Regeneration - Ezekiel 36 - Paul Washer

let's open up our Bibles to Ezekiel chapter 36 while you're turning there we just say few things we maybe it's bit out of sort but we would think we were singing about holiness the holiness of God what is the thing that pops into your mind when do you think that God is holy for most people the idea is that God is sinless our morally pure when someone says that then I asked them the question well what does it mean for God to be righteous and they say well right sinless morally pure then I asked them then what's the difference between holiness and righteousness many people have a wrong concept of what it means to say that God is holy the holiness of God speaks primarily not about his moral excellence or his purity the holiness of God speaks primarily about his separateness his uniqueness let me just explain this for a moment the word holy in the Hebrew means to cut and to separate as though when a woman lays out a plate or a cutting table full of vegetables has several carats and she begins to chop on carrots and as she a pile of pieces began to mount up she takes the knife as she's cutting and she separates them off she continues to cut she separates them off it's the idea of being cut off to be separate to be unique as opposed to being common and profane when the Bible says that God is holy it is saying there is no one like God God is not like us just bigger and better God is not like us at all let me give you an example if what would be closer to being like God a flaming Archangel standing in the presence of God are an amoeba floating around in the sewer which one's more like God the theological answer would be neither I'm higher than you does that mean I'm closer to the Sun the Sun is so distant it is so far away that if I were to climb Everest I would have no gain I would be no closer to the Sun that shines in our sky are the stars that surround our night when you think of God as holy you've got to understand that what it means he is unique there is no one like God and no one to whom God can be compared and that is why the Prophet tells us there's no one holy like the Lord it's like when when Moses when Moses speaks to God and God speaks with Moses and Moses says to him who are you you tell me to go to Egypt but I must tell your people who it is that sending me and he says I am Who I am there is a real sense in which if someone possibly if there were such a thing if someone came from another planet like Mars and landed here in Kansas and came up to me and said who are you I could say well I am like him and I am like him and I am like her I would have six billion examples of what I'm like but when Moses asked God who are you he says I am Who I am there's no one outside of himself to whom he can point to give an illustration of what or who he is that is until 2,000 years ago when someone asks God who are you and he pointed down to a carpenter from Nazareth and said I am like him so when we say God is holy you need to understand I do not believe holiness is an attribute like other attributes first of all I believe that God is holy in his omniscience there's no one omniscient like the Lord God is holy in his righteousness there is no one righteous like the Lord God is holy and his moral excellence God is holy in his love God is holy and absolutely everything he is because in absolutely everything he is there no one holy like the Lord there's no one like him now someone I'll always ask well then why is holiness so associated with moral purity in the Bible well if he wanted to show God's uniqueness to a fallen creation that uniqueness most stands out in the fact that unlike fallen creation God is morally excellent and pure and in His Holiness he cannot look upon sin but never forget that the primary meaning behind holy is that there's no one like him now this adds to not only our theological box where we keep all our information but this leads also to practice in doxology for you to be holy doesn't just mean you keep all the rules even though there are rules in the Christian life to be holy doesn't mean that you just dot all the i's and cross all the t's to be holy means that you're separated from this world but that in itself is not the end that is only the means to a greater end separated from this world in order to be separated unto God so the man that is holy is the man who recognizes above other men the uniqueness of this God the worth of this God and separates himself unto it and many times the men most holy among us will be like Bulls in a china shop they won't be pretty they won't dot all the eyes across all the t's but they have a heart that wants only him you say he's holy he is holy now let's go to our passage ezekiel 36 verse 22 therefore say to the house of israel this says the lord god it is not for your sake o house of israel that I am about to act but for my Holy Name which you have profaned among the nations where you went verse 23 and I will vindicate the holiness of my great name which has been profaned among the nations which you have profaned in their midst then the nations will know that I am the Lord declares the Lord God when I prove myself holy among you in their sight for I will take you from the nation's gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols moreover I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to observe my ordinances you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers so you will be my people and I will be your God we have such an unbalanced understanding of Christianity in the ways of God here in America today if you were to go if they had bookstores 200 years ago Christian bookstores you would have gone into those bookstores and you would have discovered that almost all those books were either written on the attributes of God or they were written on what is the true biblical gospel or they would have been written on how do you discern biblical conversion or they would have been written on the process of sanctification in the believers life you walk into a bookstore today Christian bookstore and see if you'd be hard-pressed to find one book given to those topics and then you look at the gospel of Jesus Christ and what have we done with it we've reduced it down to four spiritual laws five things God wants you to know and then what we do is we give somebody a five-minute presentation of the gospel we pronounce them weren't again because they've made some human decision and then we go on to deeper things deeper things there is nothing deeper than the gospel of Jesus Christ absolutely nothing let me just prove the point much speculation today on the book of Revelation the second coming and all sorts of things like that the day Jesus Christ comes back you're going to understand the book of Revelation the day Jesus Christ comes back your eschatology is going to be absolutely perfect but though you spend an eternity of eternities in heaven you are still not going to comprehend the gospel of Jesus Christ this message above all messages we've reduced to a few things that someone if they nod their head to those things we mention in the end we say they've heard the gospel and if they make a decision in favor of that we pronounce them born again and then we take them on to deeper things and we wonder why we have to chase them around we wonder why they won't grow we wonder why and we invest money after money after money in discipleship programs and discipleship programs and in reality what we're doing is we're trying to train a bunch of goats so that they'll act like sheep my dear friend I have done personal discipleship I believe in discipleship but I want you to understand something most personal discipleship is done today because the people are not born again and even among people who are born again most of them are being discipled because the pulpits so weak you get a man standing at a pulpit preaching for an hour each time twice a week you get a man in that pulpit preaching that way and that will be enough truth to carry them for a month the pulpits nothing anymore so we raise up boys to disciple other boys now I want us to go to understand something today in America the battle is not over the second coming of Jesus Christ the battle is not over the length of the cloth and the communion table the battle is over what is the gospel and how do men get saved there are no bridges to build between the two camps there are no truces to be sought after we are dealing with the gospel and whether someone preaches it correctly or not and if they do not they do not we have so coward we have come to believe that the Fellowship of men is more important than the glory of God preachers that will stand up in their churches and go on and on because the great majority of their membership is carnal and so they'll seek with every power in their Bible to please the carnal majority so that they won't lose them while that one remnant that truly belongs to Christ they let them languish and starve it's like if my wife was at Walmart it at 11:00 at night and two men were raping her in the parking lot and you walked by but because you did not want to cause a stir or hurt anybody's feelings you let them Chow's my wife I'd find you and beat you to the end of your life and for the sake of trying to keep a bunch of carnal wicked people who don't love Jesus we let the sheep of God starve to death those who truly belong to him we have got to get back to two specific things one of them is what is the gospel which I'm not going to deal with tonight today probably tomorrow but we need to get back to what is salvation salvation