Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Father, I come before you in the name
of your Son, and apart from Him I
know that I have no part with you,
that He is our righteousness, our wisdom, our
justification, our hope, our life, that apart from
Him there is nothing.
A Father who is sufficient for these things,
to preach, Father, the unsearchable riches of Christ.
All flesh is grass, all preaching pathetic, in
light of that one tree where Christ died.
Father, I am speechless before the truth that
I heard in that song.
I don't know what to think, nor where
to go.
Oh, that Christ might be highly esteemed and
understood and revered.
Father, help us.
Help us.
Amen.
Let's open up our Bibles to Romans chapter
3.
I'm going to preach on a text that
no matter where I preach, unless forbidden by
the Holy Spirit to do so, I will
preach on this text.
And I have preached on it many times.
On Sunday, we studied the doctrine of regeneration,
because among Baptists of all sorts, whether they
be Calvinistic, Arminian, Southern, fundamental, matters not.
The doctrine of regeneration has basically been thrown
out the window and replaced by human decisionism.
We have taken the Gospel and reduced it
down to a few superstitious hoops, evangelical hoops,
that if the preacher can make someone jump
through them, he then declares them popishly to
be saved.
And it is committed by every sort of
Baptist on the face of the earth, because
as time progresses, we are losing what was
known as the Baptist church.
There are no longer any Baptist distinctives among
us.
It is a shame.
Before I go on to this text, before
I even read my text, I want to
just state a few things.
I want to iterate some of the things
that have been said.
First of all, again, I repeat this.
Our evangelism is not biblical in its presentation.
Our calling men to Christ is not biblical
in its presentation.
And there is a great need to return
to Scripture.
That if in modern day evangelism, you come
up to a man, you ask him, Sir,
do you know if you are a sinner
or not?
If he says yes, you automatically jump to
the next question, because that is what those
silly little tracks tell you to do.
The fact of the matter is, it does
not matter a hill of beans if the
man considers himself a sinner or not.
The question is not, Sir, do you know
you are a sinner?
The question is, has God done such a
supernatural work in your heart after hearing the
gospel that you now hate the sin you
once loved?
And then we go on to the question,
Sir, do you want to go to heaven?
It matters not if a man responds yes,
because all men want to go to heaven.
As the old preachers used to say, catch
a field on fire, the serpents will run
from the fire, but they're still serpents as
they're running.
Every man wants to go to heaven, it's
just that most men don't want God to
be there when they get there.
So the question is not, do you want
to go to heaven?
The question is, do you now desire the
Christ that you have hated and spurned?
And if they cry out yes, yes, a
thousand times yes, it is not, do you
want to open the door of your heart
and let Jesus come in?
I am so sick and tired of men
who declare themselves to believe the Bible using
that verse totally out of context.
It's not what that text teaches.
And every time I've confronted a man, he
said, I know it's not what the text
teaches, but it's a great illustration.
You have no right to do that.
Because it's not a great illustration.
Because nowhere in Scripture does it say that
a man opened up his heart to receive
God, but it does say that God opened
up Lydia's heart that she might receive Christ.
And the call of the gospel is never,
do you want to pray a prayer and
ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart?
Because that's a perversion of Romans chapter 10.
But the call is this, repent of your
sins and believe the gospel.
And when I say that, I hear people
come to me, well, then how are we
going to know whether they're saved or not?
Well, the way they used to know, their
life changes.
Because the assurance of salvation does not come
from the fact that someone prayed a prayer
at the end of your presentation.
The evidence that someone is saved and the
assurance that they must muster, a biblical assurance,
does not come from the fact that they
wrote their silly name in the back of
their Bible.
Assurance according to the New Testament comes from
a changed life.
But if your life is not changed, you
can have no assurance whatsoever.
I see that God is upon this part,
so I'm going to change tonight.
I'm going to go to another section of
Scripture.
On Thursday night, Lord willing, I will present
the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Tonight I want to deal, I see a
need to deal with another.
And it is this, the idea of security
of the believer and the idea of assurance
of the believer.
Now, my history is a Southern Baptist history.
I am in a Southern Baptist church, but
I am not like modern-day Southern Baptists.
I am like the old men in our
school.
I go back to the Boices, to the
B.H. Carrolls, and them.
And not with the modern thought that has
been induced by liberalism and German theology.
Why the Southern Baptist embraced the very theology
from Germany that closed every church in Germany,
I will never know.
But if you consider yourself fundamentalist, biblical, conservative,
or Calvinistic, I care not because the same
blight that lays on us is found in
you.
It's all over.
So that a Baptist of 150 years ago
would be hard-pressed to find another Baptist
on the face of the earth.
And so we're all guilty.
But there is a way back.
A returning to the old path.
There is a way back.
And what we need to understand, and we're
going to address the doctrine of assurance tonight.
And the doctrine of the security of the
believer.
Now, probably one of the greatest losses with
regard to understanding Christianity and the gospel deals
with the security of the believer and the
assurance of the believer.
When you take two doctrines and merge them
into one, you lose both of them.
And that is what has happened.
You always hear about the doctrine of security.
But very rarely in American Baptists do you
hear the doctrine of assurance.
They're two different things.
And they are extremely important.
Now, what is the doctrine of security?
I don't like that terminology, but I'll use
it because it's used today.
It is simply this.
That the one who has truly believed in
Jesus Christ, the same power that brought that
person to repentance and faith, will keep that
person in repentance and faith and will keep
them saved.
But now notice my terminology.
How does God keep them saved?
By keeping them, by His power in repentance
and faith.
It's not like modern day preachers say today,
basically you get saved as though it was
some vaccination you received.
And once you've got that out of the
way, you can live like hell and you're
still saved.
That is not what the doctrine teaches.
But it is this.
That every believer, true believer, is saved by
the power of Almighty God through a work
of regeneration.
And that same power that saves, keeps.
Keeps.
That's the doctrine of security.
And so the doctrine of security is, every
true believer is secure by the power of
God.
The doctrine of assurance is this.
But how do you know you're a true
believer?
It is true.
Every true believer is kept by the power
of God.
But how do you know you're a true
believer?
And especially in the South, where everyone in
this county believes themselves saved, because some preacher
who should have spent less time preaching and
more time studying his Bible, told them they
were saved.
And so there is a doctrine of security,
but there is a doctrine of assurance.
How can you know?
We all agree that the man who truly
believes is saved.
But how can we know we truly believe?
The question is usually something like this.
Well, were you sincere when you prayed the
prayer?
My goodness.
How we have fallen.
That's pathetic.
It's nothing more than Roman superstition.
I lived for many years in a country
where Rome ruled.
And you would all just scoff at the
fact that most Peruvians believed themselves saved because
when they were infants, they were baptized into
the church.
You'd scoff at that.
But Baptists of all types do the very
same thing.
Except it's not infant baptism, it's prayer, superstitious
prayer.
It's the exact same thing.
And especially when like wolves, teachers in Sunday
school and teachers in vacation Bible school who
do not understand the Gospel every summer pronounce
salvation on a multitude of children and lead
them straight into a path of hell.
Do you want to go to Jesus?
How many little children stand up and go,
Why no, I'd rather go to hell.
How many of you want to go to
Jesus?
How many of you love Jesus?
All of them, of course, in a frenzy.
I do, I do.
Well then, pray this prayer.
Now, pastor, 15 children prayed the prayer.
