Bethel Deliverance International Church

Bishop Eric A. Lambert, Jr.: Brothers and sisters, think of the enormity of what Peter is saying. The more I read the word of God, the more my nature gets canceled out and the nature of God steps in. That's how you can tell if a person's reading the word of God: is there any change to your character?

I'm not talking about your scripture-quoting ability. Do you stop lying? Do you stop sinning? Do you stop stealing? Do you stop backbiting? Do you stop gossiping? Are you faithful to your church and to the Lord? If you read the word of God, the word of God operates even when you are not aware of it operating.

Praise the Lord and welcome to the *Climbing Higher* broadcast. Today, we're going to speak to you about issues related to end-time events, Bible prophecy, and the coming of the Lord. Now, if you're like me and you're born again, we get excited when we talk about the coming of the Lord because one day he's going to crack the sky, get us out of here, and take us to our heavenly home to be with him and our heavenly father forever. Isn't that going to be great?

But we must understand that Bible prophecy gives us guidelines and outlines of what to look for prior to the Lord's return. And so, I preached a sermon entitled, "Are You Ready?" and I want everyone to think in terms of meeting the Lord, either at the judgment seat of Christ or the Great White Throne judgment at the final time. And so, we want you to hear the word today, spend some time thinking about the reality of leaving this world.

Look, let's face it: you're going to leave this world one way or the other, either through rapture or through natural death. One way or the other, we leave this world, but eternity is sure. For the word of God declares, "It is appointed unto man once to die, but after death comes judgment." But thanks be to God, he has provided a way where we do not have to spend eternity in hell and then the lake of fire. And the way out of that sentence is to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, be washed in his blood, believe on him as he is the only way to get to God.

So, today, when you hear the message, don't get scared. There are some very, very difficult things for you to grasp, but I don't want you to get scared. God didn't give you the spirit of fear, but he does want to warn you about what's happening and what will happen in our world. God bless you. I'll be back to kind of help you through your times of trepidation. God bless.

So, Peter says God has given you everything you need, but you need to get to know him. You need to get to know him through the knowledge of him. Peter is pushing this. Why? Because if you read 1 Peter, they're complaining about their situation. They're complaining. Now, it's amazing. I like to watch the differences in generations.

I was at my ophthalmologist's office last year. And you know, whenever you're done your exam, you come out and you stop by the desk. You give them that little form that says you're okay. They say, "Make another appointment for next year," or whatever. And so, I'm standing there with the lady, and I said to her, "Can I ask you a question?" She says, "Sure." I said, "Do you notice that baby boomers like early appointments?"

She says, "You know, you're right. They want 7:30, 8:00, 9:00." She said, "But the younger generation, they want to come in at 12:00 and 2:00 and 3:00." Isn't that amazing how the discipline of generations has shifted? Baby boomers were raised by depression-era parents who got you out the bed early without a purpose. Just get up. "What do you want me to do?" "Nothing, just don't lay—get up."

If you are a baby boomer, you had a fit working from home. You weren't used to it. And you probably got up and got dressed anyway just to sit behind the computer. COVID just took everything from the baby boomer. They couldn't go to the market. They couldn't go to Ninth Street. They couldn't go to the Amish market up on Cottman Avenue. The younger generation, "Shoot, I can just stay here and sleep now. I'm all right. I ain't even got to get dressed." They just put on a shirt, that's all, closed the neck, and sit there.

And that's how we are as Christians. This newer generation of Christians, they don't care about God; they want the things of God. They want the power and the glory. They want the titles, but they don't want the accountability. In the early days, they would put down formal education because they would say, "Oh no, you don't go to the seminary; you go to the cemetery." And so, you come out the cemetery with a turned-around collar.

No, they would push you to seek the Lord so the Lord would be your helper, not your theological premise. Now, obviously, they weren't totally correct with that, but I understand the mindset. They were saying, "Don't allow anything to come between you and your knowledge of God." So, here you are now. How many of you have been saved more than 10 years? Okay, praise the Lord. That's why you come early.

So, you look around. I don't think there's one Generation Zer in here unless your parents made you get up and come. So, here you are now, been saved all these years. Let me ask you this question that will be asked by the Lord: "What have you learned about me in 10 years? What lessons have I taught you from the book, through classes, preaching, and instruction, and what lessons have I taught you through life? What burdens are you still carrying because you're uncertain of my ability to deliver you?"

"What cares and anxiety are you still holding onto because you really don't believe that I love you? You've allowed the culture to tell you things about me, but I've never told you these things." Peter says we have all of this stuff given to us. And then he goes on in verse four. He says "whereby"—isn't that funny? "Whereby." We don't use that too much in our new English.

