3ABN On the Road

Burning Chariots

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Bill Knott

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Series Code: OTR

Program Code: OTR000997


05:11 Good evening, have you been blessed?
05:12 Amen. Have you? Amen. It's better.
05:16 It has been a blessed Sabbath day hasn't it
05:19 and the blessings are not over yet.
05:21 We have a wonderful program left still
05:24 ahead of this, this evening and I have
05:27 to tell you I'm one of those who grew up
05:29 in an Adventist home like many of you.
05:33 And I remember when I was growing up
05:35 there was something different about our
05:37 home then the homes of the neighbor kids,
05:40 the friends of mine around the neighborhood.
05:43 When we walked into their house,
05:46 they had a certain variety of
05:48 magazines on their table.
05:49 And when they walked into our home
05:52 we had completely different magazines.
05:55 Some you may recognize like science
05:57 of the time, the Review and Herald.
06:01 And I remember the Review and Herald
06:03 always being a center peace in our home.
06:06 Always was read thoroughly cover
06:08 to cover as I was growing up.
06:11 Still today we have these old Review
06:14 and Herald magazines you know I go back
06:16 often and look at the ones that are
06:17 150 years old, and I'm amazed and
06:22 what the Lord taught through those
06:26 magazines that many years ago.
06:27 And I'm always impressed that the men
06:30 that he put in-charge James White,
06:32 Uriah Smith you know the names.
06:34 Were the men for the time,
06:36 the men for the time. And I believe our
06:41 editor of the review is the man for this time.
06:45 And I think you understand that we
06:47 are living in a very special time in
06:49 history amen? Amen. And I believe that
06:53 the Lord has chosen the man to be
06:55 in this position that he wants their.
06:59 And I also believe that everyone of us
07:01 needs to keep that man in our prayers
07:03 as he leads out in his pastoral ministry
07:06 to our whole church body.
07:09 Elder Bill Knott I've just had the
07:11 pleasure of meeting him here at this
07:14 convention and I have to tell you
07:16 what really makes his eyes laid up
07:19 is when he talks about his family.
07:21 Amen, his wife Debra serves at the
07:23 general conference as a specialist in the
07:25 office of Human Resources and they
07:27 have two boys Avid and Brady and that's
07:30 when he really got a smile on his face.
07:32 Both at Andrews University, he is a
07:35 proud father, a proud husband and
07:38 he is proud of his church. And I think
07:40 you will be blessed this evening as
07:42 Elder Knott brings our message, amen.
07:45 Right after we hear the music from our
07:47 choir this evening my Lord bless, amen.
08:39 Mine eyes have seen the glory
08:41 of the coming of the Lord:
08:46 He is trampling out the vintage
08:50 where the grapes of wrath are stored;
08:55 He hath loosed the fateful lightning
09:00 of His terrible swift sword:
09:04 His truth is marching on.
09:14 Glory, glory, hallelujah!
09:23 Glory, glory, hallelujah!
09:33 Glory, glory, hallelujah!
09:38 His truth is marching on.
09:54 I have seen Him in the watch-fires
09:57 of a hundred circling camps,
10:01 They have builded Him an altar
10:06 in the evening dews and damps;
10:10 I can read His righteous sentence
10:14 by the dim and flaring lamps:
10:18 His day is marching on.
10:28 Glory, glory, hallelujah!
10:40 His day is marching on.
11:15 In the beauty of the lilies
11:20 Christ was born across the sea,
11:27 With a glory in His bosom that
11:34 transfigures you and me:
11:41 As He died to make men holy,
11:48 let us die to make men free,
11:53 While God is marching on.
12:02 Glory, glory, hallelujah!
12:16 While God is marching on.
12:22 Glory, glory, hallelujah!
12:36 While God is marching on.
13:12 As one of my friends said after a similar
13:14 performance if you can't preach after
13:17 music like that, you can't preach.
13:18 I want to thank the choir and they
13:23 did not know how appropriate the song
13:26 they sang tonight is for the message
13:29 I want to share with you this evening, amen.
13:32 Turn with me to the Book of Judges,
13:34 not a place we often go for preaching
13:39 or teaching these days, but the
13:41 Book of Judges chapter 4 and beginning
13:45 at verse 1. The Israelites again
13:51 did what was evil in the sight of the Lord,
13:54 after Ehud died. So the Lord sold them
13:56 into the hand of King Jabin of Canaan,
13:58 who reigned in Hazor; the
14:01 commander of his army was Sisera,
14:03 who lived in Harosheth-ha-goiim.
14:04 Then the Israelites cried out to the
14:07 Lord for help; for he had nine
14:08 hundred chariots of iron, and had
14:11 pressed the Israelites cruelly twenty years.
