10 Indictments Against the Modern Church in America - Paul Washer

let us go to the Lord in prayer father I come before you in the name of your son Jesus Christ Lord you know all things they are all before you like an open book who can hide their heart from your presence from your eye the Deeds of the most clever men are exposed before you your omniscience knows no bounds and if it were not for Grace I would be of all men most terrified but there is Grace abounding and glorious poured out upon the weakest of men and abounding to your glory father I praise you

and I worship you and I thank you for all that you are and all that you have done and there is no one like you in the heavens or the Earth or under the Earth you are king and there is no other you are Savior and you share that Glory with no one father this night you know me and my great need of Grace why am I here except that you call the weakest among men the most ignoble among brothers and that by your grace often times the Lesser teaches the greater that is always my

case and I praise you I worship you father help us tonight to the wind with eloquence to hell with a brilliant intellect father but that truth go forward that men be changed that the state of your church be more glorious I pray for grace upon grace and mercy upon Mercy for myself and for the hearers who are present here help us oh God and we will be helped and we will boast in that help in Jesus name amen it is a great privilege for me to be here this evening an astounding privilege to stand here

before you and to speak about things such as Revival Reformation the working of God among his people and among men but tonight I'm going to share with you an indictment and indictment but it is an indictment of Hope as I was praying through what I should do in this series of meetings I came to a great conclusion a great burden that was laid upon my heart we need Revival we need an Awakening but we cannot simply expect the Holy Spirit to come down and clean up all the mess we've made we have clear direction from

the word of God with regard to what he has done through Christ how he expects us to live how he expects us to order his church and it does little good for men to cry out for extra biblical manifestations when biblical principle is violated all around us I want you to know this there is little need for the devil and evil men to oppose a man praying for Revival unless he is also laboring for reformation we have been given truth and we cannot simply do what is right in our own eyes and then expect the

Holy Spirit to come down and bless our labors as we look into the Old Testament we see that Moses has given very very detailed explanation how to build the temple now was that given for Moses sake or for the church's sake I think that what is being explained here is that God is specific in his his will and that we are not to presume that we can take the smallest detail and ignore it now I know that I am a fra man and I know that I am buffeted by many weaknesses but I have an

indictment and I can't call it my indictment because who am I to indict anyone and I dare not call it God's indictment for how can I presume upon his name but I will say this as I look around at the church and compare her to scripture I see that there are certain things that must change I am not Martin Luther and this is 9 this is not 95 declarations nailed to wiberg's door but this is is a burden on my heart and I must share it I must share it now let me say this what

I'm going to say will anger some of you but let me warn you it may be true that you will be able to accuse me of arrogance it may be true that you do not like my delivery I have many times been arrogant and I have many times delivered truth in a wrong way but don't allow that to be an excuse for you the question is what I'm saying is it true whether it's delivered through a faulty messenger or no others of you will be rejoicing in what you hear and you'll want to say amen

and maybe pump your arms but don't do that because all of us bear a measure of guilt right and if you have attained to some spiritual State then I would say what my brother has said what do you have that you have not received and if you have received it why do you boast would it not be better to worship God in humility if you're a younger Minister I do not want you to get caught up in these truths and take them back and storm your Church Without Love I would make one suggestion see to

it that your knees are bleeding before you begin any sort of reformation and if you are an older Minister serving the lord for many many years I beg you not to be arrogant an old foolish King can learn from the weakest of his servants and also I beg you this have the courage to change everything even if it is the last day of your life at least you can go into Glory knowing that you attempted a Reformation that was biblical and I'll say this as a warning to the older men and listen to me carefully

I know the the admonition in 1 First Timothy chapter 5 of The Way I Am to address you and so so I address you this way but there is a Great Awakening going on in this country and not only in this country in Europe where I have I have been and in South America and many other places I see young men going back to the Rock from which we were cut they are reading Spurgeon and Whitfield they're still listening to Raven Hill and Martin Lloyd Jones and toer and Wesley and it's a great incredible movement

just because popular media and Christianity today hasn't discovered what's going on I want you to know that I would have never dreamed 15 years ago that I would see the Awakening I'm seeing not through my Ministry but as I go to different places and see what God is doing without any of our Ministries whether it's Holland a thousand young men declaring things have to change crying out all night in prayer for the power of God and the truth of scripture or South America recognizing that they've been so influenced by psychology and all sorts of superficial

techniques coming from America with regard to evangelism and now weeping and broking are going back and evangelizing their churches or the inner city of the United States where I have sat up at times till 2 and 3 in the morning discussing theology with young African-Americans in the hood whom God is going to raise up to do more preaching than anyone will ever be able to imagine on this day there is an Awakening but I'm going to say this with tenderness most men over 40 don't even have a clue about it many of the young people

who are turning back to the old men and the old ways and the truths that have brought Awakening time and time again in this world most of these young men are quite young and they'll go to their pastors they'll go to their leaders and say look at this we what we've discovered look what happened in Wales look what happened in Africa look at this and look at that and look at this teaching it's absolutely amazing and most of them will either turn it away or say it's nothing any different than what I've been preaching for

25 years when in fact it is completely different than what they have been preaching in 25 years and so we need to be very very careful to understand that God is doing work and he who began a good work will finish it many people have the idea that they're going to pray in a Revival and other people say Revival will come whether you pray or not I'm not in either one of of those camps but I know this when I see men and women and young people all over the world praying for an Awakening to

me that is the first fruits of Revival and I can count on the fact that he who gave those first fruits will bring in the full Harvest now I want to look at 10 indictments if we have time things that I believe that we must change first of all the first indictment a practical denial of the sufficiency of scripture especially my denomination a practical denial of the sufficiency of scripture 2 Timothy 3:15 and on says and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you wisdom that leads to Salvation

through faith which is in Christ Jesus all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching for reprove for correction for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate equipped for every good work over the last several decades there has been a mighty battle with regard to the inspiration of scripture now some of you have not been a part of that battle but many of us in more liberal denominations most certainly have a battle for the Bible but there's only one problem when you come to believe as a people that the

Bible is inspired you've only fought half the battle because the question is not merely is the Bible inspired is it inherent the major question following that that must be answered is the Bible sufficient or do we have to bring in every so-called social science in cultural study in order to know how to run a church that is a major question social sciences in my opinion have taken precedent over the word of God in such a way that most of us can't even see it it has so crept into our church our evangelism and our missiology

that you can barely call what we're doing Christian anymore psychology anthropology soci theology have become Primary in primary influences in the church several years ago many years ago when I was in seminary I remember a professor walked in and he started drawing footprints on the Blackboard and as he marched them across the Blackboard then he turned to all of us and said only this Aristotle is walking through the halls of this institution beware for I hear his footsteps more clearly than those of the Apostle Paul and the team of inspired men who were with him

and even the Lord Jesus Christ himself we have come to believe that a man of God can deal in certain tiny areas in the life of the church but when it really gets tough we need to go to the social experts that's an absolute lie it says here in Scripture that the man of God may be equipped adequate equipped for every good work what does Jerusalem have to do with Rome and what do we have to do with all these modernday social sciences that were actually created as a protest against the word of God and

why is it that evangelism and missions and so-called Church growth is more shaped by the Anthropologist the sociologist and the Wall Street student who is up on every cultural Trend all the activity in our church must be based upon the word of God all the activity and missions upon the word word of God our missionary activity our church activity everything we do ought to flow from the Theologian and the exit the man who opens up his Bible and only has one question what is thy will oh God we are not to send out questionnaires to

carnal people to discover what kind of church they would attend a church ought to be Seeker friendly but the church ought to recognize there's only one Seeker his name is God and if you want to be friendly to someone if you want to accommodate someone accommodate him and his glory whether it is rejected by everyone else we are not called to build Empires we are not called to be accepted we are called to glorify God and if you want to the church you want the church to be something other than a peculiar people then you

