Examine Yourselves

With from the morn, the Lord which made heaven and earth, He said, He will not suffer, Thy foot, Thy foot to be moved, The Lord which keepeth ill, He will not slumber nor sleep, O the Lord is Thy keeper, the Lord is Thy shade, Upon thy right hand, upon thy right hand, O the sun shall not smile thee by day, nor the moon by night, He shall preserve thy soul, even forevermore, my head, my head, my head, all of my health, Come here from the morn, the Lord comes from you from the morn, the world of my eyes to the hills From what's calm with my head, I shall come in from the Lord, the Lord which made heaven and earth, He said, He will not suffer, Thy foot, Thy foot to be moved, The Lord which we can leave, He will not slumber nor sleep, O the Lord is Thy keeper, the Lord is Thy shade, Upon thy right hand, upon thy right hand, O the sun shall not smile thee by day, nor the moon by night, He shall preserve thy soul, even forevermore, my head, my head, my head, all of my health, Come in from the morn, the Lord comes from you from the morn, the Lord is Thy keeper, the Lord is Thy shade, O the sun shall not smile thee by day, nor the moon by night, He shall preserve thy soul, even forevermore, my head, all of my health, even forevermore, my head, all of my health, my head, all of my health, [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

We've been very blessed and honored today to have to Randy Green sing with the choir. [Applause] How many of you brought a Bible? If you don't mind, let's look at it. So you Bible hold it up. Yeah. That's good. Thank you. I feel very, very impressed to call a prayer meeting for tomorrow night. In here, seven o'clock. I just keep feeling in here that God wants to pray about holiness. God wants us to pray about our holiness, our personal everyday walk with Jesus Christ. So I will see you tomorrow night at seven. Right now I want you to turn with me to second Peter. Have you enjoyed reading Jude? How about second Peter last week? They kind of run parallel, don't they? And then this week I'd like for you to read first Peter, five chapters. Just enjoy it. Read something that you've never read before. Here's something you've never heard before. Make notes. The Spirit of God will talk to you while you're reading his word. So we're going to second Peter chapter three. I want to read the first nine verses and then I want us all together to read down through 14. Are you ready? I'm doing this because Revelation chapter 1 says, "Blessed are those who hear, those who read, and those who keep the things that are written in this book." I'll begin. Beloved. I now write to you this be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first that scoffers will come in the last days walking according to their own lusts and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming?" For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. For this they willfully forget that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of water and in the water by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But beloved, do not forget this one thing that with the Lord one day is as a thousand

years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Now everybody join me. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up, therefore since all these things will be dissolved what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? Looking for, extending the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to found by Him in peace without spot and blameless. You may be seated. As a young man, when I knew the Lord called me to preach, I had no idea what it meant, what it involved, what it would take. But one time as a young man, I was literally in a closet praying with my head bumping up against Sandra's vacuum cleaner. God has never spoken to me, audibly, but I have heard the whispers of my heart and He said to me that day, "I have laid my hand on you and I trust you to feed the sheep that I died for. I have put my word in your mouth and I trust you to shepherd the flock that I have given to you." So all of the preaching you hear comes from that drive inside of me to feed and shepherd. I want everybody to go to heaven. I don't want anybody to be deceived. So I have drawn your attention to 2 Peter chapter 3, and I'm often asked, "Pastor, do you believe in eternal security?" I'm asked that a lot.

Do you believe in once saved, always saved? My question, well, my answer is yes, if, yes, if. The great gift of God, which is Jesus Christ, His Son, who shed His blood that our sins might be washed away and died and rose again and on the third day was raised and that justified us from our sins has given us the free gift of eternal life. obey it, love it, cherish it, and protect it in my heart." I believe that what he did on Calvary's cross was eternal, powerful. It was divine, but God has given me instructions that I must never take it for granted, that I must, with tears and joy at the same time, carry it in my heart, protect it from my flesh, this world, and the devil. Oh yes, I believe in eternal security, if you abide in him, and remain in him, and bring forth fruit that proves you are in him. I believe you are eternally secure if you hold fast your confession and not be moved by what you see are here. I believe it if you continue in the faith being rooted and grounded and steadfast and not be moved away from the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I certainly do believe it, but I also read the whole Bible, and Jesus said, "He that endures to the end, the same shall be saved." Why I could read Hebrews, what's this verse in Hebrews. We desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promise. You're not home yet, being born again was not the end of it. It was the beginning of a life, of a battle, of a journey, and it must be fought and lived every day of your life. All you have to do is go to the seven churches in Revelation, and to every one of the seven churches, He says, "He that overcomes." He that overcomes. Overcoming is a daily process. My victory is in Jesus, but Jesus expects me to fight this good fight of faith and lay

