Why Some Christians Will Miss the Rapture

Wake up! You're totally aware what's happening with AI in our country, what's going on in our government, what's going on in Israel, what's going on in the Gaza Strip. You're awake that way. You're asleep in the spirit. I don't want anyone ever looking at me and screaming at the Great White Throne Judgment, why didn't you tell me the truth? If you associate with unbelievers and you tether yourself to unbelievers, you will start falling asleep. We live in an onslaught of worldliness, of death. It's all masked with delight, happiness, laughter. I'm I'm concerned for all these people that are watching this program thinking this is normal when in reality it's death. Hey everybody, welcome to the John Bevere Podcast. I'm John Bevere, joined by my son Arden. It's great to see you.

It's so good to see you.

Good. That's a good color on you. Thank you. Hey, uh, we just want to remind you up front, we'd love for you to join this team. It seems like an army that God is raising up. Uh, we'd love for you to become a patron, and if you're interested in that, just click the link below. Now we are talking about the 7 churches in the Book of Revelation. Why would I spend so much time talking about it? Because it's an apocalyptic book. It's talking about the time period of the second coming of Jesus. We are living in that time period. And there is such an urgency in me, Arden, Arden, almost to the point where I was laying in bed the other night, 2 o'clock in the morning, and I'm reading about people that had near-death experiences and experienced hell.

Yeah. Well, and then what if we took it serious as if these are letters to our day and age where like there's things that we can take from here. And you're like, oh, I would love to hear a letter straight from Jesus to the American church.

Or let me say this though, okay, so if you got 7 churches and this is so close to the time of the original apostles, yeah, all right, because these churches were in 90 AD, so we're not even in the 2nd century, and this is Jesus's words, and 5 out of the 7 gets sternly corrected.

Yeah.

Does Jesus correct them because he wants to be mean, harsh, and rude? No, he loves them. He died for us. So show me somebody that's not correcting. Yeah. And I'll show you somebody that really doesn't care.

Yeah.

They just want to win you over. They just want your approval. They just want your accolades. They just want your money. I mean, that— I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in Jesus looking at me one day and saying, son, Thank you for being faithful to tell my beloved church that I gave my life for, that is my bride, the truth. And I think that's why John the Baptist had such urgency. John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way of the Lord, right? He is not speaking nice flowery kind words to make everybody feel comfortable in their lukewarm condition, in their fallen state. He looks at them and says, hey, Quit saying, quit saying this, that we've got Abraham as our father. God can raise up stones from these Abrahams. I feel like the Spirit of God is saying, quit saying I prayed a sinner's prayer, because God can raise up faithful sons and daughters from the hood, from the slums, from the jungles of, of, of, of South America. He can find them. And so I so love the American people. I love this nation. I have been a patriot at heart, but I'm a believer first. And I hope that people in our nation listen to me, because I'm going to ask this big question today. Okay, are you ready for the big question? All right, are there, are there quote Christians that are going to miss the Rapture, that are going to miss the catching away of the church? I believe in this church of Sardis, Jesus gives us a glimpse.

Yeah.

And I'm going to boldly state it.

Okay.

And I'm not saying true Christians, I'm saying people that really believe they're Christians but they're not. Wow. Okay, because right now we got a lot of, you know, Jesus 4 times warns about deception.

Yeah.

All right, they said, what's going to be like right before your second coming? He said 4 times in one chapter, chapter Matthew 24, go look it up. Be careful that you're not deceived. Be careful, be careful, be careful. I mean, we're just going along the status quo. We're just going along like, oh, everything's great. Yeah, you know, I go to church once a week, I've prayed a sinner's prayer, I read my Bible, you know, once in a while, but We're, we're lost in the world's ways.

Yeah. Well, and I actually think even with the, like, evolution of AI and social media and everything like that, is you actually have a lot more people that are searching for something real. They're like, I'm tired of actually being deceived. I'm tired of seeing one thing on social media, then a completely different thing behind the, the walls. And then I'm tired of seeing all these things that are happening. And they're like, actually tell me how it is. And finally, like, someone please tell me what it is that The word of God is saying, what is it that he's speaking to? What does this look like right now, how I should be living? And so I do see a positive within that where I'm like, I've talked to more and more people who are like, man, I've gone through this motions of just believing anything that sounded good. Now I'm like, no, I want truth. I want the real truth and I wanna know what's happening.

I learned a long time ago, especially with young people, not with people my age, young, young people, I can give it to 'em as strong as I want, as long as they know 3 things. Number 1, I believe what I'm preaching. Number 2, I live what I'm preaching. Number 3, I care about them.

