Come Short — Dan Biser

Take your Bibles and open up and follow these passages of Scripture with me. The simple title of this message is, Come Short. We have numerous phrases in the Scriptures that are there for our instruction and admonition, and this one that the Lord has laid upon me is the one thing that I do not want, is to come short of His glory.

Seeking the Glory of God

And our prayer and petition and our desire, day in and day out, is that we might prevail for the glory of God. Moses prayed to prayer in Exodus, Lord, show me your glory. And throughout history, there have been those that have experienced it, those that have been filled with it, those that have seen it, and any of those of a brother or sister that has been filled and seen the glory of God, it's a wonderful testimony.

And so this is one of those things, again, that we are searching for in this hour, that as we close this year and get ready for the next year, that we not be found guilty of coming short of the glory of God.

Now there's two references in this. It's not just the reference that, again, we'll be reading here in a moment in the passages of coming short, we've all sinned and come short of the glory, Romans chapter 3, we'll read that here in a moment.

But it's also in Hebrews chapter 4, and we'll read a passage of scripture there from chapter 3 into chapter 4, but chapter 4 verse 1 is that passage of scripture. So would you take your Bibles and let's open up to Romans chapter 3 and read this passage.

All Have Sinned and Come Short of God's Glory

Now chapter 3, Paul quotes David in this, and we start in verse 10 with that quote out of the book of Psalms, and chapter 3 verse 10 down through the verse 23 of our passage of focus. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.

There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are all together become unprofitable. There is none that does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher, with their tongues they have used to see.

The poison of asthma is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things whoever the law says, it says to them that are under the law that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all of men that believe.

For there is no difference, and here's our focus, for all have come short, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Which turn over with me to Hebrews chapter 3 and mainly chapter 4 verse 1, where again we come across that same phrase.

Israel's Unbelief and the Rest of God

Now chapter 3, the writer of Hebrews is giving to us this comparison throughout this chapter of Moses the prophet, of him bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt to give to them the law, the commandments, and then to lead them into what is referenced here as rest or the promised land.

This again for the Old Testament, for the children of Israel to fulfill the promise that God had extended to Abraham, that he would make his children to be a mighty nation, a powerful nation, that the children and offspring would be as the stars in the heavens or as the sand on the seashore, innumerable and uncountable.

And then the second promise was that he took them upon the mountain, he showed them the north, south, east, and west, and he spoke and said to them, he said, he said, all the land that you see I will give to your descendants.

And it says that again, Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now when the children of Israel was led, as this chapter 3 gives to us in Hebrews, Moses led them out, but due to the circumstances of their rebellion, their disobedience, they were not allowed to enter into the rest.

And so that generation was cut off, and we'll come back to that here in a moment. But if you pick up with me in verse 15 of chapter 3, and then we'll read through chapter 4, verse 1, for while it is said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, for some, when they had heard, did provoke, albeit not all of those that came out of Egypt were by Moses.

And there's another passage of scriptures that says that not all, we know that there were some Egyptians that came with them, and again, the rebellion and the disobedience and the idols that they had worshiped in Egypt, they brought also with them.

Verse 17, but with whom was he grieved for 40 years? And with them was also that they had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness. And to whom did he swear by those that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?

So we see that they could not enter in because of the sin of unbelief. In chapter 4, verse 1, let us therefore fear, lest the promise being left to us of entering into his rest, that any of us should seem to come short of it.

Now, in the reference that we have here, you see in chapter 3, that there is an absolute, all have sinned and come short. It is an absolute, we've all come short of the glory of God. And this is the part of this of redemption, our redeeming salvation, that again, that we look at Christ and Christmas, we just celebrate, why did Christ come?

To save us from our sins, to impart to us his righteousness, and to make the atonement and the sacrifice at his death and his resurrection and his ascension. That brings us with the opportunity, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man can come unto the Father but by me.

He has made a way for us to enter into that rest, and it is an absolute certainty that all of us have come short of the glory of God due to our sin, and we must be saved from our sins. We must be saved from ourselves, and Christ gave us the instruction to take up our cross, die to ourselves, and come follow him.

