Let's open our Bibles to Matthew. Young men have been called to preach. They will tell you that you are a professional. They lie to you when they tell you that. They will tell you that being a preacher is a very cultured and eloquent position in society. They disdain the Lord when they tell you that. Some of you would account me even right now to be wild, and even beside myself. My dear friend, the boldest, most cultured, most eloquent man, when the presence of the Lord appears, withers like a piece of baling twine before a fire. and is twisted and broken on the ground. There is nothing professional about being a prophet or a preacher. There is nothing eloquent, nothing cultural. And God will oftentimes leave you with no respect before even your own brothers and sisters in Christ. If you are a preacher, you are a fool for Christ. You are a puppet who can be yanked up by the strings at any moment and told to dance. I came up forward here to tell the preacher that I was afraid, that I sensed a very special something tonight that the Lord was going to do. I did not know it would be in my own life. And I'm afraid now to even preach. It's one thing to preach before men. It's another to preach before the Lord of Glory. Enthusiasm is a terrible thing. Fleshly outbursts of emotion have nothing to do with the spirit are terrible things. But at times, God truly does come. If an ordered service is what you desire, then you have no place here tonight. If looking proper and eloquent and professional and cultured is your desire, then you have no place here tonight. I just want the Lord to move. I want the Lord to touch you. And I know enough in 20 years to know that I could burst out in a song and a dance right now, I could weep before you, I could run up to you and tell you to go to the altar and pray, and I could try to create something which would all be, well, nothing short of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. I can only do one thing, is to put my head down and preach the text. But I do feel this, that I have plowed much, and I must plow again tonight, And please pray that the Lord would give us wisdom if He would have us extend these meetings so that when the plowing was over, some sowing could be done. I know I have beat you over the head quite a bit. And tonight we must go in even deeper again and look at our hearts. But I feel that the Lord's not done and there may be a time of sowing yet to be done. There is so much good that can be preached. So much about the joys of His presence that I never get to share with you. So much about dancing in the presence of God. So much about running in the joys of our Heavenly Father. So much about so many wonderful things of His love. The jewels of His tenderness, His compassion, kindness, which you very rarely hear me preach on because You have to plow before you can sow, and it seems that the only time that we have is to plow. Oh, I pray that God would do a work in your life, I pray. I've prayed specifically for some of you whose faces the Lord put on my heart that He would He would stir you and move you and give you great confidence in Him that He will forgive all your iniquities and take away all your trespasses and give you a time of refreshing before the Lord. And after I preach, I don't know. After I preach, I might just have to fall down on this altar and enter into another time of worship. I don't know. I don't want to leave here. Maybe only I, tonight, needed the heavenly vision, and no one else sense the presence of the Lord. I don't know, and if that's the case, it's not because of my spirituality. It's because of my need. I just want to worship the Lord. And I want to be everything He wants me to be. I felt tonight like I did a few times in college and in seminary, when the only thing, before I ever had a name for myself, the only thing I ever wanted to be was His. Oh, to God, that that would be the desire of your heart. That everything else would be like dung and excrement and that Christ would be your choice and your desire and your passion. I'm going to touch on several texts tonight. There's a message in every one of them, but I feel like I must move along. There's some things that I must touch on, even though I would like to go on to something else. I know in my spirit I must touch on them. It's going to sound like I'm beating the same dead horse, but until the Lord gives me freedom to do otherwise, I just have to. Matthew 7, verse 13. 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. Something that I have recently been taught, and the Lord has confirmed it, not only through the mouth of men, through his own presence, that if you read the entirety of this text, you will discover that he's talking to religious people. So many times we look at this text and we think, yes, Christianity is a small minority in the world and only those Christians are going to enter in. Only those who profess faith in Christ are going to enter. That's not what he's teaching. He's saying that among those who profess faith in Christ, only a few of them will enter in. Because if you go on in this text, he talks about a man who emphatically declares Jesus to be Lord, and he says, depart from me, I never knew you. My dear friend, you're children of your culture, you're children of your age, you've not looked beyond your own life to look at history, nor the scriptures. Or you would know that what I'm saying is true. Few will enter in. Few will enter in. Few among the religious, few among the Christians will enter in. He said, enter through the narrow gate. We've got that down, haven't we? At least some do. The idea that the narrow gate is Jesus Christ, and indeed He is, and that He's the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him. It's quite clear in Scripture, and basically, and by and large, we do good at that. We tell people that. There is only one way, only one mediator, only one name, and it's Jesus. There is no other. But a half-truth is no truth at all, don't you see? We've left out the other part of this passage. In our Baptist life, in an evangelical life, what do we hear? Jesus is the gate. Jesus is the only gate. Jesus is the only way. But you have forgot something. Look at verse 14. For the gate is small and the way is narrow. Do you know what is taught? Maybe not directly, but keenly. And for sure is taught in most of our congregations today. If I were to look at the way preaching is preached, if I were to look at the way professors live, it would be this. The gate is small and the way is broad that leads to salvation. And many are those who find it. We have people constantly think about this on your campus, in your churches, maybe even in your own heart. Think about this, my dear child, think. Do not be deceived. Just look around you. Open your eyes. Pray that God would open your eyes. Look around you. What do you see? How many of the multitudes claim to have walked through the small gate and yet their path is the broad way? How many on your campus? And if you were to indicate any need for them to narrow their path and to go into a more righteous way of living, you would be called a legalist and a know-it-all and a religious fanatic, wouldn't you? Or maybe you yourself would call someone that, if they corrected you and turned you toward the path of righteousness, like the great evangelist in Pilgrim's Progress. You'd not submit to their admonition. No, you'd balk against it like a mule balks against the plower's rein. And you'd scream out, you legalist, I have my Christian freedom. You see, there is a narrow way and there is also a broad way. He said, for the gate is wide. There are a multitude of choices other than Jesus Christ. There's a multitude of voices crying out that they are the way of salvation. But it is all lies and deception. It is either all lies and deception or Jesus Christ is the greatest liar who ever walked on the planet. Because the one thing that gets Christianity in trouble everywhere, is that it is exclusive, that it proclaims Jesus is the only way. But look what it says. The gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction. The way is broad. There's a broad way out there and many of you are walking on it. And many in your congregations and many in your college, they are walking in that broad way. And I would have to tell you you were a liar or either deceived or blind if you told me any other thing, because you know it's true. They're walking in the broad way and they claim to be under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. They