want something God does not want I want you to listen to Isaiah just for a moment chapter 8 listen to what he says when they say to you consult the mediums and The spiritist Who whisper and mutter this is a perfect a perfect definition or at least illustration of the social sciences and the church growth gurus and everything else because every two or three years all their major theories change not only on what is a man or how you fix him but what is a church and how you make it grow every two or three

years there is another fad coming down the line of what can make your church into something super in the eyes of the world just recently one of the greatest or most well-known Church growth experts said that he discovered that he was entirely wrong on all his theory but instead of turning then to scripture on his knees broken and weeping he goes out to find another theory they give no clear word it says here in Isa should not a people consult their God should they consult the dead on behalf of the living should we as churchmen

as preachers as pastors as Christians should we go out and consult the spiritually dead on behalf of Those whom the Holy Spirit has made alive absolutely not absolutely not the second indictment an ignorance of God at times I am asked brother Paul please come and do a week-long series on the attributes of God and many times I will say this I'm I'm well brother have you thought this through he said what do you mean have I thought this through well it's quite controversial the subject that you're putting you're giving me to go teach in your

church and they say what do you mean it's controversial I mean it's God we're Christians this is a church what do you mean it's controversial I said dear Pastor you listen to me when I begin instructing your people on the justice of God the sovereignty of God the wrath of God the supremacy of God the glory of God you're going to have some of your finest and oldest church members stand up and say something like this that's not me my God I could never love a god like that because they have a god they have

made with their own mind and they love what they have made Jeremiah 92324 thus says the Lord let not the wise man boast of his wisdom let not the Mighty Man boast of his might let not the rich man boast of his riches but let him who boast boast of this that he understands and knows me Psalms 50 you thought God speaking you thought I was just like you I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes now consider this you who forget God or I will tear you to pieces and

there will be none who delivers now what is the problem here there is a lack of the knowledge of God many of you possibly think oh talking about the attributes of God and theology it's all High Ivory Tower stuff that has no practical application listen to you listen to yourself speak saying the knowledge of God has no practical explanation do you know why all your Christian bookstores are filled up with self-help books and five ways to do that and six ways to be Godly and 10 ways not to fall because people don't know God and

so they have to be given all sorts of trivial little devices of the flesh to keep them walking walking as sheep ought to walk 1 Corinthians 15:34 become sober minded as you ought and stop sinning for some have no knowledge of God I speak this to your shame why the rampant sinning even among God's people a lack of the knowledge of God of God now let me ask you a question when was the last time you attended a conference on the attributes of God when was the last time as a pastor you taught for a

solid year on who God is how much of all the teaching that goes on in America every week has anything to do with who God is and then we Wonder Isn't it so easy to go with the flow to just follow everybody else and then one day you hear something like this and all of a sudden you go I I can't even remember when anybody taught on the attributes of God no wonder we are a people as we are to know him that that's what everything's about that's eternal life and eternal life doesn't begin when

you pass through the Gates of Glory eternal life begins with conversion eternal life is to know him do you honestly think you're going to be thrilled about swinging on Gates of Pearl and walking down streets of gold for an eternity the reason why you won't lose your mind in eternity is because of this there is one there who is infinite in glory and you will spend an eternity of eternities tracking him down and you will never get your arms even around the foothill of his Mountain start now so many different things you want to know

and do and all the books get out a book on God this one and study it to know him to know him Sunday morning because of all of this I would submit to you that it would be better not not even to have a Sunday morning Sunday morning is the greatest hour of idolatry in the entire week of America because people are not worshiping the one true God the great mass at least but are worshiping a god formed out of Their Own Heart by their own flesh satanic devices and worldly intelligence they've made a God

just like themselves and he looks more like Santa Claus than he does Yahweh there can be no fear of the Lord among us because there is no knowledge of the Lord among us third indictment a failure to address man's malady when I look at the book of Romans which is one of my favorite books of the Bible it is not a Systematic Theology but if you could say any book in the Bible was a Systematic Theology The Book of Romans would be the closest isn't it amazing that Paul spends the first three chapters of that

book seeking to do one thing bring all men into condemnation bring all men into condemnation but it is not that condemnation is his great sunum bonum in his theology it is not his end or his final purpose it is a means to bring Salvation to his readers because men must be brought to a knowledge of self before they surrender self over to God men are made in such a fallen manner now that you must cut away from them absolutely every Hope In the Flesh before they may be brought to God this is important in everything

but it's especially important in evangelism I remember this was I was 21 years old and had just been called to preach and I walked into an old store where they would sell suits to ministers for half price they'd been doing it for 50 60 years and I walked in there and I was looking for a suit in Paduka Kentucky and all of a sudden the door opened I heard the bell ring and it closed there was an old old man standing there I never caught his name but when he walked in he looked right at

me and he said boy you've been called to preach haven't you I said yes sir he was an old old evangelist he said you see where that building is right outside this building building I said yeah he said I used to preach there the spirit of God would come down and souls would be saved I said sir please tell me about it he says it wasn't anything like this evangelism today he said we would preach for two and three weeks and give no invitation to sinful men we would plow and plow and plow and plow

the hearts of men until the spirit of God began to work and break their hearts I said sir how did you know when the spirit of God was coming to break their hearts and he said well let me just give you an example he said many decades ago I walked into this store to buy a suit someone had handed me $30 and said preacher go buy you a suit tomorrow and when I walked through the door the young clerk taking care of the shop turned around and looked at me and when he looked at me

fell down on the floor and cried out who can save a wicked man like me and I knew that the spirit of God had fallen upon the place now we just walk in and talk to them give them three exploratory questions and ask them if they want to pray a prayer and ask Jesus to come into their heart and we make a two-fold son of Hell who will never again be open to the gospel because of the religious lie that we as evangelicals have spewed out of our mouth I'll say something that Lenard Raven Hill

used to say now you understand why I preach in a lot of places once but that is the truth when we treat sin superficially first of all we are fighting against the Holy Spirit and he when he comes will convict the world concerning sin there are very popular preachers today who are more concerned about giving you your best life now than they are eternity and they brag about the fact that they do not mention sin in their preaching I can tell you this a holy spirit has nothing to do with their Ministry lest he be

working against it that would be the only thing why when a man says he has no Ministry dealing with the sin of men the Holy Spirit does it is a primary Ministry of the Holy Spirit to come and convict the world of sin and so know this when you do not deal specifically passionately lovingly with men and their depraved condition the holy spirit is nowhere around you also we are deceivers when we deal with the malady of men lightly like Shepherds of Jeremiah's day they have healed the Brokenness of my people superficially saying peace peace

but there is no peace we are not only deceivers but we are immoral like a doctor who denies his hypocritic oath because he doesn't want to tell someone bad news because he thinks that person will be cross against them will be angry with them will be sad and so he does not tell them the news most necessary to save their life I hear preachers today they say no no no no no no you don't understand brother Paul we're not like the people of the day of John and Charles Wesley we are not like the culture

that Whit feed addressed or Edwards we're a we're not as Hardy as they are we're broken we don't have as much self-esteem we're feeble we can't bear such preaching listen to me have you ever studied the lives of these men what they preach their culture couldn't bear it either no one has ever been able to Bear the preaching of the Gospel they will either turn against it with the fierceness of an animal or they will be converted amen and to give you a thing about us being more feeble and not having the self-esteem our country

and this world is overrun with this disgusting malady of self-esteem our greatest problem is that we esteem self more than we have seen God we are also thieves when we do not speak much about Sin we are thieves ask you a question this afternoon this morning where did all the stars go did some Cosmic giant come by in a basket and pick them all up and throw them in and carry them someplace else where did all the stars go this morning they were there but you couldn't see them but then the sky grew darker and

darker and darker ER and as that night turned black as pitch the stars came out in the fullness of their Glory when you refuse to teach on the radical depravity of men it is an impossibility that you bring glory to God his Christ and his cross because the cross of Jesus Christ and the glory thereof is most magnified when it's placed in front of the backdrop of our depravity she loved much because she's been forgiven much and she knew how much she had been forgiven because she knew how Wicked she was oh we're afraid to

