Richard Ellis Talks

Guest (Male): Today on Richard Ellis Talks: I am yet to find a situation where sin works. Even if you hold it all together, a security camera can find your real life in an elevator. And no PR firm can fix all that. Because we all got stuff. And if you live like hell, you're going to end up feeling like hell. That's just the way it works.

You're listening to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. We're so grateful you tuned into the program. Richard wants to share with you some encouragement, words of hope, and probably a laugh or two. In today's complicated, busy life, that's exactly what's needed.

Richard's talks are always straight from the Bible, filled with truth. Now, you may not be able to hang out with us for the entire program, but you can always pick it back up at our website, richardellis.com. In fact, you can find all of Richard's talks right there waiting just for you. So, with today's talk, here's Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is "This Message Contains No Content." Every once in a while, something will go haywire in my email. All the emails come up with headings, and then that's what shows up. It is a terrifying moment when that shows up: "This message contains no content." Everything's gone.

Turn to Jeremiah chapter five. I'm going to read you a ton of scripture, so if you do not have a Bible, you need to borrow one. If you've got one on your phone, you need to open it. It's very important that you see this stuff, not just hear it, if possible. We're going to read quite a bit out of Jeremiah. As you'll see, sometimes people say, "Well, what was going on at the time?" When you read the Bible, you will know pretty much what's going on at the time.

I am not trying to hijack these passages and apply them necessarily to our situation today, but I do want you to see what God has dealt with regarding the people of Israel, Jerusalem, and these locations and people in the past. Those principles still apply. What happened then still happens now, and this is what it looks like from heaven's perspective.

Look at Jeremiah chapter five, and let's start with verse one. "Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem. See now and know, and seek in her open places if you can find a man, if there is anyone who executes judgment, who seeks the truth, and I will pardon her." Find me one guy, and I will pardon the city.

"Though they say, 'As the Lord lives,' surely they swear falsely. O Lord, are not your eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to return." That is universal. That can apply to any people, any place, any time. Unfortunately, it is looking more and more like this today, right here where we live.

"Therefore I said, 'Surely these are poor, they are foolish; for they do not know the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God. I will go to the great men and speak to them, for they have known the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God.' But these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds. Therefore a lion from the forest shall slay them, a wolf of the desert shall destroy them, a leopard will watch over their cities. Everyone who goes out from there will be torn in pieces. Why? Because their transgressions are many; their backslidings have increased."

"How shall I pardon you for this? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by those that are not gods. When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses." They were like well-fed, lusty stallions; everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife. "Shall I not punish them for these things?" says the Lord. "And shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?"

"Go up on her walls and destroy, but do not make a complete end. Take away her branches, for they are not the Lord's. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously with Me," says the Lord. Verse 12: "They have lied about the Lord and said, 'It is not He. Neither will evil come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine.' And the prophets become wind, for the word is not in them." This message contains no content.

Let me pause here and then we're going to keep reading. You have to pay attention to what you are listening to. If you turn your radio on, you download some message, or you watch TV, you have to listen. Is there any content? Is this someone just saying stuff, or is it really scripture? Is it really of God?

Is there any way to even know the difference, or do you just have ears that need scratching? Do you look for someone with long nails who can just appease you and say what you want to hear? We don't need to hear what we want to hear. We need to hear what God has to say.

When things get out of whack and I'm out of line, I need a God who will confront me. I need to be around people who will speak the truth in love, but who will speak the truth. You might say, "Well, I found a place where no one judges me and everybody loves me, and it's just such a wonderful thing." It's not about judging you. It's a kick in the pants every once in a while because you're an idiot, just like me. We all get out of line.

Someone told me this years ago, and I think there's some truth to it: you end up like the five people you run around with. Who are you running around with? You say, "I don't know how I ended up doing these things and living this life." You're doing them with someone, or you're just completely by yourself, and then that's a problem.

Let's go back and read verse 12. "They have lied about the Lord and said, 'It is not He. Neither will evil come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine.' And the prophets become wind, for the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them." Therefore, thus says the Lord God of hosts: "Because you speak this word, behold, I will make My words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them."

"Behold, I will bring a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel," says the Lord. Listen to the description of who God's going to bring in because they don't get it. "It is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say. Their quiver is like an open tomb; they are all mighty men. And they shall eat up your harvest and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat; they shall eat up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees; they shall destroy your fortified cities, in which you trust, with the sword."

Are you thinking this is talking about America? I think it's talking about any nation that turns away from God. Verse 18: "Nevertheless in those days," says the Lord, "I will not make a complete end of you. And it will be when you say, 'Why does the Lord our God do all these things?' then you shall answer them, 'Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve aliens in a land that is not yours.'"

