[Music] [Music] [Music] it's a tremendous privilege for me to be here this afternoon with you before we begin with any further speaking I would also like to go to the Lord in prayer and I would ask you to pray there's so much going on here this afternoon so much that you don't understand but I'll tell you where I'm coming from I'll preach as a dying man to dying men and women and youth and I will preach as though I will never preach again and I will tell you things that you will misunderstand and I will
tell you things that make you so so angry with me and I'll tell you things that you will deny and I will tell you things and you will say I have no right to tell you what I'm telling you but before you come to any conclusion about what is being said here this afternoon you ask yourself one question you see preaching is a very dangerous thing it's dangerous for me because the Bible says that false teachers will undergo greater condemnation if what I tell you today is not true I'm in a great deal of trouble
and have every right to do this with fear and trembling because I will stand condemned before God but if what I tell you today is true then you're the one with cause for fear and trembling because if I correctly interpret this passage of scripture that I'm going to give you it is as as though God was speaking through a man and your problem will not be with me it will be with God and his word so the only question that really has to be decided here this afternoon is is this man before us a false
prophet or is he telling us the truth and if he is telling us the truth then nothing else matters except conforming Our Lives to that truth let's go to the Lord in prayer father father I am so small and so pitiful father in so many ways you know Lord you know but oh dear God should false fire be the only thing ever placed on your altar or could Fire come down from heaven amidst all the noise and the clamor and the activities could Fire come down down from heaven can these dead bones live you know
Lord in your sovereignty I pray and I beg Before the Throne of God that you would be gracious to us that you would open up hearts and Minds Lord we can't wait for them to open up theirs they never will open up their hearts and their minds and cause them to see biblical truth breathe on them grant them repentance grant them Faith bring them into your kingdom Lord for your own glory for the sake of your own great name do this thing Lord as the brother said let it be so Lord so that no man
will take credit for it so that no man would lay his hand to the Ark of God and if he did that you'd strike him down dead Lord oh God move Among Us please CU we have no other hope we have no other hope these children have no other hope except that you move amen I will be teaching from Matthew chapter 7 if you have your Bibles follow with me Matthew chapter 7 verse 13 Jesus said enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and
there are many who enter through it for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and there are few who find it Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but in ly are ravenous wolves you will know them by their fruits grapes are not gathered from Thorn bushes nor figs from thistles are they so every good tree Bears good fruit but every bad tree Bears Bad fruit a good tree cannot produce bad fruit nor can a bad tree produce good fruit every tree that does not
bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire so then you will know them by their fruits not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter many will say to me on that day Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles then I will declare to them I never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness therefore everyone
who hears these words of mine and acts upon them may be compared to a wise man who builds his house on the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against that house and yet it did not fall for it had been founded upon the rock everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand the rain fell and the floods came and winds blew and slammed against the house and it fell and
great was its fault I stand here today I'm not troubled in my heart about your self-esteem I'm not troubled in my heart about whether or not you feel good about yourself whether or not life is turning out like you want it to turn out or whether or not your checkbook is balanced there's only one thing that gave me a sleepless night there's only one thing that troubled me all throughout the morning and that is this within a hundred years a great majority of people in this building will possibly be in hell and many who even
profess Jesus Christ as Lord will spend an eternity in hell you say Pastor how can you say such a thing I can say such a thing because I don't do my Christian work in America I spend most of my time preaching in South America in Africa and Eastern Europe and I want you to know that when you take a look at American Christianity it is based more Upon A Godless culture than it is upon the word of God and so many people are deceived and so many youth are deceived and so many adults are deceived
into believing that because they prayed a prayer one time in their life they're going to heaven and then when they look around at others who profess to know Christ and see those people also just as worldly as the world and they compare themselves by themselves nothing troubles their heart they think well I'm the same as most in my youth group I watch things I shouldn't watch on television and laugh about the very things that God hates I wear clothing that is sensual I talk like the world I walk like the world I love the music
