of that word—and we studied that, we looked at that in detail—you’ve got to be born again.
Which led us to what was our most controversial topic of all through the series. And I found it extremely interesting and so predictable, because I said from the beginning of this particular topic—regarding salvation and what you need to know about salvation—that it was going to challenge the legalists.
And I said what I’m about to say in that series—there will be those who will say, «Pastor, don’t say that publicly. People will take it the wrong way.» I could care less about that. Because you know what? Jesus said, «Don’t worry—My sheep hear My voice. They follow Me.» You understand that?
I trust Him 100% on this topic. «Well, don’t tell people that if they’re truly born again, that they can’t be unborn again—because the fear, they need that fear, that insecurity to keep them on the straight and narrow.» That is spiritual prostitution, ladies and gentlemen, and an offense to God.
I stress the issue that number one: have you repented of your sins? The word was «metanoia"—remember that word? That went right through or right over the head of some people. Regarding the doctrine of salvation, there is no salvation without repentance. It’s the first word of the gospel: «Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,» says the Bible.
But listen—here’s the push—if you’re truly—the word is «regenerate"—or have by the Holy Spirit been regenerated or born again, transformed—if the Spirit of God, the Bible says, dwells in you, He has sealed you into the day of redemption. That means—listen—if you are truly born again, you are going to be born again.
Even if you, like Jonah, get in a boat and try to flee from the presence of God. He will hunt you down. Here’s this challenge—and this is what people freaked out аbout: don’t assume you’re born again. A lot of people today think they’re going to heaven, and I personally believe they are not going.
They have deceived themselves. They’ve got religion, but they know not God. They’ve jumped through the hoops, but they don’t know Him. They’ve never experienced what it is to have that amazing—I don’t know what to say—shocking revelation that though we are closer to God than we ever have been, yet at the end of the day we are sinners saved by the grace of God.
That when you and I enter heaven, it will not matter one iota what we’ve achieved. It will be that we are sinners saved by the grace of God—no matter what great works we’ve ever done, which are wonderful. What are they for? To glorify His name—not to earn points.
There’s no points. Listen—this is God’s church. It’s not American Express travel points. «Well, you’ve got 200 points.» No, you don’t. You’ve got no points. It’s the blood of Christ and no points. And that assurance is power and comfort and joy. But don’t assume you’re saved, my dear friend.
Which led us to a very long series—and we just ended it—and that was the doctrine of future things: that for the Christian, our future is before us. Mark it down, you guys. If you would, Matthew chapter 5 verse 17—that’s where we’ll launch out. Matthew chapter 5 verse 17.
Listen, everybody—by way of review, by recap, by settling this all in—Jesus said, «Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.» Listen up, everybody. «I did not come,» Jesus said, «to destroy but to fulfill.» Listen—mark it, record this down—for people in your life that you know who are using the Word of God as a cloak for sin.
Who are using the Word of God to cover themselves. Jesus said—Old and New Testament—He says, «I’ve come to fulfill the law and the prophets.» You know what that means? Simple meaning—nobody’s confused by it except this generation. «Well, the Old Testament—that’s the old stuff. Doesn’t apply to us.» Tell that to Jesus.
Now, I’m not saying you need to keep the Ten Commandments. No man can. My Jewish friends—God bless you—but nobody can keep the Ten Commandments. Are they amazing? Yes. Are they pure, holy? Yes. You can keep them physically on the outward before man, but God knows what’s in your hearts.
It’s not the law inscribed upon stone. It is the spirit of the law that God will hold us accountable to. It’s very serious. Jesus said, «I’ve come to fulfill the law and the prophets.» Why? Because I can’t. He went on in Matthew 5:18: «For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle—one comma, one hyphen of the Hebrew language—will by no means pass from the law till what? All is fulfilled.»
The word «all» here means—are you ready? Write this down, don’t miss it—it’s «all.» The word means every bit, everything. Listen—the word means the whole of, the entirety. The word means the Word—or words. By the way, the ancient rabbis and conservative rabbis today say this still, and I like it—listen—that when the Messiah comes, He will not only correctly interpret the Word of God perfectly to us, but He will even interpret what is meant between the lines.