tell men of their wickedness and they can never love God because of it we've robbed them the opportunity to boast not in but to follow the admonition let him who boast boast in the Lord a fourth indictment an ignorance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ I want to submit to you tonight that this country is not gospel hardened it is Gospel ignorant because most of its preachers are and let me repeat this the malady in this country is not liberal politicians the root of socialism Hollywood or anything else it is the so-called Evangelical pastor P

of our day and preacher of our day and evangelist of our day that is where the malady is to be found we know the gospel we have taken the Glorious Gospel of our blessed God and reduced it down to four spiritual laws and five things God wants you to know with a little superstitious prayer at the end and if someone repeats it after us with enough sincerity we poish ly declare them to be born again we've traded regeneration for decisionism first of all I am amazed after I talk about what I'm going to talk about

for just a few minutes here how many Godly Believers of 30 and 40 years walking in the faith come up to me with tears saying brother Paul I never heard this before in my life and yet it is the historical doctrine of Redemption of propitiation you see when you talk about the gospel my dear friend let's set it up just clearly the gospel begins with the nature of God and it goes from there to the nature of man and the fallenness thereof and it goes from there those two great Columns of the Gospel come to

set up for us what should be called and known as in every believer's mouth the Great dilemma and what is that dilemma if God is just he cannot forgive you the greatest problem in all of scripture is this how can God be just and at the same time the justifier of wicked men when scripture throughout the Bible says especially I'll draw from one text in Proverbs he who justifies the wicked is an Abomination to God and yet all our Christian songs boast about how God justifies the wicked that is the greatest problem that is the

Acropolis of the Christian's Faith so said Martin Lloyd Jones and Charles spurdon and anyone else who's read Romans 3 you see got to set this before people the great problem is if God is truly just and all men are truly Wicked God to be just must DN Wicked man but then God for his own glory for the great love with which he loved us sent forth his son who walked on this Earth as a perfect man and then according to the plan the Eternal plan of God he went to that tree and on that tree

he bore our sin and he became standing in the law place of his people bearing our guilt he became a curse cursed is every man who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law so as to perform them Christ redeemed us from the curse becoming a curse in our place so many people have this romantic powerless view of the Gospel that the Christ is there hanging on the tree suffering under the wounds of the Roman Empire and the father did not have the moral fortitude to Bear the the suffering

of his son so he turned away no he turned away because his son became sin and so many when he's in that garden and he cries out let this cup pass for me people speculate well what was in the cup oh it's the Roman cross it's the whip it's the nails it's all this and all that I do not want to take away from the physical sufferings of Christ on that but the cup was the cup of God the father's wrath that had to be poured out on the son someone had to die bearing the

guilt of God's people forsaken of God by his Justice and crushed under the wrath of God for it pleased the Lord to crush him I was in Germany a while back in a Germanic seminary in Europe a while back and this book The Cross of Christ now it wasn't John st's book it was another I pulled it off and began to read it and this is what it said the father looked down from heaven at the suffering inflicted upon his son by the hands of men and counted that as payment for our sin it's heresy

now that physical suffering that nailing to the tree that was all part of the wrath of God it had to be a bloody sacrifice I'll take nothing away from that but my friend if you stop there you don't have a gospel and let me ask you when the go El is preached today and when it is shared in personal evangelism today do you ever hear the things I have just said almost never it is never made clear that Christ was able to redeem because he was crushed under the justice of God and having satisified Divine

Justice with his death God is now just and the justifier of the wicked gospel reductionism we wonder why it has no power we wonder why what happened I'll tell you when you leave the gospel behind and there is no longer any power in your supposed gospel message then you've got to go to all the little tricks of the trade that are so prominent ly used today to convert men and we all know most of them all of them do not work my dear friend let me say this several years ago graduating from Seminary I had

to make a decision whether I was going to go for my PhD God in order to save my spiritual life send me to the middle of the jungles in Peru as far away from the academic world as I could get and there I begin to realize something as Spurgeon said greater men with greater minds than I have approached this doctrine of the second coming but to no avail it is a Great and Mighty Doctrine he said I will set myself to this seeking to comprehend something of Jesus Christ and him crucified let me tell you

this this is what it it makes me so angry when men treat the Glorious gospel of Christ as though it was a first step into Christianity that only takes about 10 minutes of counseling and after that you go on to Greater stuff that shows you how pathetic we are in our knowledge of the things of God my friend on the day of the second coming you will understand absolutely everything about the second coming but you will be an eternity of eternities in heaven and you will not even begin to comprehend the glory of God in

Calvary it's what everything is about young man young preacher listen to me go after him on that tree what it means you'll need nothing to build strange fires in your oven if you only catch a glimpse of what he did on that tree what he did on that tree I love to say this I've said it a million times Abraham takes Isaac up that mountain his son his only son whom he loved you suppose the Holy Spirit was trying to tell us about something future and that son put up no struggle but laid down and

when that father gave his will in to the will of God he brought that Flint knife to pierce his own son's heart but his hand was stayed and it was told the old man that God had provided a ram so many Christians think Oh What a Beautiful end to that story it's not the end it's the intermission thousands of years later God the Father laid his hand upon the brow of his son his only son whom he loved and took the Flint knife out of the hand of Abraham and slaughtered his only begotten son under

the full force of Wrath now do you know why that little gospel You Preach has no power because it is no gospel get to the gospel spend your life on your knees get away from [Applause] men study the cross fourth indictment and ignorance of the doctrine of regeneration and ignorance of the doctrine of regeneration my dear friend and I'm going to say this bluntly I know that there are Calvinists here and I know that there are minions here and I know that there are all sorts of strange animals in between but I want you to

know this although I am leaning more toward I I guess I call myself a fivepoint Spurgeon I want you to know this Calvinism is not the issue no I'm going to get in a lot of trouble when this goes on the internet Calvinism is not the issue I'll tell you what the issue is regeneration and that is why I can have fellowship with Wesley and Raven Hill and toer and all the rest because regardless of where they stood on the other issue they believed that salvation could not be manipulated by the preacher that it was

a magnificent work of the power of almighty God and with them therefore I stand that it was a work of God there is a greater manifestation of the power of God in the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit than in the creation of the world of the universe because he created the world EX nilo out of nothing but he recreates a man out of a corrupt Mass it is paralleled with the very resurrection of our savior from the dead if you are a preacher I understand that in preaching there is teachers and preach preachers and

expositors and this and that and all of them are very necessary for the health of the church but you must understand this as o g c Campbell Morgan I've heard of him that when he would go up that Majestic Tower to preach he would quote to himself as a lamb led to the slaughter as a sheep for his shears he knew that apart from a magnificent manifestation of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit everything he said would be death that it is the spirit that gives life and in that sense every one of us

who Proclaim must Proclaim as a prophet what do I mean by that we are always we are always Ezekiel standing in that valley of dry bones and they are very dry and we walk out there and what do we do we prophesy we say hear the word of the lord we know that the wind of God must blow on these slain or they will not rise again and when you have fully grasped that in the innermost part of your being you will no longer give yourself to the manipulation that is so often carried out in

the name of evang ISM in this country you will proclaim the word of God you will Proclaim it the doctrine of regeneration look at the Wesley look what they had to face for a moment and my dear Whitfield what was it everybody believed they were Christian thoroughly Christian why well they were baptized as infants brought into the Covenant they were confirmed they lived like Devils regeneration was traded for a type of creedalism that was given Authority by the religious leaders of the day and then here comes the Wesley no it is not right with your

soul you are not born again there is no evidence of spiritual life examine yourself test yourself if you are in the faith make your calling an election sure ye must be born again here in America because of the last several years several decades of evangelism the idea of Born Again is totally lost it only means that at one time in a crusade you made a decision and you think you were sincere but there's no evidence of a super Supernatural recreating work of the holy spirit in your life if any man not if some men If

any man be in Christ he is a new creature and now it's the same today what do we face I'll tell you what we face it's not a sort of infant baptism necessarily most of the time it's not a high Church confirm by an Eccles ecclesiastical Authority what we face is the sinner's prayer and I'm here to tell you if there's anything I've declared war on it's that you say brother Paul yes in the same way that infant baptism my opinion was the was the golden calf of the Reformation for the Baptist and the evangelicals

and everyone else who's followed them today I'll tell you that sinner's prayer is sent more people to Hell than anything on the face of the Earth you say how can you say such a thing go with me to scripture and show me please I I would love you to stand up and tell me where anyone evangelized that way the scripture does not say that Jesus Christ came to the nation of Israel and said that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand now who would like to ask me into their heart

