John Bevere - Why We've Lost Respect for God
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All right now, I’m going to open up with three scriptures this morning, like I did in the previous service. How many of you are in here double dipping? I’m curious. Okay, so we have a whole new group in here this morning with the exception of a few. I want to open up with three scriptures this morning. Number one would be Isaiah 33:6, in which we read, «The fear of the Lord is God’s treasure.»
Now, would you just stop, pause, and think about what you just read? God’s treasure. Do you have treasures? What do you do with treasures? Do you handle them carelessly, or do you protect them? Are they valuable, or are they common? The fear of the Lord is God’s treasure. Now look at Isaiah 11:3; it says, «The fear of the Lord is Jesus’s delight.» Okay, stop and think about that—His delight. If you go to the New Testament, the Apostle Paul makes many statements, but one of them is this: «Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.» Notice he doesn’t say, «Work out your salvation with love and kindness.» There’s a reason; I’ll share it.
Now let’s step back and take a look at this. We’re talking about God’s treasure, we’re talking about Jesus’s delight, and we’re talking about what matures our salvation. Why aren’t we talking about this a whole lot more in the Western church? First of all, let me say this: The fear of the Lord is not to be scared of God. Okay, now here’s a problem: We have tried to eradicate fear from our vocabulary. I mean, seriously, think about it. There are hundreds of books written to eradicate fear. We wore T-shirts in the '90s that said «No Fear.» FDR said, «The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.» I submit to you today that there is unhealthy fear, and there is healthy fear. Okay, let me give you an example. Healthy fear produces wisdom, right? Okay, the healthy fear of not being mauled by a grizzly bear will give me the wisdom to not mess with her cubs. Now, that fear can go to unhealthy because that fear will keep me from going on a walk in the woods.
Yeah, okay, so let’s realize there is healthy fear and unhealthy fear. I’m not talking today about unhealthy fear; I’m talking about healthy fear. So let me first say this: The fear of the Lord is not to be scared of God. It is actually to be scared of being away from God. When Israel was led out of Egypt, Moses brought them to the foot of Canaan, and God said to Moses, «I’m going to introduce myself to my kids in a couple of days; get them ready.»
On the third day, God came down, and the people all ran away. Moses looked at these people in Exodus 20:20 and made a remarkable statement. He said, «Do not fear,» because God has come to test you. What’s the test? To see if His fear is in you, so that you may not sin. Now wait a minute; keep the scripture up for a while. Do not sin because God has come to see if a sin is in you? Is Moses speaking out of two sides of his mouth? No, he is differentiating between being scared of God and the fear of the Lord. The person who is scared of God has something to hide. What does Adam do when he sins? He hides from the presence of the Lord. The person who fears God has nothing to hide; that person is actually terrified of being away from God.
Now notice, he says it’s the fear of the Lord that he wants to see in you so that you will not sin. Back in 1994, I was asked to visit a man in prison. This man was one of the most well-known human beings on the planet in the early 1990s, and he was well-known for all the wrong reasons. He was in the penitentiary because he had the largest evangelistic ministry in the world and the largest television ministry in the world. Yet he committed crimes and was sentenced to 45 years, which was later reduced to five. He had read the first book that I wrote in prison and asked me to visit him. I remember walking into that penitentiary. He came in with his prison guard, grabbed me, held me, and wouldn’t let go. He looked at me and said, «Did you write this book? This was the first book I wrote, or did a ghostwriter?» I said, «No, I wrote it.» He said, «We have so much to talk about, and we only have 90 minutes.»
I remember the first thing this infamous preacher said to me was, «John, this prison wasn’t God’s judgment on my life; it was His mercy.» He said, «If I had continued living the way I was living, I would have ended up spending eternity in the Lake of Fire, separated from God.» Now he had my attention. He told me his whole story about how Jesus came into his cell and delivered him in his first year of incarceration. Then he shared with me how they spent three hours every day in the scriptures, particularly the Gospels.
After 20 minutes of sharing his story, I felt I could ask the number one question I had. I said, «Listen, when I got saved, you were the best-known preacher on the planet. I watched you weep as you preached the gospel. I watched you get so many people saved. I need to know something: At what point did you fall out of love with Jesus?» He looked at me and said, «John, I didn’t.» I said, «Whoa.» My walls went up. I said, «Wait a minute; you committed adultery in 1983.» I named the woman. «Your trial went on in '89, and you were arrested in '89. All your trial went on in '89, and you tell me all the stuff you were doing in those seven years, and you’re telling me you love Jesus?» He said, «John, I loved him all the way through it.»
