Don't Neglect Your Calling

Rather than we all understand that being careless and a lack of attention can lead to accidents and death. How many times are there car accidents that occur simply because somebody was not paying attention? There's a term being used today. I don't know how many of you have ever heard of it. It's called in-text-ication. It's more dangerous than drinking and driving. To be in-text-icated is texting while you're driving. Now, you see people going down the road all the time and they're combing their hair. They're doing texting while they're going along. They're talking on their cell phones. Over the past few years, text messaging has become a standard measure of communication, especially among young people. A lot of young people, they can text faster than you can talk. They can sit there and go just like this without looking at their keyboard and just take off.

It's something that they've been able to analyze. In fact, according to the Transportation Research Laboratory, the reaction time of a drunken driver is 12 percent slower than a sober driver. Drivers under the influence of marijuana are 21 percent slower. According to the research, when a person is texting while driving, his or her reaction time is a staggering 35 percent slower, nearly three times that of a person who is drunk. So, somebody who is texting is more of a hazard than somebody who's drinking. Now, the study also showed that steering control of an intoxicated driver is reduced by 90 percent, which is staggering when you think about it. Nearly 50 percent of drivers between the age of 18 and 24 text and drive according to a study done by AAA. So, that means there's a lot of texting going on when people go down the highway. Now, we all realize every time you get behind the wheel of a car, you have a responsibility, don't you? You have a responsibility for yourself, your family, whoever's in the car with you, as well as a responsibility for every other driver of the car. Every other driver around you or who's passing you. And it's absolutely important and imperative that you stay alert that you avoid diversions, such as texting, reading, you know, everything else that people seem to do while they're driving. Distractions or careless drivers are responsible for nearly 80 percent of all traffic accidents. 80 percent. So, brethren, inattention or carelessness can lead to serious accidents or death. Our own are the death of other people.

Now, God every year has given us the Passover in the days of Unleavened Bread season as a reminder of something. And one of the lessons that we are to learn at this time of the year is not to be negligent or not to be lax in our seeking eternal life and our approach to salvation.

Have you ever thought about the fact that perhaps you might be careless in how you are approaching your salvation? One of the greatest problems we have today in the Church of God community is the problem of negligence. We can be careless, you know, we can be inattentive, and what you find is that you and I should be extremely careful when it comes to salvation. You and I have been given the opportunity of the ages when you stop and think about it. How many people in the last 6,000 years has the Almighty God opened their mind, opened their understanding, called them, and given them an opportunity for salvation and the first resurrection to be a part of His kingdom in the first resurrection, to be teachers and kings and priests in the world tomorrow? Only a small handful, and you and I are numbered among that small handful of people who've been given this opportunity. And yet too often, if we're not careful, we can see our calling slip through our fingers to miss out on that calling. There are thousands of distractions out there, just like there are all kinds of distractions for people who are driving. There are thousands of distractions in this world that can take our eyes off of the calling that God has called us to. We want to take a look at that today because, you know, one of the greatest lessons that you learn about Israel coming out of Egypt when God led them out of Egypt is that many of them did not enter into the Promised Land. We know that those who were over 20 and over died, and it was a younger generation 40 years later who entered into the Promised Land.

Now, one could ask the question, why did many of them not make it? Well, there are many reasons, but basically it's summarized for us back here in Hebrews 3. Let's go over to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 16, where we read this statement, For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? You just stop and think, as we heard in the sermonette and we've been focusing on leading up to this period of time, think of all the miracles that were performed in Egypt.

All the miracles, the turning of the rivers, the blood, there were ten others. Finally, the death of the firstborn. And God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, parted the Red Sea, they crossed over. And God destroyed the army of the Egyptians. They saw all of this. And yet, what was the problem? It says here, having heard, they rebelled. Notice verse 17, Now with whom was he angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And verse 18, And to whom did he swear that they would not enter into his rest, but those who would not obey? So we see they could not enter in because of unbelief. So we find that many of them did not enter into the Promised Land because they simply did not believe. And belief then was transmitted into disobedience, and they did not obey. So you and I could miss out in the same way if we don't believe, if we lack faith.

