(A Living Challenge) a Living Challenge for a Dying Church — Dale Gish

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A Fiery Trial and the Grace to Forgive

I'll just say that I love the children's lesson. That's a very special Bible story for all of us. For all of us who have ever been through a fiery trial. It took me back to a fiery trial. And I remember reading that story.

And I remember how it seems like God spoke to me and said that those three men of faith came through the fiery trial without the smell of smoke upon their clothes. And it just seemed like God was telling me that by His grace, we could come through a fiery trial without the smell of bitterness of any kind.

Complete forgiveness, completely free. Only the ropes were consumed. If you're in a fiery trial, read that story. I was in one, one time. And I came home late one night. And my mother had a little songbook.

She'd gone to bed. But she had left the songbook open. She had this little chair that she sat in, in the living room. And I walked right by it when I came in the front door to go to my room. And I saw that little songbook open there.

My mother wanted me to read the words of that song. When through fiery trials, thy pathway shall lie. My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply. The flames will not hurt thee. I only design thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

Hearing the Heartbeat of God

We greet you this morning in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just had a desire as I was sitting there and being drawn to God through the first part of the service to get real close to God. So close to God that I could hear His heartbeat.

I've been intrigued some thinking about a heartbeat. There is something in a heartbeat that guarantees there is life. There is something in a heartbeat that guarantees that the blood is flowing. That's what a heartbeat does.

I just had a desire to be real close to the heartbeat of God. We all know what it means to hear someone's heartbeat. To hear their heart. It just means you are so in tune with that person that you feel what they feel.

You sense what they sense. You are in tune with them. And that's a desire that we have this morning that we would be that in tune with God that we could hear His heartbeat. There was a man one time, he had a watch.

Very expensive. Very precious. And it so happened that one day he lost his watch. And he thought that he lost it in the hay. And he shared it with his friends. And they came together to help him search for his watch.

And they were looking for his watch in the hay. And they were talking while they were searching. Where did you think you had it last? What does your watch look like? And they were searching for his watch.

And they were talking and searching for his watch. And I'm going to tell you this morning, they never found his watch. A little bit later, there was a young lad came to the man. He held it up. He said, is this your watch?

The man's eyes lit up with joy. That's it. That's my watch. You found my watch. How did you find my watch? The young lad said that he liked to go lay down in the hay. And he had gone to just rest quietly in the hay.

And he said, I heard it. And I just moved toward the tiki. And there it was. Can we quiet our hearts that way today before the God of heaven? That we could hear his very heartbeat and move toward his heartbeat.

And there he is. I trust we can sense his presence in a very real way here today. We greet you this morning in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I believe that I can say this morning that we have a burden upon our heart.

It's a burden for the church. The body of Christ. The people of God. God's own people. Parts of himself. His very own body. And I trust that our burden today is a sanctified burden. I trust that it's consistent with the heart of God.

You know, we don't want to have a selfish denominational burden. We don't want to have a traditional type burden. We just want to share God's burden. And I believe that God has a burden for his people.

You know, brothers and sisters, when we get real close to God, not just this way, but this way. When you get real close to God, you not only gain salvation, you not only gain the joy of the Lord, but when you stay right there, you begin to sense his burden.

And God has a burden for his people. As I look into the word of God, as I look into the very heart of God, I see that burden. You read the letters to the seven churches of Asia, and you will know that God has a burden for his people.

In each letter there is somewhat of a cry, somewhat of a plea to his people from the very heart of God. He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And I want to challenge us this morning.

How does the Spirit speak? How are you going to hear what the Spirit says to the churches? I tell you, the Spirit doesn't stand in heaven and blow a trumpet before him, and all the earth will hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

How does he speak? Still, small voice. We're going to have to quiet our hearts. There are men who have studied the seven churches from a traditional study. They have studied it from a historic study. They have studied it from a theological study, and they have never heard what the Spirit says to the churches.

