I've had a real quandary this morning as to what to speak about in this particular hour. It's not that there aren't plenty of things to speak about. I debated preaching on this chapter. I debated speaking about Billy Graham. I debated speaking about when should a Christian disobey his government. I kind of wanted to speak on that, but I thought, well, that really doesn't come under the realm of apostasy, so I'll scrap that one this morning. And my mind has just been everywhere, and any preacher knows that that's one of the most miserable situations when you don't know quite what to preach upon for a given Lord's Day. I wouldn't be a topical preacher who had to pick out a new topic for each week for anything. It's at least a blessing to know that I'm going to preach on that chapter, and I have to find out what's in it and preach on it. But in a series of lectures like this, you don't always know where to begin to preach. So I'm going to begin here at 2 John, but we're not going to stay here long. We're just going to look at a couple of principles. Did you notice this is the only book in the Bible that I can think of that's addressed to a lady? The first verse tells you that. Our ERA friends ought to like this book because it's addressed to a lady. The only one in the Bible. The elder unto the elect lady and her children. And then it closes that way on that same theme. The children of thy elect sister greet thee. And ladies are given to love, aren't they? The love in homes really basically comes from the lady, doesn't it? God has to command the men about it and say, husbands, love your wives. He never has to say, wives, love your husbands. They just naturally do that. But husbands need to really work at loving their wives. And in the first part of this chapter, it talks about Christian love. And it says, remember that commandment that the Lord Jesus Christ gave, that we ought to love one another. But, any good thing can be taken too far. And Christian love can be taken too far. And when Christian love is extended to those who are not in Christ, then Christian love is taken too far. And the last half of the book gives a tremendous warning about that. And it says, when you meet those who do not abide in the doctrine of Jesus Christ, They are outside of the sphere of Christian love, then don't try to treat them in the same way that you would treat a believer. But put a breach between yourselves and them. And don't invite them into your house. Don't bid them Godspeed. Don't join hands with them in any spiritual endeavor. That's the theme of the book. It's one of the key guidance passages in the doctrine of separation in the New Testament. But this is all just background. In 1943, I started college as a freshman at Wheaton College out in Illinois. And I soon became aware of a rather imposing fellow who was a graduate student. He had a little church which they called The Tab, which was short for Tabernacle. He preached there every Sunday night, and he was quite a preacher. And he was one of those kind of fellows that always attracted a following. Wherever you saw him, in the dining hall, There was always a large crew of people kind of worshipping at his feet and talking to him and following him around campus. I didn't know what that was then, but now I know that that was charisma. That word hadn't really dawned on us at this particular time. He didn't know too many of the rest of us students, but he knew this circle of followers that was always with him. Now you may have already guessed it, but that was Billy Graham. We happen to be on the campus at the same time, myself as a freshman and himself as a graduate student. But Billy Graham has become the most famous religious figure in the world today. I don't think that's an overstatement. The most famous religious figure in the world today. Now you say, everything that needs to be said about Billy Graham has been said about Billy Graham. Well, I think that's right. But he keeps coming up again. because he's the classic example of the problem of separation and compromise and how to face them. So I'm going clear back to Billy Graham and maybe some old things this morning to make four particular points. And the four points all have to do with this general illustration. If you've played any kind of a game, you know the importance of boundaries. In Major League Baseball, one thing that they do every day is to line the field every day before the ball game begins, they go out And they realign the batter's boxes and the foul lines and the on-deck circles and all those things. They put new lines on every day. Because you cannot play a game without paying careful attention to the lines of demarcation. If it's on this side of the line, it's out. If it's on this side of the line, it's in. And there's almost no game that we play that does not have to be circumscribed by a playing field and rules and obeying the line. It seems to me that Satan has used Billy Graham to seek to rub out the line that God says should exist between believer and unbeliever. When we went through 2 Corinthians chapter 6, we saw very clearly that there ought to be a line, more than a line, a gulf fix between believer and unbeliever. But Satan has used the Graham crusades more than any other thing to seek to rub out the line of distinction between believer and unbeliever. And I want to point out four lines that seem to have been rubbed out by that this morning. First of all, the line has been erased by unscriptural sponsorship. The line has been erased by unscriptural sponsorship. Now, as we read this responsive reading this morning, God defines for us what's to be our relationship to unbelieving religious leaders, verse 9. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed." This verse tells us that we are to make a distinct line between ourselves and a certain kind of unbelieving person, and we are not to allow that line to be rubbed out. Now in the Graham Crusades, that line has been rubbed out by a general sponsorship, by bringing everybody in to sponsor the crusade. Back about 1950, the Christian Businessmen's Committee of Chicago contacted Billy Graham to come to Chicago for a great crusade under the auspices of the Christian Businessmen's Committee. Now at that time, The policy of the Graham Crusades really had not been mapped out and wasn't that well known. But Billy Graham's man replied to them and he said this, there are three necessary conditions for Billy Graham to come to Chicago. He won't come unless you can meet these three conditions. Number one, there would have to be an invitation to the mayor. Now that's kind of questionable right there. I don't know what kind of a mayor you have in the city of Columbus, but if he's like the rest of the mayors around the nation, he's a very unspiritual fellow. And what having an unspiritual fellow give the invitation will do for a spiritual crusade is kind of dubious, but that was the first condition. The second condition was that there would be complete coverage and consideration from the newspapers of the city. And the third condition was that an invitation from the Church Federation the National Council of Churches in Chicago, in other words, an invitation from the Church Federation with equal representation and participation of the Churches of the Federation and Bible-believing churches. Now, the fellow who was the Executive Secretary of the Christian Businessmen was a fellow by the name of Mr. Frank Sheriff, and he replied, he said, I think we can meet the first two conditions. We can get the mayor to invite you. We can assure you that the newspapers will be interested. But we just can't meet that last condition because there's a great chasm between modernists and fundamentalists. But on that basis, Graham said, all right, I won't come. I cannot come to Chicago until both the fundamentalists and the modernists are included. Now, since that time, that's always been the policy where a Graham crusade has gone, that he has refused to come unless the line of demarcation between the believer and the unbeliever was rubbed out. It has not been an accident, but it's been a deliberate policy that before he would come, that line of demarcation between believer and unbeliever would be rubbed out. Now, that was very plain in Billy Graham's great crusade in Columbus here another number of years ago. Bishop Hazen Warner and Dr. Floyd Fouts were two of the prominent leaders of that crusade. Hazen Warner was the chairman. And the vice chairman was Dr. Floyd Faust. Hazen Werner, of course, was a typical Methodist liberal bishop. He had a liberal pedigree that long of belonging to all the sane nuclear policy and the pro-communist organizations and all that kind of thing. He didn't belong to any Bible-believing thing, but he belonged to all those things. Dr. Floyd Faust was the pastor of the Broad Street Church of Christ at that time and was one of the most notorious modernists in the city of Columbus. In his Easter sermon in 1954, he said this, as you look at the cross, never say this is the will of God. Jesus' death on the cross was not the will of God. If you say this is the will of God and we must accept it as such, you completely sever the nerve of social action, substitute resignation for the rebellion you should feel. Now get that. The death of Jesus Christ was not the will of God. Don't say that. What's the whole thing that ties scripture together? The basic teaching that the death of Jesus Christ was the will of God, a substitutionary atonement for your sins, right? What he denied was not an incidental, but the whole core of the scriptures, the whole foundation of salvation, the whole basis of evangelism. And he's the vice chairman of the crusade. I could multiply instances like that, and you know that, with untold clippings and so forth. Billy Graham, speaking before the NAE in 1957, said this, I intend to go anywhere, sponsored by anybody, to preach the gospel of Christ if there are no strings attached to my message. I'm sponsored by civic clubs, universities, ministerial associations, and councils of churches all over the world, and I intend to continue. You know, that sounds very good to men, doesn't it? I'll go anywhere as long as there are no strings on my message. But wait a minute. What does God say? God says when you come in contact with those who do not abide in the basic doctrine of Jesus Christ, have no part with them. There is a line drawn between you. And the Graham crusades have said, we'll rub out that line. I've seen kids do that in backyard baseball games and volleyball games where you draw a line in the dirt. If it's convenient, you rub out the line. And the other guys argue and say, you were over the line! No, I wasn't. Where is the line? You just conveniently erased it so you weren't over the line. That's exactly what has happened in the Graham Crusade. Whether that has consciously been the purpose of Billy himself, it's consciously been the policy of the devil to rub out the line by this unscriptural sponsorship. Now, a second way that the line has been