The Will of God

Eyes were almost beady. I remember them being dark and very direct. And as she stood there and looked me straight in the eye, she said this. And what she said, I have run into the sentiment more than once over the years. And she said this, she said, if you keep the Ten Commandments, you are a Christian and you have the Holy Spirit. That's all that counts. I don't want to know anymore. And why should I? And I don't care about prophecy.

Those are direct quotes from her. If you keep the Ten Commandments, you are a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit. That's all that counts. I don't want to know anymore. Why should I? And I don't care about prophecy. Now, this was a number of years ago, and this was a lady in the church. This was a baptized member in the church at that time. Turn with me to a scripture that we looked at not... well, in recent times we looked at it, Revelation 12, 17. Interesting point here to make. Revelation 12 and verse 17. And the context is the context of the church being taken to a place of nourishment to be protected from the devil in a time previous to Christ's return.

That's the context. And in verse 17, chapter 12, it says, "...and the dragon was wroth or angry, he was in a rage with the woman, the church. But he can't get to, not allowed to, and made obvious to him. He has to return, he has to do a U-turn. If you read the whole context, you'll see that he can't get to her. He's extremely angry. He has to do a U-turn and go back. And it says, he went to make war with the remnant of her seed, an element of the church that is not taken, that is not spared.

The remnant of her seed, a remnant that is left back in all the troubles. But notice what it says about this remnant, which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

So the church is taken, a remnant is left, and the remnant that is left and not, it keeps the commandments and has the testimony of Jesus Christ. So it's like, where's the problem? Where's the problem? What's lacking? The church that is taken and spared, they're keeping the commandments. They have the testimony of Jesus Christ. They're spared, the remnant isn't, and it's keeping the commandments, and it's got the testimony of Jesus Christ. So why? What's lacking? Why is there a remnant left back?

Well, you could answer that with a number of points. There's one main point that I want to deal with as to the issue, and I will reference it by introducing a certain word found in Matthew 7, 21. Matthew 7, verse 21. Christ said here, and this discourses his disciples, He said, Not every one that says unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the, and this is the word I want to introduce, will, will, the will of my Father, which is in heaven.

So we want to be in the kingdom of God. We want to be a part of that someday. We want to be in the process of becoming a part of that. And Christ says, He that does the will of my Father, which is in heaven. So that brings up the question, what comprises the will of God? And if you want a title, title and subject, is the will of God, the will of God. The will of God most definitely includes the Ten Commandments. You could not leave them out, and it'd be the will of God.

The will of God most definitely includes the Ten Commandments. But the realm that's left behind keep the Commandments. They have the Commandments. But the will of God, which most definitely includes the Ten Commandments, also definitely goes on to additional things with them. We know that. In other words, the Ten Commandments alone do not comprise the entire, total, expressed will of God.

And that should be obvious. That should be obvious. Now, God gives His Spirit to those who obey Him. And of course, the Ten Commandments is part of how we do obey God. Yes. We all know the Scripture in Acts 5.32 that God gives His Spirit to those who obey Him. Well, what does obedience mean? Well, obedience means to know and to follow His will. It's that simple. To know His will and to follow it.

And it means an open mind to...and this is crucial...to all His will. To all His will. You know, you think about it. An attitude or an approach or a perspective that is willing to see and accept God's will only up to a certain point.

I keep the commandments. I don't need to know anymore. I don't want to know anymore. Why should I? See, an attitude or approach that is willing to see and accept God's will only up to a certain point is, guess what? It is still a closed attitude. It is still a closed approach. It's a cafeteria approach. If God's will were a cafeteria line, you would go down that line and you would take of every item that's on that line. But in a cafeteria, people go down the line. And of course, obviously, a cafeteria line, you pick and you choose and you select what you will take, what you will partake of, what you will ingest and what you want.

And that's fine when you're talking about food. It's not as far as a cafeteria line. But God's will is not that way. You don't look along the line of God's will and say, well, I like that and I'll take that. Well, I don't really care for that, so I'll leave that alone. Oh, this over here looks pretty nice. I'll try some of that. That's a cafeteria approach. That's a pick and choose. And guess what? That's not obeying the will of God. That is self-will. That's will of self. So what makes up the will of God?

