The Character Of Jeremiah

The Character Of Jeremiah

The character of Jeremiah

by Terry Prather

Jeremiah is the book that tells you how God deals with nations. Do you realize that there are some nations which the Bible mentions that are not even in existence any more? The nation Moab, for instance, is not around any more. And yet Jeremiah chapter 50 mentions that God would judge the nation Moab. What happened? Well, according to the Bible, He judged them so hard they’re not even in existence.

There are some other countries that God has judged. The nation of the Hittites are not even around any more. There was a big problem with archaeology for the longest; they said the word “Hittite” was just a scribal addition to the Scriptures, and that there never was such a city or group of people called the Hittites. In 1973 they unearthed some things which they couldn’t recognize. They didn’t look like anything they had seen before. They got to searching around and searching around; then, all of a sudden, through decoding the language, that these people called themselves “Hittites.” What happened? Well, the Bible just proved them wrong again; that’s what happened!

You give it enough time, and this book is going to prove itself over and over and over again. Every sphere and atmosphere, every amount of knowledge–historical, medical–in ANY way possible–this Book is going to prove itself to be true time and time again.

And God purposely lets the world make a complete fool out of itself. And then he’ll show these fools what has already been written down; and it will just come up and prove the Bible every time. Archaeology backs it up; history backs it up. Any kind of sphere of knowledge you want to look at will back up this old Book, the Bible.

Now, Jeremiah was a preacher whom God called from the womb. We don’t believe in abortion; we believe it’s wrong. One of the reasons we believe it’s wrong is because God called Jeremiah when he was in the womb–and he moved. God did a lot of things with some of his men who were still in the womb. John the Baptist was in the womb for six months, and he saw Mary, the mother of Jesus, come in–and, boy, he jumped and leaped from within the womb. What happened? He was ALIVE–that’s what happened! And he knew that that was something wonderful; God called him.

Jeremiah is a similar person. He’s a man child, and he’s called to go to a nation that’s stiff-necked and hard-headed. God said, “You go and you preach to them.” And Jeremiah’s a hard preacher. He’s such a hard preacher that he preaches to over five different kings. He preaches for over 23 years. The end result is, he winds up with about three converts–and that’s it. After only 23 years of preaching, three people finally fell in with him, and God blessed those three men and helped them. Jeremiah was that kind of a preacher.

In fact, God said, “Jeremiah, I don’t even want you to get married. The time is so rough and so bad, I need all your attention to be focused upon me. Don’t get married.” And he didn’t get married. And Jeremiah had no children, no offspring.

You say, “What happened to Jeremiah?” You’ll see him in heaven. You’ll see him one today.

I want you now to see what Jeremiah preached to the nation of Israel. Jeremiah 4:1-4:

If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.

And thou shalt swear, the LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.

For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

Circumcize yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

Look here in verse 1. Here, through the prophet Jeremiah, God says something that is somewhat confusing. He says, “Return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.” The interesting thing about this is that it’s almost an impossibility. It’s almost an impossibility to put anything out of the sight of God.

Why? Psalm 139:7: Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

God says, “Take the abomination away out of my sight.” That’s impossible, because God is everywhere. He’s in heaven; he’s in hell. God is between you and me. You say, “What is that?” Well, that’s a good definition in a roundabout way. What is God? The Bible says, “God is a spirit.” What exactly does that mean? Well, if God is in heaven and hell at the same time, and darkness and light are both alike to Him, then that tells you something tremendous about God. You say, “What is God?” God is space. The space between you and me is God. And yet, I see you, and you see me. But between us, although we can’t see God, God is there. That’s space. That’s God.

And so, when God says, “Thou shalt take away thine abomination out of my sight,” that’s impossible to do–unless God has a certain place that He looks.

That’s what we want to explore now. Does God have a certain place that He looks upon man? I believe that He does. Let me show you what I’m talking about.

Go to the book of I Samuel, chapter 16. This is a wonderful portion of Scripture. God gets mad at the king, and He decides He’s going to get another king. And so God goes looking for another king, and He knows who the king is. But yet He’s going to do something with this king that He’s never done with any other king. Look at verses 6 and 7. You know the story if you know your Bible at all; Samuel goes to the house of Jesse to search for a king, but he doesn’t really know who the king is. Samuel, being a “good, American Christian,” looks at what we would look at. He saw the first guy coming in; he was a nice, big, strapping fellow, with a lot of muscles and a lot of hair and a lot of good looks. He said, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before me.”

