It was reasonably okay.
Good morning, saints. Thank you. Thank you.
We have got to be awake. I mean, the whole thing is being awake. You know, the time is at hand. It is time to be awake.
I tell you what, when I wake up in the morning, sometimes I am pretty groggy. You know, I feel like sometimes we get in a groggy mood, and we are not really awake. So may the Lord awaken us to really hear what He is trying to say to us this morning.
Let us begin with a word of prayer.
Lord, we have come to You this morning. You have done Your best to declare unto us that the time is near, the time of Your soon return.
And Lord, we want to be a people ready when You return—ready to welcome You. And not only ready to welcome You, but to be a vessel that can hasten Your return, Lord, and no longer delay.
We know, Lord, that You are ready, but we are not. So, Lord, we are asking that You work deep in our hearts.
I also ask, Lord, as I share Your word this morning, that I not misrepresent Your heart nor Your thought. I do plead the blood of Jesus over all that will be shared this morning, and ask, Lord, that You would move in our hearts deeply, to be able to respond to what You are trying to tell us in these days.
We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, I have been sharing three messages, and they have to do with the Lord’s soon return.
Now, at the end of the conference, as I began to think about the testimony time that week, the Lord really impressed upon my heart the prayers of our brother Stephen. The more I read those prayers, the more I saw that God was pouring out His heart to us in prayer. He was praying for us. God was praying for us.
And I was so impressed with these prayers because I think they reveal to us God’s heart for you and me, for this hour in which we live: a specific purpose for you and me, a calling that we need to enter into for this time we are in.
I just believe they were prophetic prayers. I really do. And it was on my heart that we just could not leave the conference and go on without considering how God has poured His heart into a few prayers. And those prayers are for you and me. I just wanted us to reflect on those things.
Now, last week I shared on the first prayer, and I will just read that real quickly:
How we praise and thank Thee that this is a perilous time.
Thou hast gathered us together before Thee to prepare us for Your imminent return.
Lord, we do pray that there will be a real preparation in each one of us, that we may not only prepare to meet our dear Lord, but may be used by Thee to prepare the way of Thy return.
What a privilege. What an honor You have called us to.
Lord, we look to Thee, for only Thy grace can enable us to answer Thy call and be truly the link that Thou art looking for in these last days.
We commit this time into Your hands and pray that You would bless this time and deliver us from mental acceptance, but enable us by Thy Spirit to enter into the reality of Thy calling.
We give Thee all the glory in Thy precious name. Amen.
So, last week I shared on “A Perilous Time, a Privileged Hour.” It is a perilous time because of the Lord’s imminent return. He is getting ready to return. The enemy is greatly agitated and furious.
The Lord is trying to consummate this age because, at the consummation of this age, brothers and sisters, the enemy will be chained for a thousand years. Finally, after that, he will be released, and the Lord, with a word of His mouth, will destroy our enemy and cast him into the lake of fire forever.
The time is at hand. It is a perilous time because the enemy is working in the lives of the saints—in my life and in your life—trying to destroy the life of Christ in this vessel that we carry before the Lord.
It is dangerous because he wants to take you out spiritually. He wants to take you away from God’s purpose. It is a dangerous hour.
He will use any method to try to destroy our life with our Lord Jesus Christ, because he knows that a vessel dedicated to the Lord, dedicated to His return, prepared for the Lord, and willing to be a vessel to prepare the way of the Lord is an extremely dangerous person and vessel to his own purpose.
Brothers and sisters, it is a perilous hour. I think we have seen it in the activity and the atmosphere, with all the tornadoes, the storms, the earthquakes, and tsunamis.
I think we have seen it in the economy of the world, as they begin to crumble and are being supported by paper money instead of some reality.
Brothers and sisters, I think that we should see that, in the United States today, a new religion is taking over. It is called political correctness.
The United States was the last bastion of real spiritual strength in this world, standing for the testimony of Christ. That testimony has crumbled, and we are now suffering the consequences of it. The enemy is replacing Christ with political correctness, and, brothers and sisters, the government is enforcing it.
So you see how far we have fallen and the dangers that we are in in this last hour: a perilous time.
