are you visiting? Well, it seems he's here every Sunday at 6 p.m. preaching as far as I know. I know religion is usually done at 2 o'clock most places, but he's here every week. Sometimes I feel like a sideshow, a little wind-up monkey. I probably am. I just don't like feeling that way. Joshua chapter 7. For those of you not visiting, I'll word it differently, you're stuck with Pastor Seeley every week at 6 o'clock. Amen. We thank the Lord for that. I was hoping your people would defend you and say, amen. I am in myself. And so we certainly appreciate the opportunity to be here. And I know it's Super Bowl Sunday only because it was on the news. And a lot of folks excited. Everybody's excited because Taylor Swift's supposed to be at the big game. Wow. How exciting that is. I remember back in the days when Ahab and Jezebel roamed the streets and people got excited about that too. Well, people don't have much to get excited about, do they? Not outside the house of God. If you get in the house of God, it'll be okay to get excited once in a while. It'd be a shame if you'd end up at a football game and yell and holler and scream. My niece said a thing to us today. She said, it's always been traditional at the Super Bowl And she said, if you're in church on Super Bowl Sunday, kind of like the tradition of football, you ought to dump Gatorade on the preacher. I recommend next year we start a new tradition. Make you feel better. Joshua chapter 7. You know, why is there no revival? I'm going to tell you, everybody talks about revival. To most people, it's just words. Or the faint always said, it was a visitation from God. That was revival. Others define it different ways, and they all use two or three verses to define revival, and they have dogmatic, strong messages on what's gonna bring revival, but nobody actually wants to practice what it's gonna take. It's gonna take holiness. It's gonna take sanctification. You have to separate yourself under God. Why are we sitting limited today? Because really, let's be honest, I made a comment earlier, it was directed on purpose. But you know, we get done religion for the week and then we're done on religious duty. There's no concept with a lot of folks that this God is the God you take home. Our life is hid with God in Christ. When Christ appears, we'll find out how much that meant to Him that we were in Him. Folks prefer religion over faith. When I got saved by the goodness of God and only by the goodness of God, it began to formulate some things in my life, began to make me what I was going to be in the future, what I was at the present time. One of those things was just faithfulness to the Word of God. to read, to study, to spend time with Him, to pray, to know Him. And I didn't say perfectly, and I didn't say even at length, but as a daily walk with God, it's daily acknowledging the cognitive fact that God is with me, that He requires of me sacrifice to do His will. And I would say if each one of us did that accordingly, there's a chance we might see a revival. It's a chance. You know, I've heard of revivals the last couple of years, you know, Burlington and Aspury. You know, I tuned into Aspury a couple times and I'd get up and sway with him in my living room, you know. No preacher, a little limp-wristed. I watched one one time, he said, the message that started Aspury Revival in his skinny jean wear and limp-wristed sissy with a lift to get up there. He quotes, misquotes a billion passages of something that wasn't the Bible and revival broke out. I don't believe that for five seconds. And then my old buddy CT's down in Burlington. They got the rock and roll music and the hype and pumping up the crowd. You know Jezebel's out there singing in her mini skirts. He comes out and exhorts everyone for about 10, 20 minutes. where you get all these professions of faith. I got a pastor, his son lives right off the Elon exit right there. And about the fifth or sixth week, my pastor friend called his son and said, son, have you been over to that revival? He said, what revival? He said, well, that big tent off your exit. He goes, oh, I thought that was like a car show or something. While the revival's going on, they're building a new liquor store right there at the Elon exit. It's there today. That's not revival. I'm telling you, when revival comes to Shingle House, Pennsylvania, the bar on the corner's gonna close. And if you own it, sorry, but you're luck. Amen. And if that's your favorite watering hole, you have to move somewhere else. God forbid. Why is there no revival? Well, I'm gonna tell a little story. Children of Israel committed the trespass. And I want you to notice this. The children of Israel committed the trespass. They're one nation, one body. You say, it was just one man. No, they did it. See, I won't bear that responsibility. Oh, you will. That's why judgment must first begin at the house of God. It's where God must, we must judge ourselves, examine these things in light of scripture. Because when there's sin in the camp, it affects all of us. Can you imagine having to sit in the ministry of a man that's in adultery? And I've been in multiple churches that