rubbed out. The line has been erased by unscriptural association with Catholicism. The line has been erased by unscriptural association with Catholicism. Now, what does the Bible teach about salvation? Well, Titus 3.5, salvation is not by works of righteousness which we have done But according to His mercy, He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, right? Salvation is not by works of righteousness that we have done. What is the foundation of Catholicism? That salvation is by works of righteousness that we have done in the Church. By faithful attendance at the Mass. By faithful works of penance. By faithfully going to confession. By faithfully doing this and that, by works of righteousness that we have done, we expect to get to heaven. What was the Reformation all about? That salvation is based on a person who died for us on Calvary's cross, and all that we can do is rest our faith upon him. There are no works of righteousness that we have done, and even that faith isn't a work of righteousness. It's just a desperation acceptance of what Jesus Christ has done for us. You know, the faith of the Bible and the faith of Catholicism are opposite. That's tragic, but it's true. The whole system of the Catholic Church from the papacy on down is built on that. I'm sure you're well aware that back in 1967, Billy Graham accepted a degree from Belmont Abbey College. That's a college in Belmont, North Carolina, a Catholic college. And in Graham's speech, when he accepted the degree, he said this, One good thing has come out of this religious shaking. We can meet and talk together as Christian brothers. What do you mean? Well, he meant myself as an evangelical evangelist and these priests sitting on the platform with me. We can meet and talk together as Christian brothers. We could not do this 10 years ago. Churches have different approaches, but all of us agree on one thing. That is that Christ is the way to God. We hold to the gospel. That gospel built this school. Did the gospel build that Catholic college in North Carolina? Well, no. Not with what I know about Catholicism. The gospel didn't build that college. The gospel that we preach didn't build that college. Just suppose that your Catholic neighbor calls you. And they say, you know, I've been a Catholic all my life. But something's missing in my heart. I don't have any confidence that I'm going to go to heaven. Can you help me?" Would you say, well, friend, you know all of us are Christian brothers, and since you're a Catholic, don't come to me. You ought to go to your priest and talk to him about that, because we're all brothers and we all believe the same gospel, and he'll help you. Would you do that? You certainly wouldn't do that if you're faithful to the Lord, would you? You would point out to them that they've been trusting works all their life, that there is no satisfaction in works, because you never know when you've done enough works, but you can find complete satisfaction in Jesus Christ. But, that line has been erased by unscriptural association with Catholicism. Now, recently, Billy Graham went to Poland. And one of the big things about his going to Poland, did you read it in the newspapers? That he was going to preach in both Protestant and Catholic churches. And when one of the news services interviewed him about that, and said, is this the first time you've preached in a Catholic church? He said, no, I've never preached in a Catholic church, but I have held weddings there before. Pastor Becker, how many weddings have you held in Catholic churches? Any minister here who's ever held a wedding in a Catholic church? I didn't think I'd get too many hands on that. I see some fellas sitting on their hands so they wouldn't put them up. But I'm not in danger of having any weddings in any Catholic churches, and you aren't either. But if you've watched the Graham Crusades in recent years, you've seen more and more Catholic bishops participating, and statements about Catholics and so forth. In 1971, at the Oakland Crusade out in California. Billy Graham honored on the platform a Jesuit priest. Do you remember where the Jesuits came from in the Reformation? The Jesuits were formed to try and eliminate Protestantism and a Bible-believing faith that had grown in the days of the Reformation. That was the purpose of forming the Jesuit order, was to be a militant order to fight the going forth of the gospel. But he honored this Jesuit priest from the Catholic Biblical Institute of Rome. He was there by Graham's personal invitation. He didn't have to stagger in and get seated on the platform because they didn't have any seats. And the Catholic priest said he was happy to be there, and listen to this. Quote, in my studies of his sermons and writings, he's talking about Billy Graham's sermons and writings, I've never found him to say anything against the Catholic Church or what it believes or teaches, unquote. Cardinal Cushing of Boston later said the same thing. In my study of Billy Graham's sermons, I've never found him to say anything against the Catholic Church. You know, you can't preach the gospel faithfully from the Word of God and not completely undercut the foundation of the Catholic Church. And when Catholic bishops can sit on your platform and say, I've studied your sermons and you've never said anything that would undercut the teaching of the Catholic Church, that means you've been pulling your punches. You know, Billy Graham said, I will go anywhere as long as there are no strings on my message. But