Sermon Transcript — August 2, 2003
On a cold still night, over ninety years ago, the steamship, Titanic, was plowing through the waters of the north Atlantic. It was on its maiden voyage from England to New York. A little before midnight, some of the more than two thousand passengers and crew on the Titanic heard and felt a shutter, and they heard a scraping noise alongside the ship as they passed by an iceberg.
They had no way of knowing it, but two hours and twenty minutes later, the Titanic, that supposedly unsinkable ship, would slip beneath the surface of the ocean and drop two and a half miles to a watery grave at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
Out of the two thousand two hundred and twenty passengers and crew, only seven hundred and five, one-third, less than one-third, found their way onto lifeboats. However, all the others had what we called — life belts — a kind of life preserver that fits around the waist, I'm sure you've seen them many times, to keep the person from drowning. As the Titanic slowly sunk, there was no more room in the lifeboats, so the many passengers who could not get into the lifeboats simply jumped in the water. They were counting on their life belt to save them. What they didn't know, brethren, what they didn't know is that every single person on the Titanic who didn't make it into a lifeboat was doomed. DOOMED! They didn't know that. The moment they hit the water, because of the fact that most people died on the Titanic didn't die of drowning. They died of something else.
When the first ships arrived on the scene, they found hundreds of bodies bobbing in the water, held up by their life belts. When the people on the Titanic didn't know when they hit the water what was going to happen, they didn't realize that what was occurring was the fact that when they jumped into that water, it was just a little above freezing. And they had between fifteen and forty-five minutes to live. They were doomed to die of something that we have not talked about for years until just recently, and that is, they were doomed to die of hypothermia.
If you saw the movie, The Titanic, you remember the closing scene after the Titanic sank, and all the people were thrashing around in the water, and eventually it grew deathly quiet, as one by one, they died of hypothermia. The lifeboats went back and forth among the bodies looking for someone that was still alive as all these bodies were bobbing in the water. That movie was a very accurate depiction of what happened that tragic night.
Hypothermia is a term most of us have now heard of, particularly those who live in mountain states like Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, or places where it gets very, very cold, especially in parts of the state or even the provinces of Canada.
Hypothermia is considered the number one killer of people involved in outdoor activities every year. In states where people are involved in outdoor activities like hunting, and hiking, and boating, we hear of a number of cases each year where people die of hypothermia. It has only been in the recent decades that the process of how a person dies from hypothermia can really come to a full understanding of what really does occur.
Maybe you remember years ago when people were written up, they were lost, and they were out either hiking, or camping, or hunting, and they were out there, and they died of exposure. Now researchers who used to think that it was "exposure," that these people in reality died of hypothermia.
What is hypothermia? What is it? It is actually a condition where the body loses body heat faster than it can regenerate it. As the body loses heat, it grows colder and colder, and the body actually begins to shut down. It literally has a defense mechanism by which it begins to shut down, and the body shuts down in sequence. What actually happens is as the body cools down, it tries to keep the heart and the lungs and other critical internal organs warm. So it takes heat away from the body extremities, and that's why in the cold weather what happens to you and to me? Our fingers and our ears and our nose and our toes get colder first. It's a defense mechanism the body has for keeping it alive. The body keeps the internal organs functioning, so it sacrifices blood flow first to the fingers, toes, ears, and then to the arms and then the legs and then our head. Losing this body heat is deadly, according to what the report says. Our normal body temperature is 98.6 If our body temperature drops to 90 degrees, believe it or not, the heart goes down to approximately two beats per minute, and we basically stop breathing at that particular condition.
At 77 degrees, the body is too cold for the heart to function, so the heart stops, and the person is clinically dead. Losing that much body heat can take anywhere from several hours to as little as fifteen minutes depending on how cold it is, how wet you are, what kind of clothing you're wearing. Hypothermia has killed somewhere between hundreds and thousands of people each year, yet no one is sure exactly how many people it does kill, because a lot of people, when it is written up, appear to have been killed by something else.
In the example of the Titanic, as I mentioned earlier, the official cause of death of every single person was listed as drowning. And yet most of the people they examined, the majority of the people that they examined, did not have one drop of ocean water in their lungs. Why? Because they didn't die of drowning; they died of hypothermia. It's possible that half of all drowning victims, according to reports may actually be deaths caused by hypothermia. Where a victim falls out of a boat, his clothes become so water-logged it's hard for him to climb back into the boat, and before long, the cold water gets to his arms and his legs, and they go numb, and he can't hold on to the boat any longer, and he loses his grip, and he goes under and he drowns.
In the same way, a lot of deaths among hunters, hikers may be attributed to heart attacks that we hear about, but in reality, what really happened is their body temperature got so low that their heart just shut down from the cold.
So, why should we be interested in knowing about hypothermia? Why should I give a sermon on hypothermia? Well, it has to do with something very important spiritually. Hypothermia has to do with your Christian life, because it has to do with something very spiritual that we would like to examine today in the sermon. As we will see in this sermon, hypothermia has a lot to do with you and me, because hypothermia has taken the lives of thousands of people in God's church over the years. It will probably take the lives of thousands more. Not the physical hypothermia that I just described concerning the Titanic and people who die out hiking or camping or hunting, but it has to do with a spiritual hypothermia that is claiming many, many victims in God's church.
Spiritual hypothermia is something that God warns us about in prophecy, and He tells us it is going to happen, and it's going to happen at the time of the end, and therefore I think I should warn you. More than that, I should tell you what the reports tell me from the field ministry. They have two very concerning situations in the field that they talk about, and they ask if we would please help them have information on how to deal with these two. # 1 - To give to people a strong vision as to what they should be doing, and # 2 - Spiritual lethargy. Spiritual lethargy, he said, effects numerous congregations all over the United States, and I'm not speaking about the rest of the world; I'm only speaking about my area of responsibility. So just what is this spiritual hypothermia that I'm going to talk about today. What is it? What does God's word say about it?
