Las Vegas Faith Center - Gods Word, Faith Messages, Spiritual Coaching and Religion Studies

Idle Words

The Las Vegas Faith Center
Message from Sunday, February 28, 1999

“Idle Words”
by Tiger Todd

I think there have been some people who believe I make this stuff up. We thought about something related to that during our “Upper Room” discussions on Tuesday night. I said, Look here in John 20. Jesus had just resurrected, he comes to the disciples, breathes on them, and says, Whew! Be filled with the Holy Ghost. Everyone is looking at their Bible, and thinking, What??? Because that event was weeks before Pentecost. And there it was, sitting in our Bibles all this time. It’s like God just stuck it in there, or Tiger just pasted it in when you weren’t looking. What I’m trying to lead into is this: many things have been popping out this year that we hadn’t seen before, and I’d like to talk about one such a subject.

I’d like you to look at Matthew 12:36. Jesus is speaking here, But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. Every idle word. Does anyone know what we thought that meant? You probably thought it was a word you didn’t mean, or a word that had no substance to it. The word “idle” comes from a Greek word, word 692 in the Strong’s Concordance. It means a negative particle, something that it is inactive, for example, unemployed. But two words struck me that I hadn’t seen before. One of them was “lazy”, and the other was “barren”. It’s a “lazy” word. A “barren” word. Let’s concentrate on the word “lazy” for a moment. A lazy, or inactive word. What are some of the characteristics of a lazy person? You might respond, big, a TV watcher, a procrastinator, someone sleeping when they shouldn’t be. Ooh, I like that. Why sleep ye? Rise and pray lest you fall into temptation. That’s a good one.

We’ve talked about this before, but lazy words are words that you don’t pay conscious attention to when you’re saying them. I’ll give you an example. My wife leaves me a note, or comes up to me and says, “Honey, I love you”. And I say, “I love you, too.” She knows I love her. But my response just popped out, as in lazy. I didn’t really stop to think what was behind the words “I love you”. I didn’t take any time to say, “I will nourish and cherish you all the days of my life.”

As I was dissecting things, and trying to rightly divide the word of truth, I came across some other things that Christians say a lot. For example, when people sneeze, most of us automatically say, “God Bless You”. We’ve conquered this in our church. We touched on this a couple years ago, when we talked about “Bless”. What does the word “bless” mean? Bless really is a word that empowers you to prosper. We’ve gotten discernment on that one. But when you say, “God Bless You” when someone sneezes, what are you really trying to say? Did you mean, I noticed you sneezed and it interrupted me while I was talking, and would you not do it again? That’s what I used to think it was, but really, what you’re referring to is, was the reason why they sneezed because they’re sick? I mean, assuming the cause wasn’t just a bright light, a photoelectric problem, or maybe something in the air, or they did like I did when I fed the horses this morning. The horses moved around, and stirred up all this dust action, and I sneezed. “God Bless You” really means that if you sneezed, I want God to heal you. Well, God empowers you to be healed of whatever caused you to sneeze. I believe that’s really where the root thing came from. But we don’t think of that when we say “God Bless You”. Now we can all think something different.

I want you to start thinking about the laziness of automatically responding without a thought. Here’s a different example. I walked around a lot at the Homeless Outreach, and when I sat down, and I sort of sighed, Uhhhh. Why did that have to come out? It really didn’t hurt to sit down, I wasn’t that tired, but it seemed like something was connected. That response automatically bypassed all thought, it bypassed my heart, it bypassed my intellect, it bypassed everything. I had just made all this noise that I didn’t need to make.

