Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 816 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Ben Johnson: I pray that God will open eyes tonight because you know we can do a lot of the right things. We can learn culturally...it can become a culture--a church culture. You know how to act. You know what to say. You know how to come in here, but God's not gonna look at what you do. That's the point that I want to make. God never looks at what people do externally. It's always the heart that He's looking at.

( congregational amens ).

It's always the heart. He told Samuel that when Samuel went to anoint Jesse's sons and he saw them come in one by one. Oh yeah, this guy looks great. He's impressive looking. Surely he's the one. Finally God told him, He says, you look on the outward appearance. That's what man does. That's all you can do, but I look on the heart. I'm looking at things differently here. God wants you to know He's looking at your heart tonight. I mean I'm not gonna ask you what you've done or haven't done 'cause it irrelevant to the question. Have you surrendered your heart or not? That's the question.

I want to read something that I read this a while back, but I thought about it again as Patrick was speaking. It's in Luke chapter 17 and I believe it's an example of what I believe is the burden of the Lord tonight. Because God's desire...I believe His burden tonight is that people not go out of here lost first of all, but also that they not go out of here deceived about the fact that they are lost. God wants to open eyes. He wants to give you an opportunity but until the eyes are opened--until the power of the enemy is broken that would blind the eyes against the gospel of Christ, until that's broken we don't understand why there's a need. We compare ourselves to somebody else. That's not how it works. God's trying to show us that tonight.

It's in Luke chapter 17 starting in verse 11, it says, "Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" (NIV). At the end here there's a distinction--there's a difference shown between some of these people here, but I want you to look at what they all did.

All ten of them did a lot of good things. They did a lot of right things. First of all they recognized they had a problem. Leprosy was a serious thing in those days. It was a death sentence. They knew they had a problem. They weren't sugar-coating it. That's a good step, if God's brought you to the place where you know you have a problem and you feel a need at all, Praise God! That's something to praise Him for.

( congregational amens ).

He's merciful. There are a lot of people in this world that there's so much out there to occupy your time and your mind, they don't ever feel that need. It's always something to keep you busy. Praise God they recognized they had a need and they called out to Jesus. Now that's another good thing they did--they called out to the one who had the power to help them. They weren't running to the doctor and trying to get the latest surgery and the latest techniques. They said, Jesus is one that can help us. Praise God, that's a good thing.

They called him Master, They had a respect for Him. They didn't come up there, you know, "Hey, why don't you help me out here, Bud." They had a respect and they had a reverence for Him. They called him Master. They said, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us."

They didn't come and say we deserve help. They didn't say we deserve healing. They said have pity on us. That's the only basis that I've got to appeal to you on is your pity. I know you're a merciful man. I've heard what you've done for people. I've heard you're going around healing the sick, casting out devils. God is with you, and you're merciful, and you're showing us His love. Have pity on us. That was the basis they approached Him on. That was a good thing.

"When He saw them, He said, Go, show yourselves to the priests," which is something that naturally--we, we've talked about this before--naturally it doesn't make any sense because that was something under their law you did after you were cleansed from a disease or whatever had caused you to become unclean under their law. At the end of that you would show yourself to the priest. There were certain things you were supposed to do to purify yourself, then you'd go to the priest and they sort of sign off on the fact that it was okay for you to come back into society.

Well it says, "As they went...." See they had the faith to even take Him at his word and even go. That's another good thing. Praise God, they didn't have to explain it all. They didn't have to have all the answers. Well now exactly how is this gonna work and exactly when is this gonna happen, and why are you telling us to do this? That don't make sense. They had a measure of faith to believe what He said. They went.

It says, "...And as they went, they were cleansed." But now you see there's a difference. One of them-- just one--"One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him--and he was a Samaritan."

See that's what we're talking about tonight--we're talking about most of the people who have grown up here, you're not a Samaritan in the sense what He's talking about here. You're not a foreigner to any of this. You know all this. That's why He makes the distinction here, that's why He went to the trouble to point it out.

