Disobedience to God’s Word will eventually end up in a breakdown of morals and Christian character.

Solomon compartmentalized his life: half for God and half for his pleasures. The Word of God halfway convicted him. He experienced halfway sorrow, halfway repentance—with halfway changes! I don’t know what happened, but Solomon got halfway convicted about his heathen wife living in the holy place near the ark. So he decided to move her out—halfway across town! “Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the city of David unto the house that he had built for her: for he said, My wife shall not dwell in the house of David . . .

To be sermon-proof is to hear God’s Word, claim to love it, profess to obey it, but then not act on it! It is to become so hardened, the heart is no longer moved and is totally unaffected by what is preached. Some call it “gospel-hardened.”

Think of all the old Bible stories and Bible characters. Who do you think was the most sermon-proof? Who sat under the clearest, strongest word and was totally unaffected by it?

All the mourning, brokenhearted men of God in the Bible had one thing in common: They identified with the sins of the remnant!

They never prayed like the publican, “Thank God I am not like others.” They mourned over the adultery, treachery and compromise but humbly prayed, “God, I am also guilty.” Not guilty of those gross sins, but of falling short of God’s glory.

Nehemiah was a man of great intensity for God. “Hannai, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.

When God is about to do a new work, He pours out a spirit of intensity upon His people. We can no longer be spiritually lazy, complacent, nonchalant and easygoing. We must become intense, full of heat and passion toward Christ, feeling deeply and seriously about the work of God. Today God is raising up a people who hate sin and tremble at His Word. His remnant must hear and believe in holy prophets. They must not vacillate and grow lukewarm; instead, they must grow more serious for God as the days go by.

“For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. . . . Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 6:13, 15).

“It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). “It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (4:7). “For it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (4:10). When Jesus was confronted with the devil’s schemes, He overcame them with God’s Word.

The Lord said to Peter, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not” (Luke 22:32). I look at this wonderful example of Christ’s love and realize I know almost nothing about how to love those who fall. Surely Jesus is the “friend that sticketh closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24).

Jesus sees both the good and the bad in Peter and concludes, “This man is worth saving! Satan desires him, but I desire him all the more.” Peter truly loved the Lord and the Lord truly loved Peter even though He knew his personality traits.

There is only one way to cheer up your heart and stay in gladness. “My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. . . . My tears have been my meat day and night. . . . I pour out my soul in me. . . . Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance” (Psalm 42:2-5). This is God’s message to all who are “cast down”—all those who are sad, defeated, low, blue, discouraged and joyless.