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SHOCKING YOUTH MESSAGE STUNS HEARERS - SO SHOCKING AND BIBLICAL
THE PREACHER WAS NEVER INVITED BACK
Transcript of Paul Washer preaching
Matthew 7:13-27
(I used Paul's transcript to deliver a sermon to a congregation in Kisii, Kenya using skype-out , Pastor Enock's cellphone and his loudspeaker system to deliver sound to the congregation as I do every sabbath).
Today’s lesson is a sermon that was given by a man
named Paul Washer of www.heartcrymissionaries.com
to a group of about 5000 youth in hopes of waking them up to what Mathew 7:13-27
has to say. I’m sure this message has meaning for the youth in Kenya and
Africa as well. The message was so shocking and pointed that he was never
invited back. Truth hurts. Maybe
you will do the same to me. He has been criticized for preaching works instead
of grace, but the Bible tells us that if we are saved by grace, our works will
truly show such. James 2:17 reminds us that "In the same way, faith by
itself, if not accompanied by action; is dead.
Last week we talked about how the wedding feast of Mathew 22 shows man has three
destinies; firstly, to be considered Christ’s bride, the saints, the holy, and
go to heaven at the second coming and not have to go through the judgment. This
invitation extends to Jew and Gentile alike. Secondly, to be just a wedding
guest, saved to escape the fires of hell but still have to stand before God at
judgment at the end of the millennium. Or thirdly, to be one
who came without a wedding garment and be cast out into the streets; the
unrighteous, the filthy, those people that thought they could get to heaven on
their own without Jesus as Savior, those whose spirits journey to hell at death.
We can't get to heaven on our own folks. We have all, at one time or
another in our lives, broken all ten of God’s commandments. We need the parachute
of Jesus. Do you want to settle for just being a guest and not going to hell?
Or do you want to enjoy the privileges and splendor of Heaven as a saint, a Holy
one? Bottomline is, you choose your own destiny by what you believe and
how you live your life now on earth before you die. There is no changing
travel plans once you die. Paul
Washer’s message here is mainly addressed to the bride, those seeking to enter
the kingdom of heaven at the second coming. Listen carefully, the narrow path is
narrow for a reason and it is not an easy path to follow. It will take effort on
your part. Grace is not a free ride.
Let us pray.
Father, I am so small and so
pitiful, in so many ways. In Your
sovereignty, I pray and I beg before the throne of God that You would be
gracious to us, that You would open up hearts and minds. Open up their hearts and minds and cause them to see Biblical
truth. Breathe on them.
Grant them repentance. Grant them faith.
Bring them into Your Kingdom, Lord, for Your own glory, for the sake of
Your own great name, do this, Lord. As
the brother said, let it be so, Lord, so that no man will take credit for it, so
that no man will lay his hand to the ark of God and, if he did, that You would
strike him down dead, Lord. Oh,
God, move among us, please, because we have no other hope except in you Lord. We
pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Here is the text of what Paul
Washer had to say.
I’ll preach as a dying man to
dying men and women and youth. I’ll
preach as though I will never preach again, and I will tell you things that you
will misunderstand. I will tell you
things that will make you angry with me, and I’ll tell you things that you
will deny. And I will tell you
things and you will say I have no right to tell you what I’m telling you.
But before you come to any conclusion about what is being said here
today, ask yourself one question.
You see, preaching is a very
dangerous thing. It’s dangerous
for me because the Bible says that false teachers will undergo greater
condemnation. If what I tell you
today is not true, I’m in a great deal of trouble and have every right to do
this with fear and trembling, because I will stand condemned before God.
But if what I tell you today is true, then you’re the one with cause
for fear and trembling, because if I correctly interpret this passage of
Scripture that I’m going to give you, it is as though God was speaking through
a man. Your problem will not be
with me; it will be with God and His Word.
So, the only question that has to be decided here is––Is this man
before us a false prophet? Or is he telling us the truth?
And if he is telling us the truth, then nothing else matters except
conforming our lives to that truth.
I’ll be
teaching from Matthew chapter 7. If
you have your Bibles, follow with me. In
Matthew chapter 7, verse 13, Jesus said:
Enter through the narrow gate for
the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are
many who enter through it. For the
gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who
find it. Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep’s
clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
You will know them by their fruits.
Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles,
are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but every bad tree bears bad
fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good
fruit. Every tree that does not
bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.
Not everyone who says to me, Lord,
Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my
Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord,
did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your
name perform many miracles. Then I
will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart
from me, you who practice lawlessness. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts
upon them may be compared to a wise man who builds his house on the rock.
And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed
against that house and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the
rock.
Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who builds his house on the sand. The rain fell and the floods came and winds blew and slammed against the house and it fell, and great was its fall.
I stand here today . . . I’m not
troubled in my heart about your self-esteem.
I’m not troubled in my heart about whether or not you feel good about
yourself, whether or not life is turning out like you want it to turn out, or
whether or not your checkbook is balanced.
There’s only one thing that gives me sleepless nights.
