Are You a Conditioned Laodicean?

The title of today's sermon is, Are You a Conditioned Laticean? And it'll become clearer what we mean by that as we go along. Perhaps you're familiar with Pavlov's dog. A Russian physiologist back several decades ago did a series of experiments with a dog, food, and a bell ringing. And what he discovered was that you can condition a dog to do all kinds of things. Dogs, monkeys, all kinds of animals can do all kinds of things if you condition them. It's called behavioral conditioning. It has also been passed on to human beings. There's a whole school of psychology called Behavioral Psychology. B.F. Skinner, the famous theologian and psychologist. I don't guess he was a theologian, but famous psychologists from Harvard University said, give me the nation and let me teach behavioral psychology and we will produce a nation of whatever you want it to be. We're living in a lavatory in which we are continually bombarded in no certain order, as we'll see in the sermon. So what Pavlov did was he presented a dog with food and ring a bell at the same time. The dog salivated. The saliva in his mouth came to the floor. After several pairings of presenting the dog with food, ringing the bell, he only would ring the bell and not present the food. The dog salivated just like he was being fed. I did this eye condition. I got up to about 65 head of cattle when I lived out at Holly Lake. And one of the problems I had was them getting out. When you're trying to fence 146 acres, it's not that easy. I had an old barbed wire and oftentimes they would get out. So what I did was every time that I would feed them, I would do the cattle call of Soak Soak. And then finally they got conditioned so that every time they heard Soak Soak, they would come running. So even if they were out in the swamp, they would come running to get the feed. So you can condition human beings in much the same way that you do animals. So why is it that the news of the day becomes more and more scary, crazy, and weird? And we see people more and more turned off and retreating. It is similar to the old saying, stop the world, I want to get off. People don't seem to be excited about very much anymore. There's an example that we often use of the shepherd boy who would cry wolf wolf to see if the town's people would come running to his aid. He cried wolf wolf and they came running, but one day he cried wolf wolf and nobody came. Because when they came, there was nothing there. And so the wolf did come one day and as Paul Harvey says, you know the rest of the story. So what about you? How are you processing the news of the day? Are we saying, as the people said in 2 Peter chapter 3, 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 4, if you would turn there 2 Peter and chapter 3.

And let's see what the people were saying there. In chapter 3 of 2 Peter, this second epistle I will now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that ye be mindful of the words which were spoken by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles, the Lord our Savior, knowing this verse, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming?

For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as it were from the beginning of creation. So we have people who said, we've heard all of this before. We were hearing in the 60s and the 70s and even earlier than that, that we're in the gun lab and it's just a short time. There was even the Book of Luke 1975 in prophecy, which perhaps was responsible for us moving to Big Sandy. So what about you?

We see most people today walking around in a zombified state of mind and really don't pay attention to the walls that are collapsing in on them. And what walls are we talking about collapsing in on them? We're talking about the cultural walls of moral values is collapsing around us.

The spiritual and moral walls of the culture of the nation are collapsing and for the most part have collapsed. More and more studies show that less and less people claim to be Christians. Scores of churches, and this is hard to believe, scores of churches in the Western world are closing their doors every week. And a lot of those churches are being, some of those, I don't know why I don't know about a lot, are being transformed into mosques. People where the Islamic believers go and render their prayers and so on. So we see more and more people stop attending church every week. And more and more people, organizations, and so-called intelligentsia and scholars are attacking the veracity of the Bible, including religious leaders and theologians.

So once again we ask, what about you? What about me? What are we doing? Are we lackadaisical? Lackadaisical. Lackadaisical means without interest, without vigor, without determination, listless lethargy. He just gives it a lackadaisical attempt to do whatever it is. The Bible would call this a state of being a Laodicean or Laodiceanism, to give it a lackadaisical attempt. So God says that He wants us to be hot or cold.

We'll read that scripture later from Revelation chapter 3. We're familiar with that scripture that says that God wants us to be either hot or cold, not to be lukewarm. So what is your state of being? Your state of being is what you are. Once again, your state of being is what you are. The process of being consists of all thoughts and actions. Once again, all thoughts and actions is your state of being. So what are you thinking? What are you doing? Jesus states in Luke 21.36, and we've heard this scripture so many times, but are we doing it? You know, war is raging on different fronts. The Yemen has just taken control of an important island at the mouth of the Red Sea and interfering with shipping through the Red Sea and through that channel.