because of the little tracks that have been developed by men who do not know theology because of the evangelists who hardly study their Bibles because of church growth movements that are based upon Wall Street marketing schemes we have forgot to realize that the gospel of Jesus Christ is more than just a few things God wants you to know and we have forgotten that men are not converted by being convinced manipulated or brought in gradually to our community of faith men are converted by a supernatural work of God that demonstrates more of the power of God than the very creation of the universe and that's what we're going to look at Ezekiel 4 let's go to Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 22 therefore say to the house of Israel thus says the Lord God it is not for your sake o house of Israel I am about to act but for my Holy Name which you have profaned among the nations where you went when we begin studying the gospel there's a very important question that no one seems to realize that needs to be answered why would God save man why what would motivate God to save man and you say well brother PO it's quite simple God's love know you've just dug the hole deeper now what would motivate a holy righteous God to love men that is a very important question let me put it to you in human terms do you have fond affection an endearing desire towards Hitler do you you say well absolutely not and what would you think about a person sometimes we see them on television who stand up and say I think Hitler was the greatest man who ever lived I honor Hitler I follow Hitler what do you say about a person like that you say what a person is just as evil as the person toward whom he is manifesting his affection he said you do not good men do not manifest affection or kindness or love towards evil men well then how less a holy and righteous God you have to ask yourself why does God save men and if you say love then you have to ask yourself why would a holy righteous good God love evil depraved wicked men there is one answer that we don't have time to touch on today and that is because God is love there is another answer that comes in as a mystery even at ontology in the Old Testament when God tells Israel I have loved you because I have loved you letting us know that all love that God would have towards men is not motivated by man but it comes forth from God on his own it is a sovereign decision of God to love I think sometimes I don't like to say this in sounding trite but I sometimes think God has somewhat of a sense of humor at least towards me because for a while there every time I would get up and preach it seemed like some lady who wanted to do a special in whatever church I was in would sing a song that was basically Oh God what did you see in me that you would save me and I'd be back in the back of the church like a little schoolboy with his hand riyo pick me I'll tell you what did God see in you madam he saw absolutely nothing in you are these songs that you know I'm glad God never gave up on me he never gave up on you because he never put any confidence or hope in you in the first place why does God save men he tells us right here I save you for my own glory if God was not utmost concerned about making a name for himself and demonstrating his greatness in the universe every man since Adam would be in hell and have no hope of salvation if God had to look at men to find a reason to save them there would be none you see here's one of the greatest problems in preaching today people do not believe they're evil apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit and they don't believe it because preachers aren't telling them and they're not telling them either because preachers don't believe it or they're too cowardly it will cost them their life my dear friend I don't know if you've read the fine print in this book but it's supposed to cost you your life he says why did I save you he said I'm about to act for my holy name here we see this great contradiction between God and man when you look at Israel the people he's going to save all they've done is profaned him among the nation's so there's no good thing in them but he says I will act to demonstrate Who I am to show forth my glory now he goes on I will vindicate the holiness of my great name which has been profaned among the nations which you have profaned in their myths then the nations will know that I am the Lord declares the Lord God when I prove myself holy among you in their sight now I want you to look at something here that's very very important this is teaching us this when God truly does a work of redemption even the unbelieving nations even though they may hate it may misunderstand it and may fight against it when God does a true work of redemption among a person or a people everyone will know that something has happened everyone will know it's not that if everyone sees us acting like Jesus they're going to come to Jesus know if everyone sees us acting like Jesus they'll crucify us it's not that if every God does a great work all the nations are going to come to him and love him no they will maybe kick against him and hate him even more but they will know he is the Lord God that he is the one now I want us to look at this for a moment I want us to think about this most the great majority of all our conversions today never end up growing in sanctification now that is not a lot even Billy Graham said if 5% of all the people in my campaigns were even saved I'd be happy the problem is why isn't he telling that to the people he's preaching to them all these evangelists whether they're Baptist or whatever kind of evangelist they go when they preach and a hundred people get saved in a small town the only problem is none of them come to church on Sunday but the Evangelist goes right down to the next church and says one hundred people got saved less week is it not true that the name of God is blasphemed among the unbelieving world because of our converts it is true everybody's been converted everybody saved nobody's changed why because of us the problem in this country is not Hillary Clinton it's not the Democratic party it's not the Republican party it's the evangelical conservative preachers that are the problem in this country it's the leaders in Christianity that are the problem in this country and we've got to understand this things of history do not ride upon the governments of puny men they ride upon the preaching of the gospel anybody like I said so many times were like the ugly girl at the county dance who stands there at the wall anybody looks at us any politicians mentions God we run to them and dance anyone who walks an aisle we declare them born-again do we really have such a puny view of the gospel are we really so ignorant or are we so cowardly that we call ourselves reformed but if we walked into the ER if I walked into your church I wouldn't notice any difference between your church and one that supposedly preaches the gospel it's not good enough to be rough armed in a closet do you preach the gospel of Jesus Christ how much is your preaching cost you should cost you dearly I know one brother that's headed to Africa one time he heard me preaching and he said brother this is true it'll cost me my life I'll get killed in my church I said then die in your church what about my family what about your God what about your God you see when people truly get converted if any man be in Christ he's a new creature here these silly apologists running around her one of them a while back saying this it is we've got to do something all our children when they go off to college are denying the faith we've got to bring our Christian youth back if they're denying the faith or not Christian youth oh we got to do something 75% of the young people in our churches today do not believe the resurrection of Jesus Christ is important it's because they're not regenerated they're lost they're going to hell they prayed a prayer with you and that is it and since you understand so little about the workings of God you think it is good you cry out peace peace when there is no peace these are the things we have to deal with when a man is converted don't you understand as I said last night creation of the world ex nihilo out of nothing wonderful demonstration of the power of God but is a greater demonstration when God takes a corrupt mass of humanity and changes it you see salvation is more than a human decision because the human decision if it is a true decision of repentance and faith that is based upon a supernatural work of God now what happens when a man gets saved well for one thing look at this in verse 23 declares the Lord God when I prove myself holy among you in their sight when a man truly gets saved it vindicates God when a person is truly a convert when they truly saved their life indicates God people can look at that life and they might not understand it and they may fight against it but they know something has happened God has done something as I said last night people walk down an aisle say I just got saved or they'll talk to a counselor whose had been given a little pamphlet of how to walk them through a few little spiritual laws and after five minutes that counselor declares them saved gives them to the preacher and the preacher stands there and says to everybody Billy Bob got saved tonight and everybody is rejoicing what are you doing you're not allowed to do that who gave you such Popish authority to look at a man not even talk to him and declare him born again I want to talk to him five minutes and declare him born again who do you think