And again, that's what I want to deal with today in a very basic, fundamental, foundational way. What makes up the will of God? I'm going to break it down into two basic categories, two basic areas, two basic components. The first one, number one, I'm going to stick the label doctrine on this. This is the doctrinal area. Doctrine. You know, you have to have true doctrine. Yes. False doctrine doesn't get it. So we'll call this the doctrinal area.

You can put doctrine or doctrinal area. That has to do with moral truths. That has to do with relationships. That has to do with how we operate, how we function. That is that arena, because there's a way of moral truth. There is a way of true, bona fide love.

There is a way of relationships. There is a way that God wants us to operate with each other. How we function, how we behave, how we operate with each other. And obviously, when you talk about the doctrinal area, you would automatically include the Ten Commandments, wouldn't you? Because the Ten Commandments are laws of love, they're laws of relationships, they're laws of how we relate to God and how we relate to each other.

As a way of life, and you think about it with the Ten Commandments, as a way of life, as a way of living, they are a starter and they're a framework or an outline. You know, if you work for somebody or you're dealing with your neighbor or with your sibling, whatever, you would not steal from them. So, you would operate by certain laws that have to do with outgoing concern for them and all. And God's way is a way of life, we understand that. So as a way of life, they're both a starter and a framework or an outline.

But they do not contain all of God's laws or expressed will. If you have the Ten Commandments, great. If you say, that's enough, nothing more, that's not so great. Because God's expressed will includes additional that are not mentioned in the Ten Commandments. Where in the Ten Commandments do you find tithing mentioned? It's not there. Yet you can go to God's expressed will in His Word and see that tithing is required of God.

That that first tithe on increase, on increase on profit, belongs to God. Then you can say, well, tithing is not mentioned in the Commandments. No, it isn't. But if I don't give God what is His, and I take and spend it on myself, because, well, I always wanted that yacht or that special boat.

And if I give God what is His, then I can't afford it. I'll just keep it from myself. I'm stealing. I'm breaking a commandment. I'm stealing from God, because that first tithe is His, and He calls it holy. And so on all increase, on all true profit, we tithe, because tithing is part of the expressed will of God. And it is the command. Where in the Ten Commandments do you find that you should not eat pork or shrimp or crow or buzzard?

You know, any of that. It's not... You have to go to more of God's expressed will in addition to the Ten Commandments. The clean and unclean meats, the dietary laws of the Bible. That's part of God's will. And there are certain specific commands that you don't find. And some might say, well, these are kind of secondary. Maybe they are, but they're important. You shall not swear. You know, again, we have things like that sprinkled in the Bible. And then this basic area under the doctrinal area, which obviously includes the Ten Commandments, which includes additional things as well, also includes the avoidance of certain customs that are pagan.

Christmas. Easter. Learn not the way or the customs of the heathen. Also, to be avoided would be those things harmful to the temple of God, your body and mind. Which, again, are additional, too, just like the Ten Commandments are expressed will of God. There's additional expressed will of God. Alcoholism. The Bible teaches that alcohol itself is not a sin. And for a person to drink moderately, if they can drink moderately, and if they can't drink moderately, they shouldn't drink at all. But if they can drink moderately, that's not sin.

But God's expressed will says that if you're a drunkard, if you get drunk, no drunkard will be in the kingdom. One who is a drunkard has to quit being a drunkard. They've got to repent of it and quit being a drunkard and either drink properly or not drink at all. Because it's not required that you have to drink to be in the kingdom.

Gluttony. You know, if you're one given to food, put a knife to your throat. There's proverbs about that. Tobacco. Heroin. Cocaine. Crystal meth. Marijuana. Different things that you can look and see. They're both either direct statements or there are the principles involved that you put all the dust on the paper and it tells you, I shouldn't be doing this. This isn't God's will that I do this.

