One of the greatest joys, one
of them, of being here is to be able to participate in the
worship. I'm just always, the content
of the songs that are chosen, the theology of them, that if
we were just to read them without a piano or without a song leader,
they would just literally fill us with life. And then for every,
the accompaniment and the leading, all in a way that just demonstrates
an honor and a reverence mixed with joy. And it's always, I
love to be moved by music, and I'm against those who say that
music should not move us. I think we were created to be
moved by music. But in this day in evangelicalism,
the one thing that I most appreciate about here is I am to be principally
moved by the truth of the letter, of the theology that is preached
And I do, I don't, I use that word that way, that is preached
through the worship. Because it is proclamation. It
is proclamation. When it is theologically rich,
when it's theologically correct. And that's why for men, you should,
maybe sometimes our wives are more given to listening to sound
theology preached through worship. but it would be something that
we should also give ourselves to, rather than mindlessly sitting
in the car or listening to something that's counterproductive, to
actually fill our lives, fill our homes with not all kinds
of worship, because not all kinds of worship are pleasing to the
Lord, but that worship that is biblical and reverent and joyful. Before we get started, we'll
be in Romans 12. Before we get started, young
men, a lot of times, all of us, will point out the errors and
the weaknesses in the upcoming generation. I mean, my father
did it to my generation, and I imagine his father did it to
his. You know the story, you know,
son, when I was your age, I walked to school 47 miles uphill both
ways with barbed wire on my feet and a snowstorm. And what I want
you young men to understand is that every generation has its
challenges. Now they may be different. And
we may have different tendencies, all sorts of things, but every
generation has It's challenges. And all of us, young men listen,
all of us come from the same stock. We do. We were all born in Adam. All
of us who are Christian have experienced a like regeneration
and we share in a common faith, all of us. We all have battles. But our battles are meant to
be overcome, not in the power of the flesh or the strength
of the will, but through the grace and power of Christ. But it all begins with the word.
Romans 12, verse one. Therefore, I urge you, brethren,
by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy
sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service
of worship. And do not be conformed to this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so
that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good
and acceptable and perfect. Let's pray. Father, please, for the sake
of your son, for the edification of your church, For the strengthening
of the institution, Lord, that was formed by your decree, the
family. Please help us to grow as men. Not a Caesar, not a Spartan.
But to be conformed to the image of Christ. Oh, Father. Grace us with grace, multiply
grace. In Jesus name, amen. Now, Paul
says, therefore I urge you, brethren, I urge you. You know, preaching
is not just the communication of information, no matter how
true it is. Here we see a pastoral heart
in Paul, a great pastoral heart. What does he know that's going
on? He knows, he knows. that his entire enterprise, his
entire employment has to do with very weighty matters, with heaven
and hell, with life and death. He calls them brethren. He loves
them. He loves them. And he wants the best for them.
for them, and so he's not just simply going to whisper out some
information, he's urging them, he's begging them, he is exhorting
them. So many times we hear this, don't
we? Even in the law, oh Israel, if only you had a heart. How
many times in Proverbs the same thing? Oh, son, listen to me,
hear my words, heed the voice of your mother, just on and on.
It's not just simply a transference of information or a communication
even of truth, but it's urging. Do you remember how I gave you
that illustration that a man could be neglectful of his wife,
which would end up destroying the wife's relationship with
her children, wife's relationship with daughters-in-laws and sons-in-laws? How that all that comes together
can have just such a major impact on so many different lives. But
with godliness, it's the same way, brethren. The impact that
godliness can have The generational changing power of you just deciding
to spend a lot more time with your children, to spend more
time listening to your wife. Do you see? More time in the word, the positive
impact that can have. It's like throwing a pebble into
the middle of a very calm pond or lake. And then watching just
the impact it has on everything. So Paul is urging and I urge
you, and when I when I when I look at in the mirror of the word
and I see where I need to make corrections, it's not just, oh,
I need to make corrections. It's it's an exhortation. But
always with the knowledge that God commands nothing that his
people cannot obey. He says, therefore, I urge you,
brethren. By the mercies of God. Now, what what's going on here,
what are the mercies of God? Well, the first thing you need
to look at is therefore. And hold your place, turn to
Ephesians chapter four. I want you to see something.
I want you to see something that is extremely important that will
help you understand the Christian life as much as anything. In
chapter 12, verse one, therefore. In Ephesians four, verse one,
therefore. In both these cases, there is
a major change going on, a major shift in the emphasis of both
epistles, and it helps us understand how to live the Christian life.