he has put strings upon his message, because unless you put strings on your message, you don't go everywhere. There are many places that I would not be, simply would not be accepted. I would not be wanted, because they would know that I would speak against this, and speak against that, and speak against the other thing. All right? The line has been erased by unscriptural association with Catholicism. Now the third thing, the line has been erased by unscriptural counseling of converts. The line has been erased by unscriptural counseling of converts. Years ago when I came out of seminary, I thought that I wanted to be an evangelist. I think the main reason for that was that I was single and not too many people were looking for single pastors. And I thought, well, I can't be a pastor until I get married. And I didn't see that possibility for quite a while. And I thought, I have to be an evangelist. So I started out to be an evangelist. What a catastrophe that was. But I remember one of the first meetings I held was a cooperative meeting with two churches in New Jersey. And I learned a tremendous lesson out of that. Now, both of them were fundamental churches. But the pastor of one church was an absolute dud. You could just tell by being there that he couldn't teach little ducks to swim. The pastor of the other church, he really knew the Word of God and taught the Word of God and you could tell that. So I had one live wire and one dud. Now, we had a number of people born again in that meeting. We had new converts. When you have a new convert and you lead him to the Lord Jesus Christ, what do you want to do with him? Well, I wanted to take all those new converts and say, look, this fellow can really teach you the Word of God. You get over in his church and you'll learn something from the Word and you'll grow in grace. But, I was equally sponsored by the Live Wire and the Dud. And when you're sponsored by the Live Wire and the Dud, you don't dare say to this new convert, look, be careful and not go to Duddlehead's church or you won't learn anything at all. You have to say, well, now here are two good churches in this town You pick out the one that suits you best and go there. That's all you can do. If you're sponsored by more than one person, you have to treat them all equally. Now, that's a situation that exists in the Graham Crusades, of course. Now, converts ought to be counseled according to 2 Corinthians 6 that we studied the other day. If they go to a modernistic church, come out from among that and be ye separate and find a place where you're going to be taught the Word of God. And if converts are saved there who come out of a Catholic background, they ought to be counseled and ought to be told them, look, you've never been taught the Bible in that Catholic church, have you? That's why you never got saved. You're never going to grow in grace in that church because they're not going to teach you the Bible. Now you need to get out of that church and you need to come over to Calvary Bible Church where they're going to open the word of God to you and teach you what the Lord says about growth and grace. That's where you need to be. You have to make a change. This is one of the things I'm sure you know that is absolutely not done. Back in 1961, at the time of Graham Crusade in Chicago, Graham's man said this to the Chicago Sun-Times, the newspaper. He said, since the Greek Orthodox Diocese of Chicago holds membership in the Chicago Church Federation, cards turned in by Greek and other Eastern Orthodox decision-makers will be turned over to Eastern Orthodox authorities in recognition of the cooperative relationship existing between Orthodox and Protestants here. Do you see the fallacy? Here's the Russian Orthodox Church, or the Greek Orthodox Church, a Catholic Church. They just have a different Pope than the one in Rome, but very much steeped in superstition and all the rest. The question was, are you going to turn over cards from the Crusades to that Greek Orthodox Church? The answer is yes. because it's a token of the relationship existing in the Chicago Church Federation. Mr. Herbert Taylor, who was the head of the layman's committee, stated to the Christian businessmen, he said, referrals of decisions from the crusade will be sent to all churches who cooperate in the meetings, regardless of their theological position or practice. Now that's the policy, and it has to be. When a hundred churches sponsor you, you have to send your converts equally to those hundred churches. You can't play favorites. In the New York City crusade, the largest number of decision cards went to Norman Vincent Peale's church. Norman Vincent Peale, the power of positive thinking, but not the champion of salvation by grace. He got the greatest number of cards. The second largest number of cards went to Riverside Church. That's the church that was made famous by Harry Emerson Fosdick, the famous modernist, and his successor, Dr. McCracken, had appeared on the platform at Graham's invitation. Cards also went to the Unitarian Church. Can you picture sending converts to Jesus Christ to the Unitarian Church that don't believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Well, that's what happened. Now, scripture says, come out from among them. The whole policy of these ecumenical crusades has been to say, stay in among them. Do you see the opposites there? Come out from among them. Stay in among them. Now, people all the time say to you, whenever you take a stand against Billy Graham and say, I