I should not do this. So just from this so far, it's easy to see that God's expressed will goes beyond only the Ten Commandments. Although the Ten Commandments are heart and core of the doctrinal area. And this brings up the second most basic area. Number two, and again, I'm just breaking God's will down into two basic components, two basic fundamental areas.

And that is the project or projects, plural, of God. The project or projects of God. That is His jobs, His assignments, His assignments to us. The works that He assigns to us, the work that He assigns to us to carry out. His assigned jobs to us, His assigned work to us, because God is an active God with projects to be carried out. Again, I go back to the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments are relationship laws. They're laws of relationships. They're laws of love. They tell us how to relate to God, how to operate with God, how to operate with each other, how to relate with each other. See, they express more than any other thing God's divine nature. They express His divine nature. And again, they tell us how to deal with others. But they don't tell us what specific project God has in mind that He wants us to carry out.

They tell us how to treat each other. They tell us how to get along with others. But they don't tell us what to carry out.

If you have a son, it's going to take just around it all. It's going to take roughly 20 years. You could say 16, you could say 18. But I'll just go with that biblical number of 20 for him to come to full manhood and to be held fully accountable.

And if you have a son, you want your son to be upright. You want your son to be a good moral person. You want your son to know how to function in life and how to get along with others and certainly how to get along with you, their parents and with their siblings. But sprinkled all along the way of those 20 years, your son might be the most obedient son in the world. But that doesn't necessarily tell him what to do as far as what you want him to do with projects. Sprinkled all through that time. Son, I would like for you to go take care of this. I'd like for you to go, you know, we can call them chores, you can call them whatever. When I was 13, I went to work with my dad in the summer times on houses. And it was good training and it was good experience. And I had other projects I was given to do. Son, you're very obedient. You're following my ways, you're doing. Now I've got this job for you. And I've got this job for you. And I've got that job for you. And you have assignments that are given to you. God looks at his people and He smiles when his people are very obedient to him and functioning with each other and with him the way that they should, according to the heart and core of his doctrine away, his Ten Commandments. And when he gives his people assignments, and his people carry those assignments out, he's very happy with them as they carry those projects out. Excuse me. It sounded like somebody had come in the front door there. We couldn't see, but yeah, just the ice machine. Nobody there. See, God's will is comprised both of his doctrine and his projects. That's what that lady, one of the things that lady was failing to realize. She was totally overlooking the second part. She was focusing on the first part to the point that that only mattered and the rest didn't. See, our doing of God's will involves both doing his doctrine and doing his project. Period. It's how we operate and it's what we do. Notice with me John 4.34. John 4.34. Interesting statement by Jesus here. It's not hard to understand. It's not a complex statement. It's simple, but it speaks to the will of God.

In John 4.34, Jesus said to them, my meat, my sustenance, what moves me is to do the will of him that sent me. To do the will of him that sent me, the Father who sent me, and to finish what? Finish his work.

To do his will by finishing his work. Very clear. I want you to think about something. Christ was without sin. No sin of thought, no sin of word, no sin of deed, ever. Otherwise, he could not have been a sacrifice, a pure, clean, perfect sacrifice for sin. Think about it. He says, to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work, Christ had been living the perfect embodiment of God's ways, including the Ten Commandments for eternity.

He had been living. I mean, living God's way as a human being, the experience, the newness of it was the fact he was doing it as a human being. But living that way of life, as embodied by the Ten Commandments, for instance, that was nothing new to him. He had done that perfectly forever. He didn't come just to do what he had always been doing forever. Now, he set an example. That was part of what he had to do, was to set an example. But he came to also carry out a certain specific project or projects. But I can tell you the prime project. The prime project that he had to accomplish was to die innocent of sin, that he could be a sacrifice for sin forever. That work, that was his prime work. He became flesh so he could die, so that there could be a sacrifice for sin, so the death penalty could be lifted off of us, so we could have an opportunity to go into eternal life forever through Jesus Christ and His covering blood.

That work had to be accomplished because until he came and he accomplished it, when he died on that stake and said, it is finished, that sacrifice was now secured. And before that, there was no such. And there will never, ever be a need for any additional such in the future because it's good for eternity.