Yeah, I was going to say, care about them. Yeah.

You know, people can tell if you care.

Yeah.

And I really care. I don't want anyone ever looking at me and screaming at the great white throne judgment. Why didn't you tell me? Yeah. Why didn't you tell me the truth? And, you know, I just— I had a horrible thing happen 2 weeks ago. I spoke to 21 governors. Well, actually, 20 governors. One got up and walked out. But I didn't hold back and the governor over the National Governors Association gave a book to everyone. And I remember thinking, okay, I'm gonna speak here, this governor's gonna hear what I have to say, so I'm going to be nice to him and kind of go out of my way and actually say some things that, mm.

You actually didn't believe.

Yeah. I remember he got up and walked out and it was a very powerful meeting. But I remember the next 2 days I cried out to God. I cried out to God. I said, God, I'm so sorry. I assumed he would be there to hear and I should have been straightforward with him because if I really cared about him, I would have been straightforward with him. And you know what? I just— I learned from it. I've just got to remember it doesn't matter what is— what is the person's face looking at me? Why does that matter? Because somebody may go, oh, thank you. Or somebody may go, are you kidding? You're crazy. Or I'm going to hurt you. I don't even like what—

Well, and then also I think so many people are used to being oftentimes told what they want to hear. And sometimes when you tell them what they want to hear, it's like, yeah, that's nothing new. Or they're going through like, yeah, I've heard that before. And then you actually lose the ability to speak into their life. Whereas I've known when I've been in conversations with young people and I've talked to them and I've told them like, hey, you just told me all these things. You know, this is wrong. Like, you know, you shouldn't— like, this is not what you should be doing. Like, I almost see them like shift to be like, I actually so value that you said that. Like, you didn't just be like, oh, you're getting there. It's like, no, you understand that's wrong. And it's like almost if you would have caught their attention by not just flattering, it's like telling, hey, this is actually wrong. Sometimes you think, oh, the worst could happen is they get up and leave the room. But you told them what you thought they wanted to hear and they still get up and leave the room. But then other times it might be, hey, you tell them maybe what they're not wanting to hear and it will get their attention and be like that wake-up moment that they've been hoping and believing for.

I remember, I remember when I was, um, in ministry, like this was like 30 years ago. Yeah, I'm preaching in this church and this 18-year-old got up and stormed out. He was so mad and he was sitting in the, like the second row, so everybody sees it because it's only like 150 people in the church and I remember I thought, I'm not drawing back. And I kept going and going. And when I was done with the service, that kid was waiting on me and he was in tears. And he said, I was so mad. And he said, what do I need to do? And that kid got saved.

Yeah.

You know, and so the truth, the truth will set people free, but we got to speak it in love. Of course, which I know we've already talked about half or a lot about Sardis. It's affluent. Even the people in the world envied Sardis. They said, oh my gosh, they live such an opulent lifestyle. And so they didn't care in Sardis whether you serve Jesus Christ or whether you serve their idols. Yeah. Okay. Very similar to America. Unfortunately, it rubbed off totally wrong in this church. Instead of using that liberty and that freedom to be even more bold to preach the gospel, they started assimilating themselves and becoming like the culture. And so Jesus says this right to the messenger of the Church of Sardis. This is a message from the one who has the sevenfold Spirit of God and the seven stars. I know the things you do. Again, speaking to actions and that you have a reputation reputation for being alive, but you are dead. Okay, this isn't a preacher, this isn't a pastor, this is Jesus Christ saying to a church, not a city. Okay, your reputation is your life, but you are dead. Okay, this is why I'm so passionate right now, because as I was praying this morning, I was up at 5 o'clock out praying on the tennis courts. Then I'm going over these notes, I'm like, Jesus, how can I not be so bold when you are so bold? And I'm thinking all of a sudden the thought comes to me, Arden, what would Jesus say to the American church? Let's say we're 90, we're at 90 AD and some great man of God has the revelation of Jesus Christ. And Jesus says to the messenger of the Church of the United States, right, you have a name that says you're alive. Okay. We talked about in our previous podcast what it what a church would look like that has a reputation for being alive. Let's talk about believers. Let's bring it down to the believer because we didn't talk about that. What would give a reputation for being alive and being a Christian? I prayed the sinner's prayer. Yeah, right. I attend church. I attend a fellowship group. I listen to Christian music. What?

Growing.

I would say I'm growing. I associate with believers. Yeah. Somebody asks me, that's a Christian. Somebody looks at me. Let's, let's say I'm on a pickleball court and they look at me and say, Are you a believer? Oh yeah, I'm a believer. They're quick to acknowledge it. So they have a reputation for being alive. But Jesus looks right at them because he loves them so much and says, you're dead. Wow.