I love that. That’s a high view of God’s Word. Will you mark that down? We are to have a high view of God’s Word. That’s why we brought you this series. Do you have a high view of God’s Word? Is it priority one in your life? Is God’s Word the first thing you consult?
Listen—you have to make a decision. You just consult God’s Word—listen—daily. Do you consult His Word? Do you pursue His Word? And I’m not talking about legalism: «Well, I got to read the Bible today.» We get to crack open the eternal Word of God. This Word will speak to us.
Dear friends, please mark this down: when you open your Bible—I mean, watch—when you open your Bible, yeah, you ought to—if not physically, in spirit—when you open this thing up, it’s like, «Whoa!» I mean, there should in your mind—you should be like lightning bolts coming out of this book.
Why? Are you crazy? Listen—no, watch. You put it down, and you start to read. And here’s how you read the Bible: «Dear God in heaven, this is Your eternal Word. Kingdoms will come and go. Before the earth was and when it’s all gone, Your Word abides forever. You know me. You put me on this planet in this place at this second. So here we go, Lord—speak to me.»
Do you do that? I hope you do this. I really do. I really hope you do that. It’ll heal you of the doldrums: «Well, I gotta read the Bible today.» And then you read the Bible, and then you get in five minutes later: «No, no—you can’t even tell anybody what you read.» Don’t do that. No—don’t do that.
Psalm 138 verse 2 says, «I will worship toward Your holy temple and praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth, for You have magnified Your Word above all Your name.» The Bible, dear Christian church—it’s time for us at the end of this series now to go do what we know.
And Matthew chapter 5 verse 1—listen, this is amazing to me. It’s great to be refreshed on this. Matthew 5:1: «Jesus, seeing the multitude, went up to a mountain, and when He was seated, His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and"—what? —"taught them, saying.» Isn’t that awesome?
Jesus—listen—what would it be like to hang out with Jesus? Well, it all depends: you like Bible study or no? Because every time you see Jesus, what’s He doing? Bible. He opens His mouth and teaches—or taught—the people. He taught them. He teaches the Word of God.
What’s the high esteem, high view of God’s Word? Well, the Bible says of itself that Jesus Christ was the Word that became flesh. The word «teach» or «taught» here is the word «didasko,» and that word means to illuminate—listen—by learning. It means to illuminate, means to teach, means to open up at all times. «Didasko.»
And it means this: if you were walking with Jesus—everybody, imagine just you’re walking with Jesus—what would it have been like? We’ve all wondered about that. Wouldn’t it have been amazing? Well, this is what it would have been like according to the Bible: Jesus would have been walking with the disciples, and He would take every opportunity to make it a truly teachable moment.
John said the things that He taught us—if they were all written down, the books of the world could not contain them. God gave us the Bible for what we need to know. More on that in a moment. Walking with Jesus would have been amazing. I would have been—you would have been—your personality, I would have been my personality with Him.
I would have wanted to know: «Jesus, tell me how a bee works. I just saw a bee fly by. How does that work?» And you know what? Because the Bible says when Jesus taught them «didasko,» you and I do not get the exact teaching. We most often get the parable. The parable is what summed up the teaching.
Did you know that’s how the Hebrew teachers summed up their sermon, their message? They taught, and then they closed the teaching with the application, and the application was a «parabolos"—parable. You and I are familiar with the parables. They’re the high point of the teaching. Jesus taught.
How valuable—listen—is the Word of God in your life daily? Jesus would teach you regarding your singleness, your marriage, your business, your education, relationships. Jesus would sit down and teach you. None of this—listen—there’s nobody exempt from the light and from the illumination and learning of God’s Word.
You just got to pick it up. If you don’t, you’ll be swept away by false doctrine. And it is rampant, ladies and gentlemen. There are people all over the place. They’re on the internet—very persuasive, very powerful. I told the staff recently: «Watch this guy. He is demonically anointed.»
Because why? If you—oh, this is something I actually was going to play it for you on the screens, but I’m fearsome—I feared some of you could not handle it, and you would actually be deceived by him. Why? Because I’m afraid some of you don’t know the Word of God enough.