And the Lord said, “Hey, don’t look at him. I’ve rejected him. He is not what I want.”

Verse 6: “And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him. But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his ountenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”

The reason why you have nowhere to hide or nowhere to run, is because God looks at the heart. I don’t care where you go or what you do. No matter where you are, God has one place in mind. If God has two eyes, or if God has seven eyes, or if God has one eye–I can’t figure out how many eyes God has got, because I keep running across a God who has got all kinds of eyes–I don’t care how many eyes He’s got, I want to tell you that God has got but one place to look with any of His eyes, and that’s upon your heart.

There’s no place to hide.

I don’t know about you, but I’d hate to be a sinner, away from God, running from God, having heard the gospel, having known the way of salvation–and reject it and be running from God. Why? Because there’s no place to hide.

God would be looking at your heart all the time.

People keep wondering about where the heathen go. “Where do the heathen go, if they don’t know anything about the gospel?” I’ll tell you where they go! They go to K-Mart; they go to Woolworth’s; they go to Sears. That’s where the heathen go! If you don’t believe it, just look around; they’re everywhere, brother!

I’ll tell you where the heathen go. They’ll go to Heaven if they get saved, and if they reject Jesus Christ, they’ll go to hell. You say, “What if they never heard?” Brethren, they have heard. In 1990, the whole world has heard the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. If there is some place out there in Papua New Guinea where they’ve never heard, then let me tell you something–it’s not those people who are at fault; it’s God’s people who are at fault. God is trying to get somebody out there to talk to them and so they could get witnessed to and so they can hear the gospel. Do you know why God sends missionaries? Because God looks upon the nation; He doesn’t look at how good they are. He looks upon the nation and He sees how wicked they are. But yet He’ll look–not at their faces, not at the king, not at the monetary value–but He’ll look upon the heart.

If there’s one lost sinner in Africa, brother, God will work on a Christian to get him over there. Why? He’ll look at that heart. He sees in that heart that that fellow has but one thing, one commodity, that God looks for in a sinner.

What is it? I’m glad you asked! Look at Jeremiah chapter 5. When God looks at your heart, this is what God wants to see. God wants this thing in your heart more than anything else. I’ll tell you something; there are a lot of people who have this all fouled up. That’s why they teach this heresy that some are born to die and go to hell, and some are born to get saved and go to heaven. They don’t understand the Bible. Let me tell you something; God looks at the heart. When He sees this commodity in the heart, He’ll save you. Here’s the commodity:

Jeremiah 5:3: “O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth?” That’s a question. “Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved: thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.”

What happened to the nation of Israel? God started looking at the individual, and He said, “There is no truth and desire in their heart for the truth. Therefore, I’ll turn that nation upside down.”

God turned the nation of Israel upside down and shook it until 2500 years later, in 1948. What happened? God didn’t bring them back because they were looking for Him. God brought them back because of His prophecy that those whom He scattered He would bring back at the end times. Brethren, that’s how we know we’re in the end times.

Let me ask you something. Have you got truth abiding in your heart? Is there something in your heart that longs to know what the truth is? I mean, absolute, unadulterated, final truth–do you want that now? You ought to. Let me tell you something; the reason you got saved is because you heard the gospel, and the gospel bore witness to your heart. The reason it bore witness to your heart is because you had a desire for the truth. Brethren, that’s what will save you every time! That will save you, whether you are a sinner, lost, going to hell, or you’re a Christian who has made one of the biggest blunders in your life. It’ll still save you.

David did something that was absolutely horrible under the Old Testament. David did a sin for which there was no blood atonement provided in the Law. There weren’t enough lambs, there weren’t enough cattle, there weren’t enough goats to wash away the sin that David did. David was guilty before God. He should have died, and they should have stoned him, because there was no sacrifice to be made for him. And yet God saved him.

