Are You Walking the Walk or Talking the Walk - Part 3 — Will Graham

Humility Before a Holy God

Today, in the 21st century, in the evangelical world, our Bible schools, our evangelical pulpits are majoring on psychology, on how to improve our self-esteem, not realizing that the whole aim of the Bible is to bring the sinner to his knees in the dust before a holy God, recognizing his need for grace.

The Bible gives you a sound mind, not an arrogant, me, me, me, self-centered mentality that throws two fingers up at anyone that doesn't agree with me. A true Christian is characterized by humility, by brokenness, by a walking low before Almighty God, rejoicing in his salvation, seeking knowledge, seeking knowledge.

Transformation of the Heart and the Pursuit of God

Before I was born again, I sought drugs, I sought sex, I sought nightclubs and to be with a thousand girls and a million other vanities. But tonight I can say, I seek God, I seek Christ. You see, there's been a transformation in my heart.

The disposition of my heart, the affections, the heart of stone has become a heart of flesh. And it's the same for every child of God. Hours of dirt, hours of filth become hours of prayer and hours of seeking God.

You don't grow in the knowledge of God by living like a dog, sniffing sewer pipes and messing about with all the nonsense of this world and eating swine fodder. God reveals his secret to those that fear him, to those that seek him.

Seeking God Through Prayer and Knowledge

And if you want to grow in the knowledge of God, you've got to seek the Lord. God will be found of those that seek him. But do you seek God? How is your prayer life? Do you drown out your prayer life by time for your friends and time for music and time for internet?

Do you seek God? Do you desire to grow in the knowledge of him? The heart of him that has understanding seeks knowledge. We could stop this message right here and everyone goes home happy and blessed and inspired.

Praise God. I want to be that man. I want to be that woman that has a heart of understanding that seeks knowledge. But you've got to realize something. I'm not the master of the word of God. The word of God dictates to me.

The Wise Heart and the Foolish Mouth

And it continues in our verse. And it doesn't stop saying the heart of him that has understanding seeks knowledge. It goes on to say, But the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness. But the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.

We could talk all night about a wise man, a wise young person that God wants to raise up and use with his power to demonstrate his glory in the land of the living. But the gospel has another side to it.

The Full Gospel: Grace, Holiness, and Wrath

You see, we today major on the positive. Love, love, love. Grace, grace, grace. Mercy, mercy, mercy. But we've forgotten that there's another side to the gospel. There's holiness, holiness, holiness. Wrath, wrath, wrath.

Sin, sin, sin. Paul tells us about the goodness and severity of God. God is a God of grace, but he's also a God of wrath. A half-truth is a lie. And a half-gospel is the foulest, dirtiest, most perverted lie that Satan has ever conned us into believing.

The Whole Counsel of God

Paul said, if even an angel come and preached another gospel to you, let him be accursed. We must preach all the gospel, the whole counsel of God. If you take the wrath of God, the holiness of God, these precious doctrines out of your Bible, call yourself what you may, you're a false prophet.

And I'm not telling you that. That's the Word of God. God's wrath is a wonderful manifestation of his glory, of his beauty, of his preciousness. We look in the book of Revelation chapter 19, and that great prostitute Babylon is judged by Almighty God.

Revelation 19 and the Righteousness of God’s Judgment

And the Scripture says in Revelation 19, the first two verses, that her smoke rose up forever and ever. She was judged by the wrath of God. And then the scene changes in heaven, and we get a vision of the saints.

And they see the wrath of God displayed. They see the judgment of Almighty God. And they raise their hands, and they say, Hallelujah, salvation and honor and glory and power unto the Lord our God. For true and righteous are his judgments.

They saw the wrath of God, and they delighted in the manifestation of God's glory. God is gracious, God is merciful, but God is holy. Don't forget God is a God of wrath as well. It's the whole gospel, the whole gospel.

There is grace for the repentant, but there is wrath for those that are obstinate and proud against the word of glory of the gospel of Christ. The man that has understanding seeks knowledge. He has a heart for God.

Mouth Religion Versus a Heart That Belongs to Christ

But the Scripture says the fool has a mouth. The fool has a mouth. You see, if you're truly born again, your heart cries after God. But if you're just here, a false professor, you've got a mouth for God and nothing else.

Heart and mouth, heart and mouth. Do you see the contrast? In Acts chapter 19, verses 13 through to 16, we read of seven young men who were sons of Sceva, and they came to a demon-possessed man, and they'd seen Paul casting out devils by the power of God, and they come to a demon-possessed man, and they say, we adjure you, command, we charge you, in the name of Jesus that Paul preaches.

And the evil spirit looks and says, well, Jesus, I know, I'm familiar with Paul, but who on earth are you? He overcame them and wiped them out, and they left naked and bleeding. You see, they had the name of Christ in their mouth, but Christ didn't reign in their hearts.

When the Jews were confronted by the tough preaching of Jeremiah, he said judgment was coming from Babylon upon the land of Judah. The people said, no, no, but the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.

We've got the temple of the Lord, so judgment can't come. We say we've got Jesus in our mouth, we go to church, judgment won't come. They had the temple of the Lord, but they didn't have the Lord of the temple.

Their lives didn't line up to Scripture. They didn't walk in obedience to God, and judgment came. Have you forgotten the word of exhortation that says, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father, which is in heaven, to have the name is not enough.

Jesus’ Warning About False Professors

Some will come unto me in that day, saying, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? Have we not cast thy devils in thy name? Have we not done many wondrous works in thy name? And then I will say unto them, depart from me.

I know ye not, workers of iniquity. They had a mouth religion. They professed Christ, but Christ professed that he didn't know them. As they were pleased to have Jesus in their mouth, so Jesus was pleased to spew them out of his.

You can play about with church, you can raise your hands and shed your little tears as you sing your praise songs, but if your life doesn't line up to the gospel, you're deceiving yourself. You must be born again.

Repentance and the Call to Follow Christ

Repent, repent, repent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Christ is coming soon. There was a rich young ruler in the Bible, and he said to Jesus, what will it do to inherit eternal life? Jesus says, well, you know what the scripture says.

Keep the commandments. He says, oh, well, I've done that. I've kept them all from my youth. And Jesus says, okay, if you want to be perfect, sell all your goods, give them to the poor, and then come follow me.

That got the young man. You see, he was a liar of liars. He just said to Jesus that he'd never broken any of the commandments, but he'd broken the chief commandment of all, that we are to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our might.

Wholehearted Surrender to Christ

He loved his riches more than he loved God. He wasn't prepared to make the cut. And so he went off sad. And something that amazes me about that account is that as Jesus sees that young man walking off into the distance, nine out of ten of us, I tell you what we would have done.

We would have run after that young man and said, don't worry, calm it down. You can sell 50 of your goods, sell 25%, and then come follow me. Jesus didn't do that. He'd given him the word, and Jesus walks on.

Keep your 99 for yourself. It's all or it's nothing. It's all your life or it's nothing. He's not interested in 99%. You see, you can profess the core doctrines of our Christian faith, the Trinity, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

You can profess the incarnation, that Jesus, the eternal Son of God, has become man, Son of God, Son of man. You can profess the verbal inspiration and infallibility of the Scriptures. You can profess the radical depravity of man and still be lost.