You Have to Live for God When You Are on the Mountain Top and You Have to Live for God in the Valley. It is in the Valley where We Learn Certain Aspects About Ourselves that We Did Not Notice Before. Satan Will Attack You on the Mountain Top and When You Are in the Valley, but We Have to Remember that Our Life is in God's Hands, and We Have to Lean on Christ to Finish Our Course.
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00:00Verse number 16, Matthew chapter number 3 and verse 16, the scripture says when he was
00:13baptized he went up straight way out of the water and lo the heavens were opened unto
00:17him and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him and lo a
00:24voice from heaven saying this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Bless this
00:32word Lord as it goes forth. Amen. You can be seated. This is a wonderful time. This
00:39is part of the Christian life. Wonderful times. Sometimes on the mountaintop and when God's
00:44blessing great peace, great joy and rejoicing and that's part of the Christian life. But
00:50it wasn't just a little short time after this that the snake shows up. Amen. And he
00:57has 40 days in the wilderness and that's also a time of the Christian life. You have to
01:03learn to live through both, through the mountaintop and through the valleys. The snake will show
01:08up especially after you've had a real good experience with the Lord. You know, like Sunday.
01:14Like Sunday. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if some of you weren't attacked by the devil
01:19before the sun went down or the first couple of days of this week. Exactly. He doesn't
01:24want to leave that in your memory. He doesn't want to leave that in your mind. He wants
01:27to come after you and badger you and keep working upon you because most of the battle
01:32that you have in this world is in the mind. Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ
01:38Jesus. So the mind, the, you have a fleshly mind and you have the mind of the spirit and
01:44you have to be able to understand the difference in the two of them. And just because you think
01:49something doesn't mean it came from God. Just because you approve of it doesn't necessarily
01:53mean it's from the Lord or even if it feels good, you can't live by your feelings. They
01:58will deceive you. Amen. I like to shout as much as the next man, but I'll tell you right
02:04now, you can't trust your feelings because they can get you in trouble. So Satan likes
02:09to show up after a big victory. Look what it says in first Kings chapter 19 verse one,
02:15Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and with all how he had slain all the prophets
02:21with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger into Elijah saying, let us so let the gods
02:26do to me and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow
02:32about this time, my what a threat. And when he saw that he arose and went for his life.
02:39Now he had stood on top of Carmel. He had seen the victory of the Lord. He'd seen the
02:43power of God. As it moved, there was no question. If God be God, worship him. And he showed
02:49them he was God. And that's what his name means. Elijah Elohim is Jehovah. That's what
02:56his name is Elijah. And that's what it means. And, but what'd he do? Well, he got depressed
03:02and he got discouraged and he was ready to run. And that's part of the Christian life.
03:07It happens to us. You get discouraged and you get depressed and God doesn't want you
03:12there, but you can learn some great lessons there that you can't learn anywhere else.
03:17Only in the Valley are certain things to be learned. The truth of the matter is most of
03:21your weapons, most of the warfare takes place in the Valley and it's there that you learn
03:26those weapons of the warfare and that we use against Satan. But if you'll look in Matthew
03:32chapter number 26, uh, these Satan also shows up after a big defeat. Uh, imagine what Peter
03:39felt like. The scripture says in Matthew 26 verse 75 and Peter remembered the words of
03:46the, of Jesus, which said unto him before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.