can't cooperate with that, why don't you like Billy Graham? I want you to see that that question is completely irrelevant. That doesn't have anything to do with it, does it really? I have to obey the Lord. If you choose to disobey the Lord, I have to choose to part company with you. Not because I don't like you, but because I have chosen to obey the Lord, and you have chosen to disobey the Lord, and it's obvious that we have to part company because God says so. It's not because I don't like anybody. I may like you or I may not like you. But that doesn't have a thing to do with it, right? Alright, let's go on. A fourth thing. The line has been erased on doctrine and issues. The line has been erased on doctrine and issues. Billy Graham is the darling of the ecumenical crowd and of unsaved people today. And you say, how can that be? Look at Luke chapter 6 for a moment. Luke chapter 6, verse 22. Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil for the son of man's sake. The Lord said, blessed are you when men hate you, not when men love you. When all the world loves you, there's something wrong. When all the world hates you, that means you've made your testimony clear. And a godless world doesn't like a clear testimony for Jesus Christ, so they hate you. Look down at verse 26. Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets. You know, we have a situation today where here is a national religious figure, and all the world speaks well of him. Political figures, presidents, figures in world government, community leaders, Everybody speaks well of Billy Graham. Every time you read one of these polls of the ten most popular men in the United States, I've never seen Billy Graham run worse than about second in the last poll I saw. I think he was second to Peanuts, and goodness knows how that happened. But he's always up there at the top. The world speaks well of him. Now, wait a minute. God's Word says, woe unto you when the world speaks well of you because you've been doing something wrong. If the world speaks well of you as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, you've been doing something wrong. Now, Christian people like ourselves frequently say, well, Billy Graham really preaches the gospel. Billy Graham is really true to the Lord in salvation. But we can't cooperate with him because he cooperates with all the unbelievers. Now, when you cooperate with all the unbelievers, that begins to affect your message. And I think that it's absolutely wrong to say, well, Billy Graham does preach the gospel, but Billy Graham does not preach the gospel in a way that is faithful to scriptures. Let me point out just a couple areas. First of all, the blood of Christ. Scripture makes much of the blood of Christ, doesn't it? Modernism has always scoffed at the blood of Christ. It says we believe a slaughterhouse religion and so forth. You listen carefully and you will not hear that note in Billy Graham's preaching. You'll hear about the cross, you'll hear about Christ's death, but you will never hear anything said about the cleansing blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not too long ago, someone wrote that question in to the Billy Graham Association and asked of why they did not hear Billy Graham speak about the blood of Christ. And the letter was answered not by Billy Graham, but by one of his staff members, Reverend W. H. Martindale, and he said this, quote, there are many aspects of the Christian life that Mr. Graham does not touch upon because he does not believe that they are the duty and responsibility of the evangelist. Mr. Graham believes that we are saved through the blood of Christ. However, this aspect of Christian doctrine, he does not emphasize in his messages. This is a duty and prerogative of pastors." Get that? In other words, he openly admitted that he has eliminated the theme of the blood of Jesus Christ from his message because there are some things that he doesn't believe are his duty to touch upon. It's very cleverly worded. There are many aspects of the Christian life. Now that's a cop-out. The blood of Jesus Christ is not an aspect of the Christian life. It's a part of the foundation of salvation. And just to say there are some aspects of the Christian life he doesn't touch upon. If you're an evangelist, the whole foundation of what you're doing is in what? The blood of Jesus Christ shed for our sins on Calvary's cross. But that is deliberately avoided. Another thing that is deliberately avoided, and this is increasing, is the necessity of salvation for all. You remember the disciples when they were preaching to the Jews said, neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby ye must be saved. Acts 4.12. There's only one way. Some time ago Billy Graham was in Cleveland and accepted a Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews. And there was quite a bit of write-up about that. And Graham was interviewed by Rabbi Arthur Gilbert, and this is what Rabbi Gilbert said. He published his article, My Conversation with Billy Graham, quote, Billy said that as he grew in sensitivity, his own method of handling Jews attending his crusades had changed. When Jews stepped forward at his crusade, he makes no spatial missionary appeal for their conversion. Jews have a right to be respected for what they are, a people who still live by the light of God in the Old Testament." Now, do you get that? That if Jews come forward, don't try to lead them to Jesus Christ. Let them just be Jews who live by the Old Testament. Don't