There is a warning given in the Scriptures many times, but I'd like for us to focus on it today. To the Israel of God, we are the Israel of God today, spiritual Israel, that we should fall short and not enter into the Promised Land, such as the Israelites did. You and I have the opportunity to enter into the Promised Land, or the Kingdom of God, which the Promised Land was a type of, and I want you to notice the admonition that it's given to us in the book of Hebrews. Let's turn back to Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 14. The first chapter of the book of Hebrews is that we find that Jesus Christ was much greater than all of the angels that were created. There are seven different examples cited here in chapter 1 to illustrate that. But we come down to verse 14. It says, Are they not all talking about the angels, ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those or for those who will inherit salvation?

Angels were created to help us achieve salvation in the Kingdom of God.

Millions of angels were created to help us to become a part of the family of God.

Have you ever stopped to think about it that God Almighty has done absolutely everything that He could? Stop and think about the extent that God has gone to to aid us in obtaining eternal life. And He created millions of angels. And one of their major responsibilities is to be there as servants to help us so that we can achieve salvation.

In fact, Westward's study of the Bible translates verse 14 this way, Are they not all ministering servants sent on a commission for the sake of those who are about to inherit salvation? So you and I have been called, brethren, to inherit salvation, a gift from God. But let's notice in chapter 2 verse 1. Therefore we read, We must give the most more earnest heed of the things that we have heard, lest we drift away.

And if the words spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him? Okay, let's just stop and analyze this a little bit. Notice verse 1 again. Whenever you see the word therefore, therefore ties that verse, what's about to be stated, with what was written previous. Therefore ties this section back to the one in chapter 1 here.

Chapter 1 shows that Jesus Christ is supremely greater than all of the angels, and that He is one who will give us eternal life. It's through Him, His sacrifice, that we will have our sins forgiven. He comes and lives within us, and therefore we have the opportunity for salvation. So we are told then that we've got to pay more careful attention to our calling. We need to be able to pay attention to what Jesus Christ said to the truths of the Scriptures, that the Bible is our guidebook, and it's easy to begin to take what God writes for granted.

Now the exhortation is, therefore we must give the more earnest heed. The expression earnest heed means actually to heed abundantly, and in the Greek, the Greek word means to hold the mind to. When it says to give heed to, it means that you hold your mind to. Now how would we say that today? We would say you focus on it. You keep your mind focused. You don't lose sight of it. So you and I are told that we need to hold our mind to something. Now it's easy to forget.

It's easy to think we know, and after a while, you begin to forget. How many people who sat with us years ago heard the truth being taught and are no longer sitting here have gone out into the world and they've forgotten? They've lost understanding. You and I, brother, need to make sure that we review, we go over articles, we review sermons. Have you ever heard a sermon or have you ever read a section of the Bible and it was something that really hit you?

I have. I mean, I've read sections of the Bible and something just popped off the page at me and I thought, I'm not doing that, or I've fallen short of this. I really need to do that. And I read it, I put my Bible up, I get busy, I go about all my other activities, and maybe a few weeks later I come back and I thought, oh, you know, I read that and I haven't done it. And one of the things that we tend to do is to forget. We tend to forget what we need to be doing.

We will stand before God one day and God will ask us why we didn't do what He told us to do in His Word. He'll say, you remember you were studying this section of Scripture and through my spirit I inspired you to think about such-and-such and why didn't you do it? And well, our answer be, I forgot. I got a poor memory. And I don't remember as well as I used to. Well, God will not accept those type of excuses. You and I can lose spiritual understanding and spiritual knowledge.

See, spiritual knowledge, spiritual understanding, we realize in 1 Corinthians 1, 1 Corinthians 2 is a gift from God. Mr. Armstrong used to say that knowledge comes into the mind through the five senses, but that's all physical knowledge. Spiritual knowledge is revealed knowledge. So God has to reveal it to us. And if we don't act on it, we don't live by it, we don't apply it, then God begins to remove it from us. And so we can find that these things will begin to slip away from us. Going on here in verse 1, notice we're told, therefore we must give the most more earnest heed, or we need to hold our mind to this fact, to the things that we have heard.

So what we hear, what we read, what we study, why, lest we drift away.

Now, in the King James Version, it says, lest we let them slip away. And yet, that's not what the Greek means.