03:53And he went out and wept bitterly. And the apostle Peter is one of my favorites in the
03:58whole Bible. I can relate a lot with Peter. Uh, Peter spoke, uh, in the moment he spoke
04:05spontaneously plain words. He spoke what came to his mind and to his heart without considering
04:11all of all of the possibilities and ramifications of it. And he said, thou art the Christ, the
04:16son of the living God. But you see, Peter didn't know about a lot of things in his life
04:23that needed to be dealt with. And this is one of them. And he dealt with it. God dealt
04:28with that. You see, there was a big defeat here. It appeared to be a defeat, but there
04:31is no such thing as a defeat for a Christian. All things work together for good. No defeat,
04:38no defeat. It's simply sometimes rearranging your direction, getting your attention and
04:45moving you the way God wants to move you. And the Bible tells us here, he went out and
04:50he wept bitterly. It got him, it got ahold of him. Uh, he found out some things about
04:55himself that he didn't know beforehand. How many have ever found out things about yourself
05:00when you were really in the valley? You learned some things about yourself, didn't you? And
05:05you know that you would never have learned them any other way. Thank God for the books
05:09and thank God for the reading and thank God for the, uh, for memorization of scripture
05:13and so forth. Thank the good Lord for it. But there are some things you'll never learn
05:18by reading. You have to experience them. And so did Peter. And so the apostle Peter, uh,
05:25in Matthew chapter number 26, verse 75, but here's what the Lord said to him. You remember
05:29he said, uh, when they aren't converted, Peter strengthened that brethren, a man,
05:35you see, when you listen to a man who's been through what you've been through, been where
05:39you've been, uh, you respect his opinion, he or she, whatever the case is, you respect
05:45it more. They're not speaking to you. Theoretically, they're speaking to you from experience. Exactly,
05:52exactly. And that's the kind of thing you learn by. And so this appeared to be a defeat
05:57for Peter, but it wasn't a defeat for him. It was a rearranging and God moving. Now
06:03here's a, here's a, here's a very dangerous time in our lives. It's when your idol in
06:08second Samuel chapter 11, it came to pass after the year was expired. Verse one at the
06:14time when Kings go forth to battle, the David sent Joab. Joab is a commanding general. He
06:21sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel and they destroyed the children of
06:25Ammon, the Ammonites and besieged Raba. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. He wasn't
06:34with his troops. He withdrew from the battle. I've heard that before. Haven't you? I'm just
06:43going to lay my Bible down and quit for a while. I'm just going to have to have some
06:47time off. I've got, I've got to get away. I just can't handle anymore of this. But the
06:52truth of the matter is there really is nowhere in this world to lay that sword down. There's
06:59nowhere. There's nowhere, not in this world. You have to, you have to, you have to continue
07:04on in the calling that God has called you and keep this in your mind because this is
07:10important. It is to me and I think it should be to you. I'm going to finish my course.
07:15That's important to me. Finish my course. Amen. And I may not necessarily know what
07:22that course may be, but I know this. I know the one who lays it out before me and I will
07:28finish that course. And that's what you should do with your life. You should say, Lord, my
07:33life is in your hands. It is and it is. My life is in your hands. If I get up in the
07:40morning, I get up because you raised me up. If I live throughout the day, it's because
07:43you gave me life. And if I'm here for another week, you gave me that life and that life
07:49for a week. And thank the Lord. In him we live and move and have our being. Amen. So
07:56you finish your course. When I started here in 1976, if you'd asked me, I'd be here 48
08:03years later, I would have said, well, let's just not get ahead of ourselves. Truth of
08:09the matter is I would have said this to you. Truth of the matter is I don't have a clue
08:12what I'm getting into. Uh, so, uh, but I got into it head over heels and uh, it's quite
08:21a learning experience really is. If you'll just open your heart, there's a lot of things
08:25in life to learn. Do you know that? And I'll tell you something right now. Believe me,
08:29I am still learning and I'm learning a lot of things about life and I'm learning a lot
08:34of things about people and I'm learning a lot of things about the Lord and the more
08:39I know him, the more I love him and I do move and have my being in him. So, uh, there's
08:46no place to quit folks. And David did and it cost him dearly. And what he did is, uh,
08:53it's horrible, committed adultery. Uh, the, it's, you need to understand that, uh, some
09:01things that happened to people, fact of the matter is my experience has been, there has
09:07been very little that I have ever seen happen to one person that stayed with one person.
09:14There's always somebody else involved. There's always innocent parties involved. Yes. I don't
09:19know if you're aware much of what goes on. You don't hear of this preacher. I get up
09:23here and blast other preachers and kick them and stomp them and try to tear them down.
09:27And well, some of the biggest names in the faith are falling folks, pastors of mega churches
09:33in this country. They're falling. And all you have to do is get on YouTube and you see,
09:39you see what's happening there. And it's, and it's shaking to the very core, a lot of
09:44people because they've got a lot of faith in these preachers. And I can sympathize with
09:49them. I really can. I can say, this is horrible to see this happen. Uh, I've been praying
09:54for some of the families. Anytime a man, a pastor's is, is taking an adultery. He's got
09:59a wife. He's got children. He's got a family. He's got a mother and a father and they're
10:04innocent victims and they wind up paying dearly for what happens. You know, that's awful,
10:11but it happens. And I'm marveled too. In my mind, I say to myself, how in the world can
10:16any man think that you can do this and get away with it? God is not mocked. You're not
10:24going to mock him. If you sold to the flesh, you'll have the flesh reap corruption. One
10:30of the things that's left the church today, and, and I don't know if it's because of arrogance
10:35or pride, they don't know what anointing is. They don't know what the unction of the Holy
10:41Spirit is. They don't know what the power of God is when he moves upon a preacher to
10:47preach and minister to the people above and beyond his physical ability with a spirit
10:53that is greater than him. And when the people hear that man preaching, they say, hold on
10:57now, I know this preacher and there's something greater than him coming across from that pulpit.
