018. I Wonder if They Really Mean It (Part 2)

‍Part Two of Two Messages

Some time ago, I presented a message, 'I wonder if they really mean it.' Well today is Part 2. Come with me, please, in your Bibles to page 13. Genesis chapter 13 and verse 13. -- The story of the wickedness of Sodom from where we get the word ‘sodomy’ today. Page 13, Gen 13:13.

The Bible says, “But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord.” The Living Bible says they were “unusually wicked.” What were they doing? Come over to page 18. Genesis 19. Here’s the story of a good man called Lot who lived in the city of Sodom, and two men came to the city, and Lot took them home to feed them and give them a place to sleep the night with his family.

Now we’re starting in verse 4 where it says, “Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house.” Verse 5 “And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men that came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.” The Good News Bible, a simpler version, says, “ ‘Bring them out to us!’ The men of Sodom wanted to have sex with them.”

Listen now to how God compared His own people, the children of Israel, the churchgoers, to the men of Sodom. He said that these churchgoers were worse than the Sodomites! Why? Come over to page 970, Ezekiel 16:46-48. Here the prophet Ezekiel is speaking to the church-going children of Israel.

Ezekiel 16:46-48

Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells with her daughters to the north of you; and your younger sister, who dwells to the south of you, is Sodom and her daughters.

You did not walk in their ways nor act according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you became more corrupt than they in all your ways.

And I live, says the Lord God, neither your sister Sodom nor her daughters have done as you and your daughters have done.

Now, will the prophet mention the sexual depravity of the Sodomites? No, he doesn’t even mention it! What does he say was the sin of Sodom?

Ezekiel 16:49

Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

Do you get that? The church-goers of Ezekiel’s day were proud of themselves, and they did not help the poor and the needy. That’s a lot like some of the churches today. Unless the government supplies the funding, they don’t do it. If the government funding runs out to pay for the wages and infrastructure, many church people stop helping the needy. Their heart is in it for the wrong reason.

Please close your Bibles, and I’m going to put a few Bible verses up on the screen.

Matthew 24:31-33

Here Jesus says that when He comes back again He will separate the sheep from the goats -- the good people from the bad people.

V31 When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.

V32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.

V33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.

Matthew 24:34

Then the King (Jesus) will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:’

In these verses, how does Jesus work out who are the sheep (who receive eternal life), and who are the goats (who don’t receive eternal life)?

Matthew 25:35-36

For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.

Now the righteous people, the true followers of Jesus, answer – Matthew 25:37-39

Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick or in prison, and come to You?

And now Jesus’ answer:

Matthew 25:40

And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to Me.’

How do you line up? How do I line up? - when it comes to the needy people?

Someone once said, “The church is bogus because it is loveless.” The story Jesus told about the Good Samaritan shows the shocking fact that a despised Samaritan ‘outsider’ was doing what the church would not do.

By the way, here’s some good news about helping people. It comes from a scientific article entitled, ‘A Volunteer or else.’ I quote.

"Researchers at the University of Michigan have found that people who do regular volunteer work are healthier than those who don’t. In fact, doing volunteer work increases life expectancy more than any other activity. Of the men in the 10-year study, those who did no volunteer work died at rates 2.5 times higher than those who did volunteer work.”

Isn’t that really good news? Too many people in too many churches talk about helping people in the community, and that’s as far as they get.

Someone said, “Good examples have twice the value of good advice.” Friends, talk is cheap. And prayer is only cheap talk if it hasn’t got legs attached to it — legs that go out and actually help the people we are praying about.

I want to tell you a story about Mr Lee, a lonely man whom the church forgot. His dear wife had died, and he was awfully lonely. He still had his little girl, Shirley, whom he loved dearly. He took Shirley to church every week, but no one ever welcomed him or became a friend to him.

Finally, Shirley died tragically in a house fire. Mr Lee had now lost everything. The church people didn’t care for him or comfort him, and after 5 months of desperate loneliness, he killed himself (in a phone booth). In his pocket was found a picture, and below the picture he wrote, “This is the only thing I have left. It is the last picture Shirley did before she died. Please bury it with me and please take my money and give it to the church that Shirley loved.”