14:15 "At that time Deborah, a prophetess,
14:17 wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel. "
14:20 She used to sit under the palm
14:22 of Deborah between Ramah and
14:23 Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim;
14:25 and the Israelites came up to her for judgment.
14:29 She sent and summoned Barak son of
14:31 Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali,
14:33 and said to him, The Lord,
14:35 the God of Israel, commands you,
14:37 Go, take position at Mount Tabor,
14:39 bringing ten thousand from the tribe
14:42 of Naphtali and the tribe of Zebulun.
14:44 "I will draw out Sisera, the general
14:46 of Jabin's army, to meet you by the
14:49 brook Kishon with his chariots and
14:51 his troops; and I will give him into
14:54 your hands. Barak said to her,
14:57 if you will go with me, I will go;
14:59 but if you will not go with me,
15:01 I will not go. And she said rather,
15:04 I will surely go with you; nevertheless
15:07 the road on which you are going will
15:09 not lead to your glory, for the Lord
15:11 will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.
15:14 Then Deborah got up and she went
15:18 with Barak to Kedesh. Barak summoned
15:21 Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh;
15:23 and ten thousand warriors went up
15:25 at his heels; and Deborah
15:28 went up with him. "
15:31 Let's pray together tonight, not to us
15:35 oh Lord, not to us but to your name
15:40 give glory, amen. May our time in our
15:45 word this evening, remind us of the call
15:50 to personal involvement in the victory
15:54 you intend for your people
15:56 I pray in Jesus name amen, amen.
16:07 There is something in the soul of
16:10 every child that hates the class bully.
16:17 Unless of course he is the class bully.
16:21 But, since there can be usually only be one
16:23 bully at a time most of you know that
16:26 hate of which I speak. We dreamed
16:31 about the day when that bigger kid or
16:34 that older kid who raft us would get drag
16:38 down to the principles of his while
16:40 the rest of us broke out into a starring
16:42 rendition then I feel good.
16:47 When I was 10 and my older brother
16:49 was 12, we came to know a thing or
16:53 two about bullies. Each afternoon Dave
16:57 and I would walk the one mile home
16:59 between the school and our house
17:03 and it was usually a very pleasant
17:05 walk especially in the winter when
17:06 new falling snow would make all kinds
17:09 of fantastic shapes on the bushes
17:11 and the hermits beside the black top.
17:13 But, as all journeys do this one had
17:16 what John Bunyan would have called
17:17 a hill of difficulty. It was a slight knoll
17:22 that rose past the homes of our two
17:25 worst tormenters. They were seventh graders,
17:31 classmates of my brother at school
17:33 and they tormented him mercilessly
17:36 at school and on the way home from school.
17:38 And since I was sharing the walk
17:40 I came in for my share of the abuse too.
17:44 I remember hating those late warm
17:48 winter afternoons. When the sun
17:52 would melt the snow just enough
17:54 to make ice balls because I knew
17:57 only two well that Bobby and Steve
17:59 would be waiting for us at the top of a knoll.
18:04 They would stand there grinning
18:07 as we walked closer. Armed with
18:10 their arsenal of snowballs and cactus
18:14 getting by their men running a gantlet
18:16 of ice and abuse that struck terror
18:19 into my 10-year-old heart.
18:23 And everyday the closer we got
18:26 to that awful spot on the way
18:28 home from school. I would wish that
18:30 there was some other way to get home.
18:34 Some alternate route that would let us
18:36 miss that days' battle. And when Dave and
18:41 I finally did discover another
18:42 way home across the fields.
18:44 Believe me, we did not wait long to take it.
18:49 I remember laughing to myself that
18:50 we had out with it the enemy,
18:53 we had outsmarted those awful bullies
18:55 by taking well it really was the long
18:59 way home. In reality I supposed they
19:03 had never succeeded in controlling us
19:06 so well as when our fear of the
19:08 coming battle meant that we would
19:10 do anything to avoid them.
19:16 They were the masters of laying
19:17 in road and for all of our shrewdness
19:22 it was Dave and me trudging along
19:24 indeed deep unplowed snow on those
19:27 storming afternoons when no one would
19:29 be there to pick us up and give us a ride.
19:33 The fear of the battle meant that we
19:35 had to take the long way home.
19:37 My friends I suspect that some
19:44 of you here know that fear as well. Someone,
19:52 something in your life is looming large
19:57 and intimidating and fear some and
20:02 remembering it thinking about it saps
20:05 all your strength and makes all of
20:07 your courage evaporate. You would
20:09 gladly go out of your way to avoid that
20:12 battle on the horizon. I take some comfort
20:18 when I read God's word to discover that
20:20 my brother and I where the only ones
20:22 who have ever been afraid of bullies.
