We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. We are trouble on every side, yet not distressed, we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest and our body. I appreciate so much the opportunity to be here tonight. I appreciate the other speakers that have spoken to my heart and I appreciate the transparency and the honesty and openness with which you have shared your hearts. I feel a great burden tonight to somehow fit in with that venue and do it right. I've been praying for weeks what God would have me to say. And I want to share with you my heart tonight, as others have done. I don't think it's any accident that we men were here together this week. The workshops have been tremendously helpful to me. I'll go back to my church with information and help that I needed. And I agree with what the men said. This is a unique venue for us to be able to not have to go back to our hotels or to go eat somewhere at a restaurant, but rather to sit together. and to talk and to stay around as long as we care to and just kind of fellowship. I hate it when I go to a conference to speak and I'm kind of a hired gun. You know, you go in, you speak, and you leave. I don't like that. I'd rather be around a bit and let you get to know me and me get to know you and be able to discuss some things. I especially appreciate, given the nature of my message tonight, the young men. I've had some wonderful discussions with young men, and I am thrilled with that. I think there's great hope because of the attitude and the spirit of these young men. They're asking questions, they're questioning things, but I believe that those answers are certainly available and we should give them. Back in, oh, I suppose five or six years ago, when it became apparent that many of the young men were leaving fundamentalism, the first response seemed to be to shame these young men and to stay. And I remember hearing, reading articles and hearing messages and they were trying to shame these young men. And it never, that never sat right with me. And the thought came to me in those days as I was hearing this approach, you know, you ought to be ashamed of yourself for thinking about going, you know, fill in the blank. And I thought to myself in those days, you know, wouldn't it be wonderful if we could be the kind of men that these young men would want to be like? I look back at my life. I wish I had the time. Right now, I have eight minutes to speak, so I'm going to hurry. I look back at my life, at the people who impacted me, and I'll tell you something, folk. It was because of good and godly and strong men. And I looked at those men. I wanted to be like them. I wanted to emulate them. I could name names, and you'd know most of their names if I named their names. And I thought to myself, why can't we be that kind of man? Why can't I be that kind of man that that younger men would want to follow, that would want to be like me, that would want to follow me. And that's not arrogance, that's just understanding the dynamic of how things work. To understand me, I grew up in an interesting era. I knew, I graduated from high school in 1963, the Beatles were big, Elvis Presley. I graduated from college in 1967. I knew personally Bob Jones and John Rice and Lee Robertson and Jack Kyles and Lester Roloff and Bob Gray. These were men that I knew. I knew on a first name basis. I was with them. I spoke with them. All these men. And all of them are bigger than life. And many of you, not too many of you remember them anymore because you're younger than that, but some of these old gray heads do. And I remember those men and I remember what they were like. And I remember thinking when those men began to pass from the scene, I thought to myself, you know, maybe this is a good thing. There were many who tried to take their place. But nobody quite succeeded. You remember, some of you guys remember, the older guys, Jack Hiles had a pastor school in March. There were more church splits in the month of March than any other month in the whole history of the world. Because everybody, this is no joke guys, this is the truth, guys would go up there to Hammond, they would go home and split their churches because they tried to be like Jack Hiles. And my friend, if you ain't Jack Hiles, don't try to act like Jack Hiles. It ain't going to work for you. And we, you know, I thought, well, you know, maybe these young guys after these guys are passed away, because I was alert. I was watching, you know, who's going to take their place. And you know this, if you were around at that time, there were men who tried to and nobody, nobody resonated. And I thought, well, this is great because maybe these guys are going to come back and they're going to use the word of God as their standard. Maybe that's going to be what, you know, maybe God is taking away these leaders. so that the young men can start going back to the scriptures and using biblical models. Well, I was wrong. After floundering around with no clear leadership and nobody emerging as the new person, sadly enough, some men followed after Bill Hybels and Rick Warren. They were saying stuff, you know, they had things to say, and some some of our guys said, well, hey, we'll be like them. rather than fastening themselves to the book, rather than becoming the men of the book and letting the book be our matrix. Many of these young men turned away from traditional fundamentalism. And there was a new