The translation of the word in the Greek means, lest we should let them drift, or lest we should drift past them. So it's talking about, here are the truths, here's the Word of God. And it's there, and we slowly drift by. And what it's talking about, it's an analogy, it's a water analogy, of a boat drifting by, or a canoe drifting by.

I've been out fishing before on a river, and maybe you didn't see the current, but there is a current there. And if you're not really anchored, the first thing you know, you're drifting. And you look up, and you were over here, but now you have drifted away. And the spot that you knew where all the fish were, you've drifted from. And you're somewhere else. Well, that's exactly what this word means. The verb itself means to flow. The prefix means alongside. It was used in some of the ancient writings about snow slipping off the bodies of soldiers, or a ring slipping off a finger. It means to float or to drift past as a ship, or to flow past as a river. Figured or late to slip away suggests a gradual, almost unnoticed movement past a certain point. Of a person, it talks about being stealth as a thief. It is used figuratively of a person, meaning to glide away, swerve or deviate from something such as the truth. The law precepts our standards. And so what we find, it's easy to drift by what we've heard. So, brethren, how do we keep what we've heard constantly in mind? Well, one of the ways we do it is God every Sabbath gives us the Sabbath day, so that we are constantly reminded of His plan and purpose. God gives us the annual Holy Days, and every year we keep the Passover, every year we keep the Days of Unleavened Bread, every year we keep the Feast of Tabernacles, all of the annual days that God has given us. And we are reminded annually of the purpose and the plan of God, so that they never get away from us. And what happens when a person stops obeying those? Well, they drift by them. And they drift by them. They're over here, and they're going this direction. And after a while, you just completely forget about it. And the understanding that people have is taken from them. Drifting spiritually is a mark of death. Giving heed leads to life. And so what you and I need to do is to make sure that we heed. West's word study of the Bible again translates this verse, On this account it is necessary, in the nature of the case, for us to give heed more abundantly to the things which we have heard less at any time, we should drift past them. So we don't want to drift past them. Another translation says, therefore we must pay much closer attention. Why? To what we've heard, lest we drift away from it. So, brethren, one of the problems that we can have is being a drifter. Have you ever heard the expression that somebody's a drifter? You know, he just drifts from this town to that town. He's not settled in one place. How do you and I drift? Well, let me give you the drift. That's another way of using the word drift here. I've noticed over the years that many of us use any excuse we can come up with not to attend services. We become lax in our observance of the Sabbath, and sometimes keeping the Holy Days. Have we ever drifted away from regular Bible study? Do we drift away from that? Is that something that we don't do on a regular basis? Have we ever drifted in our prayer life to where we know it, we know what we need to do, but we find we just simply are not doing it?

What about reading the literature? I realize there's tons of our literature that comes out. But I remember years ago when I got my first plain truth magazine, my first booklet, United States, Britain, and Prophecy, or 1975 and Prophecy, and the correspondence course. You couldn't wait to pick those up, and we used to almost fight over them to be able to see who could read them. Well, now we've got so much that comes in the house that if you're not careful, you never pick it up, and you don't read it. What about our fellowship with God's people? It's very easy to come late, leave early. Do we fellowship with one another? What about our service?

I only mentioned this, and this isn't an indictment, but it's just simply something that I've noticed over a period of time that I see many of us drifting. And it's not being malicious. We're not being evil, but we're drifting away from standards and approaches that we have held on to for many, many years. Notice in verse 2, going on here in verse 2, it says, For if the word spoken through angels proves steadfast, and every transgression, that word means stepping over the line. Here's God's law, God's principle, and you overstep it. You disobey it. And then it says, And disobedience received a just reward. The word disobedience here means, literally, to hear alongside, or thus a failing to hear, or a hearing amiss. In the Greek, the Greek definition means being casual or careless in what you do. In other words, to be disobedient here means to be careless. It means hearing to the point of neglect. You hear, but you neglect. To pay no heed to, or to refuse to hear, or to pay no regard. So again, another translation of this verse, for in view of the fact that the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every overstepping of the line, and neglecting to hear, received a just recompense of reward. And so what disobedience means here is a careless or a casual approach to eternal life, or to what you hear. Neglecting, or not paying heed. We hear, but we don't pay heed to. We become distracted. That's part of the definition. We become distracted. Rather than ask yourself, what is it that distracts you?