But that was the prime work that he had to accomplish. And it was a project. And it was a work laid upon his shoulders. He willingly took it. He willingly, it wasn't forced on him, he willingly took it on and committed to doing it.

And you go to Matthew 26 and verse 42 in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Matthew 26, it says, He went away again the second time and he prayed saying, Oh, my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, you know, if there's no other way to accomplish it, He says, Except I drink it. Notice, He says, Your will be done.

Your will be done. It's interesting in the prayer outline in Matthew 6 and verse 10. In Matthew 6 and verse 10, part of that prayer outline is this.

Your will be done in earth. Your will be done in earth.

There are things, there have been projects to be carried out.

Since before the days of the Noatian Flood, there have been projects of God to be carried out, all the way reaching back before the Noatian Flood, coming down the line to our time and yet ahead of us.

Now, someday, God's will in terms of Christ being present on this earth and things being done according to God's will and His guidance throughout the whole planet, that will be. But leading up to that time, there have been projects and assignments and jobs along the way that a man or a man had to do that they were assigned to. John the Baptist.

You know, John the Baptist, before he ever started preaching and paving the way for the Messiah, for the first coming of the Messiah, John was keeping the commandments and he was obeying God and he was obedient.

And the whole reason why God blessed and caused his aged parents to get pregnant with him was because he was going to be a spokesman for God.

He had a job assignment. He was born to a job assignment.

And that job assignment was he was going to pave the way for the first coming of the Messiah.

And if you notice, and you know the Scriptures, and we may turn to one in a moment, when his ministry of paving the way was basically completed and it was time for Christ's ministry to begin, he literally lost his head in prison. They cut his head off. His job was finished.

And we'll get to see John the Baptist in a future time when Christ returns.

Christ came commissioned to carry out a project. He and the Father had planned the plan of salvation.

And there was work to be done. There were certain things that had to be done. One of them that everything hinged on. And without it, there is no plan of salvation.

And what it all hinged on was there being a perfect sacrifice for sin, which Christ accomplished.

If you look with me in Acts 9, verse 15, when Saul, whose name became Paul later, when he was struck down and he was sent to Ananias, and Ananias was told that he was coming, Ananias was a little bit fearful because, is this on the up and up or not? And you know what he's done to your people.

Acts 9, verse 13, Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem.

And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on your name. A little bit of trepidation.

Ananias, being a little bit human here, yes, and he wanted some reassurance.

And God told him, verse 15, But the Lord said to him, Go your way, or that is, you don't worry about it.

You know, you just do what you're told. I've got a job for him. I've got something I'm going to lay on him.

For he is a chosen vessel unto me. I've chose him to do a job. He's a chosen vessel to me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.

Again, the will of God includes projects, plans, purposes, goals, based on his timing and his assignment.

You know, it can be said that God has always had a work. Can you say there's ever been a time when God didn't have a work? He's always had a work, and you can call it the work or whatever. It's interesting what Jesus answered in John 5, verse 17. Christ healed on the Sabbath day. How's that breaking the Sabbath? It's not. To heal on the Sabbath day, a miracle of healing to take place. Don't ask me to anoint you. If I anointed you and God were to honor your faith and give you healing on the Sabbath day, ask me to anoint you Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, but never on a Saturday. Because if I anoint you and God were to bless your faith and were to heal you on the Sabbath day, he'd be breaking the Sabbath. Now, that'd be pretty stupid, wouldn't it? And that's how stupid this was, because he healed on the Sabbath, and they persecuted him and accused him of breaking the Sabbath. Which he wasn't. But notice verse 17. He let him in on something. Jesus censured them. My Father works hitherto, and I work. And not all work is servile work, and not all work is physical. They're spiritual work, too. But it's just interesting, my Father works. And I work. See, God has always lived a certain way, and he defines that certain way of how he lives in the basic format of the Ten Commandments. But he's also always been carrying out projects. Which brings us to a very important point, and that's our involvement. Our involvement in God's current project, His current work. You know, it's interesting. I've been in the church ever since I was a kid. I've been very much involved in it very deeply over my whole lifetime. We've always understood, and correctly so, that His work in one sense is two-fold. Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord. Are you sure you love me, Peter? Yes, Lord, you know that. Now, Peter, I want to be sure. Do you really love me? Lord, you know I do. You can just picture it there on the shore of Sea of Galilee, that early morning, bright, beautiful spring morning, around a campfire, having breakfast there. Okay, then feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. Nurture the flock. We've always understood that part of the work of the church is taking care of God's people. Feed my sheep. Nurturing the flock. Of course, primarily through teaching and fellowship.