group of bigger than life people. It's interesting, isn't it? We turn away from one group and criticize that group and then pick another group that's just like them or worse. Names like John Piper, C.J. Mahaney, Al Mohler, Mark Devers, John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, and amazingly, Mark Driscoll. And I say to myself, how strange is that? That these younger men were so critical and are critical and still are critical of these other men and their failures and their foibles and yet they're willing to follow these other men who have just as many. There's a book that I would highly recommend to you written by a man named Colin Hansen. It's called Young, Restless, Reformed. As a matter of fact, this sermon is titled The Young and the Restless. That's a soap opera, by the way. Colin Hansen writes for Christianity Today. He chronicled what is attractive to the young men about the Calvinistic movement. What is attractive about the Reformed movement? Why are these young men attracted to the names that I have read? Colin Hansen quotes Josh Harris, who is also one of those men, the young men read after. Here's what he said. I wonder, this is Josh Harris, I wonder if some of the appeal of Calvinism and the trend isn't a reaction to the watered down vision of God That's been portrayed in evangelical, seeker-friendly churches. I'm not trying to knock them, I just think that there's such a hunger for a transcendent and for a God who is not just sitting around waiting for us to show up so the party can get started. Young men respond to that. Something inside of young men say, you know what, this party stuff, that doesn't make it. Let's do another statement. Teenagers who grew up with buddy Jesus in the youth group don't know much about Father God. We've dumbed down the gospel and dumbed down worship in a good effort to reach so many people as we can, there's almost a backlash. All of that resonates deeply with a kind of pastoral reform position that Piper articulates so well. Much of what the young men are reacting against, of course, there are things they heard, they were not alive and alert at that time, even things that they imagined. But to those men, that imagination, that becomes reality, that perception becomes reality. The fundamentalism that they portray, and I read what they write, is really a cartoon of fundamentalism. It isn't really fundamentalism at all. It's how they imagine it to be. There were obviously excesses. I could tell you stories more than you ever knew because I saw a lot of those things. But there were excesses in any generation. And believe me, there are excesses in this generation also. But you know, People who weren't alive in that era forget this. During that era of fundamentalism, there were tens of thousands of souls saved. There were great churches built. Christian colleges and universities were filled with students. Missionaries, evangelists were sent to the mission field by those men in those churches in those days. There was a passion to reach the lost. Did we do things in an excessive way? Yes, probably so. Were there things we could have done better? Absolutely. But don't forget that it is difficult and impossible to judge a generation unless you live through it. And I can tell you there were godly people there. And there were a lot of good things done. And I want to say to you that the things that we had in that generation is missing from this generation. And one of the main things is this, the passion for the lost has been replaced by academic discussion. Academic discussion is the reason to be. We gather in great groups to discuss theology. We used to gather in great groups to plan our strategy for reaching the lost. The young men who fled fundamentalism and who are fleeing fundamentalism in increasing numbers have run right past a biblical position into the arms of John Piper. And I'm not making John Piper the enemy, I'm only saying that he represents the other side of the spectrum. And many, many young men are leaving our movement and going in that direction. Pull on my prophet's robes for just a moment. I think I probably am old enough to do that. I believe that we're on the verge of a great reshuffling in America. In the 1920s, the last time this happened, if you were to read history, you would find that in the 1920s were when the people left in droves the denomination. The fundamentalists were tired of the schools that did not preach the gospel. They were tired of mission boards that were not reaching the lost. There were publications. All these things did not suit this new modern generation. And that's where the strength of fundamentalism began. And for 90 years, that division has formed the face of religion in America. We are what we are today. because of what happened in 1920. And we're just about to see that again. The institutions, the fellowships, the publishing houses, the camps that have served us well for all these years are no longer relevant. And you're going to see, if I'm right, a great reshuffling. People are going to make some drastic and dramatic changes. Part of that is because many of these institutions have spurned their friends. They're trying to please their distractors. They're trying to please their critics. They're trying to be to them what they want. Let me tell you something. If you're if you're tempted to do that, they are never going to support you. They're never going to send kids to your school. They're