Now just hold that, okay? Hold that thought. And he says,
therefore I urge you brethren by the mercies of God. What are
the mercies of God? What are they? In this context,
I would have to say the first 11 chapters of Romans. So what is the motivation that
can urge us, push us, Drive us, empower us, move us, motivate
us. What is it? He says, I urge you. I'm urging you to give yourself,
he's going to say, as a living sacrifice. I'm urging you, brethren,
to give the greatest thing you can possibly give your own selves
to something. I'm going to urge you to give
the greatest sacrifice a man can give, but I'm going to urge
you, how, how am I going to motivate you to do this by the mercies
of God? And then he lays out for us in
the first three chapters of Romans, the radical depravity of man.
And then he lays out for us in chapter four and chapter five,
redemption in the person of Christ, chapter six, redemption going
on into seven, going on into eight, sanctification going on
in chapters nine through 11 of describing God's covenant faithfulness,
that he's never let his people down and he never will, that
he'll always fulfill all his promises. But then if you take
those 11 chapters and you wanted to condense it all into one thing,
look what I've done for you in Christ. You want a motivation? It is always the mercies of God. And what is the greatest revelation
of the mercies of God? What God has done for us in the
person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ. What should motivate
us to do everything we do? To serve our employer, to give
ourselves to our wives, to pour our lives into our children,
to work for the edification of the church. What is the motivation
for godliness? It is always this what God has
done for us in Christ. That's it. That's it. Now, look at Ephesians, chapter
four, hold your place. In the first three chapters of
Ephesians, what has Paul done? Do you know, brethren, you could
spend eternity in the first three chapters of Ephesians studying
at 24 hours a day and you would never even come close to the
foothills of the Everest of this book. But what is he doing? He lets us know right in the
first 13 verses in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ,
in Christ, every he lays before us, everything God has done for
us and the cosmos and the church, everything God has ever done. It's in Christ. And his redemptive work on Calvary. So what does he say? Therefore,
I, a prisoner of the Lord, implore you. There he goes again. It's
not just we've had a wonderful theological discussion, haven't
we? That's not what he's saying. He says, now I implore you, as
he said to the Romans, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy
of the calling with which you have been called. So in Romans 12, one and two,
it's he's going to urge you to give your life as a living sacrifice. In Ephesians four, he's urging
you, imploring you to walk in a manner worthy. And in both
cases, the motivation for that comes from what everything God
has done for us in the person of Christ. So how do you grow
in your motivation? How do you grow in your love? How do you? I can tell you what
typically goes on in evangelicalism. You go to a conference. With
emotional music and. Really emotional speakers. And you get all fired up. And
the fire lasts for about three days. It's like it's like they think
that that that man, that the Christian man is something like
a windup toy, you know, wind him up at the conference, wind
him up and then loose him and let him go. And yeah, it lasts
a couple of days. And then you know what? With
every every time a man goes through this, you know what happens?
He becomes more and more bitter. because he becomes more and more
hopeless because he becomes to realize, I'm never going to grow
in maturity and I'm never going to walk with a passion for Christ.
And then someone comes along and says, you need to walk for
a passion in Christ, and rightly so, they're as angry as they
can be. Just stop it. Another thing that we have to
be careful of is when we talk about, you know, it's always,
it's a great commission and going out there and being a warrior
and champion for Christ and everything. And men in the pews are going,
but my entire life, my family, everything is falling apart.
So we need more than coming to a conference and getting wound
up. As I always tell people, I love really biblical seminaries. But biblical seminaries cannot
make you a man of God. They only give you the tools
so that you can spend the rest of your life growing into being
a man of God. So conferences can't just wind
you up, they got to give you something that you take home.
but taking it home is not enough, and YouTube preachers are not
enough. You have to be in a biblical church, a biblical church that's
constantly setting before you what? Everything God has done
for us in Christ. And here's something that you
need to know. It's very important. The more, if you have an unregenerate
heart, the more you learn of who God is, of God's righteousness
and God's works, the more you will hate him. That's just true. That's true. You hate the light.
If you're unconverted, you hate the light because you love darkness.
And the more light you see, the farther into darkness you run
and the more you hate the light. Just like when I was a little
boy and I'm going to go fishing, I'm turning over rocks and logs to
find worms. The Beatles, soon as they see
the light, they just go under. That's the unconverted man. But
now. If you are Christian, that is
not the case. That is not the case, if you
are truly regenerate and truly converted, the more. You hear
of God, see of God, the more you understand of God. The more
you'll love him. and the more you will be motivated
to obey him. Now, let me share with you how
this works. When I first married my wife,
I loved her. I loved her. Nearly 30 years have gone by.