of the world I love so much that's in the world but bless God I am a Christian why am I a Christian I don't look any different than most of the other people in my church why am I a Christian because there was a time in my life when I prayed and asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart I want you to know that the greatest heresy in the American Evangelical and Protestant church is that if you pray and ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart he will definitely come in you will not
find that in any place in scripture you will not find that anywhere in Baptist history until about 50 years ago what you need to know is that salvation is by faith and faith alone in Jesus Christ and faith alone in Jesus Christ is preceded and followed by repentance a turning away from sin a hatred for the things that God hates and a love for the things that God loves a growing in Holiness and a desire not to be like Britney Spears not to be like the world and not to be like the great majority of
American Christians but to be like Jesus Christ I don't know why you're clapping I'm talking about you I didn't come here to get amens I didn't come here to be applauded I'm talking about you people so many times come up to me and they say I'd love to follow you into Romania I'd love to follow you into the Ukraine I'd love to preach where you preached and planted churches in Peru in the jungle and I tell them no you wouldn't they said yes I would I said no you wouldn't why because you'd be excommunicated from
the church down there what we need to see I'm not trying to be hard for the sake of being hard do you realize how much love it takes to stand before 5,000 people and tell them that American Christianity is almost totally wrong do you know what it's going to cost me to never be asked back again to something like this to be unpopular do you know why you do it you don't do it because you get paid well you don't do it because men love you you do it because you love men and because more
than that you want to honor God I want to tell you something we are going to go into scripture and I want you to look at it as it really is stop comparing yourself with others who call themselves Christians who compare themselves with others who call themselves Christians compare yourself to the scripture when someone a young person comes to a pastor or you Minister and says I'm not sure whether or not I'm saved the youth Minister will usually throw out a cliche well was there ever a time in your life when you prayed and asked
Jesus to come into your heart well yes were you sincere well I don't know but I think so well you need to tell Satan to stop bothering you did you write it in the back of your book the back of the Bible like the evangelist told you when you got saved to write down the date so that anytime you doubted you could Point him to the Bible what Superstition has overcome our denomination you know what the Bible tells Christians to do examine yourself test yourself in light of scripture to see if you are in the
faith test yourself to see if you're a Christian do you realize if I dismissed us right now and told everyone to go knock on every door in this city do you know what we would find out 99% of the people at least in this city believe theel to be Believers if you go back to your hometown and knock on every door cuz I went back to my hometown after I got saved and knocked on every every door and you know what I found out everyone in my town is a Christian 85% of them do not
go to church and those who do go to church are not concerned about Holiness they're not concerned about serving they're not concerned about being separate from the world they're not concerned about the gospel being preached among the Nations but bless God they're saved why are they saved because some evangelists who should have spent less time preaching and more time studying his Bible told them they were saved and he did it so that he could brag about how many people came forward in his next Revival I love you and there are men here who love you
and I want to go into scripture now now that I've shocked you into life I want you to listen to me listen to the word of God and begin to ask yourself some questions first of all enter through the narrow gate for the gate is is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and there are many who enter through it there is a narrow gate and you know historically one of the reasons I'm a southern baptist is because the southern Baptists have always been quick when other denominations have failed to realize this
the Southern Southern Baptists have always been quick to realize that there is one gate there is one God there is one mediator between God and man and his name is Jesus Jesus Christ it's not multiple choice not every road leads to Rome as a denomination we have always told people what Jesus told people I am the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the father except through me so I praise God for that that the only way any human being on this Earth will ever be saved is through Jesus Christ that
is all because you need to realize the Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and you have no idea what that means that we were born radically depraved and god-hating that we would have never sought God never come to God we have rebelled against God broken every law it's not just an issue that you have sinned the issue is you've never done anything but sin the Bible says in the prophets that even our greatest works are like filthy rags before God and because of that you know what we
deserve the wrath of God the holy hatred of God you say now wait a minute God doesn't hate anybody God is love no my friend you need to understand something Jesus Christ taught the prophets taught the apostles taught this that apart from the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ Our Lord the only thing left for you is the Wrath the fierce anger of God because of your rebellion and your sin when I speak in universities they're always quick to point out no God cannot hate because God is love and I tell you God must