never going to support your missionaries. They're not going to do it. They don't like you. And if you try to please them, all you're going to do is alienate your friends. Now, I know none of you are old enough to remember, but if you were, I recommend, if you are tempted in that direction, that you study the history of Highland Park Baptist Church and Tennessee Temple University. There are godly missionaries all over the world. I run into them all the time. Pastors, preachers, evangelists from Tennessee Temple University. I had the opportunity a few years ago. I guess it was an opportunity. I preached there for three days. That was kind of interesting. And I was I was embarrassed. If there were 300 students there, that would be surprising. I never saw 300 students at one time. Dorms were closed up, boarded up. The church is now Southern Baptist. Can you hear Dr. Robertson rolling over in his grave? That was a godly man and a man that people venerated. But I want you to remember something. When the new pastor came into that church and took over that school, they pushed Dr. Robertson aside. And the alumni never forgot it and they left it and there were no supporters and the place died. And I'm afraid we're about to see another reshuffling. I was in Brazil last year, and I'm not picking on colleges. I'm saying this is true about anything, but I was going to tell you this story. I was in Brazil last year. I spoke for the Southern Regional Meeting of the Baptist Admissions. The Alexanders were there in that meeting, wherever they had moved to. They're back there. And I said the first week, I said, I'm here all week. I can discuss theology. I can discuss music. I can discuss most anything. Come see me. I'll be around all week long. You know what they want to talk about? Colleges. Here's what they said. We've heard stories. Where do we send our kids? We're in Brazil. Where do we send our kids? You know, we know where we went, but do we send our kids there? I mean, that was what they wanted to talk about. Now, that ought to scare you to death. These are missionaries, people on the front line serving God. We are about to see many, many institutions and groups die. Pillsbury closed up this year. I was told by a graduate, the Baptist Bible College in Springfield probably will not open in the fall. Heard that just within the last two or three weeks. There is a reshuffling there already. The cracks are beginning to be seen. The changes are beginning to take place. So we're going to we're going to see some amazing things the next 10 years, things that we never would have thought. I want to talk tonight about rather than I'm taking off my prophet's robe now without talking about the way I think things are going to be talk about some things that we can do. How can we preserve our heritage? I've got two sons. One of them is here tonight. I have another son who's a Christian school administrator in Nashville. I'm concerned about this generation. Besides that, I've got eight grandchildren. And I want to know where they're going to go to school. I want to know what camp they're going to attend. I want to know what literature they're going to read. What are they going to join? What's going to be there for them? How can we inspire a new generation? How can we be the kind of men that the young men in our church will say, I want to be like that? That's what I want to do. I spoke at a Christian college one time a number of years ago now, and they were very gracious to me. I enjoyed it. I appreciated the opportunity to be there. I was sitting on the platform, and something didn't seem right to me. I just didn't feel comfortable. I couldn't tell what it was. It wasn't the music or anything. I just didn't feel good. I started looking around on the platform, and I said to myself, there's not one man on this platform that I'd want to be like. That bothered me. You listening? That bothered me. Now, I understand the excesses of those who are larger than life and who tried to be something they were not, but there ought to be something in us. That would cause young men to want to be like us. The Apostle Paul to Timothy, whom he greatly loved. Said evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. So what's the answer? Continue, thou, in things thou hast learned. Now listen, it has been assured of, knowing whom thou hast learned them. And from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which were able to make thee wise unto salvation. Paul's answer for a period of deception. Was to go back to who taught you and remember them and remember their life and remember who they were and what they did and don't turn away from that. I've been praying for a while. For a new generation of men, a new generation of preachers, pretty much my generation dropped the ball. And many of you young men are struggling, many of the young men and many of the other young men who would not be at a conference like this are struggling because we were not what we should have been. And we did not provide the leadership that they needed and the kind of men, we were not the kind of men they wanted to emulate. If you were to read Young Russell's reform, You would find the great attraction is the humility and approachability and genuineness of those men. That's how they see them. I'm afraid in some ways we might have failed, but I'm praying for a new generation of men who fear only God. Who fear only God. As Tom Farrell says, nothing