You know of all the people that should've had a reverence for God, should have had a love for Him and had a desire to serve Him, surely the Jews to whom He had revealed so much truth and given them so much through the prophets, surely they would have been the ones who would have thanked Him and wanted to serve Him, but it was somebody else. It was somebody that had to come from the outside, that didn't grow up with all that. That was the one that came back and thanked Him.

And I believe you see in this what their real motivation was. All ten of them did a whole lot of good things, but there was one man that actually came back and wanted to praise Him for that, actually wanted to come back and bow. He didn't say, well, thank you God, thanks for healing me, now I can get back to my life and do what I really want to do. That's what the rest of 'em did. They got what they came for. I got healed, all right. I can go back to my family. I can start running my business again. I can get back in society. Praise God, this is wonderful. Thanks Lord. I think I'll just go on and live my life now.

This man didn't do that. He might have called out to get healed, but when he found that healing, he found more than just healing. Look at what Jesus said to him. "Jesus asked, 'Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?' Then he said to him, 'Rise and go; your faith has made you well.'"

See what He said, He said your faith has made you well. All ten of 'em got cleansed, but He didn't say all ten of you's faith has made you whole. He said, "your faith." See when He said that, he wasn't talking about his leprosy. They all got cleansed from that, but what did that do for 'em? They were gonna die anyway, all ten of 'em been dead a long time since this was written. I mean all that did was push the inevitable down the road a little further. What did that fundamentally change in their life? Nothing. That just delayed the inevitable. But this man, he found more than healing of his flesh. He found something that was never gonna be taken away from him.

( congregational amens ).

Praise God! He said your faith has made you whole. The real problem has been taken care of --that's what He's saying. That wasn't the real problem--the fact that you had leprosy. What did He say when they brought Him the man on the bed and they lowered him down through the roof? Did He heal him first? Is that the first order of business? No, He said your sins be forgiven you. That was the need. The healing was secondary.

That was done, I believe more than anything, just to confirm to the people there of what He said because they were grumbling so much about Him saying his sins were forgiven. That was a confirmation of God--yeah, you need to listen. He has been sent. He does have my authority to cleanse sin and to blot out sin.

( congregational praise ).

That's why that was done but that wasn't the need. The need was your sins are forgiven and that's what He told this man. He said, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."

Think about the story of Naaman. You know what happened to him. He was a leper and he heard about there was a God of Israel that can heal you. When he left, I have all ideas that was all he had in mind. I just want to go get healed so I can come back and not die. That was all he had in mind.

In fact when he got there and things did not play out like he thought they should have, he was ready to just say, well this option didn't work. I guess I'll try to find another one. He was ready to leave but God had somebody there--a faithful servant. Just a lowly servant--that's the only thing we know about him in the scripture, one sentence that he said. He said, if they told you to go do some great thing, you'd have done that. Can't you just do this simple thing? We came all this way. You've got no other hope. Can't you just do this one thing? Aren't you willing to do what you were told to do--to be cleansed, to be set free, to be healed?

( congregational praise ).

And he was. He humbled himself under that. He didn't have to do that. He was greater than that servant. He could have said, nope, we're leaving and they would have. But God gave him the grace to humble himself and he was cleansed, but when he was cleansed that wasn't the end of it. He didn't say, oh, that's great. All right, yeah your God is a good God. I have to raise him in my estimation above my god. He's a little bit higher than my god now. He's sort of the big God on the block.

No, he said...he said I want to take some dirt with me from here 'cause I ain't gonna sacrifice to any other god. I don't even want to sacrifice on my heathen soil anymore. It was a change in his life. It wasn't just about getting healed. There was something that changed for him forever.

( congregational praise ).

That might have been how it started, but that's not how it ended. God changed something for him forever. He revealed himself. He met him in his healing, but it was to reveal the God of Israel. Naaman didn't know anything about Him when he set out. That's not what he came for. I don't know what you came for tonight. I don't know if you came to get your problems fixed, 'cause you had to come, or 'cause your boyfriend's here or your girlfriend. I don't know. I don't know why you came, but I tell you what God's here and He can do the same thing for you He did for them.

( congregational praise ).

You're on the same playing field they were. Don't you look at them and think they're something great and you're something small and God don't care about you. He died for every one of us.

( congregational amens ).