But, brothers and sisters, it is a privileged hour because it means that the Lord is coming soon. He says, “Look up, for your redemption draws nigh.”
And we have the privilege in this hour to possibly be the ones who have the opportunity to be the overcomers who will be raptured to the throne and bring in and welcome our Lord Jesus Christ back to the cloud.
Brothers and sisters, it is a privilege that we have. We just happen to live in that age when this may happen.
Just like Samuel had the privilege and honor of anointing David as a boy who would become the king, and just as John the Baptist had the privilege and honor of preparing the way of the Lord Jesus in the first coming of the Lord, we now, in this hour, have this great privilege of possibly being the ones who will actually welcome back the Lord Jesus and hasten His return to this earth.
But it takes a people who are prepared, and it takes a people who are ready.
And so, this morning, the title of this message is “A Time to Prepare.” Last week, it was “A Perilous Time, a Privileged Hour.” This week, it is “A Time to Prepare.”
Last week, I also mentioned that, as I was in the midst of preparing for this—and frankly, you never stop preparing; I am still preparing—I was involved in an intervention with a neighbor who lives two doors from me.
He was threatening to kill his neighbor behind him, and I ended up being the one mainly intervening in this matter and getting him into St. Mary’s Hospital, where he was eventually transferred to a psychiatric ward in Williamsburg. He is still there. They are evaluating him.
I do pray for him, that the Lord can deliver him from his madness.
Brothers and sisters, I asked the Lord, “Why, Lord, in the midst of trying to prepare these messages, was all this happening?” And the Lord said, “It is a perilous time.”
You are involved in an intervention. An intervention means you compel someone. You are not just asking them. You are not just pleading with them. You are really compelling them, trying to deal with them.
And I really felt like the Lord was saying, “This is an intervention. I am trying to intervene in the lives of My people. I am trying to do an intervention, to grab their lives before it is too late.”
Brothers and sisters, the world went away from God so much that God said He despised what He had made, that He had made man. And He had Noah make that ark. Noah preached all those years to the people, and they did not listen. They were not awakened.
And in the end, right before the flood came, the Lord shut the door. It was too late.
I believe that the door to this age—the age of grace that we are in—is about to shut.
Brothers and sisters, may the Lord intervene in our lives now, that we might be aware of what He is doing and be cooperative in His heart and purpose for this hour that we live in.
We have been called. But the Word is very clear: many are called, and few are chosen.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord has called us. I really believe that with all my heart. I think the Lord is calling out to everyone, “It is time. You need to be ready.” But, brothers and sisters, unfortunately, not all become chosen. Not all of the called become chosen. But I want us to be chosen this day.
Well, that brings me to this second prayer.
The second prayer:
Dear Lord, as we gather in Thy presence, we are aware that the time is short.
We are aware that the time is short.
But we praise and thank Thee because we can lift up our heads, knowing that our redemption has drawn nigh.
Dear Lord, Thou hast put upon our hearts a real longing for Thyself.
You have put on our hearts a real longing for Thyself, and we long to see Thee face to face.
We thank Thee for Thy precious promise, but it has been long waiting.
Search our hearts, Lord. Search our hearts to see if there is anything in us that delays Thy return.
Remove all hindrances within us, and prepare us and use us to bring in the King.
So we offer ourselves to Thee afresh this morning, to look to Thy Spirit, to breathe upon Thy Word, and breathe in our hearts.
We are not here seeking mental understanding. We are here to be changed.
Well, as I read this prayer—and I emphasize, I really think the Lord is praying for us—the thing that struck me so much was the heart attitude of the ones that are prepared: the heart attitude of the prepared ones.
The first thing was that the prepared ones realized that the time was short. They really did. It was not just, “Oh yeah, I know the time is short.” It was not just a casual thought: “Yeah, I can look around. Things are happening. You know, the time is short.”
No, no, no, no. Right now, the time has happened. That is how short it is.
The time is short. There was a sense in their hearts of how soon it would be that the Lord was coming. It was their heart, not just their head, that recognized this sensing from God that the time is short.
Now, brothers and sisters, there is a need in our hearts to have this sensing. There is a reason for it.