you are the correct thing to do is say this man has made a profession of faith and we rejoice in that but because we love him and we care for the honor of God we will be meeting with him counseling with him talking with him until we are assured and he is asserted with a biblical assurance that not only he knows God but God knows him and a profession of faith my dear friend according to the Baptist faith and according to scripture is not when someone walks down an aisle a profession of faith is when they make that profession in the baptismal waters that is their great declaration that I unites myself with Christ and his body so what's going to happen when someone really gets a God's going to be vindicated people are going to look at our converts and say man what happened to this guy it's unexplainable like the old Russian proverb the Communists used to say this about believers that were converted in Russia when someone contacts the disease called Jesus for this one there is no cure you can kill him you can stomp him you can freeze him you can do whatever you want but there is no cure so what will happen when someone gets saved verse 24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the lands separation separation I look what he says will take you from the nations now before we get into that maybe I need to address the personal pronoun here today in America it seems like this one old woman said isn't it amazing Jesus is the only Lord who can't make anybody do anything he wants here we have something that's quite amazing quite different from this impotent god of evangelical pulpits today well God wants to do so much in your life that he just can't God wants you to go to heaven but he can't make you one man stood up right in the middle of a congregation after that was said he goes well if he can't make me go to heaven he can't make me go to hell look at this look look what God says he's going to do look what he said verse 24 in the work of salvation I will take you from the nation's I will gather you from all the lands I will bring you into your own land I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols I will give you a new heart I will put a new spirit within you I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh I will give you a heart of flesh I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to to observe my ordinances this is a work of God don't you see salvation is all about the demonstration of God's glory it is not primarily about man even though man is the Magnificent beneficiary he's the one who receives the great recipient of grace and creation is all for the better because God does everything for his own glory but make no mistake salvation is to demonstrate the name of God and why he says he who began a good work will perfect it and why is that because his reputation is riding upon the work it's all of him and he's demonstrating how great he is that is why he will not fail that is why if he truly justifies a person he will sanctify the person do you realize that many many today maybe even some of you have bought into the idea that God can justify but God can't sanctify unless we cooperate you say well what are you going to say brother Paul God makes them get sanctified know what I'm telling you you don't understand regeneration the only way God can justifies by faith the only way a man can have faith is if God has regenerated him if God has regenerated him he's made a new made him a new creature who wants to follow God who wants to grow in sanctification now he goes on he says I will take you from the nation's a work of separation don't you really isn't it amazing for years as a as a young Christian before I begin to understand the Scriptures I would just be enthralled and I would ask pastors and they would say yes it's a great mystery I would look at the church and wonder why some drunken bum criminal would come off the street walk into the church no one had invited him he gets saved he comes the church you can offend him no one wants to be with him he smells bad people in the church don't even like him and you can't make him leave he just wants to serve Christ he loves everybody but then you have all these other people in the church and there's absolutely no work and you wonder what did he do that they didn't do but it's not what did he do that they didn't do it's what did God do to him that he didn't do to them you see why is it that some people in the church are concerned for holiness and other people could care less why is it that some of the students and your student groups are so concerned about ol eNOS and others could care less why is it that some can live and ramp it sin and not have a second thought or a word from God about discipline while others fear God because one group got saved and the other didn't your problem is you think just because they went through that little evangelical hoop jump of yours that they're all saved they're not the evidence of conversion is the continuing work of God he says I will separate them God will begin to work in the life of every believer yes he will work at different speeds he will work at different degrees he will work in different ways yes grow some grow faster than others some it seems to be two steps forward two steps forward four steps forward two steps back nine steps forward and they just seemed to grow others it seems to be three steps forward two steps back four steps forward one step back and they struggle and struggle and struggle but they grow it is absolutely absurd to think there is life without growth they grow God begins to call them out of the world they begin to see things they've never seen before they begin to hate the world more and more and more and they begin to marvel in the things of Christ more and more and more as preachers of the gospel why can't we see this it is true it is true and it will always happen not sometimes it isn't just that some people get lucky or some people are more moral or some people get saved farther ahead in life oh it's a work of God if any man be in Christ he's a new creature not if some men if any man be in Christ if any man he will separate them he will separate them let me ask you a question is the work God's work of separation a reality in your life because that you can be as reformed as the most reformed guy in the world well let me ask you a question it's not enough to say yes I agree with that theological truth the question is this is it a reality in your life the things that God hates are you growing in your hatred towards those things the things that God loves are you growing in your love towards those things and it's a special reminder for those of us who've been in the ministry for 20-some years because we almost stall and think we would no need of growth he separates us but realize this he doesn't just separate us from the world there are a lot of people who have separated themselves from the world and separated themselves even from evil and yet they will split hell wide open because separation is not in itself separating from the world but separating from the world in order to separate unto God you is a growing passion for God a reality in your life a growing deepening passion now I'm not saying that we don't struggle we all struggle I'm not saying that our hearts do not grow dull they all grow dull but over the years is there a growing deepening passion for him then he says this says then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols you see there's something of a Hebrew parallelism going on here it's very important to understand this when the Jews want to emphasize something or explain it they will repeat themselves they will repeat themselves in a somewhat different fashion the second phrase will be somewhat different than the first and it clarifies the first phrase and defines it more clearly I will sprinkle clean water on you does not just mean I will justify you positionally before me I will justify you positionally before me and then it's up to you whether you want to live like a demon or live like a saint that's not what he's saying what does he mean that he will sprinkle clean water on them it does base itself upon justification but it goes further you will be clean I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols if someone were to ask me brother Paul would you please summize your Christian walk over the last 25 years it would be this verse I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols not that all my filthiness and all my idols are gone in the reality of my everyday life not that I've made greater success of progress than other men but there is such a reality of God doing a work to cleanse my filthiness and to destroy the idols in my life over the years one of the most precious things to me most precious has been God's discipline is God's disciplining hand a reality in your life does he discipline you to cleanse you when you were a brand-new Christian and filled with it filled with the zeal of God so filled with the zeal of God that if someone turned on the television set and it was kind of a off colored or gray thing on the program there you wouldn't dare look at it but now after 25 years you can sit down and enjoy the program right after a prayer meeting or does God come upon you and discipline you does he guard you zealously does he let you know you are mine discipline takes many forms can be the convicting work of the Holy Spirit when you step out of line it can be the admonition the rebuke of a brother or sister in Christ it can be God in His Providence working through circumstances in your life to do