claim to have prayed that magical prayer. They claim to have some sort of relationship with Christ. They claim to be Baptist. They claim to be baptized. They claim to be this and claim to be that. But that does not change the reality of where their feet stand. They are on the broad way and Jesus said that broad way leads to destruction. Now you say, oh, there you go again. You're talking a work salvation. My friend, if you knew how much I believed in grace, it would offend you. What you need to understand is this, salvation is only through grace, only by faith in Jesus Christ, not of works, and no man can boast, but at the same time, the grace that saves a man and justifies him before God is the same grace that transforms that man's nature and makes him into a new creature, and the evidence of his salvation through grace is the way he walks, and the way he talks, and the way he lives, and what he does with his hands, and his eyes, and his mouth, and every sort of thing. Where did we come up with this idea, this ecclesiastical, religious idea, that somehow Jesus sprinkles us with a little baptismal water and that's all we need to go to heaven? No, my friend. When Christ comes, He transforms our natures, makes us into new creatures, and we walk a different way. And if you're in the broad path, oh my God, turn from the broad path. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life. Please, stand up, debate me, fight me. Now, just something. Is it not true? Stand up, mock, laugh. I'm used to it. Is it not true, though, that most people who claim Christ Walk just like the world with the exception of Sunday morning. And if you could look into their hearts, you would still see that even on Sunday morning, their hearts are far away, even though their lips praise Him. Are you on that? I don't care tonight about them out there. I don't care because God has not put them under my care for this evening. They're out there. I don't know them. But you are. And I fear for you and I fear for me before you because the shepherd's here. Are you in the broad way? Then tremble, bold man. Tremble, bold young woman, unashamed. Tremble if you're in the broad way, because I'll tell you why. Evidence of the fact that you know not God and that God knows not you. The gate is small. The way is narrow. What is this way? It is the way of righteousness that we have discovered in the Old Testament. It is the way of righteousness marked out by the commands, the precepts and the wisdom of God's Word. That you literally walk with this Bible as a map. Teaching you. This Bible, if I could reduce it all down to one thing, it teaches you this. It teaches you the things that God hates and admonishes you to turn away from them. It teaches you the things that God loves and admonishes you to run to them. And it admonishes you to follow the path that has been marked out by the Word of God. Is the Word of God, does it have any practicality in your life at all? Let's not just talk in generalities. Let's get down to, have you taken a look at what the Word of God says about your brain, about your mind and what should enter into it, what you should meditate upon? Or can you just literally sit there and fill your mind with television and pornography and all the other things that are running wild in your churches and in your campus? It doesn't bother you a bit. Your ears. Have you studied what the Bible says about your ears and your ears being submitted to the law of Christ? The things that you can listen to and not listen to. And your mouth, what you can speak and not speak. And your eyes. Job said, I made a covenant with my eyes not to look upon the Virgin. Have you made a covenant with your eyes to put them in submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ? And your hands. Are they hands that are bloodied and red with the scarlet color of iniquity? Or are they dull and pale with just mere idleness? You don't do anything against the Lord, nor do you do anything for the Lord. You are idle with your hands. And your feet, in what direction are they pointed? Are they on a narrow path? Do you walk often being corrected by God's Word? Or is it very seldom you ever sense any correction from the Word of the Lord? Do you ask yourself, Lord, am I in the right way? Lord, should I do this? Lord, should I turn here? Lord, should I move there? Lord, how is my house to be built? Lord, how is my life to be built? Lord, what should I do? If all these things are foreign to you, then be afraid. Because you know nothing of the narrow way. And that is evidence that you know nothing of the small gate. And that is evidence that you are still in your sin. And if you die in that condition, you will go to hell. And he says in verse 15, but where are the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves? Let me say something. I know that on campus and other places, I've called a great caused a great deal of turmoil at times. I know I've been called the hellfire and brimstone preacher. I know when I preached there last that water balloons were thrown at me and my wife by the students. I know a lot of different things that even things I haven't said that they said I said. Let me ask you a question. What do you think? I run a mission that depends upon the giving of Christians. Then why do I go to all these churches and speak so harshly and make people so mad? What could be my motivation? Some kind of economic gain? Oh, if I wanted to get economic gain out of you, I could do it. I could make you so happy about yourself with the most eloquent of words. So why am I sitting here beating and plowing and beating and plowing? The deceivers. The ones who want something from you will tell you pretty things about yourself. But as the Apostle Paul said, the only thing he wanted from the people was to present them as a chaste virgin to Christ. And he would suffer for that cause. Misunderstood, even hated, scoffed at, laughed and mocked. But his one passion was to present a people to Christ as a chaste virgin. That is my desire for you. That's my desire for you. that you would stand before Him, that some of your faces, you could be my sons and my daughters, that you would stand before Him, clothed in His righteousness, that you would stand before Him, and by His grace here, well done, my good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master. O precious child who turned Turned your back on the world, and you turned your back on the vain things that charmed you most, and you sacrificed them to His blood, and you followed the path, the narrow path, and you walked in the narrow way, going from glory to glory and greater manifestations of the presence of God until the day you're called home. That's what I want for you. I want you to stand before Him with joy unspeakable. With joy unspeakable. Though sadness must come for a night, a looking into the darkness of your heart and the rebellion that you've made against God, and a heartbreaking repentance must pour forth and confession and everything else. I know that if that will just work, will just be done in you, that by morning there'll be joy. Because I've been there. It seems like I'm always there. Beware of the false prophets. They will always defend you before God. They will. You know, you don't have one lawyer. You have two. Except one is true and the other is an accuser. Give an example. Adam, how dare God tell you you can't take from that fruit? Well, if I was God, I would let you have it. As a matter of fact, Adam, I think you ought to take it. It's your right. This God, He must be harsh to deny you something from the garden? Jesus, now come on, you're hungry. I mean, any God that wouldn't want you to have bread right now. I mean, what kind of God is that? I'll defend you. And Jesus, the cross, the Messiah dying on a cross. Well, never. That should never happen to you, Jesus. What kind of father would want his own son to die on a tree, crucified, bearing the sins of the world? Get thee behind me, Satan. Do you know how much preachers have to struggle with pride? Do you know how much preachers have to struggle with arrogance and desiring to make a name for themselves? Do you know how quickly you can be deluded into thinking that you are building big kingdoms? And instead of using your ministry to build people, you begin to build your ministry upon the bones of people. and herd them into your church like a bunch of cattle so that you can count them and make the monthly denominational report and be above everybody else in your