How bad those church folk must have felt because of his kindness, compared with their absolute lack of love and care for him in his desperate loneliness.

Friends, we need to be 7-day Christians, not 1-day Christians — isn’t that right? Our religion needs to be an ‘every’ day religion — not just on the day we go to church. Jesus said, “As often as you’ve done it to one of the least of these my brethren, you’ve done it to me.” If somebody needs our friendship, they need it not just when we see them at church, but during the rest of the week too.

“As often as” is not only talking about the pastors and other leaders in the church who are supposed to visit the people during the year. “As often as” is talking about every one of us. We are all laborers together. And what happens as we reach out? We know what happens because we see it happen. We do see people come to the Lord — but not enough! We need to be kinder and more courteous and more tender-hearted, and what will happen?

Look at this statement from an old book on Christian living, “If we would humble ourselves before God, and be kind and courteous and tender-hearted and pitiful, there would be one hundred conversions to the truth where now there is only one.” Heavy duty, isn’t it? But it’s true!

Please turn to page 1400 --

1 John 3:18.

My little children (that’s us), let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. So the verse says that as Christians (followers of Christ) we need action, deeds, not just talk. If we selfishly hold on to all the love that God gives to us and don’t let it flow out to others, then we’ll be dead like the Dead Sea.

The Dead Sea is dead because the rivers flow into it and nothing flows out of it. It selfishly holds all the water itself. As the water evaporates under the hot desert sun, all that remains is salty, bitter water. Nothing can live in that environment, and that’s why it’s called the Dead Sea.

We’ve got to be reaching out and helping others, or we are as good as dead also.

Before we moved house, I had a sign on the mirror to remind me each day that:

‘The purpose of my life is to be happy and healthy. To live in the moment. To inspire and empower myself and as many other people on the planet (as I possibly can) as are interested.

Do you know one of the reasons we get frustrated and give up wanting to bother working for people? It’s because some of the people we try so hard to help don’t actually want to get out of the pit. We’ve got to wake up to the fact that if they don’t really want to put in a genuine effort and try, then there’s no way we can help them either.

We can help those who have a genuine desire to get out of the pit. One of our problems is that we’ve spent too much time on the ones who don’t want to get out, and we’ve got so frustrated and disappointed that we’ve given up, without realizing that there are lots of hurting people out there who do want to get out of the pit and live.

I’m so glad that I responded to someone trying to help me some years ago when I lived out of tins and drank a heap. That ‘someone’ happened to be a Church of Christ minister who, with his wife, insisted that I have a decent meal at their home each night and he helped me to cut down on the grog.

That minister helped me a lot, and it’s interesting that one of the reasons why he lost his job in the church was that the members in his church didn’t want him. Why? He had what was called Room 4 for the druggies and so on, and the members in his church didn’t want these druggies, sometimes barefooted, sometimes smoking outside the church and coming into their church.

They wanted, of course, only respectable people in their church, and I am so glad that God led me to that minister, Haydn Sargent. If it hadn’t been for Haydn and a few other people in that church who were interested in helping the misfits of society, I feel that today I would be a drunk in the gutter — or 6 feet under.

Some of my friends used to say to me, “Archer — you’re so low that if you sat on a cigarette paper you’d still be dangling your legs.”

When Delphine and I started to go out together, she told her friends she’d known from high school, and they said, “Are you serious, going out with Ray Archer?” Then they proceeded to supply her with a barrage of misdeeds as done by the misfit. But Delphine hung on, silly girl. And that preacher Haydn Sargent hung on, even though he got the sack for associating with sinners. And friends, I am so thankful that people have helped me — in spite of me.