Well let's begin by turning to Matthew 24. Let's take you to Matthew 24. This chapter, of course, is the Olivet prophecy about the time of the end. It tells us about the spiritual condition of God's people leading up to the time of Christ's return. It begins in Matthew 24:3, and it tells us about the prophecies of what is going to occur, beginning in verse 3, Jesus said:
Matthew 24:3 — "Now (when) as He sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, 'Tell us, when (shall) will these things be? And what (shall) will be the sign of Your coming, and (of) the end of the age?' " So Jesus began to talk about world conditions when He said,
Verse 4 — ". . .Take heed that no one (man) deceives you.
Verse 5 — "For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am (the) Christ,' and will deceive (the) many.
Verse 6 — ". . .You will hear of wars and rumors of wars." So, ". . .be not troubled; because ". . .the end is not yet. He told them that:
Verse 7 — ". . .nation will (would) rise against nation," Verse 7, ". . .and kingdom against kingdom. (And) there would be famines, (and) pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.
Verse 8 — "(All) And these are the beginning of sorrows." Now Jesus was talking about conditions and trends that would exist at the time of the end of the age. These are horrible things that will take place. We all agree with that. We've seen what is happening in the world that we live in, and as like a snow ball rolling down the side of the hill, it is gaining and gaining momentum as it continues to go. But Jesus Christ in Verse 9 shifts gears. In Verse 9 He then begins to talk about not the world as a whole; now He begins to talk about His followers, right on the heels of what is going to happen in the world, and He says the following:
Verse 9 — "Then will they deliver you up to tribulation and (they will) kill you, and you will be hated (by) all nations for My name's sake." Triple emphasis on "you. You, you, you, three times in verse 9. But notice Verse 10:
Verse 10 — "And then many will be offended. . ." Notice the emphasis I have —"Many will be offended. . ." And it goes on to say, ". . .and betray one another, and will hate one another.
Verse 11 — "Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many." Now you got emphasis not on you, but emphasis on many. But look where He goes with this scripture.
Verse 12 — "And because lawlessness will abound, the love. . ." That is the agape Godly love of God, ". . .the love of many will grow cold." Four times in verse 10, just as He emphasized three in verse 9, He emphasizes four in verse 10, when He says, "Many, many, many, many." Why? Because He's trying to tell us something very, very important. Jesus did not say that the love of a few would grow cold, or the love of a few scattered handfuls would grow cold. He said, "The love of many would grow cold, and the Greek word used here means a great number or a large multitude. The New International Version, if you want to call it a "perverted text" that's fine, but the New International Version translates this as "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold."
Now you know what human nature says? "Not Me." "Not going to happen to me." "No, no, no, no, no, not me!" Now that's — "him, or her." Oh, I know this particular person in the congregation; they're pretty weak. No it doesn't say that. The scary prophecy part of this is the fact that this prophecy in verse 10 will effect a large number of people, not just a few scattered individuals here and there.
Now, that's a frightening warning. It's a frightening warning when ministers in the field tell me that one of the two major problems that we will face, and that we are facing is lethargy. So I think we ought to pay attention to the sermon today, if nothing else, maybe I've got your attention.
Listen, brethren, this is very serious, because we realize that at the time of the end there is another prophecy that goes hand and hand with this. You know the story; we've heard it before; it's called the prophecy about the Laeodicean church. We find this warning in Revelation 3:15 where the apostle, John, writes the words of Christ when he says
Revelation 3:15 — "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I (could) wish (that) you were cold or hot.
Verse 16 — "So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth." That's not a pretty sight. Have you ever seen somebody vomit something out of their mouth? It's yucky-do, right? Right. I mean, you've seen kids do that, where they've spit up what they were eating, sometimes, for one reason or another. Sometimes because they didn't like it. But the point was Jesus Christ here is talking about church members who are lukewarm, and you read the prophecy of the Laeodiceans and we know that it's referring to a period close to the time of the end.
How do you get lukewarm? How in the world does anybody get lukewarm? The way you get lukewarm is to start out with something that is hot, and then you let it cool off. You let it grow cold. You don't do what is necessary to keep it warmed up and active and committed. That's what happens to Laeodiceans; that's what happens to lukewarmness. Jesus had some very harsh things to say about those Laeodiceans and their attitude because they became lukewarm. They started out committed and zealous for God's work and God's way of life, but they let it grow cold. They let the flame burn out. This is the kind of spiritual hypothermia that I'm talking about. It is something that you and I need to take very seriously; it is something that can take away our life, our eternal life if we are not careful. And we watch this happening all around us, year after year after year among the people who once professed the truth of God. You know that.
I talked about spiritual drifters several years ago, and the fact is that it is true. So I began the sermon with a pretty lengthy background on physical hypothermia because of the spiritual hypothermia that Christ warns us about — letting our love grow cold. They work the same; they work the same way. There are astounding parallels and lessons that we can learn from comparing the two, and the safeguards that we can take to protect against physical hypothermia are the same safeguards we should use to protect against spiritual hypothermia. Are you still listening? I hope you are, because we need to realize what's going on in the world that we live in. So let's evaluate this afternoon in the time that I have left in the sermon; let's go through how spiritual hypothermia occurs, what we can do to protect ourselves against it, or how to treat ourselves if we are already afflicted with it.
Number one: The first point for us to remember in preventing hypothermia is to be prepared. It's to be prepared. Hypothermia comes on unexpectedly. Nobody goes out deer or elk hunting, expecting to get lost and freeze to death. Nobody goes hiking and expects to get caught in a sudden storm and die before they can get back. Hypothermia comes when you're not expecting it. People get caught in unexpected circumstances; they aren't prepared, and it kills them. That ship was not prepared to take twenty-two hundred people off it and save their lives.
The same thing is true of spiritual hypothermia. You have to realize that spiritual hypothermia is a danger, that it is a threat to eternal life, that you and I must be prepared, but how do you prepare for hypothermia? Most people die of hypothermia because they're not wearing the right clothes to begin with. Number one thing, they're not wearing the right clothes to begin with. What kind of clothes should we be wearing to ward off spiritual hypothermia? Well, let's go to Revelation 19. I'm going to use a lot of scriptures today so bear with me, because we are going to take you through a number of areas to parallel between physical and spiritual hypothermia. Revelation 19:7, this is a prophecy of the church, the spiritual body. It is a prophecy of our future, what we should be doing right now so that we can share in the future of the kingdom of God, so that we can make it. That's what he's saying.