Lazy. Barren. “Love you too”. “God Bless You.” And here’s the worst- “Praise the Lord”! Now wait. What did you mean by that? Let’s take a few examples. Here comes the sacred cow tipping. “Praise the Lord.” That’s probably our best slogan in the Christian church. If you think of others, please let me know, and I’ll be sure and cut those up, too. When the prophet Elisha healed Naaman, the Syrian, of leprosy, do you think Naaman ran out there and said, “Thank you Jesus. Praise the Lord!” Naaman had no idea who Elisha was the day before that event, let alone Jesus, who hadn’t even been born yet. So when we say “Praise the Lord”, we’re trying to attribute some sort of credit to Jesus, aren’t we? If you start breaking it down, step by step, you’re trying to say, “Thank you Jesus”, when really, Jesus wasn’t anywhere around.

Is anyone here Jewish, by natural descent? Well, while you’re here in Matthew 12, flip over to Matthew 15:21. It says Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan (a non-Jew) came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; (she said, Praise the Lord) my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. (Undoubtedly, the woman kept saying Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord. Help!) But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Are you of the lost sheep of the house of Israel? No? Then Jesus was not sent for you. Sorry. For all our listeners on the tape, let’s let that sink in for a moment. If you are not one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Jesus was not sent to help you. He told that to the Canaanite woman that very day. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. Then he called the woman who followed him “a dog”. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

Well, something else happened, didn’t it. I’m not going to preach this message yet, because there is another one “in the works” on the “be made whole” message. Whole-ing vs. healing. He said, I cannot help you because I am only sent by God. My whole mission, the Christ in me, the hope of glory for the Father out of me is only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now you can be aware that when you said “Praise the Lord”, it had nothing to do with the Lord Jesus.

Let’s say a guy off the street gives you $l0.00, and your response is “Praise the Lord”. You’ve just called him your Lord, haven’t you? Am I right? Without knowing it, that’s actually what you’ve done. You’ve called him Lord. Well, he’s probably big enough to be Lord of you over the $10.00, but he ain’t big enough to be “Lord”. The Bible does say to call on Jesus as Lord.

I think we need to settle this right now before we go on with the message, so turn with me to Romans 10:13. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Ok. But he’s talking to the church at Rome. These guy she’s talking to aren’t Jews, are they? They’re not from the lost sheep of the house of Israel. They’re Romans. They’re Italians. How many Italians do we have in here? So the Italians can be saved! No, that’s not what he was talking about. Look what happened, Verse 1 Brethren, My heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. Well, that’s why Jesus was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. i.e., neither does the church, if they go after Jesus that way. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, He’s about to explain to us what being ignorant of God’s righteousness is. Well, if we’re ignorant of God’s righteousness, I don’t believe the righteousness of God will do us any good and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

Jesus said to the Canaanite woman, I can’t help you. I’m sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Still, she sought the righteousness which is by faith, so it was faith that was able to get her daughter delivered, not Jesus. Just as he said to the woman with the issue of blood, just as he said to the Roman Centurion, just as he said to the leper, “Your faith has made you whole.” You don’t praise the Lord, you come and follow, you take up your cross, i.e., your Christ, and follow me. You do what God wants you to do, now that your faith has made you whole. Don’t just come and try to imitate me, because I’m only sent for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. If you imitate me, you’ll have a ministry only to the Jews. They’re going about establishing their own righteousness. But the righteousness which is of faith, verse 6, says this, But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise. Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above). Or who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead).

In other words, don’t call on Jesus Christ, don’t try to bring him back physically to do the job. But what saith it? What does the righteousness which is of faith say? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, Isn’t that what the Canaanite woman did? She spoke some sort of word, and God saw what kind of faith she had. She said, I can get healed off your crumbs. I can get healed from you walking by. I can get healed because I understand that it’s not you that do the works, but the Father in you, Jesus. I know you are Jesus, but hey, that is the righteousness which is of faith, and that is the faith that saves. and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; This is important. We want to make sure we understand this. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Now Jesus is Lord, certainly, but when you praise something that a man or woman of God has done in the spiritual realm; healing, for example, you’re not praising Jesus, you’re giving glory to the Father. You might be thanking and giving honor to the man of God. Jesus was always Lord, he never stopped being Lord. But if he was always Lord, then why was someone sick yesterday before we laid hands on him if Jesus was still Lord yesterday? He is the same yesterday, today and forever. What was the difference? A different person came into the room, a person called by God in this age. What we need to realize is that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, but not much else is.