had to do that, unbeknownst to them. Some of them for years. There isn't any violence. Can you imagine what you'd have to replace the power of God with to try to keep people intrigued? Because of sin in the camp. I personally, and I say this to every preacher that's stood and testified, if you look at pornography, I don't want to listen to what you've got to say. Not a word. If you're an adulterer, sit down and shut up. Find a nicer way to say that Sit down shove a sock in your mouth When the big old nasty was a smell last night Did you we got a lot of sin hidden We got a lot of things buried and it limits the Holy One of Israel It limits God You may not even know it Your pastor may not know. I certainly don't know. But I know one that knows. So why does it seem like it's so dead in church all the time? I know you all will say that here, but some churches they say that, you know. Like Massachusetts Baptist Church, Black Creek Baptist Church, places like that. Why does it seem like it's just lifeless? Because there's no life, that's why. Why does it seem so dead? Because it is. Because sin abounds. Sin has permeated our lives. Sin has permeated the views. Folks with zealousness towards God, but they can't get the sin out of their life. So what do they do? They take it and they bury it in the hopes that they don't get caught. all of Israel has sinned as trespass in the accursed thing. For Achan, the son of Carmichael, the son of Zabdai, the son of Zerub, the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing. The anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel. Now notice verse 17 of the previous chapter. The city shall be accursed, even it and all that are therein to the Lord. Only Rahab the harlot shall live, and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messages that we sent. And ye in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, unless you make yourselves accursed. When you take of the accursed thing, you make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. God warned them there was a curse. He said, you'll make the camp of Israel a curse if you sit in the accursed thing. How does God curse, if you will, a city? Well, he already knocked their walls down, and then he told them to go in there and slay them, save Rahab and her household. They were cursed of God. They were damned. And God said, you have any part in that, and you'll be under that curse. And all that they had and all the goods of the city and all the things that they have were a curse of God. He said, the silver, the gold, the vessel of brass and iron are consecrated unto the Lord. They shall come into the treasury of the Lord. They were God's. By the way, there's a whole message there on robbing God, but that'll help the pastor in his annual May message on tithing. It's May 1st this year, I believe, brother. Yes, sir. Joshua sent men from Jericho, we're back in 7-2, to Ai, which is beside Bethhaven on the east side of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai, and they returned to Joshua, and said unto him, Let not all the people go up, but about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai, and make not all the people to labor thither, for they are but few. So there went up there, there were the people, about 3,000 men, they fled before the men of Ai. Innocent people, doing what they were told to do, believing they're doing the will of God. God told them their enemies would fall before their sword, so they're doing what God told them to do, and here they are fleeing. They have no idea they've been accursed because of the sin of one man. You say, well, this is Israel, this isn't the church. You'd be amazed what the sin of one can cause in the church. Don't point the fingers at the clergy. Don't cause a thorough examination of ourselves. We've yoked up with the ungodly. We've made compromise for their ungodly ways. We've excused sin, we've ignored sin. We've rejected the idea that we need to rebuke sin. You know, my Bible still says, they that sin, rebuke before all that others may fear. Why is there no fear of God? Because there's no rebuke today. It's a pragmatic approach to church. Well, we don't want them to leave. I'm pretty sure my Bible said, they that sin rebuke before all that others may fear. And if they have anything on the inside, that rebuke will be faithful to them. That rebuke will be faithful to them. You see, we're coddling sinners today. We're trying to make them comfortable. Folks, shack, folks, Living together and children out of wedlock and everybody's comfortable with it. Everybody's okay with it. Baby showers, run-wed mothers. No bridal showers for them. Let me just say this, God's orders, bridal shower, then a baby shower. Just throw that out there. That's always been God's way. Two men can't have a bridal shower either, but that's just a whole nother message. Sin is in the camp. And we've let it go. We've let it slide. Some of you heard me preach the other day. I spoke of these things. We've let them slip. Things that we've just let go. Heard an old man, a Mennonite man, and he was really, I was, it was a matter of study because I was listening to some