Is there anything that distracts you from obeying God, from keeping His commandments, from doing what we need to do? I would say there are a thousand one distractions in this society.

What about television? Television is a distraction for many people. They watch television, they, and consequently, don't have time to pray and study. Our job can even be a distraction. Now we've got to work, and we know that, but if you work to the point to where you're totally exhausted and you can't come to church, or you work and you don't have time to pray and study, there's something wrong with that. Because you've got to be able to do the things that God says. A cell phone can be a distraction. When I say a distraction, there are some young people who make 40,000 calls or text messages a month. Now where do you get the time to do that? Well, it's got to take a lot of time. When you look at this world and the glitter and the glamour of this world, it's something that can be a big distraction. So my question is, what might be a distraction for you might not be for me, and vice versa. So the question we need to ask ourselves, what is it that distracts me from the kingdom of God? What distracts me? It gets my mind off of the kingdom of God. Anything that takes our focus off of the kingdom of God that is more important to us than God is something that we need to be very careful about. Okay, let's notice verse 3 here. Verse 3, How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

Now again, a more modern translation says, how is it possible for us to escape if we neglect so great salvation? Which salvation is of such a character as who have been, first of all, spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him? So is it possible for us to neglect salvation? Why did the apostle Paul, if it was Paul who wrote the book of Hebrews, put this in here about neglecting salvation? As one commentary mentioned, lapses from the truth and goodness is more often the result of intention than of design. People don't plan to be disobedient. We don't plan not to pay attention. We don't plan to neglect something, and yet too often we do. The word neglect here simply means to be careless. When you neglect something, you don't care enough to do it. The word neglect means not to care for, to overlook.

So when you look the word neglect up, you'll find synonyms such as carelessness, inattention, distractions, disregard, laxity, slackness, casualness, forgetfulness. All of those things describe us as human beings versus the opposite, which would be paying attention, being vigilant, watchful, alert. Now where do we read words like that in the Bible? That we are to be watchful, that we are to be alert, that we are to be attentive. The nature of sin is a careless and different attitude towards the commandments of God in His way. Failure here is due to carelessness, and many times in paying attention to what God has to say. What do we tend to neglect? Is there anything that you and I tend to neglect? I've already mentioned a number of them. Do we neglect our marriages? Do we neglect our families?

Do we neglect our child-rearing? What about our Bible study or prayer, church attendance, our fellowship service? See, the Days of Unleavened Bread picture us coming out of sin, don't they? As Israel came out of Egypt, so we're supposed to come out of sin. We're supposed to come out of the world in its ways. And so you find here in these three verses in the book of Hebrews, the sin of indifference, the sin of being careless, the sin of neglect. All of these are mentioned here, the sin of drifting. Now too often we don't think of these as sins, and yet they are when they're in connection with our lack of diligence in doing what God says. Let's go over to Matthew 6 and verse 33. Matthew 6 and verse 33 of Scripture that we're all very familiar with.

We read here an admonition that we are to follow. It says, Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. So we're told to seek God's kingdom first and his righteousness to do what's right. And all these things he's talking about the physical blessings that God will give to us. Now in the Greek, the word here, seek, is in the imperative mood. The imperative mood means the same thing in English or in Greek as it does in English. It expresses a command to the hearer to perform a certain action by the order and the authority of the one commanding. So in verse 33, this isn't a suggestion from God. This is a command from God. Christ said, I'll add the word because it's implied here, You seek first the kingdom of God. So we are told to seek first. How do we seek God's kingdom first? The word first means first in time order or place. So it's the thing that carries or should carry the most importance in our life. That should be more important to us than anything else.

Well, to seek God's kingdom first means that it's the most important thing that you do. There's nothing else that you can do that would top it. It rises to the top of the list of all the activities that we find ourselves involved in.

Can we seek the kingdom of God first if we don't pray or if we don't study or if we study half-heartedly or we don't care about the brethren or we don't attend church? Again, I just cite all of these as an example.

The voice in this word is active, and what it means is that the doer performs the action. So when the word seek is here, it means that we are commanded by God to seek first His kingdom, and you and I then are expected to be a doer of that action.

