Ron Dunn Podcast - The Heart of God and Judgment

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

A person who has a light attitude to sin will have a light attitude to judgement.

Those of you that were here yesterday, hopefully will remember that yesterday we started a three-part series or mini-series on Josea. And those of you that don't remember, well, we'll recollect a little bit. But yesterday we looked at the sins that break God's heart. Josea is a very hard little book, plain written and plainstile. spoken and it was intended to be that way because the situation was desperate, but the people were not, and therefore it called for desperate measures, and it's a very graphic picture that God gives of his people. So we're going to read this morning the first ten verses, first four verses of chapter ten, as I said yesterday, what we're doing really is just sort of picking out the

highlights of what God has to say in this little prophecy because there's not time to deal with all 14 chapters in Hosea naturally. And so we're just kind of arranging it in a topical order and dealing with the highlights of it. Yesterday we talked about the sins that break God's heart. Today we're going to talk about the way God deals with those who break his heart. In 10th chapter, the first four verses, we'll use these. as a kind of starting place for our subject this morning. Israel is an empty vine. He bringeth forth fruit unto himself.

According to the multitude of his fruit, he hath increased the altars. According to the goodness of his land, they have made goodly images. Their heart is divided. Now shall they be found false. he shall break down their altars he shall spoil their images for now they shall say we have no king because we feared not the lord what then should a king do to us they have spoken words swearing falsely and making a covenant

thus judgment springeth up as a hemlock in the furrows of the fields Now, that last phrase is the key phrase, and that's the one that I want you to fasten on to this morning. This judgment springeth up as a hemlock in the furrows of the field. Sending for the believer. Well, for anybody, I guess for that matter, but we're talking primarily about believers. sinning is much like using a credit card in two ways. Number one, it doesn't seem like you're paying money for something. It's so easy to buy something with a credit card, much easier than it is to lay out cash. it's a lot easier for me to go into a store

and pull out a little piece of plastic and give it to them than it is to break a dollar bill or a $5 bill or a $10 bill or a $20 bill. It doesn't seem like you're spending as much money when you use a credit card. Therefore,

there is a psychological barrier since you're really not paying for it now you're not going to have to pay for it it's sort of like a credit card allows you to buy things that you cannot afford and then later on when you get the bill you never imagined

you spent that much a dollar here $298 there $5,000, $5,000,000, dollars there, a lunch here, a tie here, a pair of socks here, and it accumulates, and they'll add on that 22% interest in finance charges, and you don't really get the feeling that you're spending any money until you get the bill, and you are amazed at how much you spent, and you never realized how much of an indebtedness you were incurring. Sin is a great deal that way. We sin so easily and so unconsciously, and we're not realizing the great death that we are incurring.

We don't realize it. A person who has a light attitude towards sin will at the same time have a light attitude towards judgment. A person who doesn't keep meticulous track of all of his credit card receipts will have a very light estimate of what his bill is going to be the end of the month, he'll always be surprised. The second thing about sinning it makes it like using a credit card is it gives you, as I said, the false idea you're never going to have to pay for it.

I never think about paying for it. I've still, I know that this is not so, but mentally, psychologically, I'm still psyched up that if I use a credit card it don't have to pay for it. And the Bible says that because sentenced against an evil work is not executed immediately, therefore the hearts of men are set to do evil.

And because God does not immediately, the very moment we sin hit us over the head with a baseball bat, we get the idea we're getting by with it. We're not conscious of the fact that we are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath, you see, because I've heard preachers all my life say, well, if you sin, if you do this, God's going to get you. You're going to break a leg going out the door. And I've heard of Vrangeloist talk about somebody being in the service and they rejected the call of God and they were killed in a car wreck on the wall. You know, just scare the living daylights out of you.

But you hold your breath and you take a chance and you go ahead and you sin and you wait for the thundercloth of divine judgment and there's nothing. Hmm. Well, I'll try that again. and you try it again, and again there's no thunder clap of divine judgment, and you go on and on, and you say, hey, this is easy. And that preacher wasn't right. After all, he was just using scare tactics.