Well, wonderful.
Wonderful.
I wouldn't entrust my son to you.
Oh, my dear friend.
How can we know that we're saved?
I want us just for a moment, quickly,
to go to 2 Corinthians.
We're going to look at a few passages
before we settle on our text.
2 Corinthians, chapter 13.
Now, the church in Corinth, from which we
get the false idea of the carnal Christian,
because there is no such thing.
There is no such thing as a carnal
Christian.
A Christian can fall into carnality, a Christian
can sin, but a Christian cannot live continuously
in carnality.
It's impossible.
When you've got all these silly little thrones,
and you show it to some unconverted church
member, and ask them, Who's on the throne?
Jesus or you?
And if Jesus is not, well, they're still
saved, but they're not spiritual.
All that is just the makeshift work of
man.
You see, when you no longer have the
power of God, and when the Scripture is
no longer the thing that you live in
and study, then you have to replace everything
with quaint little superstitions and clichés, and booklets.
It goes on.
Now, the church in Corinth was not, some
of them, of course, were not living as
Christians when the letter is written to them.
Now, be careful though, because it was not
always that way.
Some died, and some got right, but none
of them stayed carnal.
Now, in 2 Corinthians, Paul comes to them,
and he's dealing with whether or not these
people are even saved.
And he doesn't come to them and say,
Well, tell me, was there a point in
time when you prayed and asked Jesus to
come into your heart?
But what does he do?
In 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5, he says
this, Examine yourselves whether ye be in the
faith.
Prove your own selves.
Know ye not your own selves, how that
Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be
reprobates?
Now, what is he saying?
He's looking at a group of people who
are not walking in conformity to the way
the New Testament describes a believer, and he
comes to them and he says, Test yourself.
Prove yourself.
Examine yourself.
Open up your life in light of Scripture,
because that is where true biblical assurance comes
from.
The testimony of the Holy Spirit.
Now, let me stop here.
I hear so many people saying, Well, the
Spirit bears witness that I am saved.
No, the Spirit bears witness through the Word
whether or not you're saved.
Because there's no way to validate that it's
a true work or impression of the Spirit
except it be conformed to the Word.
Because what we have is a bunch of
carnal, wicked people who are being impressed by
the Holy Spirit that they're genuinely saved when
they're not.
The Spirit uses the sword, the Word of
God to testify.
Now, he says, And in true Hebrew form,
when emphasis is being made, there is an
iteration or a repetition.
Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith.
Prove yourselves or test yourselves.
In light of what?
In light of Scripture.
Now, I sometimes teach in pastors' conferences and
missionaries' conferences, and I ask them, I simply
ask them, When was the last time you
told somebody this?
And for the most part, they say, Well,
never.
Well, why?
What are you doing?
How are you giving people assurance?
How is false assurance being destroyed?
How is every thought being taken captive to
the Lordship of Jesus Christ?
How are speculations being destroyed in your church
if you're not using the Word of God?
You see, we treat the conversion of a
man as though it was the most minuscule,
unimportant event in their life.
And I can prove it.
When somebody makes a profession of faith in
the church, let's say I'm preaching, or let's
say in a normal, typical Baptist church, someone
is preaching, someone comes forward, the preacher receives
them, and then introduces them to the congregation
and says, So-and-so got saved tonight.
Let me ask you a question.
When did the Pope die and when did
you get appointed?
How do you know?
Based on what?
The profession of faith of a man that
you don't even know?
What is the Word to say?
If you genuinely care and you genuinely understand
the Scripture, it is this.
This gentleman, this lady has come forward and
professed faith in Jesus Christ tonight, and in
that we rejoice, and for the next several
weeks, maybe even months, we will be examining
and counseling and caring for this person to
make sure that they are sure, biblically, that
Christ has done a work of salvation here
tonight.
But no, we've got to go to Denny's.
No, we've got to write on some paper
and send it off to some denominational headquarters
how many people got saved, but we never
happen to mention how many don't come on
Sunday morning.
Now, if you think I'm being satirical, if
you think I'm being...
I am.
That has a place in preaching.
If you study the prophets and use them
as an example in your preaching, satire has
a place.
It is to anger people.
It is to go against the grain in
their lives to show how foolish, how far
we have fallen, and not just in simple
matters.
I mean, we'll argue all day over the
book of Revelation, and yet the very foundations
of the gospel no longer stand.
He says, test yourself.
Examine yourself.
Now, before we go to our main text,
I want us to look over at another
place.
Let's go to 2 Peter 1, verse 10.
Now listen to what Peter says.
And I wish, because this is a primary
text that needs to be preached with regard
to assurance, but I just have time to
do verse 10.
He says, Wherefore, the rather, brethren, give diligence
to make your calling and election sure, for
if you do these things, ye shall never
fall.
What is he saying?
Now listen to this.
There are certain texts in the Bible in
Hebrews, here, and what it is calling for
diligence.
Now, is this not foreign to the Baptist
church in America?
That a preacher would spend much time so
that his ministry would be marked in his
congregation by constantly encouraging and pleading with his
congregation to do what?
To give diligence to make their calling and
election sure.
Be diligent, examining your life, pressing forward into
the kingdom of God, making sure that you
really come to Him.
No!
Why?
Because we have such a superstitious view of
the Gospel.
The Catholic church never tells anybody to check
and make sure that they're really saved.
And neither do the Baptists anymore.
Why?
Because the Catholic church has a ritual and
so do we.
Two rituals, but they do the same thing.
They damn souls to hell.
They baptize infants and we get them to
repeat a prayer.
It is the truth!
And I'll stand not only in Scripture.
Yes, I am a doctor of interpretation.
I know what I'm talking about.
I know that one of the main principles
of hermeneutics is this, that you always do
your theology in the context of the church.
That means if I interpret a passage, I
must go back through 2,000 years of
Christian history, 2,000 years of theology, 2
,000 years of hermeneutics, and if everyone disagrees
with me, I'm probably wrong.
But I tell you, every ancient Baptist that
ever walked on the face of the earth
would have preached this sermon I'm preaching tonight.
It's the truth.
It's just the truth.
That's all it is.
It's the truth.
Don't you know in the Great Awakening, you
know, some people tell me I preach this
and they go, oh, that's Calvinism.
No, John and Charles Wesley preached this.
And they were more Baptists than Baptists today.
So don't be talking about them in my
presence.
Everybody preached this.
The Congregational preached this.
The Presbyterian preached this.
The Methodist.
The Arminian Methodist and the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist.
They all preached this.
And these were the things that brought about
the Great Awakening and revival.
Because the average pastor in the pulpit had
died to theology and not being given to
study, but being given to busyness and having
his throat clogged by all the programs that
come down from denominational headquarters.
He no longer studies Scripture and he can't
preach it except clichés or something he read
in some book written by a guy who
shouldn't write books.
But it's true.
It's just true.
That's why I say, young men, be afraid
of any book that isn't at least 100
years old.
Now, there is a need.
Now, another thing I want you to understand.
Assurance is a grace.
In order to discipline a true believer, God
might remove assurance from them so that they
might seek Him again.
Now, this is old Baptist theology.
But more important, it's biblical.
Assurance is a grace.
Now, I want us to go to 1
John and that's where we're going to take
our text.
1 John.
And go to chapter 5.
Verse 13.
The wonderful thing about John is that he
gives us the reason for his writing.