Saudi Arabia, as a result, has turned off an important pipeline. The world economy has suffered. Gas is now around $4 plus a gallon, and the national average is somewhere around $4.30 or $0.40. So, Jesus says in Luke 21.36, Watch you therefore and pray always that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man. A lot more and more people don't believe that they're going to come to pass, or like the people in 2 Peter chapter 3. Where is the promise of His coming?

When is He going to come? We've been hearing for decades in the Church of God that we're in the gun lab, that Jesus Christ is going to come. The Bible is either true or it's not. So, God doesn't, in fact, Peter later says, based on what he knows from Scripture and from the Holy Spirit and revelation, that a day is with a thousand years and a thousand years as a day with God. See, that's the context of that deliverance. It's not a time frame to say, well, God has given man 6,000 years and a thousand years for the millennium and He has a 7,000 year plan.

Well, we're way beyond the 7,000 years already. The Apostle Paul warns us in Ephesians 4.14, that we henceforth be no more as children tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men cunning, craftiness, or by they lie and wait to deceive. So, are we paying attention to what's happening in the world, or do we just try to survive? And I know survival is quite difficult for all of us around the world today. We've been shocked so many times in many different ways with world-altering events that we seem to be in newer.

That means hardened, calloused, lackadaisical to the realities of the day. Now is the time to be fervently hot. Fervently hot is never a time for withdrawal. Solomon, you know, writes that there's a time for every season purpose under heaven. One of God's purposes is not to be lukewarm. The events of the past several years have indeed been mind-boggling, and we wonder where the next shield will drop. But does this turn us off? Do we become inure to crying wolf wolf, as a little boy did, the little shepherd boy? Cried it so often that he cried it once, and the wolf did come and devoured it in much flesh, I would guess.

So the peoples of the world are running to and fro, being tossed about by every wind of doctrine. Where Paul warns us, as I've read Ephesians 4, 14, that we not be tossed forth with every wind of doctrine. Knowledge is increasing. Now we have artificial intelligence that some say is going to destroy us within the next ten years.

I don't know. They're encouraging us to take control, to regulate it, for Congress to pass laws, for the technical world to slow down, to stop their pushing of artificial intelligence. So we see that happening in the U.S. Apparently they're going to stop pushing as hard as they were, but in China they plan to go full bore ahead, and the president of the U.S. claims that we're going to go full bore ahead. People are trying just about every form of escapism to escape what is coming upon the world. They're doing everything their say to being ranges from the occult, following the occult, going to fortune tellers, checking their astronomical charts, doing all kinds of things that range from the occult.

To atheism, to believe that there is no God in their attempt to escape the reality of what's happening in this world. So people say they are concerned about the direction the nation is headed, but yet, ironically, they do nothing. They walk about in a zombified state, I wonder about us. So for the most part, they remain in a state of denial and continue on a hedonistic. Hedonistic means pleasure. Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow. We're going to die, so what's the use?

Just give up, cave in, do nothing. I'll satisfy the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and get on with life and forget about what's going on in the world. One reason for our habitual heart and apathy is we have been conditioned. Remember, the title is, Are You a Condition Laodicean?

Remember the Pavlov experimentation, where he conditioned the dog to salivate even when food was not presented. You'll notice in the commercials of the day what is paired. There are three things that are emphasized in the commercials. Youth, beauty, and sex. Youth, beauty, and sex. It sells. You pair Toyota pickups with beautiful people. You pair Toyota pickups with rugged life. I'm a tough man. I got a Toyota pickup. I go back into the mountains.

I go into the backwoods. So what? What about your life? What about your salvation? Satan's agents try to point to what is evil, actually, and call it good. So we have a scripture that affects Isaiah 5 and verse 20, which says, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. And that is basically the way the world has been going at the same time. We've been shocked so many times in no certain order that the peoples of the world are responding like conditioned laboratory animals.

They salivate when no food is there. Many laboratory experiments have been conducted performed on dogs and monkeys in which they were given electric shocks in no certain order with no certain reward or punishment. The animals eventually acted in two ways. One, they would just give up and they'd become totally passive and non-responsive. Or two, they would lash out with aggressiveness and hostility toward those who were administering the shock.

And today we see this kind of behavior. We see on the one hand people who are filled with, I don't care, just let the good times roll. We see on the other hand people aggressive, lashing out, protests all over the world, all protesting this, that, and the other. And then on radio television, we see death, weather commercials are announced in the same breath.