Yeah.

Okay, so then what's the next word? Wake up. Yeah. So in other words, wake up means you're asleep. Okay, that's huge. You're asleep. You are in You are in essence not cognizant of the real world.

Yeah, you're sleepwalking.

You're— no, you're totally aware what's happening with AI in our country. You're totally aware with what's going on in our government, what's going on in Israel, what's going on in the Gaza Strip. You're— you're where you're awake that way. Mm-hmm. You're asleep in the spirit. Yeah, but you think you're alive. All right. Wake up, strengthen what little remains now. Listen to that word remains really caught my attention because I didn't really talk about this. You and I didn't talk about this. What little remains, that means at one time they had it. Mm-hmm. Okay. And the reason I know at one time they had it, because he said, for even what is left is almost dead. Oh my gosh. It's like he's leaving no wiggle room here. All right. I find that your actions— so what's causing this sleep? Their actions. 'Your actions do not meet the requirements of our God.' In other words, they are taking the gospel lightly. They are just associating with the gospel, with the epistles, associating with being a believer, but they're not living it. 'Your actions don't meet the requirements of my God.' This is straight from the Bible. I haven't even gotten off the Bible yet, okay? This is Jesus's words. They're in red. They're the only red words you're going to find outside of the Gospels, with the exception of two places in the epistles and the book of Acts. Okay, so I think we should listen to these. You know, some people go, well, that was Jesus speaking before, you know, in the Old Covenant, in the Gospels. And, you know, they make up all these excuses. Hey, this is Jesus speaking after he's been raised from the dead. This is Jesus speaking to churches. This is not Jesus speaking to the Jewish people in the Gospels. I mean, it's all valid. I don't want anybody to misunderstand me, but I'm saying, how much more direct is he being right now?

Yeah.

So he said, okay, I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of God. Go back to what you heard and believed at first. So obviously strengthen what little remains means at first they heard the true gospel. At first they were walking with God, and then it began to die. They began to fall asleep. They began to walk away. This is serious. Okay, serious stuff. And I'm just going to ask you, you're watching this podcast right now. You're listening to this podcast. I think you need to do what the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthian church, examine yourselves to see if you're in the faith. He said, don't you understand that bad company, evil company corrupts good morals? In other words, evil company, if you associate with unbelievers and you tether yourself to unbelievers, you will start falling asleep. You will become insensitive. I mean, we are seeing this. There's this couple and, you know, a lot of people were talking about it. I know it's a couple of months ago, it was a big topic, but, You know, they're very popular and they're very sweet.

Yeah.

But they have decided to highlight 3 couples on their season-long program. And one of the, quote, couples, which is ridiculous, is 2 married men. First of all, how can you use God's term marriage for 2 men? Yeah, that's ridiculous. Call it a— if you want to call it a union or a— what do you want to— what's the word I was looking for anyway?

Relationship. Something's not marriage.

Don't take the word marriage because God God said marriage is between a man and a woman.

Yeah.

Okay, so it's, it's like, what are you doing taking God's term that he put right in the book of Genesis, Jesus supports in the gospels, and you're using it for two men? So here's a, a couple that professes Christianity, tells the public we're Christians, and they're putting two men that have adopted two boys. I feel so bad for those two boys. Yeah, never going to have a mother's nurture, what God intended. Mm-hmm.

Never going to see that union that God intended.

No.

I mean, that's one—

a civil union. That's the word I was looking for. Okay, so, so now I— what's really scary is the couple are so sweet. They're so— they're so loving. They're so kind. They're so adorable. But yet they've done something that literally is an insult in the face of Jesus Christ. Here he has nails driven in his hands and feet. Yeah, to set us free from something that Leviticus makes so clear is an abomination in the sight of God. Paul makes so clear in Romans chapter 1 that when we push God away, all of a sudden men start lusting after men, women start lusting after women, and this is a result of us pushing God away. And I call myself a Christian and I platform them to the entire country Okay, I'm, I'm not being mean, harsh, and with this couple, okay, what I'm saying is how many people are going to watch this and go, oh, you can be a Christian and, and, and, and, and, and do what is an abomination to God? Yeah, I know I keep interrupting you because I'm so passionate.

No, I mean, I just have questions around it.

Okay, let's talk.

Well, I think, I think obviously the, the big argument, and even kind of going what back what you were saying because I thought it was good if we clarify, because you were talking about spending time with unbelievers and that thing is, I think, obviously people can say, well, Jesus spent a lot of time with unbelievers.

