Please turn with me in your Bibles to Hosea chapter 5. Follow along with me as I read verses 8 through 15 of Hosea chapter 5. Blow the ram's horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah. Cry aloud at Beth-Avon. Look behind you, O Benjamin. Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel I make known what is sure. The princes of Judah are like those who remove a landmark. I will pour out my wrath on them like water. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment because he willingly walked by human precept. Therefore, I will be to Ephraim like a moth and to the house of Judah like rottenness. When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to King Jareb. Yet he cannot cure you nor heal you of your wound, for I will be like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear them and go away. I will take them away and no one shall rescue. I will return again to my place till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek my face. In their affliction, they will earnestly seek me." We live in a world of instant gratification. We want what we want and we want it now. Instant gratification is the desire to experience pleasure or fulfillment without delay. Basically, it's when you want it and you want it now. Instant gratification is the opposite of what we've been taught, at least most of us, and try hard to practice, which is called delayed gratification. Most of us have to work very hard for a while, for a long time, some of us, before we are gratified and fulfilled in obtaining the goal that we were striving for. But we live in a day of instant gratification. There's a growing sense of restlessness among many, especially the millennial generation. They want everything right now. And if they don't get it right now, they get upset. Forms of instant gratification are fast food, on-demand movies, scratch-off lottery tickets, instant downloads like music and books, etc. We are a nation of instant food and the microwave oven. FedEx created its powerful brand with the 1980s slogan, when it absolutely positively has to be there overnight. America indeed has become the culture of now, the culture of present consumption. But there's a danger in getting comfortable with and expecting quick fixes. Because when things aren't easy, or there are no solutions to our problems, or when things don't go your way, we can get angry or give up. The quick fix mindset, the mindset that only does the right thing as a last resort, the attitude that wants everything right now, the consumer-oriented outlook, does not fit with biblical Christianity. In a culture of cosmetic surgery and popular self-help books, it's natural, then, to expect the church to succumb to the quick fix image management spirituality. This attitude reflects a weak character, though, and a superficial approach to God and has spawned a self-centered approach to worship that expects short, relevant sermons that speak to my life and energetic songs that help me feel more positive about myself. And of course, don't forget the coffee and donuts. But the Bible teaches that most things of spiritual value... Are you hearing me today? I know it's hot in here. But most things of spiritual value are obtained by suffering, patience, humility, long testing, obedience, submission, and an investment of pain and sacrifice, self-denial, and persistence. And there are hundreds of scriptures that underscore this truth. So when a crisis of trials and afflictions come into my life, crises that I didn't expect, crises that sought me out and found me, how does this fit into my quick fix self-improvement spirituality? Well, many churchgoers have brought this theology of success, this false theology of success, into the church and into their lives. They've laid it as the foundation upon which they perceive God and it's their worldview through which they measure everything. This theology of success, as well as many churchgoers work hard to keep up this image of success before their friends, their fellow members, their churchgoers, And this attitude of self-confidence and a false happiness. So when afflictions occur, they don't understand why they occur, why they happen, because they're told they should be fulfilled and successful and happy and confident. That's the new theology. That's the new normal for most evangelical churches. And when the trials happen, they don't know how to respond to them. So they launch into a process of instead of going to God in repentance and waiting on God, they begin trying to rehabilitate their self-image, to try to get back to the place where they're respected again by their friends, their fellow members. And their Christianity is reduced to a self-improvement project to repair their self-image. and they begin to bargain with God, Lord, I'll try to do better, and not realizing that we never grow or improve or mature by our works, by working our way to a greater level of sanctification. Yes, we do good works as Christians, but we are saved by grace and we grow by grace through a process of daily repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. And along with this comes the battle with depression and resentment because their friends and neighbors aren't suffering as they are, and they're wondering, why aren't all these people suffering? Why am I the only one, it seems like, that has all these conflicts and my whole life being turned upside down? They don't know what to do with suffering. They don't know how to behave in suffering. And they don't know what to think about suffering. They just panic. or flounder. Is it any wonder that so many Christians resort to psychiatrists, psychologists, and self-help, psychology-oriented self-improvement books for help which never deliver? But the Bible teaches that our approach to God should never be with an expectation of quick fixes to our problems and instant gratification in God meeting our needs and desires. God is not a theological genie where we rub the Bible and he meets every felt need that we have. We are servants of God. We serve him. And very often and frequently and in scripture we are promised that our Christian lives are fraught and studded with countless trials and tribulations to make us hardened as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. To help us become resilient to anything. including