I see that hand it's not what it says he said repent and believe the gospel now men today are trusting in the fact that at least one time in their life they prayed a prayer and someone told them they were saved because they were sincere enough and so in their salvation if you ask them are you saved they do not say yes I am because I'm looking unto Jesus and there is mighty evidence giving me Assurance of being born again no they say one time in my life I prayed a prayer and they live like

Devils but they prayed a prayer and some of them I heard of one evangelist who was coaxing a man to do that thing find the man felt so uncomfortable the Evangelist said well I'll tell you what I'll pray to God for you and if it's what you want to say to God squeeze my hand behold the power of God decisionism the idolatry of decisionism men think they're going to heaven because they have judged the sincerity of their own decision when Paul came to the church in Corinth he did not say to them look you're not

living like Christians so let's go back to that one moment in your life and when you prayed that prayer and let's see if you were sincere no he said this test yourselves examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith because I want you to know my friend salvation is by faith alone it is a work of God it is a Grace upon Grace upon Grace but the evidence of conversion is not just your examination of your sincerity at the moment of your conversion it is the ongoing fruit in your life it is the

ongoing fruit in your life oh my dear friend look what we've done is it a tree known by its fruit what 60 70% of America thinks it's converted born again we kill how many thousands of babies a day we're hated around the world for our immorality yet we're Christian and I lay lay this squarely the blame at the feet of the preacher fifth indictment an unbiblical gospel invitation we've touched on it a bit I want to go further look how we do it today I mean now now listen to me the more I've seen this

everywhere the calvinist The Armenian a lot of them share something in common it is this the same superficial invitation they talk a lot of talk about a lot of things and then they come to the invitation and it's almost as though everyone loses their mind walk up to someone and says God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life you imagine telling that to an American sir God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life what God loves me that's great cuz I love me too oh this is wonderful and God's

got a a wonderful plan I got a wonderful plan for my life too and if I accept him into my life I'll have my best life now this is absolutely wonderful that is not biblical evangelism let me give you something in its place God comes to Moses and he says this the Lord the Lord God compassionate and gracious slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and Truth who keeps loving kindness for thousands who forgives iniquity transgression and sin yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished the reaction of Moses Moses made haste

to Bow Low toward the Earth and worship evangelism begins with the nature of God who is God can a man recognize anything about his sin if he hath not a standard with which to compare himself if we tell him nothing but trivial things about God that tickle the carnal mind will he ever be brought to genuine repentance and faith we do not begin with God loves you and has a wonderful plan we begin with a discourse of the full counsel of who God is and we tell him from the start it May cost him his

life after that we have exploratory questions hey you know you're a sinner don't you that's like a few years ago my mother died of cancer it's like the doctor walking in on the day and say hey Barb you know you got cancer don't you we treat it so superficially no weight nothing solemn sir there is a terrible malady upon you and a judgment coming because if you just tell man sir you know you're a sinner go ask the devil if he knows he's a sinner he'll say well yes I am mighty good one at that

or Mighty bad one depending on how you look at it but yes I know I'm a sinner the question is not do you know you are a sinner the question is is the holy spirit so it work in your heart through the preaching of the Gospel that a change has been wrought so that the sin you once loved you now hate and the sin you once desired to embrace you're wanting to run from it as though you were running from a dragon and then the question do you want to go to heaven this is the

reason I would not let my children go to 98% of the Sunday schools and vacations Bible schools and Evangelical churches because some well meaning person stands up and says isn't Jesus wonderful after showing the Jesus film yes how many of you little children love Jesus oh I do who wants to accept Jesus into their little heart oh I do and they get baptized and they may walk a little bit because they've been they're been raised in a Christian culture sort of a church culture anyways and then when they turn 1516 when they have the strength

of will they begin to break the bonds begin to live in wickedness and then we go after them saying you're Christian you're just not living like it stop your backsliding instead of going to them biblically and saying this you made a confession of faith in Christ you professed him even in baptism but now it seems as though you have turned away from him examine yourself test yourself there's little evidence of any true conversion in you and then when they're 24 25 after college maybe 30 they come back to church and they rededicate their life and

they join right in with that pseudo-christian morality that encompasses churchianity in America and in the end they hear this depart from me you worker of iniquity I never knew you said brother Paul you're so angry have I not a right to me somebody must be crying out for Revival but we haven't even got the foundation straight oh that Revival would come and straighten our foundations but would we while we have open eyes and open ears and have scripture in front of us should we not correct these things would you like to go to heaven my

dear friend everybody wants to go to heaven they just don't want God to be there when they get there the question is not do you want to go to heaven the question is this do you want God have you stopped being a hater of God has Christ become precious to you do you desire him that's what political theory is all about my dear friend everybody wants to go to heaven but men are haters of God so the question is not do you want to go to a special place where you'll no longer hurt and you'll

get everything you want the question is do you want him has Christ become precious to you often if a person prays they're told after that would you like to go to heaven well yes well then would you like to pray and ask Jesus into your heart now my dear friend let me say this there are people who get saved using that methodology but it's not because of it it's in spite of it sir do you desire Christ do you see your sin oh yes yes I do sir let's look at a few scriptures here that

lay out for us what repentance looks like do the spirit bearing witness that this is happening in your life do you see Brokenness do you do you do you see that the the disintegration of everything you thought and now your mind is filled with new thoughts about God and new desires and new hopes yes I see that so that may be the first fruits of repentance now throw yourself upon Christ trust in him trust in him and then listen to me you have the authority to tell men the gospel you have authority to tell men

how to be saved and you have authority to teach men biblical principles of assurance but you have no authority to tell men they are saved that is the work of the holy spirit of God but when you take them through that little thing did you ask Jesus into your heart yes do you think you were sincere yes do you think he saved you I don't know of course he saved you because you were sincere and he promised that if you asked him to come in he'd come in so you're saved and they walk out of

the church after 5 minutes of counseling and the Evangelist goes to Denny's to eat and the man is lost the man is lost an unbiblical invitation if they ever doubt if they ever doubt doubt their salvation again here we go again if they ever doubt their salvation well let's go back to a point in time was there ever a point in time in your life and you prayed and ask Jesus to come in yes were you sincere I think so it's a devil bothering you and if they live without growth even in the context of

a church without growth in continued carnality no fear we blame it on the lack of personal discipleship and we write it off as the doctrine of the carnal Christian the doctrine of the carnal Christian has destroyed more lives and sent more people to hell do Christians struggle with sin yes can a Christian fall into sin absolutely can a Christian live a continuous in a continuous state of carnality all the days of his life not bearing fruit and truly be Christian absolutely not or every promise in the Old Testament regarding the New Testament Covenant has failed

and everything God said about discipline in Hebrews is a lie a tree is known by its fruit when we work with men in conversion I have seen preachers who understood much about the things of God but when they come down even after an exemplary gospel presentation they will enter once again into this methodology let me give you a story and then we'll go on to the next indictment but a story that is one of the most precious moments in my life as a Christian I was preaching in Canada just just actually they told me it's

like 30 kilometers from Alaska there were more grizzly bears in the town than there were people really it was a little Church of about 1520 people and I was preaching and right when I got up in the Pulpit this mountain of a man walked in in his 60s early 70s but just a mountain of a man he could have whipped every one of us in this building and as I preached as I saw his face I just threw everything away and started preaching the gospel he was the saddest human being I've ever seen just gospel

gospel and when I got done I walked right from the pulpit to him I said sir what's wrong what's troubling your soul I've never seen a man so sad and downhearted in all my life and he pulled out a manila envelope and it had some x-rays which I couldn't understand but he said this I just came from the doctor I'm going to die in 3 weeks that's what he told me now I have lived all my life on a working cattle ranch you can only get there by float plane or riding horses across the mountains

and all this stuff he said I've never been to church I've never read a Bible I believe there's a God and one time I heard somebody talking about some guy named Jesus he said I've never been afraid of anything in my life and I am terrified I said sir did you understand the message the gospel he said yes now what would have a great majority of preachers done at that moment well would you like to ask Jesus to come into your heart that's what they would have done I said sir you understood it he said