Revelation 19:7 — "Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife (the church) has made herself ready.
Verse 8 — "And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is (this is the New King James version) the righteous acts of the saints." The sad part about that is that it leaves you with an inability to understand the total story, because the old King James says that: ". . .the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints."
Now there's a lot of people who think that if they just "do good" then that's important. They look at Matthew 25 about the people who went out and fed those who were sick and took care of those that were hungry, and took care of those individuals, and if you've done that to these individuals, you've done that to Me. That's a "doing" situation; that's wonderful. I have no problem with that. But this scripture is talking about more than just doing. Righteous acts are wonderful, but there is more to it. God's word pictures His church as being clothed with "righteousness." And of course, good works are one of them.
Now we are told in the book of Psalms 119:172, you don't need to turn there because you know the scripture; it says: "All His commandments are righteousness." So you start at a level of what we describe as simply the terms that God places upon us to do the things that we need to do when it comes to keeping His commandments and doing those things which are pleasing in His sight. This is the type of clothing the church is depicted as wearing at the marriage of Jesus Christ; it is the kind of clothing that God expects us to wear. We are to be clothed in righteousness, and righteous acts.
In the world, there are a number of people who go around doing good deeds. There are many actors; there are many musicians; there are many people who have names, and they go about doing these wonderful things of having concerts for this, and having drives for that, and that's all wonderful. I have no problem with them doing that. The problem is with the person, because they can do these things, but there is a difference between doing and being, and the righteousness of God has to do with both the doing, keeping of the commandments, and the being. And it has to do with something that we don't talk about all that often, righteous, holy, Godly character.
Doing and being are linked together in the righteousness of God. Never let it be known to anyone that just because you do something good for someone does make you totally righteous. It is a part of doing what you should be doing, but what you are, what you are as an individual, the very character, the qualities that you have within you and are part of your being, that is the other aspect of this. You have to be clothed in what is known as the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ. It means that spiritual righteousness that not only keeps the letter of the law, but it keeps the spirit of the law, and it keeps you developing something that is called Godly character. And that's the bottom line.
It is important that we are found with this right kind of clothing; the Bible tells us that you have to show up at the wedding of the Lamb with this clothing on, so it's not only what you do, ladies and gentlemen; it's what you are, and that's a problem sometimes when we look at people doing good. Sometimes their character and their qualities lack terribly because they're only being seen for doing, not for being. Is that a put down? No. That's just a fact of life. You can't have the doing and the being, excuse me, you can't be a Christian without having the doing and the being. That is an important qualification that God shows us.
Let's go to Matthew 22 for just a moment. This is a parable about the wedding feast. It gives us more details about this thing about having the right kind of clothing. Number one thing, to have the right kind of clothing. It shows how a king, depicting God arranges a great wedding feast for His son, picturing Jesus Christ, the King, and inviting all kinds of people to the wedding feast, but for one of them, it was a big surprise. He thought he was ready for the wedding feast, but he wasn't. Let's pick up the story.
Matthew 22:11 — "And when the king, (picturing God) came in to see the guests, He saw a man there (which had not on) (not having a) wedding garment." The man wasn't properly dressed as he should have been.
Verse 12 — "(So) (And) He said to him, 'Friend, (how did you) (why did you) come in here without a wedding garment?' And He was speechless.
Verse 13 — "Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' " Verse 14, listen to what this verse says; sometimes we don't get it.
Verse 14 — "For many are called, but few are chosen." I have watched for forty-seven years. God calls many people, some to be donors, some to be coworkers, some to be members and some to be ministers. I have watched this process go on; it's at work in United right now, beautifully. I thank God for the way that He is working with a large number of people. But we recognize that when someone is invited to the wedding supper, when he has been given the opportunity to be there, it says: "Many are called and few are chosen." What does that mean? It means that people get off to a good start, but they don't continue. Why? Because they haven't developed the wedding garment. They haven't gotten it together spiritually before God.
I gave you a survey of a situation that occurred in our former association in 1984. I told you that in 1984 we had a little over 150,000 people who were in attendance around the world. The man was still alive who was leading us at that time as the Pastor General. He did not like the report for what it said. It said that from 1934 to 1984, almost 150,000 people who started out with the Radio, or then, Worldwide, they're gone. Gone, gone, gone! They're gone! They left; they were disfellowshipped; they walked away; they walked in the front door; they went out the back door, but they were gone. Almost the same number that were attending in 1984, almost an equal amount had walked through the front door and walked out the back. Why? Many are called, but few are chosen.
We never perhaps looked at that scripture that way, but you and I sit in this room, and we're all being tested right now; we're all being worked with right now, and you're going to have to come to the place that when these things occur in the prophecy of Matthew 24, you're going to have to stand on your own, because you can't get someone else to get you in. You can't get someone else to give you more of the holy spirit. You can't get someone else to give you the character of God. You've got to stand on your own, and when that time comes, let me tell you, you'd better be ready. You'd better be ready, because the God of heaven and earth said that many are called to that supper, but some didn't come with their garment, and He had to cast this man out into outer darkness. It's scary. Am I trying to be nice today? No. I'm trying to be honest; I'm trying to tell you what we see, what we recognize.
This parable about the marriage supper of Jesus Christ shows one man showing up without the wedding garment. He doesn't have the proper clothing, and in the parable, the man is thrown out of the feast and cast into outer darkness. He didn't come prepared; he didn't think it was important enough to wear the right kind of clothing. He wasn't wearing the righteousness of God. His doing and being were not synonymous with being like Christ.