persecutions and afflictions of the deepest level that would detract us or distract us from fixating on Jesus Christ as the lover of our never-dying souls, as the one who has my life and my salvation and my future in his hand, and I plant my feet in the sand and I don't move as I stand upon Jesus Christ, his saving work, and his ongoing sanctifying work. Our text in Hosea chapter 5 gives us examples of two major problems that religious people have, as seen through the nation of Israel and their problems. Hence the title or the theme of today's study, Last Resort Religion, The Theology of Procrastination. Both of these problems Seeking God and doing His will as a last resort when your plan doesn't work, the last resort, serving God His way is plan B. And the other one being procrastination. These two are problems of the heart. This is not a new theology that we should embrace, buy into, and stand upon. And we see these problems not only in the history and the lifestyle of the Israelites, but also in the contemporary church and throughout history in between then and now. And so I want to talk to you about these two struggles, last resort religion, the theology of procrastination. Because I think we've all fallen into it or still do from time to time. In the first place then, In verses 8 and 9, we see a loud wake-up call. The first thing God has to do to reset our priority back on Him in a holy lifestyle of obedience and communion with the living God is He has to send forth a loud wake-up call. Now, in the history of Israel, in Hosea 5, Israel is in the worst possible shape spiritually that they've ever been in. They are hanging on by a thread, and that thread is just a mere veneer, a propped up religious external view. Underneath the surface of their religiosity is the most stinking, putrefying form of hypocrisy and spiritual deadness one can imagine. We read in verse 8 of Hosea 5, blow the ram's horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah. This is a very strong statement in the original. A day of judgment was coming when Israel would be conquered by the invading Assyrian army and the people taken into captivity. And this blowing of the trumpet and the ram's horn is a last, very, very, very last opportunity for them to wake up and listen. And God sends the loudest possible call where they cannot say they didn't hear it, they didn't have that opportunity. They are this close to being carried away into captivity where they will be stripped naked and walked across deserts in the most humbling, humiliating, shameful way imaginable. All their possessions will be taken away. Many relatives will be seized and taken to other places and be brought into servitude for the rest of their lives. Their heads will be shaved. The men's beards will be shaved. The women, I don't even want to go there concerning the women. This is what they did when one conquering army conquered over another one. Many would be killed with the edge of the sword. God also says, cry aloud at Beth-Avon. Now, I'm not going to deal with Gibeah and Rama right now, I'll deal with that in a second, but I want you to look at the next phrase in verse 8, cry aloud at Beth-Avon. You remember a chapter or two ago, we saw that God changed the name of Bethel, which means house of God, to Beth-Avon. He did that metaphorically because Beth-Avon means house of vanity. And the Israelites were living vain, futile lives, pursuing vanity, the pleasures of this world, and false gods they were worshipping. They were idol worshippers, while simultaneously paying lip service to obeying and worshipping the true God. So God changed their name from Beth-El, house of God. image of being the very temple and house of the living God to house of vanity. And he did that because everything they were doing when they lost their heart for God became vain, unacceptable before God. This is a word for the church. These things were written for our admonition, for our instruction. that we might avoid the same forms of idolatry and sin that Israel fell into. They were a nation of professional religionists with no heart for God. Very, very few of them were truly converted. There was a small minority of genuine believers within Israel. And I would say approximately the same thing is taking place today and throughout the last 2,000 years of church history. And Jesus gave us a parable to prove it, the parable of the wheat and the tares where Religious unsaved people will be mixed together with true believers. And then at Judgment Day, he will separate the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the goats. But it's usually a minority of the ones in any given congregation which are truly saved. I would like to think better of our own church in terms of the percentage of true believers among us. Instead of calling them Bethel, he says, cry aloud in Beth-Avin. The lifestyle of Israel has been reduced to vanity and futility. God wanted Hosea to cry out against their sins. He now elevates Hosea's decibels. He says, take a ram's horn, take a trumpet. Cry out in the most religious cities, Bethel, Gibeah, Ramah. Take a trumpet with you. Ever go to a football game? I haven't, but where they have those blasting horns, you push the button, it goes, you hope that the person sitting next to you doesn't have one of those. You won't have eardrums when you're done. God is saying, make the loudest possible call, give the loudest possible alarm to the people of Israel. They're that close to being reduced to slaves in God's punishment against them. By way of application, when you hear the loud calls and cries from God's messengers in your life, are you listening? Some believers, day after day, month after month, year after year, don't listen to the warnings of God, even though the cries and the warnings grow louder in their ears and greater in their hearts. What about the other side of the perspective? Do you cry out against the idols of the church? Are you a voice on the right side of this equation, where when you see idolatry and religiosity and professional religionism and ritualism and dead liturgy and all forms of wickedness and superficial religion in the church, is that a burden upon your heart that you bring before the throne of grace and cry out to God about? Lord, don't let our church be reduced to just going through the motions where we pay