He was just trying to frighten me. There is no judgment. God doesn't really care that much what I do. There is no judgment, and the right of Ecclesiast, he says, because sentenced against an evil work is not executed immediately, therefore the hearts of men are set to do evil. Why, because I think they're getting by with it. I don't know why God arranges it as he does, but if God came down on you and thumped you on the head every time you sin,

you probably wouldn't sin as much as you do. The reason that we feel so free to sin is because God doesn't thump us on the head every time we sin, every time an evil thought passes in our mind, every time we say an unkind or critical word. If God thumped us on the head or did something like that, immediately we would be a little bit more cautious or careful, but because God does not immediately at that moment carry out sentence against an evil work, therefore the hearts of men are set to do evil. And we'll surprise then when God finally, finally says, all right, that's enough. You've treasured up

enough. It's time to pay out a little bit of interest in all these deposits of sin you've been making. And suddenly judgment comes and we're surprised because we had no idea. We were spending money after all until we got the bill. Now that's what Josea is saying in the fourth verse. He starts off this chapter by saying Israel is an empty vine. Now there's not anything much more useless than an empty vine. You do not buy a vine normally to decorate. It's not like a rose bush. A vine is of value only as it produces fruit. And he's saying Israel is like an empty vine. It has everything that it is supposed to have except the one essential, and that is fruit. It is an empty vine.

Oh, it is a vine that is emptying itself of fruit, in other words. Now, I think that is extremely important because the sins of the Hebrew there is that this is an emptying process that is going on and that Israel is responsible for it. I believe in direct judgment from God that God directly intervenes, but I also believe that God has so built man that there is built inside within him certain laws and certain principles whereby he judges himself. And his body and his nature and his character react against what he's doing, what he's doing, he violates certain laws. For instance, if a man gets on the top of a 14-story building,

and he says, well, I know all about the law of gravity, but I'm not going to pay any attention to that. I'm going to ignore that, and he's going, I'm going to break the law of gravity, and he leaps off the building and he falls down. He won't break the law of gravity. He'll break his neck, but he won't break the law of gravity. You cannot say God judge that man or God punished that man. No, that man punished himself by bond.

the laws of God. And what God is saying is Israel is not simply an empty vine in the sense that God has made her empty. What is, what the reading is literally, Israel is an emptying vine. Israel is emptying itself because of its sin. It doesn't realize it. It's looking to everybody else to blame why there's not any fruit, but what it doesn't realize that it's the one that's doing all the emptying itself. And so he comes to this fourth verse, and he says, says, thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field. Now, I said at the beginning, that sin for the believer, is a lot like using a credit card, and here's the reason.

These people are so dumb spiritually. They are so ignorant. They have so desensitized their spiritual awareness. They go on point. and planting as though nothing has changed, you see. They never stop once and think, now, we've sinned and we've committed idolatry, and therefore there's no use in our planting a crop because God's not going to bless it. No, they just go right on as they've always gone on.

They go ahead with their plans, they go ahead with their preparation, they plow their fields, they prepare their ground, and for a harvest. and he says, here's what the harvest that they get. Thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field. They spent all of this time, all of this effort. They poured out all this sweat and this perspiration to plant their fields and to plow them thinking they're going to have a harvest, thinking it's somehow God just going to ignore their sin.

And look, we do have a harvest. See, there's no judgment. After all, we do have a harvest. The prophet was wrong in saying that God would withdraw all his blessings from us look at this harvest. But as they gather it up and as they begin to eat it, they discover that what they have grown is poison. It is hemlock.

They go on as they've always gone, planning, making their plans, meeting, having their revivals, having their meetings, having their council meetings, but all the fruit that's coming out of it is nothing but dead. That's all, just hemlock, just poison. They're still producing fruit all right, but it's poison fruit.

And so God is saying that every, Every sin bears in it the seat of judgment, you see. It is within the character of God that every sin has to be judged. If that were not so, then God would be forfeiting his character. It would be an affront to the holiness of God. And once we understand the character of God that he is a God of absolute holiness, we understand then that every sin, I mean every sin, however small and insignificant we may think it to be, must have in it the seeds of judgment.