Absolutely.

Jesus was never conformed by the unbelievers.

He controlled the atmosphere.

He controlled the atmosphere. So I think clarifying that. But then I think the other side of what people—

because I'm going to say this, I want everybody to hear it. We're supposed to be bedside to the world, not jump in bed with the world.

Well, exactly. And that's where I think the other side of what people will be saying is, well, how do I show love? To people. Like, they could even use this couple, be like, well, what they're trying to do is they're trying to love on these people, and then hopefully that will help, or hopefully that will do something. It's like, that's not the right way of doing it. And that's, that's leaving the cracks that are essentially what led to Sardis's demise. I mean, if you look at history, it's actually they were not watchful, and the Persians crept in unnoticed and took full advantage of the city of Sardis. So they were sleeping and that happened. So, I mean, like, for you, Dad, like, obviously a father in the faith, like speaking into that, why is that the wrong approach?

Okay. God is love. And if you look at 1 John and John's the apostle of love, right? He said, this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. All right. So in essence, if you go back to the garden, you know, Eve chose what was good for her outside of what God said.

Yeah.

All right, if we define a love that is outside of what God says, is outside of his commandments, okay, now there's over 500 commands in the New Testament, okay? All right, so if we define love outside of that, it's not really true love. It's the world's love, but we've diluted it, right? Or excuse me, it's the world's love and we diluted the love of God and now we're calling something that the world calls kindness, Acceptance. Help me with some words. The world would say things like, oh gosh, help me.

You're talking about endorsement?

Kindness? I endorse, I embrace, I accept. No matter what you want to do, what you want to believe, I'm okay with it. I'm just going to be kind to you no matter what. Now, if I truly loved, I would be patient and kind, but I also wouldn't compromise the word of God.

Wouldn't be accepting into that.

I, I would say I love you. You know, I, I love— we have a very, very dear couple that is very close to this ministry. They teach a lot for our ministry. They've got a son. Yeah, they've got—

that's what I was going to ask you about, because we've talked about that in the past. We talked about the that specific son and then the dynamic there of even him, the father, being like, well, what do I do with the wedding? How am I supposed to navigate that? How am I supposed to handle that?

So, I mean, he just made it so clear to his son, son, I love you. I'll always love you.

Yeah.

Your mother loves you, will always love you. But we absolutely do not condone what you're doing. What you're doing is wrong in the eyes of God. What you're doing will bring nothing but sorrow to your life. It'll bring destruction eventually to your life. But I want you to know I'm always here for you. I'm always— anytime you need me. And, you know, I mean, the son went through a, quote, divorce. I don't know how you can get a divorce when you're never really married in God's eyes. But anyway, how could two committed— it's a governmental divorce, correct? And, you know, his dad and mom were right there for him. But then he went right kind of back. But, you know, we're praying, we're believing that his eyes are going to be open. He's going to— because there's only one reason God commands us. Do you know why? To protect us. Yeah, he loves us. He, he's saying this will lure you into a trap. If you're watching somebody that's walking right towards quicksand, let's say the quicksand is very, very quick. It will swallow a person up in 60 seconds and there's no way getting out of it, right? Unless you have a miracle or somebody helps you get out of it. And somebody is walking right to that quicksand and you don't say anything to that person about walking into that quicksand. And you know that quicksand is going to take his life. That's the most unloving thing you can do. Yeah, you absolutely do not love that person. Let them walk into that death.

Yeah. Well, and can I say this is like, this is kind of taking it to the— I think not the extreme, but the understanding of what we have to be doing where it's just sin in general. And I know people can classify like different sins and they try to put them like, oh, this one's more extreme. This is just sin in general. Is the understanding of sin getting a foothold into your life what that will do? Because I look at that couple and I think there was at a time they probably would have had a different stance. And I know I'm just speaking for them. That could be wrong. But the thing is, is go back to what you first believed.

Yeah, that's what Jesus said.

Exactly. That's what he's saying to the churches. But then the thing is, is they probably have been in an environment where it's, hey, there's all these people like we had these conversations, we've heard people's stories, we understand like, oh man, this is just their tendency. And what happens probably over time is it just began to be like, no, I feel more for the person rather than what the word of God says. And so then they're thinking, well, my love for that person, because I do love this person, means I need to— like, I've heard, I've expressed their things. I've seen the way that they're navigating or leaning towards those things. It's like, you know, actually, I feel for them. You know what? Maybe it's OK. And then it just begins to slowly start dilute in their life, which is kind of what exactly what Church of Sardis.

Yeah.

What Jesus is saying to the Church of Sardis is like, you have been lulled asleep to the things that are unmaking people, essentially.