That's not head knowledge. That's quieting your heart before God and getting very close to his heart to hear what he says to the churches. In each letter there is a very clear message that God desires for his church to be an overcoming church.

He's not interested in a traditional church. He's not interested in a drifting church. He's not interested in a church that coasts because of the faith of their fathers. He's not interested in a proud church.

He is interested in an overcoming church. And if we are going to be an overcoming church, that simply means that we are in a battle. That is what overcoming means. It means that there is a battle. And when there is a battle, there is no victory for us in a collective way until we unite our hearts together into one against the enemy.

Being united, being one, is a very big thing to God. There is a Scripture that tells us of a good place to be. I want to quote it to you. I want to see if you recognize where this place is. There is a place in the Word of God where it says, for there, right there, the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.

Do you know where that is? Do you know where that place is? Right there. For there, the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. Do you know where it is? Where is it? Thank you, brother. Psalm 133.

Behold how good and how pleasant it is when brethren dwell together in unity. And then he goes on to give some poetic descriptions of what that is like. And then he says, for there, the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.

Being one is a big thing with God. I challenge you for just a moment to think about the Trinity. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are one. And they agree in one. And there is no competition between them.

And they have different roles to play and different roles to fill, but they are united. Does the Holy Spirit wish that He was the Father? No. He brings no attention to Himself. Does the Son think that He should be in His Father's place?

No. He came only to do His Father's will. Whatever the Father says, that's what I do. I came not to do my own will, but to do the will of Him that sent me. They are one. And Jesus makes it clear in John chapter 17, that as I and my Father are one, that's the way He wants us to be one.

That ye would be one, even as I and my Father. Are we that united? What I'd like to do today in sharing this burden that I feel for the people of God, is first, I would like to consider one big lesson that we can learn from history.

It's a lesson about the people of God, and I would like to just let ourselves be impressed with that lesson. I would like to let God write that lesson upon the tables of our heart, so that it is there in a very real way.

I'd like to let it sink down into our mind. And I trust that we're not going to let it only be history. May God reveal to us that that lesson applies to us right here in this present day. Those who have our being in this present day, and more specifically, in this fellowship.

There is a lesson that God would teach us from history. Then I would like to turn to Revelation to chapter 3, to the church at Sardis. And I want to take a look at the church at Sardis, and that will bring us to the title that we have for our message today.

A Living Challenge for a Dying Church

I would like for the title to be, A Living Challenge for a Dying Church. That title comes from the church at Sardis, in Revelation chapter 3. And it's good for us to learn this lesson from history. Take a look at the church at Sardis, and let God speak to our hearts today.

A Living Challenge for a Dying Church. Our desire today is that we want to lift up the Word of God. We want to lift up the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you, that's our desire, that we would fix our gaze upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the crucified, risen, Lord of all.

That we could fix our gaze upon Him. And we can do that today, brothers and sisters. And God has laid it on my heart to sound a warning to us, the people of God, that we can sound that warning by not taking our eyes off of the Lord Jesus Christ, because the warning comes from Him.

He's the One who gave it to us. And so can we open our hearts today to receive a warning from the very heart of God, being close to His heart, hearing His heartbeat, sharing His burden, sensing what He senses, feeling what He feels.

I believe that the Spirit of God is here today, if we are willing to hear from Him. I've been thinking a lot lately about the people of God. You know, God's own people. The ones that He purchased with His own blood.

His purchased possession. We are not our own. We are bought with a price. A tremendous price. A stupendous price. We belong to Him. Those people, that men and women, whomsoever will upon the earth who carry the witness of Jesus Christ in their life, I mean they march to the tune of a different leader.

They are not drawn to the things of this world, the entertainments and the things of this life that the crowds flock to. We're not drawn that way. We have no drawing there. You know, the people of God.

The people of faith. The people who have had the veil taken away from their eyes and they've seen God. Those people have a burden for those people. The ones, the forgiven ones, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect.