And then it also says to seek God's righteousness. And the word righteousness means to do what is right, correct thinking, feeling, and acting.

So, brethren, what this means is that I know that we can all quote this scripture, but what I know is that we don't all do this scripture. And how do I know that? Because I can turn the magnifying or the looking glass, I should say, around and look at myself, and I can see that I slide, I drift, and I don't do the things that I know that I should do. And I realize that we're all human, we're all in the same bolts, and that we need to begin to refocus and rededicate our lives to God and to His calling, and to realize that God has called us to be a part of a kingdom. You and I have a responsibility sitting on our shoulders because the millions and billions of humanity out there are waiting for us, they're waiting for the sons and daughters of God to be ready to begin to help Jesus Christ in setting up the government, the kingdom of God, here on this earth. And so, brethren, we have been called for that responsibility. Let's go back to the book of Proverbs because Proverbs chapter 2, beginning in verse 1, gives a principle about how we should be seeking, how we should be searching for what God has called us to. Proverbs chapter 2, beginning here in verse 1. This chapter talks about the value of wisdom, and it talks about seeking for wisdom, but it's a principle that applies across a very broad spectrum. It says, My son, if you receive My words and treasure My commandments within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding, yes, if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding. Now, how are we supposed to do this? Well, God gives an analogy here. He says, if you seek her as silver and search for her as hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom. From His mouth comes knowledge and understanding. You can go on and read the rest of this.

So, brethren, this, I think, is a principle on how we should be seeking the kingdom of God. You seek it with all of your heart, with all of your mind, with all of your effort, just like somebody looking for hidden treasure. If you knew for sure that there was 10 million dollars in gold bullion hidden in your backyard, and you didn't know where it was, but it's there, what would you do?

Would you say, well, one day I'll get out there and I'll look for it?

One day I will see what I can do to find this. Now, if you knew that, you'd get out there with your shovel, you'd start digging. You'd dig up every square inch, and after you dug up a foot, and you couldn't find it, then maybe you'd say, well, I need to get a back hole in here. You'd start with a back hole, and you would dig down five, six feet, and still not find it. Well, now you get a steam shovel in here. You're going to excavate that backyard until you find it, and you would do everything to find that because you would know if I had this 10 million dollars in gold, I'm rich, and I don't have to worry. Well, one of the outstanding examples in the early history of this country that explains what it means to search for hidden treasures was called the California Gold Rush, and many of you will remember reading about that. It took place between 1848 and 1855, not a whole long period of time, about seven years. It began on January the 24th, 1848, when gold was discovered by James W. Marshall at Sutter Mill in California. What he was doing, actually, he and Sutter were in partnership, and they were going to set up sawmill, and so they were trying to find a stream. It would be good for running the saws, and Marshall was out in the stream, and he saw this something sparkling out there. So he goes out, he pans it, pulls it up, and it's gold! Well, over the next seven years, over 400,000 people flocked to California. Half of them came by boat, the other half 2,000 miles overseas. They walked, they rode horses, they were on wagon trains. Every way that you could possibly get out there. And only a handful of people struck it rich. The rest of them didn't make it, and they were there sometimes for years. They would get up in the morning, eat breakfast, go out and dig all day until the sun went down. Or they would, you know, get pans, and they'd get on these streams. Thousands of people lined up and down these streams, you know, trying to pan for gold, trying to find it. People died of starvation, smallpox, dysentery, every type of disease that you can think of. Many of them came back much older because working out in the sun, the sun dried their skin out. They didn't have proper nourishment. And somebody who maybe was 30 looked 50 or 60, and you know, when he decided to give it up and go back home. Those people, you can, you can you can think 400,000 were inspired by the idea of finding gold.

Actually, it's estimated that in the today's value, they found billions of dollars. You know, back then they found some millions of dollars, but billions of dollars in today's money. The search for gold became all-consuming in their life. They couldn't think of anything else.

What about us? Is the kingdom of God all-consuming in our life? Is it what we think about?

Is it something that we focus on? Is it what drives us in everything that we do? And how we live our lives? How we treat one another? How we respond to God? Is it something, as it says here, that we seek her as silver and as hidden treasure? Seeking the kingdom of God must be the driving force in our life, the focus of our life. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And so, brethren, it has to be first. And I'm afraid too often it begins to play second fiddle or slides back, and it's not the focus in our lives. Let's go over to Matthew 22 and verse 36. Matthew 22 and verse 36.