He saw the confusion in me and said, «John, I didn’t fear God.» He said, «There are millions of Americans just like me. They love Jesus, but they don’t fear God.» It is by the fear of the Lord that we depart from evil. It is by the fear of the Lord that we get free from sin. So what is the fear of the Lord? It’s when we stand in awe of God. It’s when we tremble before Him. It’s when we honor, revere, and esteem Him above anything or anyone else. It is when we literally take on God’s heart; we love what He loves, and we hate what He hates. Wait a minute—you say, «Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! God hates?» Yes, He hates these things. «Six things the Lord hates,» and I can show you many other scriptures.
Now, let me alleviate concerns here; please let me alleviate concerns. Legalists pervert the beautiful things of God, and legalists have perverted the fear of God. That’s why people stay away from it. The legalist is the person who says, «I fear God; that’s why I hate those sinners.» No, you don’t fear God at all, sir, because you hate what He loves. God loves those «sinners» you’re talking about so much that He came and died for them. So you don’t fear God at all, because you actually hate what He loves. What God hates is the sin that unmakes those people that He loves. Amen.
So this is why the scripture says in Proverbs 8:13, «By the fear of the Lord, we depart from sin.» And this is why Proverbs 8:13 says that all who fear the Lord will hate—everybody say hate—evil. If you want to see it in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul writes in Romans chapter 12 and says, «Abhor what is evil.» The word «abhor» means to strongly hate what is evil. I’ll never forget, and I shared this last service; I’m sharing it again. When I first started ministry back in 1990—actually, I began with Messianic International—I was praying every morning for two hours. I had a lot of time to pray because people weren’t asking me to come preach, right?
So I’m spending hours in prayer, right? Yet when I did go out to preach, my words didn’t carry authority; there wasn’t a strong anointing on my words. I remember one day I was just exasperated in prayer. I said, «God, I just don’t get it. I pray two hours at least every single day; why isn’t there a stronger anointing on my life?» The Holy Spirit whispered in my heart, «Because you tolerate sin.» I went, «What?» He said, «You tolerate sin, not only in your life, John, but in others.» He said, «Read Hebrews 1.» So I go to Hebrews 1, and it’s the day that God the Father inaugurates Jesus—the day Jesus raises from the dead, God inaugurates Him as King of the universe, right? God the Father looks at God the Son and says, «Because you have loved righteousness,» and the Holy Spirit said, «Son, stop! All Christians love righteousness, but that’s not all.» That’s not the only thing He said. «Because you’ve loved righteousness and hated sin.» Sin is lawlessness; lawlessness is the definition of sin. It means you’re a law unto yourself. It means you choose what is right for your life, not God. That’s what lawlessness is.
Eve wasn’t drawn to the evil side of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; she was drawn to the good side. When she saw it was good, she chose what she thought was good for her life outside of what God said, which is stupidity because God is our Creator. He knows what makes us; He knows what breaks us. We think we’re smarter than God. This is what the nations are trying to do; they’re trying to cast off the rule, the slavery of God from us. Why do the nations rage? Read it in the New Living Translation. We don’t want to be in slavery to God. It’s interesting— in 1844, the Supreme Court ruled 8 to 0 that if a public high school didn’t teach the word of God, it wouldn’t get government funding. You go 120 years further, and we take prayer and the word of God out of school, and now we are sitting here three generations later—three sets of 20 years later—and we have a society right now that has absolutely no moral compass that professes to be wise yet is absolutely foolish.
I mean, we have people who are called «intelligent» who are absolutely confused about what gender they are and think they can make their own gender when the Bible says we are fearfully and wonderfully made in the womb. We’ve got to hate it! I’m not talking about hating the people who are teaching it; I’m talking about hating it! We are calling good evil and evil good today, folks, because we have lost the fear of God in this nation, right? The fear of the Lord is not to overlook evil; the fear of the Lord is not to dislike evil. See, the problem is many believers dislike what God hates. You passionately love what He loves; you passionately hate what He hates. Abhor means strong hatred. It doesn’t mean mere hatred; it means strong hatred. «Abhor what is evil.» Why? Because evil destroys people, and people are the object of God’s love. That’s why the angels go, «What is man that you are so mindful of him?»