And that's quite an amazing thing.
He does that in the Gospel.
The Gospel was written so that we would
believe in Christ.
1 John is written so that we would
know whether or not we believe unto salvation.
And listen to me.
I mean, I graduated from no small seminary.
I never heard these things in seminary.
And yet, when you start digging back in
history, 1 John was the book.
It was the pastoral book to affirm the
salvation of someone.
And now it's not even used anymore.
And sometimes when I speak about it in
pastor's conferences, they say, I've never even heard
that before in my life.
But just 70 years ago, it was the
book.
Someone came to a pastor and they said,
Pastor, I'm just scared.
I don't have much assurance.
I don't feel strong.
Break out 1 John.
Now, it says in 5.13, These things
I have written unto you that believe on
the name of the Son of God that
you may know that ye have eternal life
and that ye may believe on the name
of the Son of God.
Now, go back to 13.
These things.
What are these things?
The book.
The book of 1 John.
Better to say the letter of 1 John.
These things I have written unto you.
To whom is he writing?
To those who believe.
Now, what is this referring to?
John was a man.
He looked at men.
Men who professed faith in Christ were declared
by and large in the New Testament men
who believed with the understanding that no man
can look into the heart of a man
to discern whether he truly believes.
What is John referring to?
Those of you who have professed faith in
Christ.
Those of you who have made yourself members
of this body.
Those of you who have taken on baptism.
I am writing these things so that through
reading these things and the working of the
Holy Spirit in your heart, you will have
assurance, biblical assurance, that you are truly saved
or have no assurance whatsoever.
Now, what are these things?
If you look through the structure of 1
John, it is set out for us a
series of tests.
1 John is a series of tests that
if one goes through these tests, not mechanically,
but through the working of the Holy Spirit,
prayerfully, it is revealed to the heart of
a man either the truth or the falsehood
of the salvation he professes.
Now, what is amazing, I was preaching this
in St. Louis several years ago and the
pastor came up to me after the sermon
and he goes, Paul, when you went to
that text, I was terrified.
And I said, why?
He said, well, I have so many women
in this church that are so fragile in
their assurance and I thought you were, you
know, when you went through those tests, they
were just going to drive them into the
grave.
And he goes, I have to just stand
here and repent before you because these weakest
saints in my church who have always wondered
about their assurance, they are back there right
now weeping tears of joy.
I said, yes, of course.
Truth will do that.
It will give you something more than, yes,
I think I was sincere when I prayed
that prayer.
Now, let's look at the tests.
And I want everyone to take this test.
We should all be taking this test.
Always.
There is so much about salvation.
So much meat about salvation and the working
of God in salvation that is so not
even considered anymore.
You know, a man, just as a side
note, a man could appear to walk with
God for 25 years and serve the Lord
heartily, mightily, and then fall into a state
of disillusion, fall into a state of doubt,
to believe themselves lost.
And how should they be treated?
Some well-meaning souls should not come up
to them, rub them on the back and
say this is all nonsense and an attack
from the devil.
Because you have no right to say that.
But to go to Scripture and say, brother,
whatever you are, let's go to Scripture and
discover.
Let's either seal this casket once and for
all that you might repent and believe unto
salvation, or brother, let's find assurance in God's
Word.
I hear so many preachers that someone will
come to them and go, you know, I
don't know if I'm saved.
And they'll say, well, that's just the devil.
No, it just might be the Holy Spirit.
You might just be getting very close to
blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
Oh, the workings of salvation.
It's nothing.
Go to a Christian bookstore.
How many books are written about on us
being filled or us being empty or our
psychosis or our psychology or this or that
or our felt needs or your best life
now or healthy, wealthy, and wise or something.
And how many books are written on discerning
whether or not you're going to hell.
Why?
Because we've given that segment of theology over
to superstition.
Just like the Catholic Church.
Except they did it from the beginning.
Because they never were a church to start
off with.
Now, first test.
Chapter 1, verse 5.
This is the message which we have heard
from Him.
And declare unto you that God is light
and in Him there is no darkness at
all.
Now, be careful here with John.
Be very careful.
Most people take a look at this passage
and say there's no darkness in Him.
It means that God is morally pure.
That God is holy.
God is light.
And that's true.
But, in John's writing, we find this also
in the Gospel.
He seems to write using terminology at times
so frequently that terminology that can be given
to more than one interpretation.
It seems like he's trying to say more
than even language permits.
And if you look at the context of
this book, the problems that were going on
with the roots of Gnosticism and everything else,
what is he saying?
Well, yes, there's a sense in which he's
saying, by saying God is light, that God
is holy and God is pure.
But I believe the stronger sense here is
this.
That God is light in the sense that
God has revealed Himself.
He has made Himself known and He has
made His will known.
Because the cult or the group, the roots
of Gnosticism that was attacking this church, they
believed that the knowledge of God was esoteric.
That it was dark.
That it was hidden.
That no one could really know who God
was and no one could really know what
His will truly was.
And John is coming and he's saying, no,
God is light.
He is holy.
He is all those things.
But also, God has shown us who He
is and He has shown us what His
will requireth of thee.
He has made Himself known and it is
clear.
Now, looking at that, we're going to see
some things.
Now, here's the test.
If we say that we have fellowship with
Him.
Now, old interpretation of this.
Or let me give you the new interpretation
of this.
If we say that we're Christians walking in
communion with God.
The old way of looking at this.
And the way I accept.
If we say that we're Christians.
Period.
People take this text that was started in
no small seminary out west.
The idea of carnal Christianity.
But it's taken to mean, well, He that
is a Christian and walking with God or
He that is a Christian and not walking
with God.
But that is not what John's talking about.
John, when he says, have fellowship.
He is talking about whether you are a
believer or not.
And he says this.
If we say that we have fellowship with
Him.
If we say we're a Christian.
If we say we're a child of God.
If we say we're born again.
And walk in darkness.
We lie and do not the truth.
Now, what is John saying?
He's saying this.
If you make the profession of faith.
If you declare yourself to be a Christian.
But, you walk in a way that contradicts
what God has revealed about Himself and contradicts
what God has revealed to be His will.
You lie when you say you're a Christian.
Now, here John is not talking about perfectionism
and a very important word here that he's
using.
Walk.
Peripateo.
To walk around.
Referring to a style of life and not
Christian perfectionism.
And what he's talking about is this.
If you say you are a Christian and
yet your style of life, the way you
generally live before men, your practical evident life,
if it contradicts what we know about the
character and attributes of God, if it contradicts
what we know to be God's will, you're
a liar when you say you're a Christian.
It's that simple.
It's just that simple.
That's what he's saying.
Now, I often use this illustration.
And when I take a person doubting their
assurance through this book, I do not take
them through as violently as I am you.
But I'll take them through and I'll say,
now I want you to understand this.
If you were to follow me around with
a snapshot camera, just click, and it took
one photo.
If you followed me around long enough, you
would be able to pinpoint a moment when
I was sinning, whether in attitude, my facial
expression, whatever.
You'd be able to pinpoint a time when
I was sinning.
And if you went click and took that
picture, you could say, you could blow the
picture up, you could put it in front
of the church and say, see, I didn't
like that preacher and I had reason.
Look at him.
He's a sinner.
He's not even saved.
Alright?
That's a distortion of my life.
That's just one moment of my life.