So good.

And so it's the same thing for our lives, though. It's like, you know, the movies we watch. Like, if you're watching movies that are constantly having nudity or a TV show that's constantly having nudity into it, fornication, next thing you might know is you might be— you might be saying, you know what, I think it's completely fine if I watch porn because they're nice people.

Well, especially on the movies.

I'm sorry, we're like, not that I said pornography, not that. But I'm saying like, It might be okay is you're starting to lull your conscience almost asleep in that way. Yeah, 'cause you're allowing sin just to feel like it started out small, maybe I'm starting to understand it a little bit more and it just begins to keep kind of unfolding.

So the thing is we live in an onslaught of worldliness, of death in this nation. It's all masked with delight, joy, excuse me, happiness, laughter. It's masked with kindness, niceness. And you got to realize that, I mean, God said in the Old Testament, a guy can come along and perform an absolute miracle. And if he doesn't, if he does it in the name of a foreign god, you are to stone him in the Old Testament, right? Okay. So somebody can come with an aspect of love. They're nice. Okay, but they're not adhering to the commandments of God. So it's got a form of godliness, but it denies the power of godliness. So what's tripping people up so much, and that's why I just couldn't wait to get on this podcast this morning, as you can tell, I came out of these blocks kind of strong, okay, is because it's the masking that's causing people to be lulled asleep. Okay, let's say I, I, I put, you know, a nice piece of mango around a piece of arsenic.

Yeah.

And I wrap that thing up and I hide that arsenic in it and I give that to a little kid. That little kid's going to take that piece of mango because your son loves mango so much. I always bring a mango when I come see him. He's going to eat that thing. And you know what? It's going to taste really good in his mouth. Yeah, it's going to taste good. It's going to smell good.

Yeah.

For the next thing. It would kill him.

Yeah.

Okay. And Jesus loves this church. Wake up. Okay, go back to what you heard and believed at first. So you just said it so beautifully. If they would just go back to where they first started reading their Bibles when they first got saved, they never would have platformed a couple like this. Because now here's the other problem. If you look at Paul, Paul talks about the Corinthian— he talks about in the Corinthian church, 1 Corinthians 5, He says, you got— he says to this church, you have a man in your church that is sleeping with his stepmother.

Yeah.

And he says to this church, this is amazing. You're proud. Yeah, you're proud. Why are they proud? Because they think just loving and being kind and being nice to this guy will eventually get him out of this immorality, this sexual immorality. And Paul rebukes the church. Because he said, you're proud. You think your wisdom is better than God's. He said, here's what God says. Put that man out of the church. And then he gives the reason. He said, because a little leaven leavens the whole lump. If I take a dough, okay, and I put leaven into it, that leaven will eventually spread throughout that entire dough. Okay. Paul said, what's going to happen? Is this thing's going to spread to the whole church. You got all these young believers in the Corinth church. They're going to think God's okay with sexual immorality. Yeah. Oh, there's nothing wrong with that. My concern is I'm concerned for all these people that are watching this program thinking this is normal.

Yeah.

When in reality it's death. It will, it will pull somebody away from their Creator. It will pull somebody away from having fellowship, intimate fellowship, which every human being craves for. God put eternity in our hearts, and now all of a sudden people are going, oh, I could be a Christian and I can live however I want to live.

Yeah. And well, I was going to say, I think, you know, then the other side of that is you said obviously they're platforming, which I mean, that's that's their responsibility or their platform to steward that well. But then you have the reverse side of it where you have people probably even listening to this program that, you know, they know people that are in a same-sex relationship. They know people that are caught in sin. They're not saved, the people that they know. They know that they're not walking with God, but they want to be a light to them, which I mean, I think, how is it that they represent and show that light to them?

Love them.

Yeah.

Give them beautiful things.

But hang on, let me make sure, because you just said love them. I want to make sure people hear this because you said love them, but earlier you explained what love is, because a lot of people have said, well, the couple platforming, they're just trying to love on them. But you showed that was not the right love. You're saying agape love, like love on them the way that God has shown his love, like the way God is love. So, okay, go ahead.

So that means you don't you don't, um, you don't refrain from showing compassion and charity and goodness to them, but you make it abundantly clear. This is what I believe: God loved me before I got saved. Yeah, I'm loving you before, but you're not saved. Yeah, don't tell me you're saved because Jesus said I would know you by your fruits. I just want to make it clear to you, I love you, God loves you, but right now you're on a pathway. It's good. And this is what this dad has done with his son. Yeah, and this dad and mom made it very, very clear. You're on a path I'm gonna beat you to death right now, but I love you and I'm gonna stay with you. I'm gonna stay with you in the sense that anytime you need me, I'm gonna be there. He said at one point, you know, the behavior got a little bit bad because of the way he was treating the mother. And he said, you know, you gotta leave the house for a while. And, you know, he came back, said, I'm sorry. But, you know, he knew he could come back. He knew his parents loved him. And I'm believing that that young man's going to be set free.