Because if you put on this false teacher and you’re listening, it’s exciting, it’s dynamic, charismatic, it’s biblical—and then there went—there was the little poison injected, and then he continues on. And listen—how did Satan try to trip up Jesus? Anybody remember? He quoted—Satan quoted—Scripture to Jesus Christ.
Are you with me, everybody? That’s the number one passion why we brought this series to you. But you know what? He said that I have listened more than ever in my 38 years of being a Christian—in these last several months of watching the advent of false prophets in the world and in America take their stage.
It is amazing to me to see people who claim Christ but do not obey His Word be swept away by—as we talked a few weeks ago—emotionalism, an emotionally based theology. Tragic but rampant. The mission of Jesus Christ—apart from the cross—is teaching the Word of God. Think of that.
I’ll say it again: the mission of Jesus Christ—outside the cross, other than the cross—number one: the cross; number two: teaching. You say, «No, I’ll disagree—miracles.» Hey, listen—miracles come and go. Even after a miracle happens, the person still has got to die again.
Or so what if their eyes—if their blindness is taken away? So what? They can walk down the street and catch the flu and drop dead. Are you hearing me? I’m not disparaging miracles. I’m saying don’t set your faith on them. Again, the Bible warns in the last days miracles will come out of deceivers.
It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be having miracles here—thank God, God moves. But you don’t set your faith on them. You judge all things against doctrine. But do you know it? You got to know what the Bible teaches. In Mark chapter 6 verse 33: «But the multitude saw them"—that’s Jesus and the boys, the disciples—"departing, and many knew Him and they ran on foot from all the cities.»
Can you imagine? Can you imagine this in a Spielberg moment? Jesus is with the disciples, and there’s people coming from all these villages running to see Jesus. And they arrived before them—that is, on the other side of the lake—and came together to Him. By the way, that word implies a swarm—a swarm of humans.
That’s a pretty graphic picture, is it not? A swarm. You ever been involved in a swarm? That’s pretty scary, painful thing—a swarm of humanity. And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was number one: moved with compassion for them. Is that awesome?
And number two: because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. Three: so He began to give them lotto tickets? And He began to wash their feet? He began to feed them? He began to what? Teach them. Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus Christ in the most pressing moment that moved His heart—the word «moved with compassion"—
I hope you’re not offended by this—the original language means that when Jesus saw them, He had so much pity on the people that the word means to have your bowels affected. That’s what the word means. Compassion is such a sterile word, isn’t it? It’s actually a pretty word, isn’t it?
This—listen—it’s a very, very, very serious feeling that Jesus had. He saw the people, and when He saw them with His eyes—like sheep having no shepherd—these people don’t have anybody to love and care for them. That thought of them being lonely in this world caused His gut—the lower regions of His bowels—to be agitated. He was moved with compassion.
Do you know this Jesus who’s moved with compassion regarding your situation in life? He looks upon you like a sheep not having a shepherd. And Jesus steps up and says, «I’ll be your Shepherd if you want. I’ll be your Shepherd if you let Me in. I’ll come to you when no one else will.» Moved with compassion—and He taught them.
What’s the greatest thing that a man or a woman or boy or girl can experience in this life? Is to be taught the Word of God. It’s eternal. It’s supernatural. I’ve told you this before—it sure is a lot of fun. It’s redundant for many of you—I see you doing it places—but go to breakfast after service today.
You see wife saying, «See, honey—he just…» That’s the Lord. No—don’t go home and cook. Go be a witness. Go to some breakfast place around town. Take your Bible and put it right on the table there. Open up that menu—Bible open. Be having a conversation.
Watch the server come up and say, «What—what do you got there?» «It’s the eternal Word of God. It’s alive.» The Bible says—the Bible says of itself—it’s alive. And you know it is. Matthew 28 verse 19 says, «Go therefore"—Jesus said—listen, this is one of His departing words to the church, to us—"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.»
Everybody’s for that? Yes, yes. I’m so sick of all the books that are out there right now about disciples: disciple this, disciple that. There’s websites for disciples—making disciples. Our church is all about making, and we’re a disciple church. There is no church without disciple-making.
And you don’t need to read a book to make disciples. How in the world—for 2000 years—the church ever have disciples without all these books being written? How’d we ever make it? The only way we will make it: by the Holy Spirit using the Word of God.