of the silliness that they plagued their people with over Standards of dress that they can actually go and divide a hair at 19 different times to make sure that hair is divided properly When they tell people how to dress But he did make a couple of good statements and one of those he said he we used to say thou shalt not But he says now today we say this is the best way Or this is a better way and We used to say thou shalt not I tell you what God has always said Thou shalt not. Touch not. He touched not the accursed thing, but Achan did more than that, we'll see in a moment. Innocent people are now fleeing before them, and thirty and six men, in verse five, have been smitten. They chased them and had to shever them and smoke them in the going down, wherefore the hearts of the people melted and became as water. What does that mean? They've lost their courage. They have no strength in them. They have no idea why the enemy has defeated them. If God before us, did not Joshua tell them that, who can be against us? And they went up with God before them, they've seen a victory in Jericho, they've seen God work a wonder when the walls came down, they knew it was the work of God, and they go and they're gonna march on Ai, and then they're fleeing. It becomes water. And 36 of them were smitten. Why? Joshua read his clothes and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the even tide. He and the elders of Israel put dust upon their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou it all brought this people over Jordan to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us? Would to God we'd be content and dwelt on the other side of Jordan. Even Joshua, that great man of faith, that great leader, Joshua himself is questioning, God, why did you bring us over just to slay us when we could have stayed on the other side of Jordan and not had these troubles? It wasn't God's fault. That's exactly right. It wasn't God's fault. Had God not slain them, he wouldn't have been God. Because he told them if they took that accursed thing, that they would be accursed. They brought the curse upon themselves. He said, it's just one person. No, they're all accursed. So Achan's down there. Hiding sin, he's taking out a cursed thing. He probably didn't go to battle, because people like that are usually pretty shifty. You know, Joshua got this bad ankle. Had some health problems. Let the young men go. So they went out. No idea that God's cursed them. You say, well, it's Aiken's fault. God told them to keep themselves, yourselves, that's plurality. That's every one of you individually with a corporate responsibility to keep yourself in the accursed thing. And then he goes on. He pleads with the Lord, he says in verse 8, O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turn their back before their enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it. And shall environ us round and cut off our name from the earth. And what wilt thou do under thy great name? Joshua's concern is the name of the Lord. What are they gonna think about you, Lord? They're gonna come attack us? They're gonna come to destroy us? and your name is gonna be nothing in this world. Boys, that sounds like a lot of churches, doesn't it? Sounds like a lot of people. They name the name of Christ, it's almost vulgar when they speak his name. Because it's not in their heart to live. That sewer that comes out of their mouth, they blaspheme, curse, and it cannot bring forth sweet waters. You don't go out there and pump one pump on the handle out of a septic tank and mix it with a pump from the well. And that's what a lot of folks do in their life. You got that hidden sin, that secret sin, that buried sin that they want to bring forth clean water. God forbid. God forbid a man stand in a pulpit anywhere in this world and have a sewer dug down into his heart and put forth that putrefying water and call it God's water and feed the word of life to people. That's all the character you got, you need to just sit down and be quiet. I'd rather a man renounce a call to preach than live a life of sin and get off on the pulpit and destroy his testimony, spewing forth vile things because it's not in his heart to live. Cursing people, damning people, destroying people's lives. No thought that God is a holy God. No care for the families of those 36 men that were slain. No care that lives are greatly impacted and greatly affected by sin. No care that the testimony of the Lord is gonna be smeared abroad and they'll blast his name and mock at his name and they'll curse his name because they saw God's people run. And they don't even know why they ran. under a curse. One man. So God speaks to Joshua. The Lord said to Joshua, get thee up. Wherefore liest thou thus upon my face? God had told him the sin. If a cursive thing is taken, you'll be cursed. Joshua so quickly forgot it. How quickly we forget what God says. Lord, what's going on with my life? Why is my life so terrible? Or, there must be people in the church that sin because my life's awful. I'm just miserable all the time. It must be my wife. That's it. I hate my life. I'm miserable. God, my life is just