I'm not the same. My wife's not the same. You would
think in 30 years things would be kind of common because newness
always wears off. I'm older. My wife is older. We've changed so many things. I love my wife now more than
I did then. Even though now her hair is gray,
she's changed. But I love her now more than
I loved her then. Why? I know what you're thinking,
because you're carnal and silly. No, I'm just kidding. I know
what you're thinking. You know, the moment a man talks
like that, I'm gonna tell you about the idolatry of men. The
moment someone talks about that, you know what everyone in the
congregation is thinking? Wow, what a wonderful guy. He loves
his wife now more than he did then. Oh, he's so wonderful. You're seeing things wrongly.
It's just like when you see a guy or a sister who seems to have
an extraordinary passion for Christ. What is it you immediately
think? There's something wonderful about
them, right? So when a husband starts talking
about he loves his wife more now than he did then, you automatically
think, what a wonderful guy. Maybe he's not wonderful at all.
Maybe it's his wife. Maybe he's just a normal, pretty
dull guy. Dull hearted. Nothing special about this guy
at all. But his wife on the other hand, she has such virtue and
such inward beauty. that she is so magnificent that
she can actually draw affection out of this dull-hearted 60-year-old
man. So now it's changed, hasn't it?
Who are you admiring now? Me? No, because I am exactly
as I described. Now you're looking at my wife.
I mean, that's amazing. That woman must be amazing. I
mean, it'd be easier to call rocks to come alive than to distract
washer. I mean, he's so dull. So now you're thinking, man,
what a wife. So when you read all those biographies
of all those great Christians and you walk away going, oh,
they're so wonderful. They're so wonderful. You really
need to work on your theology. You really do. Maybe listen to
some more of these songs would help you. I don't know. Your
theology is not good. Those people in those books,
the Mary Schleser of Calabar's, the Amy Carmichael's, C.T. Studd, George Mueller, all
these people, Hudson Taylor, they were born out of the same
stock as you, Adam. They were not regenerated any
more than you. I cannot find degrees of regeneration
in the New Testament. Then what's the difference? Only
one thing. They have seen more of the mercies
of God. Do you see that? Paul says in
chapter 12, verse one, I urge you brethren by the mercies of
God. They have simply seen more of
Christ than you have. Part of it is their personal
study. Part of it may be they're in
a church that has pastors and elders that are doing what they're
supposed to do. And what is that? Remember when
Abraham sent his servant to get his son's bride? I suppose on
that, I think it's kind of amazing that when he shows up, man, he
starts throwing gold on that girl. And she's going, whoa. Maybe on the way back that long
camel ride, every time he saw doubt in her face, he just brought
out another ring. and said, this is how much He
loves you. This is how generous He is. This is how gracious.
This is how kind your husband is. Wait for it, wait for it,
wait for it. And she did, and it knocked her
off her camel. Hold your place, because I know
there's some preachers in here. Just hold your place. I want
you to see something. I would hang this over every
preacher's study if I could, even though this is not directed
at all to preaching. Surely there is a mine for silver
and a place where they refine gold. Iron is taken from it and
copper is smelted from rock. Man puts an end to darkness and
to the farthest limits. He searches out the rock in gloom
and deep shadow. He sinks a shaft far from habitation,
forgotten by the foot. They hang and swing to and fro,
far from men. The earth from it comes food,
and underneath it is turned up as fire. Its rocks are the source
of sapphires, and its dust contains gold. The path no bird of prey
knows, nor has the falcon eye caught sight of it. The proud
beast have not trodden in it, nor have the fierce lion passed
over it. but he puts his hand on the flint. He overturns the mountains at
the base. He hues out channels through
the rocks and his eyes see precious things. He dams up the flowing
streams. He dams up the streams from flowing. And what is hidden, he brings
out to light. That's the pastor's study right
there. Do you know what my job is? Yeah, I'm doing a men's ministry
right now. But you know what my primary
job is? My primary job is to go into that mind far away from
men to spend hours and hours alone in the Word of God. Why? So I can teach theology. No, but what I do teach will
be theological. It is to present ever in increasing measure, the
beauties and the glories and the wonders and the powers Of the church's spouse. That
she might be delighted to tell him that she might be motivated
to wait for him. that she might be strengthened. Yes, I have no doubt. He is everything
he says will be to me. One of the things I most love
to tell Christians who are weary is to tell them this. I just
love it. I said, now, listen, I'm gonna tell you something.