things it can be him using all manner of things from all the Devils in Hell to the things that we most do not desire on this earth I'm preaching next week at my home church and then thinking about what to preach on and I'm going to preach on Genesis chapter 3 and take it from a little bit different angle that yes there are judgments there against Adam and Eve in the world judgments great ones against the devil himself but it is one of the greatest passages I'm convinced of mercy of mercy man looked at the devil instead of looking at God and so God says I'll destroy this devil before you I'll have him eating dust before you and you'll never look at him again man heard the voice of his wife more than he heard the voice of God she even says I'll put something between to you to all of creation can be a thing that will mesmerize us and carry us off from the eternal so God says I'll make thorns grow God says I will do everything to hem you in so that you'll look at the only bright spot in reality and that is genesis 3:15 and my son my son every time don't you see that a woman cries out in pain in childbirth it is God screaming to us in Mercy you are fallen you are fallen you are fall and look to my son every time an unbelieving man works and works and finds no satisfaction it's the mercy of God screaming out you are falling you are fallen and every time a Christian with a dull heart gets carried away by the things of the world and it turns into vomit and rot in his stomach God is screaming out in love you are falling but you have been redeemed that you belong to me and no I will not share you with another to see zealously watch over you this absolute blasphemous ludicrous idiotic idea that a Christian can be a Christian and live in a continuous state of carnality is absolutely pathetic sir if you had a child and for 15 years you applied no correction no discipline and let that child run wild the Scriptures testify against you you do not love your child yet for most preachers that's exactly what they accused god of he's got all these children out there and he lets them run wild all the days of their life with no discipline with no care with no correction what a name we give to this God some people say when you talk like this you're talking legalism and works do you not understand even the rudiment factors of the gospel you see one of the greatest problems with that gang out there that say grace is all about God saves you you believe in him you pray that little prayer you live like the devil your entire life but you're saved because salvation of grace is of grace that is not what Scripture teaches scripture teaches that salvation is totally and completely a work of grace so that if you repent and believe you do so by the power of God but the same God who justifies you regenerate you and regenerating you he makes you a new creature who doesn't want to do these evil things anymore that's where they miss it I go to a man let's say he's not been a church for five or six years I arrive in a town where I've taken up residence to be the new preacher they say well he hadn't been in church in five or six years he's over there and some trailer and I go visit him he sees me coming he's very polite very humble man he opens the door come on in preacher serves me tea sits down with me I start talking to him about righteousness and he says you're a ripe preacher I need I need to just get back in church you're right preacher I just need to do the right thing I just need to buckle up and do the right thing preacher you're right I need to stop going to those taverns I need to stop chasing women I just need to get back in church and get back in the Bible and you're right preacher you know what I'm looking at I'm looking at a lost man so what I'm looking at you know why because this is what he's telling me you're right preacher I need to stop doing all the evil things I love and start doing all the righteous things I hate in order to be saved that is not Christianity Christianity is becoming a new creature that's where they miss it the lost doctrine of the age is the doctrine of regeneration he says I was sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean not amazing I was a farm boy in Illinois farm boys you can always tell them I don't know about Kansas but Illinois because everywhere there's a crease in their body they've got dirt I'd be out playing I have dirt right here in the crease of my neck right here my elbows back on my knees my ears everything dirt and I would come in and my mother would say boy take shower or back then take a bath and I remember one day about nine years old when I was pretty much feeling like a man I'd already killed a squirrel with my 20 gauge shotgun I was moving up in the world she said boy get in there and take a bath I said no my mom looked at me and I knew what the opening of the doors of hell looked like when she looked at me she said take a bath I said yes mom isn't that amazing my mom has more sovereign power than your God she said take a bath I went in there and you know how it is moms I dripped a little bit of water on me and then took a white towel and tried to rub it all off and my mom walked in there my mom could hold hey and work cattle better than any man her hands were like the worst sandpaper you've ever felt in your life my mom grabbed ahold of me she scrubbed me so hard that when I came out of there the Shekinah glory of God was coming forth from my body she said you will take a bath you are my child you will take a bath but then you know of course Freud had enter into the picture and Rogers and Skinner psychology politically correct god man at the center of all things humanist manifesto all sorts of things so now we've got a God who really wants you to take a bath he really does but if you don't want to he just can't make you isn't amazing he commands us to do things to our children that he himself cannot do what a God he says I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean my dear friend we have such we're so earthly minded your best life now friend man just did a book cover for me and they put it out on the thing it's got picture of me standing just like Joel Osteen I didn't know they did this I don't know where they got the picture but they got it and it's got your worst life down paul Washer shares with you all about your lack of human potential and your total depravity and underneath it says New York's worst seller list New York Times worst seller live your best life now I will not lose sleep tonight worried about your best life now I will not pray tonight for tomorrow worried about their best life now or whether they have self-esteem or their checkbook is balanced or they've got 40 days or 90 days or a hundred days of purpose in their life I will lose sleep because one day every one of you will stand before God naked and be judged and some of you will be cast into hell preachers you're not professionals you're not businessmen you're not little boys running around serving the community your profits are your nothing to bring a word from God these are people dying the wrath of God lays waste your community even as we speak how many people will be swept away even today by the wrath of God through death in hell and you're worried about whether or not someone feels good about themselves God basically takes a man and if that man belongs to him he will break that man into an absolute million pieces if necessary to get him ready for eternity there's a little song that I sing to all my children when they won't go to sleep it's no Keith Green song oh my lord I am weak and I'm trembling for the Lord I'm always remembering for what a strong Shepherd looking at my child Hosey holds you in his arms he will break you and make you his own if you belong to him he'll shatter you in a million pieces and reconstruct you he will not share you with the world he will not allow you to get any fun out of the Vanity Fair and listen to me preachers just listen to me for a second something that you need to know people will always tell you you need to take a break you need to take a break well sometimes you need to take a break but you don't need to take a break from Jesus oh you know you're working hard in the ministry you just need to get away for a while yes you may need to get away from awhile sit on a lake for a few days or something but not to get away from Jesus it's like the Evangelist that what guy was telling me shows up and the pastors and everything of this large church they meet him at the church and I have nothing wrong with golf I've never played it but they already the Evangelist like the golf and so they all went out to golf the the meetings were going to begin in two days they went out to golf the Evangelist was a man who really loved the Lord and now while their golf and he starts talking about Jesus and the preacher said look we don't want any shoptalk out here today we came out here to get away when you have to rest from the Word of God in prayer then you know nothing about the Word of God in prayer where are you going to be filled is hunting going to fill you is golf going to fill you is some hobby and a workshop going to fill you even though all those things can be good in their proper categories but is that going to fill you as a matter of fact all those hobbies are vanity and absurd unless they're done unto the glory of God an eternal perspective oh you're so heavenly minded you're no earthly good that is the biggest lie that ever cracked out of hell because it's been the most heavenly minded men on the face of this earth who did the most to begin