hate because God is love you see I love children therefore I hate abortion if I love that which is holy I must hate that which is Unholy God is a holy God that's something that the Americans have forgotten many of the things that you love to do God hates did you know that pray for Revival you're going to have a youth meeting you want God to move but before you go there you watch programs on television that God absolutely despises and then you wonder why the Holy Spirit hasn't fallen on a place and why you
have to create false fire and false excitement because God's not in it God is a holy God and the only way you and I could ever be reconciled to a holy God is through the death of God's own son when he hung on that tree now listen to me if you're saved here tonight you're not saved because the Romans and Jews rejected Jesus you're not saved because they put a crown of thorns on his head you're not saved because they ran a spear through his side and you're not saved even because they nailed him to
a cross do you know why you're saved if you are saved because when Jesus Christ was hanging on that cross he bore your sin the sin of God's people and all the fierce wrath of God that should fall upon you fell upon his only begotten son someone had to pay that price someone had to die it was God the Father who crushed his only begotten son according to Isaiah 53 it says it pleased Yahweh to crush him people say the cross is a sign of how much man is worth that's not true the cross is
a sign of how depraved we really are that it took the death of God's own son the only thing that could save a People Like Us was the death of God's own son under the wrath of his own father paying the price Rising again from the dead powerful to save this is the Gospel of Jesus now what are you called upon to do you say you go through the narrow gate how do you do that Jesus said the time is fulfilled the kingdom of God is at hand what must you do in Mark he tells
us repent and believe the gospel you say brother Paul I got saved by praying and asking Jesus Christ into my heart and I'm sure you did but you weren't saved by a magic formula or some words you repeated after someone else you were saved because you repented of your sins and you believed and not only did you do that in the past you continueed to do it even until now because when Jesus a proper translation of that verse he gave is this the kingdom of God has come the time is fulfilled now spend the rest
of your life repenting of your sins and believing in me conversion is not like like a flu shot oh I did that I repented I believed the question is my friend are you continuing to repent of sin are you continuing to believe because he who began a good work in you will finish it he will finish it now we as Southern Baptists preach that you're supposed to go through that own one and only gate which is Jesus Christ but we as Southern Baptists have forgot something and I want youth ministers and pastors and everyone to
listen to me parents we have forgot a very important teaching in the gospel it says that not only the gate is narrow it says the path is narrow what we basically do is lead someone to Christ lead someone in a prayer and then they spend the rest of their life living just like the world and If you deny me on this I can bring the statistics to prove you wrong Gallop Pole Barnum polls every kind of poll you can possibly look at when it questions the morality of the church in America against the morality of
those who claim to be lost in America the polls find no difference now that is statistics has nothing to do with religious interpretation those are statistics book after book is being churned out by Theologian and philosopher and and sociologist alike what has happened to the church we find out that abortion in the church is just as prevalent as outside the in the world we find that divorce is just as prevalent we find that immorality you know as well as I do there are youth here right now who are practicing immorality and yet worshiping God in
the same breath you know there are youth here that are doing drugs and yet coming to youth group you know watching and doing things that are not appropriate for Christian and yet they're coming to the youth group believe themselves satisfied believe themselves saved and no one is saying anything except this they're carnal Christians they're really Christians they're just carnal that was a doctrine that started in a Baptist Seminary that is not a southern baptist Seminary several decades ago it is not biblical and it is not historical my dear friend there is no such thing as
a carnal Christian he say now wait a minute brother Paul 1 Corinthians chapter 3 are you not carnal Paul said that no that's what Paul said you need to read the whole book to find out what he meant you see one of our problems youth listen to me most of our Christianity is based on cliches that we read on the back of Christian t-shirts most of our Christianity comes from songwriters and not the Bible most of what we believe to be true is dictated To Us by our culture and not by the Bible the Bible
never teaches that a person can be a genuine Christian and live in continuous carnality and wickedness and sin all the days of their life but the Bible teaches that the genuine Christian has been given a new nature the genuine Christian has a father who loves them and disciplines them and watches over them and cares for them my heart is breaking because you know as well as I do young people let's not be Hypocrites about it let's not hide it there are so many you know them you might be one of them or you at least