Here are these massive angels, and they’re going, «Why do you think about him? Why do you think about her?» I think it’s an angel in Psalm 8; I think it’s one of those angels that are by the throne of God, and they’re looking at this mighty God who they cry out, «Holy, holy, holy.» I mean, they’re not singing a song to make God feel good about Himself. Every moment another facet of His glory is being revealed, and all one can do is look at the other and cry, «Holy.» They cry holy so loud that they’re shaking the very foundations of a building that seats over a billion beings in heaven. They are not singing a song like, «Yeah, we made a hymn, holy, holy, holy.»
No, they are responding to what they see. Every moment, in other words, you know why it says «holy, holy»? You know, John saw it in Revelation 5, and Isaiah saw it. You want to know why it’s written holy three times? It’s a Hebrew form of writing. Hebrews, whenever they wanted to emphasize a word, they would write it twice. Today in English, I’m a writer; we boldface it, we italicize it. Well, the Hebrews would write it twice like when Jesus says, «Verily, verily, I say unto you.» He doesn’t have a speech impediment; if you’re John at the Last Supper, he hears Jesus go, «Verily, I say unto you,» John goes, «Whoa! I’ve got to write that twice!» Right? If you’re Matthew on the Sermon on the Mount, and not everybody who says to me, «Lord, Lord» is entering the kingdom,» whoa, I gotta write «Lord» twice because He emphasized it!
Well, very few times in scripture does a Hebrew writer elevate a word to the third degree of succession. To do so is to give it its highest emphasis, which you only find like three times in the scriptures. One of them is when the angels are flying through the heavens in the Book of Revelation and they cry out, «Holy, holy, holy.» They’re not crying «holy, holy, holy.» They’re saying «woe» so loud, it shakes the whole earth. They’re saying «woe» to the inhabitants on the earth, and John the Revelator writes «woe» three times.
Now, Hebrews were really careful with words. We butcher the English language. I mean, seriously, you will not find anywhere in scripture the word «awesome» used except for God. God and His attributes are awesome, full of awe, right? So we go, «Oh, that movie was awesome!» Oh my gosh, we went to the lake Saturday; it was awesome! Man, so I tell you, God is awesome, and you think so is my hamburger yesterday? How am I supposed to get this across to you? Well, the enemy goes, «I’ll butcher the language.» See, the Hebrews wouldn’t even write the vowels of God; they had so much respect for that.
Okay, we’ve lost that. So Isaiah and John both individually, separately see the throne. These massive angels called seraphim, and one is crying to the other. They’re not saying «holy, holy, holy.» No, «holy!» They’re not thinking, «Can I, can I, can I?» I’ve been doing this for 10 trillion years; God, can I go see some other places in the universe? They don’t want to be anywhere else, 'cause there’s nothing in creation more awesome, more beautiful than the Creator Himself! And one is crying to the other «holy!» They’re crying «holy» so loud that the Bible says they’re shaking the foundations of that place. So when Isaiah sees the Lord, he doesn’t go, «Hey dude, what’s up? God, I’ve been looking forward to this, man. It’s good to meet you; you’re the big man upstairs.» Oh, wow! Are you kidding me? He’s on his face, groveling on the floor, and he’s crying out, «Woe is me!» Now, «woe» is the highest form of judgment you can pronounce on yourself; do you know that? It is akin to pronouncing a curse on yourself. Look at Isaiah; he’s a godly man! Isaiah 5 says, «Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.»
This is chapter five, okay? «Woe to the proud; woe to the drunkard; woe to those who are sinners,» right? In Isaiah 6, he has one glimpse of the Lord and His throne. It’s no longer, «Woe is the sinner.» It’s «woe is me!» For the first time in his life, he’s a preacher of righteousness. He really understands who it is he’s serving. Job said it like this: «I’ve heard you by the hearing of the ear,» he’s the most righteous man on earth. «I’ve heard you by the hearing of the ear; now my eye sees You; I utterly abhor myself.» I strongly hate myself now after seeing how pure, how powerful, and how holy You are! Oswald Chambers, the very famous man who wrote the devotional, wrote this: «When we preach the love of God, there is a danger of forgetting that the Bible reveals not first the love of God but the intense, blazing holiness of God, and in the center of that holiness is His love.»