But over in chapter 4, it is this comparison of the Old Testament of the children of Israel coming short of entering into the promised land, and for this same reference, lest we come short. And I, in meditation upon this, this becomes my central theme of why we would do a concert of prayer, why such an initiative to do a hundred hours of prayer so as to prevail.

Desperation for Revival and Pentecostal Power

We come into this place of desperation lest we come short of God's glory. We can't go on without God's glory, and the church has been trying to do that for so long, and it is just, we are bottomed out now.

We are bankrupt, and it is the urgency of the hour that we realize this truth, and that we come back to a moment of Pentecost and be spirit-filled so that we can go into the new year, that despite what happens in the governments, despite what happens in the economy, despite what happens on the streets of America or the streets around the world, is that we know as the body of Christ, the church, that we are not, we have not come short, but that we have been spirit-filled, and we are being used of him.

And so this message this afternoon here is to address this. I do not want to get to the place of coming short of God's glory. Now I realize that my salvation and my testimony bears record of that from Romans chapter 3.

I have come short. You and I, both in the same place, somewhere along the line, we were made aware that we were sinners in need of salvation and the Savior. Somewhere along the line, someone preached the gospel to us and told us of our predicament, told us of our condition, told us of our eternity.

Look, you are not going to enter into heaven, and despite all the lies that are out there in religion today, but they want to tell people, tickle their ears with saying, you know, just try to be good.

Just try to do. There is none good. No, not one. None. That is the reason I read those verses 10 through 17 there, where he says that there is none that is doing this. And we have all come short. It is the absolute urgency that we realize is that men, women, and children that die without Christ die and go to hell.

And it is our plea and power today that we come because Christ has made a way for us that we not come short, but that we enter into his rest, meaning enter heaven with his power and his glory. And so that part of redemption and salvation is the testimony of the church.

I was lost, but now I see. I was blind, but now I see. I was lost, but now I'm saved. I was hell bound, now I'm heaven bound. And God has done this wonderful thing of grace and mercy. But again, we look upon the masses.

Spiritual Awakening and the Prodigal Son

We hear the cries of the churches today of the remnant that are crying out, give us a spiritual awakening. Now spiritual awakening is when lost people come to their, like in Luke, where he talks about the prodigal son, as the prodigal son was casting the feed to the hogs down there.

And it says, and he came to himself. And so we are praying for lost loved ones, for our cities, for our communities that are ravaged by lost people, that they would come to themselves lest they come short of the glory of God and miss out on heaven completely.

So a spiritual awakening is when these, what we term sinners and heathens, that they come to themselves with an awareness of having faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God and the word of God is presented to them, given to them.

They fall under the power of the Holy Spirit of conviction. They say, this is what I want. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. I know if I die, I'm going to go to hell. I don't want to go to hell.

I want to live for Jesus. I want to love Jesus. I want to serve Jesus. What do I got to do to be saved? And there have been great testimonies of God's deliverance, God's redemption, God's mercy and grace.

Some of you bear that same testimony and say, look what the Lord did to me, you know, of whether it was drugs, whether it was just, whether it was sitting in a church thinking you were saved, religious, somewhere you came to yourself by God's divine inspiration and brought you to your senses and said, I can't go on like this.

I've got to be saved. And I love to hear the powers of Testament. I love to hear how God and his amazing grace redeemed and rescued. But there are a passage of multitudes that are coming short to the glory of God's eternal rest.

They're going to miss heaven. One because of the rebellion and as we read there, because of their unbelief. They refuse to believe that there's a God. They refuse to believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, that Jesus Christ was the son of God.

They refuse to believe that he died for them and rose again. And they question every aspect of the Bible. And so that when you tell them that they are a sinner in need of that savior, they become defensive.

They become rebellious against that. They become defiant and they'll say, I'll have you know that I'm not that bad of a person. I'll tell you is that I believe, I don't believe in a hell. I believe everybody dies and goes to heaven.