But if you followed me around with a
video camera 24 hours a day, now that
would not be a distortion.
And that's what John's talking about here when
he says peripateo, when he talks about walking
in the light.
The true Christian, although not perfect by any
means, although growing, although changing, although at times
stumbling, if you were to take a holistic
look at their life, you would see that
the general style of life that they live
conforms to what Scripture says about the attributes
and character of God and conforms to the
will of God that has been revealed.
And if that doesn't happen, be afraid.
I warn congregations, I say now, and this
is a word that really changed my preaching,
and it's this, reality.
Let me ask you a question.
Is this a reality in your life?
If someone were to study your life, the
general whole of it, would they say that
that life that you live has something to
do with or has some agreement with what
we know about God and the way He
is and what we know about the will
of God that He has revealed to us?
Or does it contradict what we know about
God and what we know about His will
as a style of life?
Now, that's my question for you.
Again, remember, in Matthew 7 we learned what's
your profession of faith in Jesus Christ were?
Absolutely nothing.
Because many will come before Him on that
day and say, Lord, Lord, and He'll say,
depart from me.
He says, He who does the will of
my Father.
Again, doing the will of the Father is
not the means by which we are saved.
It is the evidence that we have been
saved by faith.
Now, He says, if we say we have
fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we
lie and do not the truth.
But if we walk in the light as
He is in the light, we have fellowship
with one another and the blood of Jesus
Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.
So the first test, the first question, do
you walk in the light as a style
of life?
Because if you don't, I declare to you
with all the authority of God's Word that
you need to be afraid.
I cannot tell you you are lost at
this moment, but I can tell you that
whatever assurance that you have, it's on shaky
ground.
And there is enough here to encourage you
to put aside absolutely everything in your life
to discern this one question.
Is it well with my soul?
Now, the second test.
Verse 8.
If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say that we have not sinned,
we make Him a liar and His Word
is not in us.
This is the Holy Spirit.
I mean, I don't see how anyone can
read.
Well, I do, but it's foolish to be
able to read this and not see how
it has to be inspired.
The Holy Spirit is just so wise.
I mean, right here, when He comes at
us with this text which some would falsely
interpret to mean that you have to be
sinless or perfect or sinless to have assurance,
He comes back and says something completely almost
the contrary, and really it's not.
It compliments.
And what is He saying?
First of all, the first test.
A true Christian will walk in the light
as a style of life, and even though
they may get off the light, they may
be off the narrow path, the discipline of
the Father will bring them back and their
general style of life will be one of
walking in the light.
Now, the second one is this.
The evidence that a person is truly Christian
is not that they are sinless, but that
they have such a new relationship with sin
that when they sin, they must and will
be led to final repentance and confession.
That is the truth.
Now, I want to tell you something that
when I say this to pastors, sometimes pastors
and preachers, we just have to laugh, because
if we didn't laugh, we'd cry.
And most preachers, when they hear this, they
just laugh, because it's true.
Is it not true, pastor, that when you
have preached from the pulpit, you know, there
are those rare times, and I wish they
were more frequent in all of our lives,
but there are those rare times when we
preach when there is a special sense of
God.
And God will start dealing with people in
their sin.
Have you experienced that?
I mean, regardless of what all these charismatic
TV evangelists...
I mean, they can't steal our heritage.
It is true.
The Holy Spirit can begin to move and
deal with people.
But pastor, isn't it amazing that it is
always the case that the most godly, most
devoted, most loving, and most Christ-like members
in the church are the ones who come
forward weeping and broken and rending their garments,
and the coldest, meanest, carnal church members sit
back there as though nothing was going on.
And what are we seeing?
The wheat and the tares being divided.
Because the true evidence of Christianity is not
that you are sinless, but that sin will
break your heart because it's a new heart
made in the image of God and true
righteousness and true holiness, and it can no
longer deal with such sin.
It must vomit it out.
It must run away from it.
It must go to the Savior.
Now, it may take time.
It may take discipline.
It may take a rebuke.
It may take something.
But they will be brought to confession.
Oh, my dearest friend, the greatest sign that
you're a true believer is that you're broken.
And the greatest sign that God, in a
sense, even esteems you, He says, upon this
one I will look.
One who's broken, the one who's contrite, the
one who trembles at My Word.
It's unbelievable.
Some people who profess faith in Christ, their
heart is like an autumn leaf blown by
the wind.
If you even hint to them some indiscretion,
their heart will break in two and they'll
want to get right with God.
You have to calm them a bit.
And yet there are others that in the
face of being convicted, demonstrated publicly that they
are full of sin and rebellion, they will
harden their hearts, stiffen their chin, and walk
out the door with self-righteousness.
And they'll go to the very next Baptist
church and join.
And the pastor will take them in because
membership's important.
You've got to pay for that building somehow.
My dear friend, as I said last night,
when someone comes to me and says, I've
got a new relationship with God, I always
ask them, do you have a new relationship
with God's Word?
Because if you don't, you don't have a
new relationship with Him.
I say, do you have a new relationship
with sin?
Because if you don't have a new relationship
with sin, you don't have a new relationship
with God.
And it's so easy to illustrate this.
The radically depraved, unregenerated heart will walk with
sin, will have no problem with sin.
They walk together because they're in agreement.
They are friends.
They are partners in this rebellion against God.
They love one another.
They are of common mind and common confession
and common deed.
But when a man is saved, his relationship
with sin changes so that as he was
walking with sin, he now turns.
And although he may still lock arms with
sin, sin is wanting to go that way
and he is desiring to go this way.
And it will be a struggle and there
will be victory.
Now, I need to preface this.
We need to be careful.
Sometimes before that victory becomes evident, it will
be three steps backward and one step forward.
Four steps backward and one step forward.
But eventually, by the power of God, there
will be victory.
Because the God who saved you from Egypt
has the power to bring you into Emmanuel's
land.
Sin.
Now, the reality.
Does sin break your heart?
The most impressive thing I ever heard about
a man.
And I don't know him.
I've never even heard him preach.
But I was hearing one of the older
men who mentors me talk about a fellow
named B.B. Caldwell.
And he said one time, B.B. Caldwell,
he said he saw him just over by
himself.
He was crying.
And he was going, I hate sin!
I hate sin!
Oh, I would give up every other gift,
every other privilege, if I could just come
to that point in my life as an
old man where I hate sin as much
as God hates sin.
And love righteousness as much as God loves
righteousness.
To hate sin.
To hate it.
You see, here's kind of how it works.
A man is regenerated.
He's granted repentance.
He's granted faith.
With that, he believes unto salvation.
I love that.
Now, what happens?
This is what happens.
In that repentance and faith, how does he
repent?
Well, we know it's the work of the
Spirit, work of the heart being regenerated and
all that.
But there's also the idea of God has
revealed Himself.
Albeit a small way, but God has revealed
Himself to that man.
And that man, seeing something of God, now
sees something of himself.
He is brought down into repentance, brokenness, but
it is not a repentance unto death because
in that same revelation that showed him his
sin also appears the grace of God in
the face of Jesus Christ, and he's lifted
up and filled with joy.
And then what happens?
That man continues walking.
And as he continues walking, there comes throughout
his lifetime greater and greater revelations of God,
which brings that man to greater and greater
degrees of repentance and brokenness and everything, but
it is not a repentance unto death.
And why is that?
Because there is greater revelation of the grace
of God which lifts that man up to
greater joy.
