00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
You'll turn with me, please,
to the book of Jeremiah. He was known as the weeping prophet. The reason is because he had
a burden, and he loved people, and God called him to preach,
and he was put in the dungeon. Because he told the truth. You
know, somebody handed me this about a week ago. I finally read
it. It's hard to believe that this could be so. The question is Church of Prayer
House or Holy Ghost Entertainment Center. said to attract declining members
of flamboyant gimmick ministries growing in all branches of Christianity,
especially in numerous Protestant denominations. The aberrations
and excesses are not confined to offbeat evangelical sects,
cults, fads, and with-it movements that appeal to today's youth
who are turned off by organized religion increasingly They are
spreading to mainland churches, including my own Episcopal denomination."
Now, that's the preacher that's writing this. This sorry distortion, erosion,
and lack of restraint in religion is clearly evident in electronic
preachers, beer and pretzels communion. Folks, when I get through reading
this, you might, or everybody get quiet and see if you don't
hear the trumpet sound. Maybe step outside a minute and see
if anybody is coming down from above. It's got to be nearly
over when it gets like this. The Lord will not put up with
this much longer. Let me read to you. Of course, the Bible
says, Let everything be done decently and in order. And they are saying, we don't
know what to expect in 2000. Well, I expect Jesus a long time
before then. One lady said, I don't attend
anymore because the church has gone nuts. On TV, a Baptist minister
recently played the guitar with his toes, explaining that God
had given him this gift, which brings me closer to young people.
Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, a Methodist minister got dressed in a clown
costume with a clown face to help his congregation concentrate.
And similarly, Mainline Ardmore, Pennsylvania, at St. George's
Episcopal Church, it is now commonplace to be confronted by clowns in
the service. Northern California, a pastor
took 20 young people, 21 young people, to a snow camp where
they were baptized not with water but in the snow. Their snow-covered,
coffin-shaped bodies were buried after their baptism. They burst
out of the snow in what their minister called a resurrection. This past Ash Wednesday, the
well-known Ark Street Methodist Church in Philadelphia ministered
gold ashes. The Rev. John Roth of Miami,
Florida used volcanic ash on the heads of his St. Thomas Lutheran
church members He kept a coffee can of ash from his visit to
Washington State. On Ash Wednesday, his people
got a dusting from Mount St. Helens. In Woodbury, New Jersey, a Baptist
clergyman admitted that he stood on his head for his youth during
a Sunday service. I won't forget old Dr. Connor.
When the preachers in the class said, I'll do anything to draw
a crowd. I want people to come. He said,
I'll even stand on my head. Oh, Dr. Conard didn't have too
much humor, but he said, I'd suggest you keep the light in. In Garrytown, Iowa, A Roman Catholic
priest was so irritated when people left his church during
communion that he had electric locks installed on the sanctuary
doors, which he could operate from the altar. If individuals
started to leave, he simply locked them in. One way to hold them when you
can't preach. My own Episcopal Church, likewise,
has exhibited some shenanigans in recent years, including joggers'
masses and Saturday night church, so that Sunday can be reserved
for God. At the National Cathedral in
Washington, D.C., a canon attempted to hire from the Ringland Brothers
circa six clowns and a unicycle act to participate in an Easter
service. Fortunately, the clowns, showing
commendable reverence, declined the invitation. San Francisco, you couldn't expect
much out of that. San Francisco's Grace, really
ought to be Grass Cathedral, a special, if somewhat less than
dignified, service was conducted for 3,000 worshipers, featuring
incense mingled with marijuana, acid rock music, and recordings
of wolf howls. That's the reason I say it ought
to be called Grass instead of Grace. You know, this is a strange thing. Hard to believe that this could
be so. I'm going to skip this one, that's
not fit to read in church. Earlier, an Episcopal convention,
Euclid's service, the clergy, consecrated bottles of cold duck,
and the congregation smoked, chatted and joined in a snake
dance while singing, Let the Sunshine In. Even former and new church buildings
are undergoing a changing character. Ballet, who some churches, as
if they were nightclubs, are bowling alleys. One more, and
I'm through. In Lake Arthur, New Mexico, a
woman preparing flour for her husband's tortilla reported that
she saw something which looked like a face. She took the tortilla
to church. The face was adjudged to be that
of Jesus, and the tortilla was blessed by the priest Nearly 8,000 people made pilgrimage
to view this shrine of the divine tortilla. The writer says, will someone
see Jesus on a McDonald's hamburger? An ice cube floating in vodka
tonic? A pancake, a pizza, or an Atlantic
City roulette wheel, one wonders. Music, once deemed sacred, has
assumed a secular note in numerous services. Some songs are indistinguishable
from disco. Then you wonder. Folks, it's
not the President, not the government. It's a bunch of lute-legged preachers
with no conviction. Let's see what Jeremiah has to
say. Chapter 1, the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah lived in the day when
God called people, anointed people. Verse 5, "...before I formed
thee in the belly, I knew thee, and before thou camest forth
out of the womb, I sanctified thee, I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations. Then said I, O Lord God, Behold,
I cannot speak, for I am a child. Be not afraid of their faces,
for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord." Verse
10, see, I have this day set thee over the nations, over the
kingdoms, to root out, pull down, destroy, throw down, to build
and to plant. Thou therefore gird up thy loins,
and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee. Be not
dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.
