If you have your Bibles with you today turn if you will to Luke chapter 15 as we continue on the sermon series, the Prodigal son.
The prodigal son was called by Charles Dickens the greatest story in all of liturature. The Prodigal son is the greatest story ever told by the greatest life that was ever lived. It is the gospel within the Gospel. Theologians call it the pearl of the parables. It is the story of LOVE, of HATE, of LUST, of GREED, of SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS, of LEGALISM, of RUIN, of RESTORATION, of REDEMPTION, there is no end to this story. Every line leaps out of the page into your heart because it is more alive than what you read on the front page of the morning newspaper.
Open, please the Word of God to Luke 15 and read
with me verses 11 and following. (verse 11-12 and then) "And not many days after..." stop right there.
Now that line may not mean a lot to you but it leaps off the page at me. "And not many days after". What was he doing in those few days, while he was getting all of his inheritance together?
I'll tell you what he was doing. He was going to all of his yuppy friends and saying, "when I get my money together and I get out into the far country and I get away from the religious rules of my father. When I get away from his authority. When I get into the far country, it is going to be party time for me." I am going to have a blast. And all of his yuppy friends were listening to that, because he felt like that away from his father was the good life.
I want you to know that his thoughts went prodigal before he did. And your thoughts will go prodigal before you do. Sin first begins with a thought. It is a fasination, that becomes a form, that becomes a fact. And as he went through the fasination of the good life in the far country, it finally became a form and he went into the far country looking for everything he could find that would satisfy self.
When he left his father's house he called it independance, and when he was satisfying his lust, he called it pleasure. And when he lost all of his money with all of his sorted friends, he called it bad luck. When he wound up in a pigs pin nose to nose with a hog fighting for food, he said, "I've been a fool."
I want you to know one thing, the devil offers you the good things in the far country - power - pleasures and profits but at the end of all that is a pig's pin. And if you are dreaming that dream you are in deception. You're dreaming about independance, but you will not find it. Some here today may be right in the middle of that. I want you today to call it what it really is.
This boy's moral insanity was ruptured by the stinch of pigs - his illustion was shattered by reality - deception was crushed by the truth - he was now in a mud hole...and it was time to be real. Some of you are in a mud hole and it's time to be real. You have a smile on your face that is nothing but a mask to hide the river of tears behind it. You know that you are not happy. You know that your life is empty. You know that your life has no meaning and direction. You have sought blessings that do not bless. You have sought solutions that do not solve. You have sought cures that do not cure.
And I want you today in Jesus' name to have the real life. But it is not in deception and it's not in the far country. Are you living a delightful deception? Hear the Word of the Lord today and turn around and go back to the will of the Father. Let's pray.
Father, thank You for Your Word, now bless it to our hearts in Jesus' name. Amen.
I want you to hear this, If you are in deception you are like the soldiers in Napolian's army. On one occasion Napolian was making a long march across the desert. His troops in their bright blue uniforms, very strict in the regimintation, marched row upon row, rank upon rank, across that blazing desert. So hot their tongues were swelling in their mouths. They were thirsty beyond description and suddenly, out in front of them there appear a beautiful body of water and oasis. Green palm trees, grass around the edge and they broke ranks and began to run toward the water.
Risking being shot. They ran, but the problem was the harder they ran, just a quickly the lake ran. And when they reached for it, it was just beyond their reach. And when the dove in the sand for it, it was just beyond their reach. And finally, it disappeared, because it was an illusion. It wasn't there at all. Some of them died in the sand, swallowing the sand thinking it was water. Because it was an illusion.
I want to tell you. That is what satan is doing to you right now, with his illusion about life in the far country. He's telling about how much fun you can have in the far country, away from your father's authority. And just about the time you reach for it, he pulls it from you. And he lures you deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper into the far country, until finally when you get there and you reach for it with all that you've got, with all of your virtue, with all of your money, with everything that's in you. You're not on a silver plater, you're in a pig's pin.
That's what sin is, it's an illusion. That's what the far country is, it's an illusion. It is not real at all. You are seeking independance and you are going to find slavery. You are seeking pleasure, power and profits. You're going to find poverty in a pig's pin. You are seeking success and what you are going to find is shame and sorrow. You're seeking the good life and what you are going to find is hell on earth.