hold on eternal life. Ha, He that overcomes. I will grant to eat from the tree which is in the midst of the paradise of God. He that overcomes will never be hurt by the second death. He that overcomes. I will give Him a new name on a white stone. He that overcomes. I will let Him sit with me on a throne. He that overcomes will forever be with me in my presence, overcomes. Preacher, what about the Bible when it says, "We are kept by the power of God." It's not up to us. It does say that, but you've got to finish the sentence. We are kept by the power of God through faith. Ready to be revealed in the last day. Ah, let me see if I can find that one verse. I can't. Yeah, here it is. John said, "We know that whoever is born of God does not sin, but He who has been born of God keeps Himself, and the wicked one does not touch Him." Oh yeah, I'm kept by the power of God, but I've got to get up every day and trust God. And I've got to keep my self from sin. Then the wicked one will not touch me. Not only that, John said, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." When I was born again, that didn't mean I just sat down or laid around. When you were born physically, that was just the beginning of a life of everything. It's an existence in Christ. And so just confessing Christ in a meeting does not mean that you're going to make it to heaven. Just, you know, we always say that we preachers, signing the card and giving them your address and letting them give you a complimentary Bible doesn't accomplish one thing if you

don't get up every day and start all over. I am saved by the grace of God through faith ready to be revealed in the last day. I can't take any credit for anything but I have responsibility for a lot of things. That's already a good preach and I, this was, so you were in 2nd Peter this week and you were in Jude last week and you've been reading about these scoundrels, scallywags who were called false prophets and false teachers and you'll notice in 2nd Peter chapter 2 that they have destructive doctrines and the doctrine will eventually deny the Lord Jesus Christ. This says that these people are in great trouble with God because their doctrine is destroying the faith of some other people. Not only have they lost their way, they're causing others to lose their way. They're destructive people and he says they sneak in to the congregation. They sneak in to the assembly. Then he says, Peter says, "I want you to know they're doomed." Okay, now Peter, that's a strong word, they're doomed. He said, listen to this, "If God did not spare angels who sinned and if God did not spare the ancient world after Noah preached to them for 120 years, and if God did not spare Sodom and Gomorrah for their awful, awful, filthy vile sins, don't you think for a moment that God is going to spare these deceptive doomed false prophets?" Not for a moment. He said they are depraved. He's talking about a human being, being depraved. He said they're like animals that need to be captured and killed. That's what it says. They live on instinct, they care only about the flesh, only about themselves, only about money, and yet they know how to manipulate gullible people in church congregations and Sunday school classes to follow their gluttonous, pernicious, money-hungry ways. He said they're depraved. Then he said they are deceptive in that they are gifted in knowing how to touch you where you live, how to meet the need that you are suffering for or praying about in your life. So there we are.

Let me do it again. They have destructive doctrines. They are doomed and they are doomed because of their deceptions. I think that Jude and 2 Peter kind of sum it all up what their deceptions are. Let me recall again from the book of Jude, woe to them, exclamation point, there it is, woe to them, for they have gone in the way of Cain. They have run greedily in the era of Balaam for prophet and they perished in the rebellion of Cora. Jude and Peter seem to say that sums up what false prophets and false teachings all about. Number one, they've gone in the way of Cain, who was Cain. Cain was Abel's brother, sons of Adam and Eve, and Cain killed Abel because Abel brought the right sacrifice to God, a blood sacrifice. And Cain brought the fruit of the ground, what he grew with his hands. See, the sand of cane, which is running rampant. work hard and I can do good works, and God will accept me this whole business of Jesus shedding his blood and the sacrifice and the cross. That's old fashioned stuff. Folks, that's the way of Cain. Let me just say this, I don't need to but I want to. You're not going to heaven unless you go by the cross. You're not going to, you're not even, you're not even fit for heaven unless you've been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. And if I start, I won't be able to stop. Let me go to Balaam for prophet. Who was Balaam? He was a prophet of God. He really had the power of God on him, but he found out that you can sell religion and make a killing. He found out that he could manipulate things and get a lot of money. Do I need to tell you that that's going on in the church today? See, for Balaam, it was all about money. How can I get more of this? It was about power. It was about being well-known. I'll just do what they want me to do. I'll speak against Israel. I won't curse Israel, but if they give me the right amount of money, I can do it. I'm going to say this the best I know how with as much respect as I know how. If you who are watching me online, if you go to a church where they are constantly asking for money, you're in the wrong church. If they're always emphasizing seed, faith, giving or uncommon seed for an uncommon blessing, you better jump up and call an Uber and get out of there.