11:03That's unction. That's the anointing. That's the power of God. But let me tell you something
11:08tonight. There is no way in this world that you can carry on an adulterous relationship
11:13and have unction and anointing and the power of God. It's not going to work. It's not going
11:19to happen. It's not going to happen, folks. It's not going to happen. And the people have
11:26been browbeaten into teaching instead of preaching. And there's a place for teaching. Thank God
11:31for the teachers. We need them. But teaching and preaching are two entirely different things.
11:37Yes, they are. They're entirely different. I've been doing a lot of praying for the last
11:43one that fell. I never met him, don't know him. I have no idea of all the details involved,
11:47but God's laid him on my heart and I've prayed for him. I've prayed for him. I'm going to
11:52continue to pray. I feel for his wife. I feel for his family. It's a horrible thing. And
11:59from, it's, you know, it's one of these things that, uh, it defies explanation. It defies
12:04understanding. I don't, you know, no preacher is perfect, but you've heard me belabor the
12:12point. When it comes to fellowship with God, 1 John 1, you listen to that voice of God
12:20in your soul before it ever becomes a reality and he'll cleanse you and you'll have fellowship
12:25with him. And it won't, it won't, it won't develop into the deed. It won't. If the, if,
12:33if adultery begins to rise up inside your soul, if you find yourself being, uh, you
12:37know, looking the way you shouldn't be looking or allowing thoughts to come into your mind
12:40that you're not dealing with the way you ought to, and they begin to take root and
12:45you don't listen to the Holy Spirit and confess it off the bat to get rid of it, it will come
12:51out. It will work its way forth. And boy, when it does folks, death, death, sin, when
12:59it is finished, bringeth forth death. And so I'm praying and God help them. God help
13:08them. I'm not here tonight to stomp anybody down and I'm not calling any names and will
13:13not. And, uh, I just, uh, I just feel bad. I feel real bad that stuff like this happens,
13:21but it does. Um, in Exodus chapter number 32, Satan works upon you when authority is
13:29absent authority now. And when the people, Exodus 32 one saw that Moses delayed to come
13:36down out of the Mount, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said unto
13:40him up, make us gods. We shall go before us for as for this Moses, the man that brought
13:47us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what has become of him. Have you already forgotten
13:52the red sea? Have you already forgotten the Egyptian troops and Pharaoh buried beneath
13:59that water? Have you already forgotten the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire? Have
14:07you forgotten that night when the death angel came through Egypt and you could hear them
14:13crying all through the land? Have you already forgotten the judgment upon the gods of Egypt?
14:20How quickly we forget. Do you know that? How quickly? And so they rejected the authority
14:28of Moses up there too long. What they should have done is, uh, did some real serious praying
14:34about the fact that Moses is the leader. If he doesn't get alone with God, he's never
14:41going to lead. There's an awful lot of, uh, out there that lacks authority, but they have
14:49no idea what it means to get alone with God and let him prepare you to lead. Moses folks
14:57stands head and shoulders above 95% of everyone that lived in that old Testament. Moses to
15:05this very day, if you mentioned Moses to a Jew, you'll find, you'll find respect among
15:11the Jews from Moses. Absolutely. Remember he wrote the first five books of your Bible.
15:18You wouldn't have a Bible one for Moses. It's called the Pentateuch. The first five books
15:23of the Bible, 1,400 years before Christ, God chose that man to write scripture. Amen.
15:31Think about that. And what did God think about Moses? Well, he took him to the top of Nebo
15:37and he said, now look to the North and to the South. As far as your eye can see, this
15:42is the land that I promised to my people, which you can't go in Moses. I won't let you
15:48go in. So Moses died at the top of that mountain. And you know what the Bible says about that?
15:56It says that Satan came after his body immediately. He wanted his body. He wanted the body of
16:02Moses. But the Bible says, Michael, the archangel, when contending with Satan over that body
16:11says the Lord rebuke you, Satan. Do you know why he said that? Because Michael respected
16:18the power and authority of Satan. Yeah, he did. And it was only until Satan was weakened
16:25to a point in Revelation chapter number 12, Michael then was able to face off with him
16:30face to face. And the Bible said there's war in heaven. And Michael and his angels fought
16:35against the dragon, fought against Satan. And there was found no more place for them
16:39in heaven. They were cast out. And of course, I've told you before many times about the
16:43gradual fall of Satan when he gives up authority. But when he said to the Lord Jesus, showed
16:49him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, he said, these have been given to
16:53me and I'm given to whosoever I will. You fall down to worship me and I'll give you
16:57these kingdoms, the kingdoms of the world. This image of Daniel in 606 BC, starting with
17:04Nebuchadnezzar and ending with the iron, Rome. He said, these are my kingdoms. These are
17:09Gentile kingdoms. The times of the Gentiles are in my hands. I control this. I'm the God
17:14of this world. All you have to do is what I say and I'll give them to you. Oh yeah.