Listen—our problem is we need to write a book on how to unplug. Imagine what you’ll hear if we unplug. We’ll be able to hear God again—that still, small voice. So Jesus said, «Go and make disciples of all nations"—without the internet even—remarkable—"baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost"—of the Holy Spirit—
verse 20: «teaching them"—doctrine—"didasko"—to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo or behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.» So very quickly—watch, everybody. Number one: consider this—the greatest need at this hour is this.
So where do we go from here as a church? Number one: the greatest need at this hour is this—it’s for you and I to make a commitment right now, today. I’m only talking to this church. If you’re visiting, you’re on vacation—this church, ladies and gentlemen—God has been stirring up this body for some time now.
And I thank God so much that as you draw near to Him, God becomes very prophetic to us. What do you mean? When you draw near to the Lord, He prepares you for things that are coming. Several weeks ago, when the Supreme Court made their decision, this church was not rocked. We knew it was coming.
We’ve been—I had pastors this last week at the Calvary Chapel senior pastors conference—pastors from all over the world and pastors from all over America—they made a beeline to me: «What do we do now? What do we do now? What do we do now? What are you going to do? What do you…»
I say, «Listen—we’ve been standing in this river since 2007. This is what you do.» It’s quite amazing. What’s the answer? The greatest need at this hour is to draw nearer to Jesus. Open it—listen—you’re not going to find that at a conference. You’re not going to find it—there’s no app for this.
It’s literally—and if you have to, if you want to—get on your knees and say, «Oh mighty God, Lord Jesus, draw me nearer to You. I am willing right now, Lord Jesus. From this moment on, God, I want to be completely consumed by Your presence. I want to know Your Word.
I want to move. I want to leave off the sins that have so easily beset me, and I want to move off with You, God, to wherever You want to go. I’m done with this world.» God is so good to us. He’s sending us one after another warnings to the house of God: cut yourself off from the world.
Don’t get me wrong—I’m not saying board up your home and become a monk. Nobody gets saved from the ministry of a monk. I was going to say «stop monkeying around,» but that’s the gospel in you and the Holy Spirit is resilient and powerful beyond your imagination.
Get up and get out into the world and rescue it. There’s a world dying. But how do I do that? Draw near to Jesus. The Bible says, «Draw near to God—He’ll draw near to you.» It’s amazing to think He’ll galvanize you. You’ll be alone with God, and God will infuse you into your world with a purpose.
The Bible says David had this—I can’t wait to meet him. We’re going to meet him. Oh man, what’s it going to be like? He’s an amazing man. I mean, he’s just—he’s a sinner like us. We know—just ask Bathsheba, right? Or Uriah the guy he killed.
But David—David said this hallmark statement, Psalm 27 verse 4. If CNN stuck a microphone in his face, this is exactly what he would say today—is exactly what he said back then: «This one thing have I desired…» David, with all of your exploits—killing lions and bears and giants, cutting Goliath’s head off—
which we’ve read the Bible carefully—you used your sling and your stone. It struck him in the head. It apparently knocked him out flat on the back. Read the Bible carefully—the stone didn’t kill him, ladies and gentlemen. David cut his head off. That killed him. It’s hard to live without a head.
Church is trying to live today without its Head—Jesus—and it’s not working. Little David got on top of that massive giant, and he took the giant’s sword—and remember, he’s a kid—he had to set that blade on his throat, turn it up—big blade, massive sword, massive—and he had to just kind of take the time to saw through that big fat neck of Goliath.
That had to be something—blood going everywhere. The Bible says David took that head—and you couldn’t part David—took that head, and he hung onto that head. You know, some kids drag around their little doll or something or their Transformer—Dave is dragging around his head. «See, that’s very gross.» Well, okay.
«One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after…» What is it, David? «That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.» Yeah—for why? What’s the deal? Listen, everybody—please—to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.
Listen—look at it, look at it, look at it. Look in the screen, look in your Bible: «One thing…» No more money, no more girls, no more murder, no more war—not in my life anymore. Nope. «One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that’s what I’m going to dedicate my life to.»