When you get to heaven, I know you're so cast down. You think
you failed. When you get to heaven, he will
be happier to see you than you will be happy to see him. His unconditional love And how
do we get a greater vision of that? We get it in the word,
brethren. I know I sound like a broken record. but we get it
in the Word. But we don't go to the Word primarily
for principle, even though there are principles. We don't go to
the Word primary to commands or wisdom or anything. Primarily
we go to the Word to see Him, to see His glory, His beauty,
His majesty, and most of all, everything that is revealed about
God in its most complete form in Calvary. And that's what drives us. It's
just a greater vision of God and the cross. Because you can't
know God in his fullness apart from Calvary, as a matter of
fact, the attributes of God do not harmonize until we get to
Calvary. Because the great question throughout
history of the scriptures is how can God be holy and just
and yet merciful and compassionate to sinners? And the answer is
found in Calvary, where all the attributes of God are harmonized
and we see God in all his fullness so that we can bow down in reverence
before his holiness and rejoice before his compassion and know
that all of them are revealed in Christ. And these silly little
preachers that come out with their silly little quaint sayings
and everything else every Sunday and starve to death the bride
of Christ. But don't just think about preachers,
there are husbands here. Does your wife study the word
more than you do? It's because she doesn't have
a biblical husband. It's not just the preacher who's
supposed to go down in the mine. It's the husband that's supposed
to go down in the mine. And teach his wife how to go
down in the mine. and teach his children how to
go down in the mine. They need to see a man that is
not perfect because they won't. They need to see a man who will
go to his children and say, I have sinned against you. I was impatient
this morning. Please forgive me. And then when
they say, that's OK, dad, the father says, no, it's not. Please
tell me you forgive me. They don't need to see a perfect
dad, but they need to be able to see that God. And that cross. And that Nazarene is in control of my dad. That love, that look, I see it. As imperfect as he is. We see this all over the Bible.
As a matter of fact, piety that does not flow from From all that God is for us and
all that he's done for us in Christ is a piety that is somehow
connected with idolatry. It's everything for him. And
this is so important, brothers, for us to see. When I got out of seminary, I,
you know, I set myself to do one thing, I said, I want to
do something, I want And so I decided that although my IQ may be a
bit limited, my education may be quite limited, I'm gonna take
every verse that I can find from Christ pre-incarnate to his seat
in glory, and I'm gonna study it. And then I'm gonna study
the men from the second century to about Martin Lloyd-Jones,
even though many times I include Dr. MacArthur in that. And I study every one of those
texts and try to glean from men. The last almost 1800 years. I wanted to see Christ. If there
is any passion, if there is anything in me. It is it has been the
word of God showing me Christ. Showing me Christ, I've looked
at hymns, many of the ancient ones. Show me Christ. And then that's where it does,
from where does passion come if it comes from self-will, it's
sin. If it comes from an extraordinary
man or woman, it is anti-Christ. It comes from just a greater
vision of Christ. And that's why our songs must
be filled with Christ. That's why the preaching must
be filled with Christ. That's everything points to Christ. When I teach about the law, I
teach you the law drives us to Christ. It's the purpose of the
law. I'm teaching children through the book of Proverbs right now.
And one of the things I'm constantly hammering on is that Proverbs
in many ways functions like the law. And they say, what way?
You go to the law and it shows you're a sinner and it drives
you to Christ. You go to Proverbs, it shows you're a fool and drives
you to Christ. But it's there. And we see that
if you look over in Second Corinthians five, I want to look at a text
that's often very misunderstood. Second Corinthians five. Fourteen. For the love of Christ
controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all,
therefore all died. The love of Christ controls us. Now, so many people, everyone
recognizes it's a genitive. I mean, there's a of there. But
so many people think, oh, you know, it was Paul's great love
for Jesus that drove him. That's not what it's saying. It was Christ's great love for
Paul that drove him. Brothers, when you. And I look
in the mirror. At our love for Christ. There's
not a lot of motivation. I don't find any motivation by
examining my love for Christ. As a matter of fact, I've kind
of just stopped even wrangling in those areas. There's no power there. There's
cause for lament oftentimes. But when I look at Christ's love
for Paul Washer, now there's a motivation. There's the motivation. And again, where is that love
revealed? We know love this way. Go to
1 John chapter four. How do we know love? How do we
know love? He gave his son, he gave his son, he gave his son
for God so loved the world. He gave, he gave, he gave his
son. It all comes down to, well, let
me put it this way. I was preaching in this auditorium
at this university and this reporter came up to me years ago. He was
furious. I was furious. Why are you talking
so much about sin? Why are you talking? It's just,
just sin, sin, sin. Why are you talking so much about
sin? And I said, because I want you to love God. What? I said, have you never
read? She loved much because she's
been forgiven much. But you can't know how much you've
been forgiven if you don't know how sinful you are. And you can't
understand how marvelous forgiveness is if you don't realize the caliber,
the infinite glorious person that is forgiving you and how
he did it. You see, you want to grow in
your love for God. You have to come to a greater
understanding of a biblical understanding of who he is and what he did
for you. That the son of God, you see
everything God's ever done, he's done for his son and for God
to give his only son. And for that son to humble himself
and take human flesh. And he came in the likeness of
sinful flesh. It doesn't mean his body was
sinful or in any way corrupt, but his body was exposed. He
was exposed and opened like a wound to all the consequences of the
fall. And that he lives a perfect life. And suffers untold things even
before going to Calvary. And then in Gethsemane, making
that decision, not my will. And then going to Calvary. And
they're being shut up for three hours. In a room. With the billows. Billow after
billow after billow of the wrath of Almighty God poured out on
his head. And I can assure you that after
an eternity and eternity, you will understand many things you
do not understand. But I believe that no one, not
even an archangel, no one will ever comprehend the suffering
that happened to Christ in those three hours shut up in that room.
