Welcome to the River Mountain Church Preaching Library. It is our prayer and indeed our hope that this message might inspire your life. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the preaching of God's word. So today I want to preach about the perseverance of the saints. It's found in Matthew 24, 13. And this too is a scary passage of scripture because it speaks about the end times. It also speaks that some will not persevere to the end. This is Jesus' eschatology, which takes precedent over the book of Revelation. When I say takes precedent, we interpret the book of Revelation through what Jesus said. It takes precedent over things like Daniel because, again, we interpret everything based upon Jesus' eschatology. And here's what he said about the end times. He says, many false prophets will arise. You think there's many false prophets out there? And they are going to lead many astray. Not some, many. And their main tool is to bring us into what the Bible calls lawlessness. There are no laws, there are no restrictions, there are no regulations. In other words, the Bible doesn't really mean much, so it doesn't matter whether we violate it or not. Lawlessness will increase. It says, the love of many will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. You know, not everybody's enduring to the end. What's scary about this passage is as many are going to be led astray. It gets so bad that later in Luke, Jesus says this, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth? Think about that a second. It's going to get so bad that at the return of Christ, many people are not going to have faith. You see, the Christian life is meant to be run to the very end. It is not a sprint, it's a marathon. It needs to be run with endurance. I read something this week that went right along with this message, because I felt the Lord say to me, he wanted me to preach about perseverance, diligence, and endurance. And I don't normally publicly rebuke people. And I'm not going to rebuke anybody, you know. here. But the Apostle Paul occasionally would take time to address certain heresies that were public. He would even name names of people that either had blasphemed the Lord, or they were opposing the Gospel message, or they were actually confusing the Church and leading many astray. Again, what did the text say? In the end, many false prophets will arise and they will lead many astray. And so it's with great trepidation and a certain amount of fear that I point out an individual. Does anybody know who this is? This is Joshua Harris. Joshua Harris, as far as I can tell, seems to be a fine person. Well, as far as natural goodness goes. But back in the 90s, he wrote a book called I Kiss Dating Goodbye. How many people think, I'm not going to ask for any hands here on this one. But in this book, he basically corrected the Christian church on this practice of dating, saying that dating was a worldly thing and we shouldn't be involved in dating. And he espoused a thing called courtship. And a lot of people bought into this. And so they kiss dating goodbye. And what Joshua Harris was saying is, I am putting on a standard that I believe is morally superior. He went on to write a book called Not Even a Hint, in which he addressed this idea of immorality in the church. But all the while he is addressing this question in the church and why the church matters, he becomes a megachurch pastor. He leads thousands upon thousands of people every Sunday. People buy his books. People love him. He's what's known as a Christian rockstar. Well, Joshua Harris recently posted this. I am not a Christian. He's the author of A Kiss Dating Goodbye, and I guess he's kissing the Lord goodbye, too. He says, I have fallen away from my faith. Now, why do I bring this up? I bring this up because of this. There are many false prophets. And the way you know they're false is, number one, their teaching is false. And number two, they are leading people astray. My only reason for bringing this up is I'm concerned about false prophets. And I'm concerned mainly about people being led astray. And so what I'd like to do, let's pretend we're all just, because I know this is awkward. Because a lot of people are like, oh, I don't know if we should be picky. I don't know if we should be. Well, let's just pretend we're all in heaven. Let's pretend we're all sitting around the throne, and let's pretend that we're trying to analyze the Christian perspective that should have been. Why was Joshua Harris given this platform? And was there any indications that he was not preaching the gospel correctly? And there are. One of the classic cases of this author who wrote this book, Kiss, Date, and Goodbye, is he took the moral high ground. He talks about the fact that he meets three homosexual boys. Well, I say young men. He shakes their hand and he immediately is repulsed when he finds out their sexual practice. He actually says in the book, he goes, he washes his hands because he cannot believe he shook hands with these filthy, awful people. He's the author of this book. Washes his hands and basically says, I cannot believe that I shook hands with these people who have been so filthy. Now, what is Joshua Harris's problem? It is what I call pharisaical evangelicalism. And there's a lot of evangelicals who are pharisaical. The problem is they don't understand the gospel. He was taking the moral high ground. I'm going to be a morally righteous person. I'm going to lead hundreds and thousands of people to moral