For example, in downtown Baghdad, a bomb exploded at a religious shrine killing six people. The temperature today in Tyler is 91. We'll be right back after these messages, all delivered in the same breath, the same intonation of the voice. Do people really care? Do I really care? Do you really care? Youth are sitting in front of video games, and they are playing video games in a semi-trent state of mind, playing a game that is filled with unbelievable violence.

Hundreds may die, so what? Life is cheap. So we have been overstimulated in no certain order to a point that we're behaving exactly as the dogs and monkeys described in experiments in which they were shocked in no certain order, and they either became passive or they became aggressive, with no certain reward or punishment with them. God does use reward, and he does use punishment. He uses opportunity. He gives you the opportunity before he passes judgment. So what about you? What about me? Are we controlling our lives? Are we being controlled? Are we being conditioned in Satan's laboratory, behavioral laboratory?

We're living in a behavioral laboratory. Television, the advertising world, the commercial world are designed to get you to buy what you don't need, and to get you to lust for what you don't really need, and to get you to lust of the eyes. I would really like that. The pride of life. Oh, everybody has it. The debt that people are paying on mortgages for automobiles in the nation is absolutely astronomical. So we're living in Satan's psychological laboratory, this present evil age. We're asked and we're commanded to come out of her in Revelation chapter 18, that you be not partaker of her plagues.

We see people having alarm reactions, heart attacks, ulcers, hypertension, which is high blood pressure. That's not to say Kevin Grisel is doing that, but we see high blood pressure rampant among the population. And the thing about it, we see cancer, heart attacks, all kinds of diseases that once was what you would have when you got older in life. It's now a big problem with young people who are anxious, abnormally frightened, emotional and psychological breakdowns are epidemic.

Measles is made like it's a national emergency. There have been seven hundred and something cases reported, less than 20 deaths nationwide. In a nation with a population approaching 350 million, yes, it's presented as if it were COVID or something like that. It's a national emergency. Be fearful. Don't do anything. Be fearful. Be fearful where God says, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. I'm with you always.

So we see some have become apathetic. They've given up, just like the laboratory animals. And suicide is epidemic among young people, and a lot of it is traced back to cell phones. And what some people did or didn't do, they befriended me on Facebook. They did this. They did that. They did the other. Or they're bullying me in school, so I'll just escape it all.

I will kill myself. That's the worst punishment that you can hand out to parents, to loved ones, to friends, and basically to the whole society, is suicide. We see perverted sexual behavior. We see it exploding, infidelity, perverted forms of sexual behavior, bestiology, homosexuality. When humans are bombarded with stimuli that come in no certain order, with no certain reward, the result is weird, aberrant behavior, not normal.

But one of the things that the toleration doctrine has taught our population is to tolerate everything, and every behavior is normal. So the normalization of all behaviors and the tolerization of all behaviors has become epidemic in our world. In addition to what Satan, society, and self are doing to cause these behaviors, there are other reasons, more important reasons for Christians not to change their behavior.

We're told that if we don't do what we know to do that is right, this is in James 4 verses 13 through 17, He that knows to do good and does it not, unto him it is a sin.

We're told in Psalms and also in Ecclesiastes because sentence is not executed speedily, the hearts of men are continually upon evil. That's Ecclesiastes 8 and verse 11. I hope you write down these scriptures and the reference to them and read them and study and follow up on them. Snacks are going to wait until we get back there. You don't have to salivate right now. Human reason. God is like us. So we employ human reasoning. Human reasoning is probably the greatest enemy of faith. We've talked about the four enemies of faith, anxious care, fear, doubt, and human reason. Let's read about human reasoning now in Matthew 8 and verse 5. Matthew 8 and verse 5. The first of the Gospels, Matthew 8 and verse 5.

And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him, saying, Lord, my servant lies at home sick. Will you come and heal him? And Jesus came and healed him, and this is not where I want to be. Well, anyhow, that's...

We do say that we do see that human reasoning, that people use human reasoning to justify what they're doing. They tend to think of... when the passage I'm looking for, I'll just paraphrase it, that in the Gospels it's recording that Jesus said, beware of the doctrine of the Pharisees. Our view now is, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. And the disciples thought he was talking about bread. It's because we have brought no bread. The human mind tends to think in physical terms first, and then spiritual terms secondly. And then eventually, Jesus tells him, I spoke not unto you about the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. I spoke to you about their false teaching. The Pharisees, on the one hand, believed in the resurrection, but had a lot of other false teachings. The Sadducees, on the other hand, believed in the resurrection, but they had also many false teachings. One of the greatest enemies of faith in is human reasoning, the reason in our hearts, and the reason, first of all, instead of looking at it from a spiritual point of view. Another big reason why Christians tend to get into a state of being of not caring or aggressiveness is everybody else is doing it. Safety in groups. In Matthew, if you turn forward now to Matthew 24 and verse 12.