Because, brothers and sisters, when that sense is in our heart—that it could be at any moment—then we are focused. Our heart and mind are focused on the Lord Himself, on His soon return, and on the need to be prepared for Him: the need to keep short accounts with Him, the need to follow His will daily.
We can get so caught up in the cares of life that the Lord seems to be in second place. He has got to remain in first place.
I think this attitude has to be a real part of our hearts or we will not be ready.
You know, I think it is interesting. Many people have tried to predict the Lord’s return, the actual time. Others call it the end of the world and these kinds of things. The Lord is not going to let us know.
You can read through the Book of Revelation all you want to. You can read the Isaiah prophecies and the Daniel prophecies. You are not going to be able to determine the exact time. Why? Because the Lord says only God the Father knows it.
That should be a pretty good indicator that you can search all you want to, but you will not know. Only the Father does.
And at that time, the Father will say, “Son, it is time,” and the Son will know.
Now, the Godhead is all-knowing, and it is hard for me to understand that. But there is something in God the Father’s heart about this time that is so precious on His heart that only He knows it. At the right time, He is going to call the shot. He is going to say, “It is time,” and it will happen.
And we need to be ready. The time is short. I think this is an attitude that will help us really stay focused on the Lord Himself.
The second thing is the longing heart.
This prayer says, “Thou hast put upon our hearts a real longing for Thyself.” Right now, this moment, are you really longing for the Lord? Or is your mind on what you are going to do when we leave this meeting?
A longing heart—oh, how necessary a longing heart is to the Lord’s return, brothers and sisters. A longing heart for Him, the Lord Himself, His Person.
We can go through our Christian life rejoicing and being satisfied in the things of the Lord: His mercy, His love, His grace. But do you not see that it is the Person of the Lord Jesus who is full of love, mercy, and grace?
We can be satisfied with the blessings that He has blessed us with—many blessings. But, brothers and sisters, where is the heart cry for the Person of the Lord Himself? A yearning to really see Him face to face.
Is that yearning in your heart? Is it really there? I am not trying to condemn anyone. I just really feel like we need to know where we stand before the Lord, in light of His soon return and being ready for Him.
Is there that heart cry that says, “Come, Lord Jesus. I cannot wait any longer, Lord. I cannot stand not to see You face to face. You are so precious to me, Lord. You are my heart’s passion.”
Where is that yearning? That yearning and the cry to come?
Brothers and sisters, it is a heart’s cry that says, “I just cannot live without the Lord. I cannot live without Him.”
I think of David in Psalm 42:1-2.
As the hart panteth after the water brooks,
So panteth my soul after Thee, O God.
My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God:
When shall I come and appear before God?
David—that was David’s heart.
You know, the interesting thing is that God made an amazing statement about David. He said, “David, a man after My own heart.” That was God’s testimony. “Here is a man after My own heart, and he will do My will.”
After My heart. As the hart panteth for the water brooks, as the deer—you know, we have sung that song many times here. Every time, I get convicted. I get convicted. “Oh Lord, where is my heart? What does it long for?”
I have also thought of Mary Magdalene.
You know, when our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified and they sealed Him in that tomb, they had done a quick preparation on His body for His burial, and they buried Him. The soldiers rolled that big stone on His grave to seal it up, make sure nobody could get to it, make sure He could not get out, if there was any inkling of life left, I guess.
Mary’s heart was so much for the Lord, she could not stand it.
The next morning, it says it was still dark. It was right before daybreak. She goes down to the grave of our Lord Jesus Christ.
She had such a longing for the Lord that, even if there was a stone separating her from His body, she wanted to be there—to try to sense His presence once again, to be able to share her love for Him with Him, even if there was a stone in the way.
We know the story. The angels were there, and the tomb was actually open, but the body of our Lord Jesus was not there.
At the direction of the angel, she and some others went back and reported to Peter and John, “He is not there. The tomb is empty.”
And Peter and John ran back to look in. Mary Magdalene returned with them.
They looked in. It says that John remembered something of what the Lord said about resurrection, and John and Peter returned. But Mary could not return.
Mary could not return. It says she was weeping—weeping over her Lord, weeping that He was not available to her.