with the captain of our salvation Jesus Christ he was always beholding the father who was always in communion with him always thinking heavenly thoughts I think a frank Lombok in in the Philippines taught everyone in the Philippines to read just so they could read the Bible his greatest goal in life if you look at tyree you probably not be able to find it but if you can find one you look at his diary this is his one go he had one goal he wanted to spend one waking day without one interrupted thought about Jesus that was the goal of his life and he taught all the Philippines trained God does not care about anything but getting you ready for heaven everything in your life has been orchestrated for one purpose to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ people think even I can't even literally read a lot of Christian books on marriage what well marriage is all about a little bit of heaven on earth no it's not even though marriage can be a glorious thing you know what marriage is about conforming you to the image Christ and God does not search around to find you a mate that's compatible did you know that more than likely is going to search around to find you a mate that's totally incompatible with you why he's going to give you a mate that's strong in all the areas where they must be strong that should not be tempted beyond what you can bear but he's also going to give you a mate who fails in some of the areas where you most do not want them to fail so that you become like Jesus and what does that mean so that you learn to love someone unconditionally who doesn't meet the conditions it's not about big ministries there are some men here and I could call them by name have big ministries and they are going to die and go to hell it is not about health praise god it's not about health or I'd be in hell right now but the thing about it is when he comes in discipline it'll be like on that day of judgment when you truly belong to him he never comes to discipline you punitive ly as a judge he always disciplines you as a loving father on that day when you stand before him it will be both a brother and the father you see moreover I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh this is what happens when every person on the face of the earth gets saved you understand that every individual who has ever been saved this is what has happened to them a heart of stone isn't absolutely completely inanimate object there's no life in a stone and is why we've got all kinds of stones from Mars and yet we still say there's no life on Mars if there was a little bit of life in those rocks we could say there's life on Mars but also we got is rocks stones not a little bit of heart rocks not a little bit of life stones the heart of a man is the heart of a stone can a stone respond to stimuli no kick it prick it pot it punch it do whatever you want the stone just sits there it cannot respond to stimuli it is a stone stone in the Greek means stone if it meant something else they would translate it something else means the same in Hebrew stone and for some of you in Ephesians 2 dead means dead doesn't mean partially dead or mostly dead a dead dead now here's a great problem isn't it if you take scripture seriously see here's the only thing you don't have to read Jonathan Edwards you don't have to wrangle about election you don't even have to mention the c-word you don't have to do any of that the only thing you have to do is one thing his men dead that's the only question you ever have to answer because if he is then everything has to change if he's dead not mostly dead but completely dead then something has to move on man something outside of him not to lift him up where he belongs so that he can finally make a decision because then you're applying still residue of morality and life no he's dead so if he's going to be saved something's got to happen let me give you a here's a dead man and I see him there and being the compassionate soul that I am I come to him and I say sir get up there's a hospital right over this way if you just get up and we'll go over here that put those things on you they'll pop you without electricity you'll come back to life sir come with me what you want to be dead for the rest of your life come with me there's a problem he's dead if he could get up and go to the hospital he wouldn't be dead here's another one Lazarus come forth now here's here's Curtis nap and me standing in front of Lazarus tomb goober and Gaylord goes to Bethany and and where we're sitting there and it's like Lazarus come forth there's a problem it's a real big problem but the same problem occurs when you remove Curtis and I from the picture and you put Jesus in the picture same problems there Lazarus come forth you say well what's the problem brother Paul Jesus commanded I thought won't let you get away with that Jesus commanded a dead man for it for someone to respond to a command they have to hear to hear they have to be alive so before Jesus can give the command Jesus has to give life so that Lazarus can obey the command now I want you to look at the way preaching is seen in degrees today preachers most of them will see will tell you basically that it's something like this let's pretend there's a big curtain here and there's Jesus standing in the back and preachers will say if we could just you know reveal Jesus to the world the world would see him and be saved no the world got their chance to do that and they crucified him you say no brother Paul if we just pull back the curtain and let people see Jesus they'll be safe there's only one problem when your audience is blind you can pull back the curtain all day long but if your audience is blind they're not going to see anything and then some preachers will say you're right brother Paul we have to preach Jesus and make him known but the Holy Spirit has to give sight to the blind and when he gives sight to the blind they will see Jesus and they'll come to him know if you give sight to them they will see the holiness and the righteousness and the sovereignty of Jesus and with that wicked heart of theirs they will hate him more than they've ever hated him Jesus is righteous they're not there is nothing in Jesus that pleases them their heart is radically depraved they love evil and they will not come to him as a matter of fact they'll run from him that's the entire argument of Romans six and seven and eight you press the righteous law of God upon an unconverted man and the only thing he's going to do is fight against it with more strength what do you have to do you have to preach Jesus the Holy Spirit has to give sight the Holy Spirit has to change that wicked radically depraved god-hating heart into a new heart recreated in the image of God and true righteousness and true holiness and when that man rises there from the dead like the bones in Ezekiel he rises from the dead and with that new heart opens his eyes and sees the beauty of Jesus Christ he's irresistible drawn to him what because he has a heart a new one created in the image of God and when it sees the perfect image of God it wants that more than anything in life that is why we are not boys we are not eloquent speakers we are not movers and shakers and we are not cultural strategists we must be prophets every time a man stands up before men he has asked a question by God can these bones live in the man responds God you know and then the man by faith calls upon the wind to come and blow up on these bones and make them live he's a helpless man and he's the most powerful man in the world when he preaches he's helpless because if God does not move that preacher will be like a lamb led to the slaughter and a sheep before its ears and nothing will happen but if God moves there'll be more power manifested in the conversion of one soul than the whirling of Planets salvation is a super natural work of God I will take out your dead stony heart and I will place it with a heart of flesh now this is for Hyper I don't know what to call your hyper or something there are guys who will define word and trace that word all the way hyper literalists maybe they'll they'll define a certain word and then trace it through the entire bottle think about I mean the same every passage that is found that's not true big scope you did this with this passage thinking that well hard flesh was flesh is wicked that's not really exactly he is putting two things in opposition to a hardest stone that cannot respond to divine stem drop I pinched a statute made out of stone it's not going to kick me back her bite but a man of flesh no matter how big he is I grab a hold him under that tender part of his arm twist with all my might he's going to fall and that's what it's saying I will give them a heart that is why I do not like terminology like irresistible grace it's not really I mean unless you're going to spend a lot of time explaining exactly what you mean because it gives people ideas that simply God pulls men to him even though they don't want to come irresistible grace is regeneration God regenerates that heart and makes it like his gives that man a new nature and with that new nature he looks upon a God but for the first time in his life his irresistible beautiful to him now he says I will put my spirit within you now read a lot of books on this from a lot of great men and they said a lot of great things but in all the great things they said I don't think any of us on this side of eternity can comprehend exactly the privilege and the power of such a thing but the Spirit of the Living God that hovered above the waters the Creator the