Chapter 14 of Exodus, verse 15. Go forward. The command of Jehovah to Moses in a day of difficulty and in a day of confrontation. I believe that God would say that to us today, called of God in Ulster, to stand outside the camp of ecumenical apostasy, and to stand for everything that God is for, and against everything that God Almighty is against. Now, there are some people in our land who do not want the Free Presbyterian Church to go forward. They would like the Free Presbyterian Church to come down into the arena of arid controversy, and fight the children of God, and fight their brethren, and not fight the devil's crowd, not fight the challenge of ecumenism and Romanism, and not preach the everlasting gospel of the Son of God. I am reminded of Nehemiah. He had a job to do. And the enemy said, come down off the wall. Stop the work. Let's have a conference in the valley of Ono. And Nehemiah said, Ono to Ono. He said, I'm not going down. Why should the work cease? When I come down to you, so fill it with the Lord. Go forward. And I believe we need to keep to the example that's given to us in the Scriptures of truth. Could I suggest to you today that this command, go forward, came from heaven, It was extracted by prayer. Turn over with me to verse 10 of the 14th chapter. And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. And they were sore afraid, and the children of Israel cried out, unto the Lord. Let me tell you, dear believer, the enemy will still be marching after you. They thought that Egypt was left behind, Pharaoh was forgotten, his chariots and horsemen. As far as they were concerned, that confrontation was past. The confrontation with the Lord's enemies is never over. If you think the pre-Presbyterian church is now going to settle down in its leaves, and we're just going to sit back, and we're going to on Sunday morning do that, and on Sunday night do that, you have another thing coming to you. The battle is going to be fiercer, the battle is going to be harder, the battle is going to be tougher in the coming day. As we near the glorious advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, the forces of Antichrist will be marshalling all their power to stifle the faithful witness of Jesus Christ on the earth. So we have a battle. It would be very easy for the Free Presbyterian Church to go with a tie. I go to America quite often. And I go to great churches that had great fighters who founded them. But today the fight's out of them. And they have substituted for simple gospel preaching a whole series of gimmicks. How sad it is. And they have substituted for the old time permitting a whole series of publicity stunts. Men falling from airplanes and parachuting down into the church grounds to gather a crowd. An invitation that if you bring someone to church, you'll get a goldfish. And if enough people bring fifty people to church, the pastor will swallow the goldfish. Yes, you laugh, but that's what fundamentalism has come to in some of the great churches that were founded by God's men a generation ago. And then there are other churches, and they have got caught up in the most arid of controversy. And they're not sure whether a person can really be seen. They're not sure of that. They're not sure whether a gospel preacher has any right to say to sinners, come to Christ and he will save you. They know nothing about the simplicity of the gospel. I want to make it clear to you today that as far as the great controversy between Arminianism And Calvinism is concerned. This church takes the Calvinistic viewpoint. We hold to the great truths of the Reformation. We hold to those doctrines of grace. Heavily set forth in the Westminster Confession of Faith. We hold that the supreme rule of faith and practice is God's Word, and there is none other. And we all know that. But let me tell you this. that the theological position that this church takes, and let me make it clear, is the theological position taken by the great evangelists of the past. And I'm talking about George Whitefield, whose Calvinism was unquestioned. I'm talking about C. H. Spurgeon, whose Calvinism was unquestioned. I'm talking about Robert Murray McSheehan, whose Calvinism was unquestioned. In fact, the greatest revivals that the Church of Jesus Christ have ever had were led by men who stand for these great doctrines of evangelical truth. there was the mighty fire of the Holy Ghost. With them was the baptizing power of the Spirit of God, and with them was the heaven's presentation of the whole divine revelation of this book. And a young man came to me some time ago, and he said to me, Mr. Paisley, any man who makes a gospel appeal has added to the gospel, and God's curse is upon you." I looked at him. I said, I haven't heard of but many people been saved through your ministry. He said, that's not the question. There should be no gospel of peace. I said, what about