I'd like for you to open your
Bibles with me today to the book of Acts. I'm going to bring you
a message on this subject, some dangers that we face, some dangers
that we face. And I'll be reading from the
20th chapter of Acts. You find the place in your Bible.
I want you to do that because I'm going to refer to several
verses of Scripture. Now, the apostle Paul knew that
his days were numbered. He knew that he would soon be
martyred, that he would be killed. At least he'd be going to prison,
and then he would be a martyr for Christ's sake. And knowing
this, he gathered the elders of Ephesus about him and preached
the sermon that is recorded in the 20th chapter of the book
of Acts. This is the message, the last message that Paul preached
to these elders of Ephesus, and it's found here in the 20th chapter
of the book of Acts. Now, beginning with verse 19,
the apostle Paul told these men, he said, now, I've served the
Lord among you with many tears and much tribulation and in sincere
humility. I'm not one whip behind the chief
apostle, yet I'm nothing. He said, I obtained mercy. The Lord gave me mercy. What
I am, He made me. What I have, He gave me. What I know, He taught me. He
asked this question of the Corinthian church, Who maketh thee to differ?
What do you have that you didn't receive? So the apostle, first
of all, establishes this. He said, I've served the Lord
among you, not with pride and boasting, but in sincere humility. And then in verse 20, he said,
I've kept back nothing. nothing profitable unto you.
For whatever reason, I've kept back nothing. I've preached to
you the gospel of Christ. I've preached repentance toward
God. I've preached faith in Jesus Christ. I've preached Christ
and Him crucified. And I've kept back nothing which
God was pleased to reveal and which you needed to hear. I've
kept back nothing. And then in verse 22, 23, and
24, he said, I go to Jerusalem. I know that prison, persecution,
fetters, yea, even death awaits me. But these things do not frighten
me, and these things do not move me, and these things do not cause
me to quit, because I do not consider my life dear unto myself. I will finish the task that God
gave me to perform. I will finish my course and the
ministry OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST, I FULLY INTEND TO THE
DAY OF MY DEATH TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF HIS GLORY AND THE GOSPEL
OF HIS GRACE. AND THEN HE SAYS IN VERSE 25
AND 26, YOU'LL SEE MY FACE NO MORE. THIS IS THE LAST MESSAGE
THAT I'LL PREACH TO YOU, BUT I TAKE YOU TO RECORD THIS DAY
THAT I AM FREE FROM YOUR BLOOD AND I AM FREE FROM THE BLOOD
OF ALL MEN BECAUSE I HAVE NOT SHUNNED to declare unto you all
the counsel of God. And then in verse 33, he says,
I've coveted no man's silver or gold. I have not coveted anything
that you possess. I have in most cases provided
my own way. God has abundantly met my needs
by His grace without my appealing to the flesh or looking to the
flesh or leaning on the arms of the flesh. Now, here's what
I want you to notice. Verse 29, back to verse 29. He
said, after I leave, after I depart, and you see my face no more,
false teachers and false apostles and false preachers are going
to rise up among you. He calls them grievous wolves. He says they'll rise up speaking
error. They'll rise up speaking perverse
things. And their motive is not the glory
of God at all. Their motive is to draw away
disciples after themselves. These false teachers and false
preachers are going to rise up even from among you. And their
desire is not your good and God's glory, but their desire is to
draw disciples and followers after themselves. Therefore,
he said, watch, watch and be warned. You face grave dangers
from these false preachers and false apostles who have neither
the glory of God at heart nor your good in mind. In fact, he
said, they're nothing but merchandisers of souls. They're hucksters making
merchandise of you. Now, my question is this. How
can true preachers, God has his true preachers. The Lord has
his true witnesses, always has had. men who speak for God. Well,
how can true preachers and true believers deal with error and
deal with false religion that is rampant in the name of God,
false religion in the name of God? Not long ago, there was
a television special exposing many covetous, greedy preachers
who are doing what they're doing as con men in the name of God. That was the title of the television
special, In the Name of God. And here were men taking advantage
of people and all manner of things in the name of God. Well, there's
so much false religion in the name of God. How can we combat
this false religion? How can we help men and women,
men and women of our day, to see the truth? The truth as it
is in Christ Jesus. You shall know the truth. And
the truth will make you free. The truth of God. We worship
God in spirit and truth. How do we make men and women
to see the truth? Well, let me give you three or
four things. Number one, we can preach the Word of God. Preach
the Word of God. This is what Paul said to young
Timothy. Preach the Word. Not philosophy,
education, intellect. Preach the Word of God. Preach
the Word of God as it is to men as they are, line upon line,
precept upon precept, verse upon verse. Make much of the Word
of God. Preach the Word of God. Not our
quarterlies or denominational literature or some current events
or some book. Preach the Word of God, verse
by verse. Now, I love my children. Now,
you listen to me. And listen carefully, and don't
misunderstand me now. I love my children and my grandchildren,
and I want them to have a good education, the best education
that they can possibly get. But God didn't call His preachers
to organize, promote, and run schools and colleges. He sent
them to preach the gospel, to preach the gospel. And I love
my country. I served in World War II. My
brother served in World War II. My father served in World War
I. My son was killed in Vietnam. I love my country as much as
you do. I hate communism. I'm against
communism. I'm against crooked politicians.