know that they're in your youth group they come to youth group they do all the stuff but in their heart they're as wicked as wicked can be there's no difference there's no light everything that the world does they do and it's appropriate it's okay my friend that's not Christianity they're not in danger of losing their reward they're in danger of hell they know not God what do we teach when was the last time you heard someone say there's not only a narrow gate into heaven but a narrow way Jesus indicates that one of the principal
signs of being a genuine Christian is that you walk in the narrow way you know what the sign for being a genuine Christian is in America is you prayed a prayer one time isn't that amazing what are you asked if you doubt your salvation did you pray a prayer one time what does Scripture teach examine yourselves test yourselves in the light of scripture to see if you're in the faith because a Christian will be different now I'm am I saying that a Christian is without sin no because in first John we learned that Christians do
sin and if any man does not acknowledge a sin he knows not God he's not walking in the light so what is the difference what am I really getting at what am I getting at is this if you are genuinely a born again Christian a child of God you will walk in the way of righteousness as a style of life and if you step off that path of righteousness the father will come for you he will discipline you he will put you back on that path but if you profess to have gone through the narrow
gate and yet you live in the broad way just like all the other people in your high school just like all the other people who are carnal and wicked the Bible wants you to know that you should be terribly terribly afraid you know not God I fear men who have spent most of their life telling other men that they are saved I fear you if you've done that you don't tell men men they are saved you tell men how to be saved God tells them they are saved what we have forgotten to believe is that
salvation is a supernatural work of God and those who have genuinely been converted regenerated by the power of the holy spirit is going to be a new creature the Bible says if any man be in Christ he is a new creature so we find out here in Scripture that there is a narrow gate and a narrow way we go into 16 going to chap verse 15 Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves you will know them by the fruits one of the things you need to
realize is this something a wise man told me a long time ago he said Paul your best friend is the one who tells you the most truth in America we have become so thin skinned that no one can rebuke us no one can tell us we are wrong and ministers and leaders alike have bought into to this lie we do not want to offend we want to be Seeker friendly what you need to realize is there is only one seeker and his name is God and if you want to be friendly to somebody in your
church you need to be friendly to God and you need to be more concerned for the glory of God than you are the attitudes of men but another thing you need to realize is the person who loves you most will tell you the most truth one of the greatest distinguishing marks of a false prophet is that he will always tell you what you want to hear he will never re on your parade he will get you clapping he will get you jumping he will make you dizzy he will keep you entertained and he will present
a Christianity to you that will make your church look like a Six Flags over Jesus and keep you so entertained you are never addressed with great issues such as these is God working in my life am I growing in Holiness have I truly been born again listen to me if everyone in this town believes themselves saved and we know that's not true by scripture because the Bible says that few will enter in how do you know that you're saved how do you truly know that you are saved because someone told you because you prayed a
prayer because you believe well let me ask you a question how do you know you believe because everybody says they believe how do you know you're not like them do you know how the Bible teaches you that you know you are saved do you know how Baptist theology up until about 50 years ago would have told you how you know you have been saved you know you have been saved because your life is in a process of being changed and your style of life is one of walking in the paths of God's truth and when
you step off those paths in Disobedience as we all do God comes for you and puts you back on the path one of the greatest evidences that you have truly been born again is that God will not let you talk as your flesh might want to talk God will not let you dress as the sensual world and the sensual Church allows you to dress God will not allow you to act like the world smell like the world world speak like the world Listen to the things that the world listens to God will make a difference
in your life he says here as we go on verse 17 so every or let's go to 16 you will know them by their fruit how will you know a false prophet and The Wider application here in all of scripture how will you know if someone is a genuine Christian by their fruit by their fruit my dear friend look at your life look at the way you walk look at the way you talk look at the passions of your heart is Jesus in there somewhere or is he just some accessory that you add on to
your life is he just something you do on Wednesday or Sunday is he something that you give a mental Ascent to is he an accessory or is he the very center of your life and what is the fruit that you're bearing do you look like the world act like the world do you have and experience the same Joys that the world experiences can you love sin and relish it can you love rebellion and relish it then you know not God you will know them by their fruit God has the power to change them let's imagine