On page 180 in the book ‘Lifestyle Evangelism,’ I read this statement, “If your church cannot accept the wreckage of broken homes, and shattered dreams, it is not a place where Jesus lives. Your church should be the greatest garbage dump in town -- a place where the broken, oppressed, misplaced, abandoned, and unloved people can come and find a ‘family’ where they are accepted and loved … as is. ‘As is’ people were Jesus kind of people. The Pharisees despised them. They still do. ‘As is’ people become great disciples and great soul winners. Those who have been forgiven most, love the most. You’ll be amazed at what God can do with garbage dump people. Father the fatherless, encourage the discouraged, rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep, weep, weep. If your heart is not broken by broken people, you don’t have Jesus’ heart. If your heart is not compelled to go, when lost men stumble in darkness, you don’t have Jesus’ heart.” – end of quote.

Friends, pray that the mission of Jesus to a lost and hurting world will recapture our hearts and take away the hardness.

Friends, Jesus has DINNER with the SINNER. And He is our example.They had it in for Jesus because ‘this man receives sinners.’ This was one of their major accusations. They didn’t say, ‘This man receives folks who’ve already overcome lying and adultery and gambling and stealing and drugs’ - but ‘this man receives sinners.’ Praise the Lord! What about us? Do we know what it is to invite the SINNER home for DINNER?

If we call ourselves Christians, then we’ve got to walk as Jesus walked.

“I have given you an example (Jesus said), that you walk in my steps.”

Jesus told the story about the prodigal son (the sinner come home). The boy’s father didn’t say, “There’s that no good son of mine coming home smelling like pig food – probably came right down the main street of town with those filthy clothes on. How’ll I explain it to the people at the church?” Is that what the father said? No! Of course not! The Bible said that the father’s heart was full of compassion, not full of religion.

The Bible says that in the last days just before Jesus comes again that “People will have a form of Godliness but will deny the power thereof.” Yes, so-called Christians will say that they are followers of Jesus but won’t do like a follower of Jesus should. Plenty of talk, but very little action.

Listen to this. It’s an article about the ‘Mothball Fleet’ of war vessels in America. It’s from a US News & World Report.

“Anchored in various harbors of the United States are 768 vessels (church members) belonging to the famed ‘mothball’ fleet (church). These ships are there in case of an emergency and could be made ready for action in 30-90 days. Each has been repainted, treated with a preservative coating, and has had all its openings blocked up. Steel and aluminum ‘igloos’ have been built around exposed equipment. Inside the ships’ compartments dehumidifiers are kept running. Outside, the battle against rust and corrosion is fought by electrodes ringing the hulls with a continuous electric current, blocking the normal chemical reaction that causes rust.”

Unfortunately, friends, there is also a ‘mothball church’. There are Christians like the ships of this fleet, anchored permanently in some sheltered harbor, insulated from the world around them, designed for battle, but now on the inactive list.

What such Christians have forgotten is that there is a war on now, a spiritual battle that demands participation on the part of all the members of the church’s fighting force and the investment of all its resources.

Friends, let us not be the ‘mothball church’ but the church on the high seas, fighting the enemy.

Here’s a little poem entitled ‘Live the Way You Pray.’

“I knelt to pray when day was done,And prayed: ‘O Lord, bless everyone;Lift from each saddened heart the painAnd let the sick be well again.’And then I awoke to another dayAnd carelessly went on my way.The whole day long I did not tryTo wipe a tear from any eye;I did not try to share the loadOf any brother on the road;I did not even go to seeThe sick man just next door to me.Yet once again when day was done, I prayed:‘O Lord, bless everyone.’But as I prayed, into my earThere came a voice that whispered clear,‘Pause, hypocrite, before you pray;Whom have you tried to bless today?God’s sweetest blessings always goBy hands that serve Him here below’:And then I hid my face and cried,‘Forgive me, God, for I have lied;Let me live another day,And I will live the way I pray.’

There’s an old hymn called ‘Hark the voice of Jesus calling’. Here are a few of the lines. I appeal to each one of you with these words.

Hark! The voice of Jesus calling,“Who will go and work today?”Who will answer, gladly saying,“Here am I O Lord, send me.”While the souls of men are dying, and the Master calls for you,Let none hear you idly saying,“There is nothing I can do!”Gladly take the task He gives you, let His work your pleasure be;Answer quickly when He calls,“Hear am I, O Lord, send me.”