We've heard all those things, but that's not the reality or the truth that the Bible teaches us. And so our hearts do the same thing that Jesus' heart does, that God, the father's heart, I would that none would perish and go away from me and come short of the glory of God.

Judas and the Danger of Coming Short

I want to give you a couple instances in scripture that you understand this passage with me. First one I want to look at is let's consider the disciple Judas. Here's a man that Christ selected and brought into his fold of the 12 disciples.

He saw the miracles. He participated in the work and the labors of Jesus' three years of ministry. He knew that this was the son of God. He knew it. And yet it is that Judas was the very one that walked away, that betrayed him, that he got that title by Christ himself, the son of perdition or the son of the damned, was that he was picked and chosen and again foreordained that there should be one that should betray him for 30 pieces of silver and that prophecy being in the Old Testament of that.

And all we can say of Judas is this one central thing. He came short of the glory of God. He missed out on eternity in heaven with Christ Jesus. He missed out on it because he was the son of the damned, the son of perdition.

There have been many that have walked out of this world into eternity and again where people say, oh, but we don't know what they've decided. There are some that you do know. Is that they rejected every opportunity of an invitation that the glory of God has brought to them.

They refused to come to church. They refused to respond. They refused to surrender. They hardened themselves and they were filled with unbelief. It is an absolute about Judas that he was given that title by Christ because Christ knows those that would come to him and those that would not come to him.

Now, you and I do not know that in all areas and senses of who's saved and who's lost. Therefore, it is our responsibility as the church that we go forth to labor and to make sure, as Paul says, spend and be spent, that none would come short of this glory of God.

The Church's Lost Evangelistic Burden

And yet on our watch, church, we have watched more people walk away from the church. We have watched more people walk away from Christianity. We've watched more people walk away from that message of holiness, righteousness, and faithfulness.

And we have never seen in our lifetime as many of the masses of the population of the United States and the world that have come short of the glory of God for the saving of their souls. And yet when you talk to most Christians about reaching the nations and reaching the unreached people groups and going to the people across the street from them and going downtown or going to a neighbor or going to a family member and sitting there, we also know that the church's testimony and witness today in North America is that for 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days this year, some Christians who profess their allegiance and their loyalty to Christ have not been concerned with people that are coming short of eternal rest.

They haven't spoken to one person. They haven't shared the gospel with one person. They believe in that mindset is that, well, God's going to win them, he'll win them. And they refuse to be obedient to the heavenly calling that God has laid upon the church.

They're not burdened for those that are coming short of eternal rest. How can anyone that dare call themselves Christian not be concerned with the current condition of the masses that are in our cities, that are in our homes, that are up and down the streets, the counties and the states, watching them live in evil, practice evil, love their sin and they're coming short of the glory of God for eternal salvation.

It is the number one reason, again, of our passion, not only to glorify him and to serve him with holiness and righteousness, but it is to take that gospel message to the four corners of the earth. And so walk through the door, take the opportunity to go near, to go far and have this passion and plea, Lord, don't let them come short, lest they miss the glories of heaven and be found in the horrors of hell.

Oh God, help us in that passion in this hour, because Romans chapter three is about that. It is about the eternal soul. It is about the redemption of lost mankind. And the church has lost its passion.

Eternity, Heaven, and Hell

Do you ever understand or could you ever realize is that the church would come to a place is that they were content to watch people go to hell and be unmoved by it? Jonathan Edwards is the one that says, stamp eternity on my eyeballs, put heaven on this side and hell on this side, and you'll never be the same.

Did the church stop looking at eternity? Did we stop thinking about it? Did we stop considering it of the riches and the glories of heaven and being in the presence of Christ and being with the saints and being in the glory of the father and having that for eternity and all that comes with that of, again, the description of heaven and its wonders to often meditate on that, to sing the old songs.

I am bound by the promise. I'm bound to go to the promised land. I'm heading across Jordan and I'm going into that celestial place of where there is no sin, no sickness, no sorrow. There is nothing there that defiles and it is all bliss and perfection.