20:26 In the opening verse that we read
20:27 from the fourth chapter of Judges,
20:29 I find that for 20 years the entire
20:32 people of Israel struggled with their
20:35 fear of two of the biggest bullies of
20:37 the Canaanite world. And you know Jabin
20:39 and Sisera were armed with something
20:41 a little more impressive then
20:43 ice balls. In a land were metal
20:47 weapons were exceedingly rare they
20:49 controlled nine hundred chariots of iron.
20:55 Chariots that made the Plain of
20:57 Esdraelon tremble as they rolled
21:01 along in procession. And the frighten
21:05 Hebrews up there in the hills peered
21:07 down from the crags and thought that
21:10 Jabin must be a mighty king that
21:12 the Jabin and Sisera had to be obeyed
21:14 because of those nine hundred chariots
21:18 of iron. But up in the wild gorges were
21:24 God's people had gone to hide for safety
21:27 there was something new in the wind.
21:34 There was talk of revival in the wind.
21:40 There was talk of reformation in the wind,
21:42 hearts were beginning to change,
21:44 minds were beginning to be reshaped
21:47 by the spirit of the living God.
21:48 There was talk of sincere repentance
21:50 before a God whom they had offended
21:52 with their idolatry. And in late night
21:55 tales beside smoky camp fires old man
21:59 told stories of a time when Israel was free.
22:04 A time when Israel was righteous.
22:06 A time when Israel was true to the
22:08 God of heaven. Have you ever noticed
22:12 my friends that whenever God's
22:13 people seek him he sense a leader
22:17 to fan the flames of revival, amen.
22:23 Under the shadow of Mount Ephraim
22:25 God raised up a leader to keep the
22:27 revival going. We don't know a lot
22:29 about her background and we don't
22:30 know much about the special gifts
22:32 with which the spirit of God had
22:34 equipped her for the role she was to play.
22:37 But, beneath the palm tree that came
22:39 to be known was Deborah's palm
22:42 the textiles that she sat and
22:44 judge the people. And everyday,
22:49 everyday as she listen to their
22:51 stories of pagan, their tales of grief
22:54 and the record of their oppression
22:56 by the enemy. The conviction grew
22:59 in her mind that she had to help her
23:00 people over come their fear of fear, amen.
23:05 The people had to be led overcome their
23:07 incapacitating fear of those nine hundred
23:11 chariots of iron. And so Deborah
23:15 went about breaking that dark spell
23:17 of discouragement and despair that
23:19 over her people. She talked to them
23:21 how to believe and again in a God
23:23 who could do mighty miracles.
23:24 She talked to him how to pray again.
23:26 And you know life began change.
23:29 Men and women began to change, men
23:32 and women and teenagers and little
23:33 kids began to search their hearts
23:35 in the side of a holy God and make
23:38 a commitment in the battle against
23:40 evil that they knew was coming
23:42 on the near horizon. Interestingly,
23:49 my friends we don't read in the word of God,
23:51 any discontent with Deborah's leadership?
23:59 We don't hear any murdering in the
24:00 corners that women were supposed
24:02 to be at home that women were supposed
24:05 to be meek and submissive creatures
24:07 not one voice was raised to question
24:09 Deborah's role as a judge in Israel.
24:12 You see those ancient Hebrews had
24:14 the good sense to realize that when
24:16 God gave gifts of skill and nerve
24:18 to human beings gendered in matter
24:21 of one day. They accepted the
24:23 leadership of a women because they
24:25 saw the fire of God and arise. And we,
24:29 who call ourselves modern sometimes
24:37 my friends we excuse ourselves from
24:40 allowing gifted people to the roles
24:44 for which God had equip them.
24:47 And we say that the times aren't
24:48 ready for it yet, you are right
24:50 it's only been 3400 years.
24:54 God chooses whom he wills to fill positions
24:57 of leadership among his people and
24:59 I want to tell you I would much rather
25:01 follow one Deborah into battle then
25:04 any number of weak and fearful men, amen.
25:13 Deborah found herself at the heart
25:15 of a genuine religious revolution.
25:19 She understood that the time had
25:20 come for action. And so she send
25:24 a message to the strongest man
25:26 she could find, the tribal chief
25:28 with the interesting name of Barak.
25:32 He lived about 100 miles to the north
25:34 of her. And even though she made it
25:35 abundantly clear that the message didn't
25:38 come from her, it came from the Lord.
25:40 Even though she specified in advance
25:43 the place of the battle and the certainty
25:45 of success that God had promised Barak
25:48 said no, I won't go unless you go with me.
25:54 So, terrible had the fear of Jabin and
25:57 Sisera's chariots become among the
25:59 Hebrews that even the strongest of all
26:01 of their tribal chiefs, the man whose
26:03 very name meant lightening refuse to go
26:08 unless Deborah was at his side.