Only God Almighty will understand. The price that was paid. To save
wretches. And the more you understand that,
brethren, the more you understand that if it doesn't move you,
then you need to go to your pastor for counseling because possibly
you're unconverted. But the more you grow in your
knowledge. Of God in Christ. You won't need to be wound up.
Like a toy. It won't be like a sugar high
and then a crash. It'll just be. You know, one of the things I've
noticed in the Puritans and oftentimes in Spurgeon, in a work that I'm
doing right now on the gospel, I spend an entire chapter doing
the same thing that they would write or preach an apology. Now, not an apology with regard
to a defense, but an actual apology. Flaval does it. Owen does it. I've got several quotes all down
through history of men who've done it, that when they were
getting ready to speak about the gospel, they would first
give a long apology. With regarding to the future
failure of whatever they're about to say. Why? Because the beauty of Christ. The magnificence of Calvary. It doesn't matter. 10 hours a
day, 16 hours a day, it doesn't matter on your knees in your
study, reading Puritans, memorizing scripture. Doesn't matter how
if the preacher literally pours himself out unto death in study
and then gets up and proclaims the gospel to the point where
he has not one breath left in his life. When he comes down
from the pulpit, he comes down from the pulpit in shame. Because
he has said nothing. Compared to what must be said.
The greatest mind cannot comprehend anything of the glory that's
there hardly. And then the greatest preacher
cannot even proclaim properly what he himself comprehends.
And that's what we do, that's how we grow. And this this is eternal life. This
is eternal life. To know God and to know Christ.
I often say this, particularly to students, I go, you know,
eternal life presents a tremendous ethical problem. Well, why? Well, I mean, the mundane sooner
or later, the mundane has to sit in, because if if we're talking
about gates of pearl and streets of gold and all that type of
stuff, I mean, how long can you swing on those gates before it
gets boring? There's a problem of monotony
in eternal ethics. But there's not. Why? Because
there is something beyond creation. There is something there that
is infinite. Infinite. The glory. Not just
glory. Beauty. Splendor. Joy. and to run throughout eternity,
chasing it so that after a thousand eternities, you've not even reached
the foothills of that Everest. Do you see that? And that's what we do now. That's
what preaching is primarily. It's what? It's the preacher
seeking to track down that glory to show it to the people. It's
the people trying to see more and more glory. And as they see
more and more of Christ, They're brought under him. In a willing,
joyful submission, and they're motivated. They're motivated. By him. By him. Now, let's go back to Romans
12, he says. To present your bodies a living
and holy sacrifice. It's interesting that present
here is an heiress. It's kind of here the prophetic,
it's almost like a Old Testament prophetic call to the Romans
and to us. Instead of thinking that Paul
is saying, you know, every day, recommit yourself or going in
front of the church as some churches do altar calls every time there's
an altar call going forward and making the, no, that's not what
he's talking about. It's more of an idea of And this
would be my call to you. How long, men, will you limp
between two opinions? If Yahweh is God, then serve
him. If Baal and this world are God,
then serve them. But stop walking between two
opinions. For once in your life, take a
look. For once in your life, Consider
even the words that you commonly speak. Jesus is Lord. Take a
deep, long, biblical look. And not just right now so that
something happens by the end of my speaking, but look and
keep looking. Go to your pastors and tell them,
teach me how to look. Go to small group studies with
other men who genuinely are showing that they're looking. How long will you continue limping
between two opinions? Sometimes I'm working with someone
maybe who is trying to learn how to shoot a longbow, or some
kid wants to know about how to bench press better, or how to
squat better, or something like that. And I'll watch them and
say, you need to change this, this, and this. And sometimes
they'll go, well, I just want to continue doing this. I said,
you continue doing this, you're going to continue getting the
same results. You want the same results, continue
doing the same thing. It's like sooner or later, you
got to break. You got to break finally and
say, how long have I been in the Christian life where I just
am kind of walking between two opinions, I have one foot in
the world and one foot in the kingdom, and I'm kind of just
there. You say, well, are you telling
me to read the Bible? Have you made other commitments to read
the Bible? Have you made other commitments to pray more? Well,
yes, I have. Has it worked? Well, no, not
necessarily. OK, so what are you going to
do now? Do the same thing over again? Are you going to do what I do? Go to the elders, go to other
brothers. Go to my wife. Really? No, I mean, go to her first.