the great man in the past? Oh, none of them ever knew the gospel of peace. Well, of course, he was showing his ignorance. He not only was showing his ignorance, but he was showing his stupidity. Because let me tell you, one of the greatest preachers he ever led. And I said to this young man, he said, tell me, would you say Paul was a Calvinist? Oh, yes. I would admit Paul was sound. I said, I'm glad to know it. It's nice to know that you're prepared to declare that the Apostle Paul was sound. Well, I said, now I want to look at his ministry. He went to Ephesus. He was there for three years. Tell me, how did he preach? He warned men, listen to it, Acts 20, day and night with tears. Are you going around with tears? Have you ever wept over a lost soul? Have you ever cried over a man in the pew that's going to a never-ending hell? Have you ever spent a night in your knees to weep for a soul that's lost? I want to read you what the great C. H. Spurgeon said, and I make no apology. I believe in the Spurgeon tradition. Page six of this book, Searchlight and Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Own Words. I believe most firmly in the doctrines commonly called Calvinist, and I hold them to be very fraught with comfort to God's people. But if any man shall say that the preaching of these is the whole preaching of the gospel. I am at issue with him. Brethren, you may preach those doctrines as long as you like, and yet fail to preach the gospel. I'm glad I didn't say that. If I said that, some people would say I was a heretic. I'm glad Spurgeon said that. Good to find out what these men really believe. I will go farther. and affirm that some who have even denied those truths to our great grief have nevertheless been gospel preachers for all that, and God has saved souls by their ministry. The fact is that while the doctrines of election, final perseverance, and so on go to make up a complete ministry and are invaluable in their place, Yet the soul and morrow of the gospel is not there, but is to be found in the great fact that God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, and so on. Preach Christ, young man, if you want to win souls. That's what Spurgeon said. And I want to say from this pulpit, the free church is going to continue to preach Christ. We're not going to bamboozle people with theological arguments. We're going to preach the simplicity of the gospel. And I want to say to you today, from the depths of my heart, that our business is to say we preach Christ crucified. For in that gospel there is power to regenerate the utterly depraved heart of man and make him a new creature in Christ Jesus. And I want to tell you, I praise God when man and woman are saved. I praise God when sinners come to the cross. I praise God when I see poor, lost, guilty, hell-deserving man and woman coming down the aisle and saying, I will take Jesus as my Savior. That is the great end of the ministry, and that is the great purpose of this church. We have come out of apostasy, not as an end in itself, but in order that we might do the business of God in the evangelization of the lost. That's the whole purpose of the church. There are some brethren, good brethren in Christ, who do not see things as we see them. And there has risen today a race of men who say, if you don't dot my I's and stroke my T's, then I will separate from you. I will have no fellowship with you. And if anybody fellowships with a person that doesn't take their own rigid dogmatic stand, then they immediately excommunicate them. We have the instance of Jack Glass. He sees through a glass darkly, and when he sees through the glass darkly, excommunicates all he don't see with him. If he thinks, I'm going to waste my time, answering this strange allegations hurled at me continually in the Scottish Protestant view, he has another thing coming to him. I have these papers. I notice that every evil thing ever said about me by a Sunday newspaper he prints in full. He photographs it and prints it in full as an attack on the credibility, integrity, honesty of this preacher. If that's what he thinks is contending for the faith, he can do so. I will be going on with my gospel ministry. I will be going on with the preaching of the fuller gospel of Jesus Christ. I shall not be wasting my ammunition upon those petty people who feel it is their job to hinder the work of God. I will be training the gospel done on the enemies of Christ, on the enemies of truth, on the enemies of unrighteousness, and on the enemies of evil. And so will this church, God being our help. Of course I can fellowship with an Arminian. I may feel that my position is more scriptural and better than him, but I'm not going to excommunicate him. If he's washed in the blood of the Lamb, saved by the grace of God, and believes in this Bible from cover to cover, and has separated it from apostasy, thank God I can fellowship