Man, we’ve forgotten who it is we’re serving. I’ll never forget I was asked in the nation of Brazil for the first time—I’ve been there like 20 or 30 times since, but this was 1997—and I go down there, and I’m in this arena, and it’s a national conference for this church network that has over 300,000 people in their churches. I remember this arena was jam-packed; it was their annual national conference. I remember I was on the platform, and during worship, the worship sounded wonderful. I mean, they’re singing in Portuguese, so I don’t know what in the world they’re saying, but I could tell, man—they’re good musicians, and they’ve got great voices, and there’s no presence of God in the arena, none, and it’s a believers' conference. I’m like, «What is going on?» So I closed my eyes. I said, «God, what’s going on?» I opened my eyes, and I started noticing people standing there, looking around. I had people had their hands in their pockets, looking down, people walking in and out of the arena getting their nachos. Right? This is a big arena, right? They’re coming back to their seats, high-fiving somebody, and I’m seeing people talking, and they’re laughing, and I’m like, «Whoa.»
This will change. It doesn’t; they go through the whole worship set. Now that there’s no music, you can hear the people talking, you can hear a mutter throughout the whole arena. The leader comes up and starts reading scripture, right? And people are talking, people are looking around, and I’m like, «Whoa!» The Holy Spirit speaks to me and says, «Son, you have to confront this.» I said, «Yeah, how do I even get their attention?» They introduced me, and I remember he gave me an idea. I just walked up the pod, put my elbow on the table—my translator’s right there—and I said, «I just stared at him.» I didn’t say a word! Now, when you’re the Friday night guest speaker of the national conference, you’ve been introduced, and you’re staring at people for 60 seconds, that gets everybody’s attention because everybody stops moving; everybody stops talking. They’re looking at me like, «You’re supposed to be performing.» Right? No, I’m not a performer.
So I wait until every eye is on me in the place, and I said, «These are the first words I ever spoke in public in Brazil. I didn’t say, ‘Hi, here’s a picture of my family; thank you for having me.’ I said, 'I have a question.'» That was the first words I ever spoke in Brazil. I said, «You’re sitting across the table talking to somebody; the whole time you’re talking to them, they’ve got their arms crossed, looking around, as if they’re disinterested, their hands in their pockets, or they’re talking to somebody sitting beside them. Are you going to continue a conversation with them?» «No!» I said, «I’ve been in this arena for over an hour, and there’s an ounce of the presence of God in here because God will never come into a place that He’s not held with the utmost of respect.» I said, «Psalm 89:7 tells us God is to be greatly feared in the assembly of the saints.»
Remember, fear doesn’t mean to be scared of Him; it means to be terrified of being away. «God is to be greatly feared in the assembly of the saints and to be held in reverence by all those around Him.» You will never find God in an atmosphere where He’s not held with the utmost of respect. I said, «If your president walked on this platform tonight, you would have given him ten times the respect you gave the Holy Spirit.» I said, «If your national hero—your greatest soccer player in Brazil’s history. He’s the Michael Jordan of Brazil—if he walked onto this platform, you would have been on the edge of your seats anticipating every word.» I said, «You’ve given no respect to the Spirit of God.»
I preached to them for 75 minutes on the fear of the Lord, and at the end of 75 minutes, I said, «All right, you’re in here; you say you’re a believer, but you lack the fear of God, and you’re willing to repent—stand to your feet!» Immediately, 75% of the arena stands to their feet. As soon as they do, the presence of God comes in! I thought, «Wow! We didn’t even pray! This is amazing!» People are crying; it’s wonderful, right? A couple of waves of His presence come in, but then all of a sudden—a lull—the Holy Spirit speaks to me and said, «Son, I’m coming one more time.» Now there’s no way I can adequately describe it, but I’m going to try. Okay? I actually feel a little inadequate to describe what happened next, but the best way I can describe it is you’re standing at the end of the runway over there at Knoxville Airport, and a Boeing jet takes off. That kind of violent wind came blowing into the arena. When it did, the people started screaming. Now can you imagine thousands of Brazilians screaming? How loud that would be, okay? And they’re like me—they’re passionate. Okay? And yet the wind was louder. I am standing there petrified.
Yeah, you heard me right! You know when God came down on the mountain—the New Testament says Moses was exceedingly quaking and afraid. I’m petrified! But now here’s the thing: I’m drawn to it. Explain it. Moses is exceedingly terrified, yet he goes right up into it! Okay? You’ve got to remember who it is we are serving. To the degree that you fear God—or I should say, to the degree that you understand how great the God we serve is—is the degree your holy fear will elevate. The less we fear God, the more we make Him like us. See, we have created a Jesus in our own image. Jesus is fine with my sexual preferences. Oh, my Jesus is fine if we live together. Jesus is fine with my covetous attitude, and we’ll find scriptures to support it. I’m in a worship service one time, and I’m just worshiping God, and the Holy Spirit said, «Do you know what a religious spirit is?» Now, I’ve learned something. There are a few things I’ve really learned, and one of them is when God asks me a question, He’s not looking for information.