Finally, she turns around and sees what she thinks is the gardener, brothers and sisters. She runs up to Him and says, “Where have they taken the body of my Lord? I will go to it. I will take it. I will take care of it.”
And the Lord speaks. He speaks her name: “Mary.”
Her eyes are opened, and she realizes it is the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how she wants to embrace Him, but He says, “You cannot. I have not yet arisen to My Father. You have to wait.”
She was so thrilled. The One she thought was gone forever was with her now forever—eternally. What a joy in her heart. She had seen our Lord, our risen Lord, face to face.
Her heart’s desire had been fulfilled.
I have always found it thought-provoking that she was the first one our Lord appeared to. There were all those disciples. The Lord was with them for three years constantly, almost. Why not one of them?
Peter was willing to die for the Lord until he found out he was not. John seemed to perceive the Lord and loved Him so much.
It was Mary Magdalene. You know what it was? I really believe—I could be wrong—but I really believe in all my heart that her longing for the Lord drew Him to her.
She was the first one because of the longing in her heart. He could not hold back. He could not hold back. He could not wait until later to see the disciples. She was the first one.
I think that, brothers and sisters, speaks loudly of who the overcomers will be. Those who welcome our Lord Jesus Christ will be those who have such a heart as Mary Magdalene: such a longing for the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And He will not be able to hold back any longer. I think it is the longing that will draw Him, because those with such longing are the ones who are prepared.
Do you really know that the time is short? Does it really hit you? It may not.
The Lord has given you the opportunity. He is letting you know the time is short. I hope you believe the Lord. You do not have to believe Jerry. Amen. Hallelujah.
I do hope you will believe the Lord, though. This is His Word: the time is short.
Look at Revelation 1. The time is short. The time is at hand, it says.
An intense longing for the Lord Jesus Christ—where is that longing in our hearts, brothers and sisters? Our longings get scattered. Our longings get dissipated with other things in this life. That is the enemy’s work. He knows how to steal our heart from the Lord.
But I think we can pray for a longing heart. I think the Lord knows that somewhere deep inside, there are affections for Him that have to be drawn out.
Remember the maiden in the Song of Songs? She says:
Draw me; we will run after Thee.
“Draw me, Lord. Draw me. Then we will run after Thee. Draw me.” Should that not be our prayer? Should that not be our prayers?
I think this heart attitude kind of gauges our readiness for the Lord. It convicts me. It has shown me how short I might be of this calling that God has called me to. He has called you to the same one.
Let us cast ourselves on the Lord for His mercy and grace. Let this opportunity not pass us by, to give ourselves to Him fully.
Say, “Lord, You are my heart’s passion and desire.” That is it. Everything else kind of fades into the background.
And this brings us to the second part of our prayer. I think, brothers and sisters, to have this longing heart, God has to do a little bit of operation on us.
The second part of that prayer says, “Search our hearts. Remove all hindrances.”
Listen to this: “Search our hearts to see if there is anything in us that delays Your return.”
Search our hearts, Lord, for anything in us that delays Your return. Search. Lord, search.
Brothers and sisters, I believe that, as the Lord begins to awaken our longing for Him, as we begin to realize how short the time is, there will begin to be a response in our hearts—not only, “Come, Lord Jesus,” but, “Lord, I need to be prepared. I need You to remove the hindrances that are delaying my spiritual life and that are delaying Your return.”
God is willing to search our hearts. Psalm 139:23-24. Once again, this is David’s prayer, the one of whom God testified, “A man after My own heart.”
Search me, O God, and know my heart:
Try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if there be any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
Wicked ways—I hope, because the Lord used the words “wicked ways,” you do not say, “This does not apply to me.”
Anything that draws us away from the Lord Himself is wicked. Wickedness.
Oh, David’s heart. “Lord, I want to see You face to face. Lord, search me. Try me. Remove any wickedness in my heart.” That was his heart.
Brothers and sisters, just a bit of warning: do not try to figure it out yourself. Do not use what we call introspection, where you are looking inward and saying, “Okay, I want to discover all these dark things.”
What is going to happen is that you are going to be so overwhelmed, you might end up in an institution yourself. I am serious. Introspection is deadly.
Look at Hebrews 4:12.