Christians have lost that passion and they have lost that meditation on eternity. And as much as it is that they don't know what's coming for heaven, they also don't know what hell is. We hear that so often is that most pastors over 70 to 80 percent throughout these 52 weeks have never preached a sermon on hell.

They have never given a description on the horrors of hell of to know where their loved ones are going or where their church members are going or where their citizens are going. But this is the reality that the Bible tells us is that all have sinned and come short of the glory and they will miss heaven and they will miss the glory of God, Jesus Christ, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And they will be in a place again of the horrors of hell that they will have to lament and suffer for eternity of what might have been, what could have been, what should have been. But they missed it.

They came short. Then you go to the rich, young ruler found in Mark chapter 10 and in Matthew, again, this parallel between the Gospels where the same account. And here comes this rich, young ruler to Jesus.

The Rich Young Ruler and Counting the Cost

And as it comes to him, he comes seeking eternal salvation. He comes seeking to be right with God, to be right with Christ. And he's got this issue, which, again, unbeknownst to most men, but not unbeknownst to Christ, because Christ is omniscient.

He knows all things. And so he knows this guy. And the title itself, the rich, young ruler, he comes to Jesus and he says, I want to know about this thing called eternal life. I want to know about getting to the father which sits in heaven.

And I think I'm ready. I think I'm OK. And again, that justification in the minds of religion. I'm a good person. And so he says, what do I have to do? And Jesus answers him, he says, and you note this again through scripture, is that he notes all the last sins of the Ten Commandments.

Don't commit adultery, he says, you know, honor your father and mother. Don't don't steal. Don't lie. Don't covet. And the man says, well, all these have I kept from my youth up. He declares his righteousness, his self-righteousness.

Now, again, God, who knows the heart? And he addresses this rich, young ruler and he says, OK, beyond your deeds of keeping the commandments, which, again, no man has kept because if a man breaks one commandment, he's broken them all, Hebrews tells us.

He addresses his soul personally and he says to him, go sell all that you got. Rich, young ruler, go sell all that you got. Give to the poor and come follow me. And it says is that the rich, young ruler went away.

Grieved, sad because he could not part with his riches, and it says in the gospel, there is that Jesus also was grieved because he walked away from him. How hard is it for the rich to enter into the kingdom of heaven, he said.

And you look at these passages of scripture here, this rich, young ruler. Now, again, did he repent later? Did he come at another time? We'll never know until we get to eternity. But for this moment, Hebrews chapter four, verse one, lest happily one should come short of the glory of God.

In all essence of what we read here, Judas did come short, absolute. This rich, young ruler, we don't know his decision for the rest of his days, but at this particular point, he did come short. And we see also is that this description is given to us and as we read and for the gospel, as far as Hebrews chapter three, that we read in this context of scripture that the children of Israel come out of Egypt.

They were given at Mount Sinai, the glory of God come down. They saw the thunderings and the lightnings. They saw the miracles, the plagues. They saw God take care of the Egyptians. They had seen God do wonders, great deeds.

There is no God that can do these things. But the Lord God was what was declared to them. They heard the voice of God speak and they feared and they trembled and they fell down. And these same ones who saw the glory of God, these same ones who heard the voice of the glory of God, who heard God, are the very same ones that in the wilderness turned from him, murmured against him, bowed down to a golden calf.

They came short of the glory of God because he said, because you could not believe in me and follow me and obey me, you're going to come short and you are not going to be allowed to enter into the promised land.

Israel's Failure to Enter the Promised Land

It's an awful thing to read about that. And so what does God do? He says when they sent the 12 spies into the promised land there and they came back with that evil report, 10 of them said, there's no way that we're going to be able to go into the promised land and be victorious.

They didn't have any faith or trust in God, in his power, even though they'd seen God take care of the Egyptians by the drowning in the Red Sea. And they said that the cities have walls, they've got gates, they've got bars.

We've seen giants of men, they're full of stature and they're walking around. There's no way that we can do that. Only Caleb and Joshua declared, let's rise up and go in and God will give us the victory.