So in the end, what you see is
this.
And young preacher, listen to me on this.
This is how it works.
When you start off preaching, you start off
walking with God as a young man, your
joy comes from your performance.
It basically does.
It comes from your performance.
I did well today.
I did this today.
I preached well.
Or if you didn't preach well, you're just
thrown down in the dust.
Alright, now as you grow, here's what's going
to happen.
Your joy has been boistered at the beginning
by your performance, which is your pride.
As you walk with God, you are going
to be driven further and further down in
brokenness and repentance.
And yet, your joy is going to increase
and increase and increase, because now when you
reach the end of your life, you are
more broken than you could have ever imagined
possible.
And at the same time, you are more
joyful than you could have ever imagined possible,
because you've cast off this foolish idea that
standing with God through your performance, and now
your eyes are only set upon Jesus Christ
and His finished work on the cross.
And that's why trials and everything else come
into your life.
The purpose is to kill you that He
might give you life, to destroy you that
He might give you joy, to break you.
And the preaching today, because we love people
so much, we don't want them to be
hurt.
And so we protect that concrete casing around
their heart and around their life so that
they never experience the joy of God.
I'll never forget.
I was preaching in Tennessee and somewhat of
a revival broke out.
And there was a lady.
She was in charge of the counseling and
she had all these people prepared and she
did not like me at all.
And a move of God began and I
was supposed to nod at her and tell
her when she was supposed to send in
her army of counselors.
And people started coming down and people were
weeping.
I'll never forget a little girl to my
left was almost convulsing in pain over her
sin.
Oh, is there mercy for me?
Is there mercy for me?
And I was watching that lady and she
was looking at me like, we need to
go.
And I went...
And I knew that woman was going to
bolt on me.
And so I went down and I stood
beside her and I said, no.
No counselors.
And finally she looked at me and she
just went and stepped out and I put
my hand on her shoulder.
I said, sister, no.
What was I doing?
She was trying to comfort people that God
was wounding.
Because she cares more for humanistic humanity than
the glory of God.
That is just the truth.
I remember Duncan Campbell speaking about an old
woman coming to get him when the great
revival broke out in the great Hebrides.
And she came and she goes, oh, Mr.
Duncan, Mr. Duncan, come.
Her husband was a notorious sinner, a notorious
drunk.
She said, come, he's beside himself.
So he ran out to this farmhouse and
there's the cellar.
And the wife, she opened up the door
and there was the man down at the
bottom of the cellar.
He had ahold of the pillars of the
house and he was screaming, I'm going to
hell!
I'm going to hell!
And his wife said, Mr. Duncan, look at
the mighty sinner now.
And she slammed the door.
Leave him in there.
Do not heal those whom God is wounding
or you will find yourself to be a
false prophet crying out peace and comfort when
there is none.
Let God disturb them and let God give
them peace.
You have authority, young men, to tell men
how to be saved.
You do not have authority to tell them
they are.
And most people walking around this county believe
themselves saved because their pastor told them they
were.
Now, and let me go back.
Sarah, just again, it's the same illustrations, but
it's so necessary.
Dear friend, listen to me.
There are people that come under conviction of
sin in a meeting and even before, I
mean, halfway through the meeting, they cry out
to God, Save me.
And God saves them.
And not only saves them, but gives them
assurance of their salvation.
That quick.
With one tiny little prayer, God, save me.
And that's wonderful when that happens.
But there are also times, and in God's
providence, I do not understand it, but it
is true, it is biblical, it is historical,
men might wrestle for weeks.
Where is that in our churches today?
Where is it?
No.
Go through the prayer.
Repeat it.
Squeeze my hand.
If what I'm saying now to God is
what you would like to say to Him,
squeeze my hand and you'll be saved.
That comes out of Southern Baptist evangelism.
I've seen it.
And don't smirk because it comes out of
yours too.
My dear friend, what have we done?
What have we done?
Oh, sometimes the most wonderful, loving thing you
can do to a person seeking God is
tell them, go home.
Go home.
Someone says, well, you know, I like to
strike when the iron's hot.
Well, if God's heated up the iron, don't
worry, it's not going to cool off.
He who began a good work will do
it.
How many people have I gone to and
said, go home.
Cry out to Him.
I can do nothing for you.
You know the Gospel.
You understand it with your mind.
Cry out to Him until He finds you.
And they do.
I stay with them through the night.
Sir, I'll stay here all night.
We'll go through all the promises of God.
We'll pray.
We'll cry out to Him.
How many times have I seen people read
over promises and promises and pray and cry
out, and then all of a sudden, bam!
I'm saved!
God saved me!
Yes.
Yes, indeed.
And then when they say that, I say,
yes, with a full heart, I'm happy.
But know this, hear the first warning of
an evangelist.
You walk out of here tonight, if this
profession is true, it will be confirmed by
a continuing work of God in your life.
But if you go out here tonight and
nothing changes, you've got nothing here tonight.
Oh, read Pilgrim's Progress when you get time.
Understand our heritage.
Oh, the wonder and the shame of being
Baptist.
The wonder and the shame.
Wonder at our history.
Shame at our present state.
Now, we go on.
There's another test.
Verse 3 of chapter 2, And hereby we
do know that we know Him, if we
keep His commandments.
He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth
not His commandments is a liar, and the
truth is not in Him.
My goodness, look at that!
Look what he's saying!
Your relationship to the commands of God will
be evidence that you are saved or not
saved.
Now, let me ask you, in the average
Baptist church today, how much time is given
preaching about anything God's commanded?
As I said before, in Matthew chapter 7,
you can look at that and actually, you
can translate it.
I mean, to be saying, if you want
to give clarity to the translation that's there,
it is, depart from me those of you
who called yourself my disciples, but you lived
as though I never gave you a law
to obey, a precept to follow, or wisdom
to listen to.
Antinomianism.
Lawlessness.
Has God not spoken with regard to our
minds and what we're allowed to think?
Hath not God spoken with regard to our
hearts and what should dwell there?
Hath not God spoken what our eyes should
and should not see, what our ears should
and should not hear, how we should and
should not clothe our bodies?
Isn't it pathetic that an itinerant preacher like
me, I do not so much have to
pray up when I'm preaching under a tent
in inner city San Antonio, but I have
to pray up and know that I'm walking
with the Lord when I walk into an
average Baptist church because of the way most
people dress.
You say it's legalism.
No, it's not.
There are commands in the Bible.
It doesn't say we're all supposed to dress
like a Puritan, but it does say we're
supposed to be decent and cause no offense
or stumbling.
Well, you can't judge a book by its
cover.
Yes, you can.
Jesus said you can.
By their fruits you will know.
I believe fruits there is plural so that
it's speaking about all the aspects of their
life.
My dear friend, the commands of God.
Let me give you an example.
In my denomination, multi-millions of dollars is
spent on Sunday school.
Sunday school to teach our children.
Nowhere in Scripture does it command that there
be a Sunday school.
But Scripture does command with all the authority
of the Decalogue and all the authority of
the inspired Word of the Holy Spirit commands
fathers to teach their children.
And not one dime is spent towards that.
Why?
We prefer plan B rather than plan A
because plan B makes the church look big.
We've taken over.
You just can't do things your own way.
Everyone does what is right in their own
eyes.