How about you? What do you fudge on? What do you not do when you should be doing? What do you know you should be doing in the Church of God in a regular, ongoing way? Ask yourself that question today? You need to ask yourself the question because we need to be sure we're not growing weary in doing well and for some reason remove that clothing, or never put it on to begin with, and make ourselves vulnerable to that period of time that we're going to live into from Matthew 24, verses 9 through 13, about ". . .and many shall be offended," and many shall lose their love, and many. . . four times.
What's another factor in preventing hypothermia? We covered the importance of proper clothing, but another factor in preventing hypothermia is eating enough food beforehand so your body has all the fuel it needs to generate heat. Our bodies function pretty much like any other engine. All engines need fuel. When they don't get enough fuel, they run out of gas and stop. When that happens to us, we call it starvation.
When a person has hypothermia, his body is losing heat faster than his body can generate it. If he doesn't have enough fuel inside of him to generate heat and energy, he gets colder and colder and unless something else happens, he eventually dies. Does the Bible say anything about how we eat and drink that may help us to prevent hypothermia? Let's turn to John 4. Let's notice John 4:31, where Christ tells us something about the kind of fuel we need to generate spiritual body heat. This happened right after the incident with the Smaritan woman at Jacob's well.
John 4:31 — Notice what Christ says here: (And) "In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, 'Rabbi, eat.'
Verse 32 — "But He said to them, 'I have food to eat of which you (know not) do not know.'
Verse 33 — "Therefore the disciples said to one another, 'Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?' And now Jesus Christ begins to give us the spiritual lesson that He was trying to get across. He said:
Verse 34 — ". . .My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.' "
Now if you look at that again, you will see that I'm coming back to the thing that I said before: it is the doing and the being. The doing, "I'm finishing the work of God, and the being, in the performing of the will of God in your own personal life. So the doing and the being are still a part of what Christ is saying in the sense of the food that we must partake of. Jesus Christ said that what motivated Him and kept Him going was doing God's will and finishing His work. He wasn't motivated by His own wants and desires or wanting an easy life. He simply said He would rather do God's will and finish God's work.
How long does it take for a man to change? How long does it take? I understand according to what most people tell me in books that in one week you can develop a beginning pattern of what you need to be doing. In six weeks, you can develop a habit. So it means that within a short period of time between now and the Feast of Tabernacles you could listen to this sermon and make some serious changes in your life. You could begin to first of all, develop a new pattern of doing things in your life, and secondly you could develop a habit that you need to continue to keep on doing in your life. But how many will? How many will?
Over a few chapters from here, in John 6:32, we find some additional details about the kind of spiritual food we need. John 6:32 we see again a little bit more about this thing in developing the ability to withstand hypothermia. You start out with the clothing, secondly now you go to the food, and notice what Jesus said in verse 32:
John 6:32 — "Then Jesus said to them, 'Most assuredly, I say unto you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
Verse 33 — " 'For the bread of God is He (that) (who) comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.'
Verse 34 — "Then they said to Him, 'Lord, give us this bread always.'
Verse 35 — "And Jesus said to them, (in verse 35) 'I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.' " What Jesus was saying simply, and its words that seemed to fall on deaf ears nowadays; it's kind of a cliché; it's kind of like something that we heard back in the middle 80's about developing a personal relationship with Christ, and it wears thin. It wears thin with some people, because He is saying in essence, "This is the only way you can have eternal life." You have to come to Jesus Christ; you have to believe in Him; you have to follow him; you have to maintain a personal, daily relationship with him.
I had a wonderful teacher at Ambassador College in 1957, and one of the greatest single things that he taught me was the daily disciplines. And you know, there's something about Christianity that if you don't do those daily disciplines, they just don't do any good for you if you don't do them. You know what the daily disciplines were? Simple. Regular, ongoing, daily prayer. Number two: Regular, daily, ongoing Bible study. Number three: Regular, ongoing fasting. Simple, basic things that are basic tools of Christianity to develop a personal relationship with Christ.
So let's ask the question: Do you pray every day? Do you study the Bible every day? How many minutes a day do you pray? One, two, five. When was the last time, think about it now, when was the last time you prayed for a whole hour? I can hear some people saying in their mind, "You've got to be kidding, Pinelli. A whole hour?"
Yeah, you know, years ago we were taught to pray one whole hour. Now back in those days, it was kind of self-righteous to do that. But I began to realize that the habit of daily discipline that I had to develop was caused by, in the beginning, in the wrong way to pray, and getting it right later on. But ask yourself the question? When did you fast last? Day of Atonement? That's because you had to. How about the one you wanted to? Come on…come on…come on… Tell yourself. When was the last time you did that? How about those three basic things? If they are not there, then your relationship with Jesus Christ has to be threadbare.
It's true, it's happening in the church because we took evaluation back a few years ago, and we asked the question, okay, let's ask the question, a voluntary survey, how much time do you spend in prayer, Bible study, etc.? It was amazing. It was amazing. I gave a survey, and we had five minutes of prayer, seven minutes of Bible study, we didn't get into fasting because I didn't want to get discouraged, and gave these sermons, you know, one right after the other, about, you know, working on prayer, working on Bible study, and I must have spent ten or twelve weeks, and I went back and gave the same test. And when it came back at us, five minutes of prayer, seven minutes of Bible study, twelve weeks later. That's about the time that the poor pastor's attitude goes in the toilet, because you began to realize that not everybody was doing what they needed to be doing.
So we begin to realize, that I'm being very blunt today about the problem. It is an end-time problem. Let's be honest about it. Please don't get angry with me; get angry with yourself; if you're not doing it. I'm not trying to make you angry; I want to save you. I want to save you, because that's what it says in the book — many will be offended, many false prophets will arise, the love of many will wax cold. And you know what? A lot of people in this room could be a part of the many. Now you think about that for a moment. You think about that.
Over in Matthew 4, there's another kind of spiritual food that we must take in.
Matthew 4:1 — "Then Jesus was led (up) by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Verse 2 — "And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, (in verse 2) (afterward) He was hungry.
Verse 3 — "And when the tempter came to Him, he said, 'If You are the Son of God, (verse 3) command these stones (to) become bread.'