And we find the same principle being explained here about our approach toward God.

Christ was asked, what's the great commandment in the law?

And Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God. Now, how are we supposed to love God?

Well, it says here, with all your heart, all your soul, with all your mind. That's the first and the great commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Now, the word all simply means what it implies, completely. When it says to love God with all your heart, that means completely with your heart, with completely your soul or your body, completely with your mind.

Does it say to love the Lord your God with half your heart, half your soul, half your mind? Well, for some of us, that's all we have. Now, we love God. It says with all of our mind, all of our heart, and all of our soul.

You see, this is a command on how we are to approach God, wholehearted with our whole being. Now, how do we love God? Well, by obeying Him, keeping His commandments, responding to Him, thinking as He thinks. But, you know, at the end time, the Bible describes and prophesies that there is a malaise among the people of God, that there is a lack of attention.

A carelessness, if you want to put it that way. Let's go over here to Revelation chapter 3.

There are a lot of prophecies in the Bible we could turn to, but this is certainly one of them. Revelation 3 verse 14, that talks about conditions that we'll find extent on the earth at the end time. And I think that we will find these conditions in society as well as within the church, the greater church of God community. We live in a society today in an age when people lack conviction, people lack dedication, lack zeal, lack of passion for things. Too often, those who have passion are off on wrong causes, you know, that type of thing. But let's notice in verse 14, to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, right, these things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. In other words, I wish you were totally on fire. That's what the word hot means. Burning, boiling, or you were cold, unconverted. So then, because you are lukewarm and either cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Rather than the word lukewarm means halfhearted, unexcited, indifferent, subdued. You just don't get excited or stirred up or passionate. And too often, we're not passionate. How often do we really talk to one another about God's way? I mean, you know, we're really passionate about God, His calling, His purpose, and we're just stirred up, so to speak, and not indifferent to it. Lukewarm implies an indifference. Then, verse 17 through 18, I want you to notice a very interesting point here, what the people say about themselves, those who are lukewarm. Because you say, so this is what's going on in the mind, I'm rich, I've become wealthy, I've needed nothing, and do not know that you are wretched, and miserable, poor, and blind, and naked. So notice the difference between what the Laodiceans think of themselves and what God says.

Now, how could a person think that they're rich, wealthy, have need of nothing, and yet be poor, blind, miserable, wretched, and naked? If you're naked and you're running around naked, you would think, certainly a person knows they're naked, but spiritually speaking, these people don't get it. Now why? What has happened over the past few years that would lead us or anyone into having this type of an attitude or approach? Is it possible that we could think that we don't need anything because we understand the truth?

You see, again, one of the things that I've seen, it doesn't matter, you look at the greater Church of God community, and you find that basically we all have the truth, we all understand about the Sabbath, we understand about the Holy Days, we understand about the plan of God, and you do those things. But is it possible to become vain and proud over understanding the truth and to think, because I understand I'm right with God, because I know that I have a right relationship with God, when we can be proud over what we're doing, work that we're accomplishing, this type of thing, and yet be falling so far short. Because it's not a matter of just understanding. Yes, we have to have understanding, but it's a matter of action, it's a matter of obedience, it's a matter of doing. It's not the hearers of the law who are just in God's eyes, but it's the doers, those who do.

And so in verse 18 Christ said, look, I counsel you to buy of me gold refined in the fire. So God wants our character to be like gold that goes through the fire. It's tested, it's proven, it's smelted, and it comes out stronger. The impurities are eliminated. That you may be rich in white garments, that you may be clothed so that we have righteousness. We're doing what's right. And that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed and anoint your eyes with eyesab that you may see. Now, I want you to notice in verse 19 the admonition. There are two admonitions given here. If you want to know the solution. Verse 19, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Okay, that's God's part. He's the one who will reveal to us what we need to change. That's God. You know, as we study, as we pray, as we listen, we hear, God will reveal to us. Therefore, what does He tell us to do? Be zealous and repent. So, we are to be zealous. The word zealous means to burn with zeal, to boil, to be heated.