group? These aren't the things of God. False prophets abound. An old preacher told me one time, and it's something I shall never forget. It has helped me so much. He said, Paul, your best friend is the one who tells you the most truth. Goes on. Beware of them, you will know them by their fruit, he says, verse 16. Now, this in its immediate context, of course, is speaking to false prophets, but it's speaking in a wider application to unconverted men and women. Throughout the Bible, we understand this, there is no super hidden spirituality in either the Old Testament or the New. that a genuine work of God always manifests itself by fruit. That is just what the Bible teaches from the very beginning to the very end. Don't you understand? Have you ever read the prophets? Have you ever read the law? Have you ever read the wisdom literature? Have you ever read the history books? Have you ever heard how many times the prophets speaking in the name of the Lord said that with your mouth, You serve me with your mouth. You offer sacrifices with your mouth. You do this, but your heart is far from me. And don't give me your fast or your holy days, but liberate the poor and stop shedding blood and stop being in an immorality and wickedness and sensuality. Haven't you ever read that? Have you ever wondered how Israel could worship God in the temple and then come out and worship Baal under a tree and not see any difference? Physician, heal yourself, because that's a description of the so-called professing church in America. Worship God on Sunday and bow down to materialism as soon as you get to the mall. Cry out for God to do a work among you and then go home and watch pornography on your television and wonder why the spirit's not strong in you. For what it's worth, you young preachers, young Bible students. There was no violinist playing famous in Europe. When he finished, the young violinist, young boy, walk up to him, said, Sir, I would give my life to play like you. And the old violinist looked down at him and said, Son, I have given my life to play like me. You want to dabble in the things of God and play prophet? It doesn't work that way. I have known in my own life that the times I have separated myself from the things that God hates, his power is rested upon me. And the times I have given in to worldly vanities and stupidities and things of the flesh, I have lost a sense of his presence and his power. This is not just get a certain amount of knowledge, guys, and then you can go out and preach to the wind with your knowledge. Have you stood face to face in the presence of God and trembled like a leaf on a tree? Some of you young men, you need to go up on a hill somewhere for a week and not eat and just grab rocks and throw them at heaven until God opens the door and comes down. You will know them by their fruit. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? You see, this is, this is, I don't know how to describe this. If I was in a class of logic, I don't know, an argument of absurdity, possibly. Jesus is looking at them and he was a master, master teacher, a master catcher of men. Oh, and he was what he commanded his disciples to be. He was shrewd as a serpent. You did not want to get on a one and one with him. He catches them and he says, Figs. They don't grow on thorn trees, do they? Well, of course they don't, Jesus. I mean, anybody knows that. If anybody tells you they found figs on a thorn tree, don't believe them. They're either lying or they're crazy. Well, then thorns. on a fig tree. Is that possible? Well, of course not, Jesus. We understand you're a carpenter, but no, it's not possible. Anybody tells you that they've got thorns on fig trees or figs on thorn trees. Jesus, it's ludicrous. It's against nature. It doesn't work. It's impossible. It's stupid. Anybody who would say such a thing is absolutely out of their mind or they're a deceiver. Well then, those of you who profess to be my disciples, if you don't have fruit, you're not. It would be ludicrous to say that you're a disciple of Jesus Christ and bear fruit of the world. And then we come down. Verse 17. So every good tree bears good fruit. But the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. This passage is read so often. It contains as much. There's as much theology crammed in to these two verses as possibly any other two verses in the entire Bible. What it's talking about here is nature. And I wish I could spend three hours just discussing with you the idea of nature, that salvation is not this external working. And that's all. It's not a human decision to jump out of the line going to hell in order to jump in the line going to heaven. Salvation is a supernatural work of God through which a dead sinner is regenerated and is given a new nature and becomes a new creature. And a new creature will always bear new fruit according to its nature. Always! Jesus doesn't say there's an exception. In church today, in order to justify our great number of people, and the majority of them being carnal and wicked, just like the world, we have had to develop three different teachings. The spiritual Christian, the carnal Christian, and the lost man. When the Bible only sees two. Spiritual Christian and lost man. You say, well brother, what about sin? My dear friend, let's go into it again. A Christian can fall into sin, but by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, and even if necessary, the loving discipline of the Father, they will not be allowed to remain in that sin. A Christian will start in immaturity. That is true. There is such a thing as a babe in Christ, but they cannot stay there. And most people after 30 years in church are just as much a babe as when they started. That's because they were never born again. They're not really alive. When will we understand that Scripture is true and it really applies? And it is this. He who began a good work in you will finish it. And God with God, there is no partiality. He's talking about all His children. Now, we're not talking that everyone grows at the same speed. We're not talking about that everyone grows in the same graces at the same time. But everyone grows. Because it's God who's at work in you. And if that work fails, then it is a dousing of God's reputation. God is not going to let his work fail because his work is not so much about you and your salvation as it is his name and the glory of it. He will not allow the work to fail because his reputation is at stake. And so he says, now look at this, a good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. We seem to be quite familiar with the last part, telling men that if they are lost, they can do nothing to bear good fruit. If they are lost, they can do nothing to win over the favor of God. If they are lost, they cannot do works of righteousness. And even their greatest works of righteousness is nothing more than filthy rags. But we seem to have forgotten the first part of this. It's not only true that a bad tree cannot produce good fruit or a lost man cannot do works of righteousness, but it is equally true that a good tree cannot produce bad fruit. And that means that a true Christian cannot continually produce works of unrighteousness. Cannot live in that style of life. Cannot walk in that manner consistently as a style of life. It is an impossibility. In the same way that if I was a pig, it would be very possible for me to stick my head down in a bucket of garbage and eat the whole thing and be possible. But it is humanly impossible to do that. It would be humanly impossible to stick my head in garbage. I would not be able to get it down. Why? I do not have the nature of a pig. And if you can consistently stick your head in the swine of sin, in the filth of that bucket that the world feeds from, if you can consistently do that, it's because your nature has not been changed. You are not a new creature and you will die in your sins unless you repent and believe. Now we go into verse 19. Every tree. Every tree, every tree, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Here we go again. I'm on a campus or someplace and always the argument against hell, it's always the same argument. A loving Jesus would never throw anyone in hell. And yet, my friend, what you have to understand is, if it were not for the loving Jesus, we would almost have no doctrine of hell. Hell is found in the Old Testament. It truly is. But it's not quite clear. The apostles talk about hell, but not with a great deal of attention. In the book of Revelation, we find