"Declare this in the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah, saying, 'Hear this now, O foolish people without understanding, who have eyes and see not, and who have ears and hear not: Do you not fear Me?' says the Lord. 'Will you not tremble at My presence?'" This is God talking about Himself. "Who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it? And though its waves toss to and fro, yet they cannot prevail; though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it. But this people has a defiant and rebellious heart; they have revolted and departed."

When you read these scriptures, ask this question: "Could this be said of me?" Stop looking around the room and down the aisle and going, "Oh, I'm so glad my husband is here. These verses are for him."

"This people has a defiant and rebellious heart; they have revolted and departed. They do not say in their heart, 'Let us now fear the Lord our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season. He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.' Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have withheld good from you."

When people say, "Why is God trying to destroy and ruin people?" How can you possibly think that God is against anybody when He sent His only Son down here to die on a cross, be buried, and raised from the dead to save us? What are you thinking? What has He got to do to prove that He is for us? He wants the best for us. Look at how He blesses the planet. I still haven't figured out how in all of the universe, some meteor or something doesn't hit us and wipe us out. We are protected. He gives you every opportunity, and look how we respond.

Verse 26: "For among My people are found wicked men; they lie in wait as one who sets snares; they set a trap, they catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become great and grown rich. They have grown fat, they are sleek; yes, they surpass the deeds of the wicked; they do not plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless; yet they prosper, and the right of the needy they do not defend."

"Shall I not punish them for these things?" says the Lord. "Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this? An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?"

If you listen to me very long and track back, every once in a while, I'm going to read you these verses because I have to. You say, "Well, it sounds intense and hellfire and brimstone-ish, like you're trying to scare us." Our God is an awesome God.

If you decide you're going to live like hell and claim His name, and just find you some place where you can listen to whatever you want to hear and no one challenges you, no one confronts you, no one tells you the truth—and even when they do, you just stare at them like, "What are you talking about, dude?"—and you have no intention of changing, you might think about that.

Go to Jeremiah 23, verse one. Here God goes after the shepherds who are not supposed to be delivering messages with no content. He says, "Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!" says the Lord.

Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel against the shepherds who feed My people: "You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings," says the Lord. "But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking," says the Lord.

By the way, that is what you're looking for. When sheep are together and things are working properly, they are healthy, and healthy sheep are fruitful and increase. "I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them." You will be fed. "And they shall fear no more." You won't be afraid anymore, nor dismayed, nor shall they be lacking, says the Lord.

"Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "that I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely. Now this is His name by which He will be called: The God of our Righteousness."

"Therefore, behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "that they shall no longer say, 'As the Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,' but, 'As the Lord lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them,' and they shall dwell in their own land."

"My heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the Lord, and because of His holy words. For the land is full of adulterers; for because of a curse the land mourns. The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up. Their course of life is evil, and their might is not right."

"For both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in My house I have found their wickedness," says the Lord. "Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery ways; in the darkness they shall be driven out and fall in them; for I will bring disaster on them, the year of their punishment," says the Lord.

"And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: they prophesied by Baal and caused My people Israel to err. Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they also strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns back from his wickedness. All of them are like Sodom to Me, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah."

Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets: "Behold, I will feed them with wormwood and make them drink the water of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem profaneness has gone out into all the land." Look at verse 16: Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; they speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord. They continually say to those who despise Me, 'The Lord has said you shall have peace'; and to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, 'No evil shall come upon you.'"

Think about this. How many people flip through channels and try to listen to preachers, and those preachers are saying whatever people want to hear in order to get them to listen and send money in? I don't even get it anymore. No content. No scripture. If you are being fed by a preacher who never uses scripture, you're starving to death.

You cannot preach without scripture. You have nothing to say. "Oh, well, we're going to say nice things to people. Get in touch with the God that's within you. Think positively. Everything's going to be okay. No matter what you do, God's going to take care of you. You can live like hell and still go—" You say, "Oh, I feel wonderful." Follow the Pied Piper and see where you end up. Nowhere.

I think we live in a country and in a culture that is starved for truth. You say, "Well, if I stand up for something, no one's going to like me." Forget being liked. Do they even respect you? You say, "Well, they'll think I'm narrow and mean and judgmental." They're going to think what they're going to think. Don't be that way. Speak the truth in love, but stand for something they might end up respecting you for. When all hell breaks loose and the bottom falls out of their little lives, they are looking for someone who believes something.

Not someone who's going to tell them, "Oh, it's okay. You didn't do anything wrong. You didn't hurt anyone." Don't listen to people who make stuff up for God. You say, "Well, you want people to feel bad." Let me tell you something: they already do. People already feel bad because there is a consequence to sin. It does cave in on you.

Sin does not work. I am yet to find a situation where sin works. Even if you hold it all together, a security camera can find your real life in an elevator. No PR firm can fix all that because we all got stuff. If you live like hell, you're going to end up feeling like hell. That's just the way it works.