But God didn't call me to preach capitalism. He called me to preach
Christ. God didn't call me to clean up
the government. It's never been cleaned up and
never will be cleaned up. The Lord God calls His preachers
to preach the gospel, not run for office, but preach the gospel
of Christ. That's what we can do to help
men and women of our generation hear the truth is to preach it
and quit dabbling in side issues and chasing rabbits and going
off on tangents and trying to straighten the world out in its
business. Let's preach the gospel. I'm against abortion as much
as anyone else. I'm against violence on TV. I'm
against pornography. But God called me to preach Christ,
Christ and Him crucified, not to clean up a crooked generation.
That's nothing more than making outside of the cup clean and
neglecting the inside. If the gospel of Jesus Christ
ever affects a man's heart, it'll clean up his life. And without
the gospel in his heart, you can't legislate morality for
him by threats or promises of reward. I suspect we might be
in the last days. Paul called it the last days.
I suspect something unusual is going on in the Near East, but
I'm telling you this, God didn't call me to speculate about prophecy. He didn't call me to speculate
about the part that Russia and Israel and the United States
and Great Britain and Turkey and all these other countries
are going to play in the millennium. I'm more interested in the reign
of Christ in your heart right now than I am the reign of Christ
in future years. Preach the word. The gospel is
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. The
gospel of Christ, not philosophy, not education, not legislation,
not morality. God said, My word will not return
unto me void. It shall accomplish that where
unto I have set it." Now, that's how we can help our generation.
That's how preachers can help their churches and their people.
Most people are ignorant of what the Word says. They know all
the cliches. They all know the little religious
sayings. They know every tub must sit
on its own bottom or rob Peter to pay Paul or some foolish thing
like that, but they don't know anything about the Bible. And
the reason is that preachers and teachers are doing everything
under God's Son, but preaching the Word of God. And that's what
we need to get back to, preaching the Word of God. And then I'll
tell you what else we can do, secondly. We can preach doctrine. Now listen to me, I know, nothing
wrong with the word doctrine. I hear people say, don't preach
doctrine, preach Jesus. My friend, you can't preach the
King and ignore his decrees. You can't preach the great teacher
and ignore his teachings. You can't preach Christ the prophet
and ignore his message. You can't preach Christ the priest
and ignore his work. We must preach doctrine. We can't
just cry, believe, believe, believe. That's what's wrong now. We're
not telling men what to believe. They don't know what they believe.
Peter said, be ready always. to give a reason to every man
that asks you, give an answer to every man that asks you a
reason for your hope. Be ready to answer him. Now,
Paul said this in I Timothy 4.13, he said, till I come, talking
to Timothy, you give attention to reading, to exhortation and
to doctrine. In I Timothy 4.16, listen to
this, inspired of the Spirit of God, he said, take heed to
yourself and to your doctrine. For in so doing, you'll save
yourself and them that hear you, if you pay attention to your
doctrine. In I Timothy 5.17, he said, Let the elders that
rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those
who labor in the Word and in doctrine. II Timothy 3.15, Paul
said, You've fully known my doctrine. I've taught you my doctrine,
so you know it. 2 Timothy 3, 16, he said, All
Scripture is God-breathed, God-inspired, given by inspiration of God,
and is profitable for doctrine. We don't preach doctrine for
the sake of doctrine. We preach Christ and Him crucified
as He's revealed in the doctrine. You see what I'm saying? Now,
listen to me. God either created this world or He didn't. Now,
both can't be so. That's a doctrine, the doctrine
of creation. You can't believe the Bible and
believe evolution. It's impossible. God is infinitely
sovereign, almighty, infinitely powerful in all things, creation,
providence, and salvation. Oh, He isn't. It's just that
simple. You can't talk about God being an almighty God and
turn around and say, God wants to do this and can't do it. There's
nothing God Almighty can't do except lie. He can do what He
wills to do. He said, Can I not do with my
own what I will? Who can stay the hand of God,
or say unto him, What doest thou? Is he sovereign? If he's not
sovereign, he's a weakling, and he's not God. Man was created
in the image of God, and he fell. Or he didn't. And they're both
so. Something's true. Well, you say,
Just let it alone. We're all going to the same place.