something more written. If you ever go read a book on the doctrine of hell, almost every verse is taken from the Gospels and the words of the loving Savior, Jesus Christ. It was Jesus who gave us the doctrine of hell, and it was Jesus who preached on hell more than every other preacher in the Bible combined. Why? Have you ever heard of apocalyptic literature? Apocalyptic literature is symbols and signs and dragons and ten-headed beasts and such things as that. You know what it's all about? It's when the human mind is confronted with a divine reality that is so great that there is no way the mind can understand it or human language can communicate it. Now, what does that have to do with hell? The reason I believe why Jesus spoke on hell more than anyone else is in his divinity, his deity, his godhood. He was the only one who could truly grasp the terror of it. And in his incarnation, using human language, he uses symbols of all sorts. Some of them even seem to contradict one another, because our human language, even coming out of the mouth of God in the flesh, is not strong enough to communicate the reality of hell. It's there. Hundreds of thousands of people every day are manifestations of the wrath of God against sin as they are swept away by the hand of death and thrown into an eternal hell. And I do care that you think that that's old-fashioned. I do care that you think that is silly. I do care that you think that's not really true. But it is true. And some of you will go there. Many on your campus will go there. Many in your churches will go there. And they won't return. Is that an offense to you? Do you not get offended with so much other preaching? Well, let me ask you a question. Why did Jesus Christ, why was he crucified? Because his preaching was an offense. And he said, if they treat the master that way, will they not treat the disciple that way? And if the preaching you're hearing is not so offensive, do you really think it has anything to do with the words of Jesus Christ or more to do with the country club people that go to your church? are the intellectual people who go to your church, are the fine upstanding socialites that go to your church, are the good old bubba boys with their bubba Christianity that go to church. The thing you've got to see, my friend, is that Jesus Christ is called the scandal. In Greek, the scandalon, the offense, the stone of stumbling. And every time there was a group, oh, can you imagine? Jesus' way of evangelism was so strange. If you read the Gospels, the synoptics, isn't it unusual that almost every time it says, and a great crowd was following Him, He would turn around and look at them all and say, if you don't hate your father and mother, you're not worthy of Me, leave. And they would. If you don't eat My flesh and drink My blood, you're not My disciples, you're not saved, you don't know Me. And they would leave. And then He'd look at His disciples and say, are you going too? So different, isn't it? Preacher of a very large church, as I was listening to, was very proud of the fact he no longer takes a Bible up into the pulpit. He rather takes a notebook with the verses written inside of it so that he doesn't offend seekers. My question is, what are they seeking? This gospel that saved me is quite offensive. It offended me. Still does. This word of God that tickles you in your daily devotion. Martin Luther said the word of God is not my friend. It's my enemy because it cuts me off in every place my flesh desires to go. Every tree, every tree that does not bear good fruit. Now, look, it doesn't say every tree that's not a Baptist, every tree that's not this, every tree that's not that doesn't say every tree that's not been baptized or every tree that doesn't attend church in a certain place. It's just every tree, every tree that does not bear fruit. We have this super spirituality about us. Well, I know I don't bear fruit, but you can't judge a book by its cover. Let me ask you a question. Who told you that? Who told you that? Where'd you learn that? Can you quote the verse? Where did our master say you can't know a book by its cover? He didn't. But he did say this. You can know a tree by its fruit. Judge not, lest ye be judged. The woman screamed back at me and I said, twist not scripture, lest ye be like Satan, madam. Because when Jesus said, Judge not lest ye be judged, he was not talking about this. He was talking about a group of pharisaical religious leaders who were clawing one another's eyes and skin off in order to get ahead ecclesiastically. Loveless men who took great joy in tearing down others and snuffing out any divine light that was in them. Because in the same verse he tells you, you will know them by their fruit and everyone without exception. We have so many excuses. Well, I know I don't act like a Christian, but I really am. And you can't know my heart. Sure, I can. I can know your heart. I just have to look at you. You can't know a book by its cover. It's not in Scripture. If we applied the same rule of logic to every aspect of life, we would be imbeciles. And that's what we have become, isn't it? With postmodernism in your schools. Is that a cow? Well, you really can't say it's a cow. I mean, we really can't affirm what this is. Why? Because you just don't know. Do you know men so hate God? that they are willing to deny the reality of their own existence before they would accept the reality of God's. And you know that men hate God's will so much. In order to escape it, they will willingly deny that you can know anything at all to be true. The only reason for the postmodern argument that you cannot know truth is because it's a way to escape from having to submit to the truth. And when if I came on your campus and I preached about godly living, and I preached about godly clothing, and I preached about godly music, and I preached about godly fruit, I would be labeled a legalist. Why? Well, you know, you can't say that. That's just your interpretation. My friend, if the statement of grammar says the barn is red, it means the barn is red. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that. Every tree that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. What can I say about hell? What can I say that Jesus hasn't already said? You don't believe. in the biblical reality of hell. I know that because I don't think I have a grasp of the biblical reality of hell, because if I did, I'd be a different person. You don't understand. You talk about how heaven cannot be described because of all of its glory. It cannot be described. Ear has not heard. Eye has not seen. My friend, the same thing applies to hell. There is no way. And the worst thing about hell? forever and ever and ever and ever. The sorrow that ticks in a man's heart who knows not the Lord is that if he falls in love, if he accomplishes much, if he makes a great name for himself, it will not be forever, but the clock is ticking and it will come to an end. The joy of a Christian is knowing that his loves in life and everything pure has no clock ticking to it. That though he dies, he will rise again and there will be no end to the bliss that he will know. The terror of hell is that the clock will never wind down. And you say, well, I don't think that's just. I know there's a lot of things you don't think is just. Because you're from a wicked people with a wicked heart and so am I. We can't understand justice. Well, why does it last forever? Why is it infinite? God's an infinite God. infinitely holy, infinitely worthy. You've not sinned against an inferior prince. You've not sinned against a small mayor of some obscure village. You have sinned against the Lord of glory. But more than that, and know this, in hell, one of the reasons I believe, and one of the most important of why it will last forever, is because the rebellion continues on forever. Hatred against God, such hatred against God that if the door was open to hell and those inhabitants thereof were given the opportunity to leave, but only with one condition, that they would have to bow their knee and acknowledge that he is Lord freely, they would rather be in hell. They hate him so much. If you cannot repent here, Where common grace has been spread all around by the loving hand of a loving God, what makes you think you will repent in a graceless hell? And as I shared this morning in a philosophy class on your campus, listen closely. Many of people have this idea that when they go into hell, at least they will be comforted by the fact that there are people