I understood it but is that it is that just he said a child could have understood that anybody is is that all it is that I understand it and I pray or I said sir you're going to die in 3 weeks I have to leave tomorrow I will cancel my plane ticket and we will stay here over the scriptures wrestling and crying out to God until you are either converted or you die and go to hell and so we began I began in the Old Testament New Testament every verse of scripture dealing with the promises

of God regarding Redemption and salvation over and over time after time reading John 3:16 praying for a while crying out to God questioning the man regarding repentance regarding Faith regarding Assurance working till Christ be formed in him and then finally just exhausted that evening there was no breakthrough there was nothing and I said sir let's pray we prayed I said sir read John 3:16 again again he said we've read this a million times I said I know but it's one of the greatest Promises of Salvation read that text again and I'll never forget he had

my Bible on his lap and those big mountainous hands of his and he said okay he said for God so loved the world that he gave oh I'm saved I'm saved brother Paul all my sins are gone I have eternal I'm saved I mean I said I said how do you know he said haven't you ever read this verse before what was going on a working of the spirit of God instead of those little tricks you try what you want to go eat what you think preaching is the spectacle and after that you go back

to the hotel now after the preaching is when the work begins dealing with Souls people come forward in meetings they're counseled by someone who shouldn't be counseling five minutes they're giving the give the card to the pastor and the pastor says I would like to present to you the new a new child of God welcome him into the family of God how dare you if you are going to present him say this this man tonight has made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ and because of our fear of God and our love for The

Souls of men we will now be working with him to make sure that Christ has truly been formed in him that he truly has a Biblical understanding of repentance and faith and great assurance and joy in the Holy Spirit that's what we're going to do look what we've done I plead with you look what we're doing and and this is not some cult This Is Us stop it stop it sixth indictment ignorance regarding the nature of the church God has only one religious institution it's the church it's a church and our ultimate goal and the

ultimate product of Revival will be the planting of biblical churches I have the greatest fear that the local church today is despised tell somebody you're an itinerate preacher that you have a worldwide Ministry and they all bow down tell someone you're a pastor of a group of 30 and they make you sit in the back during the conference he's not the prince of itinerant preachers he's the prince of pastors several years ago Bill Clinton had a slogan during the election it's the economy stupid my pastor Jeff noblet one of the elders in our church the

primary teaching preaching Pastor he said to me one day he goes you know I'd like to have a bunch of shirts made up what would they say brother it's the church stupid Jesus gave his life for the a beautiful virgin pristine church and if you want to give your life for something in the ministry give it to the church to a church a body of Believers a local congregation it's the church now let me say this about the church I want you to listen well the there is not a remnant of Believers in the church

we all know about the REM theology know throughout all the course of Israel there was Israel the people of God and a remnant of True Believers that's not true about the church there is not a remnant of Believers or a small group of Believers inside a larger group called the church the church is the remnant I want to say this if pastors have ever come close to blaspheming it is with regard to this I hear theologians itinerant teachers pastors this and that saying these sorts of things there's just as much sin in the church as

out of the church there's just as much divorce in the church as out of the church there's just as much immorality and pornography in the church is out of the church and then preacher saying yes the church is acting like a I want you to know this you ought to be very careful calling the Bride of Jesus Christ a I'll tell you what the problem is pastors and preachers don't know what the church is that's right I want you to know that the Church of Jesus Christ in America is beautiful she is frail at times

she is weak she is buffeted she is not perfect but I want you to know she is broken she is humbly and she she is humbly walking with her God the problem is you are you don't know what the church is today because of the lack of biblical preaching the so-called church is filled up with carnal Wicked people identified with Christianity and then because of all the goats in the midst of the Lambs the Lambs are blamed for all the things the goats are doing and then the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles

because of us have you ever read let's I know we're running out of time but just go quickly with me just go quickly I want to show you something go to Jeremiah 31 Jeremiah 31 thank you verse 31 of Jeremiah 31 behold days are coming declares the Lord when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah I do not want to take away anything from the people called Israel but this text is also applied to the church understand that don't want to get any battles on eschatology

but in the Bible in the new Testament the book of Hebrews it's applied the people of God not like the Covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt I hear preachers saying all the time well when you look back and you see Israel you see a bunch of Godless idolatrous people and in the midst of them there was a tiny remnant of True Believers that is true but don't apply that to the New Testament Church because he says he

says I am going to do something different not like the Covenant which I made with father fathers in the day I took them by the hand bring them out of the land of Egypt my Covenant which they broke although I was a husband to them declares the Lord but this is the Covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord I will put my laws within them he hasn't just given you if you're converted he hasn't just given you a stone tablet of laws he has supernaturally through the

doctrine of regeneration written those laws in your heart and because he has done that I will be their God and they shall be my people and look what it says they will not teach again each man his neighbor and each man his brother saying no the Lord for they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them declares the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and there sins I will remember no more again the doctrine of regeneration God is doing a new work these last 2,000 years we don't have

a lot of churches in America we have a lot of really brick buildings on finally manicured Lawns just because someone says they're of the church or they're Christian does it make it so look what he says they'll not even have to teach one another that doesn't mean there won't be teachers and preachers but there will all be an outstanding knowledge of God among them particular ularly with regard to their sins having been forgiven quickly just jump look at 32 chapter 32 verse 38 they shall be my people and I will be their God he doesn't

say I hope so maybe if I get lucky oh if I can get enough evangelists to work with me maybe this will all come out right he says I am going to put pull a people for me a people that I'm going to give to my son and he says they shall be my people and I will be their God look at this and I will give them one heart and one way H now don't be angry with me any angrier than you already are at least but listen to me the 70s and 80s and

all the Jesus marches and everyone weeping and crying the church is so divided the church is not one my dear friend let me tell you something if the church is not one there is a prayer out there that God the Father did not answer for his son and this New Covenant promise has failed so I want to redirect you a little bit I want to submit to you the church is one she's always been one have you ever sat down on an airplane or maybe met someone in a Marketplace you didn't even know and you

being maybe baptized or menite or this or that but truly Evangelical truly Christian you talk to them for no more than a few minutes and you discover bam it's a Believer says a live one and at that moment you'd give your life for him you'd give your life for him I remember one time we were in departamento amazonas in Peru and it was during the time of the Certo luminoso and the Civil War that was going on there we rode 22 hours up in the back of of a grain truck under a black tarp and

at about midnight we pulled the tarp off the truck stopped and we jumped off into the jungle we stayed the night just at the edge of the Jungle and made our ways up to a place called in henu in tambuli about halfway up we got lost in the dark the next day so we were praying me and my dear friend Paco we were praying go God give us some direction we're lost we don't if if we're found in here the terrorist owned the place the military wouldn't even go in and we cried out oh God

give us some direction help us we heard a bell then we heard somebody talking it was a strange conversation at first we thought then we realized it was a little boy coming in from the fields with his Buu and he was talking to his buru and so we got behind him and we followed and then we stood on the edge of the Town Little Village Huts Doby homes and I said Paco I said you know if the terrorist owned this thing were dead yeah but we got to go somewhere so we got down walked up

to a man who was drunk in the dark and said are there Brothers here because everybody knows what that means in the mountains means a real Christian and he said the old woman over there and so I went over there there an old nazaran woman and I knocked on the door I said I am I am an Evangelical Pastor please help me that old woman reached out with that Lantern she grabbed me she pulled me inside she grabbed Paco took us down her house was cut out of a kind of a cliff in the mud

and took us down in the basement where there was some hay and chickens and things and she sat us there and she lit a lamp and then a little boy came in and she called to him and said go get the other brothers and they started bringing chickens and Yuka and everything else risking their life why because we are one stop saying all these silly things that you're saying that the body of Christ is divided and it's a mess and it's full of sin I would not talk about the bride of Christ that way if