you see and so even though it seems as though god is not judging us yet we are being judged and our system is being poison and what we sometimes think is fruit is nothing more than hemlock now there are three or four ways that god brings about this judgment or rather it might be more correct to say that we bring about this judgment ourselves Number one, God says that this judgment will affect us in our possessions, in our material possessions. I want you to go to chapter 13, verses 7, I mean, in the person, this is the first one. I've got four fees here, and I'm trying to keep them all straight, and that way I'll make it easier for you to outline. chapter 13 first of all god judges us in our physical person therefore verses seven and eight therefore i will be unto them as a lion as a leopard by the way will i observe them i will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her welts and will rend the call of their heart and there will i devour them like a lion

the wild beast shall tear them. Now, I get the impression the Lord is upset with these folks. Notice the different figures of speech, the different wild beasts, the different animals that God says. In other places, God says, I'll be a shepherd to you. God says, I'll be a father to you. God says, I'll be a mother to you. God says, I'll be a husbandman to you,

like in a vineyard. And another place, he says, I'll be a husband. to my wife, but something has happened, and God says, therefore I will be unto them as a lion. As a leopard, by the way, will I observe them. And it is the characteristic of the leopard, not unlike the lion, but the leopard lies in silence and observes, and observes until the prey is weak from running or is weak from travel, and then he springs upon him. I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her cubs. And there's nothing more angry and more vicious than a bear who has lost her cubs. And so what God is doing, he says, I will rend the coal of their heart, the heart of their heart,

and therefore will I devour them like a lion. And a lion is the only animal that literally devours its prey. The other beasts of prey will leave part of it, but the lion literally devours it. all beasts shall tear them. Now what is God saying? God's saying that judgment is going to affect these people in their physical bodies, in their persons. Now, I want you to listen to me very carefully. There is evidence, even in the New Testament, that sin brings about judgment in the physical person of an individual.

For instance, over in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, we have it quoted the other night. Paul was talking about the way they're desecrating the Lord's supper, and he said, because of this, many are sickly among you and many sleep. Now that's the Christian word for death. Because they were taking unworthily the body of the Lord, and they were drinking unworthily the blood of the Lord, he said, for this cause many are weak and sickly among you. There is a strange and cryptic little verse in 1st Corinthians chapter 6, and I confess as to not fully comprehending it. But he says, Paul says, that when a man sins, he sins in many ways without his body.

But when he commits the sin of fornication, he sins in his body. Now, a lot of folks, they'll say, well, the sin of fornication is no different than any other. Yes, it is. It is. There is something about it that attaches itself to the body and it brings about its judgment within the life of the individual. It's a hanging on sin. It's a hanging own sin. A person can get drunk and repent and he can forget about it and be absolved. But in the sin of fornication, you can repent, but you don't forget about it. There is something that. different about it. And I confess as to not fully understanding what Paul means by that, I just know that there's something different about that. I just know there's something different about that. And I know that there's a great controversy today. I didn't intend to get into this, but there's a great controversy today about ministers and so forth after they have divorced one wife and married another. Should they go ahead and be allowed to minister?

and pastor of church and such as this. And I'll just give you my humble opinion, which I greatly respect. I think that that sin is different than any other sin. People say, well, we ought to forgive. God's forgiven them. That's true. But forgiveness here is not the issue. That is not the issue.

The issue is that a person forfeits something in that sin. I don't understand it all, but I do know this. It's different. It's different. And then, what did Paul say over to the Corinthians? Here was a man, people who were living in open sin, and the church was tolerating it.

And Paul said, if you don't do something about it, he said, I'm going to come, and when I come, I'll turn such a one over the devil for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Now, I've heard some people say that what Paul is referring to there is the destruction of the flesh, the carnal nature, as opposed to the spirit. Now, I think that's just an effort to get away from the harshness of it, because Paul never talks about

destroying the flesh in that manner. And it's not Satan who destroys the flesh anyway, it's the cross that destroys the carnal nature. What Paul is saying is that if the church doesn't take action and discipline and do something about the sin that's there, I'm going to come to that fella, I'm going to turn him over to the devil for the destruction of the flesh. Why? So at least he'll be saved in the day of the So the Bible teaches, and over in Hebrews chapter 12, he talks about the chastisement, the discipline that every child receives. And he says, if you be without chastisement, then are you not sons of God? You're not children of God. You're like illegitimate children.

