Defining a Real Christian

Pleading for the Holy Spirit's Illumination

0:00 Now, I'm sure that many of you are familiar with the oft-quoted and oft-pleaded promise, at least in our assembly, given by the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, in which he said, If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? And as we come to the ministry of the Word of God, I'm going to ask that again we unite our hearts in prayer, asking that God the Holy Spirit would be given by our Heavenly Father not to give us exotic feelings, not to give us visions or dreams, but to give us eyes to see wondrous things out of God's law, to give utterance to the preacher and hearing ears to every listener, and above all, the sense that God himself is in our midst as he comes so often as it were on the wings of his preached words. So let us together plead that our Heavenly Father...

1:15 ...will delight to give us of his Holy Spirit. Let us pray.

1:22 Our Father, we have sung together and celebrated in song with the psalmist that like as a father pities his children, so you pity those who fear you. For you remember our frame that we are dust, and, O Lord, we acknowledge that in our creatureliness and in our sinfulness, we have no native ability. We have no native ability to understand your word aright. We therefore plead that you would grant us the Holy Spirit as the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of yourself, the spirit who takes the things of Christ and reveals them with power, the spirit who convicts of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, the spirit who alone can quicken our dead and lifeless hearts, the spirit who alone can give utterance to your servant and cause the word to run and have free course and be glorified in this place tonight. And our God with one heart, we who are your people, agree together, touching this, our great need. And we remind you of your promise that if we who are evil both know how and delight to give good gifts to our children,

2:47 how much more are you disposed to give the spirit to those who ask. O Lord, we have asked, and in the expectation of faith we trust you to hear and to answer our cry. We present ourselves and our petitions before you in the name and in the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ alone. Hear us then for his name.

The Conference Theme and the Wicked Generation

3:17 In the name's sake. Amen. Now, realizing that we have at least some who are with us tonight who were not with us last night in the opening message of the conference, I would remind you that the theme of the conference is entitled, The Christian's Role in a Wicked Generation. And in our opening study last evening, we focused our attention, on the description of this generation as one which deserves the designation a wicked generation.

4:00 And I sought to prove the validity of that assertion by looking at three very simple propositions and then seeing their biblical basis. We saw that every generation since the fall of man is in a true sense, a wicked generation. But secondly, we saw that some generations are described in the Bible as peculiarly, in an intensified way, as wicked generations. And we looked at three samples of such generations.

4:40 The generation immediately preceding the flood, the generation in the days of Manasseh, king of Judah, preceding the captivity of Judah, and the generation that slew our Lord Jesus Christ. And then proposition three was that this present generation deserves the description as a wicked generation, and that particularly because of four tragic realities. Our intellectual perversity, our moral degeneracy, our social anarchy, our moral degeneracy, and our religious apostasy. Now tonight we will focus our attention on what we mean by the term Christian. We are concerned with the Christian's role in such a wicked society. But crucial to our understanding of this subject is our perception of the word Christian. If I were to ask you, where is the word Christian?

The Devaluation of the Term 'Christian'

5:48 Where is the word Christian first mentioned in the Bible? Would you be able to give an accurate answer? Well, if your mind is going to Acts 11 and verse 26, you would be correct. For the scripture tells us that the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.

6:10 And it's a Latinized Greek word, Christianos. And we don't know whether it was the friends of the gospel, who gave that name to the disciples, or whether it was the enemies of the gospel, who became so irritated with these people, who were constantly speaking of Christ, constantly attributing to Christ all of their virtue, all of their highest goals and deepest devotion. For the word literally means little Christs. And the word Christian was given to the disciples at Antioch, because of their pervasive, their radically alternate lifestyle to the pagan community around them.

6:55 It's used again by Peter in 1 Peter chapter 4 in verse 16, where he says, But if any of you suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed. So when Peter used the word, he packed into it all of the significance of the New Testament doctrine of salvation. But a tragic thing has happened. From the days of Antioch, and the days of the suffering saints of the dispersion, to which Peter, to whom Peter wrote, this word Christian has undergone a tragic devaluation, as a verbal coinage to describe a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. In some areas of the world today, Christian means, that you are neither a Muslim, nor a Jew, nor a Hindu. And if you are not any of those three, then you must be a Christian. For others, it means respectable and upright and kind and nice.