See, they've gotten tricky with this stuff because they say, "Oh, no, you can't buy a gift from God, but you can plant a seed that will produce." Good at it. Now, they say, "You can give your seed an assignment." So you write this $1,000 check to me and put it at the bottom what you want God to do with this. You want your 29-year-old son saved. You want your crippled husband to walk. You want to be rid of your depression. You want to lose weight. Give your seed an assignment and send it in and bless God. It could be 90 days, but we look for about 30 days for something to happen. Here it is. I ain't playing. They are liars, con artists, deceivers. I don't care what color they are. I don't care what culture they come from. If they do that kind of thing, that is the spirit of Balaam run for your life. You don't have to pay God for anything. He is a great, big, wonderful God. He knows what I have need of before I even ask. God's going to take care of his children. If he makes it rain on the just and the unjust, you can count on it. God shall supply all my need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. I don't have to give a dollar. All I have to do is have faith in him who loved me. But he said they perished in the rebellion of Cora. Go back to the book of Numbers and you'll see what that's all about. There was a group that decided Moses was taking too much upon himself. They said, Moses, we're just as anointed as you are. We're just as callers. You are. We're as close to God as you are. We're tired of getting orders from you. Well, you know what the Lord did? The ground opened up and the earth swallowed them whole. That's the rebellion of Cora. That's God saying, when I put people in charge, when I put my hand on people, when I organize and when I put things in order, I don't want anybody to think that they can veto what I've done. I know what I'm doing. So there you go. Cain, Balaam, Cora. [BLANK_AUDIO] Let me read it. These are spots in your love feasts. See, going to me, this is a love feast right here. We're just having a great time loving the Lord and loving each other. He said, well, they've kind of sullied it. They're a dark mark on this love feast. Serving only themselves, they are clouds without water carried about by the winds.

They're never stable, one place to another. They are late autumn trees without fruit. That means they've had all summer to get some fruit, but they don't have any fruit. But look at this, twice dead pulled up by the roots. Oh, King James has plucked up by the roots, what does twice dead mean? Well, it doesn't mean double dead, because nobody's ever been double dead. You can't be more dead than you've ever been. There aren't degrees of dead, you're dead, right? You're just dead. And he said, they were twice dead. What in the world does that mean? Well, they were dead in trespasses and sins. But then they believed on Christ and Christ gave them life. Well now they've turned their backs on Christ. They've defected from the faith and they're dead again. They've been dead in sin twice. There is no hope for people like this. He said, they're pulled up by the roots. There's no hope of them ever getting it right. Folks, there are men and women out there trifling with their eternal souls. People out there with the spirit of Cain, Balaam, and Cora manipulating the body of Christ and taking advantage of weak people, and God will not have it. He says, I'll pluck them up by the roots. They will never have another chance. So that's the way it is. And all of this is written to show you that we have a responsibility. When Jesus saves me, I have a responsibility to keep the faith and to walk in what He's done. I'm supposed to walk in the works that He has given me to do before the foundation of the world.

Now, of course, there are all kinds of people here today from Baptist background, Presbyterian background, Lutheran background, Church of God background. Do I need to go on and on? Some of you are from a Calvinist background and some of you are Menian background, which simply means some of you believe that you can never lose your salvation. And others of you say, it's possible to forfeit your salvation. Well, those are the arguments about these false prophets. Some people argue, well, they were never saved to start with. That's not what the Bible says. They says, if after they have been delivered from the corruption of the world, they are again entangled, they're worse off now than they were. They defected the faith. They walked away from the truth. They apostatize. You can't apostatize unless you've been a believer. No sinner can be an apostate, only a believer who has turned from the Lord can be an apostate. So that argument, down the drain, well, some say they're saved, but they're just in sin. Oh, my, how does that work? Saved but in sin. Folks, do you not realize that you can't live a life? You cannot commit the sins that cause Jesus to leave heaven and come down and let people crucify him on a cross to pay for those sins? Do you think for a moment that after he's gone through all of that, he's going to let a believer live a sinful lifestyle? Don't you be fooled by that? There is no sin in Christ. There is no sin in heaven. You will not inherit the kingdom of God if you are living a lifestyle of sin. John said it better than I can say it. He that practices sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning.