for a moment Jesus teaching this passage and you're sitting out there listening and he looks at you he says thistles thistles um do you find thistles on on fig trees and you respond of course not Jesus I mean you're not an agriculturalist you're not a farmer I mean you're a carpenter but I mean everybody knows Jesus you don't find thorns on fig trees well well then let me ask you another question do you find figs good fruit on thorn trees why no Jesus that's absolutely ludicrous I mean you're never going to find thorns on a
fig tree and you're not going to find figs on a Thorn Tree Jesus to say that that could be possible anyone who tells you that Jesus you can mark it down they're either crazy or they're a liar and then Jesus responds to you well then those who call themselves my disciples and bear bad fruit would not it be the same to say that they were either lying or out of their mind to make such a statement let me take it a little further let's imagine that I show up late and I run up here on
the platform and and every all the leaders are angry with me said brother Paul don't you appreciate appreci the fact you're giving the opportunity to speak here and you come late and I said Brothers you have to forgive me well why well I was out here on the highway and I was driving and I had a flat tire and and I got out to change the tire and when I was changing the tire the lug nut fell off and I wasn't paying attention that I was on the highway and I ran out and I grabbed
the lug nut and soon as I picked it up in the middle of the highway I stood up and there was a 30ton logging truck going 120 M hour about 10 yards in front of me and it ran me over and that's why I'm late now there would only be two logic I know no one studies logic anymore but there would only be two logical conclusions one I'm a liar or two I'm a Madman you would say brother Paul it's absolutely absurd it is impossible brother Paul to have an encounter with something as large as
a logging truck and not be changed and then my question would be to you what is large larger a logging truck or God how is it that so many people today profess to have had an encounter with Jesus Christ and yet they are not permanently changed let me give you a few things to think about you know I'm telling you the truth how many times do you go and rededicate your life over and over and over again how many times do youth groups go to things like this and get fired up and go back to
the church and it lasts about a week and a half and yet oh it was a great move of God no it wasn't if it doesn't last it wasn't a great move of God it was emotion there was so many things but it wasn't a great move of God has God worked in your life is God working in your life you will know them by their fruit you will know them by their fruit now we go on verse 19 every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire so
then you will know them by their fruit look at this you need to understand something about Hebrew literature when you and I want to emphasize something do you know what we do we raise our voice if we're writing we put it in bold letters or we capitalize it but to a Jew it's different when he wants to emphasize something he repeats it and he repeats it that's why you find Hebrew parallelisms in the Book of Proverbs the wicked shall not live in the land the wicked shall be destroyed he's saying the same thing just in
a different way to give greater emphasis that's what Jesus is doing over and over again in here you will know them by their fruit you will know them by their fruit you will know them by the path that they walk in you will know them by their fruit you will know them by their fruit and he says anyone who does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire what is he talking about my dear friend he is talking about the Judgment of almighty God that will one day fall upon the world
that will one day fall possibly upon you oh dear friend I cannot look into your heart I am so easily deceived by my own heart but there is one who is not deceived there is one who is not deceived and he's not deceived by a contemporary Christian culture he knows you will know them by their fruit then he goes on he says this this verse 21 not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter do you
know what your profession of faith in Jesus Christ is worth absolutely nothing yes did you read that passage study it not everyone who comes to me and says Lord Lord not everyone who professes Lord Lord will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven There are many people who are going to profess Lord Lord but they are not going to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven my dear Precious Child are you one of them Lord Lord now again let's go back to Hebrew literature he said Lord Lord he didn't say Lord he said Lord Lord what does
that mean this fellow who is making this profession he is not someone who just all of a sudden decided it's judgment and I better profess him to be Lord this is a person who emphatically declares to other people that Jesus Christ is Lord he walks around saying Lord he dances up in front while the musicians are playing saying Lord he sings the songs Lord but Jesus said to him depart from me I never knew you do you know Billy Graham is one of the kindest lovingest men yet Billy Graham has said he believed that a
great majority of people who attend Bible believing churches are lost he said that he would be happy if even 5% of all the people who made professions of faith in his campaigns were even saved when I'm in Nigeria I was there last year visiting a mother whose whose son was in our church and was martyred by the Muslims in Northern Nigeria when someone professes faith in Jesus Christ you pretty much know it it's it's true why they can die because of that profession but in America oh consider the cost think examine your life and light