We’ve gotten this idea that because it said Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, that the Bible was the same yesterday, today, and forever, that other things are also that way. Well, go grab your old high school pictures and tell me if you are the same yesterday, today and forever. Jesus is! Period. We’re talking about the gospel of Christ.

Turn back to Romans l:16. because I want you to understand this. Jesus did not preach the gospel of Christ. Why? Because he was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He had a gospel, he had good news, but it was only for those that were the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He didn’t have good news for the Canaanite woman. Do you understand that? He told her he couldn’t help her. That’s not good news to the woman who’s got a daughter vexed with devils. But God would not leave those people out. Because she wasn’t a Jew, Jesus was not her man of the hour. If you were a Jew, he was your man of the hour. In Elisha’s day, Elisha was the man of the hour. In Elijah’s day, Elijah was the man of the hour. When Israel was in bondage to Egypt for 400 years, Moses was the man of the hour. When Moses lived out his 120 years, Joshua became the man of the hour. Do you understand what we are talking about?

What I want to present to you is that there are different gospels. Look at Romans l:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: The gospel of Christ is a new gospel; new since Jesus, and new because, it says here, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. This gospel of Christ includes the Canaanite woman, as well as the Jew. It includes the Greek, it includes male and female. It includes the sinner, it includes it all. It includes it all because It is a new gospel. What Jesus did made the way, he made the gospel available, but it is still a new gospel. I want you to follow me here. You don’t have to agree with me yet, but make sure you are following where I am headed. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written. The just shall live by faith.

I have a little list here. I don’t think we’ll even read these scriptures, but if you want to write them down, you can look them up later. One of the first gospels in the Bible is the gospel of circumcision. That’s what Galatians 2:7 calls what God did with Abraham. But contrary wise, when they saw that the gospel of uncircumcision was committed unto me as the gospel of circumcision was given unto Peter. This means that the Jews had a certain cut in the flesh. It was the gospel of circumcision. There was good news to Abraham that if his seed was circumcised, they would have all the rights and benefits of God in their age. But the new gospel said it didn’t matter if you are circumcised. It’s a different gospel.

Deuteronomy 28 lists the blessing of the law and the cursing of the law. If you obey my commandments, if you keep my statutes you will live, you will be blessed in the city, blessed in the field, blessed going in, blessed going out, above only and not beneath, you will be the head light, not the tail light. If you don’t, you’ll be cursed in the city, cursed in the field, all kinds of stuff. Forget about the curse part, just do what he says. But this is the gospel of deliverance that God gave Moses for his people. During that age, in the wilderness, if you obeyed these statutes and commandments, you would live. It was a gospel of deliverance. All the gospels were gospels of deliverance, but they had different ordinances. And they had different people that instituted that gospel.

Genesis Chapter 3:15 is where the gospel of the Messiah began. God tells the serpent in the garden that there would be one coming “who is going to do the hokey pokey on you”. The gospel of the Messiah is preached all the way through the prophets, through Jeremiah, through Isaiah. Surely a virgin will conceive and bear a son. And really, the prophets were the ones that continued to keep the gospel of the Messiah alive. Even through 400 years of bondage to Egypt, they still heard about this gospel… that there is one coming. Do you know who their messiah was? It wasn’t Jesus, it was Moses who was their deliverer. That’s what messiah means… a deliverer, a saviour. Deliverer means saviour. The word Joshua and the word Jesus is the same word, it’s really Joshua. So there was one Joshua, and there is another Joshua in Jesus. That’s how the system works. It’s the gospel, it’s good news that God has someone in mind to help you.