terrible. Yeah, that's it, all right. That's what a real man does. My children are out of control. If my wife would just change them. That's my excuse, at least. We value the children of terrors. I know my wife just can't handle them. God forbid a wife blame the husband for her folly. Go ahead. Go on. God forbid a church blame the pastor for their folly. Oh, boy. And people over the years have said to me, brother, I feel like we're just not getting fed here. No, they just don't like manna. That's the problem. They don't like manna. They want leeks and garlic. Can I say tonight in memory and honor, this glorious Super Bowl, they like pizza and wings rather than manna. Good one. You're right. But I remember back when they first started mingling Super Bowl with church. Anybody remember those days? Yeah. Pull out the big screen, break out the pizzas. As you said, what do they have, a devotional or just a celebration? It's just a worship service. Just a worship service. Yeah, they get together and worship. You know, that way you don't have to watch the halftime show. It's no joke. So instead, you have your own halftime. And I remember they started doing that. And boy, people would start missing church. And I remember that one Super Bowl Sunday, my pastor had surgery on his foot. He said, Brother Tim, will you preach? And I didn't realize what I was getting into. And I realized that that's a sacred cow for people. And me being me, I just don't like sacred cows. It's pretty rough. And I wasn't polished and smooth like I am today, so it's pretty rough for folks. I'll wait. You know, we'll just put God on hold this one night. My friend Hollis Bingham in 1993, Super Bowl Sunday. Walked the aisle, Bible believing, King James preaching, Baptist church got gloriously saved. You know what he said? I'd never watch another Super Bowl again. Amen. What if? What if we went down a cursing thing? What if we forsook? What if we said, you know, just this once, just this one time, we'll pull back a little bit and the soul's in the balance. Could it be tonight would be a night that we've assembled here to please God to move upon the hearts of the congregation and bring a sinner to repentance. Now, wait a minute. It doesn't work that way, right? We've got to wait. Let's just sit and wait a while. Now, you know, let's wait until May 7th. That's when God's going to save a sinner. Because I've got God all figured out. I know how God works. So we've just got to wait until May 7th. May 7th, we'll all assemble here and we'll all get saved. That's how we act, that's how we live. Your God's so powerless, he couldn't move on a sinner tonight, could he? He's so weak, he couldn't speak to a sinner tonight, drawn to repentance. He's so weak. We should have just gone to the Super Bowl. If our God's that menial and that that wimpy, then we may as well just go ahead and eat wings and pizza tonight and skip the whole church thing. Speak real carefully here. God's telling me. I told you it's gonna be cursed. Get up. Okay, I know he said, get thee up, but I'm American. Get thee up. Get off your face. It's not you, Joshua. It's not in the congregation. But he said, Israel hath sinned. They have also transgressed my covenant, which I commanded them, for they have even taken the accursed thing, and have also stolen and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. They brought the accursive thing into their own homes. Now let me say this and be real clear. They mingled the ungodly with the godly. They took that which was unholy and they mingled with that which was holy. That which was profane, they merged it with holiness. So God cursed them. Why is there no power in church today? Because we've mingled holiness and profanity. A pastor told me years ago, it's quite a bit, a dozen plus years ago, he said I had to quit having special singing. He said because the young ladies would get up to sing and they forgot how to dress every time they got up there to sing. And he said, it's such a grief that God is destroying our church services. People go, oh, oh, come on, it can't be that way. You better believe it's that way. You better believe it's that way. You get these boys up there, trying to be cool and hip, sensual, yet then they want to sing. That always makes me leery, by the way, when people want to sing. They want to be seen. Had a crowd last year. They brought him out, one of these big colleges. The pastor told me they're going to be there Tuesday night for the revival service. I told my wife, I said, honey, stuff like that doesn't go well with me. And listen, it wasn't personal. I wasn't trying to be ugly. They get up there in their little skin tight pants and trying to be sensual and perverse in their emotions and their actions. Then the pastor wants me to come preach. I've had no liberty or killed the service. I mean, God had fled from that place. So I preached on having the same spirit of faith. Finally, after probably 40 minutes of preaching, I was just about an hour from being done, I looked down. One little Filipino boy sitting, his eyes were about this big. And I said, oh, blessed be the name of the Lord. God got him. God got him. I know