lip service to your truth but have no heart for you. I don't mean that you should scream at people. But do you have the courage, the burden, the zeal for truth, the zeal for God's glory, the zeal for deluded blind souls who go on year after year thinking that just because they made a profession of faith 40 years ago and have not lived a holy life, not a scintilla of holiness has described their life since they walked down the aisle and went through their little ditty, whatever they did, and never became born from above. We need the Holy Spirit of God to live inside of us. To be able to first of all listen to the loud wake-up calls and respond to them obediently with a heart for God in repentance. Shouldn't Christians be questioning and challenging church leaders at this very low point of life in the church when superstition and mysticism and idolatry and consumerism and pragmatism and idolatry and greed and rank manipulation of the people of God and authoritarianism where pastors try to run every detail of your life, are running rampant and unchecked to the weakening of true Christians and to the reproach of the Lord Jesus Christ? Shouldn't we be challenging these things and these false leaders? Where is the sweeping movement from New York to California, from Montana to Florida in our nation that challenges church leaders? and that holds them accountable to conduct a ministry of life, light, and love, a ministry of the Spirit, and a sound ministry of preaching and teaching the Word of God, line upon line, verse upon verse, here a little, there a little. Where are our convictions as church members across this nation? Do we just roll over and let anybody come into the church and do anything they want, say anything they want, believe anything they want? How does our Lord Jesus Christ feel about such burdens that are the closest possible desires that He died on the cross to implement into the lifestyle and activities and life of the local church? Do we even think about these things? Even when we're at our best spiritually, when we're reading our Bibles and praying, do any of these weighty spiritual matters cross our minds or become part of our petitions? The Jews had no clue, and that's what got them in trouble and caused them to be taken away into captivity. God may not send the Russians or the Chinese into America to carry us away captive, but he may put out the lampstand of a church that persists in ignoring and dismissing God's louder and louder and louder wake-up calls that he sends into the church. Are these issues that we even care about? These are God's issues. And he refuses to set them aside and have them occupy a place of low importance and emphasis in a true Church of Jesus Christ, a true local church. Shouldn't Christians begin to take back their churches and rally fellow believers to prayer meetings? Shouldn't they? Because revival will come, repentance will come, reformation will come to the church only when we cry out to God for His power to be dispensed into the hearts of His people once again. to be given eyes and hearts only for Christ and His glory in the Church. These are issues of no small importance. These are life and death issues. Many deluded souls are being tormented in a place called hell right now. Religious people who were church members for decades, deacons, pastors, because no one stood up and warned them, flee from the wrath to come. They will occupy the worst place of torment in a lake of brimstone because they knew the truth. They were religious people who had the scriptures taught and preached to them week after week after week. But they hardened their hearts against God. And they pursued vanity with reckless, suicidal abandon. to the damnation of their own souls. This is the message now that needs to be preached from our churches because we have sunk so low morally and ethically. I'm not talking about in America, that's obvious. I'm talking about the church. The church now is a place of idolatry and prostitution. Not physical prostitution, but spiritual prostitution. And it seems like so few have the courage and the convictions to address them and challenge them. We'd rather not ruffle any feathers. We'd rather just find another church rather than draw the line in the sand and say thus far and no more. Say, Pastor Joe, why are you so angry? I'm not angry. There's such a thing called righteous indignation. And if you have the Holy Spirit in you and the last year or two of the changes that are taking place morally and politically in our nation and spiritually for the worse in our churches have not even sparked the slightest interest or concern in your mind. I question your salvation. I question whether or not you have the Holy Spirit in you. You may have the Holy Spirit and be saved, but you are so far backslidden that the light of God in you is barely flickering at the very depth of your soul. And between that flickering light and where your thoughts and mind is, there is a lot of darkness in between. God tells us to walk in the light as He is in the light. If your eye is dark, your whole body is full of darkness. Come to the light that your deeds may be exposed and seen if they have been done in God. We are the light of the world. We should be walking in light and truth and holiness. We are the church of Jesus Christ. We're not a synagogue of Satan. We are Christians who love the light, who love the truth, who are drawn to the light, who gravitate towards everything that is holy and righteous and that is of God's character and nature because we are partakers of the divine nature. In Israel, this was a time where they didn't need anybody to beat around the bush with them. They needed a prophet like Hosea to call it like it is. They were a very, very short time, maybe days away from captivity, where their whole world will fall in one day with no warning, no time to sell their 401k, cash out, Run real quick to Egypt and buy a nice house on the Nile and build a deck with a boat. No. Everything would be taken away in one day. Many of them would be killed. Many of them who are weak and sickly would suffer even worse and they'd be dead from disease and illness within a very short period of time. While they're trying to play catch-up football with repentance, it doesn't work that way. The Bible says, seek the Lord while he is near. Call upon