But what he says in verse three is, by his power, he's done all this for us. And so, the question comes up, how has he done this? From verse three, how has he done this, given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him? And then in verse four, he said, "This is how: through exceeding and great promises." And the promises are written. They're put down so that you can refer to them easily.

When I was in elementary school, we would always have these books. And in the back of the books in those days, they had the answer key. And I had a teacher, Ms. Bayard. Ms. Bayard, she used to staple the answer key together so that we couldn't get them out. Now, we were too young to know about staple removers, but we understood how to bend that page back. But Ms. Bayard used to staple them together so that we couldn't get the answers.

So, that encouraged you to get to know the people sitting next to you. And that's when you found out who was double-jointed. But God didn't do that. God didn't staple the answers together. He left it there and said, "Come search it out." Every problem that you will encounter, everything that God will hold you accountable for at the judgment seat, can be answered by your study of the word of God from A to Z.

And that's when Peter says, "I have these promises." And then he says that by these promises, I become a partaker of the divine nature of God. The more I saturate myself with the promises of God, the more I start looking like God because I reflect his nature and his character. See, I can't lay my hand on you and make you like God. No, but you become more like Christ as you study the word of God.

And as you study the word of God, because of what the Spirit does—the word of God is alive. Even though it's on the pages of a book, it's alive. And when you study it, it goes to work, cutting out those things that are injurious to you. It cuts out pride and arrogance and disobedience and rebellion and lust and sin. It cuts it out. So, the more you read the word of God, the more it operates on your soul.

When I went in for my thumb procedure in July, I'm sitting there, laid on the gurney. And the nurses are working, taking vitals. And she's like, "Okay, everything's good, good, good." So, they come and they put that thing in my hand. And she said, "Now, we're going to put the medicine that makes you go to sleep in your hand." But unbeknownst to me, the thing that they put in my hand was connected to the D5W on the IV on that little pole.

Now, I'm not schooled in that. I'm a carpenter. I'm not a medicine person. And so, in that tube, there's another little place where you can put meds in to make it go in with the IV drip. All right, so that's rolling behind me. So, the anesthesiologist comes in and he's like, "Mr. Lambert, good morning." He says, "They get you here at 6:00 AM, but they don't do the thing until 7:30." And I found out that's to bring down your heebie-jeebies.

And so, you're sitting there, and you haven't eaten anything. You're laying there, and the nurses are so nice. They're over at the desk eating, and you're just laying there. So, the anesthesiologist comes in. He says, "Mr. Lambert," he says, "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." He says, "All right, we're going to take you in now." So, the doctor comes in and he says, "All right, what are we doing today?"

I said, "You're going to do my right thumb. You're going to fix that joint." He says, "That's right." So, he puts his two initials on my right thumb and he says, "That way we know that's what we're working on." I said, "Okay, Doc, go for it. Go for it." Now, the anesthesiologist walks in behind me. He's pushing the gurney. When I turn the corner to go into the procedure room, that's the last thing I remember was coming through the door.

Now, I was thinking they would wheel me in position first and then administer the anesthesia. They did it while I was on my way in. I didn't know that's why he was walking behind me pushing it. When I wake up, I'm like, "When did this happen?" Then he tells me, he says, "We do that when you're going in so that you don't anticipate." That's what God does. God says, "The more you read my word, I equip you, I fortify you."

So, when you walk into the trouble, I've already taken care of it. So, I'm keeping you from knowing what the devil is doing in the sense of making you anxious. But I did give you some warnings: "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers us out of them all." You follow me? So, the more you read the word of God, I'm not suggesting to you that the word of God will make you oblivious to your surroundings.

No, but it does give you a shield that when you go through a storm, the word of God will be able to help you through it. The shield of faith, energized by the sword of the spirit, equips you to handle whatever battle comes your way. Tell your neighbor, "I'm prepared for this." Now, what Peter does, he does something I like to call apostolic math. I like to call this apostolic math.

Now, if you notice what he says, we have these exceeding great and precious promises, and by the promises, we are partakers of the divine nature. Wow! Isn't that amazing? He says, by the promises, you are partakers of the divine nature. Brothers and sisters, think of the enormity of what Peter is saying. The more I read the word of God, the more my nature gets canceled out and the nature of God steps in.