So I do know this, that God does, the Bible does teach that sin many a time affects us in our physical person. Now, I said, I want you to listen to me very closely because I do not mean to say, and I do not believe the Bible teaches that every time a person is sick, or every time a person has a physical problem, that is judgment of God because of some sin in their life. Nor do I believe that every sin in a person's life brings about some judgment in their person's. This is just one option that God has. You see, the Lord knows when I was a little boy, and I would disobey, there were times that my mother would send me outside and she'd say, I want you to go get a switch. Now, that's adding humiliation to injury. That's adding insult to injury. She's going to give me a good weapon. And she'd say, you'd go out and get the switch. and actually I was always glad to do that

because I'd go out and get one and then I would bend it in the middle sort of halfway break it in the middle so that when she took the first swing the thing would break you know and that'd be it but my mom caught on to that and she started examining them and then one day I'll never forget it

she said I know which switch works the best I know which switch works the best I know which switch works the best and she started sending me to a particular tree that wouldn't be so easy to break. I know which switch works the best. Let me say this. I believe God knows which switch works the best

when he asked to spank his children. Sometimes it's in the person, in the physical person. Other times it is not. Now, I want to go on with this and say that sin in itself affects the physical life of an individual just by the nature of sin. Sin is an intruder in human nature. It was never intended to be a part of human nature,

and sin is an intruder in human nature. Why? Because what you are spiritually, you will eventually become physically. What you are on the inside, you will become on the outside. The reason there are wars on the outside in our world today is because man is

it wore on the inside. And what you are on the inside, you will become on the outside. Sin in the heart always rises to the surface of a countenance, and it changes a person's countenance. I've seen it happen. You've seen it happen. I've seen people there, the lines of sin were etched in their face. You could see the hardness in their eyes. You could see the hardness in their sin. And it's been one of the most amazing things that when a person has come of Christ or they've gotten right with God, the first thing I look at is their eyes. I notice their eyes. There's something in their eyes. There's something in their eyes. Something different about their eyes. Why? Because sin expresses itself in our physical being and what you are spiritually,

you will become physically. You become like the sin you love and the God you serve. for instance if a person loves gold and he'll become like gold cold and hard and if a person loves god he'll become like god warm and tender and so god says the seeds of judgment affect the person in his own physical being well i was having some problems some stomach problems and such as this a year or so ago or several years ago uh interesting thing the doctor went through all of these tests and gave me some medicine to take and told me some things to do. And then he asked me sort of a personal question. He said, are you having problems with anybody? Are you at outs with anybody?

Is there anybody that you're having conflict with? And he said, if there is, you need to go to them and make it right. Because he said, you'll never be well if you've got broken relationships in your life, you see. Now, this was not a preacher saying this. This was a medical doctor. And the more you study up on that and read up on that, you realize that, friend, anger on the inside of your heart. I know this. When I'm not right with God and I'm, I'm not getting along with God. I don't get along with anybody. I read it on. And God says, first of all, that the judgment comes within the person. I had a friend I went to college with. He was

one of these rising stars as the preacher. He was one of these that we younger preachers always admired because he just seemed to have that extra something. He was out distancing us other young preachers in college by miles and miles. And he was a tremendous pulpeteer. Pastor to big church for the time he was right out of seminary. But then something happened. His family began falling apart and he left his wife and married another woman, divorced her and married another woman. I was in Oklahoma City in a meeting and one day this friend showed up. And there was a little bit of awkwardness there between us, you see, and I asked him what he was doing. He was selling used cars. That's no affront to use car salesman, but that's what he was doing. And I said, how's everything going?

He said, man, everything is going great. And he was acting as though, the Lord had forgiven him and he had repented and everything was, boy, I mean, in our conversation, he was just, everything is great, everything is just wonderful, you know, boy, everything's all right. I just, you know, praising the Lord. And then the service started, and we were standing next to each other, and I noticed something. He never sang a single note during the service. And that told me more than anything else, you say, man had no song in his heart, nothing to sing. Why? Because sin had affected him in such a way. He could not express the joy of the Lord in his heart. There was no

joy there, and he could lie to me and tell me, oh, that was well, but when it came down to his worship with God, he had no song. He couldn't sing. Secondly, God judges us in the matter of our possessions. Now, I want you to go back to chapter two, verses 8, 9, and 10. chapter two verses eight nine and ten and i'm going to have to just sort of highlight these chapter two verses eight nine i said ten we want to skip ten go down to twelve for she did not know that i gave her corn and wine and oil and multiplied her silver and gold which they prepared for bail now that's interesting i wish we had a long time just sat here for a while god says i gave corn and wine and oil and multiplied her silver and gold, what did she do for it with it?