26:12 Even though, he could count on the support of
26:16 10000 of the best soldiers of Naphtali
26:19 and Zebulun. Barak wouldn't budge
26:22 an inch until he had God's prophet by
26:24 his side; not a bad thought that.
26:28 He had the normal courage of the average
26:30 captain but he knew that the battle ahead
26:33 required more then normal courage.
26:36 He needed God's prophet by his side.
26:41 And Deborah quickly agreed to go,
26:44 there wasn't any hesitation on her part,
26:47 she didn't try to hide behind ruffles and lace.
26:50 She didn't try to shyly insist that you
26:53 know war is only for the men.
26:56 She knew that she was intimately bound up
26:58 with a movement of destiny and that
27:00 she couldn't shirk her duty then,
27:05 Scripture says Deborah arose with
27:08 Barak to Kedesh. And Barak summoned
27:12 Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh;
27:14 and ten thousand men went up at
27:16 his heels and Deborah went up with him. Amen.
27:21 And down on the plain of Esdraelon
27:25 crafty Sisera must have smiled to himself.
27:30 Let them come he thought, let them
27:33 come with their bows and arrows.
27:37 Let them come with their rusty
27:39 swords in size. Let them come and
27:43 throw their rocks and run.
27:45 You see when a man has nine hundred
27:47 chariots of iron he longs for something
27:51 to do with them. And Sisera was
27:54 already mentally counting the corpuses
27:56 of all of the Hebrew peasants;
27:58 his trained soldiers would cut down.
28:04 But, Sisera, Sisera had made all of his
28:07 calculations as if there were no God in heaven.
28:12 Sisera had made all of his calculations
28:14 as no God wasn't watching out for his
28:17 chosen people. Sisera foolishly fought
28:19 along with all of God's enemies that
28:21 he was only dealing with a weak and
28:23 pathetically helpless group of people.
28:25 You know some tired senior citizens,
28:27 some flaming young teenagers he
28:30 thought he could crush his uprising the
28:33 way you crush a fly on the wall, amen.
28:37 But, the record says and the Lord routed
28:41 Sisera and all his chariots and all his
28:45 army before Barak at the edge of the
28:47 sword and Sisera alighted from his
28:49 chariot and fled away on foot.
28:51 And Barak pursued the chariots and
28:53 the army to
28:55 Harosheth-ha-goiim, amen.
28:56 And all the army of Sisera fell by the
28:59 sword not a man was left, Hallelujah amen.
29:05 And before the day was over man who
29:09 had thought to crush God's people
29:12 had his own temple crushed by a
29:16 temper driven by the hand of a woman.
29:20 I hope my friends I hope, I hope that
29:24 every violent person whoever even
29:26 thinks about raising his hands against
29:30 the people of God will remember how
29:32 Sisera died. Evil will so occupy the
29:37 mind of the one that possess that he can't
29:39 even lie down to sleep in peace
29:41 because he always fears a hand
29:43 bloodier than his own, amen.
29:48 The scripture tells us that in the
29:49 aftermath of this great victory over there
29:51 oppresses. Israel gathered for a great
29:54 celebration of praise and thanksgiving.
29:57 And the woman would had inspired it all;
29:59 she proved that she was a superlative
30:02 poet as well. Deborah were told to
30:07 raise her voice in a song that she wrote,
30:10 a song that really has left a high water
30:13 mark on the record of the worlds literature.
30:17 Wherever you go in the textbooks you
30:20 will discover that the song of Deborah
30:23 is treated by both believers and skeptics
30:26 alike as one of the great pieces of poetry
30:29 of the ancient world. It's full of all
30:32 the fire and the energy of the holy
30:34 cause that inspired it. That reveals a
30:38 depth of thought and emotion that many
30:41 people didn't believe could have existed
30:43 that long ago. The song of Deborah rises
30:48 to a height of exaltation in
30:51 proclaiming the alliance between God and
30:53 his people. According to Deborah even
30:56 the stars in their courses fought
30:59 again Sisera. The torrent Kishon, the
31:03 unrushing torrent, the torrent Kishon
31:05 march on my soul with my Jesus.
31:10 March on my soul with my. But, in the
31:16 midst of all of this exaltation, in the
31:20 middle of all the thanksgiving and the
31:21 celebration there is a note of great
31:24 anger and great bitterness. In the
31:29 23rd verse of Judges 5, we find these
31:34 lines that seems so strangely out of place.
31:40 Curse Meroz says the Angel of the Lord.
31:45 Curse bitterly its inhabitance because
31:49 they came not to the help of the Lord,
31:53 to the help of the Lord against the mighty.
31:58 In the flesh of triumph, well the victory
32:02 party was in full swing.