There’s only one thing that troubled me all throughout the morning, and
it is this. Within a hundred years,
a great majority of people here will possibly be in hell.
And many who even profess Jesus Christ as Lord will spend an eternity in
hell.
You
say, how can you say such a thing? I
can say such a thing because I don’t do my Christian work in America.
I spend most of my time preaching in South America, in Africa, and
Eastern Europe. And I want you to
know, that when you take a look at American Christianity, it is based more upon
a godless culture than it is upon the Word of God.
And so many people are deceived, and so many youth are deceived, and so
many adults are deceived into believing that, because they prayed a prayer one
time in their life, they’re going to Heaven.
And then, when they look around at others who profess to know Christ and
see those people also just as worldly as the world, and they compare themselves
by themselves, nothing troubles their heart.
They think, well, I’m the same as most in my youth group.
I watch things I shouldn’t watch on television and laugh about the very
things that God hates. I wear
clothing that is sensual. I talk
like the world. I walk like the
world. I love the music of the
world. I love so much that’s in
the world, but bless God, I am a Christian.
Why am I a Christian? I
don’t look any different than most of the other people in my church.
Why am I a Christian? Because
there was a time in my life when I prayed and asked Jesus Christ to come into my
heart.
I want you to know that the
greatest heresy in the American evangelical and protestant church is that, if
you pray and ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart, He will definitely come
in. You will not find that in any
place in Scripture. You will not
find that anywhere in Baptist history until about 50 years ago. What you need to know is that salvation is by faith and faith
alone in Jesus Christ. And faith
alone in Jesus Christ is preceded and followed by repentance . . . a turning
away from sin, a hatred for the things that God hates and a love for the things
that God loves, a growing in holiness and a desire not to be like Britney
Spears, not to be like the world, and not to be like the great majority of
American Christians, but to be like Jesus Christ!
For those of you applauding, I don’t know why you’re clapping.
I’m talking about you. I
didn’t come here to get amens. I
didn’t come here to be applauded. I’m
talking about you.
People so many times come up to me
and say, “Oh, I’d love to follow you into Romania”; “I’d love to
follow you into the Ukraine”; “I’d love to preach where you preached and
planted churches in Peru in the jungle.”
And I tell them, “No, you
wouldn’t.”
They say, “Yes, I would.”
I say, “No, you wouldn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because you’d be
excommunicated from the church down there.”
I’m not trying to be hard for the
sake of being hard. Do you realize
how much love it takes to stand before 5,000 people and tell them that American
Christianity is almost totally wrong? Do
you know what it’s going to cost me to never be asked back again to something
like this? To be unpopular?
Do you know why you do it? You
don’t do it because you get paid well. You
don’t do it because men love you. You
do it because you love men and because, more than that, you want to honor God.
I want to tell you something.
We’re going to go into Scripture, and I want you to look at it as it
really is. It’s not comparing
yourself with others who call themselves Christians.
Compare yourself to Scripture. When
someone, a young person, comes to a pastor or a youth minister and says,
“I’m not sure whether or not I’m saved,” the youth minister will usually
throw out a cliché: “Well, was there ever a time in your life when you prayed
and asked Jesus to come into your heart?”
“Well, yes.”
“Were you sincere?”
“Well, I don’t know, but I
think so.”
“Well, you need to tell Satan to
stop bothering you. Did you write
it in the back of your book . . . the back of your Bible like the evangelist
told you when you got saved, write down the date so that any time you doubted
you could point him to the Bible?”
What superstition has overcome our
denomination? Do you know what the
Bible tells Christians to do? Examine
yourself. Test yourself in light of
Scripture to see if you are in the faith. Test
yourself to see if you’re a Christian.
Do you realize if I dismissed us
right now and told everyone to go knock on every door in this city, do you know
what we would find out? Ninety-nine
percent of the people, at least, in this city believe themselves to be
believers. If you go back to your
hometown and knock on every door . . . because I went back to my hometown after
I got saved and knocked on every door, and you know what I found out? Everyone in my town is a Christian. Eighty-five percent of them do not go to church, and those
who do go to church are not concerned about holiness.
They’re not concerned about serving.
They’re not concerned about being separate from the world. They’re
not concerned about the Gospel being preached among the nations.
But, bless God, they’re saved.
Why are they saved?
Because some evangelist who should have spent less time preaching and
more time studying his Bible told them they were saved, and he did it so he
could brag about how many came forward in his next revival.
I love you, and there are men here
who love you. And I want to go into
Scripture now, now that I’ve shocked you into light. I want you to listen to me.
Listen to the Word of God and begin to ask yourself some questions.
First of all, Enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and
the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter
through it. There is a narrow
gate.
And you know, historically––one
of the reasons I’m a Southern Baptist is that the Southern Baptists have
always been quick to realize that there is one gate; there is one God; there is
one mediator between God and man; and His name is Jesus Christ.
It’s not multiple choice. Not every road leads to Rome.
As a denomination, we have always told people what Jesus told people: I
am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except
through me.