We've also understood that the other part has always been preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. You know, in Matthew 24, 14, and I would say, this which we have understood, this which I have understood over a lifetime, when did it change? I'm being facetious. It hasn't changed. It never changed. It's still the same. Feed my sheep.

Yes. And the logo about God's people, you know, that we have, and about the gospel, and preaching, and taking care of those disciples and feeding them. Matthew 24, 14. It's a prophecy. It is a simple, straightforward statement by Jesus Christ Himself. This gospel, this Good News of the kingdom, shall be preached in all the world. Now, just break that down and look at it. It shall be preached. It maybe will be preached. No, it doesn't say maybe will be preached. Shall be preached. Now, it doesn't tell you how much at one time, how much of it at another time.

It doesn't tell you every aspect of how it will actually be carried out. But what it does tell you, that by the time Jesus returns, that the Good News of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world. In the whole world. It also tells you not for the purpose of getting everybody saved right now.

This isn't the day of the world's salvation. This is the day of the salvation of the few, the firstfruits. There is a millennial time of Christ. Salvation is going to be front and center. There is the time of the last great day when the billions of this age, unexercised in the truths of God, will come up to be exercised in them at that time. That is their time of salvation. The world we live in currently, their time of salvation is a future time in the last great day.

But since God does warn, and He is a very fair God, He is going to see to it that before the end come, which entails the great tribulation, which entails the closure of that, because what will close that time is the return of Christ to head off total annihilation, planetary genocide. It says, All the world, and all the world for a witness unto all nations, then shall the end come.

Now, if you go to Mark 1, verse 14. Mark 1, verse 14. Now, after that John, John the Baptist, was put in prison, his ministry is coming to a close.

Well, he was to pave the way for Jesus. Jesus is about to step on the scene as far as His official ministry. Now, after that, John was put in prison. Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel, or the good news, of the kingdom of God. Now, if your Bible is laid out like mine is, you can read that. Jesus came into Galilee preaching the good news of the kingdom of God. That's the beginning of His official ministry. You can just look across the page at the last two verses of Matthew. And that's after His ministry had been finished. That's after He had been resurrected.

That's after He had already gone back to heaven and ascended. Then He had come back and spent time with the disciples for 40 days as you're heading up towards Pentecost. And then, at the end of 40 days, He goes back to be with the Father. And so He tells them this. He says, Go, you therefore, and teach all nations. You go forth. Baptizing them, and of course, you connect with other scriptures, those that God does call.

He does give opportunity for. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. There would be fruits, yes. It would be preached as a witness. God would call some. Some would respond. Where are we today? Is there still a work?

Has it been finished? There are some who sit home, they keep the commandments. When the Holy Days come up, they abide by them. But they say, there is no work. The work has been finished. Somebody show me where Jesus Christ is on the planet today. Somebody show me where we had the great tribulation on the whole world. Somebody show me the day of the Lord. Somebody show me the trumpets that have sounded. The work is finished. There is still the freedom and opportunity to go forth with the gospel. The two witnesses haven't come on the scene yet.

The work is finished. All we have to do is just obey God, keep the commandments, treat each other nice, and that takes care of it. We live in a day and a time where there are too many who simply just gone off on their own. And that's sad. I don't know how many of you may have seen the movie years ago, The Apostle, Robert Duvall. I like old Robert Duvall.