Those people. The ones who forgive among themselves. 490 times in a row. Amen. That's pretty scriptural. I've been thinking about the people of God. The ones who are filled with the Holy Spirit. Who walk in the Spirit.

Who are filled with all the fullness of God. Those people. As you look back over the years at those people, and you consider history along with the Word of God, there is a lesson that you can learn about God's people.

And it's a very sobering lesson. And that lesson is that the people of God do real well in unity, in faith, in holiness, in sanctification. They do real well in times of persecution. But they don't do well in times of prosperity.

That's just one of those lessons, brothers and sisters. I mean, it's just there. And it is a very glaring lesson. It is so glaring, it is so clear, it is so irrefutable through the Scriptures, through all of history, that you've about got to be blind to not see it.

That's just the way it is. The people of God do real well in persecution. And they don't do well in times of prosperity. I knew a man who escaped the persecution of Romania. He lived there. He was part of the persecuted church.

God was very real to him. And he wanted freedom. He wanted liberty to serve God without the suppression. And God opened the door for him to escape through the iron curtain past the guards at the Danube River.

And he dove into the water and he slammed. And the guards were shooting at him. And he heard the bullets hitting the water beside him. And he got out into the current of the Danube River and it got the best of him.

And it took him down. And he knew that he was ready to die. And then he said he felt something pulling him back to the surface. He said he got to the surface. And he made it to the other side. And he made it to America.

I met him in America. And he lost his vision of God. In the prosperity of America. I don't know where he is today. I trust the mercy of God has done to him the same in America that it did in the Danube River.

And just began to draw him back to himself. But he didn't do well in prosperity. Even in the Old Testament you can read the Kings and the Chronicles. Israel as the people of God in times of prosperity, they just gained confidence in their own strength.

They gained confidence in their horses. They gained confidence in their own army. And then God would send the enemy to suppress them. And when they got under the suppression of the enemy, they'd just cry out to God and say, God, we have sinned.

Have mercy upon us. Draw us back to yourself. It happened over and over and over again. All through the Scriptures and all through history. I tell you this morning, if it's a lesson you cannot see, you've got to be blind to not see it.

May God write that lesson upon our hearts. But isn't it amazing how that happened? Time after time. Do you know you can look at the church in Jerusalem at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit, how it came down.

What an anointed church was there at Jerusalem. I love to read about that. Oh, I think it'd be such a blessing to live in those days. But brothers and sisters, the promises of God were not for Pentecost only.

I believe that it's here today. And that we can experience all that they experienced. I believe it says in Acts 1 -7, you can read about the prospering of that church. But you read in chapter 8, verse 1, I'll just read this to you.

It says, at that time, there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem. And there it is. The persecution at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.

And it talks about Saul making havoc with the church. And then it says in verse 4, therefore, because of this persecution, therefore, they were scattered abroad and went everywhere preaching the Word.

I tell you, the Word of God prospered under that great anointed church at Jerusalem. I mean, here they were. They were gathered together. They were hearing from God. They had prophets. They were prophesying.

They were edifying one another in a powerful way. And down came persecution upon that church. And when the persecution came down, they went everywhere preaching the Word of God. And souls were saved. And I tell you, they started churches everywhere.

All throughout the known world. They started churches everywhere. And those churches prospered under their teaching. The Bible says they turned the world upside down. That was a product of persecution when there was an anointed church.

That's what the Bible says. They that have turned the world upside down have come hither also. And I believe that there's some encouragement in that for us, but there is a warning as well. Especially if you look at the churches that they started in Asia.

Those churches prospered. But there was a point in time where they began to prosper naturally. They began to do pretty well. And they began to gain confidence in themselves. And you know, it wasn't very long until God, through the Holy Spirit, began sending those churches some pretty sobering letters saying that if they didn't repent and get back to their first love, God was going to pull the candlestick out of their place.