Luke Chapter 3:2. This verse talks about the gospel that John the Baptist preached. Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. This was the gospel at the time, and John the Baptist was the man of the hour. John the Baptist said, If I’m going to preach this message to you, and you will come and get baptized, your sins will be remitted to you. And the Bible says that the Lord went before him to see to it that everyone lined up to get dunked. Pharisees, scribes, all kinds of people wondered, What are we doing this for?, but they did it anyway. There was something on John the Baptist’s ministry for that gospel. Jesus wasn’t around, he wasn’t in his ministry yet, until the last day of that dispensation, if you will

I want to make sure this is clear. We’re not talking about what churches have said was a dispensation, we’re talking about what God said was a dispensation. Obviously, the message is going to be different to Israel when they are in Egypt than when they are out of Egypt. It’s going to be different when they are in the wilderness than when they are in the promised land. It’s going to be different when you have enemies to fight than when you don’t have enemies to fight. Things actually work a lot better today than they did in Jesus’ dispensation, because back then, if you were not part of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, you were in trouble! You didn’t have a saviour. As Ephesians 2:12 says, you were without hope and without God in the world. Why? Because you were strangers in the covenant with Israel, a promise, you were strangers from the seed.

Luke 3:2 says the gospel of baptism and repentance is what John the Baptist preached. Then we have Jesus’ gospel. Matthew 4:23 says Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom. The gospel Jesus preached was the gospel of the kingdom. That reminds me of Mark 4:1 which says He began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land. And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine, The gospel of the kingdom of God was Jesus’ doctrine. He was the first one to show us, So is the kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed into the ground. It was the gospel of the kingdom, and Mark 4 is filled with “and so is the Kingdom of God” over and over and over. It is the gospel of the Kingdom.

Please turn back to Romans 2:16. We were at Romans Chapter 1 where Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto deliverance. Verse 16 of Chapter 2: In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel, Paul had his own gospel. It wasn’t the gospel of Jesus. God gave Paul his own gospel. It wasn’t for Paul’s glory. It was Paul’s gospel, because he was the one uniquely designed by God to introduce it.

Here’s what I’d like to present to you, and we’re not off the message. We were talking about idle words, and about slogans. I present to you that the gospel of Christianity that is preached today is a combination of John the Baptist’s gospel and Jesus’ gospel, not the gospel for today, and that’s why it doesn’t do any more saving than it does. 99% of the words preached today, then, are idle since they are based upon a message for a particular group or era that has been completed. These words are idle- or empty of power- and worse than that, those that preach these obsolete powerless messages are against anyone, well it’s getting better now, that speak about faith. And the message of faith was the only message that could supersede those two gospels when they were preached in their proper age! If the Caananite woman hadn’t exercised some faith, her daughter would have died. And we’ve got plenty of daughters dying out there in Christianity today.

Remember, the words defining “idle” were lazy and barren. Why were they lazy? Did we read our own Bible? OK, we read it, so think about this. As easy as it is for me to say “God Bless You”, wouldn’t it be more effective to be saying, “By his stripes you are healed”? I mean, come up with something. Pray for them. Just say, “Is everything cool? Do you want me to pray for you?” Don’t just use that lazy response, the one that doesn’t take any thought.

For many years, I heard from God, who told me to buy bicycles around Christmas time to give to people. One particular Christmas, I had bought a bicycle, and it had been in the back of my truck for weeks. Christmas came and Christmas went, and I didn’t get a word from God on what to do with this bicycle. Hey, God, who’s this bicycle for? One day, I was driving down Sunset near Eastern, and saw a Hispanic man standing there with a couple of kids. God said, “That’s who”. I guess God didn’t know I had to be somewhere at 3:00, and that I was running late. I’d been trying to unload this bike for a long time, and now God wanted me to give away this bike when I was in a hurry. Really,it all came down to how much time I had, because I knew you couldn’t give a gift from God without giving the word of God with the gift.