He's probably been in about as many movies as anybody has ever been in. Good actor. But The Apostle was about a preacher, I won't lay out every detail, but he was about a preacher who got in trouble. And he was going to be charged and probably convicted. And he took off and skipped out and went down deep south somewhere, probably maybe down in Louisiana, southern Mississippi, whatever.

And there's this scene, and if you understand a lot about religion and certain religions in the Christian world, you could appreciate this. But there's this scene where Robert Duvall, as this preacher who's run away but who still wants to raise up a church and keep on doing what he's doing, etc., he's out in this area where it's woods and there's this body of water and it's out there all by itself.

He wades out into the water, so deep, and he gets out so far, and he puts his hands on himself and he dips himself under the water and says, I now baptize myself as an apostle of Jesus Christ. Now, on more than one front, there's something wrong with it. I now baptize myself as an apostle of Jesus Christ.

And then it goes about raising himself up another church. Of course, he's raising up for himself a church. We've got people in our time who maybe haven't done it that outlandishly, but it's part of the fabric of our day and age. I have sometimes referred to our time as the day of the goat, the day of the wandering Jew, because Satan has been allowed to do a lot of shattering and scattering, and he's going to do more.

To the holy people, and that's both, sadly, national level and church level.

But one cannot go off and be a lone tree, sitting in my own shade, under my own vine right now, and just be a Christian. Just you and me, Lord.

Just you and me, Lord, and just bide their time and be doing God's will. That's not doing His will.

And when one forsakes fellowship, he fades. We have a job to do. We have a job to do.

Let me ask you something about Noah. Before God spoke to Noah and gave him the assignment, the job, to build an ark, was Noah keeping the Sabbath? We know the answer, don't we? Was he keeping the commandments?

Was he relating to God like God wanted to be related with and to? Was he relating with his neighbors, siblings, friends like he should? Well, the answer is yes. He walked in the light. He walked with God. In other words, he was keeping the commandments of God.

He was in good with God. He was living righteously. He was practicing the Ten Commandments.

And God could have said, Noah, I'm very pleased with how you are obeying me and following me, and how you're relating to me, and how you're relating to others, and keep it up.

Keep it up. Don't fail on it.

And because you're walking with me, and you're walking in the light, and you're pleasing me, guess what, Noah?

And I see how you're just burned up by what you see happening around you. I see how it gets to you. I see how you're bothered by it.

I'm going to let you in on something. I've got a job for you. You're going to build an ark.

Oh, I'll tell you what it is, and I'll tell you how to build it. And I'll tell you why you're going to build it.

I have a job for you, and you're going to build it. And in the process of building it, it's also going to stand as a testimony.

You're going to be preaching to those who gather to monk you. The ark is going to be preaching to them. And you're going to be preaching.

And it's going to become a world wonder. And people are going to come from all over to see what this crazy old man is doing with this huge, huge boat out here with no water to float it.

I've got a job for you. And he was ridiculed. And he was mocked. And he was persecuted.

Can you imagine the day coming when Noah could have said, not that he would have said, not that it entered his mind to save, but just to make the point. Could you imagine Noah coming to a point where he's just kind of tired of all of that? And he lays his hammer down and his saw, and he says, I am not putting another plank on the ark.

God, please, I don't want to do any more with this project. Are you really keeping track of how I'm being treated and what I'm facing? Now, God, you know before you gave me this assignment that I was obeying you, I was keeping the Sabbath, I was pleasing in your sight. That's why you picked me. And look, I'll keep on keeping the Sabbath. I'll keep on keeping your commandments. I'll keep on walking with you.

But I don't want to put another plank on this boat. What do you think would have happened at that point in time?

God would have said, you're disobedient, Noah.

Noah, you're not obeying me.

Noah, you're not doing my will. You're willing to do the part of my will that you want to do, but to shy away from the part of the will that you also need to do, but that you really don't want to do.

Now, obviously, I just lay it out like that to make the point, because obeying God means doing His will.

It's more than just obeying doctrine. It's more than just living morally. It's more than just being a nice person. It's more than all of that. It's also in carrying out the project or projects He has in mind, because God's will equals doctrine plus project, you might say.