8:03 And anyone who is that is called a Christian. In our own country, anyone who belongs to any of the so-called major wings of Christendom, Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, even the cults will get the name Christian. So I say the term, which is in itself Biblical, has undergone tremendous dilution and currency devaluation. And I want us tonight to restore it to its Biblical worth and vigor.

Proposition 1: Painful Personal Awareness of Sin

8:39 And therefore we are going to address the subject tonight, what is a biblical Christian. For when we come to Jesus, come to our subject matter proper tomorrow night, God willing, the Christian's role in a wicked society, I am thinking exclusively of a biblical Christian who has indeed a distinct and glorious role in a wicked society, but it is only a true biblical Christian who both has that role and can in any sense begin to fulfill it. And so tonight we take up the critical question, what is a biblical Christian? And I want to answer it in four propositions or four statements. And I want you to listen not as someone who is learning a lesson, but I want you to listen as someone who is standing before the mirror of the Word of God with this question, am I what is being described from the Word of God? And if I am not in all four points, I have no biblical grounds to take to myself the name Christian.

10:02 I may have walked an aisle, raised a hand, prayed a prayer, been under the water, I may be on a church roll, I may have come to my profession of faith in a church where there's no aisle walking and hand raising, and I regard myself as a Christian, but I want you to look into the mirror of the Word of God tonight with judgment day honesty and ask yourself, am I what I see in the Word of God? Is that a reflection of what I am? First of all then, according to the scriptures, a biblical Christian is one, man, woman, boy, or girl, is one who has come to a painful personal awareness that he is a guilty, hell-deserving sinner before God. No one in any age, in any place, in any culture, in any set of circumstances is a biblical Christian who has not come to a painful personal awareness. Notice I did not say a biblical Christian is someone who will admit he's a sinner. Most

11:29 of the gospel tracts, most of the methods of personal evangelism, have in them a part which says, you're to say to the proposed, hopeful convert, if you will admit you're a sinner, then believe Christ died for you, and you'll become a Christian. My dear friends, let us have a moment of silence and reflect upon a question that I have a mixed feeling, and a question that I've always had, and I'm not one of the many who have asked me this question and have come to a point where I have a revelation about a Christian who's a sinner, and not a Christian, or he's a sinner, and you know, or I'm not a Christian, or I'm a Christian, or you know, I'm not a Christian, or a Christian who's a Christian, or you know, or I'm a Christian, friend, I've only met one person in my life who would not admit that he was a sinner. I've chosen my words carefully, and I'm going to demonstrate from Scripture that they embody the teaching of Scripture. A biblical Christian is one who has not come to the mere admission that he's a sinner, but he has come to a painful personal awareness that he is a guilty, hell-deserving sinner before God. Now, the great distinguishing trait of the Christian faith is that it is fundamentally a religion for sinners. That was made plain at the very conception of our Lord Jesus, Jesus Christ. Remember the incident in Matthew chapter 1? Joseph is wondering what he should do

12:43 as a righteous man when he discovers that the woman to whom he is betrothed, a kind of engagement that had far more committal than engagement in our day and was sort of a halfway house to marriage, and he discovers that his bride-to-be is pregnant, and not knowing how she became pregnant, he assumes it was through sexual contact, with another man, for he knew his own purity in relationship to Mary, and he's wrestling with what he should do, and God sends an angel to speak to him, and the angel says, Joseph, do not be afraid to take unto you Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit, and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he's people from the Holy Spirit. So that at the very announcement of the conception of the Son of God in Mary's womb, it is plain that the mission of Jesus has to do with saving, rescuing a people from sin. The religion of Jesus is essentially a religion for sinners, and that was announced at his very conception.

14:10 Furthermore, it was announced in his own personal ministry. The religious leaders of our Lord's day got very upset with the company he kept, because he was found again and again among the riff-raff of Jerusalem. The local union of call girls had more than one of their number found in his presence. Doesn't he know that she is a sinner?

14:38 And the publicans, the tax collectors who were known for their crookedness and even excommunicated from the local synagogues because of their association with Rome, he was found in the company of this Palestinian mafia. And on one occasion he called one such into fellowship with himself, and later into apostleship, and this one named Levi or Matthew, two of his names given to us in the New Testament, is throwing a feast in honor of the Lord Jesus, and the Pharisees looked through the window down there long self-righteously. And they were upset that Jesus is eating and drinking, entering into social fellowship with publicans and sinners. And they come to the disciples and say, why do You and Your Master eat with publicans and sinners? And you remember Jesus' answering in Luke 5, 30 and 31, people that are healthy don't need a doctor, but they that are sick. Healthy people don't need a doctor, but they that are sick. I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repent, to watch their sins.