That's a pretty sobering letter from the Holy Spirit, brothers and sisters, to pull the candlestick out of its place. And it's a sobering thought to me because I don't believe a church is supposed to be in one place for a few years and then it's gone again.

And we had some young brothers in our fellowship who just took a trip to the country of Turkey and they went to these locations where these seven churches were located and they're all gone! They read an account where at one point, a few years ago, they weren't sure if there were eleven Christians in Turkey.

And that is where the prosperous church of Ephesus was based. All the churches of Asia were in Turkey. Present day Turkey. And it's all gone. So, starting in Acts and all through the ages, churches who have their focus upon the Lord Jesus Christ, whether it comes in the next generation whether it comes by the voices of the world calling them, getting their attention, whether it comes through deceit, however it gets there, the heart, the focus of churches gets turned away from the Lord Jesus Christ in a very subtle way.

And then you begin to see divisions and disputings and individuality and unforgiveness. And then bitterness sets in and carnality and worldliness. And I want to tell you that oftentimes all of that is right in the midst of extremely spiritual talk.

Praise God! He gave me a new wife. My Lumen wasn't born again. All kinds of spiritual talk in the midst of extreme carnality, selfishness, individuality. And God desires to have purity in His church. So, I challenge you this morning, do you see that lesson in history?

Is it real to you? If anyone should be sobered by this lesson, if anyone should take this lesson to heart, it should be us who live here in America. But I want to stand here today as a representative of God.

I want to stand here in the place of God and I can tell you this morning that causes my heart to tremble. But I want to speak the words of God. I'm going to tell you this morning that it does not have to be that way.

God's Keeping Power in Prosperity

We believe in the keeping power of God. We believe that He is able to keep us from falling. That's as scriptural as you can get. Unto Him who is able to keep us from falling. I tell you it doesn't have to be that way.

If it does, if there's no way around it, if repeating that history is the only option, then we need to move to China now. It's our only hope. But the Word of God tells us who are kept by the power of God, who yield themselves to that keeping power.

God is able to keep His people holy and sanctified and pure. Hot for God. Hating this world. Very discerning. Very sharp. Knowing what things lead to. Knowing where to say no. Knowing where to say yes.

Knowing where to let the fire burn. Knowing where to put the fire out. God is able to keep us from falling. God is able to turn our hearts away, brothers and sisters, from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

Fads and fashions and entertainment and all that garbage out there is no attraction to the people of God. We don't have to repeat history. But I'm going to tell you this morning, that's exactly what is going to happen unless we gird up the loins of our mind and get sober.

And put on the whole armor of God this morning. And stop reacting to each other. And insisting on Christian liberty. And everything is not legalism. And being under authority is not ridiculous. We've got to stop reacting to these things.

And come into our place before a holy God. And honor His order. I believe we need to expose the enemy. I believe we need to do it very specifically. Doing it in a general way will never work. It doesn't matter how hard you bring down your hand against sin.

Everybody is going to say, Amen. But when you start naming them, you know the old saying, empty the church house. Why? Because when you get specific, conviction sets in. You ever notice the rich young ruler?

You know, he was a very diligent man. The Bible says he ran to the Lord Jesus Christ and fell at His feet and worshiped Him. That's pretty good. And the Word of God says that Jesus loved him. And as long as Jesus was general, Amen!

I've done it all from my youth. But as soon as Jesus got specific, He walked away sorrowful. Does God have liberty to get specific here today? Brothers and sisters, I don't know how else the Holy Spirit is going to guide us into the ways of all truth unless we give Him that liberty.

We need to put on the whole armor of God this morning. And I want to tell you this morning that we not only need to put on the whole armor of God, we need to use it to take a stand. I believe that's what the Word of God says, in having done all to take a stand.

And what does it mean, having done all to take a stand? I tell you, to me it just sounds like we are doing something to stand. Specifically. It's the only way to take a stand. We're not here, brothers and sisters, to talk about the armor of God.

