Community Reveals Human Weakness (Problems in the Church of Rome) #5

Then there is that brother or sister here in the room who, every time they go through a hard period in their life, they sink. Sink. “Where is God?” “I lost my faith.” “There is no hope. Somebody tell me there’s a God. Paul, I know it’s three o’clock in the morning, but please — is there really a God?” You do not know how to overwhelm that which is wrong in your life; you are only overwhelmed. You have never overwhelmed. You only get overwhelmed.

Okay, and we’re moving right along here. Here’s something that you may really not be able to identify with at all, and yet I will tell you that some of what is said here was literally new to the world. Today it makes perfect sense, but in that day, this was new stuff, right hot off the griddle. This is the new ethics that people had never heard before. Some of you are just naturally at war with secular authority. You don’t like secular authority. You break the law. When you see a policeman, you’re afraid. What you don’t fear, unfortunately, is that you don’t fear God’s judgment. You don’t fear the judgment of God, but you fear a policeman. There is a criminal element in the church. Will you hear me? There is, right here, right now, today, a criminal element in the church, and if that is not true, it will be true tomorrow.

Furthermore, when you get caught, you really get mad about it. “Why don’t you go pick on somebody else?” I had two very interesting experiences in my life when I watched this kind of conduct right in front of me, and in both cases, I was out-and-out scared. I don’t remember the occasion, but I had driven from Texas to California, and we were in a van, driving night and day. I had been driving at this particular time, and we stopped to get gasoline — probably in New Mexico, in one of those forsaken places where there is almost never anything, and you’re so grateful when there’s a service station to get gasoline. I mean, you can drive a hundred, a hundred-fifty miles, and see nothing but tumbleweeds. There was nothing but sand. I got the gas and drove out to the road that led to the freeway. We got off, pulled right out of the service station, and it dead-ended. You could go that way if you’re going north, or that way east, or that way if you’re going west, and there was a stop sign. I could see the day after tomorrow in that direction. I could see next Sunday in that direction. There was nothing. The jackrabbits were not even out. There was nothing. I got to the stop sign, and I almost stopped, but it was about five o’clock in the morning. I was tired and bleary-eyed, and I didn’t stop. I make no apologies for it; I just almost stopped.

The policeman had been there at the service station, I guess getting gasoline, until he pulled up right behind me and pulled me over. I thought it was a little much. I really did. One of the brothers in the car threw a fit at that policeman. He went into a blind rage, and I could see myself in Sing Sing the rest of my life. On another occasion, which happens fairly frequently, I got stopped at customs between the United States and Canada, and I knew there was nothing that we had. We had no contraband, and there was nothing wrong with it. They were very suspicious of something, and I had no idea what it was, and there was a young lady in the car, and she got so mad at those people. Let me tell you something: don’t ever show anger at customs officials. They have more power than Julius Caesar did. I mean, their power is totally unlimited. They can do anything with you in the world. They’ve got more power than any other law enforcement people on this earth.

What happened was, it turned out it was hers. There was a fur coat she had purchased at a flea market, and she got it for just a few dollars, but he thought it was new, and he thought she was trying to get past customs without paying for it. She was just giving this man a fit, and I thought, “Well, ten years from now, I’ll still be eating beans and writing my life,” and he’s telling her to have patience and, “I’ll be out one of these days.” I learned something, and that is that there are people, I didn’t know this, who really have a belligerent attitude toward uniformed authority. I will tell you what I want to ask you to do: will you please never come join a church that I am a member of? Because if you do that with the secular authority, you will surely do it with the brothers and sisters in the Church of Jesus Christ.

I just got off the subject, didn’t I? I didn’t mean to stop preaching. Now then, some of you are beating the government out of taxes. Hmm. You know, I’m just going to be honest with you here, and maybe we should turn the TV off for this, but I think every American in America has the feeling that he probably is. Do you understand what I’m saying? You turn it in; you don’t really want them to have your money anyway. Is that not true? You don’t do this with a great deal of joy. Has anybody here ever said, “Hi, I’m going to pay my taxes”? I don’t think you do that. We all kind of wonder, “I wonder if I put it all down there.” So, this would make all of us kind of squeamish, but then there are those who are working hard at beating the government out of taxes. You’re here in this room, and either you or someone like you does not pay your bills. I know there are some of you.