I say, I'm. I just want to be more. I want
help. I want people to pray for me.
I want I want to pray with people and for people. I want to be
around. I always seek out men who when I leave their presence,
I want to be more noble. I want to be more like Christ.
Brethren, I want to tell you something. From almost the moment
I was converted until this very day, with the exception of. A
year or so in Peru. But even then, the Peruvians
became my brothers and sisters became strength. God must know
how truly weak Paul Washer is. Because he has always. Put me. With goodly men. With men better
than myself. With men who wanted me to be
more, I can't exaggerate that more, and I'm not doing some
psychology here, you just have to read Ephesians four. You just
have to understand that true growth outside of a vital connection
with a local church isn't it's just not going to happen. Oh,
I suppose it could miraculously in circumstances where God's
grace and providence must be extraordinary. But the common
way in which we grow the means of grace is I need my brothers
and sisters in Christ. And I'm open with them. I'm open with them when I need
wise counsel, I go to always the one elder, Anthony Mathenia. When I need to know something
about theology, I go to Jamie Tucker. I go to a co-worker,
Jeff Shaver, Sean. When I want to talk about just
the heart, I oftentimes go to Elder Luke Nash. Do you see real
names? Real names. Real people. And what I found out, man, is
that when I'm strong, sometimes they're weak. And when I'm weak,
they're strong. And I opened myself to being
rebuked and they have rebuked me. How long will you limp between
two opinions and when Will you just go, look, how much life
do I have left? To present your bodies, a living
and holy sacrifice. I find it's interesting he uses
the word body. I find it very, very important. So a physical
biosoma, a body, present your bodies. What does he mean? Well, let's just put it in our
world today. Walk up to someone, they're professing
faith in Christ. They've clearly given themselves
over to the world, to carnality, to sin. You address them in the
matter and what is the first thing that comes out of their
mouth? You don't know my heart. You don't know my heart. You
don't know my heart. Judge not lest ye be judged.
Twist not scripture lest ye be like Satan. You don't know me. You don't
know my heart. You can't read my heart. I don't have to read
your heart. What do you do with your body? What do you do with
your eyes? What do you do with your speech?
What do you do with your ears? What do you do with your hands?
What's the direction of your feet? How are you walking? See,
when you talk about heart, brethren, you're talking about the very
control center of everything that you are. It controls your
will. Your emotions. Everything. So don't think that somehow there's
this you can have different compartments that don't relate to one another.
If he has your heart. You'll have the rest of you. When the scriptures say, blessed
are the pure in heart. Everyone a lot of times have
just this idea of white or clean. I think the idea there. Is blessed
are those who have have hearts. Without mixture. Without any
competing loyalties. Now, none of us can say that
completely, not even the Apostle Paul, Jesus could. But therein lies the fight. When
some competition arises, cut its head off. Cut its head, deal
with it severely, make no excuse for it. He says, present your bodies.
a living and holy sacrifice. So many old preachers when I
was young would always say, well, the problem with a living sacrifice
is it keeps trying to crawl off the altar. It's a living sacrifice. But
listen to that. You know, so many times I think
art is a wonderful thing. Believe it or not, I like art.
Most people are amazed I can even read. I like art. But sometimes you look at religious
art and you realize how much damage it has done. For example,
most people's concept of Jesus is based upon very wrong, very
unbiblical art that should have never been painted in the first
place. Their idea of the crossing of Israel is Charlton Heston
and the Ten Commandments and Cecil B. DeMille. And then we
have this idea of sacrifice. We almost have this Catholic
idea of morbid, maybe stoic idea of suffer for sake of suffering. No, Jesus taught it in a completely
different way. He who loses his life, what happens?
Finds it. He who keeps his life, loses
it. It is recognizing that God so
loved that he gave so When I try to come to a biblical definition
of divine love, for me, one thing that is overarching is the selfless
self-giving. Of God giving of self, even when
he gave his son, he is giving of self, it is for the benefit. It is giving of himself. And even the humility in that.