She gave it to bail, false God. You know what God is doing for us today? He's multiplying our corn and our oil and our silver and our gold, and you know what we're doing it? We're giving it to bail. That's what he says. He said, they did not know that I was the one that was giving her all the corn and the wine and the oil and multiplied her silver and gold, which is.

they prepared for bail. Therefore, will I return and take away my coin in the time thereof? And that little phrase in the time thereof means when they really need it. And my wine in the season thereof, in other words, when they really need it, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. Verse 11. And I will destroy, make desolate, that means that nothing. nothing's going to go. It doesn't mean that God's going to come and send a fire. It just means that he's going to take away the capacity. I will destroy her vines, make desolate her vines and her fig trees, whereof she has said, these are my rewards that my lovers have given me,

and I will make them a forest, and the beast of the field shall eat them. Now, God says, I'll do three things with your possessions. If you do not honor me in your heart, by serving me, I'm going to choose the whip that's best suited for you. And for some of you, the most painful place to hit you is in your pocketbook. And he said, I'll do three things to your possessions. Number one, he said, I'll take them away from you. That's the first thing. He said, I'll's flat, take them away from you.

I'll bankrupt you. I'll take them away from you. And God sometimes does that. The second thing, he says, is I will destroy your capacity to acquire possession. I'll destroy your capacity to do business. When he says, I will destroy your vineyards, he's not saying, I'm going to come and send a raging fire in your vineyards. What he's saying is, I'm going to make desolate the ground in which your vineyards grow.

He said, you won't be able to grow a thing. You won't be able to conduct business. The same pattern that used to sell, insurance no longer work. The same techniques that at one time made you a lot of money, they'll no longer work. He said, I will take a work. your capacity to earn to a fire. Well, if you don't think God can do that, then I can give you a number of outstanding illustrations. And the third thing he says is this. I may not take them away, and I may not take away your capacity to acquire them, but I'll take away your capacity to enjoy

them. I'll take away your capacity to enjoy them. God affects, God judges in the area of our possessions. Well, that's all I want to say about that this morning. Number three, God judges us in the area of their children, yet will I receive, yet will I believe them that there shall not be a man left. Yea, also to them when I depart from them. He says, though they bring up children, I'll bereave them. But if you go back to verse 11, as a matter of fact, and there are so many of these verses that I've just tried to pick out some for our time's sake. But in verse 11, he says, that's for Epham, their glory shall fly away like a bird from the birth and from the womb and from the conception. You see, for an Israelite, the glory was being able to bear children.

It was a humiliation, a shame, a reproach they felt from God if the family couldn't bear children. He said, their glory will fly away like a bird. from the womb and from conception. And though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them that there shall not be a man let, ye woe also to them when I depart from them. Then look down in verse 17,

My God will cast them away because they did not harken unto them, and they shall be wonderers among the nations. Now, God says, here are three things about the children. He says, in one instant you refuse to give children. Second, he says when he does give children, they'll lead lives of sin and wondering. And number three, he says they will come to untimely and violent there. Now, are you Lithman real careful? I don't believe that too much.

You'd go back over to Exodus, and he says that he will visit the sins of the fathers upon the sins of the children. and such as this. I want to give you a little exercise in hermeneutics. You read over in the Old Testament, God many and many a time talks about visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children. And the great many people are using those verses today

to say that the reason that you're having the problems that you're having or that you're got... I think my wife is so rich, she had arthritis, It's probably something her grandfather did. And I've had people to say the reason you suffer from migraine is because your mother played with a Ouija board when she was just a little girl.

And they'll fault these verses. Now, I want you listen to me very clear. I don't expect everybody to agree with me on this, but that's neither here nor there. Those statements made, you have to read them, my friend, in their context, and be honest, they were made to a particular people at a particular kind in a particular occasion. You come over to the New Testament

because the New Testament is the final word on faith and authority. Do we believe that? Is the full final revelation in the New Testament? It is. All right, then how do I know what part of the Old Testament is applicable to me today? I mean, after all, they made animal sacrifices

in the Old Testament. Somebody says, if you keep all these statutes, statutes and ordinances in the Lord will not pause any of these disease that come upon you for He is the Lord that He let the, well, you read some of those statutes and ordinances they were to keep. If somebody was taken in the door for you, you were to take them out and stone them, I don't think we want to keep that today. Or how do I know what part of the Old Testament is applicable to me in the New Testament today? Now here's the rule. those teachings that are retaught and reiterated in the New Testament are applicable to us today.