Don't give me this. My son, these 39 years old. little Sunday School Classic Church, he raised his little hand and believed on Jesus. At least he's going to heaven. No, he's not going to heaven. You can't go to heaven if you're living like hell. You can't go to heaven if you've got sin in your life. I'm not talking about stumbling, no, if we sin, all we have to do is confess our sins and he's faithful and just to forgive us. I'm talking about people living every day in a life of sin. I don't know any other way to say it. I try not to be brash and upsetting, but you live in a brash world. You hear filth all the time, he doesn't even bother you, so why should I care? If I get up here and talk about the Word of God, why should I care? And when you finish clapping, I'll tell you. You better never be deceived into thinking that God's going to wink at sin. He died so you could live a holy life. His blood cleanses us from all unrighteousness. And if you think for a moment that God thinks you're that special and he understands that you have needs and here I go again, you were brought up in the worst part of town and your daddy wasn't a good man and you didn't really have a family and you didn't have an education so God understands if I live this way. So the blood of Jesus, the power of the Holy Ghost can change everything that was wrong and make it right, you can live for Jesus. Well since we know that they were saved at one point and since we have just learned from Scripture that you can't be saved and live in sin, then there's only one option. They were once saved but fell away. They departed the faith. You've been reading about it. You've had two or three weeks to immerse yourself in these writings of Peter and Jude.

Brothers and sisters, it is this possibility that I'm preaching. It is this possibility that one can deny the faith, walk away from the faith that drives the New Testament writers to warn, warn, warn. I read in 2 Corinthians 13 and 5, I'll see this, examine yourselves. That's what Paul said, I'll give it to you again, 2 Corinthians 13 and 5, you got it? Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you are disqualified? Unless you've been disqualified, test yourself. Imagine yourself, how do you do that? You take this precious word and you say, am I abiding in Christ? Am I remaining in Christ? Am I bearing fruit, spiritual fruit, am I different? Do I have self-control, do I have patience? Do I have the strength of the Spirit to look another way, not to think about? Am I growing? Am I growing in Christ? Am I a stronger Christian than I've ever been? Have I made any advancement whatsoever? Am I too close to the world? Do I have one foot in the world and one foot in the church? Am I torn between the two all the time? Am I trying to serve two masters? Am I careless? It doesn't really matter what I see on TV, it doesn't really matter what comes up on the screen, it doesn't really matter the conversation. Am I good with it? Have I gotten careless with my spiritual man? Because you can grieve the Holy Spirit. He's gentle and he's easily offended.

Am I prayerless? I mean, honestly, everybody just takes about 15 seconds. What kind of prayer life do you have? If it's short and infrequent, there's a problem. What about the Bible? Do I crave it? Do I need it? I don't know, I don't know if I was maybe having a, like I was half dreaming, maybe last night. And in this, somebody came up to me and said it wasn't a vision, haven't had a vision. Just whatever goes on up here, who knows? Just suppose Livingston, if I took you to the greatest library in the world and said in one split second, I will give you the knowledge that's in every book in this library that deals with science, arts, even fiction. Every kind of information in the world, you could have it in a split second and you'll be able to quote it about anything you can ask. Or I tell you that you can have the Bible and you will have to spend the rest of your life digging treasures out of one little book. Which one would you take? That's what I said. Oh, I'd rather have this, because all the knowledge of man is but foolish. But in here are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. For someone to give you in a split second, everything you've ever wanted to know that you can recall versus getting up every day, taking the pickaxe of the spirit and digging into truth, I'll take this any day of the week, because this makes me smarter than all teachers, all philosophers, all professors, somebody saying, "Man." I was reading and of course Paul said, "I don't beat the air, I'm running certainly, I'm in a race," and he said, "I have to be careful that after I preach to others, I, myself, may be disqualified." Can you imagine this?

This is the man that went to the third heaven and sat with Jesus. This is the man that had Jesus change him on the road to Damascus. And yet he said, "When it comes down to every day, I have to make sure that after I've done all the things God's called me to do, I am not disqualified." And it hit me yesterday as I studied this, he wasn't saying disqualified from getting a crown, he was saying disqualified from the race. You can't get to heaven unless you run the race. He said, "But if I don't run it lawfully," as he said to Timothy, "all athletes have to play by the rules. If I don't do this by the rules of Almighty God, then I have squandered." You got time for another scripture here. I want to turn to 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 9, and whom having not seen you love, can you say amen? Though now you do not see him yet believing you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, here it is, Church, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. You see, he's saying you don't get to the end of faith till you get to heaven. You don't see the full salvation of your soul till you get to heaven. As I said earlier, being born, you don't come out and say, I got it made now. No, you just wait. You've got to live. When you come into Christ and Christ comes into you, there is a life to be lived. And he said, you will not experience the end of faith till you see him face to face. But then I want to go back to 2 Peter