And you never know what the people have never been told. Like, I remember— and hopefully you're okay with me sharing the story— but I remember we were at a church and you preached the message on killing Kryptonite, and you very firmly, like, you went through and you talked about those who do these things will not inherit the kingdom of God, and you went through the list. But you—

the list—

before you went to the list, yeah, but before you went to the list, you stopped with sexual sin, which you said, look, I'm first on the list. Like, I'm not throwing— I'm not throwing stones. And you're showing, like, look, we're all sinners.

And I was bound to pornography for 6 years of my life and got free in '85, which I think that's even the most beautiful way to show and bring someone's barriers down is showing like, look, I was struggling with sin.

I had this. God saved me. And I loved how you did that. But then you went through the list. And in that service, I remember afterwards, I had two women come up to the book table and they were like, can I please buy this book? And then they begin to tell me, they said, we have been attending this church for about a year now. "We are a couple, and no one has told us that what we are doing is sin." And they said, "We wanna both buy this book. We broke up right away." And they were just waiting for someone to tell them what was wrong. But then I remember so clearly, as I found out later, is that the pastor had called you in between services and said, "Hey, we don't address those things publicly. We address them in small group." And so even though the pastor's thinking like, "No, these things are being addressed," you have a couple or, you know, two women that are in the church that, like, they were just waiting for someone to tell them what you're doing is wrong. And they deeply— they knew it. And as soon as they hear it, they're like, oh, we love God more than this. Like, we're, we're done. And they buy the book and everything. And so you never know what people are waiting to hear if you tell them it in the right way, in the loving way, in the compassionate way.

It's so important that people heard what you just said. It's just so important. We're not trying to bring people into bondage. We're trying to actually get people free. Yeah, people, we bring ourselves— we brought ourselves into bondage. Jesus came to liberate us. He came to open our eyes. Yeah. So go back to what you heard and believed at first. Hold firm. Hold to it firmly. Repent. Repent means I'm going to let go of my stupidity, of the way I've been thinking, and embrace the Word of God and turn to me again. If you don't wake up. So if you don't wake up, we've heard wake up twice. I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief. Okay, here's where we get to our question. First of all, let me address this wake up. I want to take us to Ephesians 5:5-15. I'm going to just read a few of the verses. Paul makes this statement, "You can be sure," I don't know how much clearer that could be, "that no immoral, impure, or greedy person." Now immoral means you're having sex outside of marriage. Or you are looking at pornography on a regular basis. You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the kingdom of Christ and God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Now listen to what he says next. Don't be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God, or the wrath of God, will fall on those who disobey him. Don't participate in the things people do. Then he goes on to say, carefully determine what pleases God. So don't do this haphazardly. Don't think that social media is going to inform you on what God wants you to do, right? Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness. Instead, expose them. That's what we're doing. When I read this, I've read it many, many times, I felt like the Holy Spirit was like, son, are you going to expose this? Are you just going to keep skirting it? Are you going to expose it? And I thought, I got to expose it because I'm thinking, yeah, for every 8 people that get really angry at me right now, what if there's 2 people like those 2 women? What if they realize, oh my gosh, I am on the pathway to death, hell, and the grave? And after reading those near-death experiences of what those people experienced when they were in hell, I mean, The fear, the terror, the agony is so unspeakable. This is what people want when they want freedom from God. Hell is not God throwing people into a prison. It is people getting the horrible freedom from God that they always wanted. That's hell. I don't want you, God. I don't want anything to do with you. I want to be free from you. That's And if you say, I can have my sin and God too, well, you just deceived yourself because God, Jesus paid a horrific price to give us the power to be liberated so we could walk as he walked. That's what the Bible says. Okay, so take no part in worthless deeds of evil darkness. Instead, expose them. It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret, but their evil intentions will be exposed when the light— that's the truth of the Scripture— shines on them, for the light makes everything visible. This is why it says, 'Awake, O sleeper!' Okay, who's the sleeper? The one who has embraced darkness, embraced ways that are contrary to the ways of God. 'Rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you life.' And then Next statement. So be careful how you live. All right. So I think it's quite amazing. Now, what I want to talk about is the question that we asked right up front. Are there, quote, Christians that are going to miss the catching away? All right. Verse 3. And this is where we're going to conclude with Sardis. Jesus said, repent and turn to me again. If you don't wake up, I will come to you as unexpected as a thief. Now let's stop right here. He is constantly saying in the Gospels that he's going to come as a thief. Okay. He tells this church, if you don't wake up, I'm going to come to you unexpectedly as a thief. All right. I'm going to tell you, I'm going to tell you exactly what Paul wrote in Thessalonians. Okay. 1 Thessalonians 5:2-8. The day of the Lord. What is the day of the Lord? The 7-year tribulation. All right. The day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. So Jesus said, I'll come to you as unexpectedly as a thief to this church.