a few maps of service, all the rest of them avoided me like the plague. All these good Christian Bible students and theology students. One young man said, you know, he's going to get a doctorate of evangelism. And you know, I said, from the pulpit, I said, you're going to get a doctorate of evangelism? You ought to just start evangelizing. Putting it into practice, the whole lot better than having a degree. Amen? Amen on that. With that little boy, I said, young man, that's whatever God showed you. I said, I don't care if you're friends. Laugh, scoff, or mock, whatever God showed you tonight, you better deal with that. His eyes were about this big. He just thanked me and kind of walked away. You know what God showed me that night? He might have sent me the whole way down there for one young man. In all the strife, and all the sin, and all the uncleanness, and all the ungodliness, God had an interest in one young man. God was merciful. He said, why do you keep coming back here to grace? Why do you keep coming over here preaching? But for one, I get invited too. It might be providential. That's right. That's right. There might be sin in the camp. Oh, come on. There might be a fornicator sitting here. Oh, come on. And every time we come to assemble, it's a grief to God because there's a fornicator sitting here in the name of Christ. An adulterer sitting here in the name of Christ. An unclean person sitting here in the name of Christ, an idolater, someone that's so courageous. And it's such a grief to God that God's put up the stop sign. You know why churches die? Because people get old and they die. And if there's no life, the church can't go on. Why are there no young people? It could be God's protecting them. Wait, let's blame all these modern churches. I already blamed them all afternoon. We'll keep blaming them. But let's just blame them for the young people fleeing. And it could be because young people are pretty smart about things. They seem to know more in church than most other people know. It could be they see the sin. It could be they're looking at their parents. It could be they're looking at the example that God's put before them on cleanness and wickedness. Bat biting, gossiping, lying, deceit. It could be those young people looking at that saying, you know what? I don't want that in my life. I don't want to be near that. I don't want to be around that. Then we go, well, we just can't keep the young people. We can't compete with these modern churches. When's the last time you, with all integrity, tried to reach a young person? The last thing in that relationship is your children, your grandchildren. They can come to you and know that their grandma's holy. Know their grandma walks with God. They say, Grandma, I need someone to talk to. I have that privilege. To God be the glory. And a grandpa I can go to. When I get real low, there's times I can call and say, Grandpa, they've asked for something. And he always had wisdom. He always helped me. He always had words that lifted me up. But there's a lot of people raised in church that didn't have that. Their dad's a fool. Their mom acts like a degenerate. They're profane, indecent, immodest, immoral. And the children sit there and watch that. And there's a pastor that sits and watches and grieves when he watches these young people turn 18 years old and flee from the house of God. And he can't put his finger on why those young people have left, why those young people flee. Because outwardly, it's all covered up. But underneath that tent, there's a profane Garment is a profane wedge of silver is a profane talent And it's mingled You could walk by agents ten five times a day you never know it wasn't like there was a storm cloud or lightning bolts or Shadows, it wasn't like the tent was staying No, it was hidden under the tent It was bad And God was gonna bring it out God was going to restore his name. Can I single this wise in the community? Verse 12, therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies. Why? Because of that sin. They turned their backs before their enemies because they were accursed. He said, neither will I be with you anymore except you destroy the accursed from among you. Struggle with a lot of things just sometimes to keep my sanity The modern day which we live especially the state of New York How many clergy woke up this morning smoked their weed Got their medical marijuana card right got high and then went and got in the pulpit I Would say to you probably quite a few They've been drinking for years now they can hide it that Drinking to get their courage up. I Remember down there First Baptist over there in Cuba, New York. I was in there talking the pastor one day had a good talk and I mentioned about wine glasses and they were there on the shelf and I was looking at him and she said also about you know your mom would I She said, your mom would love to drink wine out of them. And I said, oh no, ma'am, my mom's a Christian. She'd come unglued. I said, the pastor of the church, she came unglued. All tore up. I suggest the deacons and deaconesses sitting there with her, they probably go sit around and drink wine. Probably