17:21Your adversary, the devil's a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.
17:25He's a powerful, powerful foe. And so we don't know who this Moses is. Well, I know who he
17:34is. And they rejected the authority of Moses. Do you remember when, uh, uh, Dathan, Coram
17:41and Abiram in the field rejected the authority of Moses? You remember what they said? Said,
17:46who do you think you are, Moses? You're not alone. God has given authority to all of his
17:51people. Oh boy. Moses cried out to the Lord and the Lord did a new thing. It says he opened
17:58the earth, split it asunder, and it swallowed up, uh, Cora, Dathan and Abiram and their
18:03tribes and their families, such a horrible scene. And they went down alive into the pit.
18:10That's what it says. Why? Because they challenged the authority of Moses. You've got to have
18:16leadership. You must folks, you must, you must have a leadership and leadership with
18:23leadership comes responsibility and it comes accountability. And we must give an account,
18:29he says in the book of Hebrews, for we watch for your souls. I don't take that lightly.
18:35I don't take that lightly. And so I'm responsible if heresy raises its head and I'm supposed
18:40to know what heresy is. I'm supposed to see it, look for it, watch out for it. And I see
18:46a lot of heresy on YouTube underneath our, our videos on those channels. My goodness,
18:51some of that junk, it's unbelievable, but I can't do anything about that. But I mean,
18:57there's some rank heresy going on. A lot of them are attacking the apostle Paul and by
19:02attacking Paul, they're attacking the new Testament. They're attacking the canon of
19:06scripture and then they get off into the Hebrew roots movement and they get off into this
19:11and that British Israelism and they get off into sinless perfection and everything under
19:15the sun. It's all over the place. Uh, I can't do anything about that, but you know, if they
19:21came to temple and try to get up and preach that here, I'd be responsible for, I'd be
19:24accountable. I'd say, sir, you're in the wrong place. You're in the wrong place. And then
19:31finally in Genesis chapter number three and verse number one, the serpent was more subtle
19:37than any beast of the field was the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, yay, half
19:42God said, there comes the doubt. I say this as far as the Bible is concerned, you know,
19:50they claim it. They say now that they've, they've gotten to the point where they say,
19:54if you believe that the King James Bible is the word of God without error, that's a cult.
19:59See, that's what they're saying to people. They're calling it a cult. I've told you before
20:09that when you get into the Bible and you start correcting the scripture, then first of all,
20:14you should have a good foundation in Greek. You better believe it. I hope you're not getting
20:20up voicing what you read someone else say, right? Secondly, you should have a good foundation
20:27in manuscript evidence. Where'd this book come from? You better have a good foundation
20:33in manuscript evidence. And that's something that's seldom ever taught. They don't teach
20:37manuscript evidence in most of the Bible colleges. You need to know how it came about. Why is
20:43this called the majority text? Why is it called the textus receptus receive text? Why is it
20:48called that? There's a reason for that. You should never take a cavalier attitude, laid
20:53back attitude. Well, you know, it's not that important. And after all, uh, meanings change
20:58and we live in a, we're, we're progressive Christians and a progressive society. I believe
21:04a book that I opened up that is written to the English speaking people. And that's me.
21:10I speak at it, try to, and from Genesis through book of revelation, when I opened that Bible
21:16and I read that Bible, I don't waste my time trying to find error, fault, mistranslations.
21:22Oh no, no, no, no. It blesses my soul to come from cover to cover. So what are you saying?
21:28Preacher? I have got God's inspired, infallible word. That's what I've got. Now, is that a
21:35cult? Well then write my name on the list. Amen. That's sad, but it's sad. It really
21:40is. It's sad. Yea, hath God said. And the scripture says, you shall not eat of every
21:47tree of the garden. The woman said, the serpent, we may eat of the tree fruit of the trees
21:51of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, God has
21:54said, you shall not eat of it. Neither shall you touch it lest you die. I don't remember
21:58reading anywhere where he did that. And the serpent said unto the woman, you shall not
22:03surely die right off the bat, correcting or countering what God said for God does know
22:08that in the day ye eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, ye shall be as gods, knowing
22:14good and evil, to be elevated by your own effort to a place of Godhood. This is what
22:21the devil promised Eve. Now to know the circumstances is to know that Eve was alone. She was by
22:28herself and Adam wasn't with her. Obviously Satan waited for a moment like that to come
22:34to the woman. He came to her and to of course do what he did. God didn't make us to be alone.