God’s not just trying to dump bicycles on people. He’s trying to change their lives with a gift. We see that in Proverbs 16: A man’s gift maketh room for him. God had said, “That’s who”. There they were, I was running late, but I needed to do things the right way. I turned around, and spent the entire afternoon with those people. I missed my original appointment, but I found out about that family. They had already left Christianity for another religion because their gospel wasn’t working. See, if you just look in Bible and see the word “gospel”, you could get the idea that everything between the two covers is the gospel. But no, there are different gospels in here. There are different gospels, and if we allow these slogans to come up, they’ll work on us, and we won’t be able to rightly divide the word of truth.

I think we need to go back to Matthew 6:9. This is the famous prayer, Our Father which art in heaven. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Why did that come? Because Jesus preached the gospel of the Kingdom, and Jesus did his job. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive us our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine (yours, Father) is the kingdom, and (yours, Father) the power, and (yours, Father) is the glory, for ever, Amen.

Based on this verse, how much glory should Jesus get? None. According to that verse, Jesus should never get any glory. Now here’s lazy. How many churches have preached and prayed the “Our Father” and then sang a song that said, “Glory to the Lamb”? We did it. But not any more. We want to make this thing work. How about “The One and Only Son”? I sang this song on the Sea of Galilee. God got all over it, and it was just an amazing, miraculous thing. But now I’ve learned some things. The end of the song says, “Jesus, the one and only son”. But wait a second! As I stopped to slow down before words escaped my mouth, I realized that he is not the only son. The Bible says he is the first born among many brethren, that those that are led by the spirit of God, Romans 8:14, they are the sons of God. It says no more servants, but sons, and if sons, then heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus. He’s not the only begotten son anymore. He died so that we could bring many sons to glory. He paved the way for the gospel of Christ.

Now we’ve got a man named Paul who comes and preaches the gospel of Christ. Peter was supposed to have preached it, but what did Peter do? Peter preached the gospel of Jesus. It had already been done. It was a Jewish gospel. In fact, in Galatians 1:7, Paul tells the church how Peter, in the words he used, has “perverted the gospel of Christ”. The perversion began when Peter preached what Jesus preached instead of preaching what he was supposed to preach. “Oh just give me a little log cabin in glory”. Well, wait a second. Jesus said, In my Father’s house are many mansions”. If you want a little log cabin in glory, you won’t be anywhere near the Father’s house, i.e. you will not be a son.

Idle Words. Once you know something, I mean, we’re going to have to stop and think before we speak it. Well, let’s read Mark 16. Jesus has resurrected, and he’s telling the disciples what they’re supposed to preach. Verse 15, And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. You could think that’s the gospel that Jesus preached, the same thing. Well, wait. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; Wait a second! That’s not what Jesus preached. Jesus preached “So is the kingdom of God as a man should cast seed into the ground and sleep and rise night and day, etcetera, etcetera.

Wait a second. Which gospel is it that produces “saved”? Here’s a hint: I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16). Do you see it? He told them which gospel to preach! He said Go ye into all the world, (that should be your first clue, you’re leaving the Jews, OK, I sent you in Luke 9, I sent you in Luke 22, I sent you to go to the house of the lost sheep of Israel. Go two by two to their house. Take nothing with you. Do you remember the commission? But now we’ve got a new gospel because I am resurrected, because I did what I did. Now it’s your turn. You are the men of the hour. Go preach THIS gospel. Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. These signs shall follow them that believe;

Look at the things that happen in this ministry. It was Jesus who said, In my name they shall cast out devils. Can you see that when you’re preaching the gospel of John the Baptist, and the gospel of the kingdom of God, and not the gospel of Christ, you will not see devils cast out? I believe this is the reason why I have been so effective in casting out devils and healing the sick. “They will speak with new tongues (Mark 16). The apostle Paul was the only one in the Bible that said, I thank my God. I speak tongues more than you all, and he called the Gospel of Christ his gospel. They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. That’s the gospel of Christ, not the gospel of Jesus. It’s not the gospel of the kingdom of God, it’s not the gospel of deliverance from Moses, it’s not the gospel of the Messiah coming. The Messiah has come. Look at Israel. You don’t see those things happening in Israel, because they even stopped short of the gospel of baptism.