universe would dwell in the heart now just look at this for a minute what kind of God do we have he literally says I'm going to do a supernatural recreating work in your heart and when he says heart he's not talking about your blood pumping muscle he's talking about the very essence of your being your character your nature I am going to totally change your nature not only that I am going to empower that new nature with the Holy Spirit and yet we say that a Christian can live in a continuous state of carnality like a devil so if he makes the choice but that's what you've got to see he's a new creature he makes new choices a Spurgeon's illustration of the pig I can't find a better illustration you have the finest plate of food here that you can find in Kansas and you have you have a bucket of slop and you let loose a pig in the back of the auditorium where is he going to go straight to the bucket of slop why he's a pig that's what pigs do they like slop they eat it he's going to stick his head in there he's going to gobble it down he's going to wiggle his little tail he's not going to have any shame about him at all reckless abandon golfing it down but if in one if you had the power in one millisecond to transform that pig while he's golfing this down to transform him into a man he would throw his head out of that bucket the very things that he was golfing down and delighting in he literally because the Nate sure of a man cannot swallow what the nature of a pig can swallow it would literally whether he wanted it to or not would come out of his body he would literally despise what he delighted in he would throw up and not be able to keep down that which he was eating and when he turned around he would be utterly and totally ashamed I just I just described your conversion and so I don't like that then you're probably not converted because the humble hear it and rejoice and are glad that's your conversion and yes you see the devil is a murderer but he's a murderer through lies he's a murderer from the beginning look how he murdered Adam and he through a lie through a lie the devil can still deceive a believer a believer can fall into temptation and what does he do that believer is tempted to go back to that bucket that man is tempted to go back to that bucket now the whole time he's going back to that bucket something screaming at him that the buckets no good even the smell of it stinks then but he keeps going he can be headstrong and he sticks his head in that bucket he takes one bite he is nauseous he throws it up and he repents and goes right back to where he was because he's no longer a pig see it's not about here's something we need to have literally an entire year where the only thing that can be taught from the pulpit is ontology the doctrine of being because here's your major problem you think that somehow the will can act independently of nature that's why your greatest problems will is a slave to the nature that's why a bad tree cannot produce good fruit you see men do according to their nature when you change a man's nature he becomes a new creature now this is a sermon from Romans six but we've got all the time in the world here so let me just go through this really quick a man is unconverted I want to show you how this works a man is unconverted he's leaving for the office he's got briefcase papers it's pouring down rain outside his wife got up late didn't make him any breakfast he's going out the door unconverted grabs the door handle and his wife coming out with curlers in her hair and fuzzy slippers on in the whole nine yards says honey can you take out the trash and he turns around it was I am sick and tired you see it's raining outside I'm late for work I got stuff to do you get up late tell me to take out the trash right when I've got to get to work I'm sick and tired you take out the stinking trash he runs out the door totally and completely justified gets in his car justified goes to work justified sits at work all day justified a couple weeks go by he's converted genuinely converted now he's a new creature he's got a lot of growing to do he doesn't have to struggle to become something he's not he's a new creature he has to start just being what he is but again that's a whole nother sermon it's weeks later he's a Christian now he's got his briefcase under his arm papers pouring down rain wife still looks like Godzilla with slippers on he's late for work he's making it to the door and she goes honey could you take out the trash and he goes I am sick why are you always doing I can't believe you just I'm late I gotta go to work he doesn't and you say well in that directly contrary to everything you're saying no because the moment he does it it's like his heart was invaded with a nausea just like that man going back to that bucket his his nauseous but he grits his teeth he's not justified he's nauseous he knows he did wrong he can't stand it but he walks out their door he gets in that car he still feels nauseous he knows he did wrong he was wrong he may make it to the office he's probably going to call on the cell phone if he has one he may make it to the office he may have to totally completely turn around the car why he's a new creature he is here still housed in a body of flesh but he has a new nature he is a new creature and that new creature can not swallow that stuff anymore he's new and then the process of sanctification is kicking in where he starts growing in to who he really is in reality you see Christianity is not you trying to be something you're not it's you being what you are a new creature in Christ Jesus recreated and true righteousness and true holiness yes still struggling behind the enemy lines in a fallen world yes you still have a body of flesh hard to define but the reality is there there is a part of us that's not unregenerate but we have a new nature we are new creatures and we can't live in sin anymore the same way a man can't eat pig slop now let's go on he says I put my spirit within you and cause you now cause you some translations make you that's because that's what the word means I will make you do this now how does he do that well first of all you have to understand this not in some tyrannical sovereignty like a Caesar forcing you against your will we've already dealt with this he will make you because he's changed you but listen to me listen to me very carefully even though he has changed you in your struggle again in your struggle in sanctification to grow in grace there are times you will buck your neck there were times you will not understand and there are times when God can directly intervene and make you and if you don't think he can you've bought into a bill of goods that have nothing to do with scripture he does everything he wants he can't violate my will he can do anything he wants your only thing to rely on is that although he can do anything he wants he's good like CS Lewis one of the few things he got right he's not safe but he is good he can make you he can break you he can roll you up in a ball oh man and throw you into a foreign land he can do anything he wants but if you are his child he never does it as a judge he does it his father I make my little boys do things they don't want to do but in the wisdom of a father I know they must I'll put my boys up on I do this to all up all my children when I feel like they're old enough just starting to stand they can understand commands walking talking a little bit I put them up on the the kitchen counter and I'll stand about this far away from I say jump they don't want to I pull them and I say jump make them jump I stand back a little farther jump stand back a little farther jump I make them jump am i trying to teach them to be John Wayne ish or extreme sports guys no am I trying to teach them to be brave no what am i teaching them to trust the word of their father that's the only thing I'm teaching them they have a good father father says jump even though I am afraid I will jump because my father keeps his word and he knows what he's doing it will make you don't you want him to is your sovereignty so special to you to hell with my sovereignty I don't want sovereignty I don't know about this God you know the one I have walked with he takes prisoners but he takes them in love when Paul called himself a prisoner or a slave of jail Jesus Christ or slave of God do you think he was just speaking about these puny Roman chains he was talking about being imprisoned in the sovereignty of God he was a spectacle he was no longer his home he belonged to God if God wants to do anything he wants to do he can do it but the one thing he wants to do is the one thing he will do and it's good and that is conform you to the image of his son he says I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to observe my ordinances you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers so you will be my people and I will be your God look at that he doesn't say oh I want to be somebody's God and if I could just get everybody to cooperate what a wonderful time we'd have he says no I am going to do a work on this fall on earth and I'm gonna do it for my glory and I'm going to give the whole thing to my son this is what I'm going to do I am going to call out a people I will make them my people and that I will be their God that's what he's doing that's what he's doing he's not throwing some hopeless net across the universe hoping it'll land on someone's head now do I have a little bit more time is that okay okay well you better pray that I listen to him I want you to go to Jeremiah we will close this up I want you