Now, I'm not saying it's unbiblical to have
a Sunday school, but what I am saying
is it's unbiblical to replace the commandments of
God with the traditions of men.
And preacher, let me ask you a question.
How much time have you spent preaching that
the fathers, under the admonition of the Word
of God, must take control of their families,
give up their hobbies, and dedicate themselves to
their wives and the teaching of the Scriptures
to their children?
No, Sunday school.
Youth group?
My goodness!
Yes.
The most pathetic thing in America today is
youth ministry.
It is pathetic.
You get some young, personable young man who's
never raised a family, doesn't know anything, and
he's going to take your children?
And then your children become a companion of
fools because they only learn from each other.
Look what we're doing.
You say, Brother Paul, yes, I do believe
the very foundations of almost everything that we're
doing today in America ought to be exploded
and destroyed so that you just understand where
I'm coming from.
I believe it's wrong, wrong, wrong.
And I won't cooperate with it.
I won't leave it, but I won't cooperate
with it.
It's just wrong.
It's a circus.
The church has turned into a six flags
over Jesus.
Entertainment.
It's wrong.
It's just wrong.
It's just flat out wrong.
There's no biblical precedent for it.
There's no contextual grammatical precedent for it.
There's no historical precedent for it.
Your families come to church and they're segregated
immediately.
Woman goes to a class.
Dad goes to a class.
Children go to a class.
Youth go to a class.
What on earth is going on?
You destroy the family with your church.
And the parents like it that way because
they don't have to deal with their children.
But that's another sermon.
And whereby we do know that we know
Him if we keep His commandments.
Now, this is not speaking again about perfectly
walking in the commandments of God because we've
already been assured that we will not.
But it is again about a lifestyle.
A new reality has come into your world
and the reality is the commandments of God.
Are the commandments of God pertinent?
Are they before you?
Is your life being directed by them?
Is there any reality of the Word?
Because if there's not, be afraid.
Be afraid.
No, not everyone is a scholar.
Not everyone is a theologian.
Not everyone has the gift of teaching.
Another thing about Sunday school.
Just get more teachers and build more classes.
Have you not read James?
Let not many of you become teachers because
you'll undergo greater condemnation.
We totally bypass that and make as many
teachers as we possibly can.
Well, they're not qualified.
Well, they'll get qualified while they're teaching.
How many times have I heard that?
It's a lie and it's abomination and it's
one of the reasons for the destruction of
what's going on today.
Folks, I know I sound critical and I
know some will walk out of here saying
I'm just bitter and frustrated.
But my dear friend, this is really true.
It really is.
It really is true.
We're to impress upon our people the commandments
of God.
And what does John tell us in this
very epistle?
They're not burdensome or a grave thing for
the people of God because our hearts have
been renewed.
Our hearts have been regenerated.
We've been given new hearts created in the
image of God and true righteousness and true
holiness.
And we're going to love these things.
Now, my dear friend, I am not saying
that if you're a true Christian, you're never
going to have a time when you don't
want to study the Word.
I'm not saying that you're never going to
have a time that your heart's not dull
because I go through those times.
Any man who said he didn't is a
liar.
But at the same time, when I am
that way, it breaks my heart.
And the second test applies again.
I'm brought to confession.
God, how can I be this way?
But do the commandments of God have any
fashion in your life?
Now, it goes on to verse 6, another
test.
He that saith he abideth in him ought
himself also to walk even as he walked.
The one who is a Christian will walk
as Jesus walked.
You say, well, then we're all going to
hell.
No, understand this.
Let me give you an illustration.
It's the best way I can explain this
verse.
When I was a little boy, even though
I was terrified of my dad, I respected
him, and I wanted to be like him.
And we lived in the north, and we'd
get these big snowfalls at times when we
were kids.
And my dad, we raised cattle, and my
dad would get me up every little boy.
He'd get me up 5.30 in the
morning, 5.
First Bible verse I ever heard was, Paul,
boy, get up, no rest for the wicked.
That's what he used to tell me.
And I would get up, and we would
go out, and it'd still be dark, and
there'd be snow on the ground, and the
way the snow is at night when just
the moonlight's on it.
And my dad was a large man, and
he would walk and take these gigantic steps
that so far superseded and surpassed my ability.
But I would grab the feed buckets or
the water buckets or whatever I was carrying,
and I would, with all my might, I
would stretch from one footprint to another and
try to put my feet in my father's
footprints.
It was the great desire.
And how did you know it was the
great desire of that little boy's heart?
Because he did it.
Now, in doing it, I looked foolish.
In doing it, I couldn't really do it.
In doing it, many times I stumbled and
fell down.
But you could see through those attempts that
the real desire of that little boy's heart
was to walk just like his dad.
That's what this is teaching here.
It's not teaching that you'd just walk through
the world as Jesus would with all the
authority and power and sinlessly and gloriously.
No, but someone can look at your life
and see the great passion of your life
is to walk like He walked.
And also, this is a good word about
the world and its father, the slanderer and
the accuser.
When I was a little boy and I'd
walk that way, if some man was just
coming by and saw us who didn't know
us and didn't know how well my dad
could fight, he would probably say, look at
that stupid kid, what's he trying to do?
But my dad would look back and know
what I was trying to do.
And if he'd ever heard some man say
such a thing, that man, he would have
had words with him.
In the same way, I know so many
people when someone genuinely, even in the church,
when someone genuinely becomes revived of the Holy
Spirit and desires to really walk with God,
other people will say, look at them.
You know, goody two-shoes, holier than thou.
What's happened to them?
Well, I remember them when they were this
way and that way.
Well, they thought they...
Congratulations, you're doing the work of your father
the devil when you do that.
Now, he says, verse 8, another test.
Again, a new commandment I write to you,
which thing is true in him and in
you, because the darkness is past and the
true light now shineth.
I just want to stop here for a
second before we go to the next test.
Do you see how clearly this points out
a progressive sanctification?
Not only in the deeds, but in revelation
and understanding.
One of the greatest New Testament covenant...
New Testament or New Covenant promises is this,
they shall all be taught of God.
No one will have to say to his
neighbor, know the Lord.
They'll know him.
The smallest believer will know.
And the Spirit will guard and guide that
believer and lead that believer into greater and
greater revelations of who God is and what
God desires.
And you will see greater and greater manifestations
of grace in that believer.
Albeit, that at times that believer will take
one step forward and two steps back.
There'll be struggles, there'll be wars, there'll be
scars.
But over the course of their life, you
will see progressive sanctification.
Progressive sanctification.
Now, let's go on and look at this.
He says, Verse 9, He that saith he
is in the light and hateth his brother
is in darkness even until now.
He that loveth his brother abideth in the
light and there is none occasion of stumbling
in him.
But he that hateth his brother is in
darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not
whether he goeth because the darkness hath blinded
his eyes.
Now, Charles Leiter, who's been just a great
blessing to my life, he's been a father
to me, I've heard him say countless times
when he's preaching, he'll say, you know, I
go into a church and they're all, you
know, a deacon gets up and says, you
know, we're Christians.
We shouldn't be hating one another.
If you're hating one another, you're not Christian.
You see, here it goes back to the
idea that salvation is not simply a human
decision whereby a person decides to jump out
of the line going to hell in order
to jump into the line going to heaven.
Salvation is a supernatural work of God and
if any man be in Christ, he's a
new creature.
And there are certain things he cannot do
in the same sense that a good tree
cannot produce bad fruit.