You know, one of the things that was really helpful for me, I
forget what scholar I was reading. He was very helpful. Maybe it
was O'Brien. He was talking about Philippians
in that we see that Christ humbled himself, that there is humility
there. And the point he made was do
not confine that attribute of humility to the incarnation. Christ's humility. Was a manifestation
of divine humility. Of God's self giving. And I think
there's some truth to that. And that in that we find joy. I challenge you. Just continue,
you know, being selfish at home, bucking up against your wife,
thinking you've done something well because you've brought home
money and you haven't been unfaithful. Keep doing that. Or without making some announcement,
start serving your wife. Just start serving her. Deny
your tiredness. Deny your little boys you run
with or whatever you do. Deny your toys and start serving your wife. And see if joy doesn't, something
doesn't happen with joy. See if you don't sleep better. Have you ever claimed things
for yourself that turned into joy? Have you
ever made demands that turned into joy? Have you ever made
claims? Have you ever demanded your rights
and it brought you peace? Have you ever laid down your
life in service and it hindered you from sleeping? It may have
hindered you from sleeping just because of the joy of it. Do
you see? He's not trying to hurt you.
He's not trying to turn you into a monk for monk's sake. He's
saying this really is the path to joy. It's the path to life. And life is not just breathing
in and breathing out. That's not life, that's existence. But the old man told me one time,
he said, son, most people, they die 30 years before they're buried. They just exist. In Peru we say,
Tu vives porque el aire es gratis. You're alive because air is free.
That's it. You don't want to just keep existing.
You don't want to just keep existing with your wife. You don't want
to just keep existing with your children. You don't want to just
keep existing with your church. You want to live. And how do
you live? It's not by drawing everything
into yourself. It is by doing what Christ did.
It's doing what very God did. You give yourself. And I want to tell you how much
more effective it is when you make that commitment and do that
within a group of men who know you and hold you accountable. In a church where these types
of things are preached. Present your bodies, a living
and holy sacrifice. You know, there's so much to
say here, separated unto God. Separated unto God. I belong to God. Remember, I
talk about meditating on mortality every once in a while, meditate
on this. You are not your own. You were
bought with a price. Spend a week or two meditating
on that. I am not my own. I have been
separated unto God. Which is both a privilege and
a responsibility. One of the thing I love about.
You know, this new translation legacy is it it brings out the
idea of Dulos. I belong to him. I am a slave
to a perfect master, this is the one who made me. This is
the one who is wiser than all. And this is the one master who
loves me more than I could ever love myself. And he separated me unto his
service. And his service isn't just the
great commission. Matter of fact, that's not even
where it begins. It's service unto him in worship. I find it interesting that the
mission movement of Acts 13 begins with ministering to the Lord. It's ministering to the Lord.
It's seeking to be conformed to his image. That's where it begins. And then,
I mean, if you worked for my business and you ruined it, I
would have mercy. If you were married to my daughter
and you ruined her, probably not much mercy. I would hang you in a tree and
the news would spread. If I love my daughter that much,
how much does God love my wife? It's almost fearful. Man. I'm wholly unto him in worship,
wholly unto him with our wives, with our children. With our church. With our employment. A living and holy sacrifice,
acceptable to God. How could anything we do be acceptable
to God? Because it is the Lord, our savior,
who sanctifies our offerings. It is the death of Christ. It
is his ongoing ministry of intercession. Which is your spiritual service
of worship. Some translate it, your rational service of worship. I always think it's funny that
we always go to extremes. There are people, you know, it's
all about worship, worship, worship. Other people, no, no, not at
all. It's all about life, life, life,
life. The fact of the matter is the
Christian life is too big to point out one thing and say it's
all about that. But I can tell you that both
these things are so important. Worship unto God. Sometimes I
think, Lord, when was the last time I was praying that I was
not asking? Are not studying. But was just
praying to worship. Praying to worship, when was
the last time, gentlemen, that you ministered unto the Lord?
In private prayer and song. When was the last time? Will we go around the world 10
times from one conference to another, and yet the most basic
things are not being done, and then we scratch our head and
think Christian growth is a mystery? Acceptable to God, which is your
spiritual service of worship, both in tongue and in deed, do
not be conformed to this world. Oh, there's so much to teach,
and I have like three minutes. Do not be conformed to this world.
The idea here is do not be pressed in. It's more mechanical with
this word. Do not be pressed into the same
mold. Do not be like In Peru, we would
make adobe bricks and you have a form and you throw sand in
there that's very dry, then you pack it with a certain type of
clay and straw, and then you turn it over and it comes out.
And every one of those bricks are just alike because they come
out of the same mold. That's what the world is constantly
trying to do to the individual Christian in the church. In the
last year, More than any other time in my life, I see the world
encroaching upon the church to fashion the church in a completely
different mold, not according to the scriptures, but according
to the world. And brethren, just use your head.
If some new doctrine is being introduced into the church that
actually has its source in the enemies of the church, Do you
really wanna go there? Has that ever gone well before?