to prove, one person to please. I want to see a young man who stand absolutely on the word of God. The first Baptist distinctive in every Baptist distinctive book is the Bible is our only rule of faith and practice. I'm praying for a generation of young men who will again regain that passion to reach the lost world for Christ. There's a world that needs a gospel. There are men and women around us in our neighborhoods, in our communities, as well as across the ocean that need to hear the gospel. You know what? I was talking to a missionary just the other day from China. He said to me, you know what the passion of the Chinese house churches is? I said, no, tell me. He says, they want to reach the Muslim world for Christ. He said, let me tell you why. Because they're not afraid. I mean, they're going to die all the time anyway. You know, they're under persecution. So to them, what does it matter if I die over there or die here? Who cares? He said, let me tell you something interesting. He said the Chinese government is sponsoring a program whereby Chinese citizens can go to other countries and start businesses, and the Chinese government will pay for it and protect them. And he says the house church christeners jump all over that. Isn't that amazing? Taking the gospel to the world, not afraid. And somebody said it the other day, and I thought, we have a young missionary who is going to, dare I say, this is going to be on tape, I can't say it. She's going to someplace where there's a war going on. A single girl, a nurse, a girl in that organization was killed last year, 2008. And she's ready to go, she's eager to go. She's not afraid. Hallelujah. And a group of young men who will reflect God's grace and power, the humble obedience, humility, approachability, authenticity. So what kind of preacher do we need to be? Turn if you would please to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. This is my ministry philosophy passage. Paul says in verse number one, therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. Does it amaze you that you have a ministry? Last Sunday morning, I was in the pulpit. I'm looking at this crowd of people. I'm preaching. And they're sitting on the edge of their seats. They're leaning up. And they're writing stuff down. And I said to myself, how strange is this? How strange is this? They are listening to me. I told them earlier, you know, I've been in the church 19 years, I am marrying kids now performing ceremonies for kids that I'm the only pastor they have ever known in their life. And I'm going to send them out into the world and what they don't know, I haven't taught them. Is that awesome to you? And notice this, we have received a ministry. Paul is talking to the elders of Ephesus. Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. And feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. Wow. You think of the sovereign Jehovah God putting you over a part of his church which he bought with his own blood. That should drive us to our knees every day of our life. When we stand up in that pulpit and we open this book and those dear people whom God put under our charge are sitting there listening to us and writing down our words and quoting them back to us, how amazing is that? We have this ministry. There are men in my church who would give anything in the world to get to do what I get to do. I mean, they would do anything just to get to do what I get to do. But God didn't call them to do it. Not there. I can say this, my life is so much better than anything I could have ever imagined at 16 when I gave my life to God. I mean, back then I said, Lord, you know, any place, anywhere, anytime, Don't care about the money, doesn't matter to me. Don't care about the crowd, doesn't matter to me. And it really doesn't. It never has. And I thought, you know, poverty, poor place, nothing to do. I mean, I really thought that. That's why I figured. Listen, folks, my life has been so much better than any. I could not have imagined the life that I have. The grace of God. And he says we've received mercy. Let me show you something, guys. The God who exercises or gives us his mercy. is the only reason we're in the pulpit. Do you know that God protects us when we're weak? You guys ever weak? Have you ever come to a place you could have messed up your life and that quick? It happens all the time, doesn't it? And if it didn't happen to you and it didn't happen to me, it was because of the mercy of God. The word mercy as differentiated from the word grace. Mercy is God's benevolence toward his pitiful creatures. How many of us qualify? That's what I thought. I know I do. We have a ministry. You know, Jim Berg said this. He said, all God has to do to judge us is leave us alone. You know, that's absolutely true. And the fact that you're here today, God hasn't left you alone. Don't ever get over that. If you stand up tomorrow night in your church or Sunday morning or whenever you stand up and people are there and they listen to you, you thank God for that. There are men all over the world who would die to do what we get to do. Because of God's mercy, we have a ministry. The qualities that were mentioned in the book, as I said, were humility and genuineness. What right have we to be proud? If you get proud, read 1 Corinthians 1. God had not chosen many mighty people, many gifted people. He chooses common people. Why does God choose common people? Because if anything