of scripture do you know the Lord do you know the Lord because not everyone who says to him Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but what does it say here look what it says not everyone who says me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven what is the sign that someone has become a genuine Christian I wish that we would start teaching this again what happened to our theology what happened to our Doctrine what happened to our teaching it went
right out the window no one wants to study Doctrine anymore they just want to listen to songs and read the back of Christian t-shirts what happened to truth truth tells you this the evidence the way that you can have assurance that you are genuinely a born again CHR Christian is that you do as a style of Life the will of the father you say oh you're talking about Works no I'm not I'm talking about evidence of faith and it goes like this your profession of faith is no proof that you're born again because everybody in
this whole country professes faith in Jesus Christ Barnard tells us that 65 to 70% of all Americans are saved Born Again Christians most Godless country on the face of the earth kill 4,000 babies today a day but bless God 70% of us are born again how do you know that that Faith you have is not false a style of life that is concerned about doing the will of the father that practices the will of the father and when you disobey the will of the Father the Holy Spirit comes and reprimands you either personally through the
written word of God through a brother or sister in Christ and God puts you back on the path again if you're a genuine Christian you cannot Escape him let me give you an example if I was your pastor and you were let's say 14 years old and I came back from preaching at 1:00 in the morning and I saw you standing out there in a park or on a corner with a bunch of hoodlums doing things you shouldn't be doing and you were a member of our church I would tell you get in the car
I would take you home to your father I wouldn't be mad at you I'd be mad at your father I would tell him sir you are a deric father that you would allow your child to be out in such circumstances I want you to know something God is not a derel father if you can play around in sin if you can love the world and love the things of the world if you can always be involved in the world in doing things of the world if your heroes are worldly people if you want to look
like them and act like them if you practice the same things they practice oh my dear friend listen to my voice there's a good chance you know not God and you do not belong to him now bring this to close CL verse 22 many will say to me on that day Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles then I will declare to them I never knew you he say the most important thing on the face of the earth is to know
Jesus Christ that is not true the most important thing on the face of the earth is that Jesus Christ knows you it I'm not going to get into the White House tomorrow because I walk up to the gate and tell everybody I know George Bush bu but they will let me in if George Bush comes out and says I know Paul waser you can profess to know Jesus but my question for you do you know Jesus does Jesus know you and look how he describes the lost man here he says depart from me you who
practice lawlessness in Greek anomia a negative particle a not word namas law no law and this is what it means let me give you an accurate translation of this depart from me listen to me if I could come out there and hug you while I was telling you this I would listen to me he says depart from me those of you who claim to be my disciples who confessed me as Lord and yet you live as though I never gave you a law to obey I just described a great majority of North American Christianity if
anyone starts talking about law if anyone starts talking about biblical principles on what we're supposed to do and not supposed to do how we're to live and not supposed to live everyone starts screaming legalists legalists but Jesus said depart from me those of you who lived you called me Lord but you lived as though I had never given a law in American Christianity Today pass through the gate praise God live like the rest of the world and it's okay you're just carnal maybe one day you'll come back do you know what happens because of our
bad evangelism we have gazillions of children saved in vacation bible school when they hit 15 years old they enter into the world and live like demons a great majority of them and then when they're around 30 they come back and rededicate their life maybe they just got saved because folks it's more than just telling someone you're saved because you acknowledge that Jesus is Lord Satan acknowledges that Jesus is Lord is your life in a process of change and then he drops down he talks about two people two foundations you know what this passage in contemporary
see it's important to study Theology and it's important to study history the Contemporary interpretation of this passage about the Rock and the sand is basically Al like this if you're a Christian you need to build your life upon the rock because if you build your life upon the sand you'll be an unhappy Christian and your life won't go right that is not what Jesus is teaching and history backs me up on it it was hardly ever interpreted that way you know what the interpretation is it goes like this there are two ways there's a narrow