Not when we're traveling in opposite directions. God created man in
his own image and man fell. And sin and death came upon all
men. Is that what the Word teaches?
Then it's so. That's doctrine. That's original
sin. And that's where a man's got
to get straightened out or he'll be messed up all the way through
in his doctrine. What happened in the fall? What
happened in the fall determines what happened on the cross. What
happened on the cross determines what happens in a sinner when
God saves him. What happens in a sinner when
God saves him determines where a man spends eternity. God in
a covenant of grace, you know anything about that? The word
covenant's mentioned 300 times in the Bible. 300 times. God
in a covenant of grace elected a people to salvation or He didn't.
Now which one's true? Both can't be so. You can't say
election's true or not true. It's either true or not true.
The Bible says it's true. Crying death is effectual to
save all who believe or you save nobody. Christ became a man,
the God-man, or he's an imposter. He said, I and my Father are
one. That's true, that's doctrine. That tells us who Jesus Christ
is, where he came from, what he came to do, and where he is
now. He's the God-man. If he's not the God-man, he's
the biggest liar that ever walked on this earth. And his body's
in Jerusalem, his bones are in hell. Is that too clear? But that's what we need to do.
We need to tell people the truth. He is the only way, truth, and
life. That's what He said. I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by
Me. Is that so? If it's not so, He lied to us.
The Holy Spirit affectionately calls men to Christ or He calls
nobody. There is a resurrection to life
and a resurrection to death, or this book's a pack of foolishness.
It's time to deal in absolutes, the Bible does. To be absent
from the bodies, to be present with the Lord. There's no purgatory
of soul sleep taught in the Word of God. That's an invention.
That's an invention to squeeze money out of sick people who
don't know anything about the Bible. If that's not true, the
whole Corinthians and Philippians are farce. Salvation is by grace
alone, by grace alone through faith alone, or you can throw
your Bible away. That's what it teaches all the
way through. And Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Starts
with Noah. Righteousness before God is through
the obedience of Christ. Regeneration is by the power
of the Spirit using the Word of God. Justification before
God is by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Christ enables, Christ
enables a holy God to be just and justifier. That's right.
You know anything about that? Take heed to your doctrine. The
reason people today have no knowledge of God is they haven't heard
about God. They have no assurance or confidence
or rest or peace because they have no confidence at all in
the Word of God. They haven't been taught the
Word of God. Take heed to your doctrine. In so doing, you'll
save yourself and them that hear you. If a man preaches God, he'll
have to preach a sovereign God. If a man preaches Christ, he'll
have to preach the Christ of the Bible, the Christ of eternal
deity, the Christ of incarnation, the Christ of perfect obedience,
the Christ of effectual substitutionary suffering, the Christ of the
open tomb, the Christ exalted, seated at the right hand of God.
If a man preaches salvation, he'll have to preach salvation
is of the Lord. How can we serve our generation? I'll tell you
the third way. We must exercise strong pastoral
leadership, strong preaching. Now, the Lord God has been pleased
to send His Word through preachers. It's always been that way. There
was a man sent from God whose name was John. God spake to our
fathers by the prophets. God's always sent His Word through
preachers and pastors and teachers and under shepherds and overseers.
He said He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists
pastors and teachers, for the maturity of the saints, for the
work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
But we've departed from that position today. This is a day
of sharing. This is a day when there's no
voice of authority. This is a day of personal input. This is a day of discussion.
This is a day of the round table discussion. This is a day when
every man's his own teacher, every man's his own pastor, every
man's his own instructor. And preachers today, pastors
today, assume the position no more than an executive or a promoter
or an errand boy. Did you know that? And if they
don't like their job, they'll get fired. You can't hire one of God's preachers,
let alone fire him. We need to return to a strong
ministry, a strong pastoral leadership and strong directions. Paul said,
if I please men or if I seek to please men, I am not the servant
of Jesus Christ. Pastors need to be overseers
of the church. The pastor needs to be the leader
of the church, not a deacon or a businessman. God's, God Almighty's
kingdom is not a business run by businessmen. It's a spiritual
kingdom run by God. And the people who are the leaders
are men of faith, rich in faith. If a man cannot boldly, fearlessly,
plainly preach the Word, pastor a church, stand for the truth,
lead the church as he's led by the Spirit of God, he needs to
find him something else to do. Now, we don't need lords over
God's heritage, but we do need leaders. We need leaders like
Moses and David and Paul and John the Baptist. We don't need
doctors of intellectualism. We're not doctors. We don't need
reverends. But we need some sons of thunder
like James and John. We don't need promoters and con
men like we have so much of today. But we need some preachers of
the gospel, the glory, and grace of God. Oh, how I wish God would
bless our land with some bold, fearless preachers. But I'll
tell you the fourth thing we can do. If we want to help our
generation, we preach the Word of God. Get back to the Bible.