stress their conversion. And Billy Graham said, as I've gone on, I've gotten more sensitive to this, And I don't stress the conversion of Jews. If you talk to a Jew, what do you try to do? Convert him to Jesus Christ, right? That's the whole purpose of your conversation, is to get him to see that the Messiah in the Old Testament is Jesus Christ in the New Testament, and he died for your sins, and you need to be born again and not go back to the synagogue, but get in a Bible-believing church that's going to teach you your Old Testament and your New Testament. Billy Graham says, I now have a different attitude toward Jews. I don't stress their conversion. What do you think Peter would say about that? Neither is there salvation in any other. Not in your Old Testament faith, but in Jesus Christ. I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved. No man cometh to the Father but by me. Those verses are good for Jews and Gentiles, aren't they? You know, we like to say this business, well, Billy Graham's message is still good, but it's his associations that cause the problem. That's not true. The message is not true either. There's enough that is true that you listen to it and you think, oh, that's true, this is good preaching. What caused Billy Graham to change his ideas about Jews? He says, as he grew in sensitivity, his method of handling the Jews changed. I'll tell you what changed his attitude. He began accepting these awards from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and B'nai B'rith, and the Anti-Defamation League, and all that bunch. When you accept the favors of Jews, then you can't preach to Jews about leaving their synagogue, and leaving the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and so forth, and getting saved. So again, his associations tempered his doctrine. And the doctrine is not right. Another thing that you'll notice is the softening of condemnation. You know, in the preaching of the gospel, it's sharp. It condemns sin. It promises hell for the unbelievers. It talks in terms of fire and brimstone. Good preaching of the gospel is a fiery thing. You know, this is kind of an interesting I asked Pastor Becker this morning what they do for a fire bell around here because I can't imagine how anything could top that. But he says they have a bell that will top that. And I tell you, I don't want to be here for fire drill. That's one way to get the kids out for fire drill. If there's a bell that's louder than that one, I jump through the window. Glass and all. Okay. Well, fundamentalists want to be definite even when they change classes. Ring that bell. The Berkeley Bar. is a hippie paper out on the West Coast. Berkeley, California speaks of everything bad and everything hippie and so forth. And one of the editors of the Berkeley Bar, a fellow by the name of Nick Benton, he attended one of Billy Graham's crusades out there on the West Coast. When he came back he said this, quote, Billy's preaching seemed weaker than when he'd wrap me in fear and awe when I'd see him on TV as a kid. In those days he used to hold a Bible in his hand, thump the podium with his other hand, and talk about the Judgment Day. This time he used all the key words overused to describe our so-called existential plight. Loneliness, alienation, purpose, and meaning. And it was all to show that in Jesus Christ there was some sort of joy, compensation for oppression, very little talk of hell, and no promises of miraculous healing, eternal salvation, or even the Kingdom of God. just some rapid form of transcending alienation through a sense of joy." all things like this, he says, there's been a change. Very little talk of hell, conversion, and all that. That's a change, isn't it? What offends the natural man in preaching? Condemnation, hell, talk against sin, judgment, the judgment day. That offends the natural man. So in having evangelistic meetings to get great crowds of the natural man, you temper your message. There's another place. the accommodation to the world. Now, the preaching of the gospel has always required a break with the world, hasn't it? But now, if you watch any of the Crusades, and this is not only true of Billy Graham, it's true of Jerry Falwell and a lot of these other big names, you find that every Crusade features the movie stars, still in the movies, the athletes, still in Sunday sports, That one really gripes me. Up in our town we have the Cleveland Browns. I like football and like to follow such things. I would enjoy following the Cleveland Browns, except I tell my congregation I hope they will lose every game they play on Sunday. It so happens they play all but one on Sunday and that would keep them on the bottom of the league. But according to the testimony in the Cleveland newspapers, just about everybody on the Cleveland Browns is born again. They have great chapel services before they go out to dismember other people. And just about everybody is born again. Well now, how about putting a speaker up here in the pulpit and saying, here we have this great Christian athlete and he wants to talk to you about his salvation. But he doesn't go to church, he doesn't believe in that. He goes out and tears other tackles into little bits on Sunday, and so he's never been in Sunday school, and he doesn't go to the worship service. He has more important things to do on Sunday. That is just awful, and yet Christian after Christian follows this, and these are all the heroes now. Pray that Don Cockcroft will make so many field goals because he's an