with him, and I will fellowship with him. Spurgeon brought Nothominians to his own pulpit. This is what the great Spurgeon said. Those who hold the eternal verities of salvation, and yet do not see all that we believe and embrace are by no means the objects of our opposition. They are to these men that have been raised up today. Our warfare is with men who are giving up the atoning sacrifice, denying the inspiration of Holy Scripture, casting slurs upon justification by faith. The present struggle is not a debate. upon the question of Calvinism or Arminianism, but of the truth of God versus the inventions of man. All who believe the gospel should unite against that modern thought which is the deadly enemy of our souls. And I would like to re-echo that from this book. I say to all men who believe in the infallibility of the book, All men that believe in the virgin birth and the full deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. All men that believe in the vicarious death and substitutionary atonement of the Savior and His bodily resurrection from the dead and His coming again in power and great glory. All men that believe that man, deprived by sin, need to be born again by the Holy Spirit of the wood gap to heaven. All men that believe in what Thomas Chalmers said were the grand peculiarities of the gospel, the great fundamental principles of Christianity. All such men should unite today. And if I see another regiment in God's army giving the devil a hot time, I tend to cheer them on as I go into the battle. I'm not going to turn my guns on them. You know, we have a race risen up in our land. You call them usites. Remember there was a fellow casting out devils, and Peter and John rebuked him because he followed not us, the Ussites. Now, we're not to rebuke them. The Lord said, Rebuke him not! Rebuke him not! And I'm not going to rebuke my brethren who are fighting the same battle as I am fighting. I am going to strengthen their hand in the feet. May the Lord deliver us from thinking that we only are doing God's work. God help the world if these men are the only men that are doing God's work. The love of many see you. Let me tell you this, Spurgeon said, we can argue other points and maintain Christian harmony at the same time. But with those who treat the Bible as we as people and regard the death of Christ as no substitution, we can have no fellowship. And those words of Spurgeon I would adopt as a motto of our own church. This is where we stand, brethren. God is saying to us to go forth. What, of course, amazes me about these brethren is their tendency to weaken in the great cause of separation. Where do I find those that associate with them preaching and are welcome to their conference meetings and their movements? I find them preaching in churches in the world. Council of churches. That's where I find them. They say we are here to return to the Reformed faith. Well, a man who has returned to the Reformed faith will not be in an apostate church. He'll be outside the camp. And I want to make that clear. And what is more, some of them who are healed are spokesmen for this movement. were actually in an apostate cathedral recently on the invitation from an ecumenical preacher who also invited a Roman Catholic cardinal. And the leader of the Reformed, Pius I of their spokesmen, he was sitting with a Roman Catholic cardinal at a special ecumenical service. Glory to God, I'll not be in that company. In love with the company, I'll be. People will be soft on the issues, and they will run off and major on minors. Brethren, we have a task to do. Some young people, you know, think they know all about the free church. I just want to tell them that I was there when it happened, and I ought to know. That's right. The Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster was founded to contend for the fundamentals of the gospel of Jesus Christ. and to preach a white-hot gospel. This church has been built on the fire of evangelism, and there are those who have brought in the devil's hosepipe. and to think that they are going to hose us down and put the fire out. But glory to God, there is a man over the wall. And the more water they pour on, the more oil the Lord will pour on. And the fires will burn brighter and stronger and fiercer as we advance to meet the foe. Brethren and sisters in Christ, we are a gospel-preaching, soul-saving church. How do you build churches? by arguing on most points of doctrine, by arguing whether you're a supralaxarian or whether you are, what's the other one? Infralaxarian. I nearly missed that. If you ask me what that is, dear, come and see me afterwards. And my answer will be, don't worry your pretty little head about it. It doesn't matter. It will not alter your eternal whereabouts. Nor will it give you a passion for souls, nor help you to give out a gospel tract, whether you can define whether you're an unrelenting Syrian or not. Let me tell you, the big issue is loyalty to Jesus Christ, the everlasting Son of the everlasting God. And to preach the gospel. Some of us are glad today that Jesus didn't sing. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to the elect, and lo, I'll be with you always." Man, I'm glad the Lord didn't say that. Now, I know the Lord will see of the elect, every one of them. But my job is to preach. Someone said to Spurgeon, preach only to the elect. He said, put a chalk mark on them, and I'll preach to them. It was said of Spurgeon that he prayed once in his evangelistic fire, God save the elect and then elect some more. I don't know whether that's apocryphal or not, but this I'm going to say, I am called to preach the gospel to every creature. And let me tell you this, when I come into this pulpit, brethren, I believe every time I preach the gospel that there are men sitting there that can and will be saved. And I am preaching for their souls. And I'm preaching for their souls as if everything depended upon me. But before I come to this pulpit, God knows I pray in that room knowing that everything depends on God. Let me say this, you are not coming down as a church. We're going to go on preaching the gospel, winning souls for Christ, calling people out of apostasy, fighting the Pope, fighting the devil, fighting the ecumenical movement, fighting the apostates. And when you hear no trumpet sound from this pulpit, you'll know that my wife has lifted the death grant on Iman McGreehan. I never thought when the free church started it would ever grow the way. It has grown. I was quite prepared to stand in a little tin hall up till I laid. I see my brother, Hugh James, Adam. Hugh James, would you stand up there? Let us see. Cecil, would you stand up? Here's two of the foundation men. God bless you. Thank you, Brennan. Here's two men that stood. Thank you, Hugh James. The darn press that resuspended him. Because he said Ian Paisley should preach the gospel in Crossgar. Cecil was the captain of the boys' brigade. And because he brought the boys' brigade out to parade round Crossgar with me, he was suspended. And they suspended the whole boys' brigade. And he became a captain in a man's brigade after that. Let me tell you, friend, that's the way the free church started. It started. And the day we opened in that little tin hall, the people spat on us as we walked up the road. I saw one man coming in and his coat was covered with spittles. And I tell you, we weren't arguing on moat points of God through men. We were standing for Jesus. And we made it our business to preach Christ with fire in our belly. And I tell you, this church needs another baptism of the Holy Ghost. And I'm praying that God will fire up the young preachers of this church And when they go out into the district, they'll make every apostate mad. And they'll make every priest of Rome mad. And they'll make every evil worker mad. And they'll preach Christ in all his fullness. And they'll get hoarse in speech, inviting men to Jesus, or like John Wesley, the out-of-breath, chasing sinners to bring them to Christ. That's the job we've got to do. So let us not be sidetracked by anyone. Let us go on preaching Christ. When the soapers of this world come to this land and tell us he's not virgin-born, let's fight them. Let's shout against them. Let's curse them in the name of the Lord. Let them know that there's fundamentalists around. I'm glad when I was absent, four and a half thousand people marched to Strand Millis I got word from the police that that was the official report. There was four and a half thousand walks. And you know what old Coggan said? I never thought there was such opposition to ecumenism until I came to Belfast. Thank God he learned a lesson. There's still seven thousand that haven't bowed. They need a bail and never will. We're going up the hill with Elijah. Elijah's God still lives today to take the guilt of sin away. And when I cry in Jesus' name, the answer's still by fire. Oh, my brethren, give your lives afresh to God. Let's give ourselves today to God and say, you preachers, we're going to stand with you. We're not going to be carried away with petty gossip and petty criticism and carving opposition. Praise God, we are going to hold up the infallible Word. We are going to go forward. What is before us is sea, but thank God, God rolled the seas away. God will roll all the seas away before us and He will bring us across into a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey. God will bless us. The best has yet to be. The end is not yet, praise the Lord. Take warning, Pope. We're only starting. Take warning, apostates. We're only starting. Take warning, enemies of the gospel. We're only starting. We're just ready for the march. Say unto the children of Israel that they go forward. Amen. Say amen. Shout hallelujah. Amen. God bless you.