15:43 And the Lord said to them, repentance. I am come sinners. So not only is it announced at his very conception that the religion of Jesus is a religion for sinners, but he was conscious that that was the very heart of his mission. And therefore it should not surprise us that his inspired apostles in their ministry highlighted this same truth until there was a little saying, one of the five faithful sayings in the pastoral epistles that became like little holy cliches. And one of them is given to us in 1 Timothy 1.15. This is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world. And in the original, the emphasis falls here. Sinners, to say. The word sinners comes

16:37 first. So that right next to Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit puts sinners. Christ Jesus came. Sinners, to say. And so I say that the Christian faith is essentially and fundamentally a religion for sinners. And if that is true, then what is the first work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of those whom God purposes to save? It is a work in which he makes them painfully aware of how much they need to be saved. And he makes them painfully aware of how much they need to be saved. And he makes them believe the salvation that only Jesus can give. Do you see that? If he has come and it was

17:24 announced from his conception in his own earthly ministry, subsequently by his apostles, that the heart of his mission was to save sinners, then any in whom his saving work is going to come to light, the first work of the Holy Spirit is to bring that matter to light. And if he has come and it was announced from his conception in his own earthly , then it is by his son's work that the sin of the new Testament is going to be� Female, male, male, woman, boy, or female to a painful personal awareness that he is a guilty, hell-deserving sinner before God who can only be rescued by the mighty intervention of the Son of God. And therefore when we turn to the New Testament, it does not surprise us that in announcing the coming of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John, Jesus says this in John 16 and verse And when He is come, that is the Spirit, He will convict the world in respect of sin. The mission of the Holy Spirit in connection with the world is a mission of not merely reproving, but convincing until He shuts the mouth of the worldling of His sinful state before a holy God.

18:43 It is interesting that on the day of Pentecost, the first sermon preached after the descent of the Holy Spirit from the right hand of the Father, as the Lord Jesus is exalted to the place of messianic and mediatorial kingship, Peter is preaching away in Acts 2, and we read in verse 37, Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts, most of the translations render it, but that's a weak rendering. It means they were stabbed in their hearts as with a dagger. And they cried out in the middle of the sermon, Brethren, men and brethren, what shall we do? We see our sin. We see our sin before the sight of God. And we're in a place of danger and vulnerability. The wrath of God, like mighty billows, hangs above our head.

19:43 What shall we do?

19:46 Peter answers, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, unto the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto Him. And when God is calling sinners unto Himself, what is His first work? It is to make them painfully aware of how much sin they have committed. It is to make them painfully aware of how much they need to save.

20:18 Not the mere admission that in some general way they are sinners, but painfully, personally aware of their guiltiness and their hell-deservingness before a holy God. Remember the Philippian jailer? When God is determined to save that man, what does He do? He gives a display of His power that awes and overpowers.

20:46 The man, he sees his physical power in shaking that jail and causing all of the bands upon the hands of the prisoners to drop off. Then a moral miracle. The prisoners don't all split and run. He assumed they had, but they didn't.

21:03 Who performed that miracle that restrained them? God did. And when he saw the miracle of the shaken jail and the loosed fetters and the restrained prisoners, he said, this is God. And I'm not right with this God.

21:19 And he comes in running and says to Paul and Silas, sirs, what must I do to be saved, to be rescued? I don't want to go before a God of power like this, naked in my sin, unclothed in the righteousness of another, unpardoned and unwashed. What must I do to be saved? He didn't have a personal worker at his elbow coaching him, now pray after me.

21:48 Oh God, oh God, be merciful to me, be merciful to me. Ace, what nonsense.

21:54 What nonsense! To coach a drowning man how to say, help, I'm drowning.

22:09 You don't coach a man, woman, boy or girl whom the Holy Ghost has wounded with Holy Ghost conviction. The cry will be run from his own heart spontaneously.

22:22 There's a painful awareness of sin against God. And you have a difficulty. You have a difficulty. You have a difficulty.

22:27 You have a difficulty. We have a detailed account of how God did this work in proud Saul of Tarsus. But when we turn to Romans chapter 7, and we have time only to look at it for a moment, Paul tells us that the law is not sin, but it was the instrument of showing him that he was a sinner. For he says in verse 7 of Romans 7, What shall we say then?