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Brothers and sisters, introspection will only bring you misery, and it will not deliver you.
But if you will allow the Holy Spirit, through His Word—as you are reading His Word, as you are praying before the Lord—to really say, “Lord, search me,” then that is the light of the Holy Spirit that can divide asunder your thoughts and can say, “This is the real intent in your heart,” because we cannot know our own heart. The Lord has also made that very clear.
Brothers and sisters, when you are into introspection, you are condemned because the enemy is going to keep you there under condemnation.
But when the light of the Holy Spirit shines, it is conviction. And conviction releases you to accept the Lord’s sentence and to say, “Lord, I am willing. Take this from me.”
We must allow Him to point out the things that offend Him—the things that are sinful and hinder our relationship with the Lord, hinder our relationship with Him having first place.
I always felt like the light of the Lord is like an X-ray. It can get underneath the skin. It gets beyond the surface issues. It gets down to the real thing in your heart, and it is able to discover the hidden things.
Brothers and sisters, these things that God points out may not always be things that appear to be sinful. It can be other things.
It can be the things that you treasure above your Lord. It can be your hopes, your expectations, your ambitions, your relationships, your pleasures—legitimate pleasures—your desires.
These can be offenses to the Lord as well.
I was really struck by something I read in preparing for this. You know, sin separates us from the Lord—our sins. And if He points out sin in your life, you have to say, “Yes, Lord. Lord, forgive me. I take Your blood.”
And praise the Lord, He says, “I will not remember that sin anymore.” It is gone forever. He says, “I am just.” The Father is just to forgive you because the Son died because of your sin and took the penalty of your sin.
But there is something else. It is so serious with the Lord. It is called idols.
Not just sin, but idols: things that we value so much and put in front of the Lord.
Remember how the Lord dealt with the nation of Israel over this issue of idols. Their severest discipline came over the fact that they turned to idol worship.
Idols in our lives, brothers and sisters, can be far more dangerous than the sins that we commit because they take the place of the Lord Himself.
I was really touched, I guess you might say, in this prayer, because this search was not just for the purpose of making you better or improving your spiritual life. This search was related to the Lord’s return.
The prayer says, “Show us anything that delays Your return.”
Have you ever thought about that? That these things in our lives, whether they be sins, idols, desires, or purposes, are actually delaying the Lord’s return?
They are not just affecting you spiritually, but delaying the Lord’s return.
Oh, how patient the Lord has been all these twenty-some centuries, waiting for His people to be ready, waiting that He might return.
The light shines into our heart. It illuminates the things that need to be dealt with.
Our sins can be put under the blood if we are truly repentant and ask for His forgiveness.
The cross has to deal with those idols, because the real word of the cross is, “Not My will, but Thine be done.”
“Not my will, but Thine be done. Lord, I have this ambition in my heart, but it does not agree with You and Your desires. Not my will, Lord, but Yours be done.”
Or, “There is this relationship in my life that I am so clinging to,” and the Lord says, “Well, that has to be cut off.” What do you do? The cross says, “Not my will, but Thine be done.”
The blood and the cross.
Brothers and sisters, there must be a response in our hearts when the light shines there and points out something. There has got to be a response.
“Lord, remove the hindrances that are delaying Your return. Remove all of them, Lord.”
Not just a few, not most, but all the hindrances that are in our heart. Are we allowing the Lord to remove all the hindrances?
Brothers and sisters, our response cannot be wishful thinking. You know, we sometimes do that: “Oh Lord, I wish all of this was gone in my life. I wish I could do this, or I wish I could put this aside.”
That will not work, brothers and sisters. There has got to be a full commitment to allow the Lord to search you, and to be willing to respond and allow it to be removed.
John the Baptist—Matthew 11:12.
And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. That seems to be a strange verse. We have shared on this before, and most might understand it. It is talking about being violent with ourselves and not others.
But John the Baptist was a vessel prepared for the Lord, and he was violent with himself.
For him to get prepared, it was necessary for him to go into the desert, live a lonely life, and be before the Lord to prepare him for those six months of ministry.
He did not have much in the way of possessions. Camel’s hair. It says he ate honey and locusts, which would not thrill me too much. I could deal with the honey.