to see something Jeremiah 31 32 well 31 behold the days are coming declares the Lord when I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel in the house of Judah not like the Covenant and that's the key 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 my covenant which they broke although I was a husband to them declares the Lord now here's what you need to understand when Israel was delivered out of Egypt I want you to understand something do you honestly think all those people were regenerated believers he brought out a physical nation most of them as you can trace it all throughout their pilgrimage I mean they were carrying idols with them when they left Egypt they rebelled all the time and what did he give them he gave them tablets of stone he cries out in the law and said oh that this people would have a heart that they would follow me he is sending us forth to a greater time when the Messiah would come and through his work on the tree and the giving of the spirit that they would have a heart but we look at this he brings out of people and they are rebellious and he gives them an external law and they fight against it and they break it and they commit idolatry and their discipline and there's no life and his name is shamed among the nation's because of them and then most preachers because they don't understand the wonder of the New Testament and of the salvation we have in Christ they go we'll see I mean my church is no different than Israel I mean Israel was full of a bunch of idolaters they never understood they were carnal they were wicked they did all this stuff so why bother Paul are you preaching something I mean look at Israel the problem is you're not Israel he says behold the days are coming when I am going to do something so much greater what is he going to do look what he says verse 33 this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord I will put my law within them and on their heart I will write it I will be their God and they shall be my people what is he doing he's promising a day when his people he would gather for the people and every one of them would be regenerated by the Holy Spirit every one of them would have the law of God written on their heart now when we look back at the nation of Israel what do we see we see a physical nation called out most of them were idolaters but in that physical nation of Israel there was a remnant wasn't there a remnant of people who how do these people catch the clue you know what were they just smarter than everybody know in that remnant of the nation of Israel there was a people regenerated by the Spirit of God David Abraham on and on Simeon and Anna a whole throughout the history we see this godly remnant so we take that and say oh the church is supposed to be the same way by and large everybody in the church ought to be carnal wicked and idolaters but there ought to be a remnant in the Church of people who really follow him no that's the whole point of the New Covenant he says but I am going to bring about a work that is so great it make your ears tingle he says this is the Covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord I will put my law within them and on their hearts I will write it and I will be their God and they shall be my people now listen to me I hear these preachers and they stand up and they say this they'll print in their prophetic I appreciate their desire for godliness and holiness and to preach all these things but they are in danger and they are wrong they'll stand up and say well first of all you'll have the kind of the church growth group that really don't care about holiness and this is what they'll say well you know there's just as much immorality in the church as out of the church just as much divorce in the church is out of the church just as much pornography in the church is out of the church so on and so forth well it's grace then you have the guys who recognize that is wrong and they'll say using language of the Old Testament they'll look at God's people and say the Church of Jesus Christ acts like a prostitute is acting like a she's out there whoring herself with other gods and other loves and she needs the repent both of them are wrong both of them are wrong they don't understand the nature of the church and the nature of the church is this when someone says there's just as much idolatry and greed and divorce and hatred and racism and pornography and all these other things in the church is out of the church they are lying the Church of Jesus Christ in America is absolutely beautiful she is she sins but she's broken and she's following her master and she cares about him and she offers up true worship and if that is not true every covenant promised in the Old Testament has failed the problem is these people don't understand what the church is they're thinking that everybody living in that brick building is part of the church the Southern Baptist and all the other Baptists don't have a lot of churches in America they have a lot of really nice brick buildings with finely manicured lawns but they're not churches the church according to Scripture and according to real Baptist theology is always totally and completely a regenerate group there's not as much of all this horrendous stuff in the churches outside of the church the problem is you don't know what the church is you think everyone is passed through those evangelical hoops and prayed that prayer is in the church you think everyone that's a member of the church is in the church we're going through the same thing that how Harris George Whitfield and Daniel Rowland's went through everyone believed they were Christians because they've been baptized as infants because they were part of the state church because they had done some little thing and they born-again ISM being born-again was reduced down to nothing but some Creed the Baptist have done the same thing in America we have taken the glorious gospel in the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit we've reduced it down if you pray this prayer you're safe so the great majority of the people call themselves Christian and part of the church are lost and the nation's look at us and they laugh now that's the truth but the church and I warned these prophets that are always saying bad things about the church listen buddy if you called my wife a I'll try to be Christian I'll try to kill you quickly you're not going to cut call the bride of Jesus Christ a but also point to all these carnal wicked people and say they're a part of his bride both are in danger of the judgment of God should we love people well let's define that term I love them so much that I'm not going to do what Jesus told me to do I love them so much I'm not going to say the things Jesus told me to say now that's making a contradiction and also an accusation against Christ either he is not all wise and he told me to do stuff that is wrong or he is immoral we're not doing anybody a benefit by creating a six flags over Jesus in a church filling it full of entertainment and programs so that he'll keep attracting people who have no spiritual life whatsoever but he says this is what's going to happen he says they will not teach again each man his neighbor and each man his brother saying know the Lord for they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them declares the Lord well I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more it look what it says you know in Israel there were all these people had just absolute abject ignorance of God and every once in a while you'd have a godly priest or a godly scribe or a godly man or a godly leader but everyone was oblivious to the knowledge of God doing horrendous things but he says I'm going to create a people and they will not teach again each man his neighbor and each man his brother saying know the Lord for they will all know me the least of them to the greatest of them then when God regenerates a heart he writes his law this is not poetry folks this is reality this is what he says he's going to do I'm gonna write my law on their heart and they're gonna know me so that when even a brand new believer here's some heretical preacher he can't really argue against him he doesn't really know what's right but he knows what that guy is saying is wrong and he runs from it don't you see how supernatural salvation is and we must look for this in the life of our own life in the life of others now I'm going to end I want to go really quickly to 32 and I want to point out something 32 verse 38 chapter 32 verse 38 they shall be my people and I will be their God and I will give them one heart now I want you to think about this many times folks now listen to this this will help you many times we take spiritual realities as though they were conditional promises and that's wrong this is a new covenant promise and this is what he says I will give them one heart now what does this mean do you know they have all these Jesus parades at times all over different places and everybody from all the denominations come together and sing Kumbaya and all these other things and they say we are one and then everyone all the the seems like the evangelical leaders on television everything else yes it's so horrible the body of Christ is not one the body of Christ is so divided and all that is wrong if what they're saying is right then the New Covenant promise failed and Jesus prayed a prayer that his father did not answer he prayed that they would be one they are one what do I mean by that first of all you've got to recognize that the great majority of people call themselves Christian