Why did God save him? I’m glad you asked! Look at Psalm 51. The reason there are people who are right now dying and going to hell is not because they don’t want to go to hell; it’s not because they don’t want to go to heaven. The reason they’re going there is because they don’t want the truth. The reason you invite people to come to church and they don’t come to church is because they don’t want the truth. They look in their heart, and it’s not there.

David committed a terrible blunder. But in his heart, he desired something, and that so impressed God that God saved him in spite of the fact that there was no sacrifice to offer. Psalm 51:5: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Well, so much for your mother; your mother is a sinner, too. Verse 6, referring to God: “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.”

Why did God not kill David? He killed and dethroned Saul, because Saul disobeyed him in just one area of his life about killing the Amalekites. I looked at that whole thing and I thought, you know, that’s kind of strange. Here’s ol’ Saul, and God just kind of cut him off real quick. But here’s David: After he has been on the throne, he committed adultery, and then had the man killed and then lied about it, and then didn’t repent of it until God confronted him about it.

I mean, if he was anything at all, he should have repented after he did all that. But he went on for a good year–I know that because there was a baby born out of it, and it takes a baby nine months, so you can safely say it was anywhere from nine months to a year–that he got away with it and was living in secrecy about his sin.

Then, one day, God sent an old prophet. He stuck that bony finger in his face and said, “Thou art the man.” You think about that. Yet David should have died. If God’s going to be honest and even, he should have died, because God killed Saul and let Saul get dethroned and didn’t help Saul. He wrote him off.

But there was one thing between David and Saul that was different. It made all the difference in the world. David had the desire in his heart for the truth. Even though he may not have lived like it, when God looked upon David’s heart, he saw a man who had a desire for the truth. He wanted the truth. Even if it was the truth about himself; he still wanted the truth.

There is no place to hide when it comes to things. There are some things that God wants to do now. If He saved you, then He saved you according to the truth. Amen? What is the truth? Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” Now, that’s the plain, Scriptural, spiritual truth, and there is no way to get around it. And yet, how many times in the world we hear them say other things.

I heard the Pope today–that old wino, liquorhead, abomination, leading the Roman Catholic whore. You say, “I don’t like you talking like that!” That’s the problem. That’s why there is not going to be a whole lot done in these last days. It’s not the world getting upset at God’s preaching; it’s the Christians getting upset. You know, you ought to be ashamed of that, if you get upset because somebody says something that’s truthful. Now, isn’t it true that the Roman Catholic Church is the whore of Revelation 17, 18, and 19? Isn’t it true that the pope, John Paul II, leads one of the biggest abominations there is? Isn’t it true that they talk about the “Queen of Heaven” as Mary? And isn’t it true in Jeremiah, if you read the book, that God beats on Israel because they’ve made “cakes”–little wafers–and patted them down and held them out to the queen of heaven? You say, “Yeah, it’s true!” But you get upset. You know why you get upset at that kind of stuff? Because there’s no truth in you. You’re letting truth slip away from you. There’s no place to hide from that kind of stuff.

People say, “Well, I’ll just leave this church and go to this church down the street.” Well, you go down to this church down the street, and I’ll guarantee you they won’t say anything about it. You say, “Well, they’ve got a bigger crowd than you do.” I know they do. God bless them for having a bigger crowd; maybe one day God will give us a big crowd. But God will have to do it.

You say, “Now wait a minute, preacher. You said I got saved by having the truth?”

That’s right. For desiring the truth, God saw that He could give you the truth, and that you’d respond to it.

You say, “Wait a minute, preacher. I’ve got the truth now, but some of this preaching makes me upset. What do you say about that?”

I’ll tell you what I say. I say your a compromiser. That’s what I say. I say that you compromise so much with the world that when the truth is written down, and the truth is preached, and you get mad, then you’re a compromiser.

Now listen. What would you do if tomorrow morning President Bush got on nationwide television–every station everywhere covering his speech–and he says, “I make a decree as President of the United States that every homosexual be taken and shot to death.” Now, you know he’s not going to do that.

But let me ask you something. Do you know what God told a king over there in II Kings? Do you know he commended him for? He said, “Because you drove the sodomites out of the country. I’ll spare you.” Do you know what Romans 1:18-29 says? It says that God gave those people over–now you listen to me!–He gave them over to a reprobate mind, a reprobate soul, and a reprobate body. You say, why? Because they did not love the truth. They did not glorify God as they ought to.