Today, you'll walk the aisle, some of you, and you'll say, Father, I'm coming home and I'm facing the issue as it really is. Some will run from truth, from reality. You'll run from who you really are and where you really are.
In the final analysis you are going to face God and you are going to give an account of your life. There is no fun in the far country away from the Father's will. Why can't you be satisfied in the far country? God has created all the animals on the earth and He's created you. He is the arcitech of your heart soul mind and body.
He has created a cow so the cow can chew her cud and be satisfied. He's engineered a bird to happy with last years bird's nest. He's engineered a dog to be happy with a dry meatless bone. But He's engineered a man that the only thing that will satisfy the man is to be in the presence of God. The Bible says, "In thy presence is the fullness of joy." (repeat) Only Jesus can satisfy your soul. Not profits, not power, not position, not pleasure. Only Jesus.
Hear me. Our God is not an illusion. Jesus Christ is not an illusion. I want you to hear this. Jesus Christ is what Coca Cola is trying to be. He's the real thing. HE'S THE REAL THING.
The Bible says, "He's a friend that sticketh closer than a brother". Jesus is my Lord, my Savior, my Master and my King. When I stand in the room of a sick love one and I invite Jesus into the room as the healer. That's real brother, because He comes and He heals and He satisfies. When I stand by the yawning mouth of a grave and say farwell to a dear one, Jesus stands besides me. Because Jesus is real. Jesus is real, He is not an illusion. He is the REAL THING. He is the Real Thing.
When I sob my heart out in some private Gethsemane, He is there. He is there because He is the Real Thing. Jesus is my rock, He is my salvation. He is my fortress, He is my shield, He is my buckler, He is the living water that satisfies. He is the Bread of Life that satisfies the hungry.
Are you tired of illusions. Are you tired of an empty, meaniless life. I want you to know that if you'll go home to the Father, He will embrace you, He will restore you, He will forgive you. He will wash the stinch away from you. He'll place His robe around you, place the ring of authority upon your finger. Put upon your feet the shoes of sanction and He will kiss you. The text says He'll literally kiss you all over because He is anxious to give you a new beginning. Are you looking for something that is real?
Go home to God the Father, thru God the Son, Jesus Christ, that's where it is.
Sin is the only of which it can be said, "The more you practice it, the less you know it." The Church of Jesus Christ is at war with the kingdom of darkness, and we are talking about a victory. Where is it? Movie houses and TV screens are packed on Saturday nights shedding tears for some Hollywood actress doing something on the screen. Yet their sons and daughters are dying in the far country without God and there are no tears and there is no prayer, because they could care less.
Church members go to football games and scream like indians -- they'll throw chairs -- they'll throw $100 hats. They'll beat the guy in front of them over the shoulders and scream "We've scored, we've scored" Why? Because some muscle bound ape carried 13 oz. of hot air across a white line. But let them come to church, here's how they come in (frown).--------------------- ME,....BE EMOTIONAL. NEVER. Me lift my hands and praise God? NEVER. Me say "Praise the Lord?" NEVER. Hoarse from yesterday, but never in the House of God.
I want you to hear this. When we become as excited about Jesus as we have about IU, or about Purdue, or about the Indianapolis Colts, or whoever your team happens to be, THEN WE ARE GOING TO SEE SONS AND DAUGHTERS BORN INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD & NOT ONE MINUTE BEFORE.
It's time for the Church of Jesus Christ to SHAKE ITSELF and come out of slumber and go into its prayer closet and eat raw meat and gun powder, and come out with fire blowing out both ears and go head hunting for the prince of darkness himself, and proclaim victory in the name of Jesus.
Why do humanist hate the Bible. I'll tell you why. Because God's Bible is the standard of righteousness. It defines sin. It says what sin is. And when sin is defined, you have the authority, under God, to say that abortion is wrong. Homosexuality is wrong. Drunkeness is wrong. Immorality is wrong. You have the authority of God to say that. And the Humanist do not want to be accountable to you or to God Himself. That's why they hate the Word of God.
The humanist are saying that man is God. What deception. What nonsense is that? Horse feathers. Man is inheritly good. Educated him and he will produce utopia. That's what the humanist are saying.