get their courage up to get up there and speak. profane the name of God and blaspheme the name of God with their abominations. They've got to get more wine in their system. You go up into Maine, there's numerous Unitarian and Lutheran churches. They all fly the gay pride flag up there, but some of them have gay and lesbian clergy. A great friend of ours was a sheriff up in Augusta. He was an investigator for the sheriff's office. He was investigating embezzlement of the church. And as he's investigating deeper and deeper, he realizes that the treasurer has the same last name as the pastor of the church. And he goes to the records office and subpoenas records and pulls them and finds out the pastor's married to the treasurer of the church. That just reeks of corruption, especially when they're both women. We said, we would never do that. But we'll fornicate. We'll be adulterers. We'll be sensual. That doesn't bother us one bit. I suggest a lot of preachers don't preach again because they like it too much. Things where they won't say boo about it. I think they like it. They like the tight pants, the short skirts, the short shorts. I guess I don't say much about it. It's buried, it's hidden, it's covered up. That profanity is mixed with holiness. And it's been a grief to God. And God's gonna judge them. He said, I'll not be with you anymore, except you destroy that accursed thing. The same time he goes on, he tells them how he's gonna do this. He's gonna put them out tribe by tribe. In verse 16, Joshua rose up early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. He brought the family of Judah, took the family of the Zareites, and he brought the family of the Zareites, man by man, and Zabdiel was taken. He brought his household, man by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdiel, the son of Zerah, the tribe of Judah was taken. And by the way, God's good. God is just. God is holy. I would say he gave you unction. So when he comes to the right man, he knows. Let me just say this to some of you unsuspecting folks out there. You'd be surprised what the man of God knows. Sometimes people say, why would he say that? I've had people say to me, I sat there in a church and it was like somebody reading a book of my life to me. That's the mercy of God. That's the tender mercies of God that hit up evil you and to reveal you and you can't hide anymore. That's his wonderful, wonderful mercy. And he stands in front of Achan. He looks him eyeball to eyeball and says, my son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession unto him and tell me now what thou hast done, hide it not from me. And they can answer Joshua and said, indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and thus and thus have I done. When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonian garment, 200 shekels of silver, a wedge of gold of 50 shekels weight, then I coveted them. And took them, and behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it." What a fool. He can't even enjoy the spoils. They're buried in the earth. That's what Coppices will do to you. You'll obtain, and then you can't even use it. You'll grasp it, and you can't even make do with it. Why? Because you got it by illicit gains. But he was honest about it. He had all integrity with what the Lord had said. The Lord said, we're gonna slay that person. We're gonna burn that with fire. It's been profaned in my camp. It's caused grief amongst Israel. So Joshua sent messengers and they ran to the tent. Behold, it was hidden, this tent with silver under it. And they took them out of the midst of the tent and brought them unto Joshua and all the children of Israel and laid them out before the Lord. And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan, the son of Zerah. and the silver in the garment, and the wedge of gold, and the sons and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and he brought them under the valley of Achor. Joshua said, why hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones. I thought of this many years ago. I put a little note in my Bible. Who do you think threw the first stone? It's that little boy. His daddy got slain fleeing from AI. That little girl's daddy's no more. That wife has been widowed. 36 families. 36 homes. I believe they were there first, because that man caused the death of their daddy, their husband, their son. In all Israel, and just in case you're wondering, that's a lot of stones. Stoned him with stones, burned him with fire, he perished. All of Israel had been cursed. God required blood to lift that curse. God required fire to lift that curse. God required a life to lift that curse. So he died. Blood spilled out. Fire burned. and raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger, wherefore the name of that place was called the Valley of Achor, unto this day. The Lord said unto Joshua, fear not, neither be thou dismayed. Take all the people of Warmathy and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai and his people and his city and his land. And here's what Achan missed. Thou shalt do to Ai, the king, as thou didst unto Jericho, and a king, only to spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves. Lay thee in ambush for the city behind it. All he had to do was wait. And he could have got all the spoil he wanted. All he had to do was just wait. Because I don't the gold silver garments spices cattle It's my fornication so vile Like I do this way And in waiting is great reward I do this great You know why? Because the marriage bed's undefiled before God. Now, hormones are adulterous. God's going to judge. But you can go to that marriage bed with purity, with a clean conscience, in holiness. No memories. No filth. Purity. You can. You see, we've let all these things go because they're hidden. It's mingled. You realize the odds are, and I say to you ladies, I've said it in this church, I'll say it again, the man standing in line next to you, behind you, in front of you at the store, chances are he's been over pornography that day. little girl standing with a bunch of perverse and vile and unclean people around her. And then you bring her to the house of God as a place of safety. And there's uncleanness in the house of God. There's perversion in the house of God. And it's no different than the Why is it a revival? These things are still mingled. If we don't come out and separate it, we're not going to see a move of God. If we don't draw away from these things, I don't care if it's your mama, your daddy, your uncle, your aunts, your children, your grandchildren, we don't separate from this vileness and this wickedness. If we let that mingle, we forever gonna be accursed. He said, well, you can't relate that to the church. God's a God of grace. When there's sin in the camp, you see what grace you're on. I heard a man say many years ago, he said, the church has never seen revival without seeing death. Israel saw a revival didn't they? God gave them AI Took death How to has a kiosk a revival his daddy had to die Do we need to die? No, we don't need to We can repent get right with God and Get the uncleanness out, get the filthiness out. But we won't. It's too sensitive. Too much to deal with. We don't want to hurt people's feelings. It's been said many times, the devil's in the pulpit. That's the devil's in the pulpit. He's telling everybody they're okay, and everybody's safe, and everybody's all right. Everything's good. Just need to be positive, just need to be upbeat. But there's sin in the camp. Why can't we blow that trumpet, cry aloud, and spare not? There's sin in the camp. There's sin in hearts. Bunch of drunken, dope-smoking fornicators in the house of God. Not never to be. It ought never to be. It's such a grief to God. I said such a grief to God. Uncleanness. You got a young man under a ministry now. God forbid. They're called to preach. God forbid they stand in the pulpit unclean. God forbid. God forbid they marry a young girl who thinks he's clean and he's filthy. By the way, a lot of young ladies found out in the first 30 to 60 days of their marriage that boy wasn't what he said he was. Better walk with God. Better know God. A lot of people damn their children just to confess sin. They will not get it right. They'll hide it and cover it to the day they die. Moms and dads point fingers blaming each other because their children are lost. Never taking the responsibility upon themselves. I've destroyed my children. I've destroyed my children. Dads, look up here. If your children are wayward, you better look at the responsibility you bear for that. And you better get that right with God. And I know some sarcastic back bite is gonna go, well, McPay hasn't even raised his children yet. I just preached it because I believe it. I'll bear the responsibility for those children. I'll not blame my wife. I'll not blame the church. I'll not blame clergy. I'll not blame everybody else. I'll accept the responsibility why my children are dead. It's curse. Sin in the camp, sin in my life, sin in the home, sin in the church. Oh, not me. Not me. My wife would sit all day and point the fingers at each other. It's your fault. No, it's your fault. It's your fault. It's your fault. No, it's your fault. Then we'd go point at our pastor. Boy, he's really let us down. Boy, religion's really hurt us. We really got hurt in our last church. Has anybody not ever been hurt in church? Two types of people. People that get hurt in church and people that suck their thumbs when they do. You just go ahead and say amen on that. Amen. The children sitting there watching his parents whine about that. Pastor, we just can't find a good church. Everybody's out to get us. Everybody hurts us. If you had thick skin, you wouldn't get hurt. I had a preacher told me the other day. He said, brother, you offended me. And I told the church, I always quote Psalm 119, 165. And I had to bite my tongue off because I was trying to restore this brother in the spirit of meekness. But he said, great peace of the earth is all by law and nothing shall offend them. Why are you offended? Why are you offended? Because we're covering up. Hiding. Secrets. Double life. Secret life. Some of you lost it. You listen to me. Part of the reason you're lost is you don't want God to expose your deepest, darkest secret. And