So, I praise God for that, that the
only way any human being on this earth will ever be saved is through Jesus
Christ, and that is all. Because
you need to realize the Bible says, For all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God, and you have no idea what that means, that we were born
radically depraved and God hating, that we would have never sought God, never
come to God. We have rebelled
against God, broken every law. It’s
not just an issue that you have sinned. The
issue is you’ve never done anything but sinned.
The Bible says in the prophets that even our greatest works are like
filthy rags before God. And because
of that, you know what we deserve? The
wrath of God. The holy hatred of
God.
You say, “Now, wait a minute.
God doesn’t hate anybody. God
is love.” No, my friend. You
need to understand something. Jesus
Christ taught, the prophets taught, the apostles taught this —that apart from
the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord, the only thing left for you
is the wrath, the fierce anger of God because of your rebellion and your sin.
When I speak in universities,
they’re always quick to point out, “No, God cannot hate because God is
love.” And I tell you God must
hate because God is love. You see,
I love children; therefore, I hate abortion.
If I love that which is holy, I must hate that which is unholy.
God is a holy God. That’s something that the Americans have forgotten.
Many of the things that you love to do, God hates.
Did you know that?
Pray for revival.
You’re going to have a youth meeting; you want God to move, but before
you go there you watch programs on television that God absolutely despises.
And then you wonder why the Holy Spirit hasn’t fallen on a place and
why you have to create false fire and false excitement.
Because God’s not in it. God
is a holy God and the only way you and I could ever be reconciled to a holy God
is through the death of God’s own Son when He hung on that tree.
Now listen to me, if you’re saved
here today, you’re not saved because the Romans and Jews rejected Jesus.
You’re not saved because they put a crown of thorns on His head.
You’re not saved because they ran a spear through His side, and
you’re not saved even because they nailed Him to a cross.
Do you know why you’re saved if you are saved?
Because when Jesus Christ was hanging on that cross, He bore your sin.
The sin of God’s people and all the fierce wrath of God that should
fall upon you fell upon His only begotten Son.
Someone had to pay that price. Someone had to die.
It was God the Father who crushed His only begotten Son.
According to Isaiah 53, it says, It pleased Yahweh to crush Him.
People say the cross is a sign of
how much man is worth. That’s not
true. The cross is a sign of how
depraved we really are, that it took the death of God’s own Son.
The only thing that could save a people like us was the death of God’s
own Son under the wrath of His own Father paying the price, rising again from
the dead. Powerful to say, this is
the Gospel of Jesus.
Now what are you called upon to do?
You say you go through the narrow gate.
How do you do that? Jesus
said, The time is fulfilled. The Kingdom of God is at hand.
What must you do? In Mark,
He tells us . . . repent and
believe in the Gospel.
You say, “Brother Paul, I got
saved by praying and asking Jesus Christ into my heart.”
And I’m sure you did, but you weren’t saved by a magic formula or
some words you repeated after someone else.
You were saved because you repented of your sins and you believed, and
not only did you do that in the past, you continued to do it even until now,
because when Jesus . . . a proper translation of that verse He gave is this:
The Kingdom of God is come. The
time is fulfilled. Now,
spend the rest of your lives repenting of your sins and believing in Me.
Conversion is not like a flu shot. “Oh,
I did that. I repented.
I believed.” The question is my friend––are you continuing to repent
of sin? Are you continuing to
believe? Because He who began a
good work in you will finish it. He
will finish it.
Now, we as Southern Baptists preach
that you’re supposed to go through that one and only gate which is Jesus
Christ. But we as Southern Baptists
have forgotten something. And I
want youth ministers and pastors and everyone to listen to me, parents, we have
forgotten a very important teaching in the Gospel. It says that, not only the gate is narrow, it says the path
is narrow. What we basically do is
lead someone to Christ, lead someone in a prayer and then they spend the rest of
their life living just like the world, and if you deny me on this, I can bring
the statistics to prove you wrong. Gallup
poll, Barnard polls, every kind of poll you can possibly look at, when it
questions the morality of the church in America against the morality of those
who claim to be lost in America, the polls find no difference.
Now that is statistics. It
has nothing to do with religious interpretation.
Those are statistics.
Book after book is being churned
out by theologian and philosopher and sociologist alike.
What has happened to the church? We
find out that abortion in the church is just as prevalent as outside in the
world. We find that divorce is just
as prevalent. We find that immorality . . . you know as well as I do, there
are youth here right now who are practicing immorality and yet worshiping God in
the same breath. You know there are
youth here that are doing drugs and yet coming to youth group.
You know, watching and listening and doing things that are not
appropriate for a Christian, and yet they’re coming to the youth group,
believing themselves satisfied, believing themselves saved, and no one is saying
anything except this: They’re
carnal Christians. They’re really
Christians; they’re just carnal. That
was a doctrine that started in a Baptist seminary, that is not a Southern
Baptist seminary, several decades ago. It
is not biblical and it is not historical. My dear friend, there is no such thing
as a carnal Christian.
You say, “Now, wait a minute, Brother Paul.
First Corinthians chapter 3, Are ye not carnal. Paul said that.”