We're not here to polish the armor of God and make it beautiful. We are here to use it. Your armor of God may be blood-stained armor. It's good armor. But we're here to use it. And if we don't rise up in the spirit of revelation here in America and use it, we're going to repeat history all over again, right here.

I tell you, this morning the enemy has made more inroads into the lives of God's people by being transformed into an angel of light in times of prosperity than he ever did as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

When you see the devil coming at you like a roaring lion and he's showing his fangs and he hates you and you sense that hatred, you're going to run to the Lord Jesus Christ. You're going to refuse everything He has to offer and you're going to do it with Scripture.

But when he comes to you as an angel of light and he's saying, praise the Lord, brother, we'll listen. We're not afraid of him anymore. There was a time when the devil would bring persecution on anyone who even dared to have a Bible.

But his tactics have changed here in America. He's given a dozen Bibles to everyone. He took them to the printing press. He sent them through and he sent them everywhere. Today he's an angel of light with Bibles everywhere.

Old Satan, he smiled when he looked down at men. His new tricks were working again and again. No more persecution. No shortage of bread. God's church and His people well loved and well fed. The saints who once gathered in secret, unknown, now worship in freedom on land of their own in comfortable buildings designed and well planned, shade trees in the churchyard, no tax on the land.

The Bible, the book of the ages suppressed, the book that our forefathers prayed to possess, now sold in abundance, on sale, guaranteed. We all have our own and we know how to read. Deception, the slow subtleness that sets in, that fogs out the line, that defines what is sin.

And even the devil, though black as the night, has now been transformed to an angel of light. And old Satan smiled as he gazed at the view. His new tricks were working. Too good to be true. No more persecution.

No shortage of bread. God's church and His people well loved and well fed. When Satan comes to you as an angel of light, his face shines. He speaks gently. He's quoting Scripture. He does that. And we're comfortable in his presence.

And I have seen people, I'm going to say it this way, I have seen people literally run into his arms and say, Amen, brother. And they don't run into his arms and say, Amen, brother, by saying, Amen to I hate God, or by saying, Amen to hell is fine with me.

That's not the way he comes. They do it by saying, Amen, that is not right what my brother did to me. How my pastor is and how he approached me and how he handled that situation is not right. Amen, brother.

And we embrace it. That is an angel of light. Or we say, Amen to this angel of light by saying, Amen to divorce. Things like, it wasn't right for me to be with that companion. They're not born again. They wouldn't hear from God.

And I need the encouragement of someone who is right from God. Amen. Or they say, as long as I have a testimony, I think it's okay if I enjoy a few pleasures of this world. It's okay if we enjoy ourself.

God didn't create us for misery. He created us for His pleasure. And so it's okay to enjoy ourselves in a few of these world pleasures. Amen. And they embrace Him. Or we say, I know that I have some private sins and I know it's not right, but I believe that God understands.

I want to tell you something tonight. God doesn't understand. But the devil transformed to an angel of light. He understands and we embrace Him. Amen, brother. I tell you all of that is just running into the devil's camp and saying amen.

And it's not just saying amen to the devil. Did you know that? I mean, all of his angels, all of his cohorts, have been transformed into angels of light. They have been transformed into deceitful workers, into the apostles of Christ.

That is what the Word of God says. His whole camp is transformed into the church of God. And His workers are all transformed into the apostles of Christ. You know, I'd like to read that. Let's turn. It would be good for us to read that.

False Apostles and Angels of Light

2 Corinthians 11. Let's turn there. In this chapter, I believe Paul was very close to the heart of God. I believe that he was sensing God's burden for His people. And Paul says in verse 2, Paul says, I am jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

But I want us to look down. In verse 13 it says,. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose ends shall be according to their works. I mean, there you have it, brothers and sisters, from the very Word of God.

The devil and his camp, his workers, have been transformed into ministers of righteousness and the apostles of Christ. And they are not of God. They're false apostles. That's what they are. They are not ministers of righteousness.