That's how you know. How do I know what part of the Old Testament died with the Old Testament and died with the Israel economy? I mean, we know we're not to make sacrifices any longer. We know we're not to stone people any longer. But yet there's still a lot of principles and ethics in the Old Testament. How far am I to go and how am I to treat them? Well, Christ is the final and for revelation, and the New Testament is the final word on any issue. So I do not judge the New Testament by the Old Testament.

I judge the Old Testament by the New Testament. And so when I find a truth in the Old Testament, I want to find that same truth called in the New Testament. I want to tell you something you do not find taught in the New Testament that God visits the sins of the fathers upon the children. that was made to Israel in their failure to keep the Ten Commandments and the law of God. And I'll tell you why I know that to be true. Because in Isaiah and Jeremiah both, you have this statement. In the day of the new covenant which we're in today, in the day of the new covenant which we're in today, he says no longer will they be able to say,

our fathers have eaten sour grapes on the children's teeth or set on edge. Have you ever heard that? That was a very common proverb back in the Old Testament days. It was an excuse, really. The other reason I'm the way I am is my father ate sour grapes. And I can't help it. I've got that violent timber before my mother had red hair and was Irish. It's not my fault.

It's my heritage. It's my parentage. Our fathers have eaten sour sour. grates. Bless our hearts, our teeth, is set on edge. Not our of all. He says, in that day, no man will ever be able to stay that for every

man shall bear his own iniquity. Now, are you still with me? Now, I do believe, I do believe that psychologically, environmentally and exemplally, is that a word, it is now, exemplary,

that the father's sins are visited on the children. You see, you bring up a child in an environment of godliness. Naturally, that child is going to catch that godliness, but you cannot say that God is punishing that child for what that father did. No, sir. Those are the natural consequences of life, you see. I mean, here is a father who is a drunkard and alcoholic,

and his son grows up to be the same way. And you cannot say, based on scripture, where the reason he is a drunker, the poor boy had no chance for, because God, God is visiting that father's sin upon his son. He's punishing his son for what his father did. Folks, that is not so. Now, he is suffering. He is suffering to be sure for what his father did, and he's suffering for what his father was. But don't ever say that God is making him suffer for what his father did. for every man shall bear his own iniquity. But sin does, we do reap the benefits of our sin and our children. Just by natural ponserflats. Now, having said that, I will say this. In the Old Testament, God speaks in physical, material terms.

Do you agree with that? some of you some of you're waiting to see if I'm going to trick you and I'm not salvation is spoken of largely in terms of physical deliverance you find very little about the hereafter mentioned in the old customer

they didn't have much of a concept of the hereafter why because in the infancy of the religious race God just taught them what they could comprehend but when you get to the New Testament, the emphasis is the form of what? Spiritual blessing. Right?

Spiritual blessing. Now, I'll tell you how I think that when we come to pages and teachings like this in the Old Testament, we must remember that Israel was in a very real sense a preview and a prefigure of the people of God. We are the people of God. where the church grafted in the Gentiles, but still Paul said writing to Gentiles in the Corinthians that everything had happened to the Israelites happened as examples to us on whom the ends of the ages have come.

So I can look back and see how God dealt with Israel and I can make spiritual application to that. Now, here is the way I would interpret these verses today. I wouldn't walk out of here today saying that because God said to Jose to Israel under that economy, which was a different economy of law and as though obedient, and the old covenant, I would not say that God is going to punish a child for what his father did. But I will say this, that spiritual children certainly do suffer for the sins of their spiritual parents. And what I'm getting at is this, that the reason that we have the church we have today is it is the products of the backslidden church of yesterday.

You see? Oh, that's big. What's happened for the children of the father spiritually? This is what's happened to them. This is what happened to them. We were talking last night. I got talking to 12 o'clock in my morning. That's why I'm so bug-eyed this morning.