and look at verses 10, what's this? Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent. Is everybody listening? God, I want to lose you here. I know it's just about lunchtime, I know what happens. But this is serious business to me, Church. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. I've got a responsibility to do these things. I've got a responsibility to add to my faith virtue, virtue knowledge, knowledge self-control, perseverance, godliness, love. I've got an obligation to walk the straight and narrow path. I've got works to do. He said, if I will do these things, I will never fall, stumble. And then he said, for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus. Christ, you know what he's saying? You just do these plain, simple things every day. And when your time comes, the curtains of glory are going to swing wide, the doors are going to swing wide. You'll have an abundant entrance into the kingdom of God. Folks, we have no idea what's waiting on us just by obeying Jesus every day. Let me give you one more if you don't mind. We go back. Second Peter, day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night

in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, the elements will melt with a fervent heat, both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, burned up, give me just two more minutes, Church. All this is going to burn up one day. If you can see it with your eyes one day, it's going to burn up. Walk outside, look around, it's all going to burn up. Look up, it's going to burn up. Everywhere you look, all these things will be dissolved. Everything we're going after now will be dissolved. Everything that's not of Christ will be dissolved. He's our life. Everything that's not about Jesus is going to be burned up. So he said, what manner of persons ought you to be now in holy conduct and godliness? We're supposed to be a holy people. Did you know that holy people are lonely people sometime? Did you know that holiness will separate you from the crowd? Did you know your buddies won't like you anymore if you try to be holy? Did you know when you tell them I'm not drinking anymore, they say, we're done with you holier than thou? You know, when you remove yourself from the system of this world, you separate yourself from the world that's perishing and going to vanish away. What kind of people ought we be in holy conduct and godliness looking for, looking for, and hastening

the coming of the day of God. Hastening means eagerly waiting, eagerly waiting. You see me? Jesus could come today. Jesus could come today. I wish he would. Some of you don't want him to come today. You got some things you need to do. I want him to come right now. I wish while I'm looking dead at Jason. I'd be gone and hope that he would too. I've said it many, many times, it could just be one of these days when we decide to utter the word hallelujah. We say hallelujah, and the next thing we know we say, "lujah," and there he is. Therefore, we love it looking forward to these things. Be diligent to be found by him in peace without spot and blameless. Work at holiness. Get rid of stuff, be done with the world. Jesus is coming. I will hold you two more minutes. Here's what I want to read to you. Matthew chapter 24, these are the words of our Lord. 24, 45. Who then is a faithful and wise servant whom his master made ruler over his household to give them food and do season? That means we who are serving Christ have jobs to do. Yes, does that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so-do we? Surely, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods, but if that evil servant says in his heart, "My master is delaying his coming." Jesus isn't coming now.

Peter said they're scoffing and saying, "Where is the promise of his coming?" People are saying, "Well, I've reconsidered my thoughts and my theology on the rapture and the coming of the Lord." Well, you're going to fool yourself. This says, "If the master of that man comes back and that man has said in his heart, "My Lord delays his coming." It won't happen for a while. He begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunkards. That means he backslid, he went back to the world, he's doing what he used to do. The master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of and will cut him into and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. How many of you know a little bit about the Bible? Just be honest, raise your hand, all right? Should I preach the Bible this morning? If you don't know Christ, this is the age of grace, all you have to do is call on the name of the Lord. The Lord will save you from any sin you've ever committed and he will save you for eternity, but he will expect you to live for him every day. You can be saved today. You don't have to come down to this altar. You can be saved right where you're standing. God already knows your heart. You can be saved anywhere. For the remainder of you, my brothers, my sisters, my compadres, it is my heart's desire to live a holy life. How about you? I want to live a life pleasing to the Lord. Sing it, Peyton. You're all I'll ever need, you're all I'll want, help me know you want me, you're all

I'll ever need, you're all I'll want. As you read First Peter as we all read it together this week, may the Lord open the eyes of our understanding and give us wisdom that we may serve him better. It's exactly twelve o'clock, we're going to take a break until seven o'clock tomorrow night, then I hope to see you right where you are right now. We'll spend approximately 45 minutes to an hour asking God to help us live a life worthy of our calling. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord my strength and my Redeemer, amen. We pray that today as you watch Pastor Livingston's message, you will be encouraged and ready to dig deeper into a life with Jesus. To help you on this journey, Central has two resources for you. First, you can sign up to receive Central's jail and prison correspondence course through the mail by writing to Central Church, Jail and Prison Ministries Discipleship Center 5143 Sardis Road, Charlotte, North Carolina 28270. Second, by using Central's app and clicking on the button below, you can read a short daily devotional that will encourage you to read and pray daily as you draw closer to Jesus. Thank you for watching. [Music] You