22:53 Is the law sin? God forbid. I had not known, known sin except through the law. Now, is he saying he didn't know the word sin? He didn't know the concept of sin? Of course not. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He would go up at the appointed feast of the temple in Jerusalem, and he would offer sin offerings, and he would go through washings and ablutions for uncleanness. He had a notion of sin, but he had no felt awareness of sin. That's what he means when he said, I had not known sin. Sin was a word, that's all. It was part of my religious vocabulary, but one day it became part of my felt experience. I had not known

23:42 sin except through the law, for I had not known coveting except the law said, Thou shalt not covet, but sin finding occasion wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting, for apart from the law sin is dead. That is, I did not see sin as a living powerful monster that controlled me. Oh yes, sin might control the filthy Goyim, the Gentiles, but not this proud Pharisee, touching the law blameless. Private Benjamin circumcised the eighth day, but he said under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the tenth commandment began to burrow its way in his heart, and he realized you don't covet with your hands, you don't covet with your feet, you don't covet with your ears. Coveting is a disposition of heart, and God, as it were, pulled the lid off his heart, and he said, I looked down and I saw a bottomless pit of foul stinking, rotten, evil desire, and where sin was once just a word and a dead issue, it now became a living reality in my own breast, and I saw that I was a sinner in desperate need of a Savior, so by various means and in varying degrees, all

25:08 who are saved by Christ are made true Christians, first of all, by being convinced through the Word and the Spirit that they are hell-deserving sinners before Almighty God, their Creator and their Judge. And Paul demonstrates that conclusively in the opening chapters of Romans when he takes one segment of humanity after another until he corrals them all in chapter 3, verses 20 and 21, and says, What things soever the law says, it says to them that are under the law that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God. A good definition of a Christian is a man whose mouth... Your mouth has been shut before God.

26:02 Has your mouth ever been shut? For you had nothing to plead. You became painfully aware of your sin, your sin in Adam, representative sin, as in Adam all die. By one man sin entered into the world, and death passed upon all men, for that all sinned in the one man.

26:28 Have you become acutely aware? That you were there with Adam when he picked or took the fruit from Eve, your hand was in his. Have you become painfully aware of what David said in Psalm 51, 6? Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother bring me forth.

26:52 Shaped and conceived in iniquity, brought forth in sin with no reference to sin. No reference. No reference to the conjugal act of sexual intimacy. He's speaking of the fact that when the father's sperm joined the mother's ovum at conception, what was conceived was a sinner.

27:14 That's what the theologians call original sin. And then there is not only our representative sin in Adam, and our original sin in which we are conceived, but our actual sins. Our own violations of God. Oh, the law, God's law, the sanctity of God's person, thou shall have no other gods before me.

27:39 The sanctity of God's worship, the sanctity of God's name, God's day, the sanctity of authority, the sanctity of life, and of sex, and of property, and of name, and of desire. Have you come to see that God's law touches more than what you take with your fingers. heart. It touches more than what you may do with your primary sexual organs. It touches the look and the desire so that he who looks to lust hath committed adultery. What is a biblical Christian? A biblical Christian is one who has come to a painful personal awareness of his own hell deservingness in the presence of Almighty God. And I want to ask you a question tonight. I don't want you to answer outwardly, but I want you to answer as you stand before

28:40 the mirror. Can you say, that's me? Yes, I do know and I can remember when by this means or that means or this combination of means God brought me. To the painful awareness that I was a hell deserving sinner in the presence of a holy God. My friend, if you have no such consciousness in your religious experience, you're not a biblical Christian because Jesus did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. And that's what a sinner is. One who is a hell deserving sinner before God. God isn't overstating the case.