We talked about the times when God worked in revival. And God came down and worked an extraordinary way and how people would be saved and lives would be changed. But you know what happening? We forget those things. And our hearts grow cold. And we forget the former day. And we forget the goodness of God.

and that we take what at one time was spontaneous, and we make it into a system. And we just have to do that. Somebody last night, Brother Joel talked about Kit from Nashville. I like that. But, you know, I mean, if God bless it over here, and I remember when revival came to our church, I had one of the denominations of men called me at me and said,

boy, here what's going on out there? He said, what are you doing? I said, we're not doing anything. He said, we're not doing anything. He said, well, I know that. He said, what are you doing? I said, well, I'm not doing anything. I said, we have Sunday school at 9 o'clock, 9.30, and a priest and church, it's a very traditional church. Prayinging you at 6. Freak and Pharaohs at 7. I just, I just preach it. And we do have a bunch of people praying.

He said, well, I know that, but he said, you're having, you're having extraordinary things out there. I said, well, yeah, God just see through the best. And he said, well, I know that, but he said, what are you doing differently now than you were doing before? He said, what program Have you, what program of you using? Are you using one of our programs? I never did. To this day, I never have convinced that fella that while was happening was not the result

of some program, not against the programs, but you know what they want to do? They wanted to bottle it. They want to bottle it. Man must always touch the ark, and when he does, it died. It's like I told him last night, there's some exotic flowers when the human hand

touches the pedal, the pedal will will. And there's some works of God that if you'll just get all, and leave them alone and let God do it. They'll flourish and grow and be beautiful and give off a fragrance. But you put your hand to it and want to examine it and let's get up a tour and go investigate the revival. And if enough Americans finally go over the Korea,

pretty soon they'll kill the revival. And so what happens is we who remember revival and we who remember the great works of God, we have systematized it and it's all become mechanical and we're wearing the veil, but the glory is no longer there. our children, you see, grow up believing that everything is pushed for, click, click, become successful that quick, and they know nothing of the power and the glory of God,

they say. The church of the day is the product of the backslidden church of yesterday, because we forgot. We forgot. You see, every great denomination has gone this way, and you understand, I'm not being harsh or untimed, but you take the great Methodist church, great Presbyterian church, you take all those great evangelical churches. I could sit down today and read what is written in the doctrine of the Presbyterian Church and get up and preach it here and would conflict with what I believe one bill.

Then you go into the average Presbyterian Church and I apologize if I'm offending any Presbyterian church because some Baptists are just as bad. And, friend, at the far price, any similarity between what they believe in the Haticism and what you hear from the porpoet is purely coincidental. happened? There was a time when they believed all of that, and the glory of God was upon them, and the power was there. And not today. What's happened? The churning of the day of the product of that backslidden people. The same thing happened to the Methodist Church used to be years ago, the fariest, most evangelical soul-winning organization in this country, and today

it is practically nil as far as having any impact upon it. There are some acceptance, of course. Same thing can happen and is happening to our own denomination. Always has. That's the history of it. That's the history of it. That's the history of it. You say, well, I'm going to start a new one.

Well, they did that several years ago, a number of years ago, what they called the fundamentalist independent movement. Started out just fine. But today, what you've got there, by and large, is parasyical, self-righteous, deadness, orthodoxal. We all start out that way. We all start out right. We all start out with our hearts of flame and our hearts of fire, but along the way we have to make some concessions and make some compromises and our hearts get hold, and we bear children. What happens to the children? Well, this is what happens to them.

They wonder. They wonder. I like that wondering. You can go up north and find half of the missing Southern Baptist churches up there. Southern Baptist people. Why, they're wondering, but they're not joining anywhere up there. What do you say? One Southern Baptist Church in New Hampshire? But I bet you there's a million Southern Baptist living in there.

Wandering. Wandering. I believe God does visit us in our posterity. Not just physical, but I think spiritual. And then last of all, I believe that God judges us in our privileges. Look at the second chapter again, verse 11. He said, I will also cause all her mirth to cease. For feast days, their new moons and her sabbats and all her solemn feasts.