If tomorrow morning, President Bush made that decree in this country, I guarantee you, it wouldn’t be the ACLU that would rear up and say, “Hey, wait a minute; you can’t do that.” It would be a Christian church that would stand and say, “Now wait a minute. God is love, and God is not going to do that.”

Brethren, I want to tell you something. God is going to judge America, and He’s going to judge the nation with this disease called AIDS. You watch out.

This little fellow Ryan White–you remember that little fellow who died of AIDS a couple of weeks ago? The news media always calls it what they like to call it. They called him an activist. That’s not true at all! That kid was not an activist. That kid just got dealt a raw deal, and got AIDS. He wasn’t queer. He wasn’t a faggot. His daddy wasn’t a faggot. There was no faggot in his family. But he went down to the blood bank and got AIDS–from the blood bank! Those lying people on television and radio are telling you that our blood is secure. It isn’t secure! They’re saying, “We know now what happened.” They don’t know what happened! I don’t know about you, but that makes me mad!

I don’t know; maybe I would become an “activist” if that were my kid. I think that would bother me a bit. You know, your health is important. You lose it, and you’ll find out how important it is. That kid wasn’t even 18 years old. And because some liberal, modernistic politician who hates God and hates the Bible and wants to show that he’s a “do-gooder” stands up and says, “Well, we can’t do anything we want with these homosexuals; they’ve got their rights”– brethren, they’re killing our country! And they’re killing our kids– eighteen years old. God have mercy. Ryan White didn’t deserve that.

I’ll tell you something. There are going to be a lot of things come down on America, and we’re going to look at it and say, “It’s not right.” You know whose fault it is? Brethren, it’s the Christians’ fault.

We had a proposition in this country years ago called Proposition 6. Those sodomites wanted to get into our schools and said, “Hey, we want to teach an alternative lifestyle.” Brethren, the Christian Church couldn’t get enough of us together to vote it down–and they voted it in! And so now, in our public schools, we can have a homosexual up there teaching homosexuality. I say God is going to judge this country if we don’t get on our face before God and help out! It may be too late, but I’ll tell you what, brethren. There are a lot of things going on about which you and I are being lied to and lied about, concerning this AIDS thing.

My son was telling me about an event the other day in his classroom. The teacher got up and asked, “Is AIDS the judgment of God?” Josh and a little girl named Mickie Phillips–brother Joe Phillips’s daughter– they both said, “Amen!” You ought to have seen what happened; all the kids turned around and looked at him. What did you do, Josh. He said, “We just sat there and said, ‘That’s true!’ Why wouldn’t it be?”

But the teacher came back with, “Well what about all these people who get AIDS and it’s not their fault?”

Hey, it’s still the judgment of God. I can’t help it; you may not like it. I don’t like it; it bothers me to say that. But God’s not going to say, “OK, you’re innocent.” Listen, when the judgment of God falls because of sin, a lot of innocent people get hurt! And brethren, you better listen to me. It’s true–if President Bush came out and said, “All right, we’re going to kill all the queers,” it would be a Christian church–it might even be a Baptist church–that would raise up and say, “Oh, no, God is love.”

Let me tell you something; God is love. But God is also holy; He has character. And God will judge this country. And you and I had better get on the right side–on the Lord’s side.

There is no place to hide, brethren–no place to hide.

The thing we need to find out is what God desires. Amen? I don’t know about you, but that’s what I am interested in. What does God desire? He desires the truth.

What about you? Do you desire that?

Look at Psalm 37. I’ve taught the verse I’m going to show you a certain way, but God showed me something else about it recently. It’s one of those wonderful passages of Scripture that you’ll find written on greeting cards; you’ll find it everywhere. This verse I’m going to show is a good verse; it’s an honest verse. It’s a verse you can live on. But I want to give you a different understanding about it now. Notice what it says in verse 4: “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” Now the standard teaching on that thing is this: If you get happy and excited and delight yourself in the Lord and serve Him, then you’ll have some desires, and God will take care of those desires. I taught it that way; I’ve even claimed those promises that way.