29:29 The world is a hell deserving sinner before God. The world is a hell deserving sinner before God. God isn't overstating the case. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. And if sin is nothing more than a concept woven into the fabric of your polite religion, then it's not enough. And you ought to cry to God, oh God, show me my leanness. Show me what I am that I may see and know how desperately I stand in need of that which Christ alone can impart. But then secondly, a biblical Christian is not only one who has come to see himself as a hell deserving sinner before God, but a biblical Christian is one who has heard and received as

Proposition 2: Hearing and Receiving God's Way of Deliverance

30:20 true the only way of deliverance from sin and its consequences provided by God. A biblical Christian is one who has heard and received as true the only way of deliverance from sin and its consequences the only way of deliverance from sin and its consequences provided by God. Two questions in opening up that statement. What is the only way of deliverance from sin and its consequences provided by God? Well, the answer of the Bible is very simple. It centers in a unique person and it focuses upon a unique person. It should be a一个 work which he did now that's not a lot of big words is it it centers in a unique person and it focuses upon a unique work which he accomplished the only way of deliverance from sin and its consequences provided by God centers in a unique person who is as much God as though he were never man as much man as though he were never God and in two distinct natures joined in one person forever the God man Christ Jesus I go back to the angel's announcement to

31:43 Joseph you shall call his name Jesus for he it is that shall save his people and who was he you read on in Matthew 1 thou shalt call his name Emmanuel which is being interpreted God with us Jesus who saves is God with us in a humanity as real as though there were no deity and yet according to John chapter 1 a deity as real and undiminished as though there were no humanity for in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God verse 14 the word and the truth without diminishing anything of his god and nests of his very essence is God the word became flesh the world was in the beginning with God the word was God the word became flesh he did not cease to be what he had always been eternal God he began to be what he never had been a true man he takes to his existing God你 stellt人回 memories

33:01 godhood a true humanity a true human soul and a true human body but he does not relinquish anything that he always had been he relinquishes certain prerogatives he relinquishes many privileges but he relinquishes nothing of his essence as god for god cannot change for anything to change it goes from good to better or better to best or from best to something less than best and being god he could not be any better as god and being god and perfectly holy he could not cease to be anything less than perfect so the eternal word becomes flesh it's in that unique person that person it's in him that the one beautiful divine provision for sinners is set before us that's why peter says in acts 5 12 neither is there salvation in any other for there's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved and jesus was conscious of this i marvel at the ignorance of people who say well jesus was a good man but he wasn't god jesus was a good man and a good teacher and a helper but he's not the only way of salvation

34:29 my friend jesus is either good or he's not god he's either god i'm sorry or he's not good he is either what he claimed to be or he deserves our pity and our scorn for he said in john 14 6 i am the way the truth and the life no man can come to the father but by me how narrow and exclusive can he be and he says later in that chapter when philip says show us the father and that will satisfy us he says he that hath seen me hath seen the father you see my friends god's one way of deliverance from sin and its consequences does not focus in the church it does not focus in rituals and sacraments it does not focus in priest in minister it doesn't focus in something i do whether it's raising the hand walking the aisle saying the sinner's prayer it centers in the weak person who is the god man and it focuses upon the work he accomplished as the representative of sinners he said in matthew twenty twenty eight i did not come to be ministered unto but to minister and to

35:47 give my life a ransom for on the behalf of many i came to do something on behalf of others i came as the representative of others john ten eleven when the true shepherd lays down his life that the place apac i come to do something on behalf of as the representative of workers romans five nineteen where the comparison is made between adam and christ paul says in that critical birth as who the one mans disobedience atom the many were constituted centers even so through the obedient toothpabilities one since his s i www.captainpanlicberism.org hajj.com and also he took more than two months for every umpire Jesus Christ shall the many be constituted righteous. He acts on behalf of others as representative of others. In His life, yes, but in His death also. Galatians 3.13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law,

36:49 being made a curse for us on our behalf in our room instead. He is treated by God the way we should have been treated by God. And Paul even waxes more bold when he says in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, He hath made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us. Think of it.

37:18 He made Him to become sin for us.

37:26 Never was He defiled with our sin. For He is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. But so identified did Jesus become with our sins in the court of heaven that when God looked upon His Son throughout His life, climaxed in His death upon the cross, our sins are so really and truly put to His record that Paul says He is made sin. Amen.

38:01 He was being made sin and God is dealing with Him as a righteous judge. What does He do? He doesn't pardon Him. He doesn't excuse Him.

38:11 The Bible says in Romans 8.32, He spared Him not. He spared Him not. That is, the Father brought down upon His Son the full undiluted weight of all of His holy wrath due to our sins.

38:30 That is, Isaiah. Isaiah said it beautifully with stark, naked realism. It pleased the Lord.

38:40 It wasn't the bruising and buffeting of the mocking crowd before Caiaphas and before Pilate. It wasn't the spittle and the mockery of the rude, staring crowd at Golgotha. Isaiah says it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. When thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, the Lord hath made to strike upon Him the iniquity of us all.