are not Christian second of all you've got to realize this that there are converted people not just among us but around all over the world and yes we may not agree on absolutely everything but is it not true especially some of you have been across on mission fields or you've traveled a lot I can literally now see if you identify with this there have been so many times I have sat down on a plane with some person from some other denomination sat down on a plane and begin to talk to them and within about two or three minutes were sharing our testimonies were eleven one another this guy is like my brother like I've known him all my life I'd die for him that quick and yet I've sat down beside some big Southern Baptist preachers and had nothing in common with him because you if you start talking about church growth they get all excited if you go to Colossians and start talking about the glory of God in the face of Christ they're looking over your shoulder for someone more important to talk to I want to tell you we are one these promises are true the gospel is powerful and I'm sick and tired of people don't read their Bibles not realizing these things God has done a work and he's done it through his son and it is not failing it has not failed we are one and every promise he ever gave is amen and him a giving example one time during the war in Peru at the Sendero Luminoso it was horrible and there was this one church up in a place called a humble leak in departamento Amazonas and it was right in a red zone the Communists controlled everything Christians were dying and they made a call they asked me and another brother Paco Laos if we would come up we promised them they would we would but then we were warned if you go up there you're going to die it's too dangerous I'm sitting on side of the road there on the coast and I told Paco Paco I don't know what to do I'm going to get married in two months I really don't want to die right now and but we got to what are we going to do because if we don't go those believers are going to just be tore apart and so I said Paco I don't know what else to do except I'm going to pull out a coin and I'm going to flip it three times in the air if it lands on heads all three times I'm casting a lot we're going so I flipped it up in the air boy I sound spiritual hell man flipped it up in the air three times it landed on heads three times I said we're going we jumped in the back of a grain truck they covered us up with a tarp and we rode 24-hours underneath that black tarp on the end of the Amazon Sun at about midnight of the next day we'll reach the place called our cetera Darrow was pitch dark midnight we jumped out of the truck and kind of run just a little bit into the jungle behind this old building and we slept there at night and then we took off during the day to make it up this mountain now proving can make it up that mountain about four hours me takes him out 14 and so we're making up there we got caught in the dark dark very very dangerous they're thieves they're the terrorists everything and we're lost and so we're sitting there we're praying and all of a sudden we hear a little bell and hear this little boy talking he was with a boudreaux and he was coming back from a field he was talking to his little borderland and we decided well let's following so we got up to him he was very afraid and we told him look you know we're we're not thieves or anything we're not terrorists just we followed him to his village we stood on the edge of the village and we thought okay if the terrorists on this village and we walk in were dead but we can't stay out here either and so I kind of scrunched down with my hat and my poncho and Paco's about this tall he didn't have to scrunch down and we walked in and Paco said to a man we saw standing there in the dark kind of a little bit drunk the guy and said I hermanos por aqui are their brothers here and the guy set out a few cuss words and pointed over to an old house made out of adobe cut into the side of a kind of a cliff la Vieja the old woman and so we knock on door the old Nazarene woman and I knock on the door no one answers knock on the door finally latch begins to move opens the door little Indian woman about this tall with a lantern going like that scared to death wondering if it's the terrorists what's going to happen and I said so if I start have on helico necesito ayuda I'm an evangelical pastor I need help she grabs me pulls me in takes me down this little cut in the dirt steps puts me down in the hay with Paco she tells this little boy make the whole day yummy los hermanos go right now call the other brothers pretty soon they start arriving one with a chicken one with an egg one with some yuca if they were all caught in that house he'd be dead we are one when they're really converted we are one you see what we've done because of our lack of knowledge God is not glorified in this wondrous powerful infallible thing he's doing because we're so busy reading cultural statistics and trying to be church growth experts so reading our Bibles we are one so I'll give them one heart in one way and look what says that they may fear me always for their own good and for the good of their children after them it does not mean my children are safe but I'll tell you what it means about my children it means this my children have the privilege of being raised in a home that honors Jesus Christ and goodness falls down on their heads because of their father's relationship with God now now we're finished here and this is the most beautiful passage one of them in the world and I'm going to show you how we distort it now just read the first part with me I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good stop now that's what we as Baptists say all the time security of the believer God's made an everlasting covenant with us he'll not turn away from us to do us good we can go live like the devil right now no problem whatsoever it's all the grace secure the believer once saved always saved whoopee that's the problem with us we always read just part and not all this is one of the most beautiful passages in the whole Bible I will make everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good and to those with whom he makes an everlasting covenant he says this I will put the fear of me in their hearts regeneration so that they will not turn away from me so you see it is the eternal security of the believer but it is not this damnable doctrine that we have today of your saved because you prayed a prayer now live like the devil because the evidence that God has truly made an everlasting covenant with you is that he's also put his fear in your heart so that you will not turn away from him had a boy in Romania like about a year ago he came to me he said I've spoken to every preacher in the country about I don't know if I'm saved I don't know if I'm lost I'm so confused and you could just see the boy just living in just terror and so I took him through the whole book of first John that's what it's there for took him through the book of first John and afterwards he said pastor I just I know what it says I said son you need to seek God he said I know I need to see could just talk to me for a while I'm just I said okay I tried something Luther did one time I said son you know any good discotheques cuz they're still in style in Europe you know any good discotheques he said what do you mean by good I mean wicked discotheques he goes yeah I do a lot of girls yeah a lot drinking yeah immorality prostitution while dancing yes brother Paul I know go there what go there why go there and sin with all your might jump in the middle of them have the best time you've ever had in your life go sin as you have never seen before brother Paul why are you telling me this go I don't want to talk to you anymore just go to the discotheque and sin with all your mind but I can't go why can't you go well I fear the Lord and I said now I 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 heart so that they will not turn away from me and the boys just wrote down Chronicles oh um oh um I'm saved I could never his fit and just like light start coming on everywhere you see this stuff but listen to me when you don't understand when when it was the night of the Lord's Supper and Jesus had all those Jews sitting around him and he said this is the cup the New Covenant I could just see them one of them all of them their mouths just dropped open and one of them probably said said to the other did did we did did I just hear what I think I heard do you mean the thing that our people that was prophesied by Jeremiah hundreds of years ago is on the verge of happening at this very moment the work of a messiah the creation of a new people something so extraordinary that we'd have to be told that a million times to even begin to believe it it's about to happen I'm so sick and tired of all these people and they're saying oh I just wish I lived back in the Old Testament where God really did something the end of the ages has come to us the fullness of God and Christ has come to us but we must avail ourselves of these things turn away from all this putrid vanity seek Him seek him until he lets himself be found by you let's pray father you know Oh Lord you know the greatest comfort in my life I've drawn from that prayer you know amen you you

Channel: I'll Be Honest

Views: 104,842

Keywords: paul, washer, regeneration, gospel, salvation, ezekiel, heart, born, again, conversion, true

Id: kvwrk8a9CnM

Length: 96min 31sec (5791 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 27 2009