in heaven mourning for them. And that God will have to dry their eyes because they've seen their loved ones march off into hell. That is the contraption, the contrivance of some weird evangelist, but it has nothing to do with Scripture. Let me give you an example that will offend you. I love my little boy like I never could imagine that I could love all my life. I love him. It's a human love. It's not the same love I have for the Father, but I love my little boy. But you know what the Bible says? My little boy was born radically depraved with a heart so wicked who could know it. And he's already manifested that no one had to teach him how to lie. No one teach him how to teach him how to be self-centered. He's born that way. You don't like that kind of Christianity, but that's the one in this book. But you know what I really love about my little boy? Do you know what provokes love? It's the grace of God upon his life, even though unregenerated. Even though not a Christian, even though just a tiny toddler, what I love about him is the restraining, keeping, common grace of God that is laid upon every man. Because see, apart from that, he would be a demon. Apart from that, he would be a wretched beast that would claw your eyes out. Apart from the grace of God, if my little boy reached for the watch on my hand and I did not give it to him, and he started squirming and everything else, have you ever seen a child do that? If that 18 month old baby had the strength of an 18 year old man, he'd slaughter his father where he stands, rip the watch off his arm and walk out the door, leaving bloody footprints without one ounce of remorse in his heart. Apart from the grace of God, you don't like that, but it's true. You think too much of men. Well, let me tell you something on the day of judgment, when all the wicked stand before the Lord, the rejecters of Christ stand before him. Do you know what I believe is going to happen? And I believe it can be backed up from Romans chapter one. Whatever grace that restrained their evil, whatever grace that made them lovable to those who love them, it will be pulled back. And for the first time, you will see them for what they are. Radically depraved monsters. And my dear friend, if you plan on going to hell, let me tell you the last thing you will hear when you take your first step into hell. The last thing you will hear when you take your first step into hell is all of creation, all of heaven standing to its feet and applauding God because he has rid the earth of someone as vile as you. on whom it had been poured out. And that's why God's love is not so much amazing anymore. It's a right we demand. Never forget this, my dear friend. Satan and the angels that were much more splendid than we could ever imagine, not balls of dirt like us, but spiritual beings with a beauty and a grace about them that would astound us and even cause us to fall over dead at their beauty when they fell. God did not send them a savior. He did not have to send you one either. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Now he repeats himself. Look at this in true rabbinic fashion. So then you will know them by their fruits. Look at this over and over. How many times does he say it, iterate it, reiterate it? How many times does he repeat himself and why? Because we are so blind and deluded by the evil one with regard to this thing. We believe, we honestly believe that that little magical prayer that produced no grace, that came from no grace, that resulted in no transformation is everybody's ticket to heaven. That's why most Southern Baptists get saved when they're six years old in a vacation Bible school or a Sunday school. And then when they're 14 and can wrestle their strength away from their parents, live like demons and hellions. And then they're counseled this way. Oh, Johnny, I know you're saved because I was there when you prayed that prayer. And anybody who prays that prayer repeats, it's going to go to heaven. But you're living right now terribly. And it means that you're not going to have many rewards. What kind of preposterous silliness is that? Anyone who's made a profession of faith and then turns back to the vomit of the world should be told you have made a profession of faith, but there's no evidence in your life that it is true. And all wisdom would declare that your profession was false, and if you died right now, you would die in your sins and go straight to hell. Ah, losing your salvation. No, finding out you never had it. Verse 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. Can you hear this? Now, here's something I want you to see in Jewish literature, Hebrew literature, when they emphasize something, they repeat it. Hebrew parallelism is what it's called, particularly in the book of Proverbs, where you hear things like the wicked shall not dwell in the land, the wicked shall be cut off. It's saying the same thing, the statement, the repetition of it in order to add emphasis, you see. And that's what he's saying here. Look what he's saying. Let me give you a loose translation. Jesus is saying, not everyone who emphatically declares me to be Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. Do you see that? Today, you don't even have to emphatically declare him to be Lord and you're going to heaven. But Jesus said, not many who declare me emphatically to be Lord will go to heaven. Look at the contradiction. There is a great one. It's like I shared the other night, we've come to the point where after we give the gospel presentation, our four spiritual little laws that we lay out before someone, we say, now, if you want to accept Jesus, pray this prayer. They go, well, I don't really feel I don't know how to pray. OK, well, then. I'll pray the prayer and you repeat the words. Well, that's kind of embarrassing. And I just don't. Well, you go just pray by yourself. Well, you know, I just don't know what to do. Well, I'll tell you what, I'll pray the prayer. And if you believe what I'm saying, squeeze my hand. Look what we've done. Whatever happened to the supernatural power of God revealing Christ in all His glory, giving life to a dead soul, bringing about repentance and faith, and even the most ignorant, the most uneducated, even the most dullest of hearts, even the most ashamed and quiet stands up and boldly proclaims, Oh Lord, have mercy on a sinner like me. Save me. In so many years of preaching, I could tell you story after story about jungles and all sorts of things. But the greatest moment in my Christian life and ministry was a very simple time up near Alaska and I was preaching in this church. About 30 miles south of Alaska, British Columbia, when I got up in the pulpit to preach, The back doors opened up in a mountain of a man. Sixty five in there somewhere, but he still in his day at 65, he could have cleaned 30 young men out for breakfast. And he he walked up to the front, his eyes were fixed on me, it was the saddest face I've ever seen in my life. He sat down in the front row. I changed my entire message, the gospel, the gospel, the gospel. And when I got done, the man was just hunkered over, just just sitting there trembling. And I went to him, I said, sir, what's wrong with you? What's troubling you? Looked up at me with tears in his eyes and he pulled out of this big manila folder, said here, I'm going to die. He said, I've never been in a church in my life. I've lived out in a ranch that you either have to go to on a river or by a plane. You can't get to it any other way. I've never been to a church. I've never read a Bible. I know there's a God and I've heard something about a Jesus. And I know I'm going to die. The doctor told me I have about a month to live. I don't know what to do. I'm afraid for my soul. What's going to happen to me? And I said, well, did you understand the presentation? Well, I understood some. I mean, I understand it with my brain, but nothing. You know what the average pastor and evangelist would have done to that man? They'd have said, OK, all you have to do is repeat these words after me. And then it damned him to hell. I said, sir, here's John 3, 16. Read it. He read it. Do you understand it? Yes. I understand it, but I don't understand it. Read this passage, read this passage, read this passage, read this passage. OK, let's go back to John 3, 16, read it, read it, read it again, read it again. And then all of a sudden he said, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son. He started crying, he said. And he started trembling. I'm saved. I'm