good happens, we know it came from God. If we're greatly talented and have great gifts of oratory and all kinds of intellect, then there's apt to be a transference of glory to us instead of God. And God wants the glory. And then he says, because of these things, we faint not. Don't you dare quit. I was a student at Bob Jones Back in the Old Testament, Dr. Bob Senior was still preaching my first two years. That's how old I am. You can guess how old I am, but I graduated from college in 1967. And every Christmas, he'd preach a message before Christmas. He preached two messages before Christmas every year. One was on the dog returning to his vomit. Oh, and he made it graphic. But there was another one he preached. And he preached on this text, anyone putting his hand to the plow and looking back, what's the rest of that, is not fit for the kingdom of God. He said, some of you people, you're leaving this school and you're not going to come back. And you're riding a train home and those wheels are turning. I want you to hear this. You ain't fit. You ain't fit. You ain't fit. You ain't fit. You ain't fit. That was over 40 years ago. I never forgot it. Because he that putteth his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God. Our God deserves better than that. God never promises a harvest. He promised there'll be a harvest. He didn't promise it to me. God never promised it an easy road. He promised strength of the way. He promised grace for the trials. Bible says, be not weary in well doing. For in due season. We shall reap if we faint not. Verse number two says we renounce the hidden things of dishonesty. Not walking in craftiness. We only have one agenda. And that's God's agenda. Don't want anything else. I don't want anything he don't want me to have. I want to do what he wants. We have one goal, and that goal is to bring glory to God. Paul says that I live in such a way that I want Christ to be seen through me. That should be our only goal. We have one method, and that is God's power. This verse tells us we must be preachers of the truth and not manipulators of the people. We fundamentalists must accept the fact That we're not Rick Warren. We're not John Piper. We're not. We will not be those men. There are reasons we're not those men. First of all, we're not gifted like they are primarily. But we will not do what they do. And in our ministry, if God does not work, nothing good is going to happen. My goals. And my ambitions. My dreams. Even the hard work I do on behalf of the gospel will merely be a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal apart from the blessing of God. There is no five year plan, no study course, no theological system that is a substitute for the power of God's presence. Nothing. My friend, if we have the power of God and his presence in our services, that's all we need. I mean, whatever else happens is superfluous to that. Not handling the Word of God deceitfully. The second thing we're going to have, besides a huge reshuffling, I'm putting on my prophet's robes again, we're going to have a discussion, a new discussion of inerrancy. A new discussion of inerrancy. Is the Bible the Word of God? Is it our final rule of faith and practice? I was on a trip to Israel in January. We had on our trip a rabbi, a Jewish rabbi. I love that. I got a chance for 10 days to ask him questions, and I love doing that. I asked him one day, I said, Haim, do you Orthodox, who's Orthodox, do you accept the Bible as your rule? Here's what he said to me. Now listen carefully to what I'm saying here. We accept the Bible as it has been interpreted by the rabbis. Are you listening? We accept the Bible as it has been interpreted by the rabbis. What is the most familiar New Testament verse that every child in Sunday school learns? John 3, 16. Now listen to the preacher. For God so loved the cosmos. Well, it doesn't really mean that. You know, he only loves the elect. He doesn't love everybody that whosoever believeth. Well, it doesn't mean really whosoever. You got to understand, you know, it doesn't really mean that. Now, listen to me, we tell our people, read the Bible. Study the Bible. Trust the Bible. And then we tell them it doesn't say what it means. So would it be fair to say that many in our movement say we accept the Bible as interpreted by John Calvin, John Piper, C.J. Mahaney? We're going to have another inerrancy debate. Does the Bible say what it means or does it not? And my friend, it does. Even if this poor guy in the pew has not been to seminary and he has not read Grudem's It's systematic theology. A person ought to be able to understand the Bible because God gave it to us to understand. And He didn't make it so that it pretends to say something and doesn't say it and says something else. Oh man, I could go on that for a while, but some of you are already nervous, and I'll just back off of that a little bit. Why don't you turn to the book of, where did I write it down here? I get to preaching and I forget my notes, that's a terrible thing, isn't it? 2 Corinthians, chapter 11. If you're in 2 Corinthians already, go to chapter 11. Let me show you what Paul said. 