Well, that’s interesting. The gospel you believe is the one you’ve got to live with. I think we need to turn back to Matthew Chapter 12. Now that we transcribe these messages, I’m trying to fill you in, define the terms, and then let you go back and read it straight. So this is important. If I send you guys a letter talking about something we talked about today, you’d read it, and say, That was great. Did everyone get your “love letters”? If I sent you a letter, and you had attended that service where we talked about love, you’d know what we talked about. That’s why I wrote you the letter. And you’re saying, Yeah, I remember that. That was great.

Well, the gospel of Christ is contained in two thirds of the New Testament. Two thirds of our “Praise the Lord” book was written mostly by the apostle Paul about the gospel of Christ. Yet today’s church world can’t read a letter as if it’s a letter to them. These are letters to the churches at Ephesus, Corinth, Galatia, and Thessalonika. Letters. But we’ve got all these seminaries saying, “Well, he really meant this, brother”. That’s because they’re trying to translate it based upon the gospel of baptism, and the gospel of the kingdom of God. But I should be able to write you a letter, and if you are able to understand the gospel of Christ, much like you understood the message on love, when I send you a letter about love, you’d say, I know exactly what you mean. Just read it straight. You don’t have to get out your Thesaurus or your Strongs Concordance, Greek and Hebrew etc. etc. You just need to read it straight, and go, Yeah. Uh huh. Yep.

That’s a letter to me. So, doesn’t that lead you to believe that if the people in the church world cannot understand those letters without having to decipher them, without having to talk back and forth, and argue, then the letter is not to them. They have believed the wrong gospel, and they have believed them because their words became idle. They said, Praise the Lord, God Bless You, and didn’t stop to think about what they were saying. They read right over the Lord’s Prayer and gave glory to Jesus.

I’ll give you another example. The rich young ruler slid up to Jesus, and said, “Good Master”. Jesus said, “Why are you calling me good? There is nothing in me good but the Father. Don’t give me glory.” It’s all through the Bible, but they hallelujah’d at the message. they Amen’d, they did all the stuff I can’t do with my body because I am white. But while they did all that stuff, they still didn’t get it. They wondered why they fell out in the healing line, but couldn’t get back up. They were supposed to have gotten healed. They were supposed to have gotten delivered. It was the gospel unto deliverance. It’s the “I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ”. But the gospel of baptism wasn’t for deliverance, it was for repentance. The gospel of Jesus was to show how God does things. But it was only meant for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

We’ve read this stuff without thinking about it, before we let it come out of our mouth. Look back at Matthew 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. Well, we know for sure that that wasn’t the Holy Ghost that came on the Day of Pentecost, because the Day of Pentecost hadn’t come. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. In other words, if you’re bad, you might as well just be bad.

Jesse DuPlantis has a wonderful message called “Why are you going to hell going to church”. There are a lot more fun places to be than church. If you’re going to hell, you know it. You don’t care about anything, and you’re just going out there and trying to fit in. So what are you doing going to church? You should be out on the houseboat, or in a lot of other places, but not here.

Jesus is saying the same thing. Either make the tree good, and the fruit good, or make the tree bad. Jesus said that in Revelation to John on the Patmos. He said, You’re either hot or cold. But why even walk in this lukewarm wine here? I mean, coffee’s not good lukewarm. Milk is not good lukewarm. Nothing is good lukewarm. He said, “I will spew you out of my mouth”. These guys here are accusing him of being satan, and satan means “accuser”. Do you see why you’ve got him on “idle words”? They didn’t even know what they were saying. They are accusing him of casting out devils by the power of the devil. They were accusing him, or “sataning” him, in the literal Hebrew and Greek, of being satan. Pretty funny. And pretty idle. They didn’t stop to think before they said it. Either make the tree good, and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