outstanding Christian. Nobody out desecrating the Lord's day every day is an outstanding Christian until he comes into obedience to the Word of God that he ought to be in the Lord's house on the Lord's day with the Lord's people. But more and more, that was just a sidetrack I got off on. Bob Jones would call it a rabbit trail. But you have movie stars still in the movies and athletes still in Sunday sports and beauty queens fresh out of their bikinis or maybe in them on some of these platforms. And the idea is that you can have everything in the world and have Jesus Christ too. The Bible says, love not the world. Whom do you want your kids to have as their heroes? You know, if they follow these crusades, their heroes are going to be the movie queens, the professional sports stars, all that group. We ought to want our kids to have as their heroes, missionaries, preachers of the gospel, men with Christian convictions, men who stood up and did something in life. If you let them watch this, their stars will end up being that other gang. Several years ago, there was a big rock festival down in Hollywood, Florida. You remember that? And Billy Graham appeared at the rock festival and spoke, and he said this. He said, quote, I really dig this generation of young people. They are great. They are the most exciting and challenging generation in American history. Jesus was a young revolutionary who transformed his generation. Today's young people should make the 70s the greatest decade in American history." And after he spoke there, they listened to the wonderful music of the Turtles, the Grateful Dead, the King James Version, and the new Japanese anti-sterility movement. Just great. There's a place where the preacher ought to be, right? The line of demarcation has been erased on doctrine and issues. And Satan has used this crusade to erase that line. You remember a number of years ago, Billy Graham's famous crusade in Chicago, or in New York City. There was a fellow by the name of Dan Potter, who was secretary of the New York Council of Churches. I'm sure an unbeliever, but they sponsored Graham. And he said, before the Graham crusade, there were 1,700 churches that were cooperating with the modernistic New York Council of Churches. He said, after the Graham Crusade, there were more than 3,000 churches that cooperated with the New York Council of Churches. What were those other 1,300 churches that, before Graham came to New York, said, we can't cooperate with that modernistic Council of Churches, we won't have anything to do with them? As a result of that crusade rubbing out the line, 1,300 of those churches said, all right, we will cooperate. with the New York Council of Churches. Is that progress? Progress for the ecumenical church, certainly not progress for the truth of the Word of God. You know, some of you may struggle with this, and we'll just close with this this morning. You may say, well, I know folks who were born again in the Graham Crusade. So do I. I can tell you one of our best and most godly women. who was pierced in the heart as she listened to a Graham crusade on television. She's genuinely born again and has been true to the Lord for the last 20 years. And every year or so I'm in somebody's home and said, how did you come to know Jesus Christ as your Savior? And they tell me that they went to a Graham crusade, they listened to it on the TV, and they found Christ. And of course Satan uses this argument, well now look at the good it's doing, you can't criticize it when that's happening. You remember Moses, back in the desert, where God told him to strike the rock and bring water out of the rock for the Israelites? Moses lost his temper with the people and with the Lord, really, and he struck the rock twice in great wrath. God, in his grace, has honored not the methods, but his word. And you can point to some people who are genuinely saved. But what Moses did was wrong, and God said, Moses, I'm going to judge you for that. You're not going to go into the promised land. When you do God's work in God's way, you only have good results. When you do God's work in the world's way, you have good and bad results. Nobody has ever said that some disobedient people have not led other people to Christ. When I was a freshman in college, at Wheaton College, I had a roommate who had been led to the Lord by an embezzler who was still in the embezzlement business. He did this boy out of a thousand dollars and led him to Christ. Now that's a strange bit of business, isn't it? But God in his grace was determined to save that fellow. And he used the queerest set of circumstances to save him. But you can't say, well look how good embezzlement is. Don't you see all the good it's doing? And this fellow goes around fleecing people and he leads them to the Lord. So doesn't he have a wonderful ministry? Maybe you have some friends you'd like him to fleece and lead to the Lord Well, that's crazy When you try to do God's work in the world's way you get good and bad results When you try to do God's work in God's way You may not have great flamboyant results, but all the results are good and laughing and right. 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And remember that John Calvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart, from his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves, would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words, then, are very important. When he says, that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay what he never knew.