excellence. They're going to kiss dating goodbye. They're not going to be like the road. They're going to be like me. I am so cool and I'm so holy and I'm so righteous. Follow my example. What this reminds me of is when Jesus told the story of a Pharisee, a tax collector, And when he's praying to the Lord, his only prayer is, I thank God I'm not like other people. He judges all of humanity and he exalts himself to a high place. And he begins to say all of the things he's not. He's not an extortioner. He's not unjust. He's not an adulterer. He's not a tax collector. He talks about all the good things he does. And Jesus is trying to make a point, and what his point is, don't you ever, don't you ever come before God Almighty with that kind of attitude. Don't even think about it. You are like other men. Do you all know how sinful you are? You have no idea how sinful you are. The closer I get to heaven, The more I am aware of His holiness, the more I cry out that I am undone. I do not see other people's unrighteousness. I see my own. I am like all other men. As a matter of fact, we should all take Paul's idea that I am the chief of sinners. I am the worst of humanity. I am not the best. I am the worst. Jesus goes on to say, here is the man who is righteous. The one who cannot even look up at heaven, cannot even embrace the fact that he is in the presence of God. He's beating his breast and he says, be merciful to me. And he correctly identifies himself as what? A sinner. A sinner. That is all you are. He says this man is justified rather than the other. And then he explains the problem with these two positions. The one man exalted himself, he will be humbled. The other man who took the humble position of who he was as a sinner, he then is exalted. In other words, this is like how you end up running the race to the end. The grace of God, because of your humility, allows you to be sanctified. I'm not preaching that you should not be sanctified. Don't get me wrong. Joshua Harris, because he made this so public, I'd like to explain what he did here. He said, I'm no longer a Christian. And then he goes on to confuse every person who's listening to him. He says, I've lived in repentance for the past several years, repenting of my self-righteousness. Well, good. He says, my fear-based approach to life that everybody bought into, the teaching of my books, the views about women in the church, and my approach to parenting, to name a few. But then he goes on to address a specific community, and rightfully so. He wants to address just the LGBTQ community, and there he says, I especially want you to forgive me for my teaching in my book as a pastor regarding sexuality. He goes on to say, I regret standing against marriage equality, not affirming your place in the church in any way that my writings are speaking or contributing to a culture of exclusion and bigotry. What he does here is very interesting. Well, let me go on to say why he even posted all of this stuff. I'm not a Christian. Please forgive me. The reason why is because he was announcing he was getting divorced from his wife. Now, this is not a judgment against Josh Harris. It is a judgment against his misunderstanding of what it is to be a Christian. He goes on to say that a lot of people responded to him and he's very grateful. They're expressing love to him. What Joshua Harris did is the opposite ditch. He never recognized his own sin and now he's basically saying, I don't recognize your sin either. I don't recognize sin at all. The thing that leads people astray is when people basically say, there is no law. There is no right or wrong. There is no correct sexuality or incorrect sexuality. There is no right way of being married or not being married, divorcing, not divorcing. It's basically do what you feel. And I apologize because I've been too dogmatic. You see, what went wrong at the very essence, what Christians should have discerned from the very beginning, even looking at Joshua Harris's original book about this high moral ground of being morally superior, is what went wrong is you don't understand the gospel. The gospel is what needs to be understood in the very beginning, because it determines whether you can run the race properly. Here's what he believed about the gospel in a nutshell, and here it is. I am a Christian. I live a good moral life according to the scriptures. That is not the gospel. I am a Christian, I live a good moral life according to the scripture. This is not the gospel. Here's the gospel, here's what Jesus tried to get through to every person who would listen. The real gospel is simply this. We are all sinners. We are not good. We acknowledge the fact that we are a billion miles away from holiness and His righteousness. And we begin to repent. Of what? Our sin. And then we find forgiveness and salvation in Christ alone, in His death on the cross, and in His righteousness. It is not about moral superiority. It is not about setting up rules and regulations that we tell other Christians they should follow this. You are to follow the Spirit. And any linking to any law that says, do this and don't do that, is going back to the principles of legalism. We are not yoked by the law. Jesus said, take my yoke. It is easy. It is the yoke of the spirit. The real gospel is this, and listen carefully so you don't miss this. We are all wrong. Christians try to live right, but we are wrong. The world is obviously wrong, but God came to say, even though you're wrong, even though you're fallen, even