We preach doctrine. Teach our people. Teach our people.
Don't back up. Don't compromise. Teach them
what God says. I've kept back nothing from you.
Don't be afraid of the words, sovereignty, election, and particular
redemption, and predestination, and sexual call, and original
sin, and justification, and sanctification, and regeneration, and repentance,
and faith, and sanctification. These are Bible terms. The average
person's never heard them. Never been taught, and the pastor's
afraid to touch it. God's men aren't afraid. They
fear no man. And then we must exercise that
strong pastoral leadership. Take reins. Take the reins. Obey
them that have the rule over you, God's Word says. Now, I'll
tell you something else we can do. We can preach the Word of
God, sow the seed, and wait for God to save sinners, and quit
trying to save them ourselves. That's what we can do. I'll tell
you this, from Alpha to Omega, salvation is of the Lord. Redemption
is not a work you do for yourself. It's not a work your mama does
for you, or your pastor does for you, or some high-tone evangelist
does for you. Redemption is something God does
for you. I mean, from beginning to end,
from Alpha to Omega, from regeneration to resurrection, salvation is
of the Lord. I think about the old fateful
farmer who goes out there on the North Forty and he plows
the ground. He's fateful to plow the ground.
He doesn't know whether he's going to get a stalk of corn
in the fall or not, but he plows the ground. And then he goes
out there and sows the seed, sows the good seed. And he waters
the ground and fertilizes it. But God's the Lord of the harvest.
God makes the seed to bear fruit. That farmer doesn't go out there
and try to make the seed grow by his own strength and persuasion
and power and effort. He plants it, covers it up, and
waits on the Lord. And that's what faithful preachers
do. They break up new ground, bust up the stumps and bust up
the clods and bust up the new ground. And they go in there
and preach the Word of God and preach it faithfully. They sow
the good seed of the Word of God and they water it water it
with prayers and tears, but they know this, they know that God
has to save a sinner, that God must give the increase, that
God must open the heart, that God must convict a man of sin,
that God must grant repentance toward God, and God must give
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm telling you today, all
this pressure for decisions and all this psychological and invitation
and all this thing of calling people to walk the aisle and
over-persuading men and getting them down the aisle to raise
their hand, make decisions, into the church, giving them things
to read, to keep them safe, pray the sinner's prayer. I tell you,
if God doesn't build a house, they labor in vain who try to
build it. Salvation is a heart work. And until you can open
a heart, until you can break a heart until you can convict
the heart, until you can make blind eyes see, until you can
give life to dead sinners, you better let salvation stay in
the hands of God. Salvation is a hard work. It's
not walking aisles. It's a hard faith. It's not a
public decision. And I'll tell you about all we
got today is competition, contest, and coercion, and that's not
of God. If you save a man, you got to
keep him safe. You got to keep Him saved and
keep Him busy and keep Him working, keep threatening Him and promising
Him different rewards if He'll do or perform certain duties. But if God saves a man, if God
does, He'll give him a new heart and a new spirit and a new nature
and a new family and a new motive and a new direction. And you
won't have to keep Him saved. He belongs to the Lord. Do we
dare trust the Holy Spirit to do the work of God? Do we? Do we dare just preach the gospel
and wait on God to save His sheep? Do we dare? I do. Do we dare believe that a man
can actually love God, believe God and walk with God without
threatening Him with hell or promising Him rewards? and organizing
all kind of different activities to keep him faithful to the church.
Do you believe that a man can just walk with God, love God
and believe God because God Almighty is his Father and they have a
personal relationship without a preacher getting between them
and whipping him with a whip of the law or promising him a
crown or promising him God will bless him if he does this? I
do. I believe if a man knows God,
he'll walk with God. Do we dare believe that the work
of God can be supported by the gifts of God's people without
begging, selling, and lying? I do. I've had people say, you
never ask for money. Not going to next week either.
God willing. The Lord, God pays his bills.
And when we talk about faith, you tell God, you don't tell
people. We can preach the gospel and
wait on the Lord. Now I have this message on a
cassette tape, dangers we face, and then one I'm going to bring
next week on the preeminence of Christ. If you want them,
write for the tape. It'll cost you $2. We'll send
it to you by return mail. God bless you. Till we meet again.