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, in verse number 3. But I fear, Paul said, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, and if you have received another spirit which you have not received, or another gospel which you have not accepted, that you might well bear with him." Paul said, I'm afraid that somebody is going to come in and twist you to the point that you lose the simplicity in Christ. Listen, if we can't tell our people to go to this book and read it and believe it for what it says, they've taken away the book and they've taken away the gospel and they've taken away my ministry. I don't have anything but this. And if I can't say to a simple Christian, read this book, it's God's word, it'll tell you what to do. If they got to wait for me to tell them that I've messed it up. Let me say one other thing, I was going to get away from it, but I can't. I'm way over time, but I started late. Who was Charles Spurgeon's successor at Metropolitan Tabernacle? You don't know, do you? Who succeeded Calvin in Geneva? Who succeeded John Knox in Scotland? Who succeeded Jonathan Edwards in Massachusetts. Well, actually, John there was a good few times at his church. Now, let me show you something. Calvinism has never, in the history of the world, history of Christianity, survived the generation of charismatic leaders. It's never happened. When Spurgeon died, Spurgeon taught 600 preachers himself. Many of us have read lectures to my students. He taught 600 preachers. 50 years after Spurgeon was dead, the Baptist movement in England was also dead. Who succeeded him? It was A.T. Pearson. You didn't know that. I did because I read the book. But the point is, who succeeded Martin Luther? Every single time in history, you have these charismatic leaders come to the fore, and they build this huge movement. And when they die, and when they die, The movement dies. And here's the reason. Listen to me. This is important because the theology will not support church growth and evangelism. It will not do it. If you believe the doctrine, if you believe the theology, you will not win souls. In spite of what others say, that has always happened. Find me a history. Any place has ever been an exception. It never has. If I'm true, if I'm right. And many, many of our fundamentalist young men are being drawn off into that movement and committed to it. Then when these men, these luminaries die off, so will the movement and so will they. And what will we be left with? Somebody had better start speaking out instead of just being swept. Somebody better get up and say, hey, wait a minute, guys, we're making a mistake here. Have you thought about Listen, if we believe the eternal decrees of God. Which is which is the step before total depravity. Then we believe that God preordained every act and every decision and every thought made from the creation of the world to the end of history. And if you believe that. Then God is the author of sin. And if God is the author of sin, he is not holy. And if God is not holy, then we're not saved. I know it's quiet in here, goodness. Would you get the car running, dear? When I get through, I'm going to... A week ago Saturday, I got a phone call from one of our church members who has a 17-year-old son. He said to me, Pastor, David is really upset. He said he's not saved and he wants to come and see you. He said, you know, he's made a profession of faith, but he just doesn't feel like he's really saved. I had a decision to make right then. I could have said, well, the problem is he's not one of the elect. He can ask all he wants to. He can pray all he wants to. He's not going to get saved. He's not one of the elect. Or I could have said, you know what? David probably never has really trusted Christ. Let me meet him over at the office and talk to him. Well, you can think about whatever you want to think about me, but I'll tell you something. I was in that office that day, and I talked to David. And David, in tears and humbly humility, he told me, I said, David, he doesn't know, I can't tell you the whole story. What do you have to do to make things right? He said, I got to do this, this and this. Sounds like salvation to me. And the next morning, the next morning, I'm standing at the front, morning service. He comes walking to the back door with this huge smile on his face. You know, by the way, he was one of the elect. But do you understand how my theology affects my ministry? I didn't have to question, I just said, hey, I'll meet you when you want to get there, I'll be there. One doctrine. Our philosophy, our sermons, our truth. Must rise from the text. Back in the old days. People read a text and departed from it. I remember one time, I spoke at a college one time, and the guy in front of me said, here was this text, remember the things that are old. And he preached on, he told for 45 minutes bus captain stories. And the young men reject that. It doesn't have anything to do with that text, or they use some text that doesn't say anything about what they're talking about, and they go off and preach a message on it. And the young men listen to that and they go, what's that? But we have to start with a text and we have to say, God, what does the text say? What's in here? What do you want me to say to your people? What is it in here that you wanted? You directed my mind here. What do you want me to say? The truth must rise from the text. And Paul says in chapter four, we don't handle the word of God deceitfully. We're not trying to impose a system on the Word of God. We're not trying to impose our thoughts. I'm not trying to prove some point by selecting Scripture. I'm letting the Scripture, the truth of the Scripture, rise from the text. But