But now I want to give it to you in a different way. Is that verse teaching that, if we delight ourselves, we get something from God? Rather, if we delight ourselves in the Lord, God gives us something, and it’s not necessarily materialistic things. If we delight ourselves in the Lord, God will give you and me the desires of our heart. What does that mean? Well, let me give you one. First Peter 2:2 says, “Desire the sincere milk of the word.” If you’ve got a desire in your soul to get this Book and read this Book and have this Book speak to your heart and to your soul and make you a better man or woman, a better Christian, a better father, to make you a better servant of God, you didn’t get that desire from the preacher. You didn’t get that desire from the world. You didn’t get that desire from the devil. You got that desire from God, because God put that desire in your heart. Why did God put that desire in your heart? Because you delighted yourself in the Lord.

Let me give you another one. The Bible says in Hebrews 6:16, “But now they desire a better country.” I want to tell you, if you’ve got a desire in your soul for a better country–I mean, really, just look around this place sometime, and you’ll see all that’s going on in our society, and see all the filth and the abominations that are in our country. People say, “Well, I just can’t see them.” Well, turn off the television and turn on God and you’ll see everything you need to see. Amen? And you ought to have a desire for heaven. That desire only comes from God; it won’t come from anywhere else. You have to delight yourself in the Lord.

Let me give you another one. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 3:1, “If any man desireth the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.” You say, where does a man get the desire to get in the pulpit and preach the Bible, or to pastor a church, or to become a missionary or to teach a Sunday school class? He gets those desires from God. And, brother, you won’t get a desire from God unless you delight yourself in the Lord.

Let me give you another one. In Philippians 4:17 Paul said, “I desire fruit that may abound to your account.” Do you want to have some fruit when you go to heaven? Do you want to bear some good works? Do you want to see somebody get saved? Do you want to see something done for God? That doesn’t come from the ground. That doesn’t come from the fireplace. That comes from the bosom of God, and you’ll have to delight yourself in the Lord.

Let me give you another one. In Philippians 1:23, Paul said, “I have a desire to part and be with the Lord.” You say, why did he do that? He didn’t even have a TV and he saw how wicked it was! Paul said, “I’ve got a desire to be with the Lord.” Do you know what that is? That’s fellowship with God. You and I ought to have a fellowship with the Lord that is so rich and sweet and pure that, brother, it energizes you and gives you power. It gives you zeal for God. But you won’t have any desire like that until you delight yourself in the Lord.

Let me give you another one. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 14:1 to desire spiritual gifts. You know, I don’t know about you, but I believe God is still giving out some spiritual gifts. I believe preaching is a spiritual gift. I believe soul-winning is a spiritual gift. I believe there are things God wants to give us as spiritual gifts. But you have to desire them! You say, “Why don’t I desire them?” You don’t delight yourself in the Lord. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He’ll give you the desires of thine heart.

Let me give you another one. Romans 10:1, Paul says, “My heart’s desire and prayer is that Israel might be saved.” And he prayed that so much that he said, “I wish I could be accursed for my people.” That guy had a burden; he had a burden for lost people. You say, “Where did he get it from?” He delighted himself in the Lord, and God gave him the desires of his heart.

Let me ask you something. The desire of the Bible and heaven and preaching and fruit-brearing and fellowship with God and spiritual gifts and burdens for lost people and the burden of the Lord–those things come from God. That’s God putting the desire not in your mind, not in your soul, but right in your heart. There is no place to hide. God is looking at the heart. I just wonder, is it really true what I’m saying? When God is looking at your heart, what does He see? Is there a desire to make a lot of money? Is there a desire to get a bigger house? Is there a desire to get some materialistic things? Let’s wake up to the fact that we’ve got more materialistic things than we know what to do with. Amen?

Listen, when I walk out of my house, as God is my living witness–and some of you, you could bear witness to this if you had enough guts to say so!–I get confused as to which car I want to take! That’s right, man! I have three different cars–four cars counting my son’s car. (If I want to take it, I can’t whip him any more, but I’ve still got voice control. I can say to him, “I’m taking your car tonight; you take this car.”) I’ve got four different automobiles that I can walk out to and have the key to all of them. And, thank God, I’ve got the pink slip to all of them. Amen? I get confused sometime as to which car I want to drive.