I once got stuck with a $650 telephone bill to Brazil. Now, I want to tell you something. I have traveled in this world, but I don’t know a living soul in Brazil. “$650 telephone bill to Brazil!” That will really make you impatient with Christians. That will really make you impatient with Christians. Some of you just really feel that you don’t need to pay your bills. Have you ever gotten two of something you ordered in the mail, and they only charged you for one? And did you ever feel like, “Hot dog and hallelujah!” That’s another kind of not paying a bill; that’s just plain beating somebody out of things. You don’t pay your taxes. You don’t pay customs. You don’t give honor to those to whom honor is due, and you do not give fear to those to whom fear is due, and you don’t give to the Lord and His work; or if you do, you do it in a grudging way. I have some stories to tell about this, the likes of which you have never heard in your life. We had a brother who did not tithe. The fact was, we were living in common; he kept his whole money, and I didn’t think a whole lot about that. When we found out, we just forgave him and let it go, and that’s all there was to it.

I’m going to scare the pants off of you. I want you to remember, we were living in common. Do you get that? And we were all putting all our money into one pot and living off it, while this brother kept his entire income. Does that remind you of anything? Does it? Well, I figured we were living under grace, and that would be the…well, you know…we just forgave him. We made him stop living in common with us and forgave him. He did this for quite a long time. That brother died. He hung himself. Keep that in mind the next time you think about not tithing. (laughter)

Some of you are really deep in debt. I’ll give you the name of one person in this room that’s deeply in debt, and that’s my wife’s husband…if you ask my wife. If you ask me, we don’t owe any money at all. So, a lot of this is relative or open to interpretation, but there are brothers and sisters who go so deep into debt that they cannot do anything. They live their whole life too far in debt.

A few of you are simply eaten up with hate. You just hate. You’ve got hate in your heart. Some of you simply have a long reputation of not being able to get along with anyone. I have always sent these people to Christian counselors; I’m not going to do that anymore. Some of you deliberately hurt other brothers and sisters just as deliberately as you can. Some of you have fallen asleep to the Christian life. You have forgotten how short life is, and in your conduct, you have failed to realize just how soon you are going to see the Lord. You have forgotten just how soon it’s going to be before you see the Lord. By the way, it is soon, and I’m not talking about the second coming of Jesus Christ. There’s nothing shorter on this planet than the seventy years God gives us on this earth. I didn’t know that, but I’m passing it on to you.

Alright, some of you are holding on to the works of darkness. Now then, brothers and sisters, I’m coming to a list of things that are unlike anything else that’s been given here. This is the first time the word “darkness” has been used. Once we ran across the word “evil,” but here we have the word “darkness.” The dark side. These are things that grace…I’m not going to say grace does not cover; that’s not true, but these are things you can get kicked out of the church for. This is darkness. Okay, are you ready? You have, you are, or you will engage in orgies and carousing, drunkenness, immoral sex, oh, and all sex is immoral if it is not between a husband and a wife, and you abandon yourself to the lower things of your nature.

Now, the most interesting thing about this is the next two that get voted on. Now, we would all agree with orgies and carousing, wouldn’t we? We don’t know what “carousing” is, but it’s something like an orgy, so that’s good enough. You agree with that? That’s a no-no, that’s a no-no. Even the world can look self-righteous at that. Drunkenness…even television says, “Don’t be a drunk.” The television says very little, but you can find that in the little on television. Sexual immorality. Abandonment to your lower nature, but listen to the next ones—strife and jealousy. Isn’t that interesting? Causing disharmony in the church and just out-and-out green-eyed monster jealousy. Jealousy of another brother or sister. Let me see. Ah, here this is going to go. If Stanley were to drive up next weekend, park right out here in front, in a Mercedes-Benz convertible that had been given to him, wouldn’t you really praise the Lord for that? “I think so, brother. I really do. I really think so.” I think you would eventually pay for that Mercedes-Benz in the lives of some of these brothers and sisters. I say that unequivocally and unapologetically. There are brothers and sisters here in Rome, Italy, who would not be able to handle your driving a gold-plated chariot.