We’ve got some lazy words coming out of our mouth, and it will mess up our heart. Didn’t it say in Romans Chapter 10, For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto deliverance. In the Gospel of Christ, faith has got to be in two places- your heart and your mouth, so you can’t afford idle words. We’ve got to stop and watch the lyrics to the songs we sing. When I started understanding that my words meant something, I started thinking about a lot of songs I sing. I can sing straight through all 273 of my Sinatra albums, but I started singing some of them one day, and the words caught me. I realized that I can’t sing some of the lyrics any more. There was one on the Count Basie/Sinatra album, something like, he’s out for revenge because his woman left him. After I came to myself, I realized why the woman had left him. She should have! Good girl. Way to go. But then I heard the lyrics, “I want to be around to pick up the pieces when somebody breaks your heart”. It’s a catchy tune, and I was getting excited about it, but, “Wait a second.” I realized that’s why it happened to me. By the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and confession is made unto whatever you are going to have.

Did I take the shout out of the meeting? A good man, out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things. And an evil man,out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things, but I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment for by thy words thou shalt be (a) justified, or by your words, (b) you will be condemned. Condemned by your own words. The gospel of Christ puts the authority of your life, of your future, of your everything, up to you. The gospel of Christ made it so. All we can do is teach you what to do, how to do it, and what to look out for. The one that hears it sooner and does it faster is the one who won’t have to go through any tribulation.

We were talking yesterday about how something just “leaked out”. I said, Where did that come from? What’s that still doing in there? I thought my heart was pretty darn clean, but all of a sudden, something just leaked out. I said, What was that? So I immediately took control. It’s sort of like when I’m getting a little too carefree, (I’ll call it out of control), if I start approaching 50 mph in a 45 mph, or change lanes into the left lane, but kind of move to the right just a little fast. I’m generally very faithful. I do 45 mph, and that’s it! If I just sell out to 45 mph, and if the light’s green ahead, I just prepare to stop. I take the time to realize that I’m not going to be pressured into anything, because pressure is really when something leaks out that you don’t want to leak out. It happens when you’re squeezed.

You can eliminate a lot of pressure in your life and practice walking without pressure by just taking the pressure off and saying, I don’t care. I started doing that, and catching back up, and finding out that that kind of thing was leaving doors open. Those things were letting stuff in that I didn’t know would leak out. And I don’t want to be condemned by those words. I want to be justified by every word. I want to speak a word over someone’s debt, and I want to hear, tomorrow, that everything has turned around in their life. I want to lay hands on the sick, and know that tomorrow, everything has turned around in their lives. I want to hear about it that minute, but I’m not looking for that. I’m not interested in a sign to determine whether God is working or not, I just want to be confident that I’ve got good stuff in here, so that good stuff comes out. Good things come to pass by my hands because I have made a conscious effort in what goes in my heart and what comes out my mouth.

So we sing the praise and worship songs, but we need to give them some thought. I had to apologize, but I had to walk out of the praise and worship at Kenneth Copeland’s place once I knew about some things that we’ve discussed about glory. I love Kenneth Copeland, he’s my father in the faith, but they’re out there singing the songs, and they don’t even realize what they are singing. Apparently they didn’t stop to think about the scriptures when they first wrote the songs. As we think about them, if something comes up regarding singing, and praise and worship songs, and you see somewhere in the scripture where it doesn’t work, just bring it up to Joseph or myself and we’ll be the first ones to change it.

Jesus said, If you were blind, you’d have no sin. But he says, Because you say, We See, your sin remains. So there is no sin if you didn’t know it wasn’t a truth. It wasn’t sin to those singing at Kenneth Copeland’s. It was robbing them of power at their ministry, surely, but it wasn’t a sin. It’s just that God couldn’t work the way He wanted to work, because He only works the way He said He would work. But now that you know it, it will be a sin for you to continue in it.

Finally, turn with me and we’ll let Hebrews 6:l-8 do the talking:

Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.