I was you what you've got is a bunch of goats and tears among the sheep and because very little biblical compassionate church discipline is practiced they live among the Sheep they feed on the sheep and they destroy the sheep and those of you who are leaders in the church are going to pay a high penalty when you stand before the one who loves them because you did not have enough courage to stand up and confront the wicked as a matter of fact listen to me the average scenario in North America with regard to churches by

and large the churches are democracies and I don't want to get into the ifs or Pros or cons of that but here's what happen happens because the preaching of the Gospel is so low the church is basically the majority of it are carnal lost people and because it is a democracy they by by and large govern the direction of the church and because the pastor doesn't want to lose the great number of people and because he has wrong ideas regarding evangelism and true conversion he caters to the wicked in his church and his little group

of true sheep that belong to Jesus Christ are sitting there in the midst of all the theat in the midst of all the worldliness in the midst of all the multimedia going we just want to worship Jesus and we just want someone to teach us the Bible and pastors are going to pay for that I am I'm it's true it's just true you're saying oh you're just angry my dear friend you know what it cost me to say this it's true trying to keep together a bunch of wicked people while a little flock in the

midst of them are starving to death and are made to go in directions they don't want to go with the carnal majority listen to me if my wife was at Walmart late one night and you walked by as a man and you saw that two men were abusing her three four five 10 men were abusing her and hurting her and you put your head down in the name of self-preservation and you walked by I want to tell you something my friend I will not only look for those 10 men I will look for you it

is the bride of Christ and she is precious to him it's going to cost you to serve Jesus it could cost you your church your reputation and your denomination absolutely everything but the Bride of Jesus Christ is worth it and look what it says I love this look 39 I will give them one heart and one way and what is that way it's Christ and its Holiness every True Believer I've ever met spoke much of Christ and had a longing desire to be more holy than they were more conformed to Christ and look I will

give them one heart and one way that they may fear me always for their own good and for the good of their children after them oh what a text that is but let's just go on really quickly I will make an Everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good now we just read this and and and and so many people who are wicked who are lost they just go to church on Sunday they hear this verse yes God has made an Everlasting Covenant with me he will never

turn away from me never never I'm secure because of God's grace but they failed to read the second part and look what it says I will make an Everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good and I will put the fear of me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me the evidence that God's made an Everlasting Covenant with you sir is that he's put the fear of God in you so that you will not turn away from him and if you turn away

from him and he does not discipline you and you continue turning away from him it is evidence that he has not put his fear in you you have not been regenerated and you have no Covenant with God at all oh it's true the seventh indictment and we'll just rush through this and I know that this is misunderstood today and so I'm going to Define it a lack of loving and compassionate church discipline most Evangelical Pastors in America today ought to take Matthew 18 and rip it right out of their bug you can't do that sir

you got to take the whole thing many pastors their theology gets left behind when they come out of their office out of their study they're theological in conversation they're theological in their office but when they step out they run the church by carnal means I am not an elder at my church and so and have not been there very long so I can say this without boasting it practices church discipline it's a very large church about a thousand and um they estimated they've saved 30 marriages in the last several years through loving compassionate church discipline

that does not begin with excommunication it begins with ye who are spiritual we say oh I'm too loving we we can't practice discipline we just we're just too loving you're more loving than Jesus he's the one who commanded this yeah it'll cause so much problems yeah you're right maybe that's why there's not the whole lot of problems between the church and culture today because we're not confronting culture and we don't confront culture just by going out there and picketing Hollywood we confront Culture by obeying God Noah built the ark and condemned the world you don't

have to have a protest sign just walk in obedience and the world will hate you my dear friend if your brother sins Go and show him his fault in private if he listens to you you have won your brother oh what a wonderful thing but if he does not listen to you take one or two more with you so that by the mouth of two or three Witnesses every fact may be confirmed it's not that these guys are on your your side they're going to listen and judge maybe you're the one that's wrong maybe your

brother's not in sin maybe you're overcritical and legalistic who knows and listen if he refuses to listen to them tell it to the church and if he refuses to listen to the church let him be to you as a gentile and a tax collector my dear friend I believe that we need to hear this we can either start obeying God and disciplining ourselves or we can have God do it for us and maybe the hour is coming and now is when that's going to happen I'm not talking about critical legalistic hateful men there's enough of

those I'm talking about a man a group of Elders leaders who love enough to lay their life on the line because they know this is not a game this is not something that we do just for this life that eternity is at stake the salvation of souls look at all these Christian books stores look at the old books of the old days of the Wesley and the Whit fields and on and on the Puritans and the Reformation most of those books dealt with what is the gospel how do you preach it how do you bring

someone to Christ how do you discern true conversion how do you be a doctor of souls we have joined Rome in this matter Rome the baby is baptized the baby is Christian the baby is Rome never again deal with conversion just create all sorts of worldly means to try to keep them in the church evangelicals have done the same pray a little prayer with him after two or three minutes of counseling after a half an hour of preaching 25 of which was very funny stories and then drawing the net after 5 minutes counsel them for

a little bit and then declare them saved and then spend the rest of their days discipling them and wondering why they don't grow I want to submit to you I believe in personal one-on-one discipleship but my dear friend the church got along for a thousand or more years without it without what we know as personal one-on-one discipleship with all the books and all the different things things I want you to think about this one-on-one discipleship became gigantic in the late 70s and until today what was the cry just as many people are going out the

back door as coming in the front door and the reason why that's happening is because we're not discipling people no the reason why it's happening is because people aren't getting converted because his sheep they hear his voice and they follow him whether you disciple them or not now we ought to disciple but that's not why they're leaving they went out from us because they were not not of us and they hardly got a chance to be of us because they never heard a true gospel and no one ever dealt with their soul so we spend

a fortune discipling goats hoping they will become sheep you can't teach a goat into a sheep a goat becomes a sheep by the supernatural working of the spirit of almighty God now church discipline I moved my family to this church church because they practice church discipline because I need to be under church discipline the watchful care of Elders and other members who take this seriously I want my children if they are converted one day they're all tiny right now but if they are converted or they make a profession of faith and then go Ary I

want to know that my children will be brought before the church if necessary for the Salvation of their soul some of you in here would get so mad if a pastor walked up to you and says honestly I've been praying about your child and I fear that they're unconverted you'd get so mad you'd rally up a group to have that Pastor kicked out instead of realizing oh praise God we got a man of God here eighth indictment a silence on separation there is a void of serious teaching about Holiness my dear friend General teaching on