him while he may be found. The worst judgment God could do was take away from you a sensitivity to sin, a desire to repent, To take away a sensitive conscience to every form of iniquity and duplicity and double-mindedness and lukewarmness and worldliness that you are dabbling in. To take away a concern about any and all of those things and leave you in your life of leanness and limitation in the things of God. to be content with a superficial surface form of Christianity that neither pleases God nor gives you peace and happiness and joy and fulfillment in your soul and your spirit and in your mind, the mind of Christ in you. Are you hearing what I'm saying? These are the eternal issues which continue to burn in the deepest heart of God just like that perpetual burning bush that Moses encountered in the wilderness. any one of his true believers, his Christians, his children, and any one of his pastors, even if they're backslidden, they will eventually return to God in the way of their hearts, and once again, get stirred up as God is stirred up over these issues. These are the key issues, the dividing issues between true churches and false churches, and between true Christians and false Christians, or professing Christians, whatever you want to call them, And God told the prophets in the Old Testament, I am sending you into the sheepfold and your main job is to distinguish between sheep and sheep, between the true and the false. Are we doing that today in our churches? Or is our most laying down sleeping? at the worst possible time in the history of the church and the history of the world, to be asleep. This is the worst time to be asleep at the helm. Where the signs of the times, the warnings of Christ soon coming, the rapidity of the deterioration of the very spiritual fabric of the church is growing beyond measure. We ought to be at every single prayer meeting. We ought to make it our business to be at every Bible study and prayer meeting. We ought to be there every time the Word of God is preached and taught, whether it be 100 degrees outside or 100 degrees below zero. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God. to bring ourselves and to sustain ourselves in the most spiritual condition we could possibly be in to do the work of the Lord, which requires spiritual strength and grace. When you talk about witnessing, you need courage, boldness, and love for souls. When you talk about praying, which we cannot, we don't have a natural spirit to pray. We do not know how to pray as we ought. We need the Holy Spirit to teach us to pray, to stir us up, to tell God we love Him. Otherwise, we don't love Him. We need the Holy Spirit to be able to help us witness and pray and derive from the Scriptures that necessary food which deepens an appetite for Jesus Christ and His character and His personality and His perfections to be resident and growing within my own heart. I need to use every means available at my disposal that God himself has designed for my edification and encouragement so I can faithfully walk on that narrow road which leads to life. For few there be, few there be that walk on that road, but there be many which walk on the road to destruction. God have mercy upon us all. Hosea saw that his warnings didn't make a very big impression on the people up to this point in Hosea 5. It wasn't because he wasn't preaching and prophesying and getting their attention, but he didn't make a very big impression on them. He was like a gadfly. Get out of my way. What is he saying again? What is that nut preacher talking about? His preaching fell on deaf ears, so God tells the prophet to take take it to the next level. It's as if God is saying, I have warned you many times through my holy prophet and you didn't listen or pay attention or take my warning seriously. But now the reality of my judgment is upon you. The chastisement of God is at the very doors of your houses. Assyria is ready to break into your cities, your homes, and destroy everything. It will never again return to business as usual for them. God uses three metaphors in verse eight to lift the warnings to Israel to the highest possible levels to get their attention. Blow the ram's horn, blow the trumpet, cry aloud. These are very vivid metaphors. God is saying he wants to get their attention in this last opportunity they have to repent. God could leave the people in a blind stupor, but in mercy and compassion, he reaches out to the hardened hypocrites, the deceived religionists, beckoning to them to wake up from their sleep of death. He summons them with the loudest possible warning to wake up from their suicidal, senseless rejection of God, repent of their irrational rebellion and idolatry, and vain reliance upon the worldly nations for help. The cities of Ramah and Gibeah are used in a figurative sense, in verse 8, to represent the hills and high places of Israel where false gods were worshipped. God says to Hosea, go to the highest places, in other words. He says, go to the highest places, to Ramah, to Gilead, the highest hills in the country, and blow the trumpet and sound the alarm to the whole land. It is the last opportunity to wake up for the whole nation. by way of application. When a nation or an individual is in the greatest danger of God's wrath and punishment being poured out upon you or upon a nation, it is incumbent upon you or the church to stay awake at the helm and represent God's interests and gospel with zeal and diligence. Now, let me make the parallel application. America is quickly heading to the place where Israel is in Hosea 5. Economically, things have been going down. Violence, terrorism is increasing all over the world. And many acts are being done in our own nation now. How many were just killed? right in uh... orlando and now you read or you listen to the news and now they're quote quoting ten to fifteen cities within the last year or two when these kinds of terrorist incidents have happened these things are coming to our very doors now the danger signs are growing as is the case in israel right now israel is at the very and of that day this is the time when the church and its ministers need to be sounding the alarm as loud as possible. This is the time when we ought to be going out into the highways and byways of life, into our communities, into our neighborhoods, into our