But that is the kind of man he was. God had called him, and he was not going to let anything, even the pleasures of life, stand in the way of the Lord’s calling on his life.
So he was definitely a man who was prepared. And what was his message?
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
So what was he saying? He was saying, “Look, the time is at hand. The kingdom is here, and you are not ready. That is what he is saying. You are not ready. You need to be prepared.”
I want to be clear. In order to enter the kingdom of God, you have to be born again. You have to be saved.
By a simple admission that the Lord Jesus Christ loves you and that you do not have the qualifications for the kingdom. But He loves you, and He says, “I have got to get rid of the thing that has been so offensive in your life to Me.” And it says, “You are a sinner.”
“I am taking your place in death. I am dying on the cross in your place. But I will raise you up with Me.” That is what baptism is about. “I will raise you up with Me into newness of life, in a new way of life, and you will begin to experience kingdom life in your life.”
That is being born again.
And we talked about baptism. Baptism is that next step, brothers and sisters. It is a full commitment: “I am putting away the old. I am taking on the new life in Christ. I am going to live by His life.”
He is now my Commander. He is my Lord, and I have to listen to Him.
But, brothers and sisters, there is more.
If we really want to be those hastening the Lord’s return, to be prepared for His return, we must ask the Lord to search our hearts and get rid of any hindrance that is delaying His return.
Think about that. Is there something there today that is hindering the Lord’s return?
All that is opposed to the life of Christ in you must be dealt with and done away. It must be dealt with seriously.
Second Peter 3:10-12.
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night;
In the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,
And the elements shall melt with fervent heat,
The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved,
What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?
He is saying everything that is opposed to Me is going to be burned up. It is going to be burned up in your life. It needs to go.
The kingdom life must prevail. That is why this verse about John the Baptist says we must be violent. We cannot be passive about this matter.
We cannot just be lackadaisical—is that a word? I guess it is. That is a Southern word, I think. Kind of easygoing, you know—lackadaisical about this matter of the Lord searching our heart and dealing with us.
And if He finds something, not to give up until we see that it is dealt with.
Brothers and sisters, sometimes we get encouraged, and we pray this prayer, and the Lord points out something. He deals with it for a little bit, and finally we give up. We say, “It is not working.”
The Lord says, “You cannot be that way. You have to be violent. You have to be diligent. Do not give up until this thing is gone.”
If you desire to be those who hasten the Lord’s return and prepare His way, it will have to be violent. It must be dealt with.
Reasoning will not be accepted by the Lord. You can reason all you want to as to why you should not put this thing away, but the Lord is not going to listen.
There can be no excuses. “Well, Lord, I have got to do this other thing first,” or, “Lord, I am just not ready. Give me some more time. Let us think about it next year.”
No excuses.
You know, one of the things that I really love about Marines is their talk. When they go before the sergeant, or whatever, and the sergeant says, “You did not get this done,” they cannot say, “Well, you know, I had this knee sprain, and my arm was hurt.” They cannot do that.
What do they say? You Marines, what do they say? Come on.
“No excuses, sir.”
That is their proper response. No excuse. They will not be allowed to use excuses.
You cannot be easy on yourself. Now, brothers, we all fail at this. We tend to be hard on others, but easy on ourselves.
We can point out others’ issues. We can say, “I know where that darkness is. I know what that is.” We want to deal with these brothers and sisters.
But the Lord Jesus sees me. It is just the opposite. He says, “You need to be hard on yourself.”
That is why the Lord says, if you are called to actually help a brother or sister or deal with them, you have to get that thing out of your own eye first. Get it out of there. Then you will know how to help.
How serious is the Lord? I am going to read this: Matthew 18:7-9.
Woe unto the world because of offences!
For it must needs be that offences come;
But woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!
Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee:
It is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee:
It is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.
Really, Lord? Is it that serious? And I would cut off my hand? Pluck out my eye? Lord, lust of the eyes—just pluck them out?
I do not think anybody has done that. Have you?
But I want you to know the Lord is saying this because He is wanting to get the point across: “I am serious about the stumbling blocks in your life.”