Did it go well with Platonism in the first five centuries of
the church? Did that go well? Did Gnosticism go well? Did Judaism
being brought into the church, did that go well? Paganism brought
into the church up until the 15th century. How did that work
out for us? What happened? When was there
a revival? When a group of men got up and said nothing, we need
nothing, no truce with the world and we don't need to hear anything
from you. Sit down, you need to hear from us. You see. Do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed from which we get the word metamorphosis.
Be transformed, this is more organic, this is spiritual, this
is life. Isn't it amazing in societies
when when certain people or the elitist or government decide
society ought to go a certain way, how do they make you do
that? How do they make you go a certain
way? By coercion and force, first
of all, it will be coercion and shame, and then it will be coercion
and penalties, and then it will be coercion and imprisonment.
It's always by force. How do how does God change men? It is spiritual. It's organic. It's the infusion of life. It
is the living word. That transforms a man that transforms
a man be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Think about your children. And
men, some of you are really going to make some decisions here.
They're awake 16 hours a day. Let's say they go to public school
five days a week, eight hours a day in which if you didn't
know it, they are going to be instructed and almost everything
that your Bible opposes. Then they're going to come home
and they're going to watch TV. Yeah, there's a source of piety.
They're going to be on their computer. And their peers are
going to be their examples. And they're going to want to
please their peers. And then for 45 minutes every
Sunday, you put them in Sunday school where they either play
games or they paint beautiful pictures of the giraffe whose
head is poking out of Noah's Ark. And you wonder why they
cannot stand. My, what a mystery, someone ought
to investigate this. Who could be so wise and clever
as to figure out this this problem? And then look at you, I don't
understand why I struggle with my thought life. Really. How much screen time do you have
and how much Bible time do you have? I mean, like that great preacher
I was telling you about, David Miller, he goes, this ain't rocket
surgery, folks. Just think about the basics. I've talked to so many men here
this week, driving in the car today. It was like, I told a
story about my wife in Romania, She was teaching these girls
for about three days, and one of them finally came up to her,
well, it was in a question and answer, said, you know, Miss
Chartle, thank you for everything, but it just seems like on every
one of your answers to our questions, it's we need to be in scripture
more and we need to pray. You know, why is that? And she goes, well, it's because
you need to be in scripture more and you need to pray. I don't
know what else to tell you. Now, I guess there are options
you could run over here to one of these churches and acquire
some fire or something. You've probably already done
that. It's it's scripture. And it's
realizing as a man. That we were not created in the
body of Christ to be lone wolves. That's not true. Iron sharpens
iron. He who walks with wise men will
be wise, but a companion of fools will suffer harm. You wonder
why you have a son that's 28 years old and is still acting
like a boy, and that's because all his life, the only influence
in his life has been the other boys his age and vice versa. Where are the men? Where are
the men? Where are the men? I hope they're here. And know this
as we close. If you look around you and you
see things going on in America and you see the loss of men and
you see so many, so much darkness coming forward, but please understand
Christ is in control of the nations and Christ is doing more right
now than maybe at any other time in our history. He is tearing
down nations and judgment. He is raising others up. And
God is still saving people. I was at a Bible study last night.
Someone professed faith in Christ. It was another place. You know,
God is saving people. And then I want to encourage
you. The epicenter of world missions and Christianity may be changing. It may be going other places. But it is going other places.
When God tears down one nation, he raises up another. I look at what God is doing and
has done for the last 20 years, for example, in Africa. The great
men that are there, theologians, scholars with piety, biblical
churches and example. I look in places in South America
and the Dominican and Ecuador and Peru and different places,
Honduras, where God is raising up men. I look in Asia. Where it's hard
to see. Because there's so much suffering,
but they're suffering as men. So you may be afraid for our
country and you should pray for our country. You should pray
for the kingdom, but don't be afraid for it. Don't be afraid
for it. Don't be afraid for it. If all of hell emptied. If all the armies of the world. Came together in one giant mass
to attack the throne of Christ. It would be like a little gnat
beating its head on a piece of granite the size of the world. Don't be afraid. And know this. Not all the oppression
in the Middle East. Is able to stop the advance of
the gospel in the Middle East. Not all the oppressors in the
world can do anything against the power of the gospel. No, this is not a time. for trembling, for tiny hearts
and tight spirits. These could be the worst of times.
They will be the best of times. Let's be like men, not Neanderthals. Let's be men. What does that
mean? Let's be conformed to Christ and let's give our lives in service
for him. For those whom he loves, let's
pray. Father, thank you for. Your word. And I pray, Lord, for all of
us as men. As we have a common salvation,
so we have common struggles. No, dear God, I acknowledge before
you that there is only one hero in this story, and it is our
elder brother, Jesus Christ. In his name, Lord, we ask, please. Please. Whether it's just grace multiplied. Or grace overpowering. Please
change us. In Jesus name, amen.