For behold, I have made thee this day a defensive city, iron
pillars, brazen walls, against the whole land." Now notice who
he is against. Against the kings of Judah? That's
government. Against the princes? Against
the priests? against the people. Now, that
is what gives a prophet a bad reputation. Well, he's against
everything. He's against the government.
Well, if the government is wrong, sure. I don't know how anybody
could be for the government we've got going today. We may have
a little improvement. All we've got to do, dear friend,
is just cut off the salary from the hirelings. I'm going to share
something with you. What do Frank Thompson, John
Murphy, John Jenrette, and Charles Diggs have in common? They all
have served as members of Congress. In addition, they all have been
convicted on charges ranging from bribery to taking payroll
kickbacks, no matter. They will find their private
lives in risk by federal pensions to which they remain entitled,
regardless of their convictions. For instance, Thompson found
guilty on bribery charges in connection with Avscam, will
receive a federal pension of more than $48,500. Murphy, convicted of Avscam-related
charges, will get a pension of more than $42,000. thousand dollars. Every one of you is going to
get the pensions. You know where the pensions come
from? Right out of your tax books. And then you think I'll be for
government like that? That's rotten as hell itself. We need some prophets that will
stand against things like that. So he said, I've made you a defensive
city, I've made you an iron pillar, I've made you a brazen wall against
the whole land, against the kings, against the princes, against
the priests, against the people. Verse 19, how true. They shall
fight against thee, but amen, I like the rest of it, they shall
not prevail against thee. For I am with thee, saith the
Lord, to deliver thee. Now, you ask me a question. We've
been in the fight. Do you expect to prevail against
them? I really do. The very fact that we're here
tonight means we've prevailed against them. They've tried to
stop us every way on earth. There's no way for them to stop
God's work. The least of my worries is seeing
these homes close again. Now then, skip with me, please,
to another chapter. I want, first of all, to give
you the secret of his deliverance. I want you to turn with me to
chapter 15 and verse 16, and this will be the key to the entire
life of Jeremiah. He found something. I found it. You found it. We have access
to it. Thy words were found, and I did
eat them. was unto me the joy and rejoicing
of mine heart. For I am called by thy name,
O Lord God of hosts. I sat not in the assembly of
the mockers, nor rejoiced. I sat alone, because the secret
of anybody's life that overcomes, you must find the Word, and it
must become the joy and the rejoicing of your heart. Now turn to chapter
6, please, and I think we'd better stop at chapter 3 and verse 23
for just a moment. Truly in vain is salvation hoped
for from the hills and from the multitude of mountains. That
represents religion and the government. Truly in the Lord our God is
the salvation of Israel. Now then, turn with me, please,
to chapter 6, and we are going to see if we are any different
today. Jeremiah, chapter 6, and verse
16. Thus saith the Lord. That is
the way the prophet begins his message. Stand ye in the ways,
and seek, and ask for the old paths, wherein is the good way,
and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls. Now, we'll pause there for a
moment. I want you to go to the book of Matthew, chapter 11. And this will be the context,
and the message will be very brief. Jesus is standing looking
over a tired and weary religious world. Pharisees, Sadducees,
Christ rejecters and haters, people that were religious, they
went through their schedule and all sorts of religious activities. And this is what he said, verse
28, "'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, And
I will give you rest. Amen. Now, Jesus says, I rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest
unto your soul. For my yoke is easy, and my burden
is light. You don't say that about the
devil's yoke. I talked to a man a while ago, saturated with liquor. His eyes wouldn't focus. He was
dirty. He smelled bad. I said, you look
like an idiot. Talk like an idiot. Act like
an idiot. He said, that's what liquor does
for you. If we were to be so inclined,
he'd face at least ten to twenty years in the penitentiary because
of his record. That's what liquor does for you.