No, that’s what Paul said.
You need to read the whole book to find out what he meant.
You see, one of our problems, youth, listen to me . . . most of our
Christianity is based on clichés that we read on the back of Christian tee
shirts. Most of our Christianity
comes from songwriters and not the Bible. Most
of what we believe is dictated to us through our culture and not by the Bible.
The Bible never teaches that a person can be a genuine Christian and live in
continuous carnality and wickedness and sin all the days of their life.
But the Bible teaches that the genuine Christian has been given a new
nature. The genuine Christian has a
Father who loves them and disciplines them and watches over them and cares for
them.
My heart is breaking because you
know as well as I do, young people, let’s not be hypocrites about it.
Let’s not hide it. There are so many. You
know them. You might be one of
them, or you at least know that they’re in your youth group. They come to youth group.
They do all this stuff, but in their heart, they’re as wicked as wicked
can be. There is no difference.
There is no light. Everything that the world does, they do, and it’s
appropriate; it’s okay. My
friend, that’s not Christianity. They’re
not in danger of losing their reward. They’re
in danger of hell. They know not
God.
What don’t we teach?
When was the last time you heard someone say there’s not only a narrow
gate into Heaven but a narrow way? Jesus
indicates that one of the principal signs of being a genuine Christian is that
you walk in the narrow way. Do you
know what the sign for being a genuine Christian in America is?
You prayed a prayer one time. Isn’t
that amazing? What are you asked if
you doubt your salvation? Did you
pray a prayer one time? What does
Scripture teach? Examine
yourselves. Test yourselves in the
light of Scripture to see if you’re in the path, because a Christian will be
different.
Now, am I saying that a Christian
is without sin? No, because, in
First John, we learn that Christians do sin, and if any man does not acknowledge
his sin, he knows not God. He’s
not walking in the light? So what
is the difference? What am I really
getting at? What I am getting at is
this. If you are genuinely a
born-again Christian, a child of God, you will walk in the way of righteousness
as a style of life. And if you step
off that path of righteousness, the Father will come for you.
He will discipline you. He
will put you back on that path. But
if you profess to have gone through the narrow gate, but yet you live in the
broad way, just like all the other people in your high school, just like all the
other people who are carnal and wicked, the Bible wants you to know that you
should be terribly, terribly afraid because you know not God.
I fear men who have spent most of
their life telling other men that they are saved. I fear you if you’ve done that.
You don’t tell men they are saved; you tell men how to be saved.
God tells them they are saved. What
we have forgotten to believe is that salvation is a supernatural work of God,
and those who have genuinely been converted, regenerated by the power of the
Holy Spirit is going to be a new creature.
The Bible says, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
So we find out here in Scripture that there is a narrow gate and a narrow
way.
We go into verse 15.
Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but
inwardly are ravenous wolves. You
will know them by their fruits. One
of the things you need to realize is this––something a wise man told me a
long time ago. He said, “Paul, your best friend is the one who tells you
the most truth.” In America, we
have become so thin-skinned that no one can rebuke us.
No one can tell us we are wrong. And
ministers and leaders alike have bought into this lie.
We do not want to offend. We
want to be seeker friendly. What
you need to realize is there is only one seeker and His name is God, and if you
want to be friendly to someone in your church, you need to be friendly to God.
And you need to be more concerned for the glory of God than you are for
the attitudes of men. But another
thing you need to realize is the person who loves you the most will tell you the
most truth.
One of the greatest distinguishing
marks of a false prophet is that he will always tell you what you want to hear.
He will never rain on your parade. He
will get you clapping. He will get
you jumping. He will make you
dizzy. He will keep you
entertained, and he will present a Christianity to you that will make your
church look like a Six Flags over Jesus and keep you so entertained you are
never addressed with great issues such as these.
Is God working in my life? Am I growing in holiness?
Have I truly been born again?
Listen to me. If everyone in this
town believes themselves saved, and we know that’s not true by Scripture
because the Bible says that few will enter in, how do you know that you’re
saved? How do you truly know that you are saved?
Because someone told you? Because
you prayed a prayer? Because you
believed? Well, let me ask you a
question. How do you know you
believed? Because everybody says
they believe. How do you know
you’re not like them? Do you know
how the Bible teaches you that you know you are saved?
Do you know how theology, up until about 50 years ago, would have told
you how you know you have been saved? You know you have been saved because your
life is in the process of being changed, and your style of life is one of
walking in the paths of God’s truth.
And when you step off those paths
in disobedience, as we all do, God comes for you and puts you back on the path.
One of the greatest evidences that you have truly been born again is that
God will not let you talk as your flesh might want to talk.
God will not let you dress as the sensual world and the sensual church
allows you to dress. God will not
allow you to act like the world, smell like the world, speak like the world,
listen to the things that the world listens to. God will make a difference in
your life.
He says here, as we go on, verse
16: You will know them by their
fruits. How will you know a
false prophet? In the wider
application here and all of Scripture, how will you know if someone is a genuine
Christian? By their fruit. By their fruit, my dear friend.