by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience and sight of God. I worked at a Christian school one time, I found a teacher's manual. A teacher's manual, you know, about how you're supposed to do things. And this teacher's manual, it was a section written by the pastor. And here's where it said, and I'm not making this up, it really happened. It said, only one that's allowed to throw fits around here is me, the preacher. You're telling teachers, you've got to be nice. You've got to treat everybody nice. You've got to be professional. But I'm allowed to throw fits. How pitiful is that? If anybody ought to act in a biblical way and be kind and thoughtful, it ought to be the preacher. Is that all the amen I get out of that one? Isn't that the truth? Paul said the reason we're believable is because we are commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. I know we shy away from that, it sounds arrogant, but what we're saying is, you look at me, I'll show you what it means to model the Word of God. That's why, by the way, when he puts a qualification for preachers, he says this, if you don't know how to run your house, how in the world are you going to run the church of God? We show every day what we're supposed to do. Last week we had an ordination, two of our assistant pastors were ordained last Sunday night. And one of the men on the council made this comment, I thought it was a profound comment. He says, our position gives us authority. Our life gives us influence. Isn't that a good statement? I mean, I'm the preacher. They're going to be kind of nice to me because, you know, I'm the preacher. But how are they going to follow me? Well, if my life demands that. If my life lives up to what I preach, then they will do, they will follow my life. Paul says, till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Meditate on these things, give thyself wholly to them that by profiting may appear to all. Timothy, you're a young man. Your credibility, your authenticity will come as they see you not preaching the word, but obeying the word as they see you doing what you say and keeping your family right and doing the right thing. And as so many older men have reminded you this week, young men, that only happens in the private place. It only happens as you spend time with God. Take heed to thyself and to the doctrine, continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt save thyself and them that hear thee. Our moral authority to say, thus saith the Lord. When we stand in that pulpit and we say, this is the word of God, this is what God says, comes from a consistent life. If we're not different than our congregation, then we have absolutely nothing to say to them that will have any meaning. It says, if our gospel be hid, verse three, it is hid from them that are lost. From the God of this world who has blinded the mind to them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shatter them. We have supernatural work to do. Don't mistake, folks, plans Ideas, hard work will not do anything of eternal value unless God comes in and puts his breath on it. Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, fleshly, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. If we try to wage spiritual warfare using carnal methods, we fail every time. We will be frustrated. We will be ineffective. We might see results in numbers, but we will not see results in changed lives, for only God can change a life. I was visiting Andy Bonikowski. Some of you may know Andy from Spain, the Basque region of Spain. First time I ever met Andy. And we were talking about ministry, and I'd supported his dad and mom for years and didn't know Andy at all. He said something to me that day that impacted my life and impacted today. He said, Pastor, I may never see the harvest, but God has promised the harvest. He said, if I don't see the harvest, my sons will see the harvest. And then he said, I have found joy in sowing. Are any of you embarrassed like me? who feel bad on Monday morning if some dramatic thing didn't happen, where is the joy in the sowing? He's the Lord of harvest. We need to accept that. He's the one who sends the fruit. He is the one in charge of harvest. We're in charge of laboring. And we sow the seed. And then the emphasis of what we've said often this week, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. In the face of Jesus Christ. This thing, you said it that way in it, the knowledge of God, where in the face of Jesus, you spend time with him, you draw close to him. First of all, when you do other people know that they notice it. And secondly, you learn about God. He that has seen me, he said, has seen the father. Acts 14, 13 says this, now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. And they took knowledge of them that they'd been with Jesus. I doubt very seriously if our critics anymore could accuse us of being ignorant and unlearned men. But I wonder if they take knowledge of us that we've been with Jesus. had a great failure. But he was in the mountain giving the Ten Commandments. The people under Aaron's leadership built him a calf, and they made themselves naked before the calf. You know the story. But that's not the part of the story I want to show you tonight. God comes to Moses in chapter 33 of Exodus, and he says this. He says, Moses, I'm not going to go with you anymore. I'm done. I'm done with you. I'm going to send an angel. He'll he'll he'll go