I’m asking you today to make this commitment to God at the end of this series here—that you say today, in the silence of your soul, you say today: «God, this one thing I will seek after.» I’m asking that—listen—God’s asking that of me, and I’m going to transfer that over to you as well. Join us. Join me:
«that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.» You know what’s shocking about this? When you read that at first glance, you think that there’s going to be a day coming in the future that David will dwell in the house of the Lord—maybe he’s talking about heaven after he dies, right?
No—this is awesome. David is saying this is it. I want to seek God so much that the dwelling place of God is my very life. And again—no—remember, remember—David was not allowed to go into the temple. You guys all get that? Are you awake? Yes.
What’s he talking about? David, you’re not a priest. You can’t go in. That’s reserved for the Levitical priesthood. You can’t go. You know what David would have said? «I could care less.» Ladies and gentlemen, church family—listen—David says, «I don’t care about that stuff.
I don’t need any gown. I don’t need no miter hat. I don’t need any—I don’t need that. I don’t need any breastplate.» This is David speaking. He said, «This one thing I’ve desired, and that’s what I’m going to seek after—now. And it doesn’t matter if it’s now, tomorrow, on my dying day, or all time in eternity.
I will dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. I will be living with God ever before my face in a day-to-day, real, living relationship with Almighty God. And I don’t care if I’m in a temple or out of the temple. I don’t care if I’m bedridden or on a mountaintop.
I don’t care if I’m living in this world or in the world to come. It’s the same.» David was saying it’s the same relationship. No wonder the Bible says Christ dwells in you, Christian. You don’t need a temple. Your body’s the temple of God. Number two: a great divide is underway—a great divide—and it’s a good thing, ladies and gentlemen.
I know many of you are feeling the sting of this. I’ve heard you—we’ve talked—but there’s a great divide that’s underway, and it’s a good thing. What do I mean by that? God is cleansing His church. I mentioned this a couple weeks ago, but it was going on before then.
God—listen—Christian, are you Christian today? Listen carefully. You’re going to walk through the fire. You say, «Well, are we going to get raptured?» Well, I hope today. But if it’s not today, you’re still going to walk through the fire. You’re still going to experience this.
See, what are you talking about? It’s this: God is preparing you and I for heaven. He’s working in our lives, and a shaking has begun. I’m not—listen—I’m not a prophet. I’m just telling you from the Bible. I’m just regurgitating the Bible. I’m telling you right now—mark it down.
You may disagree—just write—I’m asking you, just write it down: a shaking has begun in the spirit—what claims to be Christian or what is under the banner of Christianity. Everything that says it’s of God, the Bible, or Christianity—all you’ve got to do is mention, if you just invoke His name, the wheels begin—a shaking has begun.
You may or may not be true. You may or may not be a real believer. The shaking has begun—family life issues, health—the shaking. It has begun. The Bible says that judgment must first begin at the house of the Lord, says Peter. In fact—I think it’s a verse—do I have that verse in my notes?
I do somewhere. I think it’s 1 Peter 4:12. «Dear friends,» he said—1 Peter in the New Living Translation, it’s just really clear—"Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ…»
Listen—are you willing, friends? Are we willing to do this? Partners with Christ in suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing His glory when He is revealed to all the world. So be happy when you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you.
If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder or stealing or making trouble or prying into other people’s business or affairs. If you do those things, you’re not being persecuted—you’re just dumb. Verse 16: But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by His name.
For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s house. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed the gospel or God’s Word? It has begun. I have no doubt about this. If you claim to be a Christian today, shaking’s going to take place in your life if it hasn’t started already—started in mine.
And listen—it’s designed by God. That fiery trial—when you go to lean back, are you going to lean on the Word? I hope I’m wrong, but in a group this big, it’s possible that there may be one of you—someone in here today—yielding back, and you never knew what you claimed to believe.
You never knew personally the God of the Bible. Shaking has begun. John says an axe is laid to the root of the tree. It’s a testing. It’s a good thing. And I want to ask you: how do you know if you’re going to survive what’s coming? Because it’s already begun.