Yeah, a religious spirit is this and this and this. Oh, son, thank you so much! No, when God asks me a question—even though I’ve written on it, I’ve preached on it, I’ve read other people’s books about it—I know I don’t know what it is. When God asks me a question, I immediately say, «I guess I don’t; what is a religious spirit?» He said, «Son, a religious spirit is one who uses My word to execute his own will.» I went, «Oh my gosh!» See, you’ll reduce Him down. That’s why—remember the elders of Israel? Oh, the Lord doesn’t see us? They actually said in Isaiah—that was Ezekiel, Isaiah—the Lord can’t see us, and that was talking about His people.
See, you can hide things in the shadows from your wife, from your husband, from your friends when you reduce God down to your level and you make a Jesus in the image that you’ve created. All of a sudden, now you can do things in secret, think things in secret. See, the fear of the Lord penetrates; it goes right to your motives; it centers you. So, I remember that wind starts blowing, thousands of Latinos screaming, and I’m petrified. There are Goosebumps on my Goosebumps! And the thought goes through my mind—I’m not kidding—this thought goes through my mind: «If you say one wrong word, you make one wrong move—you’re dead.» Now, if it would happen, I don’t know, but I will say a husband and a wife brought an offering with that kind of an attitude—not action, attitude—and they buried them the same day!
Let me tell you something; the final move of God on this Earth is going to be on the holy fear of God, and it’s going to produce the holiness in the church and the bride that Jesus is coming back for because that’s the only description of the church He’s coming back for. And let me tell you something—men got in the way before in the moves of God, but if men get in the way of this one, they’ll be taken out like Ananias and Sapphira. Oh man, there are so many places I could go right now. You know, let me just warn you—Nadab and Abihu are authorized to come into the presence of God, but in Leviticus 10, they come in with profane fire. The word «profane» means to treat what is sacred as common. So they come in with a casual attitude, treating the presence of God as if it’s common. They’re both struck dead. Moses looks at Aaron and says, «This is what the Lord has said: by those who come near Me, I must be regarded as holy, and before all the people, I must be glorified.» Hallelujah!
Now, a couple of hundred years later, you’ve got two other priest sons—Hophni and Phineas. Hophni and Phineas are committing adultery with the women who assemble at the door of the tabernacle; they’re taking offerings by manipulation, and nothing’s happening to them! They keep doing it and doing it and doing it. «Oh, the Lord doesn’t see us!» This is 90 feet from where Nadab and Abihu were struck dead because of irreverence—just treating what was sacred as common. They’re committing adultery; why don’t they get struck down dead? Because the greater the glory, the greater the swifter the judgment. But no judgment is not denied! Judgment—Paul said—the sins of some men are evident, preceding them to judgment; the sins of others will be made evident later. Hophni and Phineas were later! See, Ananias and Sapphira, if they would have walked into one of our American churches today, let me tell you, they would have—everyone would be like, «Wow! What a great couple in our church!»
Because the sins of some men are evident, preceding them into judgment. That’s Ananias and Sapphira. The sins of others will become known at the bar of judgment. See, we keep crying out, «God, manifest Your glory!» Oh yeah, half of us might fall over dead. You ready for that? Are you really ready for that? See, David really wanted it. He brings the presence of God back, but they think they can do it their way. It’s supposed to be carried on the shoulders of the priests, not driven in a new cart, which by the way, they learned from the world—the Philistines!
Yeah, he stopped reading the Bible! David stopped reading the Bible! One of his advisers probably said, «Man, we remember when the Philistines brought the ark back; they built a brand new cart!» Right? So David builds this brand new cart. Uzzah goes to steady it, and he’s dead! That’s what happens. You want the glory of God? Yes! We should! We all hunger, we thirst for the glory of God! The glory of God—don’t get me confused—so many people think it’s a cloud. It’s not a cloud! God wears light like a garment. He is so brilliant, so bright, He has to hide Himself in a dark cloud! Okay? That’s why you see a cloud whenever the glory of God is mentioned. The glory of God is just what God is. He is revealed— all of His characteristics, His attributes, His power, His greatness is revealed—nothing is hidden or held back! Like I’ll share it to you this way: You could have the king of a nation; he’s got a polo shirt on; he’s down in the streets walking around. People may not recognize him, but when he walks into his throne, he’s got his royal robes, his crown—the herald proclaims his name, the trumpets blow. The king comes in in all of his glory, his greatness. Everybody knows who’s king!