32:06 We might have expected Deborah to be
32:08 charitable to those who some how didn't
32:10 manage to show up when the battle was on.
32:13 We find ourselves inventing all sorts of
32:17 excuses for why the people of Meroz might
32:20 have failed to come to the help of the
32:22 Lord against the mighty. Well maybe the
32:27 grain harvest needed every available
32:30 laborer or just that. You know maybe the
32:34 local economy would have been hurt
32:35 if all the merchants picked up their
32:37 fathers swords and spears and went
32:41 of to war. Maybe they were pressing
32:45 political issues and Meroz just then
32:48 that required every citizen to stay
32:50 home and get involved. But Deborah
32:55 doesn't know of any such excuses.
32:57 And with righteous fire in her eyes,
33:01 she denounces those who chose
33:04 the safety of wharf and home while
33:06 legions of Naphtali and Zebulun were
33:08 risking their necks out their on the plains.
33:14 It's an accident of history that we
33:17 know nothing more about the city
33:20 of Meroz today then the memory of
33:23 her curse. An entire city has passed
33:30 into abyss of history and it's left
33:33 only its name. Meroz as a symbol for shame,
33:39 dishonor. Meroz has come to stand
33:45 for uselessness. Meroz has come to
33:49 stand for neutrality when no good
33:52 person could be neutral. Meroz has come
33:54 to stand for passivity when no honest
33:57 person can stand idle by. Meroz has
34:00 become the label of the shirker in the way
34:05 that the word quisling in World War II
34:08 became a synonym for someone who
34:11 would sell his native country in that case
34:14 Norway to the enemy. But Meroz didn't
34:19 do anything so actively evil as playing trader
34:24 or a spy, no. Meroz simply did nothing.
34:33 In the face of a monumental crisis
34:35 confronting the people of God, Meroz
34:38 continued acting as though nothing
34:40 unusual was happening. And so she
34:43 became mark to the pages of history
34:45 as a cursed city. In a time of desperate
34:52 conflict, an inactive friend is counted
34:57 as an enemy did you hear what I said? Yes.
35:01 In a time of desperate conflict an inactive
35:05 friend is counted as an enemy, amen.
35:10 Could God concur those iron chariots
35:13 of Jabin and Sisera without the help
35:15 of Meroz? Certainly he could, he didn't need
35:17 a human army at all. But, could Meroz
35:20 survive without committing herself
35:22 wholeheartedly to the battle of God.
35:25 Not at all, not at all. And so we know
35:29 nothing today of Meroz other then the
35:32 memory of her curse. But, I'm here
35:37 this evening to tell you my friends that
35:41 the curse of Meroz has not entirely
35:44 left the people of God. As much as we
35:51 may flinch, as much as we may stop
35:55 our ears, as much as we may want
35:59 to pretend we have not heard. Those words,
36:05 those divine words of criticism are directed
36:09 today against the members of God's
36:13 church who refuse to answer the call
36:17 to the battle that's on the near horizon.
36:23 The sin of Meroz, oh it's simply the sin
36:25 of trying to save our own neck at the
36:28 expensive somebody else's neck.
36:30 It's the attempt to save our own souls
36:34 without a thought for the souls of others.
36:38 The people of Meroz in the church today
36:40 are those who want to come out of their
36:43 safe hiding places all cool and unwounded
36:47 after the victory has been won.
36:51 And I hope, I hope with all my heart that
36:55 you are not one of them. Most of us here
37:00 this evening are Americans and I suspect
37:03 it's harder for us then for almost any
37:05 other people in the world to understand
37:08 the necessity of personal involvement
37:11 when there is a battle on, amen.
37:13 It has been a 145 years since there was
37:18 any pitched combat in the lower 48 states.
37:24 We abuse to the idea that, you know,
37:25 somebody else. Somebody else's son,
37:28 somebody else's daughter is gonna cross
37:30 sought water and do our fighting for us.
37:35 But, I'm here this evening to point
37:36 out that there is a battle going on,
37:39 on American soils tonight and on
37:41 Canadian soils and Bermudian soil.
37:44 It's on Alabama soil and it's on Florida
37:47 soil and it's on Georgia soil and it's
37:49 on Tennessee soil and it's not some civil
37:52 war reenactment, amen. You would
37:57 actually be more accurate to say this
37:59 evening that there are 1500 or
38:02 3000 or 5000 separate battles going
38:07 on in front of each of us this evening
38:09 there is some issue, there is some contest,
38:13 there is some topic that the Lord Jesus
38:16 has been placing in front of us.