Look at your life. Look at
the way you walk. Look at the way
you talk. Look at the passions of
your heart. Is Jesus in there
somewhere? Or is He just some
accessory that you add on to your life? Is
He just something that you do on Wednesday or Sunday? Is He something that you give a mental assent to?
Is He an accessory or is He the very center of your life?
And what is the fruit that you’re bearing?
Do you look like the world? Act
like the world? Do you have and
experience the same joys that the world experiences?
Can you love sin and relish it? Can
you love rebellion and relish it? Then
you know not God. You will know
them by their fruit. God has the
power to change them.
Let’s imagine for a moment Jesus teaching this passage, and you’re sitting
out there listening. And He looks at you. He
says, “Thistles, thistles. Do you
find thistles on fig trees?”
And you respond, “Of course not,
Jesus. I mean, you’re not an
agriculturalist; you’re not a farmer. I
mean, you’re a carpenter. But
everybody knows, Jesus, you don’t find thorns on fig trees.”
“Well, then, let me ask you
another question. Do you find
figs––good fruit––on thorn trees?”
“Why, no, Jesus.
That’s absolutely ludicrous. I
mean, you’re never gonna find thorns on a fig tree, and you’re not gonna
find figs on a thorn tree, Jesus. To
say that could be possible––anyone who tells you that, Jesus, you can mark
it down . . . they’re either crazy or they’re a liar.”
And then Jesus responds to you.
“Well then, those who call themselves my disciples and bear bad fruit,
would not it be the same to say that they were either lying or out of their mind
to make such a statement?”
Let me take it a little further.
Let’s imagine that I show up late and I run up here on the platform,
and all the leaders are angry with me and say, “Brother Paul, don’t you
appreciate the fact you’re given an opportunity to speak here and you come
late?”
And I’d say, “Brothers, you
have to forgive me.”
“Well, why?”
“Well, I was out here on the
highway, and I was driving and I had a flat tire and I got out to change the
tire, and when I was changing the tire, the lug nut fell off, and I wasn’t
paying attention that I was on the highway and I ran out and I grabbed the lug
nut, and as soon as I picked it up in the middle of the highway, I stood up and
there was a 30-ton logging truck going 120 miles an hour about ten yards in
front of me, and it ran me over and that’s why I’m late.”
Now, there would only be two . . .
I know no one studies logic anymore, but there would only be two logical
conclusions. One, I’m a liar or,
two, I’m a madman. You would say,
“Brother Paul, it’s absolutely absurd.
It is impossible, Brother Paul, to have an encounter with something as
large as a logging truck and not be changed.”
And then my question would be to
you––What is larger? A logging
truck or God? How is it that so
many people today profess to have had an encounter with Jesus Christ, and, yet,
they are not permanently changed? Let
me give you a few things to think about. You
know I’m telling you the truth. How
many times do you go and rededicate your life over and over and over again? How
many times do youth groups go to things like this and get fired up and go back
to the church, and it lasts about a week and a half? And yet, “Oh, it was a great move of God.”
No, it wasn’t. If it doesn’t last, it wasn’t a great move of God.
It was emotion. It was so many things, but it wasn’t a great move of God.
Has God worked in your life? Is
God working in your life? You will know them by their fruit.
You will know them by their fruit.
Now, we go on, verse 19:
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into
the fire so you will know them by their fruit.
Look at this. You need to
understand something about Hebrew literature.
When you and I want to emphasize something,
do you know what we do? We
raise our voice. If we’re
writing, we put it in bold letters, or we capitalize it.
But to a Jew, it’s different. When
he wants to emphasize something, he repeats it and he repeats it.
That’s why you find Hebrew
parallelisms in the Book of Proverbs. The
wicked shall not live in the land. The
wicked shall be destroyed. He’s
saying the same thing, just in a different way to give greater emphasis.
That’s what Jesus is doing over and over again here.
You will know them by their fruit.
You will know them by their fruit. You
will know them by the path that they walk in.
You will know them by their fruit. You
will know them by their fruit. And
He says, Anyone who does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the
fire. What is He talking about? My dear friend, He is
talking about the judgment of Almighty God that will one day fall upon the
world, that will one day fall possibly upon you.
Oh dear friend, I cannot look into your heart.
I am so easily deceived by my own heart, but there is One who is not
deceived. There is One who is not
deceived, and He is not deceived by a contemporary Christian culture.
He knows. You will know
them by their fruit.
And He goes on and He says this,
verse 21: Not everyone who says
to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the
will of my father who is in heaven will enter. Do you know what your profession of faith in Jesus
Christ is worth? Absolutely
nothing. Yes.
Did you read that passage? Study
it. Not everyone who comes to me
and says, Lord, Lord . . . not everyone who professes, Lord, Lord,
will enter into the kingdom of heaven.
There are many people who are going to profess, “Lord, Lord,”
but they are not going to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
My dear precious child, are you one of them?
“Lord, Lord.”
Now, again, let’s go back to
Hebrew literature. He said, Lord,
Lord. He didn’t say, Lord.