Praise God! If He didn't I would have no hope, 'cause I'm just like you. I'm just like everybody else. We all are. We've got no room to boast. Paul said I won't boast anything except in Christ, His sufferings. Everything Paul did was pointing to Christ. He said, I'm nothing. I was with you in weakness, fear and much trembling. I'm nothing.

We're all nothing tonight, but I tell you what, if you don't have that assurance, if you need salvation, it's here, it's available. It's not complicated. There's no words we can say to make a light bulb come on. We're just gonna have to trust God. We need to be praying folks, as we wait on the Lord. I don't know where the Lord will go from here or who else will speak. We don't need to be sitting, staring off into space, wondering what we're gonna do after the service. Let's pray.

( congregational praise ).

Let's be praying as we're waiting 'cause I tell you what, when the Word like this comes forth we need to understand it doesn't happen in a vacuum. We're not just talking to people. We're talking to people that are in the grip of spirits and they're not just gonna leave. They're not just gonna give up their home. They consider that their possession. This is where I live. If somebody just walked up to you and said, why don't you leave your house, would you just meekly walk out? No, that's your dwelling. Devils don't do that either. We need to pray because He said, the gates of Hell will not prevail against the church.

( congregational amens ).

There's opposition to this tonight. I had that thought last night when the Lord was drawing and it didn't seem like many were coming. There was resistance to that. There was opposition there. There was something pushing back and it was people...yeah maybe in their own stubbornness, but I tell you what there was devils pushing back, too. We need to pray. We've been given power over all the power of the enemy. That's what Jesus himself said.

( congregational amens ).

He said, I put... all authority in heaven and earth is given unto me. And what we read last night He said, the anointing is upon me "...to proclaim freedom for the prisoners...." It's here tonight folks, but when Zion travails is when she brings forth. We need to travail while we're waiting before the Lord 'cause I don't want to walk out of here the same as I came in. I don't want to leave this meeting the same way I came and I don't want anybody to leave this meeting that doesn't have this assurance. Praise God, let's seek our God.

( congregational praise ).

-- Brother Jim Easterly: You know as human beings we're totally deceived into thinking we're in charge of our lives. That's a deception that Satan entered into the equation in the Garden of Eden and we have drank that in. Those ten men with leprosy, they didn't wake up that morning and realize they had leprosy. They'd been wanting to get over leprosy for a long time. I imagine they'd done everything that was prescribed.

Naaman even left his country and went down some place else. He tried everything he could try, but that day Jesus passed by--that day. Jesus is not available to you when you get ready. You don't get to pick your day. I tell you something--it wasn't leprosy that they needed to get healed from. They had a condition in their heart that they needed to be healed from.

Your biggest problem's not your relationship with your wife--be nice to get that straightened out, but that's not your big problem. Your big problem is not your job. It's not your cancer. I tell you what our problem is-- it's our heart. Those people, those men I have no doubt had tried and tried and tried to take care of that leprosy, done everything they could do, but that day Jesus passed by.

You see the thing was, they didn't have options. Jesus passed by that day. That's when they had to cry out. I'm gonna tell you something, when they cried out all He told 'em...He told 'em something to do. And you know what it says. It says, "As they went...." What are you gonna do. You don't get to pick the time and place. I'll be honest with you--I don't want this to sound crass but I don't care how many come. It is absolutely a miracle of God like you can't imagine for one to pass from death unto life.

( congregational amens ).

You know why? Because you can't change your heart. If God does that for one person, every mile that was traveled for this meeting is worth it.

( congregational amens ).

I would like to see a hundred, but beloved if it's just you that Jesus passed by for tonight, this might be...God works all things after the council of His will. He's a sovereign God. We...it's not dependent on anybody that's spoken here tonight. Your salvation is in His hands.

( congregational amens ).

He's the captain of your salvation and if He's passing by for you tonight, you don't have a choice. This is your day. Isaiah said, "...call on Him while he is near." Beloved this is somebody's day. The rich young ruler had a different response. That was his day. This is the thing--Jesus doesn't just--He's not like a church building that sits out here at this address for thirty, forty, fifty, a hundred years. You can come back here tomorrow and use an axe to get in that door and come down--crawl all the way down this aisle and cry and sob like Esau did and you can't get it then. If Jesus passed by for you tonight, you don't have any other time.