In Matthew 24 and verse 12, we see an example of everybody else is doing it. I thought it must be alright, so I'll go ahead and do it.

In verse 12, and because iniquity shall abound, in other words, there's lawlessness on every street corner. There's lawlessness everywhere. Because lawlessness and iniquity abounds, iniquity means lawlessness. Because iniquity abounds, the love of many shall wax cold. We've already mentioned all things continue from the beginning. We turn to 2 Peter and read where scoffers will say all things continue as from the beginning. And here's one that catches a lot of young people, especially before they graduate from high school. And that is because I associate, I go to church with my parents, and everything is alright. But then I go out in the world to get a job or to go to college, and I discover that everybody is doing whatever, and they seem to be doing alright. And so, everybody is drinking, everybody is doing this, everybody is doing that. So it must be alright, so I'll go ahead and do it myself. So one of the main things that is happening today also is the world is twisting and misapplying scripture. In fact, there's a commercial on television about this. They say that God loves everybody, that God gets us. He loves everybody. So the implication is that since God loves everybody, then you should tolerate the behavior of everybody. And it is true, obviously, that God does love everybody. God loves the sinner. God loves every sinner. In fact, He loved the world so much, for God so loved the world. The most often quoted scripture among everybody, John 3 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That's how much God loves us. In view of that, do you think God would turn around and change His mind with regard to what is sin? God sent His Son to save sinners. His Son gave His life to save sinners. In due time, God sent His only begotten Son to redeem us and buy us back from sin and death. Do you think God would betray His Son and the whole plan of salvation, which even required the death of His Son? A God-being to pay for the sins of the world for all times, past, present, future? Yes, God loves everybody, but He does not love sin. So they never go ahead and say, God loves the people of the world, but He hates sin. God loves everybody, so He does. But God hates sin. So we see people practicing sin, and sin is normalized to a large degree. There's a great summary verse. Let's go to Leviticus 20. Leviticus 20 and verse 13. Leviticus is a book that bears witness of so many things, and one I would encourage you to read through. In Leviticus 20 and verse 13, if a man lie with mankind as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. Now, thankfully, God has sent under the new covenant, He hasn't softened on sin, but He has sent a sacrifice to pay for the sins of the world. And for all of the sins of humankind, even homosexuals can be saved. Homosexuals can come out of sin. I had young men come to me when I was president of the college saying, I have an urge to be with men. I want to be with men. I want to, and whatever, with men. And I said, get on your knees and read Psalm 119 verses 9 through 11. Verse 11 says, your word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. Read the Psalms. Study the Psalms. Take on a different state of being.

So I have asked you to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Some might say, oh, Leviticus 20 verse 13. That's in the Old Testament. That's under the Old Covenant. We're not putting people to death today, but the wages are much higher. If one does not repent of their sins, they will not be in the kingdom of God. So let's read from 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 9. Know you not that the upright shall not inherit the kingdom. Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with the mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkers, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. That includes most all sins. They shall not inherit the kingdom of God unless they repent of their sins, exercise faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, receive the laying on of hands, be baptized, then the laying on of hands, and live the life of faith and continual repentance before God and Christ, and for that matter for all of society.

So would God betray His only begotten Son? He loves the world so much that He gave His life for them. Once again, we're living in Satan's psychological laboratory. Just like Pavlov had a laboratory, it came to the point that the dogs would salivate even when they saw the white coats coming. The laboratory workers wore white coats, and when they would see the white coats enter the laboratory, they would salivate. And just like the cattle, when they would hear my voice, they would come running because they peered the sound of my voice and that particular call was being fed. He's putting out the hay now. So once again, we're living in Satan's psychological and spiritual laboratory. We need to heed the words of Proverbs 4.23.

In Proverbs 4.23 it says, Keep your mind, keep your heart with all diligence, for out of your heart flow the issues of life. Then Proverbs 23.7 says, As a man thinks in his heart, thought precedes action, action precedes habit, habit precedes character. So you put those together in your condition to be whatever you are. That is your state of being. Your state of being is focused on one thing or the other. Is it on being what God wants us to do, or is it living in Satan's laboratory?