Look—this thing about the gay marriage deal—that’s just nothing. You know, it’s divine in our home—just wait. This is the tip of the iceberg. You think this is it? Oh my dear friend, you’ll never survive without Bible doctrine. Matthew 7:19—Jesus says, «Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Therefore by their fruits—their lifestyle, their living, their words, their how they spend their money, what they do—you’ll know them.» Isn’t that amazing? I thought we’re not supposed to judge. No—the Bible says we’re not supposed to judge—the word is condemn. You’re not supposed to condemn anybody.
You and I don’t have that authority. But we are supposed to be fruit inspectors of everybody. «Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord, ' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.» Mark it—many will say to Me in that day, «Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name and cast out demons in Your name and done many wonders in Your name?»
And then I will declare to them—listen—"I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.» Notice it’s not «you doing miracles and charisma.» Did you ever know Him? And for time’s sake—listen—mark this down, but I have to press forward and end.
Bible doctrine—number three—you guys—Bible doctrine learned in humble submission to the Holy Spirit is the right order for spiritual effectiveness. This we see under the power that comes from an unlikely source—an invisible, non-nuclear power: the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 2 verse 42—listen to this, how important is it?
The Bible says they continued steadfast in the apostles' what? Doctrine—and then fellowship, and to the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. The Holy Spirit will accompany the Word of God.
More Bible than you—more power. Why do you not have power? Because there’s more Twitter in you than Bible. There’s more time spent in Facebook than Bible book. Let’s be honest. Let’s call it for what it is. Why is there so much sin in my life? Because there’s too much ESPN in your life—seriously.
There’s nothing sinful about those things—I don’t think we make those things sinful. Look—you can have a dollar bill in your wallet right now and convert it into an act of sin, or you can redeem it—make it into an act of righteousness. Can you? Right—can you do that? Absolutely.
We are weak. We are struggling. We are victims of sin because—listen—we make it like that. It’s what we want because we’re willing to live in this mediocre kind of Christianity, and we bounce from one crisis to the next. And that’s not God, and it’s not what He wants.
And then quickly—the doctrine of the Bible, the teaching of the Bible is what will carry you along safely until the end. How will you know what’s true or false? I think you now know the doctrine of God’s Word. And this is where we land—number five: is knowing the person of God.
Listen—I don’t know, but I’m guessing I might have uttered the word «doctrine» a thousand times in this last seven months. I’m sure I’m exaggerating—it feels like it. But doctrine—right? Aren’t you kind of sick of it? Doctrine—the doctrine of soteriology, the doctrine of eschatology—the doctrine, the doctrine, the doctrine, the doctrine.
And here’s my thrust—believe it or not, ladies and gentlemen—listen—guess what? Are you listening? It wasn’t the point for these months. It was not the point. It’s not where we land. You want to know why? If I just challenge you to know doctrine—listen—you can know all the doctrines of the Bible perfectly and wind up in hell.
This is the doctrine of God. This is to introduce us to the person of God. This is not God. This is to introduce us to God. It’s the person of God that doctrine takes you to. And this is the point: doctrine should be the fence that inside that fence is your passionate relationship with Almighty God.
God doesn’t want theologians. He wants to have a relationship with you inside the safe confines of doctrine. A journey begins to experience—I say that word carefully—to experience God. Do you experience Him? It’s the doctrine that builds the fence that you go into the gate and you shut the door because you know what is desirable to God.
And you—listen—need no book at that moment. You need no light. You need no pen or pencil. You literally get before Him and you say, «God—now the God I know in my head—Lord, reveal Yourself to me. Possess me, Lord. Take my existence and make it Yours.
God, transport me from this world and infuse me into the world that is dying in front of me.» To practice the presence of God. This whole series wasn’t about just the theology. It was the theology to get you inside the fence that you might know God.
Church, stand as we close. I want to read this to you. Stand, and I want to pronounce this blessing upon your life. The Word of God says: «For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with all might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, and that you may be able to comprehend with all of the saints what is the width and the length and the depth and the height—and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think, according to the power of God that works within us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.»
«So then I count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.»
«Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy…»
«For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.»
«For when we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Yet God demonstrates His own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.»
«So then we now are looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.»
«Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, our inward man is being renewed every day. For these light afflictions which are but for a moment is working within us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are not seen are eternal.»
«And now we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.»
«So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are being sanctified.»
And all God’s people said, Amen.