22:42It's important that we come together as saints of God and the house of the Lord. We get strength
22:46from each other. We bear one another's burdens. Amen. It's like our brother was talking about
22:51just a moment ago. He kept talking about the world, out in the world, out in the world,
22:55out in the world. And that's certainly true because once you leave out of here and go
22:59to work tomorrow, you're going to be out in the world, you know, and they don't have the
23:03same attitude toward the Lord as you do as you come together here in the body tonight
23:07here at Temple Baptist Church. We come together to support each other and to pray for each
23:12other. Amen. And those that are spiritual, God has moved them a little higher with a
23:18spiritual discernment to be able to tell. There's just something just not quite right
23:23with so and so or whatever. And instead of blabbing about it and jumping on the telephone
23:28and getting on, you pray for them. Yeah, you do. You pray for them. There are times that
23:34you pray and you pray all the time. You pray without ceasing. You should be in an attitude
23:39of prayer every waking moment. But there are times when you get down serious with God about
23:46a certain thing, which is a special prayer, special time of prayer. And you should be
23:53doing that also. You should be praying. If you're not praying, folks, I urge you tonight
23:59to get back to praying. You say, I don't know how to pray. Well, read Romans chapter number
24:03eight, and you'll see where the Holy Spirit will take care, even though the words coming
24:07out of your mouth sometimes may not, you know, you just say, well, I'm just praying. I've
24:14got to say something to the Lord. What am I going to say to him? Well, one thing you
24:17could say to him is our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom
24:27come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and
24:34forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us
24:41from evil. For thou art the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen. You pray
24:51that prayer? You mean it? You started praying. He said, after this manner, pray. Now they'll
24:58teach you in Bible school that, well, that's the model prayer. I don't think it makes the
25:03Lord a bit mad if you pray the model prayer. I really don't. He's not going to get mad
25:09at you. They can call it whatever they want to. I pray that prayer every day of my life,
25:16sometimes twice, sometimes three times, sometimes more than that. I've prayed that prayer when
25:21I sit down in the back porch out there in the dark long before the sun comes up. I'll
25:28pray that prayer to start praying. For some reason, I can't explain it, but for some reason,
25:34if I get through that prayer and pray it right, stuff starts coming. Has anyone ever
25:40had that happen? It just starts flowing in your soul. You got something to say to God.
25:45You weren't even thinking about it. You're not thinking about what you're going to pray.
25:48It just starts coming. You start praying to the Lord. I do that. I pray that prayer. I
25:55love that prayer. I love it. Now, if you want to go to John chapter 17, when you get home,
26:01you can do that. The Lord prayed a prayer in John 17, a beautiful prayer. Yes, it is.
26:06You can learn that prayer. You can understand what's going on in the 17th chapter of John
26:11when he gathered together his disciples. You can look at it and pray over it, but don't
26:16forget that model prayer, if you please. Pray that prayer. You'd be surprised what it might
26:24open up for you. Father, bless your word, the time in your house. Once again, Lord,
26:31I pray for these families, the families of these preachers that have fallen. I'm not
26:35here to kick them, Lord. I'm not here to stomp them down. I'm not here to run them into the
26:39ground. I'd like to see them get help. I'd like to see real repentance and cleansing
26:43and restoration. I'd like to see that with all of my soul, because I know that through
26:48that, you can reach people. I pray for their families, the families that are hurting, wives,
26:54husbands, children. There are people hurting tonight, Lord. They're hurting, and they're
26:59hurting deeply. I pray for them. I pray for them in Jesus' name. Help them. Lord, come
27:06to them with the Holy Ghost. I pray for those Christians, Father, tonight that are looking
27:11at men. They may be young in the faith. They're shaken to the core by this. They're wondering
27:17if any of it is real. They're wondering if any faith is true. My Heavenly Father, I pray,
27:24Lord, the power of the Holy Spirit would move in their heart, and they'd realize what they
27:28should have known to begin with. The best of men are at best just men. Get their eyes
27:34off the man and put their eyes on Christ. That's the only way any of us are ever going
27:40to make it. Keep the eyes on the Lord Jesus. I find no fault in Him. In His holy, righteous
27:49name I pray, amen.