See, God has had to hide His glory from us in anticipation of us cooperating with His Spirit to be conformed to the image of His Son, to walk in real holiness—not legalistic holiness, real purity of heart, real purity of motives. See, the fear of the Lord is what produces holiness. Paul said, «Having the promise of His glory dwelling in and among us, let us cleanse.» This is 2 Corinthians 7:1. «Let us cleanse ourselves!» He didn’t say the blood of Jesus is going to cleanse us from all filthiness of flesh and spirit. He said, «Let us cleanse ourselves!» Whoa, whoa! Are you telling me the blood of Jesus doesn’t cleanse me? Never! I would never say that! But don’t confuse the work of justification with the work of sanctification; there’s a big difference! I was justified the moment I received Jesus Christ as my Lord! But that’s the moment sanctification works, and that’s when what’s done in me comes out. And the Bible says you work out with fear and trembling! That’s why Paul says, «Having the promise of Him dwelling in us, in His glory, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, not in the love of God.»
Let me tell you something; that evangelist—that world-famous evangelist—I saw that right away! I saw that loving God is not the full picture! See, God’s given us two great forces to keep us on the road to life! You know when Jesus said, «Narrow is the gate, narrow is the way,» you know what I’m talking about? Narrow is the gate, narrow is the way! Come on, talk to me! Read it closely! The way is after the gate! He’s not talking about life before being saved; He’s talking about life after salvation! It’s a narrow road, and there are two ditches on the side of every road—especially in Tennessee, I’ve noticed that! The road to life has two ditches on both sides. The first ditch is called legalism. Remember back in the '60s; it was all about how long a woman’s hair was, not getting it cut, wearing dresses down to her ankles? Right? A woman could have her dress down to her ankles, her hair down to her knees, and still have a seducing spirit up to her eyeballs! That’s not holiness! Okay, that was man-made rules to control people. That’s not holiness, but it’s legalism.
God comes along in the '60s and '70s, and we have the Jesus Revolution and we find out our daddy loves us, right? All the hippies got saved, right? Oral Roberts comes out and says, «God is a good God!» Man, what a profound revelation that was for that generation! And you know what? You know what the love of God did? It delivered us from that ditch of legalism. But you know what we did? We said, «I want so far from that ditch I can’t even see it,» and fell into the other ditch, and that ditch is called lawlessness—an excessive, fleshly, worldly lifestyle, a disobedient lifestyle. «Well, God’s okay; 95% of the people live together.» I can live with my girlfriend until we get married; I mean, we’re intending on getting married; I’m keeping this monogamous; it’s fine! No! Have you not read in Hebrews that says the marriage bed is undefiled, but adulterers and people who have sex before marriage will be judged? --You going to treat that with a casual attitude, or are you going to believe it? The problem is we don’t believe what we read; we read what we believe! We read into scripture!
We have made up this grace message in America that is so extreme that you can live however you want to live, and you’re still going to get there, baby! Because I prayed the formula prayer? I’m secure? No! I think the sinner’s prayer is keeping more people from an authentic relationship with God than anything else we’ve invented! Why? Because you can come pray that sinner’s prayer and still have all these idols in your life—all these other lovers in your life. «I will have no other gods, no other lovers, no other pet sins before me!» Don’t get me wrong; you fall into sin. The Bible says if we sin, we have an advocate; he’s quick to forgive. Not only is He to forgive, He buries it in the sea of forgetfulness! You can go to Him and say, «Do you remember what I did?» He’ll go, «No, I really don’t, because I buried it in a sea called forgetfulness! I can’t remember it, 'cause I’m God!»
And I made that declaration! So what are you talking about? That’s what He says to the person who genuinely repents and asks for forgiveness. But I’m not talking about that! I’m talking about the people who are like, «Oh, thank God we’ve got grace! I know I’m a human; I’ve got needs.» «Hey man, I’ve got needs; you know we all got needs.» «Hey, it’s all right; hey, no problem, man, it’s all right.» Yeah, you might be one of those Jesus looks at and says, «Depart; I don’t even know who you are—the one who practices lawlessness! You had no fear of God!» Still with me? I got so far off my notes, I don’t even know where I’m at right now.