God declares to that generation of those who would not believe in God is that you will not be allowed to enter, but I will bring your children in. One of the horrors that I have is that this generation will pass away and we will come short of seeing God's glory in revival.

We will see God's glory come short in the spiritual awakening, God says, because you didn't believe. You didn't do what you were supposed to do. You didn't do it when it was supposed to do it. You weren't broken and contrite over the evils of happening in your day.

I can't use you, but I'll raise up your children and I'll let them see it. I'll let them experience it. And again, if that would be so, and my son's sitting here, it's for him to sin and I go on and I enter into my eternal glory.

But again, just so long as God is glory. But what about us? What about now when God gives us this moment? Are we content to come short of his glory for revival and spiritual awakening while it is happening upon us is that they are perishing left and right and that evil is increasing and the church is floundering and the power is gone and the presence is gone and we've come short.

And we cannot enter into his rest. That desperation is what provokes me in my prayers that I come before God with that urgency upon me, saying, God, you have revealed these things to us. It is one thing to be like Judas, and it's one thing to be like the rich young ruler.

But God, don't let us be like the children of Israel, filled with unbelief as calling ourselves Christians, not believing all revival can't come. It's it's it's too bad out there. It's too far gone. I always laugh because most of the time is that in the days and societies when men were rising up saying there is no God, the church is on its way out, the church is dead.

That's usually when God shows up. And you have that word suddenly God shows up. And throughout history, all those arrogant, proud boasters who said God is dead, the church is finished, is that they do not know the Lord God and God shows up.

We're in that same hour. We're in that same day because God is in the midst of his people as you and I as the remnant stirring us up. And we have seen it throughout this year and we have shared it among many of us of the passion.

Oh, God, don't let us come short of your glory. And it is the awfulness of being able to come that close to God and not see the finishing of this thing or that again, is that we we were trying and we were prevailing and we were fasting and we were weeping and we were praying and everything was moving.

And all of a sudden we do that. That awful verse tells us don't do. We grew weary. We grew discouraged and we walked away and we and we lost our passion and we lost our momentum and we lost our fire or we let the world attract us or we let distractions of this life interfere with us.

And we lost that priority of saying, God, you are nothing. And we were satisfied with something else. And God brings us to this place to get us where we're supposed to be, that we would be so fearful of coming short of this glory because it is the only thing.

That is necessary at this point in the church, it is not the gadgets, the gadgets or the gizmos that's going to bring revival and bring spiritual awakening, it is only by the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The Seven Churches and the Need for Repentance

And it is that pursuit of not coming short of the glory of God within us and about us as the church, for the bride of Christ to get ready. You read Revelations chapter two and three. We see these passages of scripture that teach us over and over in chapter two and three.

Jesus is addressing the seven churches. And every time we read that where he says, but this is what I have against you, they came short. And he's pointing that out to him. Is it an awful thing in this generation that, again, because of the positive thinking of people in the church today is that you can't point out that which is wrong, they would have they would have rejected Christ's message because he was pointing out what he found offensive in them, what he found contrary to him.

Or let's time it, what it is, the Antichrist, anything against Christ. This is what I have against you. And he says, repent or else. And he pointed it out specifically, we don't have a lot of that anymore, where it's pointed out specifically what's wrong in our life.

I am certain is that there are many of you as intercessors or prayer partners of the remnant is that you enter in, is there anything within me, oh God, that I must deal with, that I must be specifically told, this is not acceptable to you.

We have an entire society out here that when we preach to them the evils of the day of abortion, twenty two hundred babies were aborted today, where we have the LGBT's agenda going forth, knowing that that's an abomination in the sight of God, seeing the detrimental homicides and suicides that are on our streets today and knowing that it's filling us is that we don't want to hear what's wrong and they refuse to hear it.

And they reject it, they come short of the glory of God. But what about the church coming short of his glory because we want to be compromising and satisfied to our own agenda, to our own, our own thoughts, our own ways when we know that it's in defiance against God.