though you have a sin nature, you are loved, and I'm going to die for you in your sin. See, Christians have this idea that once we get saved, we somehow have the moral superiority. We do not. As a matter of fact, we are more culpable than the road. To look down our noses at other people who are lost and blind and think we have moral superiority over them is wrong. Because we become blinded by our beauty like Lucifer did. Listen, here's the Apostle Paul's teaching about us. Listen to what he says. Now if I do what I don't want to do, I'm agreeing with the Bible that it is good. What is he saying? The Bible says I'm a sinner. So when I do what is wrong, I'm agreeing with the Bible because I'm doing the very thing the Bible says of my nature. I am a sinner. What somebody says. So when I sin, he says, it is no longer I who are doing it. It's not the born again me. It's not the new regenerated me. It's not the spiritual Paul. He says, it is sin that dwells within me. And then he says this, I know that nothing good dwells within me that is in my flesh. He goes on to even say this. He says, I have a desire to do what is right, but I don't in myself have the ability to carry it out. This is key. Paul says, he's a Christian. He's saying, I don't have the ability to carry out what is right. Listen to what he says here, and this is the key. He says, I delight in the Bible in my inner being. In my inner man, I know what's right. I know the right things to do. I know what the scripture says. But then he says this, but I see in my members another law warring against the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells within my members. And then he says, oh, wretched man, not that I was before I got saved. He says, I am a wretched man right now. If that's the Lord, tell him I'm all over this. Wretched man, who would deliver me? He goes on to say, my only hope, my only hope of deliverance, and here's what he says, that I am not condemned for being a sinner. I'm not condemned, because why? Because I'm in Christ. Because I'm in Christ and His righteousness covers my unrighteousness, I am okay. This is not a license to sin, it is not a license to give unto your flesh, but it is the reality of our condition. And I'm going to talk a little bit more about this, and I'm going to lift up another man by the name of Brother Lawrence, who lived in the 17th century, in the 1600s. He was in the monastery, but he was a cook in the monastery. And so, during the monastic time, he decided that he was going to write a whole essay on what it means to practice the presence of God. Because he saw this as the real Christian life. Well, in the monastery, what he saw were people that were trying to be moral, that were trying to defeat their flesh, that were trying to do the right things. And so they would beat their bodies into subjection. They would get angry when they sinned. They were constantly flagellating themselves. They were constantly even castrating themselves. They wanted holiness, but they didn't know how to find it. So they kept beating themselves. And then when they did sin, they would go on these major things of penance to show God that they were sorry for their sins and all of this. And it's remarkable this man saw this, because it was so hard to see. This is Joshua Harris' Christianity. a moral superiority, and when we don't live up to it, we flagellate ourselves, we beat ourselves. And here is the scripture that set Lawrence free. And here it is. He says, walk by the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. In other words, it's not about you, but it's about you dying to your passions and letting the Spirit of God live through you. There's nothing in your willpower that makes you holy. You see, you are born with a sin nature, and that sin nature hates God and wrestles against God. And I'm talking about you as a believer. Listen very carefully to what is said in Galatians. He says, the desires of the flesh are against the spirit. The desires of the spirit are against the flesh. These are in opposition. You have a war going on. You have a flesh man who wants to do one thing. You have a spiritual man who wants to do another thing. The spirit, listen, here it is. The spirit is the only thing that keeps you from doing what? The things you wanna do. What does it tell you about the things you want to do? They're twisted, they're wrong. The only thing that prevents you is the spirit. So what Brother Lawrence said is this, he says, when I'm in the Spirit, I please God and I carry out the works of God. He says, when I'm in my flesh, all I can do is sin. All I can do is sin. Now does that mean he committed gross immoralities? No. It just meant that he obeyed the thing that he wanted to do, which the Spirit probably would have opposed him. When I was a young Christian, I remember hearing a Christian comedian by the name of Mike Warnke. And when he was speaking before people, he would have the shock technique. And he would say, now that I'm a Christian, I sleep with as many people as I want to, I take as much drugs as I want to, I drink as much as I want to. And everybody was like, whoa, whoa, you're a Christian, you don't know that? And he says, the difference is, is now I don't want to. Everybody claps and shakes their head and goes, that's not good theology, because here's what the Bible says. Your flesh still wants to. Your flesh still wants to. There is something in you that is not right. And if you do not acknowledge that, you're in trouble. We are to