1 00:00:00,710 --> 00:00:04,850 When so-called Christian publishers began to bow 2 00:00:04,850 --> 00:00:08,250 to the almighty dollar and publish self-help 3 00:00:08,250 --> 00:00:11,990 books and self-improvement books with the mantra, 4 00:00:12,510 --> 00:00:15,470 be your best you, they played a central 5 00:00:15,470 --> 00:00:18,070 part in the elevation of man. 6 00:00:18,450 --> 00:00:21,290 When the churches of the land began to 7 00:00:21,290 --> 00:00:25,790 elevate man by teaching humanism, giving out messages 8 00:00:25,790 --> 00:00:29,710 on self-empowerment, they began to do away 9 00:00:29,710 --> 00:00:32,890 with the bible by saying man is too 10 00:00:32,890 --> 00:00:35,390 precious to be damned in hell. 11 00:00:35,730 --> 00:00:38,350 God would not so destroy the works of 12 00:00:38,350 --> 00:00:39,070 his hands. 13 00:00:39,410 --> 00:00:42,010 Man is too good to be destroyed in 14 00:00:42,010 --> 00:00:42,470 fire. 15 00:00:42,930 --> 00:00:46,610 And when this occurred, this philosophy that the 16 00:00:46,610 --> 00:00:50,650 popular gospel handed out today, which is man 17 00:00:50,650 --> 00:00:53,490 -centered, and when it gained prominence in the 18 00:00:53,490 --> 00:00:58,330 land, that salvation is accomplished for the happiness 19 00:00:58,330 --> 00:00:59,330 of man. 20 00:00:59,650 --> 00:01:01,930 Man is a king, not God. 21 00:01:02,170 --> 00:01:04,970 And as the church elevated man, at the 22 00:01:04,970 --> 00:01:07,410 same time it lowered God. 23 00:01:07,690 --> 00:01:10,850 For you cannot elevate one, friends, without the 24 00:01:10,850 --> 00:01:12,710 lowering of the other. 25 00:01:13,170 --> 00:01:17,790 So slowly, but surely, as the years progressed, 26 00:01:18,190 --> 00:01:20,950 so did our beliefs about man and God. 27 00:01:21,350 --> 00:01:25,110 By doing this, we accomplished the dilution of 28 00:01:25,110 --> 00:01:28,650 the gospel, and no longer taught that man 29 00:01:28,650 --> 00:01:31,750 is utterly corrupt in his natural condition. 30 00:01:32,310 --> 00:01:36,090 That man is wretched, blind, dead, miserable. 31 00:01:36,750 --> 00:01:39,250 This is how man in his natural state 32 00:01:39,250 --> 00:01:41,610 is described from the book of Job. 33 00:01:42,070 --> 00:01:45,570 How much more abominable and filthy is man, 34 00:01:45,930 --> 00:01:48,330 which drinks iniquity like water. 35 00:01:48,770 --> 00:01:51,790 That's what the bible says about man. 36 00:01:52,050 --> 00:01:55,050 But we preachers today have given man a 37 00:01:55,050 --> 00:01:57,570 bath, and cleaned him up with soap and 38 00:01:57,570 --> 00:01:58,110 water. 39 00:01:58,390 --> 00:02:00,590 We say it's not so bad after all, 40 00:02:00,870 --> 00:02:03,350 at least not so bad to be sent 41 00:02:03,350 --> 00:02:03,910 to hell. 42 00:02:04,390 --> 00:02:08,270 For when we elevated man, we threw out 43 00:02:08,270 --> 00:02:11,290 preaching against sin, and we began to cease 44 00:02:11,290 --> 00:02:14,970 calling men sinners, but rather we referred to 45 00:02:14,970 --> 00:02:17,070 them only as the unchurched. 46 00:02:17,350 --> 00:02:20,530 Then we elevated man to such a degree 47 00:02:20,530 --> 00:02:23,910 that man no longer needed to repent to 48 00:02:23,910 --> 00:02:26,790 be saved, because he was never really that 49 00:02:26,790 --> 00:02:28,350 bad in the first place. 50 00:02:28,590 --> 00:02:31,070 When you elevate man, you have to throw 51 00:02:31,070 --> 00:02:34,050 the gospel away, and replace it with one 52 00:02:34,050 --> 00:02:36,030 not found in my bible. 53 00:02:36,590 --> 00:02:40,630 So in our weak and debased evangelism, we 54 00:02:40,630 --> 00:02:44,030 ask men and women, hoarded in sin, only 55 00:02:44,030 --> 00:02:47,730 to believe and be baptized, join our churches, 56 00:02:47,730 --> 00:02:50,050 and we'll pat them on the back, and 57 00:02:50,050 --> 00:02:51,430 call them Christians. 58 00:02:51,990 --> 00:02:55,190 But we don't realize what we've done in 59 00:02:55,190 --> 00:02:57,970 the elevation of man is a debasing of 60 00:02:57,970 --> 00:03:01,410 God, and taking sides with the devil against 61 00:03:01,410 --> 00:03:03,570 God, and all things holy. 62 00:03:03,870 --> 00:03:06,690 In the process of elevating man, we have 63 00:03:06,690 --> 00:03:11,650 turned our churches into mortuaries, embalmed our congregations, 64 00:03:11,970 --> 00:03:15,610 and hold funeral rites every Sunday morning in 65 00:03:15,610 --> 00:03:18,670 a tribute to the elevated nature of man. 66 00:03:18,850 --> 00:03:22,670 We believe God won't punish sin, yet ever 67 00:03:22,670 --> 00:03:25,530 send a person to hell for punishment of 68 00:03:25,530 --> 00:03:26,030 sin. 69 00:03:26,350 --> 00:03:29,190 We change God into an idol of our 70 00:03:29,190 --> 00:03:30,210 own imagination. 71 00:03:30,870 --> 00:03:34,150 As the church elevated man, she lowered God, 72 00:03:34,410 --> 00:03:37,970 and placed him on man's level, debasing God, 73 00:03:38,190 --> 00:03:40,330 and diluting the gospel of God. 74 00:03:40,610 --> 00:03:43,790 And at this time, the church lost both 75 00:03:43,790 --> 00:03:47,270 her authority from God, and her influence upon 76 00:03:47,270 --> 00:03:52,710 society, displacing her moral compass years ago. 77 00:03:53,070 --> 00:03:54,890 Heaven help us all.