Oh, that's what they rejoiced in. He said, I'm going to take away the privileges of worship. Sometimes I won't let them work. worship. And there was a while when they couldn't worship, you understand. Then he said, I'm going to take away the joy of worship. He said, I'll take away the mirth. I'll cause the mirth to cease. Oh, they'll still go through their solemn feast. They'll still go through all the ritual, but there'll be no joy. There'll be no mirth. The privilege of worship, the privilege of worship, is coming into the presence of God and meeting God and having God speak to your heart and having

God touch your heart and having God bind up a person comes in lonely and he goes out with a companion, a person comes in with his heart broken and he goes out with it, mended, a person comes in misunderstood and he goes away with a high priest that's touched by the infirmity of our own suffering. And that's what worship is and he goes their way, joyful. He rises up on eagle's wings because he waits up around the Lord. That's what real worship is. You're weary when you come in, but you're leaping and jumping when you go off, prophet Isaiah says. But he says,

alcohol is that to cease. There'll be no mirth. And some of you drag out just the way you drug in. I go to church many a time. My wife tell you this, I'm just being honest. Nobody here this morning but, uh, it's hard for me to go to church.

I think there's any reason God called me to preach because that's the only way to give me to go to church. You know why I don't like to go to church? Same reason I don't like to go to funerals. It's dead. And I'm not saying, oh, well, if you, if we go down here at this church where everybody's dancing in the aisles, jumping, that's not what I'm talking about. That can be just as dead.

I'm talking about a life that comes from the presence of God, from the awesome presence of God. You can cut it with a knife, and you don't have to get up to say God's here. Everybody will say, well, sure, stupid, didn't you know that? He said, I will cause to murder to cease. And I want to tell you something. You write that over the doorpost. of the great many churches today, God has caused the murphasease.

There's no joy in worship. There's no joy in worship. Oh, they've got everything they wanted. You know, an interesting thing. Paul, you ought to preach sometime. You do step like it. You are preaching on a law of penalties. Did you know that God has a law of penitaphys,

and you know what that law is? You know how God best judges a person? By giving you what you all. by giving you what you're wrong. You look over there in Numbers chapter 11, verse 18, I believe it is. The people are wailing because they're missing the flesh pots of Egypt. They don't like all this man in quail. Glam them.

Nana's been highly overrated in hymns. It was just a coarse bread, you all it was. I never have like quail anyway. And I'm sure their quails not as nice and tender as the blue quail we have down in South Texas. They were tired on all of that, and they said, oh, we missed the Chile and the leaks of Egypt. We want the meat. We want the meat.

We're tired of this manna. God, Tom's turn and said, you want me? I might have you me. And you're going to have it. Not for a day, not for a week, not for a month, but until it runs out your nastrils and becomes loathsome unto year. That's how God judges. Over there in Psalm 107, it says he answered their request.

but sent leanness into their soul. Interesting sometimes just because God answers your prayer doesn't mean God wants you to have it. Sometimes that's his way of judging it. What was the prodigal son's greatest judgment? Getting what he wanted. Getting what he wanted. He wanted to run off the far country,

and so he got to do exactly what he wanted. All restraints were taken off. Now, I want you to notice something. The emphasis in our society today is, on no restraints. No restraint. Freedom. Freedom. Free to be me. Free to come out of the closet.

You see? Freedom, no restraint. You know what's happening? God is giving us exactly what we won't. And it's our judgment. You read over there in Romans chapter 1 where he's talking about the former civilization, three times you'll find that praise.

And God gave them up. And God gave them up. And God gave them up. Sounds like clogged of dirt falling on a coffin as God buries civilization. God gave them up. God gave them up. God gave them up. The word translated gave up there means God let them go.

Took off the restraint. It's like a boat that's tied at a dock and the current keeps tugging at that boat and keeps tugging at that boat. And the rope is straining. And so finally somebody comes along and unties that rope and lets the current carried away. That's the idea in Romans 1. gave them up. The current was dragging them. They wanted to do it. And finally, God gave them over. Now, you check out those three things, and you'll find that God gave them over to everything they wanted. They did not like to retain God in their knowledge, so God gave them over to a reprobate man.

They left the natural cause of woman and burned themselves to one another in man, and God gave them over to what? To perversion. Every single one of them, you check it out all three times. God gave them over to exactly what they were wanted. He said, you don't want to think about God, or I'm going to fix you up so you can't. You don't want to live normally, or I don't want to fix you up so you can. Don't let you have what you won't. God takes away the privileges of our worship. He causes the mirth to cease. He causes the mirth to cease.

Every sin bears in it the sieve of judgment. But it doesn't end there. because God is still calling his people and there is a way out.