And so he points out to the seven churches, this is what I have against you and woe unto us if we ever get to the place that again of the Laodicean church and we read those in passages of chapter three there, I would that you were cold or hot, I would that you was on fire for me or that you was frozen out and you didn't want nothing to do, but because you are lukewarm, satisfied, content.

Well, we've got food, we've got we've got housing, we've got we've got enough means here. We don't need to go into the promised land of milk and honey. We don't need to go over. Well, we had the divine presence of Christ with us.

We saw the miracles. We can talk to our dying day about what we saw Jesus do in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. We don't need Pentecost. We can go on without that. And I'm telling you, the church has got to be resolved today.

We cannot go on without another Pentecost. We cannot go on without the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, because again, we are floundering and failing as the church today to the glory of God. And again, I hear that echo in my head of listening to Leonard Raven, where he said, I am ashamed to be a part of the New Testament church today because I believe that it's an embarrassment to God.

Oh, it's like sticking a knife through my heart when I hear him preach that or say that, because again of the truth, the reality. Are you embarrassed to be a part of the kingdom of God, of the church today because it takes on the title of Christianity, knowing full well that we have failed God in this nation?

A Lukewarm Church and a Lost Generation

Yes, our fathers have failed. Yes, that generation introduced it all and it was brought upon us and all that. But what have we done with our generation? What have we done for the glory of God? We've come short.

We've come short. We have fallen farther away. There is more evil that has risen up on my watch, your watch, than ever before in our history. We have never seen this perverse, wicked and evil. Things that 30 years ago that you and I never would have dreamed of or thought of is being done openly and unashamedly by men, women, sons and daughters and grandchildren.

Oh, are we content to come short of the glory of God when we see these things that are against God? And I don't find a lot of people that are burdened with this. I don't find a lot of people that are broke over this.

But one thing is that we know that God instructs us to say, in order for you not to come short, this is what you must do. This is what you have to do. And so I want to read a passage of scripture and I want to ask you to read with me on this.

Counting the Cost of Discipleship

And it's found in the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 14. Jesus gives these words of what is necessary for us today as the church, while we're doing a concert of prayer, while we're doing 100 hours of prayer, while we're calling people to fast and to weep and to lament, to howl, to mourn and all these things.

And in Luke chapter 14, beginning in verse 25, here is this example that Jesus clarifies on the necessity of us today that we not come short of his glory. Yes, redemption is one thing. Come short of the glory of God.

You are damned and you are on your way to hell. But we're talking about the church coming short of the glory of God, filling us, using us and not passing this over, saying, I can't use you and you will not enter into the promised land.

Now, maybe I'm going to take your children into the promised land, but I can't take you all in because of your unbelief. And I'm telling you that again, is that why would we ever want that when we know that the power of God is there for us today, that we would see his glory, be filled with his glory and operate in his glory?

That's the absolute necessity for the church today, and it is the least that that they are seeking for. Verse 25, Luke 14. And there went great multitudes with him, and he turned and he said unto them, If any man come to me and hate not his father, his mother, his wife, his children, his brothers, sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

And whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you intending to build a tower sits not down first and counts the cost? There's the phrase, count the cost. This is a whole sermon in itself, isn't it?

Counts the cost, whether we have sufficient to finish it or not. Lest happily, after he has laid the foundation. And is not able to finish it, all that behold it will begin to mock him, saying this man began to build and he was not able to finish.

Or what king going to make war against another king does not sit down first and consults whether he be able with 10 ,000 to meet him that comes against him with 20 ,000 or else while the other is yet a great, great way off, he sends an ambassador and he desires conditions of peace.

So likewise, and here's the verse. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that does not forsake all that he has, he cannot be my disciple. To come short, to come short of being a disciple of Christ because you couldn't count the cost, that easy believism, it does not count any cost.

If you should probably repeat this prayer and you get baptized, you're born again, you're saved, you died to nothing, you're living for nothing, but you're saved because we said so, they didn't count the cost and they cannot be his disciple.