Where were we? Verse 18: "For who has stood in the counsel of the Lord, and has perceived and heard His word? Who has marked His word and heard it? Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury—a violent whirlwind! It will fall violently on the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart. In the latter days, you will understand it perfectly."

"I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in My counsel, and had caused My people to hear My words, then they would have turned from their evil way and from the evil of their doings." If the truth is being proclaimed, your life is changing. If your life is not changing, then think about what you're listening to. If you are living an evil life and are never confronted with that, and there's no repentance or change, it's not working.

"Am I a God near at hand," says the Lord, "and not a God afar off? Can anyone hide himself in secret places, so I shall not see him?" says the Lord. "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" says the Lord. "I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, 'I have dreamed, I have dreamed!' How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, who try to make My people forget My name by their dreams which everyone tells his neighbor, as their fathers forgot My name for Baal."

"The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?" says the Lord. "Is not My word like a fire," says the Lord, "and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?"

"Therefore behold, I am against the prophets," says the Lord, "who steal My words every one from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophets," says the Lord, "who use their tongues and say, 'He says.' Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams," says the Lord, "and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all," says the Lord.

Go to Amos chapter eight, verse 11. "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord God, "that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but shall not find it."

You talk about sin or the blood of Jesus dying on a cross, being buried, and raised from the dead, and you can clear a place out because nobody wants to hear about that anymore. Sin is my problem, and Jesus made it His. I'm going to make it His and try to figure out how to live the way He intended.

If that means with just a tiny group of people, I'm okay with that, because I will not answer to you; I will answer to Him one day. I read these things out of Jeremiah and I go, "Lord, is that me? Am I watering this down? Am I making it too cool or too interesting or not wanting to offend anybody?" If you're not offended, it ain't working.

You say, "Well, dude, I don't want all that. I want to live my little side life over here." That little side life is stealing the only life you have. It's killing you.

Second Timothy chapter four, verse one. Paul, writing to Timothy, says, "I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching." We're going through a process with you.

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."

The time has already come, and it keeps coming. It keeps happening. People say, "Well, we don't want to be talked to that way. We don't want to hear that kind of message. We want to leave feeling better." You cannot leave somewhere feeling better if you're living bad, no one confronts you with that, and you don't repent. You cannot live an evil life and feel good, no matter who you hire to tell you what you want to hear.

Second Peter chapter two and verse one: "But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed."

"By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber." People are out there working you, saying what you want to hear. "Oh, that's what I needed to hear. I'll send money to them. God bless that man. I feel so much better."

Look down at verse 17. Look how these are described: "These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error."

"While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also is he brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning."

"For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: 'A dog returns to his own vomit,' and, 'a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.'"

Guest (Male): We'll get back to Richard in a moment to close out today's talk. But first, I want to share with you something about the program. Our mission is actually very simple: to take the planet. So, it's our prayer that these daily talks from Richard aren't something you only hear and enjoy, but that they inspire you to share with others. Together, we can do this.

The message of the Gospel is something everyone needs to hear, and that's why it's a huge priority to us. You can join us in this important mission. Call us at 855-6-RICHARD to say you're in. Or you can get on board with us through our website, richardellis.com. Well, here's Richard with some closing thoughts for us.

Richard Ellis: I'll go to one more, the last one: First Corinthians chapter two. This kind of sums it up. The opposite of a message that contains no content.

This is Paul writing to this church at Corinth, verse one. He says, "And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."

If you go to a church and they never talk about Jesus and the crucifixion—I have listened, I have sat through services just waiting for someone to speak of Jesus and His death on the cross, and it never happens.

You say, "Well, you can't talk about it all the time." There is nothing else to talk about. You've got jack without Jesus on a cross. You've got nothing. He was dead, buried, and raised from the dead. "I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."

At some point, if the word of God is being preached, the power of God will be manifest somewhere in the process and your life will be changed. I can't make that happen. He's got to show up. But I tell you what: He honors His word. He honors the Gospel. I am not ashamed of the Gospel, as it says in Romans 1:16, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. You have no power without Jesus. You might say you don't believe that. I don't care. You will. It just might be too late when you finally do.

Guest (Male): Thanks for tuning in today to Richard Ellis Talks. We all have busy schedules these days, so it means the world to us that you would take this time to listen. Richard would love to know how today's talk has touched your heart, so give us a call at 855-6-RICHARD. You can also share your story with us at our website, richardellis.com.

One last thing. Richard Ellis Talks is a daily program that is always expanding to reach the world with the good news of the Gospel, but it also has daily costs. Being a listener-supported program like ours means we rely on the financial partnership of our listeners, which means you.

We believe that these talks with Richard are making a difference in your life, so this is how you can make a difference to ours. You can contribute by calling 855-6-RICHARD or at our website, richardellis.com. Thank you for your generosity. God bless, and thanks for listening to Richard Ellis Talks.