way and a broad way which one are you on there are two types of trees there is a good tree that bears good fruit and it's going to heaven there's a bad tree and you know it's bad because it Bears Bad fruit and it's going to hell it's going to be cut down and thrown into the fire there are those who profess Jesus as Lord and they do the will of the father who is in heaven and there are those who profess Jesus Christ as Lord and they do not do the will of the father
who is in heaven and they go to hell not because of a lack of works but because of a lack of faith demonstrated by the fact that they had no works and then he goes on this is not two Christians building their house on two different foundations no this again is a saved man and a lost man the lost man hears the word of God preached but he lays no Foundation you cannot see in any way in his life how the word of God is forming and building and sustaining his life his life is not
how many people in the Southern Baptist convention regardless of all our numbers regardless of everything we say if we were to Simply take this passage and compare the people to this passage and say are you building your marriage on the word of God are you raising your children on the word of God are you doing your finances on the word of God are you living separating yourself from the things of this world based upon the word of God how many would be able to answer positively no none of that I profess Jesus he's my savior
and my Sunday School school teacher told me so oh I know like Leonard Raven Hill an acquaintance of mine before he passed on used to say I preach in a lot of Baptist Churches once I preach in a lot of places like this once I could have got up here today with a vocabulary that would have astounded you and preached you things that would have lifted you up and floated you around this room I could have told you stories that would have made you laugh and stories about dogs and grandmas that would have made you
cry but I love you too much for that I know I know because the word of God is true that there are people who believe themselves to be saved and they're no more saved they're not I know that there are some of you who look around and you think well I'm saved I mean look I look like everybody else in my youth group what makes you think your youth group is saved well I'm like my parents or I'm like the adults in my church or the Deacon or the pastor what does that matter you won't
be judged by them on the day of his coming my question for you beloved my question for you little child I mean you could be my children and I pray someday when my little boy grows that there'll be a preacher who'll stand before him and say enough of this Let's Get Down what does the word of God say how does your life stand in front of that blazing fire which is the Holiness of God on that final day beloved precious little girl beloved precious young man on that final day will your confession hold true are
you saved and I'm not talking about well I think I'm saved you know there's a way that seems right unto a man but it leads unto death well I feel in my heart of my hearts that I'm saved well let me ask you a question did you ever read that the heart is deceitfully wicked who can know it shouldn't you go to the testimony of scripture well I know I'm saved because my mom my dad my pastor everybody else told me I was saved well I'm telling you this what does the word of God tell
you we talk so much about being radical Christians radical Christians are not people who jump at concerts radical Christians are not people who wear Christian t-shirts radical Christians are those who bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit radical Christians are those who reverence and honor their parents even when they feel like their parents are wrong radical Christians are those who do not now listen to me this is going to make you mad who do and I'm talking to boys and girls radical Christians are those who do not dress sensually in order to show off their
bodies if your clothing is a frame for your face God is pleased with your clothing if your clothing is a frame for your body it's sensual and God hates what you're doing everybody wants to talk about a prophet but no one wants to listen to one I'm talking about Christianity I have spent my life in jungles I have spent my life freezing in the Andes Mountains I have seen people die a little boy Andrew M the Muslim shot him five times through the stomach and left him on a sidewalk simply because he cried out I
am so afraid but I can not deny Jesus Christ please don't kill me but I will not deny him and he died in a pool of blood and you talk about being a radical Christian because you wear a t-shirt because you go to a conference I'm talking about Holiness I'm talking about godliness I wish do you know what a move of God would be in this place if all of you came under conviction if I myself came under conviction of the Holy Spirit we fell down on our faces and weeped because we watch the things
that God hates because we wear the things that God hates because we act like the world look like the world smell like the world because we do the very things and we know not that we do these things because we do not know the word of God because even though we claim as a denomination that the scriptures are the infallible word of God basically all we get is illustration story and quaint little novels oh that God would blow on this place that we would turn away from our sin that we would renounce the things that
are displeasing to God and then that we would run to him and we would relish him and we would love him oh that God would raise up missionaries I don't wish the same things your parents want for you they want for you security and insurance and nice homes they want for you you cars and respect I want for you the same thing I want for my son that one day he takes a banner and the banner of Jesus Christ and he places it on a hill where no one has ever placed the banner before and