Utopia. We are drowning in a pool of AIDS, and pronography and homosexuality and drugs. Utopia. It is Hell on earth.
This is not heaven. This is not utopia. Education without God only turns out a Godless savage. Don't you ever forget it. I believe in education. But education without God will only produce a savage. If you want proof, go to Germany. It was a nation of laws, of liturature, or art. Brilliant people and Hitler transformed them into Nazis and they became the most brutal, barbaric people on the face of the earth. And threw 6 million Jews into the ovens alive. Without conscience. Because education without God is a great deception. It will not save man.
America is saying right now, that what we need for our school systems is more money. What nonsense. We've taken the Word of God out of the schools and in the vacuum has come satanism, full force. And the Bible says that Satan blinds the mind. That's what he is in. He is in mind control. Do you want to know why our children can't learn like the Russian children learn, or the German children can learn, or the Japanize children can learn. Because we have invited into our school systems the Prince of Darkness and we have invited the Prince of Light and Reason to leave. And we are getting what we ask for.
I want to tell you something. What's going to turn it around. It's when Americans like you, and you and you and you and you and all the others, get fed up enough with this humanist, godless mentality that we have been swallowing like swill, and say we are tired of it. We are going to put our shoulders together, we are going to put our hearts together. We are going to unify, we are going to speak up, we are going to spend our dollars, and we are going to turn it around for Jesus' sake in this country.
The sexual revolution in American, throwing the Bible away has produced open homosexuality. I want all the humanist to listen. On the authority of God's Word that you hate, I'm telling you that homosexuality is an abomination to the Lord. It is sin now, and always will be. It is not a loving secondary life style and will never be accepted by Bible believing Christians. Not ever.
We are decieved in this country by the media. If you as a Christian think the media is anything but humanist, you're decieved. Humanist having nothing for the Gospel preaching church but hate. The idea that the media in America is projecting is that if you love Jesus, "You're not well". And if you believe the Bible you are a bafoone. I want to tell you something. I believe in Jesus and the Bible and I'm going to keep on doing it until Jesus comes or I die.
But as long as there is a pulpit from which to preach, I'm going to stand there and say, "Jesus is the Lord of the World, He is the answer to America's problems, HE IS REAL and if you are looking for a good life, go with Jesus. It's not found in drugs or drink or delinquency, it is found in the Son of God."
You don't think that is true. You wait until a Christian athlete gets on TV and the interviewer puts a mic under his mouth, and he says, "I thank the Lord Jesus Christ for helping me have a good game." And the interviewer doesn't know which to do, eat the mic or die right there. But they want to get him off as soon as possible. God bless every one of them.
We are out of time. Let me close with this. Our young people are walking into the bows of hell and we are saying, "Why is this happening?" It's happening because we have defide the laws of God, we have turned our back on truth, we have invited Jesus Christ to get out of the schools. What's the answer. It's for this nation under God to repent and come back to Bible preaching and godly living and then America will be strong again.
Until then we are in deception. And if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves. Purhaps there is one here today that is in a pig's pin. Life on a silver platter has turned to stinch. And you are looking for an answer to an empty, meaniless, void, unhappy life. The answer is Jesus Christ.
Some are bound up to legal drugs and you have not been free for years. In Jesus Name I want you to be free today.
Some of you are bound up in a deception about who God is. I want you to know that the good life begins when you come to yourself. And when the delightful deception is crushed by reality. Be brave enough today to look at your circumstance and call it exactly what it is.
Can we stand together. Father, in Jesus name, thank for the joy of being in the house of the Lord. Now may the Holy Spirit bring us to an altar of redemption. While our musicians are playing. How many of you hear can say, Pastor, I am in deception. I am involved in drugs, I am involved in alcohol, I am involved in pronography, in mind control, searching for power. I am wrapped up in lust and I want to be free. In Jesus name can I see you hands.....(snap fingers)
How many of you here can say, there was a day I gave my life to Jesus, but I'm in the far country, I have backslidden, I am out of fellowship with the Father and today I want to rededicate my life to the Son of God,...can I see your hands.
How many of you here can say Pastor, there is sin in my life and today I want to come back to God and ask Him to forgive me,.. in Jesus' name can I see your hands right now....right were you are.
As we sing the hymn of invitation, I now want you to come. Come. Come.