Whatever they may be—it can be sin, it can be drugs, it can be many things—your self-desire, your self-will, the idols that you put in place of Him. He is saying they need to be taken out.
Stumbling blocks have to be removed in order to be transformed, to be suitable to be those who can be used to bring back the Lord.
Our spiritual life and relationship are damaged by the stumbling blocks in our lives, and they delay His return.
What is He saying in this verse? I considered it and considered it. There may be other things, but this is what I was struck with.
Sin—its enticements, its pleasures, its pride, its selfishness, its self-centeredness—feeds the fires of hell. It feeds the fires of hell.
When we accept our Lord Jesus Christ, indeed, the past is forgotten. It is dealt with. But we go on, and we understand that the ways of the world still cling to us, still try to force their way into our life. Sometimes they get a hold of us.
And where they become a stumbling block in our lives, brothers and sisters, it has got to go.
Why do we find ourselves not growing in Christ? Why do we find ourselves unfaithful? Why? Because stumbling blocks remain.
Those stumbling blocks are feeding the fires of hell, brothers and sisters, and those fires try to consume your spiritual life.
I want to be clear, though, because we talked about this the other night. This does not mean that a Christian will be put into hell.
The Lord Jesus says in John 10:28:
And I give unto them eternal life;
And they shall never perish,
Neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.
“I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.”
God has given His Word. He who began a good work in you will complete it. He is going to do it.
The stumbling blocks need to be removed. And I believe that is why the Lord uses such forceful words in sharing with the disciples that the stumbling blocks cannot remain. They have to go, because the fires of hell feed on them. They eat up your life.
The Lord is saying it is a matter of life and death to Him, and they must be removed at all costs.
You must mean business.
You know, brothers and sisters, it affects all areas of our lives: the hands, the things that we do; our feet, where we go; our walking life, our way of life.
The things that we allow in our lives—the eyes. Oh, brothers and sisters, the lust of the eyes. Oh, the things that we see, the things that we watch, the things that we allow.
Brothers and sisters, it affects everything in your life.
Hands, feet, and eyes are very precious, are they not?
That is what the Lord is dealing with sometimes: very precious things, things that we value so much. But, brothers and sisters, I warn you again, those things can become idols in your life.
Are you willing to offer yourself today to the Lord, to search you, to search your heart?
Are you willing to allow the Lord to show you the stumbling blocks? It is a bit scary if you really think about it, because you do not know what is there.
Are you willing to allow Him to remove the stumbling blocks because they are delaying His return? Are you willing to be violent with yourself?
Say, “Yes, Lord.” And note to myself: accept His will and deny your own.
Are you willing to allow these things to be removed at any cost? Are you willing to set your heart to get rid of all stumbling blocks?
You may not be. You may not be.
But are you willing to be willing?
I say, we need to pray, “Lord, make me willing to be willing,” until we become willing. We need to be diligent.
Philippians 2:13 says:
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
So if we can just do that: “Lord, I am willing to be willing. Lord, make me willing. Just be patient with me, Lord. These stumbling blocks do have to go.”
No more excuses. No more reasoning.
Brothers and sisters, the glorious thing is, when the searchlight has done its work, our heart, we find, is full of the Lord Himself. We find this heart longing for Him.
We have discovered the One—the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in all of these dealings, as the stumbling blocks go, He becomes more and more precious.
We can see Him for Who He really is, and there is that longing in our heart to see Him face to face, motivating us to be willing to be prepared and to be those who prepare the way of the Lord.
Lord, we thank You this day.
Lord, we have found one who has made a decision to be Your disciple, to go on with You.
Lord, we want You to find those, Lord, that You are calling to be that vessel, Lord, to hasten Your return.
Lord Jesus, we pray, make us willing to be willing to remove the stumbling blocks. Lord, search our hearts.
Lord, it is almost scary to ask You to do it, but Lord, search our hearts. See if there is any wicked way in us, that You might also be able to say of us, as You did David, “A man after My own heart.”
Lord, I pray for a heart like Mary Magdalene, that just could not do without You.
Oh Lord Jesus, we come to You today. The time is at hand.
Lord, intervene in our lives. Be the Intervenor, and intervene in our lives this day. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.