Just the opposite of being lukewarm, isn't it? That we are zealous. And to repent means to change one's mind, to amend one's past from sins committed. So, when we repent, we change. So, God, as He reveals to us what we need to be doing, we need to change.

If we find that we've been lax in a given area, because you see, the word here means to be lax. You and I can be lax. We can be lazy, indifferent. And so, God tells us to be zealous and to repent. In verse 20, Behold, I stand at the door, and I knock. So, God is trying to get through to people. He's knocking on the door. And if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, in other words, there's something that we've got to do. If somebody rings your doorbell, ding-dong, and the doorbell rings, or somebody's knocking on the door, and you don't open the door, you're not going to talk to them. No, you've got to open the door. So, God says, I'm out there. I'm knocking. You open the door, and I will come to Him and dine with Him, and He with me. So, you open the door. I'll be there. I'll teach you. I'll guide you. And I'll work with you. And to Him who overcomes, I'll grant to sit with me in my throne.

Remember Revelation 2 and 3, seven churches. Picture, actually, three different things. They were seven literal churches that were in existence in the first century. And so, they existed simultaneous to one another. They're also a type of the church down through the ages. And you can find these attitudes at any given time within the church. You can find within the church people who are dead, people who are on fire, people who are lukewarm, people who are compromising. You go back and you read all of these. But I think it's a lustre dupe. That at the very end time, the last church mentioned here is one that illustrates an indifference. You know, it's not a matter of lack of understanding. It's not a matter of not knowing what's right and doing it. It doesn't say here that they don't do it, but they do it how? Well, lukewarmly, that's how. Not passionately, not on fire, not really stirred up. Let's go over here to Matthew 25 and verse 1. Matthew chapter 25 and verse 1.

You'll notice again a prophecy for the end time.

It says, The kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now, five of them were wise and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them. Oil being a symbol of God's Spirit. Now, remember, in order to have oil, you and I, to have God's Spirit, it has to be renewed on a daily basis. Well, apparently, they were not doing what was necessary to have that supply of oil there constantly. The wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. And while the bridegroom was delayed, it was not here yet. 75 has come, 82 has come, 2004 has come, and here we are in 2009. And so, you could say, well, the bridegroom was delayed. What happened? They all, doesn't say part, but they all slumbered and slept. And then something happens at midnight, a cry was heard. Behold, the bridegroom is coming. Go out and meet him. And the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. And the wise answered, saying, no, lest there should not be enough for us. But go rather to those who sell and buy for yourself. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in to the wedding, and the door was shut. Notice those who were ready. And verse 13, Watch therefore, for you know not the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

Brethren, this doesn't mean that Christ is going to come back tonight. We know that. There are prophecies that have to be fulfilled. But we also realize this prophetically, that prophecy can come together very quickly. We could be looking and saying, well, you know, Europe has to unite. This has to happen in the Mideast. This has to take place. And you have all of these sequence of events. And they could be, you know, take months, maybe years to be fulfilled, or they could happen very quickly. What if they were to happen quickly? Well, as it says here, you and I need to be ready. So what is the admonition at the end time to the church? Well, we are to watch. We're to be ready. You and I cannot just sit back. You know, we've got to be prepared. You see, it's very easy for us to drift. And there are times that all of us drift. Are we become negligent in our approach? Are we become careless with our calling? Knowledge, as I mentioned, is not enough. It's not enough just to have knowledge. It's not just enough to know. We can have all the knowledge in the world, and we can become proud of our understanding.

What we want to do is we don't want to allow days to go by, weeks to go by, months to go by without taking action on our spiritual weaknesses, our attitudes, and our problems on things that we know that we need to be doing. Because, brethren, the time could be short. We don't know how much more time, and none of us know how much more time God has granted to us to live. So let's realize that we can't be careless and indifferent, lax in our approach. We have to be fervent. You've got to be zealous. In the days of Unleavened Bread have been given to us by God as a reminder that we've got to be we've got to come out of this world. That we've, you know, God has given us the opportunity during this period of time, especially to concentrate on His way of life, to examine ourselves, to see what we need to be doing. And for each one of us, it may be something a little different. That's why I said that we need to look at ourselves and to see where we are neglecting, or we are drifting. Why is it important? Because our salvation depends upon it.