Yeah.

Okay. When people— and these are the people that are not walking with God— when people are saying everything's peaceful and secure, then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman's labor pains begin, and there will be no escape. Gosh. I mean, there's no escape. Once the tribulation starts, there's no escape. You're either going— there's going to be a lot of people saved, and I believe the Antichrist is going to be given power over those people. It says it so clearly. He's going to be given power over them. He's going to put masses to death, Jews and believers, Jewish believers and Gentile believers, because we— I believe there's many are going to realize, oh my gosh, I thought I was one way, but I was really another way. I thought I was in light, but I was asleep. I was in darkness. But you brethren, listen to this, verse 4, but you brothers and sisters are not in darkness, so this day should overtake you as a thief. Paul just wrote to us believers who truly walk with Jesus and said, hey, you're not in darkness. This day will not overtake you as a thief. Jesus says to the church in Sardis, if you don't wake up, I'm going to come to you as unexpected as a thief. Yeah. Which means what? This— they're no different than society because people are going to say in society, peace and safety. Then sudden destruction comes of the 7-year tribulation because it's going to be days like it's never been before. Think about World War II. Think about all the horrific things that have happened all through human history. Nothing will match what those 7 years are going to be like. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light, sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do. Who would be those who were sleeping? Sardis. Yeah. Okay. But let us watch and be sober. What did Jesus say 3 times in 4 verses in Mark talking about his return? What I say to you, I say to all. Watch. He said watch 3 times in 4 verses. The person who is not watching is the person who's asleep.

Yeah.

What happens to a centurion if he falls asleep? He can't watch. To that guy, the watchman on the wall, he falls asleep. He's no longer watching. Okay. He's sleeping. Yep. Now Jesus closes it with this. Yet there are some in the Church of America Okay, it says Sardis. I'm going to put America. Yet there are some in the Church of America because some of the most beautiful Christians I've met are right here in this nation. Yeah, there are some in the Church of America who have not soiled their clothes with evil. So we are told to keep our garments white. They've not soiled their clothes with evil. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. Now, what is he talking about with soiled clothes? James 1:27 says, pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father is this: to keep oneself from being stained by the world. Jude 22, English Standard Version. We are to hate— listen to the word hate— the garment stained by the flesh. Revelation 16:15. Blessed is he who watches. Okay, he's not asleep. He's watching. He's awake. He's reading the word of God. He's praying. He's being careful how he lives. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. Unfortunately, we've not emphasized the seriousness of keeping our garments unspotted from the world, but yet that's the church that Jesus is coming back for. If you look at Matthew 22, Jesus tells a parable. He said, you know, he tells this parable about a wedding and these guys go out and they invite the people in the highways and the byways to come in. And so when the king, this is verse 11 through 13 of Matthew 22, but when the king came in to see the guests, He saw a man there who wasn't wearing proper clothes for the wedding. Can you imagine if Christian, when you guys got married, would have shown up at the back there and it wasn't a church, we were outside in a beautiful place. Can you imagine if she would have shown up with her dress all spotted with tomato juice and, and, you know, olive oil and sodas and the dress was totally wrinkled? How would you have felt? She didn't take this marriage very seriously.

No, didn't prepare.

She spent so much time preparing her beauty for you for that day. And here we're the church and we think we can just sleep around with the world, stain our garments. Yeah. And then all of a sudden Jesus is going to come and catch me out of this. Yeah, we're deceived. Okay, the king—

go ahead. Well, I was going to say, which I do love about this, This is just like, what a great promise though, for those who are keeping their garments clean. Yeah, I read that and I'm just like, what an amazing thing, saying I will never erase his name from the Book of Life, and I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. Like, yep, what a promise.