saved. I'm saved. I'm saved. I said, how do you know you're saved? He said, why haven't you two ever read this? I said, what do you mean? I'm saved. I'm saved. I have eternal life. He died for me. He gave his son. That's what that means, right? And he went on and on. I went to visit him the next morning before I had to leave. He sat there and beaming. He said, tell my wife, tell my wife, tell my wife. The thing the Lord has done for me, I'm going to die and I'm going to heaven. You know what that is? A preacher leaving well enough alone in the Holy Spirit working instead of these little systematized for spiritual laws, run them through the thing and then get them to repeat a little superficial, stupid, superficial, superstitious prayer. You said I've never heard such blasphemy. Well, then listen again, because that's what it is. We've taken the gospel and twisted it into some little nursery rhyme, some little for spiritual laws and eat your pie at the end of it. Never happened to the power of God. Leave them alone. Stand there beside them. Answer their questions. Don't you tell them they're saved. You tell them how to be saved and get out of the way. And if God can't save them, they can't be saved. That's why we've got all these revivals going on around here where a hundred people get saved and not one of them show up to church on Sunday. But the evangelist goes right down the road and brags about the great move of God. And then reports it in the denominational newspaper. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. Do you know what your profession of faith in Jesus Christ is worth? Absolutely nothing. Zero. Truly, look. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. The demonstration, the power, the proof that you are born again, my dear friend, is not your profession of faith, your emphatic profession that Christ is Lord. What is the evidence that you have been born again by faith, by grace? What is the evidence? Jesus tells us, he does the will of my Father who is in heaven. That one will enter. Oh, again, you're talking about works. No, I'm not. I'm talking about the fruit of salvation, the fruit of a changed nature, the fruit of a new creature, the fruit of the power of God, the fruit of grace. And it sounds so awkward in a culture that's heard nothing but a powerless grace. But he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven, that one will enter. Are you? Listen to me. Open. Listen. Listen. Is your life marked by doing the will of the Father? If not, there's no proof that you're born again. And you should be afraid. Are you seeking to know what the Father's will is with regard to your life? with regard to the way you're to act and speak and talk and listen and watch and everything else. What you're to do is the will of the Father before you. Is that your desire to know it and obey it? Can it be seen, worked out in your life? If not, my dear friend, fear for your soul. Fear for your soul. A reporter came up to me one time and said, why are you always telling the people to be afraid? Because no one else is and they ought to be afraid. Because it is a fearful hands to fall is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of God. He's a consuming fire. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does not just thinks about not just preaches. But everyone who does the will of the father who is in heaven, 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? I've always wondered about this passage. What is it really trying to teach me? What is it really trying to say? It seems that this is a rebuttal. That these people are standing before the Lord and it seems like the sentence has been declared. Shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. And now comes their argument as to why they should. And notice what the argument is. Our own works of righteousness ought to be the reason you open the door. Our own religious works, our religiosity, our identification with some ecclesiastical system, our works, our works, our works. If a true believer were to ever have doubts of the throne of God, of their salvation, and had to offer a rebuttal of why they should be allowed to enter into heaven, if they were a true believer, would they even mention their works? No, they will have hope that God has hidden their works from himself as far as the east is from the west. They will cry out mercy. They will cry out grace. They will cry out cross. They will cry out a Savior. They will cry out the death and resurrection of Jesus. Their only hope for getting into heaven has nothing to do with their religious duties, their religious activities, their religious identification, their identification with the church, or baptism, or anything else. They fall down on their face and say, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling. But not so. Isn't it amazing how many people will tell me, I ask them, are you a Christian? Yes. But then when I begin to to work and try to discern and to speak to them about important matters of their soul, works will always pop up its head. I'm believing in Jesus and I'm trying to be good. I'm believing in Jesus and I'm trying to do this. I hope so. I hope this. I hope I'm good enough. When you keep working and working and get beyond this facade of faith, you see that their salvation, the hope of it, is based upon their works. When the true Christian is brought to the true knowledge that truly nothing in our hands we bring, simply to the cross we claim. The only hope. And some of you who are resisting possibly, some of you who are thinking, I want to be saved and I can't be saved. I want to be saved, but just nothing happens. Then fall on him. Fall on him. Fall on him. Cry out to him. Just go. Run to the Savior. You say, well, my motives aren't pure. And whose have been pure? We all came to Christ because of our need. He has always been the giver. We have always been the getter. You will never be anything throughout all eternity. You'll never be anything on this earth and you will never be anything throughout all eternity except a recipient of grace. And you will never be able to stand up and claim that you are deserving for anything but hell. I was praying one night and a young man came down and was praying beside me. There was a bit of a move of God and he came up there and he prayed. He said, Oh God, I just want you to give me what I deserve. And I stopped his praying to save his life. I said, Young man, you don't ever ask God to give you what you deserve because all that you deserve is hell. Your only cry before his throne should be, Give me mercy. Give me what I do not deserve. And keep away from me, O God, the very thing I do deserve, which is hell. Now, it says in 23, Then I will declare to them, I never knew you. All this, if there's two things that upset me and that send men to hell in modern day Christianity, one of them is born againism. Everybody's been born again. Well, if you're not acting like a new creature, you haven't been born again. That's all there is to it. Born again in itself, I just wish we would understand the word. The mighty spirit of God coming and giving life to a dead sinner. The mighty spirit of God granting repentance and faith. The mighty spirit of God doing a work that he will carry out faithfully until that person is brought into glory, because he'll lose not a one of them except the son of partition. Mighty spirit of God that not only has the power to save, but the power to transform. That's being born again. The other is the statement, oh, I know him. Well, congratulations, the demons know him, too. I use this illustration so many times, if I were to walk up to the White House tonight and the guard stopped me and I said, you should let me in. Why? Because I know George Bush. I'm not getting in. But if George Bush walks out of that White House and says, I know Paul Washer, I'm going in. It doesn't matter what anybody says. It's the same reason many people are going to stand before him on that day and say, oh, I know him. I know you. I know you. I know you. And he's going to say, I do not know you. What fearful words. I know they not depart from me, you worker of iniquity. the loving Lord of glory, with a face as bold as fire, looking at the wicked, the goats, the hypocrites, the professors who did not the will of the Father. And he says to them with a fierceness that would make the world flee from him, as it says, Depart from me, you worker of iniquity, I know thee not. And then the saddest words in all the Bible, And there was