Listen, God knew what he was doing when he said, The way of
the transgressor is hard. I think we need to renew our
prayer life for the lighthouse in the city. We've got too many
of them running away down there. Now, fellows, I want you to hit
them old prayer bones. And I want the rest of us to
pray for them. I know they're a bunch of toughens, but we need to help
them. And we can help them. And we
will help them. And I'm not going to confess
or charge our people for being to blame that runaway defeated,
unless we've done our best for them. I believe that we ought to knock
ourselves out to help these people that nobody's ever loved because
they've been unlovely. The only person who can love
an unlovely person is a Christian. And we ought to be glad to do
it. Especially when you see how they come out. And then they
are helping somebody else. When you hear them sing and see
them testify, and of course the world is looking for our failures.
Boy, they rejoice every time we fail with one. We are not
going to fail with them if we will trust God. And I want to
call my people, we are preaching on getting back to the old paths
tonight. You know what they are? Number one. Reading the King
James Version every day and going through it every year, one time
at least. That's the old path, right there. Wherein is the good
way. There's not one good way. He said, stand ye in the ways,
that's plural. And wherein is the good way. And then you read
that Bible through. Number two, everybody needs to
have a time of private prayer and devotion every day. I know
you can pray without ceasing, that's good, and then I would
always pray not to faint. But I believe that this church
and all of our people, seeing the crisis that we face, and
the burdens that we bear, and the attacks of the devil. Did
it ever dawn on you that the devil don't have much to fight
anymore? He's already got all the churches they're read about.
You think the devil would, why listen, he's got them lock, stock
and barrel. But suppose we believe the Bible.
Please, get people born again. Why, the devil spends 24 hours
a day here. Folks, we're going to have to
renew our prayer life. I want to renew mine. The fact
is, I wish I could go somewhere and stay two weeks with nothing
but the Bible and prayer. I mean, just read and pray and
soak my soul in prayer. And yet, the other burdens that
press in, and the many things that we face, more than you have
any idea about, some of them cropped up today, out of the
most serious things I've ever faced in my life. But I believe
the Lord is going to hear an answer. I tell you, you know,
when I get to the place where I can't budge, and I can't move,
and I have no answer, and my faith seems to be locked, Brother,
I know Jesus is going to come and do something about it. I
promise you this, this time next Sunday, I will not face what
I face tonight. I can't. There's no way on earth
for me to go seven days facing what I face tonight. There's
no way. Brother, when it gets like that, and there's not one
thing I can do about it except, Lord, have mercy and come on
and help me. I mean, either raptures, are
coming to help us, and he's going to do it this next week. He's
got to do it. Brother, I tell you, when the burdens get too
heavy to bear, and when you can't carry them, then you're going
to have to load yourself on him. Stand you in the way and ask
for the good way. Where is the good way? And walk
therein. Now, here's the sad thing. They
said the greatest preacher of that generation was named Jeremiah.
I said, Jeremiah, were the Siamese twins of the gospel trail in
those days. I mean, they, listen, they preached, they wept, they
begged, they pleaded. He said, where is the good wind?
Walk therein. But they said, we will not walk
therein. That's it. Did you wonder why
he wept? He never changed his mind. He
kept preaching. I want to give you one more thought
about him. He finally came and said, Jeremiah,
why can't you be like the ministerial alliance? Why don't you join
us? Why don't you come on now? I mean, you're a troublemaker.
I mean, you're just a rabble-rouser, always a-hollering and a-hooping,
and you never do line. You can't get along with anybody.