crucify ourselves daily because if we don't, that non-crucified man will live a different life. Paul said this, when I'm crucified, then the only thing that lives out the Christian life is Christ in me. Are you listening to me? It's all about me getting out of the way. It's all about me being in the Spirit. It's all about Christ living through me. Here's the problem we make. The Bible says, keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it flows the issues of life. Well, out of your heart can come deception. Right now you're listening to me, and if you're not listening to me with the Spirit, you're listening to me even with what you think is a good heart. It cannot be trusted. Jesus said this, out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, being a thief, false witness, slander. All of this comes out of the heart. What he was trying to say is, still within even the good man, there's a way that seems right that is actually wrong. You see, you were born with this sin nature that unless you crucify it, unless you walk in the Spirit, everything about your life is going to be tainted. Your thoughts will be tainted, your emotions will be tainted, your desires will be tainted. We call this human depravity. And you don't lose it when you get saved. You see, when we rise up in this, I thank God I'm not like other people, we are misunderstanding who we are. He says, I'm not an extortioner. The Bible says, yes, you are. I'm not unjust. Yes, you are. I'm not an adulterer. Yes, you are. See, what we made the tendency, we draw this line. We say, as long as I don't go really far, as long as I don't cross this line and actually commit these things, then somehow I'm OK. And when Jesus came, he set the bar in a different place. He set the line in a different place. He says, listen, you think because you don't murder people, you somehow think that's OK. No, no, no. If you murder your libel of judgment, he says, let me just tell you this. He says, even if you're angry with your brother, you can be judged. Even if you say to your brother, you're a fool. Do you understand what Jesus is doing? He's saying, get out of this mode where you think you're righteous, you're not. Okay, you don't commit adultery, but do you lust? Have you ever looked at a woman a second too long, a minute too long? Have you ever looked at a man with wanting eyes? Have you ever? It's in you. If you don't see it, you're in trouble. If you don't acknowledge that you were born with sin and that you're wrong about everything, not just some things, everything, See, people don't like to hear this because we like to get up on a moral high horse and somehow think that we have arrived because we're Christians. Let me just tell you, this is not only repulsive to us, this idea that because of our original sin, we have been bent toward evil. It is the most repulsive thing to people that are out there either in the liberal church or in the road. They are disgusted by this myth that somehow we are wrong at our core. What they want us to say is, listen, you're okay, I'm okay, we're all okay. So let's just love one another because really, isn't that what it's all about? We're all okay. Let's love. And what I'm telling you is they have no idea what the definition of love is, because here it is. God demonstrated love. How? That when we were still sinners, He died. If we deny that we're sinners, where's the love? You see, if I'm okay and you're okay, explain that. Can you explain that? There's only one reason for that. God showed his love while we were still sinners. You see, the problem with humanity right now, the problem with the liberal church, the problem that we're slipping away from is we want to be lawless. We don't want there to be a right or wrong about anything. Listen to the gospel. Therefore, by one trespass, it led to condemnation to all men. We are all sinned, we have all bent towards sin, our sin nature is wicked, but through one act of righteousness, we're justified. Do you understand this? Why did the law come? To tell us how sinful we are. To tell us you cannot please God by doing what is right. It's impossible. The more laws came, the more we realized how far short we come. Sin increased. Why? Listen. So that grace would abound all the more. That's the gospel. You are a sinner. The problem with what we have going on in the church today has nothing to do with how big a person's sin is. It has everything to do with what is your attitude about our fallen condition? There's only two places to go, and that's this. Either be merciful to me, I'm a sinner. My sexual desires aren't what they should be. My thoughts aren't what they should be. My attitudes aren't what they should be. My contemplation is not what should be. I am a sinner. Or the other position is this, I'm good enough for me. I'm good enough. Don't you dare tell me that what I'm doing is a sin. You see, getting back to this, that idea that we're not violating the laws of God, The idea that somehow, you know, we're all okay. This is what leads many astray. And this is what's going to prevent people. Because here it is. Unless I humbly come before God and admit that I am depraved, that my emotions are depraved, my sexuality is depraved, everything is depraved. If not, if I can't humbly admit that, the only thing I have is what's called pride. I refuse to acknowledge my condition before God. And the only thing that allows me to overcome it is grace. And what does it say? God opposes the proud, but he gives the grace to the humble. I