Verse 4 — "But He answered (in verse 4) and said, 'It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' " We need very much to sustain our lives spiritually more than even with the physical, because of the fact that we sustain our lives with physical bread, but there are also other kinds of food that are needed for us to be sustained. We need to live by every word of God. We need to be looking into the Bible, studying it, learning from it every day that we may have the spiritual food and nourishment to withstand spiritual hypothermia.
Herbert Armstrong used to say years ago to people on the radio — he'd say, "Blow the dust off your Bibles and open it up and read what it says." Remember that? He made some people so mad. But you know what? I'll bet he could have said that to the Church of God in the last ten, fifteen or twenty years. I'll bet he could have. Blow the dust off your Bibles, because you're not reading them during the rest of the week. You only take it to church on the Sabbath. Right? Yep.
The Sabbath's a wonderful opportunity to do that. God is providing us spiritual food in the form of messages that we hear, spiritual food that we need to nourish and sustain us; He gives us spiritual food through His word in reading it, the tools like the Bible Reading Program, the publications, all important to helping us draw closer to God through studying and applying His word, living by these words. Hey, that applies to me; I should be doing that; why am I not doing that? Get your act together, Richard. Get your act together, Charles. Get your act together, Sam. You know, that type of thing. That's what we're talking about here.
Another aspect of preventing hypothermia is also that we need water to keep our bodies functioning properly to prevent hypothermia. Notice John 7. One of the greatest things you'll find when you're out hiking on a trail sometimes is that you have not realized that you are beginning to suffer from dehydration. And a lot of people did not keep themselves hydrated when they were hiking, and it shows up in all kinds of things, but the Bible tells us something about the spiritual water that we should be taking in. Notice what it says:
John 7:37 — "On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and (to) drink.
Verse 38 — " ' He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'
Verse 39 — "But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, (which they which) whom those (believed) believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because (Jesus) (Christ) was not yet glorified." So we see then, there's another kind of nourishment we also need to stave off spiritual hypothermia. We need to be drinking in of God's spirit, allowing that spirit to work within in us, to nourish us, to feed us, to draw us near to God and to prevent spiritual hypothermia. We need not only to be wearing the right clothes, we need to be taking in the right kind of food, but we also need the water that will help us as well.
I want you to turn to a scripture in Luke 11, if you would please. Luke 11, I find this to be profound statement because it has to do with the question of your habit; it has to do with the question of your character and my character as a human being. This is in Luke 11:3. It talks about how Christ said to pray:
Luke 11:3 — "Give us (this) (each) day our daily bread." And then He drops down and talks about a friend importuning a friend for some bread, and the friend kept importuning Him until finally He opened the door and gave him as many loaves as he needed, as Verses 5, 6, and 7. . .there.
And then in Verse 8:
Verse 8 — It says: "I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needs." Importunity. Supplicating. Driving force of pushing to get what is needed. Notice what it says in verse 9:
Verse 9 — "And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.
Verse 10 — "For every one that asks receives, and he that seeks finds, and to him that knocks it shall be opened." He talks about:
Verse 11 — "if a son asks for bread. . . will a father give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent. . .
Verse 12 — "Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
Verse 13 — "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" Now what I didn't do right now is I didn't take you to what the actual Greek is able to portray to us in the reading of this scripture. You see, what happens is this is just considered a single event; this is considered an ongoing progressive relationship with Christ for food, water, and for the ability to have the relationship with him because Verse 9 tells us how it is really translated.
Verse 9 — "I say unto you, Ask, and. . ." keep on asking. That is the meaning of the present progressive aspect of the Greek. "Ask and. . ." keep on asking, "and it shall be given to you; seek, and . . ." keep on seeking, "and it shall be opened unto you. Knock and . . ." keep on knocking, "and it shall be given to you." So, it is asking, seeking and knocking are all progressive concepts.
Verse 10 — "For everyone (that is asking) who asks receives, and he that is seeking (and keeps on seeking) will find, and to him that knocks (and keeps on knocking) it will be open."
Verse 13 — "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them . . (asking Him)." So what we're seeing then is the relationship in all of these things to the removal of spiritual hypothermia is an ongoing thing. It is a daily, ongoing thing, just as you importune for the loaves of bread, you are also importuning for the ability to be and do what you should be and do.
Now let's take you to Matthew 25. I want to show you something here that perhaps you had not looked at before in this way. Matthew 25; it's the ten virgins. We've talked a hundred million times about the ten virgins, and I'm going to talk about it again, but I'm only going to touch on it for just a few scriptures. You know the story. It has to do with the ten virgins who all went to sleep, and then they were awakened, and you know how it all came about as to who was left and who was allowed to go into the wedding.
Matthew 25:1 "Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
Verse 2 — "And five of them were wise, and five (of them) were foolish." Why were the five wise? And why were the five foolish. The next two verses tell you; I think it has missed us in the Church of God for many years to understand what was actually being said here. Notice what it says in Verse 3:
Verse 3 — "They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:" And you get the idea that well, basically, they should have filled their lamp to the brim. That's what they should have done. No. That's not what it's actually talking about. Notice Verse 4:
Verse 4 — "But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps." They took oil, as it says in Verse 4, in their vessels with their lamps. They had two things. They actually took oil in their flasks or jars, that was the extra supply, with the torches or the lamps.
So they actually had two things; they had the torch that they carried, or the light, and then they had this vessel that they carried with them that could pour more oil into the lamp. Well, that's a totally different look at the situation, isn't it? So these individuals who were wise took their jars or their flasks, this extra supply, together with their torches so what they could do is renew the lamp. The others let their lamps simply use the oil that was there and finally go out. Why? Because they didn't have the extra supply.
Now the parable goes on to talk about many, many things here, but the point is the parable warns that a certain number of things cannot be obtained in the last minute. You can't get a relationship with Christ in the last minute, see. It's too late for a student to be preparing when the day of the exam comes. I mean, that's just a basic concept of how you develop an ability to prepare yourself for hypothermia. You have to be prepared ahead of time. It's too late to acquire a skill or a character if you don't already possess it when this times comes. You can't scramble.