Holiness everyone agrees let's be holy we need to be more holy let's have a Holiness conference but when you get specific about what that means that's when everything turns into a turmoil pursue peace with all men the writer of Hebrews tells us and sanctification without which no one will see the Lord does anybody believe this brother Paul I have been blamed so often for teaching you know Works where listen to me listen again it goes back to Regeneration and the Providence of God if God truly converts a man he will continue working in that man

through teaching and blessing and admonition and discipline he will see to it that the work he has begun will be finished and that's why the writer says without sanctification without Holiness no one will see the Lord why because if there's no growth in Holiness God's not working in your life if he's not working in life it's because you're not a child look at the difference between Jacob and Esau Jacob I loved Esau I hated yet God fulfilled all his promises to both of them Jacob was blessed Esau was blessed how did God demonstrate his judgment

and wrath against Esau and his love toward Jacob I'll tell you how he let Jacob run wild he let Esau run wild no no work of discipline no work of godliness nothing but he beat Jacob to death almost every day of his life the loving discipline the correction of God to bring us to Holiness now there's so much teaching on this but let me just say this therefore I urge you Brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice Romans 121 and then go on to two your bodies why

does he say body I think to a avoid all this super spirituality well I've given Jesus my heart and you can't judge a book by its cover well a matter of fact you can judge a book by its cover Jesus never said you couldn't judge a book by its cover he said you could you will know them by their fruit and if you think that you've given him your heart then he will have your body and I'll tell you why the heart my friend is not some blood pumping muscle or some figment of a poet's

imagination it refers to the very essence or core of your being Don't Tell Me Jesus has the very essence and core of your being and it doesn't affect your body it's just not going to happen and so what do we do we go through scripture what legalistically no drawing inferences no just standing on the commands of scripture about what I do not agree with Puritans said but I love the Puritans and one of the reasons why I love them because I believe they Honestly made an attempt to bring everything in their life under the lordship

of Jesus Christ their mind because they wrote 800 page books on what should I think about according to the scriptures what should not enter into my mind according to the scriptures what should I do with my eyes what should go in these ears and what should not go in these ears how should the tongue be ruled what should be the direction of my life and yes I'm going to scare you to death how should I dress now here I want to be careful here I don't want to draw inferences and things my dear friend my

wife says it this way if your clothing is a frame for your face from which the glory of Christ Springs forth it is of god but if your clothing is a frame for your body it is sensual and God hates it enough say now I can't go through everything of Holiness and Holiness isn't just outward expression but we've become to be a people that uses the interior work of the spirit as an excuse to say nothing is ever going to happen on the outside and that is not true some of you young men you cry

out probably more than I do that the spirit of God would fill you and work in you but it only takes 1 half hour of Television to so grieve him he'll be a miles from you am 99% pure 1% sewer I'm not drinking one time I was struggling and Leonard Raven Hill was talking to a dear friend of mine who was saying brother Leonard young man brother Paul he's really struggling and he sent a track I still got that track I'll never never part with that and said others can you cannot I don't necessarily agree

with everything young man listen to me I don't go to malls I don't not because I'm more holy than you it's because I know what I am there a story of one of the finest greatest violinists in Europe playing his final concert old man and when he finished a young man walked up to him violinist and said sir I'd give my life to play like you and the old man said son I have given my life to play like me I want the power of God on my life then something's got to go I want

to know him then some separation has to occur let me tell you something young man everyone else is running around all their little Retreats and all their conferences and getting together with group hugs and singing Kumbaya and everything else maybe you need to get alone in the wilderness with God and fast for seven days on your knees studying the book of Psalms it's being alone with God belonging to him to be a man of God there's got to be a sense where sometimes even your wife who is of your own flesh one with her she

looks you in the eye and she knows she can't go where you're going silence on separation I think do not be bound together with unbelievers for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness nothing what Fellowship has light with Darkness nothing darkness is the opposite of God's revelation or what Harmony Christ with bellal nothing or what has the believer in common with the unbeliever nothing he says come out from their midst come out from the midst of what come out from the midst of lawlessness Darkness satanic devices and the life and worldliness of the unbeliever come out

from it now the ninth indictment and this is very important to me as a as a older man with a young family didn't get married until I was 30 my wife had something of a little brain tumor for the first eight years we couldn't have children and then oh praise God a child was born and then another and then another and then who knows psychology and sociology have replaced the scriptures with regard to the family my dear friend pastors leaders think about this our churches our our Sunday morning Services better said our so cosmetic just

because there seems to be beautiful worship and the sermon went well and people seem to be moved that's not evidence I'll tell you what evidence is the home the marriages the families judges 176 in those days there was no king in Israel every did everyone did what was right in his own eyes if I talk to people because I go for all kinds I find a godly man who has raised Godly children and I go and I latch on to him but in most cases you know what I find out the people I talk to

in church all of it is wives tales and sociology and this and that and every other thing what's right in their own eyes and can't give me one biblical verse but every once in a while I find a man and a woman who set themselves to set their family according to scripture and the difference is overwhelming when I'm on an airplane I love to do this menal sit down beside me and they'll go what do you do I go I'm a husband they said yeah what else do you do oh I'm I'm a father what

else do you do well if I have any time left over I preach a little what does it matter if a man win the whole world and lose his family let let me just put it to you this way based upon what are you raising your children and loving your wife based upon what if you can't start going into scriptures right now and pulling them apart and showing me how your family's founded upon it I can assure you you are a captive of psychology sociology the whims and the lies of this age you see you

don't have the right to do you have no Authority sir apart from the word of God look at Genesis 18:19 for I have chosen him so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and Justice so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what he has spoken about him what a beautiful thing and listen Romans 12 vers one and two well verse two tells us that the will of God is perfect so if you ever come up with this idea as a man

of God I am sacrificing my family for the sake of the ministry I will tell you you are a baldface liar you are sacrificing your family for the sake of the Little Kingdom you're trying to build because the will of God is perfect that means I do not have to violate the will of God with regard to my family in order to fulfill the will of God with regard to the ministry God doesn't need you he does desire that you be obedient that you be obedient now I just want to give you two examples now

before it's like when someone asked me one time brother Paul are you against evangelism I said yes and no I'm not against biblical evangelism but I'm against the way you're doing it are you against Sunday school and youth groups yes and no I want to explain something to you now for some of you I'm not going to be enough and for some of you I'm going to be too much I just want to use these two things to point out what's wrong with us Sunday school no matter what denomination you're a part of if you

are a part of some denomination that's kind of organized I can assure you that your denomination spends multi-millions of dollars on Sunday school material multi-millions of dollars on conferences on teaching teachers how to teach Sunday school on doing everything thing in the book to promote Sunday school I know that for a fact let me ask you how much money does your denomination spend and how many conferences and manh hours are put in to teach fathers to teach their children so now you found it haven't you God doesn't have a plan B he has a plan

a you circumvent plan a plan B won't work now I'm not saying that children can't come together and group groups and be catechized or be taught or anything but if that ever even begins to hint to supplant the ministry of the father in The Home blow it to pieces do you see what I'm saying look at just just that one tiny instance everything for Sunday school everything for Sunday school but there's hardly a conference in this entire country to teach men how to teach their children and most of the time in the Sunday School it's

nothing more than entertainment because the Sunday school teacher doesn't have the authority to discipline your child and even if they did they wouldn't do it because they don't believe in it that's just one tiny instance let's look at youth groups well youth need to be together you know they need to be together okay well let's look Proverbs 13:20 He Who Walks With wise men will be wise but the companion companion of fools will suffer harm whoever told you you ought to be together who ever told you that I'll tell you who told you that 1960s

psychologist generation gap youth are to be with adults so that they stop acting like naive fools and join adulthood and put away foolishness which leads to destruction now I'm not saying you can't bring youth together but I submit if you do have all their parents there and you say well what about the lost youth that that come into our church well what are they seeing now your the lost youth come into your Christian Youth in church and they see almost the same thing they see in their own home no parents kids teaching kids are one

guy a little bit older with moose in his head teaching your kids but what would happen if lost youth came into your church and they saw the children there the youth in a loving wonderful relationship collectively with their parents and they would go whoa I've never seen anything like this before his dad look at him he he lo I mean he loves his dad I mean look at look at so is this Christianity you see my dear friend let's say that I am no doctor but a man comes up to me with a bleeding forehead

and he says brother Paul I I've Been Everywhere no one can diagnose my problem and I said well I'm no doctor but I'll follow you around for 24 hours and I noticed that every time the hour strikes if it strikes one he hits himself in the head with a brick one time if it strikes two he hits himself in the head twice with a brick if it strikes 12 he hits himself 12 times in the head with a brick after observing this cautiously and carefully taking notes for 24 hours I come up to him and