only can even overcome my sinful condition as soon as I omit my sinful condition. The church has a burden to bear here because we have risen up as if we're righteous and we're not. In Isaiah, it says, all of our righteousness, that is to say all of the good things we do. See, I'm righteous because of Christ's righteousness. And that was given to me by grace, not by works. Listen, all of my righteous deeds are polluted. I am simply like a leaf blowing in the wind and my iniquities are taking me away. If you've ever wondered how far you are away from holiness, don't wonder anymore. You know how big the universe is? Do you know how far the earth is from the end of the universe? That is how far you are from God's ways and God's thoughts. So if you think as a Christian you're there, you're not. You are saved, but your ways are not God's ways, and your thoughts are not God's thoughts, unless, unless the Spirit assists you and enables you to comprehend and to walk out your Christian life. You understand God's message. You're a billion, trillion, million miles away from holiness, but I got good news for you. Even though you are, I make up the difference. For the same distance, the heavens are above the earth. So great is my love to what you fear me. You tremble, you confess your sins to me. You say, God, I am far from holiness. I am far from righteousness in everything. And what does he do because of his love and because of your fear for his word and your violations of the word? He says he takes your sin and he removes them as far as the east is from the west. It is never a question of your sin. God is not frightened by your sin, no matter how depraved you are, no matter what you've done. If you will confess it, But what irks God more than anything is the lawlessness of saying, my behavior is not wrong. My behavior is right. There is no mercy for someone who cannot see his need for mercy. That is the problem. The gospel, simple, we're all wrong. But we can confess our sin and we are loved. Will you pray with me? Evangelical Pharisaicalism. I'm not sure if I coined the word or if it was used before, but I will say this. It must be removed. It is the leaven of the Pharisees. It causes me to rise up in judgment over you because I have a line. Don't cross the line, because if you cross the line, you'll be like the woman caught in the act of adultery. We'll all stone you. But what I refuse to see is that same sin is in me. And I shouldn't be casting a stone. And if you can't see your depravity, get closer to God. If you can't see how far you are from heaven, get closer. Because the closer you become to His holiness, the more you're aware of your imperfections. Do you understand? The holiness of God is calling you to repent of your immorality. People say, I was born this way. Of course you were. You were born in sin. You were born in sin. I was born depraved from the moment I came out of the womb. I was born with a heart that bends away from God and away from His Word from the time I came into the womb. And when I got saved, the only thing that prevents me from still walking that out is the Spirit. Do you understand? The more I die to myself, the more the Spirit allows me to walk humbly with God, return to the garden, rua, fellowship. But when I say, no, no, no, no, I want to decide what is good. I want to decide what is evil. I want to say this is good and this is wrong. Forget about the law. Forget about the word. And I partake of that tree. I'm going to say this prophetically to the church. Eve partook of the apple which contradicted the word of God and nothing happened. But when Adam partook, it all went astray. The world is blind and they're going to do what they do. But once this gets into the church, once the church starts biting the apple, do you understand? It's coming. It's coming. The four horses of the apocalypse are out of the stable already. And the saddles are being put upon them. Lawlessness is coming upon the earth. And when it begins to seep into the church in great degrees, It's over. Do you understand that? It's over. It's over. Until we rise up and persevere to the end. If you need prayer, you want to get right in any way with the Lord, do that. We stand before God as sinful people, far from the throne. But we also stand as children of God. That's why Paul could say, if I sin, it's not me anymore. It's not me. It's not who I am. It's not who I am. I'm just going to pray this simple prayer. since the real answer is not legalism and not a whole new list of do's and don'ts. Since it is following the Spirit and walking in the Spirit. If you need an extra measure of the Spirit of God in your life, you want to be more filled with the Spirit, you want to follow the Spirit, you want to walk in the Spirit, talk in the Spirit, it's not going to come easy. It's going to come through you basically surrendering daily and praying daily and being conscious of the presence of God daily. So Father, I pray that every eye would be open, every ear would be open to what the Spirit is saying. Walk in Christ. It is no longer you who live. It is no longer you who live. It is no longer you who get to set the rules. It is Christ who is living through you. And He is being motivated and moved by the Spirit the same way He was before. Spirit come, fill this church. Spirit come, fill these people. Spirit come, fill our lives. Thanks for listening to this message from River Mountain Church. If you'd like some more information, visit our website, rivermountainchurch.org.