no place found for them. everlasting lostness. But oh, listen, hearken unto me. Those of you have been fed on modern day theology. You know, this little story they tell you about hell is hell because God's not there. That's a lie. Hell is hell because God is there. Yes, my friend. They are tormented in the presence of the lamb. They are under the wrath of almighty God throughout all of eternity. The wonderful glories of the face of God are found only upon the presence of his people. But his face is turned in everlasting judgment against the wicked who vomit up blasphemies even from the depths of hell. And I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me. Now, this is I don't even see how this is possible. I mean, there's something going on here that is so beyond human mind, human comprehension. Even the God hating blasphemer that. Clinches his face, his fist in the face of God. and curses God's name, does so by the life and strength that God gives him. And if you go to the worst place on the face of the earth, God's grace and presence will be there. Suffer the cruelest torments on the face of the earth, the lowest, darkest dungeon, prison, house of torture, and the grace and presence of God is there. And yet they are told to depart from Him into everlasting destruction. And look how they are described. Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness. Now, let me give you a loose translation of this. People, on the day of judgment, that have emphatically declared Jesus to be Lord. They can even boast in religious activities and practices. And he looks at them and this is what he says. Depart from me, those of you who claim to be Christians, but you lived as though I never gave you a law to abide by. I never gave you a precept to follow and I never gave you wisdom to be submitted to. I just described more than 75 percent of professing Christianity in America today, I just described a great multitude of people on your campus. profess Jesus to be Lord, but live as though the Lord had never given a law to be obeyed. And if I were or some other fool were to come to your campus or to many of your churches and begin to cry out the righteous standards of God, he would be labeled a legalist, wouldn't he? If he told you you had to stop watching certain things because it was not proper for a child of God, if he told you to stop dressing in a certain way because it was ungodly and sensual, if he told you to do this and that and had verses to back it up, you would put forth two arguments. One, that's just your interpretation. And two, you're a fanatical legalist. And so you condemn yourself with your own words. Look how far you have fallen. Do you not see what he's saying? Raise your hand, plead, make a case, do something. Do you not see that that's what he's saying? You called me Lord, Lord, but you lived as though I never gave you a command to obey. Did you know that this idea, I hear Christians say all the time, we're not under law, we're under grace. That is so true. That is so true. This new covenant, oh, it's an amazing thing that we've entered into. But oh, look at the privileges set free from the condemnation of the law, set free from death. Filled with the Holy Spirit, temples of God, My dear friend, have you never read to whom much is given, much is required? The laws of God, the very laws of God are no longer written on tablets of stone, but on the very flesh of our hearts, that there will be no need to teach them because everyone will know the Lord. And yet ignorance abounds in our churches. Either the New Covenant failed, God lied, or there's a lot of people running around that aren't saved because God made some miraculous promises. And I see throughout Scripture that none of his promises, not one good word of all those he has spoken, has failed. So where is the problem? It is on us and the confusion is on our faces. Depart from me those who called yourself Christians and you lived as though I never gave you a law. Did you know that Scripture says that even our thoughts are to be submitted under the Lordship of Christ? Did you know that even our thoughts? We've got to the point where we don't even have to submit the external. We don't have to submit anything anymore. Just pray that prayer. Oh, my dear friend, what has happened? Then we go on. He says 24. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on 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 the house. And yet it did not fall for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against that house and it fell. And great was its fall. This text has been taken out of context more than possibly any text in the Bible. You know the way it's usually taught in church? It's taught in church usually as describing two different Christians. A Christian who is wise and builds his house upon the rock and his life is really blessed and prosperous and good. And a Christian who isn't so wise and falls into a lot of things because he doesn't build his house on the rock that is Jesus Christ and upon the word of God and suffers a lot for it and in the end doesn't get as many crowns as the other guy. That is not what this passage is teaching. This passage is teaching the difference between a lost man who goes into destruction and a saved man who is saved from the wrath of God. That's what it's teaching. And I can prove it. Look at the context. Look at verse seven, chapter seven, verse 13. There are two different gates. The small gate leads to eternal life. The broad gate leads to hell and destruction. There are two different ways. The narrow way leads to eternal life and everlasting blessedness before the father, the wide path The wide path leads to eternal damnation. There are two different trees, a good one and a bad one. They bear two different kinds of fruit, fruit that demonstrates the wickedness, the badness of the tree. And that tree is cut down and thrown into the fire. The other tree bears good fruit unto eternal life. And then there is a man who comes before the Lord and professes him to be Lord, but he does not do the will of the Father and proves himself to be lost, and he is thrown into hell. Then it goes on. And what else? There's those who say they know the Lord, but they practice iniquity. They live as though God had never given them a law. And then there are those who hear the word of God, but they only hear. They do not act upon it. They do not build their life upon it and show themselves to be unconverted and damned. And another group who hear the word of the Lord, act upon it, build upon it and show themselves to be saved. In every case, it is this. Salvation is only through faith in Jesus Christ, but true salvation is always evidenced by works. It is always evidenced by walking in a different, narrow path. It is always evidenced by bearing good fruit. It is always evidenced by doing the will of the Father. It is always evidenced by practicing the law. It is always evidenced by what? Building your house, your life, every part of you, your very being upon the Word of God. Now, comparing that to modern day American Christianity, what do you have? I'll tell you what you have. Just exactly what the Bible says. The way is narrow that leads to life and few are those who find it, even among the religious. Oh dear friend, repent and turn to the Lord. Make your election sure, as Peter says. You see, in this theological reductionism in which we live, we've taken two very important doctrines and we've combined them into one and we've lost them both. The doctrine of security is one of those doctrines. Yes, the Bible teaches that everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ truly is saved and the same God who saves them has the power to keep them. But what you need to understand is that the older Baptist, the older Presbyterian and more important, the Bible, the older Puritans, but more importantly, the Bible taught this, that there's not only a doctrine of security, there's a doctrine of assurance. Every true believer is secure in their salvation, but how can you have assurance you're a true believer? And assurance comes from the fact not that you repeated a prayer and not that the evangelist told you to write your date of your salvation in the back of your Bible. Your assurance comes from the fact that when you believed, your life began to change, and it continues to change until this very day. And that you walk in the narrow path, and when you step off the narrow path, the Father is there meeting you, disciplining you, and bringing you back. And