What does that mean? This
fellow who is making this profession, he is not someone who just all of a sudden
decided, “It’s judgment and I better profess Him to be Lord.”
This is a person who emphatically declares to other people that Jesus
Christ is Lord. He walks around
saying, “Lord.” He dances up in front while the musicians are playing,
saying, “Lord.” He sings the
songs, “Lord.” But Jesus said
to him, Depart from me. I never
knew you.
Do you know, Billy Graham is one of
the kindest, most loving men; yet, Billy Graham has said he believes that a
great majority of people who attend Bible-believing churches are lost.
He said that he would be happy if even five percent of all the people who
made professions of faith in his campaigns are even saved.
When I’m in Nigeria . . . I was
there last year visiting a mother whose son was in our church and was martyred
by the Muslims. In Northern
Nigeria, when someone professes faith in Jesus Christ, you pretty much know they
can die because of that profession. But
in America, oh, consider the cost. Think.
Examine your life in light of Scripture.
Do you know the Lord? Do you
know the Lord? Because not everyone
who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but what
does it say
here? Look what it says. Not
everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
What is the sign that someone has
become a genuine Christian? I wish
that we would start teaching this again. What
happened to our theology? What
happened to our doctrine? What
happened to our teaching? It went
right out the window. No one wants
to study doctrine anymore. They
just want to listen to songs and read the back of Christian tee shirts.
What happened to truth? Truth
tells you this. The
evidence––the way that you can have assurance that you are genuinely a
born-again Christian––is that you do, as a style of life, the will of the
Father.
You say, “Oh, you’re talking
about works.” No, I’m not.
I’m talking about evidence of faith, and it goes like this.
Your profession of faith is no proof that you’re born again because
everybody in this whole country professes faith in Jesus Christ.
Barnard tells us that 65 to 70 percent of all Americans are saved,
born-again Christians. The most
Godless country on the face of the earth kills
4,000 babies a day but, bless God, 70 percent of us are born again.
How do you know that the faith you have is not false?
A style of life that is concerned about doing the will of the Father,
that practices the will of the Father, and when you disobey the will of the
Father, the Holy Spirit comes and reprimands you either personally through the
written Word of God or through a brother or sister in Christ, and God puts you
back on the path again. If you’re
a genuine Christian, you cannot escape Him.
Let me give you an example.
If I was your pastor and you were, let’s say, 14 years old and I came
back from preaching at one o’clock in the morning and I saw you standing out
there in a park or on a corner with a bunch of hoodlums, doing things you
shouldn’t be doing and you’re a member of our church, I would tell you,
“Get in the car.” I would take
you home to your father. I wouldn’t be mad at you.
I’d be mad at your father. I
would tell him, “Sir, you are a derelict father that you would allow your
child to be out in such circumstances.”
I want you to know something.
God is not a derelict father. If
you can play around in sin, if you can love the world and love the things of the
world, if you can always be involved in the world and doing things of the world,
if your heroes are worldly people, if you want to look like them and act like
them, if you practice the same things they practice, oh my dear friend, listen
to my voice. There’s a good
chance you know not God, and you do not belong to him.
Now, we bring this to a close,
verse 22: Many will say to me on
that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name
cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles.
Then I will declare to them, I never knew you.
You say the most important thing on
the face of the earth is to know Jesus Christ. That is not true. The
most important thing on the face of the earth is that Jesus Christ knows you.
I’m not going to get into the White House tomorrow because I walk up to
the gate and tell everybody I know George Bush, but they will let me in if
George Bush comes out and says, “I know Paul Washer.”
You can profess to know Jesus, but
my question for you is? Does Jesus
know you? And look how he describes
the lost man here. He said, Depart
from me you who practice lawlessness.
Let me give you an accurate translation of this. Depart from me––Listen
to me, if I could come out there and hug you while I was telling you this, I
would. Listen to me. He
says, Depart from me those of you who claim to be my disciples who confessed
me as Lord and, yet, you live as though I never gave you a law to obey.
I just described a great majority
of North American Christianity. If
anyone starts talking about law, if anyone starts talking about Biblical
principles on what we’re supposed to do and not supposed to do, how we’re to
live and not supposed to live, everyone starts screaming, “Legalist.”
But Jesus said, Depart from me those of you who live––you called
me Lord, but you lived as though I had never given a law.
In American Christianity today,
pass through the gate. Praise God.
Live like the rest of the world and it’s okay.
You’re just carnal. Maybe
one day you’ll come back. Do you
know what happens because of our bad evangelism?
We have gazillions of children saved in vacation Bible school, and when
they hit 15 years old, they enter into the world and live like demons, a great
majority of them. And then when
they’re around 30, they come back and rededicate their life. Maybe they just
got saved. Because, folks, it’s
more than just telling someone you’re saved because you acknowledged that
Jesus is Lord. Satan acknowledges
that Jesus is Lord. Is your life in
a process of change?