That's how you can tell if a person's reading the word of God: is there any change to your character? I'm not talking about your scripture-quoting ability. Do you stop lying? Do you stop sinning? Do you stop stealing? Do you stop backbiting? Do you stop gossiping? Are you faithful to your church and to the Lord? If you read the word of God, the word of God operates even when you are not aware of it operating. Hallelujah!

Now, I'm born and raised right here in America, born and raised right here in America. Don't need a green card. Don't have to worry about ICE unless it's in my glass of tea because I'm born here. You follow me? So, I don't have to worry about outside things trying to grab hold of me. I can walk right past the ICE truck and say, "Go ahead, grab me," because I'm born here. When you're born into the family of God, born into the family of God, not a church member, you're above the devil's ability to put you in bondage.

He can't put you in bondage because you know who you are. Now, here's the amazing thing. I'm born in this country, so I have what? The mannerisms of this country. I have all the things that go along with being a part of this country in general, but more specifically, being in the African-American community. And that's a whole different world. That's a whole different world.

Whole different world. There are different mannerisms, there are different speech, there's different slang, there's different body actions, things that we do that are part of us. I mean, no sense being ashamed of it. And we understand our language. "Hey, boy, what's up? Nothing to it but to do it." See, don't take much. We can say, "Hello, how are you? Good to see you. How have you been?" We can take that whole train of sentences and just say, "What's up?"

And don't even say, "What is up?" We'll say, "Wassup?" You see? And everybody understands it. Okay, I took 10 years, 11 really—I took 11 years to study Italian so that I could become fluent. When I speak Italian with another person who can speak Italian, I begin to use gestures that are part of that culture. I form my hands like that because that's how we talk in Italian.

I have a slight accent, so even people who were born there say to me, "You speak really well. You even sound like one." How did that happen? Eleven years of sitting in class two times a week. So, you can be trained and become what you're trained in. I'm going to say that again. You become what you're trained in. So, here you are reading the word of God, but you don't look like God. You're not ready.

There's been no significant character adjustment. The things you used to like, you still like. The places you used to go, you still go. There's been no significant change in character. So, what has been the mission of the church? The mission of the church from early on, when Pentecostalism really began to take a strong hold in America in the '50s, they figured we can't change your character because you're just not going to listen.

So, what we're going to do is change your environment. We're going to tell you you can't go to parties. We're going to tell you you can't drink. We're going to tell you you can't go to Vegas. We're going to tell you you can't go to a bar. We're going to tell you you can't go to the beach and we're going to justify it by Psalms 1, "Blessed is the man that doesn't sit in the seat of the scornful," and all the other things because we can't control your character.

So, we're going to control your environment. And all that did was breed rebellion. Why? Because the character wasn't changed. Now, you know as well as I do, for the few of us who read the word of God to the point of saturation, you know you don't have a problem absenting yourself from sin. You don't have a problem. You don't need anybody to tell you what not to do because you've saturated yourself with the word of God. The word of God tells you, "Don't do that."

Holy Spirit sitting in you says, "Now, we don't listen to that." No, we don't go down that road. No, that's satanic. No, I'm not going to get the tattoos on my body because that's satanic. No, I'm not going to let people tell me about my God because I spend time with him myself. I believe with all of my mind, I believe that there'll be people when the Lord comes back to rapture his church, some Christians are going to be surprised—not that they'll be left. They're going to be surprised he came.

They're going to be walking around and disappearing and go, "Oh my goodness, where am I going?" I can hear my mother now: "Boy, you don't have a bit of sense." So, here you are now, a partaker of the divine nature. Now, Paul repeats the same thing over in the letter to the Romans. He says that we should be conformed to the image of Christ. Have you ever looked at somebody's child and said to the parents, "They look just like you"?

And the parents, bless your heart, you want to be nice, so you just say, "Mm-hmm, yes." When you should say, "Well, who are they supposed to look like?" That's my boy, my girl. They're supposed to look like me. I would feel differently if they looked like somebody else. Now, what's interesting is that when they're very small, they look like you. But then as they grow, they act like you. And then you start saying things like, "You're just like your father."

You didn't say that when they were in the crib just laying in diapers and playing with rattles. You didn't say, "You're just like your father," and he might be laying in the crib playing with diapers and bottles, but you don't say that to your baby. But as they grow older, you say, "You're just like your father." They cannot deny you. You just like your father. You act just like your mother. But has anybody ever come to you, the believer, and said, "You act just like God"?

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet with them in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Paul says I should comfort you with those words to let you know, if you're born again, you're going to meet the Lord in the air. Even if you die a physical death right now and they bury you in the ground, according to the word of God, you will come up.