38:17 You know what that is, I don't in our life,
38:20 but you have already been living with
38:22 it for quite sometime, you don't have
38:24 to go scanning the horizon to figure
38:25 out what it is? You don't have to go
38:27 staring into a crystal ball or examining
38:30 your horoscope. The spirit of God
38:32 has been talking to you over many months
38:33 about what that issue is in your community,
38:36 in your life, in your church, in this
38:39 movement, that's right. And my
38:42 friends this is into battle that you can
38:46 get someone else to fight for you, amen.
38:51 You can't wait for someone
38:52 else to get drafted. You can't hire
38:55 someone else to go in your place this
38:57 is in every sense a private war.
39:01 It's a personal war, it's a struggle
39:03 against wrong, that the spirit of God
39:07 is laid on your heart and there
39:08 is only person who can do something
39:11 about it, amen. Don't think my friends,
39:15 don't think that this is a battle
39:17 you can skip, hallelujah. Don't suppose
39:20 that you're gonna be able to climb
39:22 out from under Iraq after the battle
39:24 is over and still claim a share in the victory.
39:29 If you're gonna dance at the victory party
39:31 you better have been their when the battle
39:33 was on, amen. Those who hide in fear
39:37 during the battle scripture says
39:41 they are counted the enemies of God's
39:43 people, amen. Scripture abounds
39:46 actually with numerous examples
39:48 of the sin of Meroz. From the lips of
39:51 Jesus himself we hear denunciation
39:54 of that unfaithful servant who took
39:57 his talent and did nothing.
40:02 We hear Jesus cursing that show
40:05 a fig tree that produced many leaves,
40:08 but in the way of fruit it produced nothing.
40:13 We hear Jesus rebuking that Lukewarm
40:15 Church of Laodicea, which thought it
40:17 was rich and increased in goods,
40:19 but actually of the things that count
40:22 it possessed nothing. And his awful word
40:26 to them is because you are Lukewarm
40:29 neither hot nor cold, I will spew you
40:31 out of my mouth. Friends there really is
40:35 such a thing as the sin of omission.
40:41 It's a sin that Jesus talks about,
40:45 and if God forbid any of us should be
40:49 lost in the end. I don't think it
40:53 will primarily be because of all of the
40:55 bad things we did, but because
40:58 of the good things we failed to do.
41:04 The sin of Meroz it's not a sin of
41:08 impetuousness. It's not just a
41:12 mistaken opinion like choosing vanilla
41:16 when every same person those you
41:18 should chose chocolate.
41:21 Now the sin of Meroz is the sin of
41:23 a person or a family, or a church,
41:29 or a campus, or a conference that is
41:33 gotten used to only low risk
41:35 investments, amen. A person or a family,
41:39 or a church, or a campus, or a conference
41:44 those decided it wants a low risk portfolio
41:47 as it goes into the future, it's the sin
41:50 of fear for those who have lost the fire
41:52 of their first love out there thinking
41:56 about the coming battle, Jesus.
41:59 You may be thinking that these are
42:01 pretty strong words. This is pretty
42:04 tough language. But, when the Lord
42:08 himself is leading his people into battle.
42:15 The person who hides in fear,
42:19 if I hide in fear I'm calling God a liar
42:23 because he has said I will give Sisera
42:25 into your hand, Jesus. Before it's
42:29 too long my friends, Seventh-Day Adventists
42:32 have allowed our fear of conflict to
42:35 incapacitate us and cripple us, amen.
42:38 We forget the words of the Lord
42:40 when he said I have not come to bring
42:41 peace but a sword, hallelujah.
42:45 We ignore the plain language
42:46 of the Lord when he said he that is
42:49 not with me, he is against me.
42:53 The struggle in which God's church
42:57 is always engaged is a struggle between
43:01 the truth and a world that is determined
43:04 to stamp it up. Well you say that's right
43:07 I agree with you Bill. That's the kind
43:10 of thing that others really need to
43:11 hear that, that 40% who never come
43:14 to church but are still on our books.
43:18 That 50% who never return a faithful
43:20 tie or support the church with
43:22 their offerings, they need to realize
43:24 Bill I agree with you they need to
43:25 realize that unless they join in the
43:28 struggle they are not gonna end up
43:29 on the winning side, amen. But,
43:31 my friends I'm speaking tonight to the 60%
43:35 who come to church. I'm talking tonight
43:41 to the 50% who return a faithful tie.
43:46 I'm talking to men and women who
43:48 are ministry leaders, who are local church
43:52 leaders, who are leaders of movements
43:56 and ministries across the face of his
43:58 denomination. Men and women who
44:00 make plans and look for support and try
44:04 to think strategically. An 31 years
44:07 of ministry have thought me that
44:08 these words from the song of Deborah
44:10 apply to God's people today with the same
44:14 force as they were once directed.
44:16 Remember that the city of Meroz
44:18 undoubtedly had its leaders as well.