I mean back years ago, we used to cram for an exam. You probably did that too, but this says it's too late. If you haven't been doing what you need to be doing, and being what you need to be ahead of time, you're just not simply going to make it. You got to have the wedding garment. You've got to have all those things ready to go. That's what the whole concept is here in Matthew 25. It warns us that certain things cannot be borrowed. It's impossible, ladies and gentlemen, to borrow the holy spirit from your wife or your husband, or from your friends in the church. You can't do it. The vessel is in you; you are begotten; you are filled with the supply of the spirit of Christ. I can't give you the holy spirit. You can't give somebody else the holy spirit. Do we understand? That's what Matthew 25 is telling you about. It warns us that certain things cannot be borrowed.
It's impossible to borrow oil. A man cannot borrow a relationship with God. He has to possess it for himself. A man cannot borrow a character. He must be clothed with it. You can't be living on spiritual capital which others have amassed. And that's what we're talking about today. This is the importance of what I'm talking about in spiritual hypothermia. Everybody has to make a choice for themselves, so these are the tools that we need to prevent hypothermia. That's not all that we need to prevent hypothermia. We now simply need to recognize the symptoms. Let's talk about the symptoms that we have to look at of spiritual hypothermia.
The main reason that hypothermia kills so many people is that they don't realize what is happening until it's too late. Why was that man aghast when he came in, and he didn't have the wedding garment? Because for some reason, he didn't realize what was happening until it was too late. Here I am, just pouring out my feelings toward you today, and my desire for you to understand what I'm saying because I don't want this to happen to you. I don't want it to happen to me, but the book says it's going to happen to many.
One of the more tragic stories that I heard in the research of this particular sermon was the case where a couple went cross-country skiing. They had a two-year-old son strapped to their back, or to the father's back, I guess it was. And they stopped for a rest and noticed that the boy seemed tired and sleepy. They didn't think much about it, but they kept on going. They stopped for another rest break two hours later, and the boy was dead. The parents didn't recognize the symptoms of hypothermia. They just didn't realize what was happening, and it cost them their son's life. That's a fact of life; that was written in a report that shows that we need to be very, very careful when we take our children out in the cold, and packed on the back of the father or the mother.
Do we recognize the symptoms of spiritual hypothermia? Let me take you through some of the symptoms of physical hypothermia; let's parallel that and see an amazing thing because they're identical to the symptoms of spiritual hypothermia. Let me read them for you. Ask yourself the question, do you have some?
Number One— The first symptom of the onset of hypothermia is losing heat in the extremities. Now you say, "I know that. You told me that. I remember that from cold weather that I've been in."
Now there are two kinds of bodies that can apply to. There is of course our individual body, and then there's also the spiritual body that we are a part of. Mr. Armstrong used to talk how important it was to stay with the trunk of the tree instead of being out on the branches where it was easier to fall off. By that he meant that those who are close in and solidly grounded to the truth and committed to sharing that truth aren't going to be way out on a limb somewhere where they can easily be shaken off. You know that.
Often when someone decides to give up this way of life, it is the people who are on the outer fringes who are "non-involved" who do that. Did you ever watch people slide away from the church? It's amazing. When we used to transfer from one church to another, what we would find is simply that a new pastor would come into an area and the people who were wanting to leave finally did leave, they were just sliding out, and this gave them the opportunity to go. And generally every church that we have ever gone to as pastors, two or three people had, as we say, slid across the threshold on their way out.
But the point is that these people who are very vulnerable; the devil loves to separate one sheep, get him out there alone, just keep moving him away from the entirety of the herd, or the entirety of the flock, in that sense of the word. That's the way he operates. The cold sets in, at first, in the extremities, at the outer edge of the body, so you need to avoid them.
I don't know how independents are going to make it in some ways because they just seem to divide, and divide, and divide, and divide. They can't agree with each other; they divide in half. When they can't agree with each other, they divide in half. I see that happening to dozens and dozens of people like that, and I wonder, "Do you recognize what's happening to you? Do you recognize what's happening to you?"
Well, of course. You and me, Lord, right? Remember, like what's-his-name said in his record some years ago, Bill Cosby, on Noah? Finally, he said, "You and me, Lord."
And the answer was, "Get your act together, Noah." But the point is very simply, you have to avoid those areas; we need to remember the bigger picture; you have to keep that in mind.
The second major symptom of the onset of hypothermia is lethargy, lagging behind, losing interest, the same comment applies here, if we're losing our interest in the spiritual life and growth, if we're losing interest in the church and not participating to the degree that we can and should, if we're not growing in grace and knowledge, if we're not studying God's word, building a relationship with Jesus Christ, these may be the first symptoms of spiritual hypothermia that's setting in. This can indicate that you're losing the first love that we once had. If we're not praying and studying the way we know we should, maybe we're not participating in that and what the church is doing. You need to take a good long at ourselves and see whether spiritual hypothermia is setting in. I want you to turn to Hebrews 5. This has to do with building on the foundation, because in Hebrews 6:1, we're going back to Hebrews 5 in a moment, it talks about "leaving the principles of the doctrines of Christ and not laying again the foundation."
Now there's a foundation that is laid in every era of the church. When we find that God chose men as the leaders of the church, one of the first things they did was to get the doctrine right. And then they got the basic administration right, and then from there, they built upon those two things to do the work of God. And what we found is that there is a basic foundation that people have been given; it has been given year after year after year. Herbert Armstrong used to say, "I'll preach the basics; the rest of you can preach the branches and the twigs."
I laugh about that because that was true. He used to talk about "Why Were You Born" every Sabbath, and I'm saying, "When's he going to find something else to preach on?" And then he got into the "Spirit in Man," remember that? And then he got into the "Two Trees," remember that? I thought I was going to go crazy, but boy do I know about those three things now, because he just ground you to powder with them. Wonderful thing that happened, even though we perhaps didn't like it in that way. But there are foundations, and it says in Hebrews 5:10,
Hebrews 5:10 — "Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.