workplaces. not with weakness, but with moral and gospel strength throbbing within our hearts, with the gospel on our lips, with holy lives being displayed before everyone to see at the workplace in our neighborhoods. Now is the time when we as the church, the representative organ of God in these end times, ought to be crying aloud in Gibeah, ought to be sounding the alarm, ought to be blowing the trumpet, ought to be distributing tracks, ought to be rolling up our sleeves and working day and night. That's after and before our jobs. We ought to be working day and night in intercessory prayer and getting out there evangelizing and sharing the gospel. Some of you have the equivalent of master's or Ph.D. degrees in theology. You've been members of the church for so long under such teaching. You can quote chapter and verse. You can quote a whole list of doctrines. You have theology tattooed on every part of your head and brain just about. It's now time for you to go out and have one-on-one discipleship meetings with people who are the most receptive to the gospel in your life, your family members and your friends who will listen to you. I'm not saying start with those who are your enemies. Start with one person in your life, your child, your relative, who will sit down once a week and listen to you. Some of you should be having small group Bible studies with unsaved people. And you ought to pray before those Bible studies and ask the Lord to fill your heart with the fear of God, and with the love of God, and with the burden for their souls that you will share with. So that when you're sharing with them, your spirit is equal to the word that you're sharing. That you may accurately reflect with pathos through your emotions, your concern for their souls. The fear of God should run through the veins of the church, driving the church to be the sounding board of God, proclaiming a loud clarion call to repent and return to God at this critical time. God has given us a great stewardship to nurture. We have four or five street preachers in this church, and they go out and they preach in the streets, and they bring tracts and so forth. How many of our members have helped them? How many of our members have been there to assist them, to witness to people? Some of the members have, and I know we have jobs and we have schedules and so forth, but is there a burden there? Do we inquire them? How goes the preaching on the street, Brother G, Brother Tim, Brother Larry? How can I help you? Let me start with prayer. How can I pray for you? Are we assisting these street preachers? What about yourself? Do you feel comfortable and confident and qualified to share the plan of salvation? To share the gospel, even the Romans Road version of it? Well then, think about someone who has the fear of God in them, but they're not saved. Start a Bible study with them. When was the last time you witnessed to somebody? Why not? Shame on you, those of you who haven't witnessed in a year or two years. Well, I'm very busy. Tell that to God on Judgment Day when your works as Christians are tested by fire. Gold, silver, and precious stones, wood, hay, and stubble. I don't want my works to be only in the category of the wood, hay, and stubble because when you put fire to wood, hay, and stubble, what happens? They're all burned up. No chance to come back and serve the living God who is worthy to be served with every ounce of strength to our last breath. Why? Because he died on the cross. to save my never-dying soul from hell, from the lake of fire, from my sins accusing me in that fire of brimstone forever, the greatest torment being guilt, unimaginable, unbearable guilt in a fire of brimstone forever. Therefore, we ought to be using every second, every moment, every hour, bringing every thought into the captivity of the obedience of Christ, using every gift and skill and talent God has given us, my intellect, my imagination, my creative abilities, my reason, my judgment, my memory. for the glory of God. My resources? But are we squandering our time and hoarding our resources instead of sharing who we are and what God has given us in Christ? Sharing it so that those around us can benefit from it in a gospel way of application. Are you hearing me? This isn't a dance. I'm not performing up here. Look past the messenger. God is speaking to our hearts. Let me press this home to your conscience, because that's where the Word of God is intended to be applied, to your conscience, to your mind, and to your heart. God wants it to get down in there. The problem with the Israelites is that the Word bounced off those things and was not absorbed and applied and lived out in their lives. Are you warning your family and friends and co-workers of the dangers nipping at their heels? Some of them are days, maybe weeks or months away from death and you don't know it. Have you warned them? Have you warned them? Have you pleaded with them with tears? Have you, in your bedroom, with the door closed and the light out, wept stains on your sheets for your children, your unconverted aunts and uncles and sisters and brothers and mothers and fathers, your co-neighbor that you don't even know, or your neighbor that you don't even know anything about him? But I'm a shy person, Pastor Joe. It's hard for me to go next door. My friend, the Holy Spirit provides courage so that the saints can be bold as a lion. Amen? Let the Holy Spirit take over your ministry, your services, and your witnessing, and you'll transform into a different person. You'll be more like Christ, of course. We are the saints. We were saved not to be slaves of the world and to be lovers of the things of the world. We were saved to be busy about our Master's business, employing everything we are and have for the glory of Jesus Christ. American Christians have huge challenges in these areas because everywhere we go, every sign, Every advertisement, almost everything we see and hear tells us to eat, drink, and be merry, take it easy, buy all these things, and enjoy them. God hasn't given us the privilege to enjoy anything we want if it takes our heart away from God. Is your heart moved with the fear of God over the deplorable moral decline of your community, your nation, and the world? Yes, but Pastor Joe, if I'm going to be the only one talking to them because nobody cares in my