you'll take it to hell with you. But if you'll look real clear, it's nailed to the cross. Amen. Rachel's wife, friend of ours, got saved a couple of years ago. She made a statement one time. She said, I think I had everybody fooled. Her husband said, you didn't have anybody fooled. Everyone don't know what I am. Look up here. You can't hide what you are. It doesn't matter what people know what you are. It's that God knows what you are. You see, I look on that outward appearance and I think, boy, there's an angry, bitter, hateful person. And then God looks at him and says, I'll show them why they're angry, bitter, and hateful. They hate me. They're out of sorts with me. You think Akin loved God? When you went down to the pit, you think he loved God? Don't take his little false repentance for loving God. He hated God enough to take the accursed thing. He despised the Word of God. All the secrets. Listen, there's some of you in here, not every person, some of you in here, some of your deepest, darkest secrets got exposed on a public stage. Hallelujah. And it was the mercy of God. It was the mercy of God. I started getting away a little bit. Folks were drying up, sleeping, tired. I just realized now they just hate what I'm preaching. John, an old secret life. You know why most people go through divorce when they do? They just quit. They don't want to try. Listen, I'm not trying to be hurtful or ugly. They choose bitterness and malice over restoration. There's irreconcilable differences. Do you realize in Christ there's no such thing? Well, we just can't reconcile. Oh, you could. You find the foot of the cross, you'd be amazed how much reconciliation will take place. Hallelujah, glory to God. So God wants to do for you. God wants to reconcile you. And I'll be real clear about this in case somebody's putting these little silly bugs in your mind. God wants to reconcile you tonight. He's not willing that you should perish. But it all should come to repent. Behold, by the way, this is the appointed time. When? When you hear the Word of God. That's the appointed time. This is the day of salvation. Yes, sir. Well, that's not what that means. Well, explain to me then, genius. Come on. Tomorrow is the day of salvation. July 4th is Independence Day. If I just wait till Independence Day, I'll find independence. Well, you might find yourself on Memorial Day, and that wouldn't be good. Amen. Amen. I tell you what, you don't have to wait till Easter either. Today is Easter. I just want you to know I agree with every word that man said. Every single word. And I want you to know, as most of you already do, he was calling out my life. He was calling out my life this entire time. Some of you don't know I was a thief. God reminded me of that tonight. I used to be a thief. No more. I used to be fornicator. Now no more because he gave me a wife. I used to be an adulterer. But now no more because he restored my marriage. Some of y'all in here are so proud of the facade you've made. You'll never be able to say that. Let me read something for you. There's something very subtle, twice, in the account that Brother McVeigh read tonight. Very subtle. So subtle you can read over it and not even realize you're reading it. But let me read it to you out of a different place. Exodus 20, verses 4 and 5. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down myself to them, nor serve them. For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God." And listen to this. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the, how many? Third and fourth generation of them that hate me. Do you notice How many were named when Achan was named? Listen to this. The children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing for Achan, the son of Camorai, the son of Zabdai, the son of Zerah. What was Zerah's sin that Achan took of the accursed thing? He hated God. And Zerah's son Zabdi hated God. And Kamri, the son of Zabdi, hated God. And Achan hated God and took it to be a cursed thing. God forbid there be some great-grandparents in here whose great-grandchildren hate God. but he has mercy and he'll show mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commands. And I think we're gonna end it there. There, and if you have a hymn, we can sing it. If you don't have a hymn, pick one and we'll sing it. Listen, if God has done business with you tonight, don't let that business stop when you walk out these doors. Same thing I told you this morning. If he is dealing with you, don't shake that off. Because that's just sowing damnation. It's sowing damnation. You don't have to walk out of these doors lost. You don't have to walk out of these doors under a weight of sin. You can walk out of these doors restored. Husband, you can walk out of these doors loving your wife. Wife, you can walk out of these doors loving, honoring, and reverencing your husband. Brothers and sisters in here, you can walk out of these doors having forgiven one another. You don't have to leave the same way you came in. And God, through the man of God, called you out tonight. Myself included. Let's take a red hem and let's turn to number 516. Is your all on the altar?