And the interest in and the carrying out of the particular assignment and commission laid upon us is very extremely important.

For us or anyone to abandon what we have been assigned as the people of God to do, that is desertion of duty.

I won't pull any punches on it, and we've got some people who simply have abandoned their duty, and more will abandon them.

And hopefully, God will add more who will actually help put their hand and their shoulder to the plow.

But abandoning what we've been assigned to do is desertion of duty. And again, I know some very nice people, and I do mean truly nice people that are just lovely to be around who are sitting on their hands now. They're saying the work is finished. It's done. There's nothing else to do. We just sit obedient to Christ and the Father until Jesus is sent back.

Now, there is a statement in Jeremiah 48.10. And of course, it's a principle. It can apply in any number of contexts.

Jeremiah 48 and verse 10. But it's certainly the principle that's here, and the indictment certainly has application in what I'm talking about today.

Jeremiah 48.10. Cursed be he that does the work of the Lord deceitfully, and in the Hebrew, it could have been rendered negligently. Cursed be he that does the work of the Lord negligently.

Go with me to Revelation 3 and verse 8.

I have gone quite a bit in recent times to this section of Revelation because in these messages, there's application to us.

We're part of the true body of Jesus Christ. We're part of the bride. We're part of the firstfruits.

We are truly a bona fide part of the true Church of God, of Jesus Christ.

And these messages to the Church, and especially these latter ones in particular, but all of them for that matter, have some application.

But notice in chapter 3 and verse 8, I know your works. Now, let me just stop right there and let's set the timing on this message, the dominant timing. Look at verse 10.

Because you have kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you, that's Revelation 12, the Church being taken into a place of safety of nourishment.

I also will keep you from the hour of tribulation, which shall come upon all the world. That has not come.

It has not come upon the whole world yet. Oh, there's trouble throughout the world. But this is a reference to the great tribulation which will descend upon all the world in time, which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. So you've got the dominant timing set for you right there. We're not at the time yet of the great tribulation upon the world, but we are in the end of the age.

Now back up to verse 8. I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door. And no man can shut it, for you have a little strength. Not a great deal.

The gospel going forth is not going forth strongly yet. But it is going forth, and it is going forth as strongly as we can do it with God's blessing. He says, For you have a little strength, and have kept my word, and have not denied my name.

Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. That will transpire after Christ's return. Because you have kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you from the hour of tribulation, which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth.

I have set before you an open door, and no man can shut it. And it will not be shut by any man until God says, That's it. That's enough. That door is still open. Our power is weak. We have a little strength. We don't have a lot. But we're exercising ourselves within what we have to exercise ourselves with. Here's the sad thing. Once a person starts taking a step backward and saying, I don't need to be apart anymore. I don't need to do that. I just keep the commandments, and I'm fine. They are automatically slotting themselves into that remnant. That's automatically going to happen.

And they're not active in God's will fully. And when they're not active fully in God's will, here's what happens. They start fading. Have you ever seen a pool of water, a nice little pond or lake that has no fresh inlet in the water just sitting there? Well, for one thing, it'll get stagnant. But also, through heat and evaporation, eventually, will be a mud hole. Because it just evaporates away. And that's what can happen to a Christian, too. They can just kind of evaporate away.

The member that I spoke of wound up... well, she faded, she evaporated, she faded, and she faded. And where she eventually wound up, she wound up following the writings of Edgar Cayce, the one called the Sleeping Prophet, and accepting and believing in reincarnation.

Lost all of God's will in her life. And again, very sad situation.

Again, God's will.

I'll turn to one final scripture, Proverbs 2, verse 11.

Doing God's will means, yes, doing living the doctrine, living morally, relationships, laws, love, but also doing His assignment, doing what He's given us to do, doing His project, doing His projects, doing the work that He assigns to us.

Proverbs 2, verse 11.

Understanding the fullness of this, that is God's will, is crucial to our spiritual success and our preservation.

The fullness of this, that is His will, is crucial to our spiritual success.