44:22 There was probably some tribal
44:24 chief in there. There was probably
44:27 some local elder, there was probably
44:30 some Merozion Conference President
44:33 who would stand up in font of his people
44:35 and say, no folks, folks this
44:37 really isn't in our fight. We have got
44:41 no quarrel with Sisera and Jabin.
44:43 I mean they have always treated
44:45 us fairly well haven't they and besides
44:48 there is a whole lot of work that won't
44:51 get done around here if we all go running
44:52 off to war. That crunching sound you
44:59 are hearing now is all the toes
45:01 I'm stepping out, amen. My wife will
45:05 tell you that I have never been particularly
45:08 layed on my feet. And the great pity is
45:13 my friends, the great pity is that we
45:15 have so long thought of conflict of
45:18 any kind as something to be avoided
45:20 that we are hardily able to recognize
45:22 a moral battle when we see one now.
45:28 The great rally and cry of my generation
45:30 was nothing more profound then chill.
45:37 Ten years ago, I followed bumper stickers
45:39 all around Washington DC that
45:42 simply said whatever. My sons are part
45:48 of a generation that puts premium
45:51 I'm looking cool, and slack, and
45:53 clean, and funny. But, those who don't
45:58 want to get involved, those who wanna
46:01 a chorus chill, those who are willing
46:06 to follow whatever to wherever,
46:10 those who wanna stay cool and funny,
46:11 and clean in a world of pain and sin
46:14 and dirt ought to hear the truth, and
46:16 the truth is Meroz will disappear.
46:20 Meroz will vanish without a trace.
46:23 Meroz will be destroyed by its own apathy
46:26 as surly as if an enemy had attacked, amen.
46:33 As fearful modern Christians we
46:35 sometimes justify those fears by saying
46:41 to each other well the will of God will be
46:44 worked out in the end and God really
46:48 doesn't need our tiny help does he?
46:54 After all why stress yourselves about
46:57 things that are wrong in the world,
46:59 I mean if we just wait long enough
47:01 the Lord will come and like fearful children.
47:08 Like Dave and me in grade school,
47:12 we take the long way home.
47:15 We avoid the very conflict with sin,
47:20 that would give us last encourage and
47:21 confidence, we are afraid of,
47:23 of offending the forces of evil as though
47:26 righteousness was just a matter of good
47:29 breading. My friends go ahead,
47:36 offend the devil, plant a flag on
47:40 your lawn, put a poster on your door
47:42 that says as for me in my house,
47:44 as for me in my family, as for me in
47:47 my church, as for me in my conference,
47:49 we will serve the Lord, amen.
47:54 We are not gonna get through this
47:55 thing without a fight my friends.
47:57 The evil in this world is very strong
48:00 and we will surly be wrestling against
48:03 it until that very moment when
48:05 Jesus breaks through the eastern sky.
48:11 Story is told of a man out walking one day,
48:15 he came across two boys fighting.
48:19 As he watched he saw one of them
48:23 pounding the other, whom he had already
48:26 tackled on the ground. And so he stop
48:30 the apparent attacker and said you
48:32 know you really shouldn't hit a man
48:34 who is already down. But, wiping the
48:39 sweat and the blood from his forehead,
48:43 the boy stood up and said ha, ha,
48:46 but you don't know what trouble
48:48 I had to get him down. My friends
48:52 don't let some misguided notion of
48:56 sympathy or tolerance keep you
48:59 from acting in the name of goodness
49:01 when God gives you the chance, amen.
49:04 Good news is a fragile thing in this world,
49:07 it's all too easily crushed out by that
49:10 iron chariot of evil. The real measure
49:13 of your commitment to anything is your
49:14 willingness to defend it against the
49:17 attacks made on it. That's true of
49:19 your home, that's true of your family,
49:21 that's true of your local church,
49:22 that's true of this world wide
49:24 movement of God. By defending something
49:27 we come to know how much we value it.
49:33 Sometimes I worry, I worry that as
49:37 Seventh-Day Adventist Christians
49:39 we have insufficiently involved ourselves
49:44 in the struggle for goodness in this world.
49:45 Perhaps because we have had one
49:50 eye fixed on the soon coming
49:51 of the Lord we haven't noticed,
49:56 we haven't notice the ground that evil
49:58 is gaining all around us. But, friends
50:02 I believe in the soon coming of Jesus,
50:04 my belief in the soon coming of Jesus
50:07 will never be a justification for
50:10 ignoring the battle against evil that
50:13 goes on in your living room, in your community,
50:16 in your church, throughout the world
50:19 wide range of this movement, hallelujah.
50:24 Tell me my friends, tell me, when the
50:29 big developers best laid plans will
50:35 displace 20 Hispanic families who literally
50:39 have no other place to live is there
50:42 a moral issue involved, Jesus, Jesus.