Brethren, you talk about materialistic, let’s talk materialistic! Listen, sometimes I get confused when I go to dress. I open the closet, and I have seven or eight suits to put on; I’ve got all kinds of shirts; I’ve got all kinds of ties. I wore the same tie today because I was so confused; I said, “Aww, forget it; I’ll wear the same tie again!” I looked over in the corner and counted seven pairs of boots I could have have worn today. They all fit and looked just fine! You talk about materialistic–man, let me tell you something. Brethren, we’ve got everything we ever needed and a lot more.

I look around and see two toilets on the inside of my house. You say, “What’s with that?” Fifty years ago you couldn’t have said that! Fifty years ago, if somebody wanted to stand up and give a testimony and say, “I just want to thank God that I’ve got an indoor toilet,” they’d say, “What is he talking about?” Brethren, I’ve got two of them at my house! I’ve got a bathtub and a shower. I’ve got two televisions. Two remove controls–one works and the other doesn’t! The other one is on its way out; it just doesn’t know it yet.

We’ve got so many materialistic things, we don’t need God to give us the desires for those things! My goodness, God already blesses His people abundantly! And He’ll take care of all your needs.

One Sunday school teacher I once had, a little old mountain man who preached up in the woods and came down to be our Sunday school teacher, said, “God takes care of all my needs, and half my wants!” And boy, if that isn’t true!

Listen, let me ask you something. When God looks on your heart, what is it that He sees there? Truthfully, listen to me. Do you truthfully desire to know this Book? Truthfully tonight! Do you truthfully desire to know heaven? You think about it? Think about someone who’s there that you know. It could change your thoughts. It could change your whole attitude, to think that one day I’m going to be in heaven. Do you truthfully want to have that tonight?

What about preaching? Do you really desire to have some preaching that will help you? I had a pastor one time who was a Sunday school teacher turned preacher. We lived up in Klamath at the time. My wife got saved under his preaching. My sister got saved under him. My little brother got saved under him. My mother got under deep conviction under his preacher. That guy didn’t have enough education to put in a bag to take to school. But, I’ll tell you what–when I’d go there to church, I’d say, “I just wonder what he’s going to preach tonight.” I mean, I had a real joy about this guy, the way he preached. I’ll never forget him; that guy’s name was Carl Boyd. When that guy would bow and pray in the pulpit, I sometimes–honest before God–would have to open my eyes, because I thought he was talking right to the Lord.

This guy would preach, and my heart would get filled! One night we had a revival, and we had an evangelist come in. I was so disappointed. The evangelist was good, but I would much rather have listened to the preacher. He just filled me up with the word of God, and he just loved God, and it just showed! God bore witness to him.

You know what? Is there a desire in your heart, truthfully, for the preaching of the word of God? Is there really?

Is there a desire to really bear some fruit? I’m saying there is no place to hide. You maybe think you can fool me; you’re only fooling yourself. You certainly can’t fool God. God is looking at your heart. Is there a truthful desire in your heart to bear some fruit? Are you discouraged? Are going to quit? Are you going to back up and say, “Well, God’s not blessing; therefore, I’m getting out.”

Listen, you compromiser, why don’t you quit compromising and listening to the world? That’s the way the world handles it! Brethren, from our royal seed, and from our heritage, we’ve got Christians who were under the blood of Christ who never quit even though they lost their families. They still stuck hard for God. What do you and I have to be discouraged about? What have we got to be upset about?

We’ll go home today and open the refrigerator. You talk about food– there will be wall-to-wall food on the other side of that refrigerator door! I want to tell you something; there are some Christians over in Ethiopia who love God and are just as saved as you and I. But they’ll go home tonight to one bean–nothing! You know what they’ll do? They’ll probably say, “Praise God!” We’ll go home tonight, and we’ll look, and we’ll be confused. Do I want apple pie or strawberry pie? Do I want ice cream or yogurt?

Brethren, we have got it made in America! Of all people, we ought to have revival. If ever anybody ought to have revival, it ought to be Fundamental Baptist Church–because God has just been so good to us and blessed us and helped us, and worked on us, and has done wonderful things for us!