that you are not your own, but you are a prisoner of Christ, and He will begin a good work, and you will finish it, because it is God who works in you to do what He wants. How different is that from modern day circus like six flags over Jesus Christianity? Oh, dear God, I told a student today that if they ever see a book titled something like New Directions in New Testament Studies or New Directions in Theology, throw it away. You don't need a new direction. We need to get back to the old directions. And these are the old ways. Come back to the rock from which you were cut. Come back to the truth. Stop listening to things that will tickle your ears, Christianize, baptize, psycho babble. And turn to the word of the Lord and be healed. Some of you have heard this because your own soul is in peril. Some of you have heard this because you genuinely are Christians, but your foot is stepped off the path and this is a warning to you. to make your election sure and to tremble before God. And some of you are walking in the Lord, and this is instruction for you. Why? So that you might be a wise scribe. And you can lovingly, not haughtily, not proudfully, But lovingly and humbly go to those who do not walk in the right way and gently instruct them to come back, pleading in the night on bloody knees that the Lord might grant them repentance. You young preachers, listen to me. You remember the demonized woman who followed around the Apostle Paul screaming out, these are men of God. She was right. She was speaking the truth. And she was doing more damage to the work of God than if she had kept her mouth shut. Just because you know the truth doesn't mean you have the right to speak it, because a surgeon can take a scalpel and save a life. A fool can grab the same scalpel and tear a heart apart. Make sure you're very careful. Know this is for your instruction, I don't have much time with you, and so I want to share as much as I can. Do you think I always talk this way? Do you think I'm always so rough and harsh and plow so deep? No. Do you think I counsel this way? No. Would that I could be as gentle as a kitten with gloves? I'm saying hard things because these are hard times, I feel led of the Lord to say this, but don't think you're a great preacher because you can you can hurt people. Don't think you're a great preacher because you can use words and cut right to the core of someone's heart. And don't think God's proud of you just because you can make his people feel sad. Be very careful. They are his people. He loves them dearly. You preach these things and then you go hide back in your hotel room and say, oh, God, have I done the right thing? But for you, I say, repent. Some of you Christians, listen to me. Are you professors? Listen to me. You leave here tonight and turn on televisions and watch filth that God hates, won't you? You do it. You go to movies and see things that will do nothing but blacken your soul and your mind and imprint you with images. And you'll do it in the name of Christian liberty. Some of you will dress sensually in order to attract people to things that ought not to be attracted to. You want to fit in and so you act a little more worldly than you should. Young people, turn away from these stupid things. Be covered, be holy, be chaste, be humble, be decent. I could tell you right now that the 60 year olds and above could stand up and testify to the truth that I'm going to say. The clothing that you girls and guys wear to the beach. If an unbeliever 60 years ago would have wore the same thing, the authorities would have come and either thrown them into an insane asylum or thrown them into prison. Isn't it amazing that in 60 years, Christians can openly and laughingly do what unbelievers would have been thrown in jail for doing? What have we become? And if we have fallen that far in 60 years, how far have we fallen since the fall of Adam? You know, not righteousness. You cannot understand holiness. We are people of corrupt lips and we do well among the people of corrupt lips. Don't look at other Christians to get your standard. Don't even look at preachers to get your standard. Look to the word of God. What does it say? How does the word of God tell you to live humbly and chase covered, pure, simple, kind, obedient, loving, merciful, covered? So you repeated yourself. Yes, on purpose, because it's necessary. You young people who are not wed realize this, according to the Book of Solomon, you are to be a shut up fountain in a closed garden. Your body and your heart and your emotions are not to be involved in recreational dating. You are to give your body, your heart and your emotions to only one person and you are to wait until that person comes. And just because you haven't had sex doesn't mean you're pure. Some of you need to repent of the things you're doing. breaks the heart of God and it's soiling you. Stop it. Some of you need to stop looking at things you're looking at and watching things you're watching and reading things you're reading. And some of you need to stop listening to things you're listening to, because whatever you do, you do unto the glory of God. Oh, if I had several nights, I would teach you. I'd tell you. And I'm not saying this to be mean or arrogant, I'm saying that you might not be defiled, that you might come to Christ as a pure and a chaste virgin. that you might be beautiful and spotless and white and without wrinkle. And those of you who have wrinkled yourself and soiled yourself and made yourself ugly, even in your own reflection, in your own mirror, let me tell you this, He is mighty to wash you. He is mighty to make you clean. He is mighty to give you a new life. He can save to the uttermost. He can make you pure. He can restore the years that have been lost to the locusts. He can do that. You see, this is what I want to preach all the time, but I can't preach this last few phrases without preaching all the nights that I've preached. Because you can't know grace until you understand the depth of what's really going on in this culture. I've said enough. The burden's gone for now, for this night. Think about the things that have been said. We'll give no invitation tonight. Not at all. If you're bothered about your soul, I'll speak with every one of you that need to be spoken with. Last night we were here to past 11, almost 12. We will stay again. That is our labor of love. That is what we love to do. And it is no burden for us. And if there are quite a number of people who need being spoken to, young people, I want you to know that we have other ministers here and I would call you and ask you to help. But if you want to talk tonight about the condition of your soul, if you want someone to pray with you, then what I'm going to ask is that when we dismiss that you will just come up, sit down over here, one by one, we'll take you. He said, Brother Paul, I want to talk to you. I'd love to talk to you, but I might not get to you till midnight. But I'll tell you this. There are men here who disciple me. And I've forgotten more about God than I'll ever know. So you can be entrusted to them, I can assure you, because I trust my own self to them. So we're here tonight for you. We're here tonight for you. We are. Oh, God, how much God loves you. your rebellious, fickle heart, and He loves you. Let's pray. Father, O dear God, that Your will might be done in this place. Words exhausted are only hope that Your power has done something to promote Your glory. To get glory for you, to benefit your people. Dear God, there's someone here tonight who does not know you and they have been awakened to their sin, that they would cry out to you right now, Lord, have mercy on me. That they would trust in you. For those who feel, Lord, as though they want to be saved, but they can't be saved. Oh, let them see. Let them see. That if we cannot run to you, we should walk to you. If we cannot walk to you, we should crawl to you. If we cannot crawl to you, then we should just fall in your general direction. That you're mighty to save, and all those who come to you, you will in no wise cast out. And Lord, for Christians that have been warned about stepping too close to the canyon, stepping too close to the side in which they could fall off, oh dear God, that you would put a holy fear in their lives to fear sin, to fear you, to fear themselves, their flesh, to live out their life with joy, but also with fear and trembling, knowing that it is you who works in them. O God, help us and give us wisdom. In Jesus' name, Amen.