That's a promise. So keep that in mind when you hear this. He saw a man there who wasn't wearing the proper clothes for a wedding, so he said to him, friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? He was speechless. 'Then the king said to the servants, bind him hand and foot, take him away, cast him to outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing.' I'm sure when he first got the invitation in the highways and the byways, he was very excited, but he fell asleep. He allowed his garment to be stained. You know, we couldn't do any works in our own strength, so God gave us this gift called grace. And this is why Paul said, don't receive the grace of God in vain, because it takes the grace of God to keep our wedding garments It empowers us to keep our wedding garments pure. God puts this robe of righteousness on us. He puts this white linen robe of righteousness on us. It's our responsibility to keep it clean. Hey, we sin, we repent, and God says, I'll wash your garment. But when you live in sin, you keep living in sin, you keep living in sin, now all of a sudden you've gone asleep and you're not in a repented state anymore. And now You're stained.

Yeah. Can I even say this too, which I'm— I think we looked this up on Logos Bible or Logos Bible software, but I love the word that was used in the Greek here for the white clothes, which I'm not even going to pronounce it, but when I looked it up, it's the same word that was used in Matthew 17 and that depicts Jesus's clothes on the Mount of Transformation.

Transfiguration. Which isn't that crazy?

Yeah. What God—

you know, I looked up all four of those words. And here's the paraphrase of what he said. Those who have not soiled their garments, in other words, were not influenced by what drives the world. They shall walk around with me as a partner, as a partner, and they will be clothed with bright, brilliant, dazzling white, for they are deserving and honorable. That's taking all 4 Greek words of verse for and putting them together. And then he makes the statement, you just said it, I'll never erase their names from the Book of Life. Who gets their names erased? Because you know what that word erase means? It means to eliminate, to do away with, to wipe out. That's the original Greek word. He's saying, I will not eliminate or wipe out their names from the Book of Life.

Yeah.

The only way you can be in the Book of Life is if you truly are written down in the Book of Life. Yeah. All human beings aren't written in the Book of Life. Paul made statements like, hey, my fellow workers who are— whose names are written in the Book of Life, man. Jesus gave the promise, I'll never erase, I'll never eliminate, I'll never blot out your name from the Book of Life. We've got to watch. Yeah, we've got to be on high alert. We've got to realize we live in a war zone. We don't live. We don't live.— in a playground. We live in a war zone. And I just feel the Spirit of God is directing me to you right now. Some of you right now, you're wrestling with thoughts of same-sex attraction, or you're wrestling with thoughts to commit adultery. You're wrestling with thoughts to commit fornication. Listen, can I say this? I don't know a human being that's not tempted like that. The question is, are you going to act on it, or are you going to allow God's grace in your life to give you the power to walk away from it? I know he gave me that power to walk away from pornography. I know pornography is not the vice that is unbreakable to the believer. I know there are some men that think it is right now. You're thinking, I can't get out of this. Yes, you can. His name is Jesus. He's more powerful. His grace is more powerful than anything the world could ever throw at you. And I, I just want a point of contact. Let's just put our hands together here. Arden, let's put— I'm putting my hand up there just like this. I want you to put your hand on the screen because I felt the Holy Spirit said to pray for you this morning because I knew how strong this message was going to be. But Father, I pray for my brother. I pray for my sister. Lord God, in the name of Jesus, you came to set the captives free. You said the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for he's anointed me to set the captives free, to liberate those that are oppressed, to proclaim the year of freedom. And in the name of Jesus, I speak to demonic strongholds, even those that have gone back from generation to generation to generation. And I break the power of the satanic hold off of your life. And I pray for the grace of God to flow into your heart now as you are in this repentant place. God's showing me so many people are repentant. In your heart, you're going, I've embraced this. I've been lulled to sleep by this voice. This counterfeit gospel, this grace that gives me permission to sin, no longer do I want that. I wanna live like Jesus. Well, guess what? I hear the Spirit of God saying, you are free, walk in your freedom. And there's the presence of God right there. There's the presence of the living God right there in your living room, in your car. I can see it right there in your bedroom, in your office. There's the presence of God. Be free in Jesus' mighty name and get in the Word of God now because David said, thy word have I hid in my heart that I may not sin against you. Guard your heart with all diligence. Don't believe the lies. Don't believe those that excuse these ways that bring death and darkness to people. Don't listen to their lies that will excuse it, that will platform it, that will show it. But embrace the truth of the Word of God. Jesus has given you the ability to walk in truth. We could never do it in the Old Testament in our own strength, but Jesus came to give us the strength to do it. And so I just, I can feel the freedom in my spirit. I can feel the freedom that's occurring right now in your life, and I'm so thankful for it. I'm so grateful. Hey, we love you here at the John Bevere Podcast and I just wanna encourage you, keep listening because we've got a lot more to share from the word of God. We love you very much. God bless you.