We know that the Doomsday Clock is set just a few minutes before midnight. I think it's, well, I know that the so-called Doomsday Clock was moved up a few minutes. I think it said four, three or four minutes at the present time. So most Doomsday Clocks are set just before the midnight hour. The parable of the ten virgins draws toward the midnight hour. Today we're going to examine ourselves and ask ourselves in every facet of our being, spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, am I hot or lukewarm? Am I lackadaisical or are you a laodicean? At this point we'll turn to Revelation 3 and verse 14 and read the characteristics of a laodicean, which I think we know quite well in Revelation 3 and verse 14. And under 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. The creation of God is an often, this is a side point, an often debated question in theology, the beginning of the creation of God. God is in the business of a spiritual creation in each one of you. It says very clearly in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, I believe it's verse 17, that you are a new creation in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ was a new creation in that He was resurrected as a spirit being from physical to spiritual. See, the greatest mystery of God is how a human being can go from being a physical being to a spiritual being. That is the glory of the resurrection. So the parable of the ten versions does draw near, but we're continuing here in Revelation. So, laodicea was unique in a city. They had no water supply, so they piped water in from quite a distance. If you go to Petra, you'll see the water troughs there. Petra had no water supply, so the Romans developed a, I guess you would call it aqueducts, little channels, a little channel to get the water into there. And the laodiceans did the same thing, so their water was lukewarm, and their spiritual being to be a laodicean is a spiritual matter. These things says, Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God, the spiritual creation. Jesus Christ was made a quickening spirit. He was planted as flesh and blood into the ground and raised a life-giving spirit. So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth, because you say, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, because we do know the plan of God, because we know what we shall be in resurrection. It does not mean we're doing what we have to do to get there. And, of course, James was really taken to task because he said that you have to have works combined with your works. In fact, there's a verse that says, Can faith alone—this is in James 2—can faith alone save you? I will show you my faith by my works, and faith without works is dead. That's what the Bible says. That's what Martin Luther, the great reformer, took great exception to. And a lot of the Protestant teachers, of course, have reduced faith even today down to just believe, and you'll be in the kingdom. So he continues here, Because you say I am rich and increased with goods, and have need in nothing, and know that you're wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked— Naked is a sign of sin. Adam and Eve became naked after they had sinned, tried to hide from God. Of course, you can't hide sin from God. I counsel you to buy on me gold tried in the fire. Gold is symbolic of pure character, that you may be rich and white raiment.

You may be clothed. White raiment is symbolic of the righteousness of the saints, according to Revelation 19. And that the shame of the nakedness do not appear, and anoint your eyes with eyesave, that I should—that you may see. And as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous. Be zealous. Be hot. Be fervent. Be on fire. As many as I chasten, be zealous and repent, because he's going to chasten those who are not. And sometimes we are chasing even when we do right, so that we might bear more fruit, according to Matthew 15.

So the bottom line with God, of course, is to bear fruit. So are we responding as the laboratory animals. Do we discern the signs of the time? In today's world, the response does not suit the situation.

The preacher man talks about the end of time, and the atheists curse God. And even after the trumpet plagues are poured out and the first two woes are completed, which is the second woe is the sixth trumpet plague, which is within Revelation. So we just turn over there to the last verse in Revelation 9. And it beheld, the last verse in chapter 9, neither repentant they of their murders, nor their sorceries, nor their fornications, nor their thefts.

And that is after the woes, the first, the two woes. The third one is the biles of wrath that are to come.

So let's turn now to Matthew 24. We see in today's world, and I think, and this is not to condemn anybody that has returned to church, but there are people who are returning to church, the Church of God, even after an absence of 10, 20, 30 years because of oral conditions. That is admirable in a way, but God wants us to be zealous and repent, regardless of what the world conditions are. So are we responding? Do we discern the signs of the times? You know, God, well, Christ took people to task for not discerning the signs of the time. So in Matthew 24 and 25, we take a closer look. The two basic questions of the Olivet Prophecy in Matthew 24 are the sign of your coming and the end of the age. In response to those questions, God gives some definite signs, or Christ gives some definite signs. There are some reoccurring themes. When are these things going to happen? Well, it's when the Son of Man comes, and you have to give an account for every action that you have. You know, we could read the parable of the Ten Virgins, how the Son of Man came, and there was no oil in the lamp of the Five Foolish Virgins. They went out to buy some oil, but they went out too late. And so we oftentimes go out too late to buy the oil.