So this is the thing. What Jesus are you serving? Jesus you made up? That’s idolatry! That’s what they created—a false image! Every single person has eternity in their heart! Every single person knows; I don’t care how much of an atheist you are, you know there’s a Creator because God put it in your heart! So, these guys, they came up with a way of satisfying that inner need to worship. So they create a god—call it Baal; call it Ashtoreth; call it Ra; whatever you want to call it—that God says, «I’m supposed to have sex with anybody that I feel like having sex with!» So you got temple prostitutes and all that, right?
That’s one form of idolatry. The other form of idolatry is what the children of Israel did! Moses brings them to the mountain, and God says to Aaron and Moses, «Both of you, come up!» Well isn’t it interesting? Moses goes up; Aaron ends up back in church! He’s back with the people, and they come to him and said, «Make us Elohim; make us gods!» Elohim is a word that’s found over 2,225 times in the Old Testament. Over 2,000 times it refers to God Almighty whom we serve—Genesis 1, «In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth.» It reads, «In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the Earth.» Okay, «Elohim’s» found 32 times in Genesis 1 referring to God. Over 2,000 times Elohim returns, but approximately 225 times in the Old Testament it refers to a false god. So, you always have to read it in context!
So they come to Aaron and say, «Make us gods that will go before us!» Right? And so Aaron says, «Bring me all the gold!» He puts it in the fire, and he fashions a calf with an engraven tool. Okay, you got it. And then Aaron, in the next verse, looks at that god, that calf, and says, «Behold Yahweh who delivered us out of Egypt! Tomorrow is a feast of Yahweh!» That’s what he says! Yahweh is the most sacred name in the whole Bible! Hebrews wouldn’t even write the vowels! It is the name of God, and it is never used for a false god except that one time!
So what do they do? They have an orgy; they have a party. Now this is amazing! They don’t deny that Yahweh delivered them out of Egypt! They’re actually looking at the calf and saying «Yahweh»! But they have created a Yahweh who would give them what their flesh wanted. Now the New Testament tells us in Romans 1 that in the last days, there are going to be people who are going to be given over to a reprobate mind, and they’re going to reduce the image of God down into the image of men or four-footed beasts and creatures.
We don’t worship four-footed beasts in our society, okay? Because remember—whoa, whoa! I’m going to back it up a little bit here. Moses comes down the mountain because God says, «Your people— not my people anymore; it’s your people.» So Moses comes down the mountain; he looks at Aaron and says, «What have you done?» Right? And Aaron says, «Don’t let your anger be so badly against me! You know these people!» He said, «They said, ‘Make us Elohim! ’ I put the gold in the fire, and this calf came out!» What? This calf came out? You formed it with an engraving tool!
So one day I’m reading that, and I’m like, «I throw my Bible in the bed. I said, ‘What’s up with this, God? You’re angry; it’s one thing to lie; that’s a bald-faced lie! It’s one thing to lie when you’re not angry; there’s another thing to lie when you’re angry! ’» You’re already angry, and he lies; he formed it with an engraving tool? What do you mean this calf came out? And the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, «Son, he was raised in a society that worshiped deity in images like that for 80 years! I invited him to the top; he didn’t come! So his image of Me was formed by the society he was raised in, and that’s what came out of him.» I went, «Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!»
See, we don’t worship four-footed cows—not Americans! We worship humans! So we’ve created this Jesus who’s like me! We say He saved us! He delivered us! They said Jehovah, Yahweh, has saved us and delivered us from Egypt, but this Jesus, just like that Yahweh, will give me what I want! Now I can just kind of forget about what Hebrews 13:2 says: the marriage bed is undefiled, but adulterers and people who have sex before marriage will be judged. Not even there! We’re blind to it because we read what we believe! The fear of God changes all of that! Changes all that! That’s why Jesus delighted in it! He’s in a corrupt society; He’s in a religious society. We’re worshipping Jehovah so corrupt—the leaders are corrupt; the law experts in the law are corrupt, the teachers are corrupt! He had to delight in the fear of the Lord so that corruption didn’t corrupt Him!