world and those in my neighborhood or those at my job, nobody cares about these things, so be it. Hosea, was a lone voice for a long time. Jeremiah was the weeping prophet. He was the only one crying out to them in his day. All of us, in one way or another, are alone in some places in our life, whether it be at the job, or at the market, or among family. My wife and I have no one saved in our second tier of family members. No one. We've been witnessing for 40 years to them. It's a lonely place to be, but we have Christ, and we have the brethren. We have the brethren to commiserate with, and to bear one another's burdens, and to pray with, and to have our hearts strengthened as we cry together in prayer that the Lord would be our compensation and consolation. Amen? And He gets us by. The answers to these questions are important because they reveal whether you are ready, dedicated, and effective as an end-times herald of the gospel and an end-times watchman of God on the wall of this Jerusalem. Are you ready? Are you dedicated? Are you effective? You say, yes, Pastor Joe, now I'm ready. Well, what happened to yesterday and the past? Well, let's forget those things which are behind, right? We all go up and down. But are you ready now? Next phrase in verse 8, look behind you, O Benjamin. Look behind you, O Benjamin. Now God is saying to Benjamin, Judah and Benjamin were the two tribes in the south. He says to them, the wrath of God is beginning to fall heavily on Israel. And you're next. Look behind you. See what God is doing to Israel. Look. Look at what He's doing. See the smoke rising from that city about 15 miles over there? Assyria is attacking them. Assyria is attacking them. Within sight, you can see the results of that slaughter. Look. Look behind you, Benjamin. The wrath of God is falling heavily on Israel, and you're next. He's saying, look behind you, Judah and Benjamin. The wrath of God will catch up to you if you don't repent. How many of us in America have been taking it too easy with regard to spiritual things? Look behind us. What's happening? Terrorism is in our nation now. And the greater forms of these signs will grow. They will catch up to us. We need to look at what's going on around us. We can't carry on business as usual. We need to flee to the temple and take hold of the horns of the altar as those in the Old Testament did who were fearful of their very lives. It's only when they were in fear of their lives being killed that they went to the holiest place. This last resort religious attitude, well I'll flee to the temple when I sense my life is at stake. Really? That's not That's not a great show of love and dedication to God, is it? That's kind of a selfish attitude, don't you think? Only as a last resort. What, does God get the leftovers? Or the first fruits? Take heed to yourselves because We have good reason to examine ourselves when we see our neighbor's house on fire. Our house may catch on fire. When you hear about the Assyrian hordes, Israel, attacking the town next to yours, Israel, then you'll have reason to examine yourself and repent. But that's not the reason and the time to repent as a last resort. 10 minutes before the violence is upon you? It's unfortunate, but our hearts are affected most by a sense of danger and terror only when the danger is imminent and real. Did you hear that? We are so selfish and self-centered and lazy and neglectful sometimes that only when the danger is absolutely imminent, seconds away, do our hearts get affected. That's sad, isn't it? God warned Israel numerous times that the sword would come against them if they didn't repent. And it's unbelievable to me that Israel was unmoved by these warnings. Their hearts were so secure in their sin that they were insensible to their impending judgment. Well, all the forms of God's judgment are being poured out right now upon America. Right now. What is the response of Christ's Bible Church? What should our response be? Wait until it's knocking on our door. Hello, Mr. Jackowitz, are you home? It's your time to be judged now because you didn't repent and you didn't listen to the loud warnings of God and you didn't even listen to the loudest possible last warning of God where he was blowing a trumpet in your ear. Open the door, the flood of fire is gonna come in. When are we going to repent of our dead works and our superficial religion? Not all of us, thank God. But if this applies to you, it applies to you. I'm not speaking to any one person. When are we gonna get down to business with serving God? When are we gonna stop making financial commitments and commitments of our time that squander and absorb all of our discretionary time? So at the end of the day and at the end of the week, we have nothing left, no time, no money, no any intellectual or physical strength to serve God. and bear some fruit that will follow us into the next life, some good works, so we have something to show for our 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years of being a Christian in this world, something that's lasting, something that will follow us into heaven and will glorify Christ forever and ever and ever, because God had mercy upon me and used me, this unworthy, unprofitable servant, glorify him in this world through evangelism, maybe some souls got saved or through good works, maybe God got praise and was glorified and that glory will continue to follow me into the next life where God will be glorified forever through my meager efforts. There's a big difference between hearing about danger from a distance and acting upon it only when the reality of it comes close to you, when you sense the danger is near at hand. The danger is here in many, many forms, not just Muslim terrorism, Islamic terrorism, and all the rest. There are many, many other dangers. Our nation is completely immersed in sexual immorality on a level that this world has never known. That immorality is being multiplied infinitely by technology. And if we don't get real and serious about dealing with these kinds of temptations and cling to Christ and use every opportunity God gives us to stay faithful and holy and consistent in our service and in our walk with Him, what will it take for God to get our attention? People who are not moved by long-term warnings, people who are not moved by long-term warnings, People