Let me ask you something; when God looks on your heart, is there a desire for spiritual gifts? One of the spiritual gifts is the gift of helps. The gifts of prophecy and wisdom and faith. Really and truly, as God looks on your heart, is He going to see a desire for that? Or is He going to see a desire for something that is absolutely worldly and ungodly? There is no place to hide.

Let me ask you something. Is there a truthful desire in your heart for a burden for lost people? Man, can you remember how it was when you first got saved? I can remember; I witnessed to everybody; I talked to everybody; I just wanted to see people saved, because it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.

I remember one time I saw a Roman Catholic priest. I talked to that bird. I figured, “Well, the reason he’s a priest is because he needs that kind of understanding, he needs that black robe, he needs that backwards collar, he needs all those adornments.” But, I’ll tell you what, I went up and talked to that guy and said, “Man, isn’t it great to be saved?”

I was in Thailand at the time. That guy looked at me and said, “Oh, a fanatic.”

He just about quenched my fire, man! I finally went and told somebody about it. I said, “You know, I don’t think that priest there understood what I meant when I said I was saved.”

This guy just laughed to high heaven. He said, “Man, that Baal worshipper doesn’t know what you’re talking about!” He said, “That guy right there is the biggest false prophet there ever was.”

I said, “Wow! Really?” I didn’t get offended. It didn’t make me mad. I said, “Why do you say that?”

He opened the word and said, “Man, here, look here at what the Book says. Here’s what the Book says. Here’s what the Book says. The Bible says, ‘Call no man your father which is open this earth,’ Matthew 23:9.”

I went, “Wow!”

He said, “Man, we’re in a battle.”

Let me ask you something. Is there a desire in your heart for some truthful desires of God? There ought to be! There ought to be a desire for God’s Book, there ought to be a desire for you to do something for God, there ought to be a desire for the Lord Jesus Christ like you’ve never had in your life!

Just Him, and Him alone. He’s all-sufficient. Amen? He’s risen from the grave. He’s all-sufficient. Brethren, He sits up there at the right hand of God, and He’s able to take care of everything we’ve ever had a need of being taken care of! If you need a job, the Lord Jesus Christ said He’ll take care of that. You ought to love Him for it. You ought to have a desire in your heart to fellowship with Him, to love Him, and to get alone with Him and to pray with Him, and to have all kinds of desires towards Him.

There is no place to hide. If you don’t have it, you’re a compromiser. You need to get right on that matter.

Listen to me. I don’t know about you, but I’d hate to go to heaven discouraged, broken, and unthankful. I really would. I’d rather go to heaven, maybe not having all my faculties, maybe not having the best of health, maybe not having the best that this world can offer– but I’d rather go to heaven, brethren, being on fire for God and having revival in my heart and a truthful desire to serve God. I’d rather have tonight than anything.

I want to tell you something. I don’t know what it’s going to take to put all of those things in my heart, but I’ll tell you right now, it starts in one place. It starts with delighting yourself in the Lord.

You say, “What does that really mean?” Let me tell you what it means. That thing of “delight yourself in the Lord” means one thing. It starts with a thanksgiving unto God for what you have, where you are, and what you’re doing. Being thankful for everything about you–that’s delighting yourself in the Lord.

I close by way of testimony. I remember one night we brought little Manuel down here in this church. We found out that, at just three years old, he had cancer all riddled through his body. I remember one member of the family came up and said, “Hey, would it be possible that we bring him before the church, anoint him with oil, and then have the elders pray over him?”

I said, “You bet. Let’s bring him forward tonight.”

Boy, you talk about bad news, brethren–that’s bad news. I remember we came down here, and we put him in the middle in front here. Some of you were there. We started praying. That night I did something I never have done before. I usually have everybody pray, but that night I called specifically on people to pray. “You pray, brother.” “You pray, brother.”

I stood there in that pulpit and, man, my heart was broken. I thought, “Lord, that’s not fair! That’s not fair, God.”

Boy, God rebuked me! To one of the men, I said, “Brother, you pray.”

And that guy bowed his head and said, “God, tonight, Lord I want to thank you. I want to thank you, God, for letting all this happen.”