Now, sometimes they look like they are. That's where the deceitfulness lies. They look like they are. They sound like they are in their talk. But they're not. They're false apostles and deceitful workers.

And I want you to know something this morning. They are everywhere. And they're giving seminars. And they're making tapes. And they're making CDs. And they're holding seminars to teach us how to walk with God.

And our children are listening to some of their CDs. And it's the highest form of deception that there is because they have good words to say and a form of godliness. But underneath it all, brothers and sisters, there's an underlying current connected to this dying world and it is sweeping the church of God into mainstream Christianity.

I hope that you're getting the burden of this message. I tell you, this morning, I don't want to be negative. God is good. God is a gracious God. And I believe I'm speaking to perceptive people. But brothers and sisters, we don't dare be asleep.

These deceitful workers are everywhere. False apostles and deceitful workers as the apostles of Christ. Transformed into ministers of righteousness. As I read that Scripture, I was thinking about it the other day.

And you know what that Scripture is as a politician would describe them? That Scripture is a Scripture on terrorism. That's what a terrorist is. A terrorist is someone out of the enemy's camp who looks just like you.

They don't dress like the enemy. They don't look like the enemy. They dress just like you do. That's what a terrorist is. But he hates you. And he's out to deceive you. And he's out to kill you. And that's what we have read in that Scripture in Corinthians.

I remember, I was thinking about when the great towers came down in New York City on 9 -11 about five years ago. And you know when that happened, the United States was ready to fight. And they had all the power to do it.

They had so much power that no one could stand against them. But they didn't know who to fight. Because they didn't know who the enemy was. And they didn't know where the enemy was. And he had been in our midst all along.

The enemy had gone to our flight training schools. We had taught him to fly our airplanes. He was right in our midst all along. Perfect hatred for all of us. Presenting himself as one of us. We had supported him financially to go to our school to fly our planes to destroy us.

That is what a terrorist is. And the devil, though black as the night, has now been transformed to an angel of light. And his ministers have been transformed into ministers of righteousness. And they're everywhere.

So what do we do? Study the enemy? No. Come up with a bunch of rules and regulations? You know what rules and regulations are? I'm not talking about scriptural guidelines. They're just something to prove how far you are from God.

You're not like this.

You're over here, so you need them. And having them.

You know, you come up to someone who's right in the presence of God. Someone who's worshiping God. Someone who's connected to God. Someone who's rejoicing in their salvation. Someone who hears the heartbeat of God.

And you say, hey, I want you to do this and this and this, and I don't want you to do this and this and this. And he's going to look at you like, what are you talking about? Those things are a distraction to him.

Because he's right here. That's our heart this morning, brothers and sisters. That is what we need to do. We don't need to focus on the enemy. We don't need to study the enemy. We don't need to fear the enemy.

We need to get real close to God. I believe that. That's the solution that we need to have. We need to fix our gaze upon God. That's the lesson that we can learn from history. Now I would like to turn to the book of Revelation.

Revelation as a Call to Hear and Respond

I would just like to read through a few verses here. At the start of Revelation, in chapter 1, this Revelation, I was just thinking of this as we shared our message last Friday night, that God wants to give us something.

He wants to give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. And the whole book of Revelation is a revelation. And let's see what God had in mind when He gave it. It says right here, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to Him.

And I read that and I thought, well, amen, Lord, that's what I want. The revelation from God, of Jesus Christ that God gave to Him to show unto His servants. That revelation is for us. I mean, John got it on the Isle of Patmos, but anybody that thinks revelation originated on the Isle of Patmos, you've got another thing coming.

This is the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to Him. And yes, it was on the Isle of Patmos, but it was for us. I would encourage us to read this. Let's read it. This passage of Scripture to me is exciting reading.

I'd just like to read it. And as I've heard brothers say before, just fasten your seatbelts and let's go. Who bear record of the Word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that He saw?