before you and he'll drive out the people. But I'm not going to go with anymore. Now, I personally believe God was testing Moses in the most important area of his life. Right where he test us. A lady in our church Sunday night sang this song in the song, it had it had these words, I want to seek your face before I seek your hand. And Moses said this, God said, OK, I'm not going to go to send an angel. Here's what Moses said. If you're not going to go, don't send me. I don't want your miracles. I don't want your angels. I don't want your power, Lord. What I want is You. For you see, when we have God with us, we have power. We have His angels. We have His provision. The song says, no water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth and skies. And Moses said, I want one more thing, God. You know, it was an amazing relationship they had, wasn't it? He said, I want one more thing. I want to see your glory. Oh, my friend. Oh, my dear friends. We need to see God's glory. We need to stop living in the lowlands and scratching around in the dirt. and realize we're serving the God of heaven. And we need to see His glory all over again, and we need to show that glory to our people. They need to see it in our lives, in our faces, in our sermons, in the way we treat them. They need to see a preacher who's changing and growing, a teacher who's becoming like Christ. And I'll guarantee you, if we became those kind of men, we would have young men following us. We have this treasure in earthen vessels. that the actions of the glory of God and not of us. You know, that pleases God. We don't have much to offer, but all we need to offer is ourselves. I was in Israel in January. There were two things that made an amazing impact. I was surprised. First of all, I never wanted to go to Israel much. I just didn't want to go. One reason I didn't want to go, I didn't know who to go with, and I got this opportunity to go with the Department of Tourism, probably not a good decision, but I went. We were in Caiaphas' house, and Caiaphas' house, below the main floor, there's a dungeon, a place there, not a dungeon, it's a place where they tortured the prisoners. I just preached to his son, he used to go in Caiaphas' house and showed pictures of that place where they beat Jesus and said, if you're a prophet, tell us who hit you, remember that? And then there's a dungeon beneath that floor. And there's a hole in the floor. And the prisoners were let down by rope through the hole into the dungeon. So remember, our Lord was in the upper room shortly, probably at sundown. He goes out to Gethsemane and prays. Then he's arrested and goes to Caiaphas. So we're probably talking midnight or somewhere in that range. And he's tried before Caiaphas. It was an illegal trial, of course. The Sanhedrin, by the way, met in the courtyard of the temple. They didn't meet at night. But they beat him, and they let him down through that hole into that dungeon. Well, they have made a door into that dungeon where you can go in there now. So we went into the dungeon. We all kind of stood around the wall. And our guide, who, by the way, was a Jew, not a saved Jew, he said, why don't y'all sing a song? And we sang, How Great Thou Art. I'm a young preacher. I couldn't get on the floor myself. I probably would have this young preacher with us There was only 10 of us there. He laid on the floor. Oh, heavens. Don't we need to do that? To humble ourselves before our great God? To realize that my Savior was let down by a rope into that dungeon. He kept there all night. It was cold. It was damp. The next day, I went over to Gethsemane, across the Brook Kidron, just like you pictured. It's amazing. It's a beautiful place. churches, kind of dress that up and put a wall around it. It's very lovely, very beautiful. Old trees there that they say are probably as old as when Christ was there. We had the devotion there. I was able to give the devotion in that place. Then afterwards, we all separated and kind of went off our own ways to contemplate that place by ourselves, just by ourselves. And I went over Down by the wall, there was a wall around it. I went over by the wall. There's a chair there, and I sat against the chair, leaned against the wall. And I began to think of what God has done for me. I have served the Lord for 43 years. What an amazing thing that is. You don't know me like I know me, and that's an amazing thing. I have a great church that loves me. I have kids who love God. And I thought to myself, you know, Lord, you have done so much for me. My life has been so much better than I could have ever thought it could be. And right there by that wall, in my mind, I built a little altar. And I said, Lord, I don't know how much longer I'm going to have. We could go at any time, any of us could. But right now, I want to consecrate myself again to you today. I want to tell you that you can do anything with me that you want to do. I will trust my life and my future and my family into your benevolent hands. Do with me as you will." And I meant that. Men, I think it's important that we build altars from time to time. Sometimes we get up off the altar, don't we? I think we need to build an altar. We need to say to God all over again, Lord, you have been so gracious to me. Whatever there is of me and whatever is there left of my opportunity. You'll have all of it. I'll serve you as long as you give me breath. Because he deserves it, doesn't he?