who are dead to the loud final warnings just before judgment are either ignorant of the truth, or unconverted and blind, or have hearts that are very hard or are so distracted by earthly cares they have no ear to listen to God, or they have seared consciences where not the loudest warnings can wake up their conscience from sleep, or have backslid so far from God they've lost all sense of spiritual reality, or a combination thereof. Where are the loud warnings from Christian ministers also? That's something I want to address. You have one Hosea and three million Jews. Where are the loud warnings, the trumpet calls from Christian ministers who are called, who are called to be watchmen on the walls of America, watchmen on the walls of the church? Where are they? Where are the loud calls on television and on the radio? pounding the pulpits with zeal and intestinal fortitude and divine conviction, warning the people, no, but everything we hear is about felt needs. The message of so many ministers has been conformed and catered to the selfish hearts of greedy so-called professing Christians. Where are the ministers who will walk down the old paths, that will use simply the preaching of God's Word under the blessing of the Holy Spirit, sprinkled with intercessory prayer, alone, trusting upon God, to draw his people to himself under the gospel preaching of God's Word? Where are they? Faithful ministers, will be sounding constant wake-up calls. They never stop because the Spirit of God is in them. And Paul said, woe is me if I preach not the gospel. If they don't preach the true searching message of the gospel, they will explode. I have said, watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem, they shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent and give him no rest until he establishes, until he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. How many of our members of our church's pastors, my pastor brothers, appreciate when you stand up in the pulpit, And you set aside the felt-knee theology, and the nonsense, and the waste of time, and the carnal puppeteering, and you simply preach the raw scripture and apply that scripture to their consciences, and you lift up the Lord Jesus Christ and exalt Christ for everyone to run to at the end of the sermon. When was the last time you gave them an hour of theology on fire as applied to the consciences? When? When? When will you do it? An hour before Christ comes again? A day before He returns? A year before He returns? Once you have your retirement in your account and you can begin enjoying it on this earth? Oh no, my friends, we must make an investment of our lives, of our time, and our resources, and our gifts, and our talents. For eternity, I am putting all my eggs in one basket. That is, that I will hear on Judgment Day a word of condemnation from the living, enthroned Lamb of God, who will say to me as my total reward, Well done, thou good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of the Lord. What about you, my friends? Are you investing your lives and your time and your talents and gifts that God has given you with such a goal? Or are you hoarding everything of this world that will be enjoyed, we call it the pleasures of this life, for mere seconds compared to an eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ and the opportunity to enjoy the rewards He will give you then? Love not the world. Neither the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it. But he who does the will of God, what? Abides forever. Forever with Him. He is our exceedingly great reward. He is our reward. False pastors cater to the desires of false brethren who don't want a strong and searching ministry of the Word. But that's the very thing they need to wake them up. A strong warning from the Lord. Are you hearing me? I know it's hot out, but are you hearing me? I only have a few minutes left. God said of these false pastors and the people who love to hear their preaching, this is a rebellious people, Isaiah 39 and 10 say. This is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of the Lord, who say to the seers, do not see, and to the prophets, do not prophesy. Do not prophesy to us right things. Speak to us smooth things. Prophesy deceits. Jeremiah 6.13, because from the least of them, even to the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness. And from the prophet, listen to this, it breaks my heart, but this is the case today, and I say this truthfully, because I've been a pastor for 33 years, and I've been in many different situations, and I have seen from the broadcasting end of it, to the local church rank-and-file end of it, the level of covetousness and pride and greed and selfishness that that possesses most pastors today and most pastors over the last 30 to 40 years is unconscionable and it breaks my heart to say it to you but it is the truth It is the truth and we must flee, we must flee because we will be held triply accountable to God for the souls of our people that we minister to. Are we praying for them? Are we washing their feet? Are we sacrificing for them? Are we working seven days a week, 24-7 for them? Are we giving everything for the growth and for the sake of the sheep? Just like our Lord Jesus did and gave us an example by washing their feet. Because from the least of them, even to the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness. And from the prophet, even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. They have also healed the hurt of my people slightly, saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. God says in Jeremiah 23, do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless. They speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord. They continually say to those who despise me, the Lord has said you shall have peace. And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of their own heart. They say, no evil shall come upon you. Isn't that exactly, or very close to that, what is written in the popular Christian books today? The Bible says that in the end times they will call gain godliness. And so many of our Joyce Myers and Joel Osteens and all the Rick Warrens that has poisoned and inundated the church with their false teaching, stirring up greed, stirring up fleshly desire of the brethren for the things of this