he cries out Jesus Christ is Lord even if it cost my son his life oh when he's 18 years old if he says to me the same thing I said when I was a young man I'm going into the mountains I'm going into the jungle and they say you can't go there you're insane it's a war you're going to die I'm going when that little boy puts on that backpack I'm going to pray over him and say go go God be with you and if you die my son I'll see you over there and I'll
honor your death oh god let's pray let's pray oh God I don't care care about reputation I don't care what men think I want you to be honored I want I want these young people to be saved I want those that are saved to stop looking around them in a cultural Christianity that you hate and will spew out of your mouth and that they will look at the word of God and say I will follow Jesus oh God I pray for youth min ministers and pastors and I pray that you'd fill them with a spirit
of wisdom and love and boldness and discernment and dear God whatever the cost I pray that you would raise up missionaries I can't help but look at these kids and think of my own little boy oh God that you would save Ian and that you would raise him up and send him into the worst part of the battle oh dear God raise up missionaries here raise up missionaries raise up preachers and pastors and reachers and evangelists that know the word of God oh God work in this place please work in this place dear God please
please please please now with every head bow is there anyone here tonight that would say brother Paul I have been living a life I claim to be a Christian but I love the world and I look like it and smell like it and I hate myself for it and brother Paul I am so tired of this Christianity that I'm living I'm just sick of it I'm just sick of it I want to be saved I want to be saved just want you to stand up for the Paul want to be saved amen is there anyone
else I want to be saved amen amen a moment we're going to have an invitation those of you who stood up I'm going to come down here and I want you to meet with me I want to talk to you now you may be seated thank you now I want to talk to those of you claim to be Christians does your life honor Jesus Christ are you looking in his word word to find out how you're supposed to live I pray with all my heart the only thing that's going to save the church in America
there's only two possibilities one is a total Reformation in our preaching in our study of the word of God or the other is fierce horrifying persecution that's the only thing that's going to save the church in America oh I pray I pray that you would return to the word I pray listen to me young person you you need to know you need to say okay how am I supposed to live before my parents go into the word find out obey it how am I supposed to dress go into the word find out and Obey it
how am I supposed to talk what am I supposed to listen to bring every thought word and deed into subjection to Jesus Christ now I'm not going to ask you to stand because I am so tired of people coming forward to make those commitments and those commitments last in two minutes I'm not here so that I can write up in my magazine that a gazillion you came forward I want you to go home and I want you to live for Jesus Christ with all your heart but if you need counseling you say brother Paul I
want to I want to live for Jesus Christ but I don't know how I don't know how then in a minute we're going to give an invitation I do want you to come forward not to make a commitment you want to make a commitment you make that commitment right where you're seated you need to tell somebody you go tell your pastor you go tell your youth Minister and you know what we'll know if that commitment lasts you know how because it will last we'll know if it's from God let me tell you something for everyone
who's here right now I want to tell you something if you made a decision to follow Jesus Christ if you made a decision to get saved in these last two days I want to tell you something if it was genuine it will last if after a few weeks you go right back into the world live like the world act like the world I want you know something you didn't get anything here this weekend you got emotion that's about it if you really got something from the Lord I want you to know something it will last
and even if you try to run away from it you won't be able to do it you won't be able to do it oh I love you so much I love you so much I would ask that we all stand if you need counseling about a decision that you have made but it's not clear I want you to come forward and I'm going to come right down here those of you who stood up there were many of you over there who who say I need to know know Jesus Christ I want to come down here
right now and I want to meet with you and I want to go back over here with you and some other counselors and I want to talk to you and I want to tell you something not a five minute deal not a 10-minute deal if you need to talk all night we will stay that is the attitude of every counselor in this place it stay all night if necessary all night God love you God love you let me pray for you dear God please Lord there has been so much movement last night Lord I don't
know how much of it was real and I know that I saw people last night weeping I saw people trying to make commitments and I believe that there was a great deal of what happened last night was a view I saw this morning a young man preach father give his testimony and I saw real working of the Holy Spirit I don't know how much of all the decisions were real but there was some real things going on and I pray right now father I don't know how much will be real Only Time and Eternity will
show us that but oh dear God please please work in Jesus name amen [Music] [Music]