Verse 11 — "Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing." Now how did they get dull of hearing? The answer is found in Hebrews 6:1. They actually lost their foundation. They didn't pay attention to what they were standing on, and then they had to be taught in Verse 12:
Verse 12 — ". . .that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat." Never was I so absolutely held aghast at what I saw in the year 1995, the first Sabbath in January when we had a video from the pastor general in which he had told the people two weeks before that the foundation of God's law and all that stuff was done away. Then he comes to tell us that Mark 7 in the second video has to do with the fact that now you can eat unclean meats, that that particular law for the Old Testament was done away with.
Now when he was giving this video, and we were all sitting there, I'm bumping my wife and saying, "Will somebody please stand up and tell him that he's not telling you what the truth of the scriptures are?. Somebody say, "That's not what the Bible says." But nobody did that; they all sat there.
In one congregation, there was a little ten-year-old boy, when he heard him say that Mark 7 has to do with unclean foods and that that's been done away with, not about washing with unclean hands, the little boy, with a voice only audible enough for the three rows on either in front of him or behind him said the following statement, he says, "Boy, are you in trouble. Even I know better than that." And yet a whole raft of people went out that night to eat ham sandwiches, lobster and shrimp. They bought it!
And I said, "Where in the world are you people?" I was so sad. It's wasn't weeks later that they were eating pepperoni pizza and smoking cigars in some church areas. And the reality was the fact that we recognize that somebody lost their foundation. They lost the explanation of the basic things that we should have believed, and that lethargy, that lagging behind, that losing interest, that becoming dull of hearing is what happens to a human being if you aren't consistently renewed.
Why in the world do you think that I'm asking one of our men to give the foundational doctrines of the United Church of God? Why do you think that we keep going back to some of those basic things? Because I realize that the man was right when he said that you've got to stick to the trunk of the tree, otherwise you lose sight of the vision, and you become lethargic, and you don't pay attention to the important things.
You see, this also leads to another symptom, and that's called confusion and clouded judgment. People who are experiencing hypothermia usually don't realize that that's happening to them, and there are documented cases of people suffering severe hypothermia who started out literally to take off their clothes just before they died. That's a fact. It's written in the report about hypothermia that they were suffering such severe hypothermia that they literally started to take their clothes off because they thought they were fine. They thought they were warm. They didn't realize that their condition had so affected their thinking that they started to get rid of the last protection that they had. They didn't realize they were dying and actually hasten their own death because they couldn't think straight anymore. Now God's not the author of confusion. Wisdom and sound judgment come from God. So therefore that's what we ought to be seeking.
Now I'd like to read to you from an article on hypothermia. It says the following: "There are many symptoms, but it is usually another person who recognizes them. Frequently the person experiencing the symptoms becomes too disoriented to realize what is happening. Ignoring a victim's protest that everything is okay is what you should be doing. Denial of being cold is common, and a hypothermic person may truly believe that everything is all right. The victim's judgment is impaired, and he usually wants to drift off to the sleep, and that could be permanent."
On a back-pack trip, one of our ministers was telling the story that he had first hand experience with this. On a particular leg of the trip, they had gone down a very steep valley, into the valley and out of the valley up the other side, and when they got to the top of this particular mountain area, there was kind of a pasture out there, they had to cross to get to the next valley. And what happened was they got bogged down in July in snow that was up to their waist. And what had happened was there was a crust on the top of the snow from the melting. And they kept stepping on that and going through until it went down to the waist, and they were literally bogged down, and it took them several hours to get across just that snow field because they kept breaking through the crust and had to climb out of the waist-deep snow that was there. They got all very cold; they got chilled, and on top of that, it clouded up; the wind began to blow, and if they didn't get off that mountaintop, they were going to die.
Some of the members started showing symptoms of hypothermia, the minister said. They showed this lethargy, and they began to lag behind. It was more than just exhaustion; they just stopped thinking clearly. Their judgment became clouded; they became confused, he said. They didn't want to go where they could set up a tent, and they could build a fire, and they could thaw out.
They finally had to force some of the group to do what was logical and rational to do because their thinking was so clouded; they just couldn't simply make rational decisions. He learned first hand what these symptoms were like, he told me, and he said what hypothermia does to a person's thinking, it is frightening; it is sobering, and it could happen to anybody going through a situation like that.
The same thing happens to people who suffer from spiritual hypothermia. All too often a person doesn't recognize the symptoms in himself even though they're obvious to others, and I think we begin to realize that because we don't always see the problem, that it doesn't mean that it's not there. Sometimes a person doesn't want to be helped, and they don't think there's a problem, or they don't want to be helped.
It's sad; it's frustrating to see and try to deal with it at times. I think you know that; I think we all know that. But I think the reality is that we see that happening to the people of God sometimes when they are overcome by spiritual hypothermia.
David said something very interesting. He said, "Let the righteous smite me, and it will be a kindness."
Jeremiah said, "I know, Oh, Lord, the way of man is not in (me) himself; it's not in man that walks to direct his steps." He said, "Therefore, correct me, but with justice lest I be brought to nothing."
Why? Because he recognized that in spiritual hypothermia, and that was not known to him in that particular way; he just simply saw that human nature sometimes was blinded to the reality of what it was.
James said a very beautiful thing over in James. I'd like to turn there to James 5:19:
James 5:19 — Notice what James tells us. He said: "Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;" That is seeking resolution for that individual.
Verse 20 — "Let him know, that he which converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." You know, you don't always know that you're drifting. There's a scripture over in the book of Hebrews 2 which talks about letting these things slip, you know: We need to give "more earnest heed to (salvation) (the things we have heard) lest we let them slip." The margin of the King James in Hebrews 2:3 talks about these things slipping, and the margin says, "letting them leak out." Vines says that's not true. He said that the margin is really showing that it's kind of like drifting past a mooring place, or drifting past the place that you should be.