My heart broke. Here I was complaining, trying to blame God, not finding out what grace was all about. And, boy, that’s all I needed to hear. “God, thank you!”

The greatest sacrifice you’ll ever make in this lifetime is when something happens, and you don’t understand it, and you say, “God, thank you.”

You say, “How?” “Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of thine heart.”

Although all the prayers that night were good, and I thank God for them, that one prayer that night did me some good. After awhile, I started having trouble with my health. I’ll be honest with you, man, I would spend weeks and weeks on end, trying my best to say, “Lord, I’m thankful, I’m thankful.” But I couldn’t do it. I want to be real with God, because I believe that God looks at the heart. You can’t run. You can’t hide.

Finally, I got alone with God and said, “God, I can’t thank you for this. Lord, I wish that I could, but, God, I can’t be a phony. You know my heart. God, you look at my heart, and you see that I’m not thankful for what’s happened. And, God, you see that there is something there that’s bitter.” I want to tell you something, man. It wasn’t but just a couple of days ago that I finally went to God and said, “God, there’s a problem between you and me. Lord, I am not thankful. I’m not thankful.”

I got down and I poured my heart out to God, and when I got up, I had all the grace I needed! And then, when I said, “Lord, I’m thankful,” I meant it!

I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ll tell you what; I’m breathing better now than I’ve been breathing in a long time.

Hey, let me tell you something. It’ll cost you something to live by faith. It’ll cost you some tears, it may cost you a job, it may cost you a friend, it may cost you a relative, it may cost you some things in this life. But, I’ll tell you, I’ve made up my mind. I would rather live by faith and serve Him whom I’ve never seen, and love Him whom I’ve never seen–but one day I will!–I would rather live that way, and have the peace of God and the joy of God in my life, than to live the other way and be a compromiser with this world. And be a phony and try to make do and make it look like I’m living for God.

I don’t want to be that way. You say, “Why?” There is no place to hide, no place to hide! You either have to come clean with God, or you’re going to wind up being a compromising phony. And one day you’ll meet Him who you’ve never seen. And then it will all come back. It’ll be too late then. Saved, but yet no serve.

There’s no place to hide. When God is looking at your heart, does He see something there that shouldn’t be there?

I tell you, I don’t know about you, but I want God to see something in my heart–that I love the truth, the truth about myself. I don’t know what it is, man. The Bible talks about the dross, on which God puts the fire, and it kind of “bubbles” to the top. That’s how they make silver real pure. They boil it, and when the dross comes to the top, they have this thing like a swing-arm, and it swings it off and wipes it off. And then, after awhile, all the dross is off, and then there is this hunk of pure, fine silver.

It seems like this past week in my life, God has been bringing this thing up and that thing up. You say, “What do you think He’s doing?” He’s trying to make the dross get out of me so there will be a piece of silver that’s worth having.

I’m not there. I’ve got a long way to go, brethren. I’m not bragging by any shape or matter. But, I’m just saying, I thank God for what He’s done in my life, and I thank God that He’s doing something in my life. It’s almost like I’m saying, “OK, Lord, what’s the next tragedy we’ve got to face?” I can look back and see what God has already done, just in the revival in my heart. There’s something there, brethren, that’s real.

I’m saying this. If God is not real to you, if the Bible is not real, if your salvation is not real to you, it’s because you’re not thankful. You ought to be thankful if you’re saved. If you’re saved and going to heaven and your sins are covered under the blood, and you’ve got fellowship, then you ought to be thankful. If you’re not thankful, then you’re a compromiser. That is, you’ve given half your heart to the world and half your heart to Jesus Christ. Whether you realize it or not, Jesus says, “Hey, thanks but no thanks! I want it all! Until you’re ready to give it all to me, don’t give it to me at all!”

The world’s not that way. The world says, “We’ll take anything you’ve got.” Because they know what they can take from you, God won’t get all of. They’ll waste your life with riotous living.

Is that what God sees in your heart? You say, “Yeah, Preacher, I’d like to have those things, but I’m just too busy. I don’t have time for God.” Let me tell you something; you’ll regret you ever had that thought. You need to get that out.

No place to hide, no place to run.

God’s here looking at your heart. What does He see?