And then He drops down and He talks
about two people––two foundations, a foundation built on rock and a
foundation built on sand. It’s important to study theology and it’s
important to study history. The
contemporary interpretation of this passage about the rock and the sand is
basically like this. If you’re a
Christian, you need to build your life upon the rock because, if you build your
life upon the sand, you’ll be an unhappy Christian and your life won’t go
right. That is not what Jesus is
teaching and history backs me up on it. It
was hardly ever interpreted that way. Do you know what the interpretation is?
It goes like this.
There are two ways.
There’s a narrow way and a broad way.
Which one are you on? There
are two types of trees. There is a
good tree that bears good fruit, and it’s going to Heaven.
There’s a bad tree and you know it’s bad because it bears bad fruit,
and it’s going to hell. It’s
going to be cut down and thrown into the fire.
There are those who profess Jesus is Lord and they do the will of the
Father who is in heaven, and there are those who profess Jesus Christ is Lord
and they do not do the will of the Father who is in heaven, and they go to
hell––not because of a lack of works, but because of a lack of faith
demonstrated by the fact that they had no works.
And then he goes on. He says, not two Christians building their house on two different foundations. No. This is a saved man and a lost man. The lost man hears the Word of God preached but he lays no foundation. You cannot see in any way in his life how the Word of God is forming and building and sustaining his life. Are you building your marriage on the Word of God? Are you raising your children on the Word of God? Are you doing your finances on the Word of God? Are you living, separating yourself from the things of this world based upon the Word of God? How many would be able to answer positively?
No, none of that. “I profess
Jesus. He’s my Savior.
My Sunday school teacher told me so.”
Oh. I know, like Leonard Ravenhill, an acquaintance of mine before he
passed on, used to say, “I preach in a lot of Baptist churches once.”
I preach in a lot of places like this once.
I could have got up here today with a vocabulary that would have
astounded you and preached you things that would have lifted you up and floated
you around this room. I could have
told you stories that would have made you laugh and stories about dogs and
grandmas that would have made you cry, but I love you too much for that. I know . . . I know, because the Word of God is true, that
there are people who believe themselves to be saved and they are not saved.
They’re not.
I know that there are some of you
who look around and you think, “Well, I’m saved. I mean, look, I look like everybody else in my youth
group.” What makes you think your
youth group is saved? “Well,
I’m like my parents”; or, “I’m like the adults in my church or the
deacon or the pastor.” What does
that matter? You won’t be judged
by them on the day of His coming. My
question for you, beloved, my question for you, little child––I mean, you
could be my children, and I pray someday when my little boy grows that there
will be a preacher who will stand before him and say, “Enough of this!”
Let’s get down.
What does the Word of God say? How
does your life stand in front of that blazing fire which is the holiness of God
on that final day? Beloved,
precious little girl, beloved, precious young man, on that final day will your
confession hold true? Are you
saved? And I’m not talking about, “Well, I think I’m saved.”
You know, there’s a way that seems right unto a man, but it
leads unto death.
“Well, I feel in my heart that
I’m saved.” Well, let me ask
you a question. Did you ever read
that the heart is deceitfully wicked; who can know it? Shouldn’t you go to the testimony of Scripture?
“Well, I know I’m saved because
my mom, my dad, my pastor, everybody else told me I was saved.”
Well, I’m telling you this. What
does the Word of God tell you?
We talk so much about being radical
Christians. Radical Christians are
not people who jump at concerts. Radical
Christians are not people who wear Christian tee shirts.
Radical Christians are those who bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Radical Christians are those who reverence and honor their parents even
when they feel like their parents are wrong.
Radical Christians are those who do not––now listen to me. This is going to make you mad, and I’m talking to boys and
girls. Radical Christians are those
who do not dress sensually in order to show off their bodies.
If your clothing is a frame for your face, God is pleased with your
clothing. If your clothing is a
frame for your body, it’s sensual and God hates what you’re doing.
Everybody wants to talk about a prophet, but no one wants to listen to
one.
I’m talking about Christianity.
I have spent my life in jungles. I
have spent my life freezing in the Andes Mountains.
I have seen people die. A
little boy, Andrew Myman , the Muslims shot him five times through the stomach
and left him on a sidewalk simply because he cried out, “I am so afraid but I
cannot deny Jesus Christ. Please
don’t kill me, but I will not deny Him.”
And he died in a pool of blood. And
you talk about being a radical Christian because you wear a tee shirt, because
you go to a conference. I’m
talking about holiness. I’m
talking about Godliness.
I wish––you know what a move of
God would be in this place? If all
of you came under conviction, if I myself came under conviction of the Holy
Spirit, we fell down on our faces and wept because we watch the things that God
hates, because we wear the things that God hates, because we act like the world,
look like the world, smell like the world, because we do the very things, and we
know not that we do these things, because we do not know the Word of God.