So there's the parable of the Ten Virgins. One of the interesting things about this, as we shall see, is that the punishment is the same. For not having oil in your lamp is the same as the next parable, the parable of the talents. He gave one group five talents, another two, and another one. The two with five talents and two talents doubled their talents, and he said, Well done, thou good and faithful service, enter into the pleasure of the kingdom. Under the one that buried his talent, he says, Why didn't you put it out to usury and increase your talent? Take that sermon, and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, just like in a similar sense to those with ten virgins who didn't keep their lamp full of oil. Then there is the parable of... and we'll start reading there. And we will start reading in 31. Matthew 25 and verse 31. So we have one parable is the ten virgins. We know what happens there. Then we have the talents. We know what happens there. Now we have this to the rest of the chapter. Some of it is what you might call the rest of the story, but it is relevant in a way. When the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he shall set upon the throne of his glory. And before him shall be gathered all nations, not some, all. All nations. He shall separate them one from another as the shepherd separates or divides his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on the right hand and the goats on the left. And he's going to say, Come, ye faithful, enter into the joys of the kingdom. And then on the other hand, he's going to say to the sheep, Well, I reversed that. He's going to say to the goats, Depart from me, I never knew you. And then to the sheep, he's going to say, Enter into the joy of the kingdom. And they're going to ask, Well, when did we see you hungry? When did we see you in jail? When did we see you this, that, or the other? When did we see you naked and unclothed? And he will say to them, In that you did it to the least of my servants, you did it unto me. And then the last verse there, the last couple of verses, says, verse 45, Then shall he answer them, saying, Barely I say unto you, Inasmuch as you did not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous unto life eternal. So the reward is the same for the parable of the virgins, the ten virgins. The reward is the same for the parable of the talents. The reward is the same for service to your brethren. The punishment is the same. Depart from me, I'm summarizing, you go into everlasting fire. Fire lasts as long as they are combustible, as long until you're burned up. Malachi talks about the wicked being ashes under the feet of the righteous. So we know that the righteous inherit eternal life and the wicked become ashes. So the response, one is reward, eternal life. The other is eternal punishment. You are dead and the remembrance of you is forgotten. So, brethren, now there is never a time. As I mentioned earlier, Solomon said there is a time for every purpose under heaven. They were eating and drinking until Noah entered into the ark. And so we read the last two verses of Revelation chapter 9. How that even after the first two woes, they repented not of their abominations. So the key to all of this is that you be ready for you know not the day nor the hour. Turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

In 1 Thessalonians and chapter 5, we see the following. 1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. You can have all the charts and diagrams and knowledge, but that saying is true. Thief in the night, when they shall say peace and safety, peace is going to come. It is a pseudo-peace.

A lot of the people say the outcome eventually of the war that we see being reached in the Middle East will result in the Jews building the temple and so on in fulfilling 2nd chapter. 2 But whether or not that is the case or not, we don't know. Also in Ezekiel, it talks about that the prophets have not spoken as they should and have not made up the wall against the day of the Lord. When they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as surveilled upon a woman and a child, and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. So I have spent this 45-50 minutes saying you need to be diligent, you need to be watchful, you need to be filled with oil, you need to use your talents to the fullest of your being, and you need to serve each other as much as possible. You can serve as much as possible and yet miss out because you don't do the others. You have to put it all together. So we are not in darkness that that should overtake us. Verse 5, The children of light and the children of the day, we are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others, but let us watch and be sober. We know what the world is doing. I've done my best to describe what the world is doing. We don't want to be of that ilk, of that type, of that being. And they that sleep sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we die or sleep, we should live together with Him. I misread verse 10, that whether we wake or sleep, or whether we die or sleep is equated with death, we should live together with Him. So, brethren, now is the time to put on the whole armor of God, as we talked about the last time I spoke here, and be diligent, hold to the end of the row, and build a relationship with God. Remember those three parables in Matthew 25. The Olivet prophecy encompasses all of 24, all of 25. In fact, it ends with the second verse in chapter 26. So, brethren, you have before you what God has said, and you have what He wants us to do, and that we are not found asleep, and that we're not found lackadaisical, that we're not found being pawns on Satan's great chessboard, or on Satan's great laboratory, psychological laboratory. That's where the society is living. Let's not live there. Realize that man's nature, as man goes, his nature goes from the days of Cain and Abel to the present time, man's nature does not change. God's law does not change. The values that were true yesterday are just as true today. God says, Hold fast to that which is good, and do it to the end. When Jesus Christ comes, the righteous judge shall come, and he will say, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared you from the foundation of the world.