I say you know I think I have figured out your problem I'm no doctor but I think I figured out your problem it is that pathetic Among Us Church why do our children do what they do why is everything it's like one old dear Saint someone asked him one time he wouldn't let his teenage son go out with a young lady to be in some private place he said don't you trust your son he said no I don't trust my son what ever made you think that I don't trust his dad I wouldn't put his

father alone with a woman that wasn't his wife and yet I have much more to lose than a boy I have much more control of my will than a teenager with raging hormones so what would you what would make you ever think I would do that we violate biblical principle after biblical principle after biblical principle and then we wonder why everything is a mess lastly just real quick turn with me you know when I say real quick I am speaking an allegory or something um go to First Timothy I was listening a few months ago

at the all the horrendous things that are happening to our I don't know what you would call it anymore republic democracy country I'm not really sure socialistic state and I was so burdened as I sat there listening and I was saying oh God what can I do I I would right now Lord I I honestly with all that is in me I'll jump in the middle of the fire I I'll there's a charging rhino I'll jump in front of it just tell me what to do do you want me to go to Washington and just

stand in front of the White House and preach till they throw me in jail I'm tired of just preaching to Christians and in churches and all this God just the country is going to hell just throw me just what do you want me to do just throw me at him verse one of chapter 4 but the spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the face first Timothy 4:1 paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons now he goes on to basically tell young Timothy that all hell is going to

break loose in culture that everything is just going to be maddening men as beasts I was with Conrad and bewe a few months ago and I heard him preach they call him the Spurgeon of Africa and rightly so if you get a chance to listen to him listen to him he's one of my favorite preachers in the world and he said this he said in Africa we no longer fear beasts we don't run from Beasts We Fear men and run from Men He was talking of course about depravity but he said here that just the

world's going to come unglued Timothy now what does he say to do verse six in pointing out these things to the Brethren you will be a good servant of Jesus Christ constantly nourished on the words of faith and right there this text just started unraveling for me Paul yeah the world has lost its mind everything is going to happen it's under my Providence but listen to me here should be your reaction in the midst of all hell breaking loose in the midst of apostasy in the midst of persecution here's what you need to do be

constantly nourished on the words of faith we always want to run out there and do something we want to fix something God is seeking men of character polished swords first of all son be constantly nourished on the words of faith and the sound Doctrine which you have been following this you have been following is very important I think it's indicating to us that a simple intellectual study of scripture will not will not achieve the goal that God has for his men they must obey it they must begin following you cannot learn Doctrine well until you

follow the doctrine you learn and then he says this he says have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women my dear friend let me tell you something all this emergent Church stuff much of the church growth stuff all the cultural sensitivity throwing out the window biblical sensitivity it's just a bunch of little boys wanting to play Church without the power of God on their life and I'll stand on that statement it's a lesser than David trying to fit himself in Saul's armor to the wind with it the more you trust in

the arm of the flesh the less you're going to see of the power of God he says this on the other hand discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness man of God you want Revival so do I we need an army though if powerful sword W if Mighty flaming Pikes and swords and weaponries are to be dropped out of heaven for us to fight then we must be the caliber of men who can yield those things and wield those things and fight with them with sound character we should discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness

young men discipline yourself to prayer discipline yourself to the systematic reading of scripture from Genesis to Revelation over and over and over and over again discipline yourself in your speech discipline yourself in The Company You Keep discipline yourself in when you go to bed and when you rise up this is a war discipline yourself young men I can tell you this unless you are some exception being born in the age that you have been born if you're under 30 yeah even under 40 you probably lack discipline because you have never been able to work you

have never had need to work for your food and your father's never made you work so hard that your bones cried the men who have accomplished much and used of God have been men of Labor in the ministry this is hard and it will cost you [Music] everything and by the time you're an old man you will be broken but strong in the things of God discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness for bodily discipline is only of little profit but godliness is profitable for all things it holds promise for the present life and also

for the life to come oh my dear friend who cares about your best life now eternity the day you stand in those Granite Halls before the Lord Of Glory and Kings the greatest men on Earth are divided and split and called some cast into eternal hell and some invited into eternal glory live for eternity these Olympians how what How Majestic they are but only for a moment they start training when they're four and five years old they never do anything but train until they're 22 they run a 9-second race for a medal they hang up

and that's it cannot you give equal for Eternal things some of the greatest men of God have been men very limited in their B in their bodies in their abilities they were so limited that they had to focus themselves into one thing to the ministry for bodily discipline is only of little profit it is a trustworthy statement deserving deserving full acceptance for it is for this we labor and strive because we fixed Our Hope on the Living God this is not some martyr thing in which we uselessly give our lives to nothing only to be

pulverized without hope no we serve God and God will honor us we have fixed Our Hope on that and that gives us strength strength oh this life is a vapor I 47 but yesterday I was 21 where did it all go it is a vapor while you have strength preach I praise God that in his Providence as a young man I spent myself in the Andes mountains and in the jungles of Peru doing what I no longer have the strength to do while you are a young man while there is strength in you labor with

all your might take those stupid video games of yours and crush them under your feet throw the TV out the window you were made for greater things than these you're a child of the king nothing on this Earth can satisfy you nothing prescribe and teach these things now there's so much here but look at 15 take pains with these things be absorbed in them so that your progress will be evident to all let's say that on a wooden table my child spills glass of water and by the consistencies of nature the laws that God has

placed in her the water heaps up a bit on the table so much that you can see it as a pool you walk by it and you say there's water spilled on the table it's evidence all but then I come by and I take a towel I lay it across the spilled pool of water and I lift up and you say I no longer see any water where is it it is absorbed in the towel man you are to be absorbed in these things of godliness and character man I plead with you listen to me

this is so important you are not erron boys you are not to spend your days wiping the noses of carnal churchmen get yourself in your study drink deep be so absorbed in the knowledge and the knowing of God that people say where is he he used to be such a man about town such a friend to everyone such a personable fellow where is he he is absorbed in these things we are men of God we are ministers of the most high there should be an otherness about us we should have a distant gaze in our

eyes towards a distant heel the greatest thing we can do for our people is to be men of God absorbed in the things of God so that when we open in our mouth the word of God comes out where I go to church Jeff noblet is the main preaching Pastor he has always given himself to study but when I got there I talked to him and I talk to other leaders and anytime someone asked me something I said this please do this one thing take as much of the burden off of brother noin as we

possibly can let him live in that study with God because I've got children out here and the greatest gift that man could give to me is to study to show himself approved and to come out in that pulpit in the power of the Holy Spirit and Proclaim thus sayith the Lord correcting and rebuking giving great promises and warnings please do that for me Pastor please do that for your people because he says pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching Preserve in these things for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for

yourself for those who hear you I want let's just finish with this this verse means almost nothing in the angelical Community today how many pastors do you think and preachers take it seriously I need to pay close attention to myself to ensure salvation for me and for those who hear me I have a question Pastor when was the last time you examined your own life to see if you were in the faith to see if you really know him you see my dear friend I have great Assurance when I study my own conversion when I

discuss it with other men when I look over the 25 years of my pilgrimage with Christ I have great Assurance of having come to know him but even now if I were to depart from the faith and walk away and keep going in that direction into heresy into worldliness it could be the greatest of proofs that I never knew him that the whole thing was a work of the flesh I know what I'm saying is out is outstanding to you think oh my I've never heard such a thing this is the old read Pilgrims Progress

pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching Preserve in these things for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself for those who hear you may God bless his church Church