( congregational amens ).

And I'm not trying to be a hell-fire and brimstone preacher. I don't want to scare the hell out of you. I want to see Jesus Christ bring you to the new birth. Nicodemus was living everything that he knew to live. Jesus told him, you must be born again.

You know Patrick talked about holiness. The scripture--Hebrews 12, it says, "...without holiness no one will see the Lord." And then it refers to Jesus Christ in Hebrews chapter 10, it says, "...by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever..." Who? "...those who are being made holy."

You're not born with anything that will get you into heaven but beloved, and I don't want to draw this out and I don't want to play on anybody's emotions. I want you...I want you...listen, you know worship is great and music is great, but you know what Jesus said? He said, if these people don't worship and sing and praise, He said the rocks will cry out. There's an alternative to you worshipping God.

But you know how He chose to save people--by the foolishness of preaching. God gives His Word, His voice, your mind...you listen. You check it. It enters. The Holy Spirit takes it into your heart and you're convicted and you say, men and brethren what must we do?

And the thing is, Jesus tells you to do something. The rich young ruler went away sorrowful. It was a little too much for him and he was so close that the very disciples that walked with Jesus said, my God can anybody be saved? You realize he was better than they were and they knew that. He said, it's impossible with man. But that day He told him what he needed to do.

He told these ten and as they went...you know what? We talk about the faith of Abraham. Abraham obeyed God. You can't have faith without obedience. You want the faith that that tenth man had? You get up and you obey what the Holy Spirit's telling you in your heart that you know you need to do--that you need to do tonight. I tell you what, I'm thankful.

You know God deals with individuals and He deals with churches. We as a church, we were told Thursday night, I'm about to spit you out of my mouth. Now what's our reaction to that? We're gonna say now wait a minute? We give sacrificially and we send people to the Philippines, and we send people to India. We paid to have the Word go...no. We need to fall down.

( congregational amens ).

He says you think you're this and that and rich and He says, I counsel you and He tells us what to do. What are we gonna do with that. My God I want to listen to that, and listen to that, and listen to that. I want to hear that and I want to obey that instantly. Listen, if the Holy Spirit has touched your heart tonight, this whole meeting might have been about that and I'm all for that.

( congregational amens ).

I don't care if nothing else happens. Whoever you are, you can be like the rich young ruler or you can be like that man with leprosy. You can come back and fall at His feet. Oh God, help us. I'm gonna leave this, and I'm gonna leave this, and I'm gonna leave your heart in the Lord's hands. It's your heart He wants to change. It's you He wants to give the new birth.

-- Brother Chip King: There's a scripture in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 that I'd like to read and we're gonna ask you to stand. Beginning in the first verse, "As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says, 'In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.' I tell you, now is the time of God's favor..." Right now, at ten minutes 'til nine, right here in this place is the time of God's favor. "...now is the day of salvation." We have heard right from the throne of God. It has been men up here speaking, but it has been from the throne of God.

( congregational amens ).

The Holiest has been speaking with us face to face. We are undone and He's reaching out. A holy God...imagine this...a holy God came here tonight. Think about that--came here tonight to reason with us, to tell us about His holiness, to tell us about our need, to offer to us eternal life with Him.

Amazing--there are no words to describe what we have heard tonight other than absolutely amazing. If we...think about this, as unworthy as we are, as dirty as we are, as unclean as we are that a holy God would be interested enough in passing by here tonight, to speak with us and give us opportunity to be forever with Him.

( congregational amens ).

Unbelievable, but it has happened. This is the day of God's favor. This is the hour of God's favor. Will you respond when He calls? Let's all stand. I'm gonna ask a couple of the elders, Jimmy and Phil, why don't you guys stand right here. Hallelujah.

( congregational praise ).

Now is the time. You come if you feel your need. Do not waste a moment.

( congregational praise ).

A holy God beckons to you. Hallelujah, Lord. Hallelujah, Lord. Lord, you do the work, you do the drawing. Glory to the Lamb of God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.

( congregational praise ).

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