world which will perish with the using. Are you hearing me brethren? Is this a burden which weighs you down sometimes so that you can't even lift your face off your bed? The tears are flowing. Where are the tears of the church? I'm going to stop there except for one last application because my hour is up. What is the remedy? What is the hope What is the solution to superficial religion, ritualism that has no life, last resort Christianity, procrastinating from doing the right thing because we want to try to do it ourselves first? We'll get into the other verses next time, God willing, in this text. I've been having a growing burden about what I see going on in the world and in the church. And I think God is giving Christ Bible Church another opportunity to go to the next level in our service of the Lord, to lay our lives down at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ afresh, on the altar of service and sacrifice, to take inventory and stock of our lives, everything that we do, write it down and take stock of it and say, what is not necessary? What is absolutely necessary that I must do to pay my bills? Whatever else is not necessary, how can I serve the Lord and glorify Him in my prayers, my walk with Him, in my service in the Church, using my gifts to edify the brethren, reaching out with the Gospel? What ministry can I join and serve in with diligence, without complaining, without making excuses? but jealously and zealously with love serving our Lord Jesus Christ to the giving up of every breath. What better way to use our strength while we still have some left to use our minds than serving the Lord, talking to others about Him, talking of Him and His glories. The Bible tells us to talk of His wondrous works. Brother G., before the service, was telling me of some of the wondrous works that God was doing in somebody's life that he witnessed to. Here's a brother who's coming up, he's talking about the wondrous works of the Lord. It takes strength to do that. It takes your mind, effort, words, lips, coherence of cognitive thought. That's a lot of energy. What better way to use our strength down to our last breath on our deathbed than to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ? Because it's only what we do for Jesus Christ that will last and will follow us into the life to come. It's only those spiritual works that are the gold, silver, and precious stones that when the testing fire of God is put to them will become more valuable after they are tested. Oh, my dear friends, the Lord Jesus Christ, I remind you, is the healer of our wounds. He is the one who recovers us from a place, a snare, that we have fallen into. He is the great God who not only has already forgiven us of all sins, past, present, and future, of every sin of word, thought, and deed. Our sins and iniquities He remembers no more. But He can take a Peter who denied Him three times. He could take a John Mark who forsook the way temporarily. He left Paul and Barnabas and went back, an untested worker. Oh, my friends, the Lord Jesus can take us with all of our defects and our failures and our long interruptions of laziness and slothfulness as Christians, and He can fill up what is lacking in us by His grace, by His mercy, through His shed blood, and restore us to that place of zeal and diligence and love and life and fellowship with the living God. and send forth that stream of grace into our hearts and minds to equip us to do his work every day like he did in the past. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. My little children, these things I write unto you, that you sin not. And if anyone sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. We have someone who is holy, harmless, undefiled, that is higher than the heavens. And on that mountain, He ascended to His throne of mercy. His throne of intercession for the needs of the saints, where He prays for us night and day. His ear is like that recording device that can hear somebody speak, like a mile away. He hears the faintest cry of the sheep, I've wandered from you, and I've got caught in this bush, and I am astray, and I've fallen behind the rest of the flock. Come, Lord Jesus. It's like I'm in quicksand. I'm paralyzed. I tried to get out, but I can't, and I'm sinking. Please come and rescue me from this danger." And how many times has he heard that cry from us? How many times has He faithfully rescued us, cleaned us up, washed us in His precious blood, put us on His shoulders, and brought us back to the sheepfold? And not only as we were humbled by our humiliation, but as He lifted up our spirits and renewed our hope and restored fellowship with us and given us more opportunities to serve Him than even before we fell away from fellowship with Him. What a wonderful God we serve. He's worthy of all of our praise. Don't you just love Him today? Don't you just want to praise Him? A God of a thousand chances. A God who keeps forgiving and keeps forgiving and keeps forgiving. And will never say no when His children cry out to Him to return to us in the way of power and grace and love. This is the God we serve. This is the God we know. There is no other God that even closely approaches the attributes and the character. The perfect God-man, Jesus Christ. Oh, don't you want to just worship Him? Well, go ahead. You have my permission. That's what this service is all about. Let's pray. Lord, we thank You and we praise You for the Lord Jesus Christ. who has indeed, we confess, picked us up from our slop and slime over and over again, countless times, and has cleansed us, has renewed our love, and has brought us back to himself, drawn by cords of love. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for being so kind and compassionate, so patient and forbearing with us, For you have not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is your love for those that fear you. For you know our frame. You remember that we are dust. Hear our prayer. Revive your church. Restore that believer who is crying to you now. Be merciful, Lord Jesus. Bring me home, Lord. Resurrect your love and your life in my heart. Oh, would you not hear the prayer of your sheep who are calling upon the shepherd you to bring them home and to plant them afresh upon the solid ground of your grace. For this is our prayer in Jesus name we pray, amen.