50:47 When ravaging problems with alcohol
50:50 and drugs are destroying the lives of
50:53 teenagers and adults in your community,
50:55 on your streets is there a moral
50:59 issue involved? Jesus. When hundreds
51:04 of Adventist young adults are being
51:07 let down the garden path of theistic
51:10 evolution some to lose their faith in
51:14 Jesus is their a moral issue involved?
51:23 When growing percentages of the material
51:25 resources that God has blessed his
51:28 people within North America are spent
51:30 on getting deeper carpets for out
51:32 sanctuaries instead of deeper compassion
51:35 for the lost is there a moral issue
51:37 involved? Hallelujah. When the
51:41 apparatus of so many of our structures
51:43 is better turning out recedes and
51:47 giving reimbursements then to focusing
51:50 on revival and reformation is there
51:52 a moral issue involved? I'm gonna do
51:57 something today that most Adventist ministers
52:00 won't do. I'm gonna take exception
52:04 to this scripture here in my hand.
52:08 I'm gonna take exception to
52:09 what the word of God says.
52:10 I'm gonna tell you that Jabin and Sisera
52:13 are not dead. They are not dead, Jesus.
52:19 I'm gonna remind you that Sisera erases
52:23 his head with every new television
52:27 comedy that gets us to laugh at things
52:30 that the holy word of God calls honorable.
52:33 Things like marriage, and religion, and
52:35 honor and loyalty. Sisera loves that
52:39 by the way. Sisera comes to life with
52:43 every anthem that flowns godlessness
52:46 in a morality and pokes fun at people
52:49 who hold to the values of the word of God.
52:52 Sisera comes to life again every time,
52:54 anywhere, a government restricts the
52:57 right of its citizens to worship the God
52:59 of their conscience. Whether those
53:01 are Iraqi Baptists or Pakistani Adventists
53:06 or Bible believing Sabbath keepers
53:09 who risk their jobs on Friday afternoon
53:11 when they go home to keep the
53:12 commandment of the Lord, Hallelujah.
53:17 Sisera thrives on the front pages of
53:19 tabloids that scream sex and scandal
53:23 in three inch type. Sisera comes back
53:27 from the dead, wherever God's
53:31 little once go hungry because we just
53:35 can't see it. We just can't see it.
53:41 Read the 25 chapter of Matthew my
53:43 friends see what it is that Jesus says
53:46 he really cares about. In the end
53:47 of it all, Jesus wants the answer to some
53:50 fairly simple questions. Did you feed
53:53 my hungry people? Did you give
53:54 a cup of cold water in my name?
53:56 Did you lift up your hand to defend
53:58 the truth? Did you lift up your hands
54:00 to defend the weak or those who are
54:02 weak in faith? Did you stand up whenever
54:05 you were called for, can you recognize
54:07 a moral battle when you see one? Jesus.
54:13 Call to you tonight is very simple,
54:17 be brave, be strong in your corner of
54:22 the battlefield. Be distinctly on God side
54:27 in this running warfare against the
54:29 host of Sisera. Make a choice today
54:34 that the God of Deborah is gonna
54:36 be your God. Make a choice today
54:38 that the God of the courageous men
54:40 and women who raised up this movement
54:42 will be the Lord of your life.
54:44 Commit yourself today to being
54:46 a man and or a woman in whom the
54:48 spirit of God still burns with that
54:51 Holy Fire. Ellen White said it with great
54:56 clarity, she said it with courage,
55:01 she said it with conviction
55:04 "there is indeed a great controversy
55:07 between Christ and Satan that rages
55:10 in this world. " But, my friends
55:13 it must yet become a great controversy
55:16 between you and Satan.
55:20 A great anger against evil in your
55:21 heart, a great desire to see God's
55:24 goodness triumph in the end.
55:28 Are you sometimes gonna be afraid?
55:29 Absolutely. Are you sometimes gonna
55:33 wonder if it's all worth it? Undoubtedly.
55:37 But, when next, when next you
55:41 shiver in the fear of the battle.
55:47 When next the ground around you
55:49 trembles as those nine hundred chariots
55:52 of iron come rolling by remember the
55:55 words of Psalm 46 Come,
55:57 behold the works of the Lord how
56:00 he has wrought desolations in
56:02 the earth. He makes wars to seize to
56:04 the end of the earth. He brakes the bow,
56:06 he shatters the spear, now get this line.
56:08 He burns the chariots with fire.
56:14 Be still and know that I'm God,
56:17 I will be exalted among the haven,
56:19 I will be exalted in the earth.
56:21 The Lord of hosts oh he is still
56:24 with us, Hallelujah. The God
56:26 of Jacob is still our refuge.


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Revised 2014-12-17