And the greatest manifestation of your Christianity is
loving your brother.
Now, brother here is not the poor, even
though we ought to love the poor.
Brother here is not someone of another color,
even though we ought to love all people
of all colors.
Brother here refers to Christian, to other Christians.
You hear these men who say, oh, the
church is just full of hypocrites.
I can worship God in this bass boat
or this deer stand or this or that.
Again, they're doing the work of their father,
the devil.
They hate God's people.
They hate them.
Love for the brethren is one of the
greatest tests.
Young people, especially for young people.
If you love to be with worldly carnal
people, it's because you are a worldly carnal
person.
And that's just all there is to it.
If you do not enjoy the fellowship of
the saints...
Now, let me tell you something.
Fellowship is not when two saints get together.
Fellowship is when two saints get together and
talk about Jesus.
Now, let me ask you a question.
When was the last time you just bumped
into a Christian and started talking about Jesus
and not the ball game?
When was the last time?
You know, I could literally stop attending church
and still be as biblical as everybody who
goes.
Because if you read Hebrews correctly, forsake not
the assembling of yourselves together, that's what you're
told to do.
But that's not the purpose or the end
of why you congregate.
It's to care for one another, encourage one
another.
Look what we've done.
We come to church.
We sing because we're led.
And we feed because we're fed.
And we walk back out the door.
You should walk in church.
Pete's Tree Baptist Church.
Let me just tell you something.
You should be praying before you get here.
You should be praying as you walk in
this door.
And you should be praying, Holy Spirit, show
me to whom I can go.
Show me to whom I can minister.
Show me who needs encouragement.
I want to minister before the service, after
the service.
I want to be a blessing.
I know a little woman that didn't feel
enough courage to speak with anyone.
And she would just go and just at
night pray and pray over the people who
were in her church.
And then she would write out Bible verses
as she felt like the Holy Spirit was
giving them to her, to hand.
And she'd come to church and she'd say,
The Lord wanted me to give you this
verse.
And the Lord wanted me to give you
this verse.
Why are you here?
In Peru we say, Tu vives porque el
aire es gratis.
The only reason you're alive is because air
is free.
I mean, why do you come here?
Just to feed?
We're a body.
Someone asked me a while back, What will
it take to bring reformation and revival to
America?
And I think it will take persecution that
either destroys all our churches or turns our
buildings over to homosexual communities to live.
Sometimes I get scared.
We don't function as an organism, a spiritual
organism.
We function as an organization.
Boy, you get in a house church in
the middle of the jungle in Peru during
the war with the Sendero Luminoso and talk
about fellowship.
You get with a bunch of believers on
the Amazon River in a downpour and hear
their praises go up to heaven.
You go to a third world country where
they fellowship together because they have no other
place to go.
And they have no money and they have
no food.
And they cry out to one another.
And they're begging one another and they're crying
out to God.
And they're caring for one another.
Our fullness kills us.
Poverty never hurt the church.
Wealth, yes.
Well, fellowship.
Now, let me give you an example.
You know the passage in Scripture where Jesus
says, I was naked and you didn't clothe
me.
I was hungry and you didn't feed me.
I was in prison and you didn't visit
me.
And all that.
And we use that verse to start prison
ministries.
Well, that's not what the verse is about.
Now, we ought to have prison ministries, but
that's not what the verse is talking about.
Let me share with you what the verse
is talking about.
If you ever lived in Peru or other
third world countries, you'd understand this.
In Peru, for years, there was a prison
called Lurigancho.
It's considered one of the worst prisons in
the Western Hemisphere.
If you're thrown into that prison, as in
other prisons around the world, you do not
have a shelter in that prison.
It's four walls.
You do not get food in that prison.
You do not get water in that prison.
You do not get clothing in that prison.
If you get sick, you do not get
medicine in that prison.
And the only way you're going to live
in that prison is if someone from the
outside comes every day and gives you what
you need to survive.
A family member, a friend, or so on
and so forth.
Now, what is Jesus talking about?
In the division of the sheep and the
goats, what is He talking about?
He's talking about this.
Christians who stood and made the good profession
of faith, they professed faith in Jesus Christ
publicly and they were thrown into prison.
Now, when word gets back to the congregation
that so-and-so deacon or so-and
-so brother or so-and-so sister has
been thrown into prison for being a believer
in Jesus Christ, the community of faith has
to get together and the Holy Spirit has
to raise up someone who says, alright, I'll
go.
I'll take them water.
I'll take them food.
I'll take them clothing.
But the problem is this, when that person
goes with the clothing, with the food, with
the water, the authorities identify that person as
a Christian and throw them in the prison
too.
That's what He's talking about, America.
Not a prison ministry.
He's talking about My people.
They were sick.
They were in prison.
My people.
And you did not help them.
And in not helping them, you demonstrated you
did not love Me.
And not loving Me means I never regenerated
your heart.
You see how you can just take the
blade off all these verses when you just
kind of glimpse over them and pull out
the newest commentary written and then just open
it up and say, oh, there's my text.
Instead of looking at what it says.
Because when you look at what it says,
it's frightening it's so powerful.
It's just like the thing, you know, the
Roman road.
I want to tell you something, the Roman
road has sent more people to hell than
any other thing I know of.
Because it's superstition.
It's evangelical fundamental superstition.
That's all it is.
Now someone who knows the Gospel could use
that track and probably use it properly, but
most people don't know the Gospel.
Let me share with you something.
Believe in your heart.
Profess with your mouth.
Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.
Yes, that applies to a man calling on
the Lord to be saved.
But at the same time, let's just look
at something here.
The context is Rome.
Romans 8.
Like lambs led to the slaughter.
We're being slaughtered.
What could it mean?
It could also mean this.
All of us are working construction and we're
believers.
We're just having a good time out there
and all of a sudden we hear the
pounding of a drum.
Boom, boom, boom.
And just terror fills our hearts.
We look out the door of the building
we're working on and here comes the Roman
soldiers and they're all carrying that altar.
And there's a little bit of smoke going
up from it.
And they put that thing down and they
stand there with their swords and they say,
Come.
And one who is not among us as
a believer walks up there gleefully, takes a
pinch of incense and throws it into the
fire and goes, Caesar is Lord!
Walks away happy.
And then it's our turn.
And the first brother goes up there and
confesses with his mouth.
Takes the incense.
Does nothing with it.
And says, Jesus Christ is Lord.
And his head is removed.
And then the next one follows.
And his head is removed.
And then the next one follows.
And his head is removed.
You see America?
I knew one Scotsman who said, You Americans,
you can't interpret the Bible.
You interpret it through your flag and your
pocketbook.
He's right.
Oh my friend, this thing is terrifying.
I agree with Luther.
Luther said, The Bible, my friend.
The Bible's not my friend.
Have you ever read this thing he said?
What do you mean my friend?
It's my enemy.
Cuts me off at every turn.
It's a fearful thing to read this thing.
Now, as a conclusion, I just want to
say, go back to chapter 5.
And all through, all the chapters we have
missed, there are all tests in there.
All of them.
Beautiful tests.
But go to 12.
He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life.
What it all comes down to, remember yesterday
when I was preaching about when Jesus told
those men, Depart from me, I never knew
you.
And they said, but Lord, we prophesied in
your name.
We did miracles in your name.
We cast out demons in your name.