I think some of the most dangerous places in the United States are churches, Christian high schools for sure! I preached—I tell people all the time—they look at me; I’ve preached at bases, army bases, Air Force bases; I preached in prisons. I’ve preached in Anglican churches, Catholic churches, Baptist churches—the hardest place I’ve ever preached is Christian high schools! Why? No fear of God! They don’t know! They don’t—this Jesus they made up; He’s not the Jesus that’s sitting at the right hand! Remember, Paul said to the Corinthian church, «You put up with anything! People preach to you, even if they preach a different Jesus!» He didn’t say a different God, a different Jesus! But here’s the problem—here’s why 20 million Americans have walked away from the faith in the last 23 years. 20 million!
20 million! That’s the latest poll because they received a knockoff Jesus! They prayed the sinner’s prayer, and they still had all the lovers in their hearts because my sinner’s prayer, my Jesus, lets me live with my girlfriend! So let me tell you something! That knockoff Jesus, He won’t manifest His presence! He can’t! He doesn’t exist! You made Him up! That knockoff Jesus doesn’t answer your prayers! That knockoff Jesus doesn’t keep His promises! So you know what’s happened with these 20 million? They’ve walked away from the faith because they didn’t have faith; they had a knockoff Jesus that we preached to them because we perverted the word of God! We widened the, broadened the message because we wanted to get more butts in seats! Let’s be honest!
Let’s just be honest! You said, «John, you sound angry.» No! Yes, I am angry! Yes! Can I ask you a question? If you’ve got a precious child, and your next-door neighbor is sexually abusing your child, and you find out about it, are you going to go, «Oh, now I really don’t want you to do this anymore, but can you leave my child alone, please?» Are you kidding me? Some guy seduces your wife and gets her in bed with him? «Oh hey, bro! I understand! We all have needs! I get it!» Now the Bible says you will never—never be able to satisfy His anger! Yeah! Are you angry? Yes! I am! I’m angry at what the enemy is lying to people that’s destroying people! That’s causing people to walk away from faith! Yes, I’m angry about it!
And listen, I wasn’t raised Pentecostal, Church of God, or any of that. I was raised Catholic, okay? So mine’s not a reaction from my childhood. I mean, goodness, we thought there was a purgatory and we prayed to Mary! Okay? When I got saved, I was like, «Well, this is all whoop! Let’s start from scratch here.» Okay? I just read the Bible, and I’m just amazed at how we have not embraced the fear of the Lord! But you think about it: we don’t preach it! You don’t hear—you don’t see people in droves lining up for a fear of God message! You don’t see people in droves lining up for an obedience message! If you want to know the manifestation of the fear of God, it’s to obey God—it’s obedience! I know it’s a four-letter word to some people!
See, here’s the deal! The Old Testament proved we could never obey God well enough to have a relationship with Him! The New Testament says, «Okay, the Old Testament proved that. The New Testament says, ‘I’m going to give you now a new nature! I’m going to give you grace that gives you a new nature that’s going to give you the ability to obey Me! ’» That’s why Jesus said in the Old Testament, «You had to jump in bed with a woman that wasn’t your wife!» New Testament? Just look at her and desire her; you’ve committed adultery already because I’ve given you the power inside! I’ve given you a brand new heart, a brand new spirit; I’ve given you the ability! Yes! It’s called grace! And we changed it! We perverted it!
Let me tell you—I’m on a radio program, and I could tell the guy, the guy was not happy with what I was preaching because I was sharing how the grace of God—how God had delivered me from pornography when I was 25 years old. The guy said, «Come on, man! 70% of the men in church today in America look at pornography on a regular basis!» It’s actually 67%; that’s the actual figure! He said, «Are you telling me that they all might hear Jesus say, ‘Depart’?» I said, «Look, look! I’m not the judge! I said, but I’m going to ask you a question with your theology that you’re preaching right now. And this is live on a radio program, okay? This is like 15 years ago! I said, ‘Okay, I’m going to ask you a question! Are you telling me that the grace of God is powerful enough to get us free from the penalty of sin, but it’s just not powerful enough to get us free from sin? Are you telling me there are some sins that the blood of Jesus just can’t get me free from? ’»
And he got really quiet and really changed the subject quickly! I got great news for you today! The grace of God not only gives you the ability or not only frees you from the penalty of sin; it gives you the ability to walk like Jesus walked! That’s why that’s why John the Apostle writes: let him who says he abides in Him walk just as He walked! I believe the grace of God is giving us that ability! I want every head bowed, every eye closed! Heavenly Father, thank You so very much for what You’ve done! We’re so grateful! We’re so, so grateful! And now, Lord God, I’m asking—draw men and women to the heart of Jesus!