Now, come on! Tell it like God gave it. Of
course, God called me. I told him first I couldn't preach,
I'm just a little child. He said, don't tell me you're
a little child. I'm sending something to work on your lips. And brother,
when he carried him through the lip factory, he'd come out of
there preaching. And you boys that are being called
to preach, God didn't call you to preach without being able
to make the preacher out of you. You can preach. Anytime God calls
you to preach, He'll make a preacher out of you. If you saturate your
soul, little old boys come up to me all the time, go over to
around schools and say, Brother Wolff, God's called me to preach. What's your advice? I said, Memorize
the Bible and get after it. As far as I'm concerned, the main
thing we need to live in, and I say this, people come to me
all the time, and they say, Brother Wolff, I'm here to look the home
over. I want to start one like this. I say, get your standards
straight. Do you have the King James Version? Oh, yes. I said,
do you have a television set? If you do, get rid of it. Don't
try to build a home like this with a television set. It won't
work. Do you take a newspaper? Burn it. Hang it. Get rid of
it. Man, you get in work like this,
it'll take 24 hours a day. Not in the quarter of time to
the King James Version. Get in the Word of God. Stay
with it! Folks, I say again, with that
old unworthy hand lifted up, I'd have never made it to the
last eight years. And we wouldn't be standing on the shores of
sweet deliverance. You'd say, but how do you know? He don't
make a deliverance to me. You'd say, how do you know the judge
is going to rule? I know how God's already ruled. God's already
assured me these homes will never close again. He won't let them.
And I told the judge in his office,
I said, Judge, I found the cause worth living for and dying for. And brother, anything that you
can't die for, you have no business living for. Jeremiah said, Stand ye in the
ways and see, and ask for the old path, wherein is the good
way, and walk therein. But they said, We will not walk
therein. But wait a minute. They finally
came to him and said, Jeremiah, if you don't go ahead and line
up, And if you, you know, we're living in the generation of get-along-ism. Get along with everybody. I mean,
just kind of pitch in. See, it doesn't make a lot of
difference. You know, people say it doesn't make much difference
what church you belong to. It don't make a difference what
you believe. That's the only thing that does matter. So finally
they came and said, Jeremiah, we've had it with you. We're
going to go tell the King on you. You're against the King,
see? I mean, you're You're subversive. I mean, you're sowing seeds of
national discord. You're hurting our nation. That's
what you're doing. And so they got a little conspiracy going. They said, throw him in the dungeon.
Throw him in the dungeon. Put him in the dungeon. And brother,
it wasn't like the old Nueces County Jail, as bad as that was. It wasn't like this New Ages
kind of jail, as good as it might be. They threw him down in the
dungeon, in the dark. And he was down in the mud and
the murk and the filth and the varmints. And it was a horrible
place. And death was sure. I mean, there wasn't one ray
of light so far as we know. And there he was down in the
dungeon. And would you believe that somebody got down there
with him? Oh, yes. Somebody got down there and said,
Jeremiah, He said, yes, call unto me, and
I will answer thee, and will show thee great and mighty things,
which thou knowest I, Jeremiah 33. You say, when did he get
that far? He was in the dungeon. If he
hadn't gotten in the dungeon, I probably wouldn't have gotten
Jeremiah 33. Brother, he called on the Lord,
and it wasn't very long until the command came and said, first
Jeremiah, he's in the dungeon, get him out! We run out of ropes. He said, make some ropes. They said, we don't have anything
to make them out of. He said, yeah, just take some rags and
old dirty clouts and whatever you can get. And boy, can you
see them putting them together, tying them together, until they
thought, well, this will be strong enough to pull him out. Can you
imagine that day when those little homemade ropes went down? And
he said, Jeremiah. He said, yes. He said, put these
old clouts under your arms. And he put them under. And brother,
they started pulling him up out. You know why? God was with him.
And the Lord is going to be with us and with you. Listen. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound. That saved a wretch like me I once was lost Was blind but now I see
Secret Of Deliverence
Series Ask For The Old Paths
| Sermon ID | 112611192476 |
| Duration | 28:53 |
| Date | |
| Category | Chapel Service |
| Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.