And you see right there that they're not
born again because their argument as to why
God should have let them in heaven is
their religious works.
Where a believer, if he ever heard Jesus
say, Depart from me, I never knew you,
which won't happen, but if it ever did
happen, the believer would not attempt to defend
himself with his works.
He would say, but Lord, in thee I
have trusted and put my hope.
Now, especially to the young preachers, and I'm
a young preacher.
As preachers go, I always tell young preachers.
Someone came up to me one time and
said, you're a man of God.
I said, no, I'm a boy of God.
When you're about 65, you're a man of
God.
Takes a long time.
Let me tell you something.
That camel going through that eye of the
needle, you'll not get into heaven with one
shred of self-righteousness.
You won't fit through the eye.
And that leads to great glory in this
sense.
Christ becomes all.
Christ becomes everything.
He becomes everything.
And here's what, young men, let me encourage
you about something.
When you say right now, Christ is everything,
I want you to know, you don't have
a clue what you're talking about.
Twenty years from now, you're going to look...
But when you say Christ is your all,
your heart is so full.
You really mean it, don't you?
You really do.
Twenty years down the road, you're going to
look back and you're going to say, Christ
is my all.
And you're going to think, twenty years ago
when I said that, I didn't have a
clue.
And then when you're 60, you're going to
say, Christ is my all.
And you're going to look back at when
you were 40 and realize you didn't have
a clue what that meant.
And then hopefully, your passage over Jordan, Christ
is my all.
And then you'll see Him and He'll be
your all.
He'll be your all.
Just Christ.
Not unto us, O Lord.
Not unto us.
Unto Thee be the glory.
Unto Thee, O Lord.
That Christ will be all.
That He will be all.
And that is why it is such a
necessity to preach on the radical depravity of
humankind.
I remember when I bought my wife an
engagement ring three years after we were married.
I have a good woman.
And that guy that worked behind the counter,
he put diamond out on the thing and
I said, well, that's pretty.
How much is it?
He told me.
I said, put it back.
You ever bring out something like that again,
I'll jump across this thing and I'll whoop
you right where you stand.
So he said, well, how much can you
pay?
I said, well, this is an engagement ring.
It's really important.
$250.
He brought out a ring, a diamond ring,
and I looked at it.
Where's the diamond?
And then you know what that rascal did?
That rascal brought out a piece of black
velvet and he laid it on that table
and he put that ring on that black
velvet and you could see that diamond like
you could see the midday sun.
Son, that is why you preach on sin.
The darker the background of our depravity, the
darker we paint the picture, the brighter is
the grace of God in the face of
Christ.
That all flesh be abased and Christ be
exalted.
Now, carnal church members will hate that.
True believers will rejoice.
They'll rejoice.
I don't like to finish with just illustrations,
but I want to give you an illustration
about Christ being all.
And it's this.
Maybe you've heard this.
It's been said a million times possibly, but
there was a famous painter in Europe and
he had a son.
And they painted together.
They were each other's inspiration.
They actually were each other's inspiration.
But one day the war came, World War
I, and the son was recruited off and
taken off, fought in the war and was
killed.
And the father got news, was absolutely destroyed.
It tore him into a thousand pieces and
he limped through his life.
But one day the father hears a knock
at the door and he goes to the
door and there's a young soldier standing there
and he says, Sir...
And then the soldier breaks out in tears
and he says, I'm the reason your son
is dead.
And the man says, Well, what do you
mean?
He said, I was in front of a
rifleman and the gun went off and your
son threw himself in front of me and
took the bullet and he died.
And I'm so sorry.
But I want you to know that I
esteem your son above all things, all people.
Look, sir, while we were in our foxholes
for those many, many months, I've always wanted
to learn how to draw.
And I just...
I can't draw very well, but your son
tutored me and I know you're a famous
painter and I know that I can't hardly
draw, but I painted this picture of your
son.
He means so much to me and I
would just appreciate it if you would take
it.
And the man said, Well, of course I
will.
So the man took it and he went
inside and he opened it up and it
was rather crude.
But he framed it in one of the
most exquisite frames he could find.
He moved back all his own paintings from
the gallery and put it in straight center
in the gallery.
And look upon it every day.
Well, he died.
And Sotheby's and all the great auction houses
came into his house and they opened it
up and art dealers from all over the
world came and they all were ready and
prepared and excited about being able to buy
such exquisite pieces of art and they were
all thinking of their wealth.
And so the auctioneer came and he threw
down the gavel and he said, The auction
shall begin and it shall begin with this
piece.
And the piece was unveiled and it was
the drawing, the painting of the soldier, of
the son.
And everyone laughed and scoffed.
Some people even got angry.
They said, Look, we didn't come across this
ocean to have jokes played on us.
We didn't come here to bid on this
nonsense.
Now please, get this out of the way
and let the auction begin.
And in the back, a voice went, Sir,
and it was that young soldier.
He said, Yes?
He said, Sir, I have a soldier's pay.
That painting means more to me than absolutely
anything on the face of the earth because
that was his son and he died for
me.
And sir, I got like eight pounds here.
A few pence.
I'll give everything.
Just don't throw the painting away.
Give it to me.
I'll work.
I'll do it.
Just give me the painting.
And the auctioneer said, Sold for six pounds.
And everyone sighed with relief.
Ah, finally, now let's get on with the
auction.
Then the auctioneer slammed down the gavel one
more time and said the auction is over.
And everyone said, What?
How can it be over?
And the auctioneer stood back and said, I
shall now read the last will and testament
of the Father.
And he opened it up and said, The
one who takes my son gets it all.
The one who takes my son gets it
all.
To hell with your streets of gold and
your gates of pearl if it means more
to you than the one who sits on
the throne, the Lamb who was slain.
This is not about heaven.
This is not about a mansion on the
hillside.
This is about it would be worth a
thousand deaths in hell to catch one glimpse
of the glory of the Lamb.
And that should be what draws us.
Ministries can be demonic, worldly, and idolatry if
it is not for the Lamb.
The Moravian cry was this, that the Lamb
who was slain might receive the full reward
of his suffering.
And that should be our cry, to know
Him.
Him!
Everything else is dung.
Everything is dung and less than dung.
It is Him.
It is the Lamb.
Young man, you give yourself to the Lamb.
The Father will honor you.
For my boys, I have seen, I have
preached with the big men.
I have stood in their pulpits in their
churches.
Some of them I do not even believe
to be saved.
All that is called the fire of God
is nothing but false fire, much of it
today.
Mechanisms and mechanics and organization and pride and
celebrities in pulpits and men who care not
for Christ.
You talk to them about church growth and
you will have their ear.
You sit down with them and talk to
them about the glories of God revealed in
Christ in the book of Colossians and they
will look over your shoulder for a more
important person.
My prayer for my two little boys is
this.
I do not care, Father, if you grind
them to powder, make them martyrs.
I do not care that they have eloquence
or brilliant minds, but they would be wholly
devoted to Your Son.
Take my two sons and give them to
Your Son.
That their hearts, maybe they not be efficient
men, maybe they never do hardly anything, that
does not matter, but that their hearts be
true to the Lamb.
Because God accomplishes much through men like me
whose hearts are not as they should be.
You think too much of men.
There has never been a great man of
God.
There has only been pathetic, sinful, faithless, weak,
disloyal men of a great and a merciful
God.
And that's all there will ever be.