We used to fish on the ocean when we were up in Canada right off the Vancouver Island. And what we would do is we would run our hooks all the way down to the bottom to catch the Ling Cod. Ling Cod used to get as big as 75 pounds. I was never lucky to get one of those. I found the little small ones, the rock cod, about like that, great for fish and chips. But the point was that you put your line out there, and you let it drop to the bottom, and then you would float with the tide. And if you looked at the ocean, just simply looked at the ocean, looked at your line, you couldn't see yourself drifting, and all of a sudden, when you looked up, you saw the lighthouse that was there before is way down there now. And the house that was there is way over there now.
And all of a sudden you began to realize that the tide, whatever was happening was causing you to drift, and until you looked up and saw the moorings of those signs on the land, you didn't know where you were, and the tides would take you which ever way they wanted to take you. And that's the way it is with people who simply don't recognize these things; you don't always see it, and you need somebody to say, "Hey, there's the mooring. There's where you should be looking; that's what you should be doing." What do you think I'm doing today? This is not my favorite kind of sermon. I would love to give something else today, but you got to realize this is important.
Now let's ask the question: How do you treat hypothermia? How do you treat hypothermia? I think the answer is found simply in everything that I've told you to do. The apostle Paul tells us in II Timothy 1:6. Let's go there for just a moment.
II Timothy 1:6 — We shall conclude the sermon sometime between now and midnight, for all of you who are wondering, "What in the world is this long-winded preacher doing today?" "Wherefore I put you in remembrance that you stir up the gift of God, which is in you by the putting on of my hands.
Verse 7 — "For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Paul here is talking about what we need to start doing; we need to start regenerating some heat to deal with this spiritual hypothermia. We actually have to fan . . the scripture seems to indicate this concept of stirring up the gift as to fanning it up like you would fan an ember, that you get it up to a warm glow again that it needs to be, and this is what the apostle Paul was telling Timothy that this gift of God needs to be stirred up. This whole concept of the discipline, this whole concept of reading the word of God, this whole concept of doing the things you need to be doing are all a part of that stirring, catching the vision again, catching the need to get your house in order. All of that's a part of that, and this is what the apostle Paul is talking about.
When you consider this in the context of this particular book, you realize that the apostle Paul was going through a terrible time in the area of where Timothy was and where he was in Rome. You begin to realize that there was great difficulty. He knew he was going to die, but he was trying to encourage Timothy. He wasn't focusing on his own problem; he was focusing on Timothy and trying to encourage him, because Timothy apparently was having a very rough time, and false teachers were springing up everywhere, members and ministers were abandoning the truth left and right, and the church was literally coming apart at the seams.
Is that a type of the time of the end? I think so. I do believe so. I think that's what he did, and so what you read about with the apostle Paul is how he kept his focus on where he was going, and then he encouraged Timothy to do the same. It's a profound book; you got to read it; I think it has an absolute encouraging aspect to it, but you have to have the ability to see an individual warmed up as quickly as possible to restore that body heat, otherwise an individual will simply continue to grow colder and colder and colder. And we do that simply by the things that I have mentioned to you in the sermon. We need to get involved; we need to work on the things that need to be done both in our own personal lives and within the body of Christ.
I'd like you to turn with me to Revelation 3, and I'd like to conclude with this because we did not go through it in the beginning of the sermon. There's a lot that can be said. We can touch on a number of areas: involvement with the body, prayer, Bible study, fasting. We talk about the fact that you strike out to do the will of God, and you do the work of God. We talked about all of that as a part of the problem and the reality of what needed to be done, but let's see how it's all fulfilled here in Revelation 3:14 in the concluding scripture for today. To summarize this entire sermon, I'd like you to read with me from Revelation 3:14.
Revelation 3:14 — "And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God;
Verse 15 — "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I (could) wish you were either cold or hot.
Verse 16 — But "because you are lukewarm. . ." And that's the condition that we find at the time of the end in Matthew 24:9-13. He says ". . .because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth." . . .meaning they would go into the great tribulation. These people have been afflicted and have been affected by spiritual hypothermia. They lost their body heat. It was drained away. They didn't realize it, you see, as I pointed out to you in the sermon.
Verse 17 — "Because you say, 'I am rich, have (and) become wealthy, and have need of nothing' — and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—" These people simply don't recognize the spiritual danger that they're in.
Sometimes, brethren, we don't recognize that. They are naked and not prepared for the spiritual hypothermia that has overtaken them. Notice in Verse 18:
Verse 18 — "I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich;. . ." I pointed out that you need to get involved with the church; you need stop being part of the extremities; you need to be part of the trunk of the tree; you need to take initiative; you need to show some action and get yourself stirred up in the sense of the word of getting with the program. ". . .and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed;" They needed to put on the spiritual clothing that prevents hypothermia, and that is the righteousness of God. It is the doing and the being, and the character of God that had to be developed. ". . .and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see." See their judgment was clouded. Remember, we talked about how they became so befuddled and beclouded at the way they were looking at things. They were lethargic; they didn't recognize the symptoms of spiritual hypothermia that was sapping away their lives.
Why don't you take a day of fasting and say to God what Jeremiah said, in Jeremiah 10:23 and 24? Why don't you take a day and do what David said in the book of Psalms 145, 146, 147, 148 about correcting me? Take some time, because you've got to get in touch with what's the reality. That's what He's saying. Their judgment is clouded; they're lethargic; they don't recognize the symptoms of spiritual hypothermia that's sapping away their lives. They don't realize the spiritual they are in.
Verse 19 — "As many as I love, I rebuke and (I) chasten: be zealous, therefore, and repent." It simply means what Paul said, "Stir up the gift of God." In other words, get involved. Repent of the spiritual hypothermia; get rid of it before it is too late.
Verse 20 — "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me." I said to you before, we need to be taking in the nourishment that prevents spiritual hypothermia, taking and partaking of the true bread of life; building that personal relationship with Jesus Christ, living by every word of God. That's what we were talking about. The needs are actually the answers to the problem.
Verse 21 — "To him that overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
Verse 22 — "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Are you listening? Your eternal life depends on what I just said. Do you hear me? I pray you do.