Because, even though we claim as a denomination that the Scripture is the
infallible Word of God, basically all we get is illustrations, stories, and
quaint little novels. Oh, that God
will glow on this place, that we would turn away from our sin, that we would
renounce the things that are displeasing to God, and, then, that we would run to
Him and we would relish Him and we would love Him. Oh, that God would raise up
missionaries. I don’t wish the
same things your parents want for you. They
want for you security and insurance and nice homes. They want for you cars and respect. I want for you the same thing I want for my son, that one day
he takes a banner, the banner of Jesus Christ, and he places it on a hill where
no one has ever placed a banner before, and he cries out, “Jesus Christ is
Lord,” even if it costs my son his life.
Oh, when he’s 18 years old, if he says to me the same thing I said when
I was a young man, “I’m going into the mountains.
I’m going into the jungle.” And
they said, “You can’t go there. You’re
insane. It’s a war.
You’re gonna die.” I’m going. When
that little boy puts on that backpack, I’m going to pray over him and say,
“Go! God be with you, and if you die, my son, I’ll see you over there and
I’ll honor your death.”
Oh, God, let’s pray, let’s
pray.
Oh, God, I don’t care about
reputation. I don’t care what men
think. I want You to be honored. I
want these young people to be saved. I
want those that are saved to stop looking around at a cultural Christianity that
You hate and will spew out of Your mouth, and that they will look at the Word of
God and say, “I will follow Jesus.”
Oh, God, I pray for youth ministers
and pastors and I pray that You’d fill them with the spirit of wisdom and love
and boldness and discernment. And
dear God, whatever the cost, I pray that you will raise up missionaries.
I can’t help but look at these kids and think of my own little boy. Oh,
God, that You would save Ian and that You would raise him up and send him into
the worst part of the battle. Oh,
dear God, raise up missionaries here. Raise
up missionaries. Raise up preachers
and pastors and teachers and evangelists that know the Word of God.
Oh, God, work in this place, please work in this place, dear God.
Please. Please.
Please. Please.
Now with every head bowed, is there
anyone here today that would say, “Brother Paul, I have been living a lie.
I claim to be a Christian but I love the world, and I look like it and
smell like it and I hate myself for it, and, Brother Paul, I am so tired of this
Christianity that I’m living. I’m
just sick of it. I’m just sick of
it. I want to be saved. I
want to be saved.”
In a moment, we’re going to have
an invitation. Those of you who
want to be saved, can be if that is your wish.
Now, I want to talk to those of you
who claim to be Christians. Does
your life honor Jesus Christ? Are
you looking in His Word to find out how you’re supposed to live?
I pray with all my heart, the only thing that’s going to save the
church, there’s only two possibilities. One
is a total reformation in our preaching and our study of the Word of God, and
the other is fierce, horrifying persecution.
That’s the only thing that’s going to save the church in America.
Oh, I pray, I pray that you would return to the Word.
I pray––listen to me, young person.
You need to know. You need to say, “Okay, how am I supposed to live before my
parents?” Go into the Word, find
out, obey it. “How am I supposed
to dress?” Go into the Word, find
out, obey it. “How am I supposed
to talk?” “What am I supposed
to listen to?” Bring every thought, word, and deed into subjection to Jesus
Christ.
If you want to make a commitment, you can make that
commitment right now where you are seated.
If you made a decision to follow Jesus Christ, if you made a decision to
get saved today, if it was genuine, it will last.
If after a few weeks you go right back into the world, live like the
world, act like the world, I want you to know something, you didn’t get
anything here today. You got
emotion, that’s about it. If you
really got something from the Lord it will last.
And even if you try to run away from it, you won’t be able to do it.
You won’t be able to do it. I love you so much.
God loves you.
“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:
old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
(2 Corinthians 5:17)
Since the Garden of Eden, God has been familiar with man’s frailty, and
He has always provided a plan for a new beginning.
Although the sin of Adam was devastating, it was not final.
God sent a second Adam – Jesus, God’s one and only Son, to redeem
fallen man from sin and reunite him with the Father.
Through Jesus, a new beginning was made possible for every sinner.
At any point in time, anyone desiring a brand new start could find it by
calling on the name of Jesus.
Jesus was crucified and hung as the accused in place of every sinner born
or yet to be born. He effectively
became the opportunity for a new beginning in every life.
At the cross of Christ’s salvation, it does not matter what the crime
or sin is – lying, cheating, adultery, murder, or prostitution.
What matters happens after the sinner repents – God writes his name in
the Lamb’s Book of Life, and he becomes a new creation.
What a new beginning! This
new beginning is not just for a day, a year, or even a lifetime – it lasts for
all eternity!
If you have never taken this step and accepted Jesus as your Lord and
Savior – or if you have been running from God – why not stop now and start
over with God? Pray this prayer
with me:
Father, in the name of Jesus, I come to You
today. I come as a sinner.
I confess my sins to You. From
this day forward, I turn my back on sin. I
repent of my sins. I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross to save me, and
rose again from the dead to give me new life.
I invite Jesus to live in my heart, to cleanse me from my sins, and to
make me new. Be my God, and let me
be Your child. Thank you for
forgiving me. Fill me with Your
Holy Spirit, and help me live a life that pleases You.
In Jesus name, Amen.
Welcome to the family of God! End of today’s message.