39:10 That's why He who was as silent as a lamb before her shearers through all of the trial of Gabbatha and Pilate and the horrors of being impaled upon the cross, as the old Negro spiritual said, He never said a mumbling word. Yet my Bible says when God shrouded the heavens in blackness, He said, his face from his own son and made him feel in his soul the abandonment of hell. It says Jesus cried loudly, my God, my God, why have you abandoned my friends? He abandoned him because he was the substitute of sinners. A real substitute, taking our real experience in the real pangs of a real hell upon that cross. And then Romans 4.25 says he was delivered

40:17 up for our offenses, but he was raised for our justification. Not only did he die on our behalf, he was raised on our behalf. Now a biblical Christian is one who has heard and received as truth. The second question, what does it mean to hear and receive these things as truth? Well, it means that your mind has been confronted with these facts, whether in reading the Bible, hearing from mom and dad, or in the Bible. Most frequently through the preaching of the word, for God is ordained by the foolishness of the thing preached to save them that believe. How shall they hear without a preacher? And

41:25 how shall they preach except they be sent? And that's why I'm here. That's why I'm pouring my soul into the proclamation of these things, because in a unique way, God is ordained the preaching of these facts to be his instrument of salvation. In life, Paul can say in 1 Corinthians 15, you know, and I remind you of the gospel that was made known unto you, the gospel by which you are saved if you hold fast these facts. Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and was buried, and he was raised again from the dead on the third day, according to the scriptures, and then four times. He says, and was seen, and was seen, and was seen as was seen. These are not religious notions. These are hard facts. As much as the oak border on this pulpit is a hard fact

42:31 of physical reality, and if I were to make a fist and wrap my knuckles with all their might, you'd see my bloody knuckles as the proof that you're not looking at phantom oak as real hard, sure enough, real stuff. And the gospel is not phantom notions. There was a real womb in which God performed his great mystery in the darkness, and there was conceived in that womb the God-man. And though he was God upholding the galaxies by the word of his power, he's connected to a life system by an umbilical cord like every other baby. A true man, and yet true God.

43:15 That's a fact. And your salvation depends on believing that fact. That's not a nice religious notion. It's a fact. Because without that, there is nothing unique about Christ. He died, so have other noble men. He died, so have other great teachers. But if he is God, then his Godhead adds a worth to his death. That were, as one preacher said, every grain of sand on the seashore.

43:48 Every single star in the galaxies in their millions. Were every one a sinner, there would be virtue enough in the death of Christ had God chosen to make it applicable to that many sinners. For it is the infinite God who is joined to true humanity, and it is his deity that gives infinite worth to his sacrifice. But it was a true man. Don't believe that Christmas. This carol that says, the little Lord Jesus, when he awakes, no crying he makes. That's a lot of bunkum. If the cattle mooed and Jesus awoke, he wheezed as loud as any baby ever did. And he was nursed at Mary's breast, and he had to learn to say his Hebrew alphabet,

44:46 Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Dalet, He, Ob, Sion. He had to learn to tie his sandals. He had to learn to say his words. He grew in wisdom, in stature, in favor with God, in man. He had to learn his manners. He had to learn to say excuse me and please and thank you. And what instruments to use and utensils at the table to be a cultured young Hebrew boy. It was real humanity. It wasn't phantom humanity. And when Jesus fell in the parking lot and scraped his knees, he came in and said, Mommy, I got a boo-boo. Will you fix it? And she kissed it and made a big noise. And he said, Mommy, I got a boo-boo. Will you fix it? And she said, Mommy, I got a boo-boo. Will you fix it? And he said, Mommy, I got a boo-boo. He was real human. And when I say to hear and receive these things is true, this is what

45:35 I mean. That you embrace these for the facts that they are. There are no mental reservations in receiving them as they are presented. It's all summarized in 1 Thessalonians 2.13. This is what I'm driving at. Paul could say of the Thessalonians when he conveyed these marvelous truths to them. 1 Thessalonians 2.13. For this cause also we thank God without ceasing, that when you received from us the word of the message, even the word of God, you accepted it as, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God which works in you. You see what Paul said? We thank God without ceasing that when the word of God came to you, it was the word of God. It wasn't the word of God plus our notions, plus our fables.

46:48 No, it was God's word. It was true. And he said, you accepted it for exactly what it was, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth. The word of God. And it is that which works in those who believe.

47:05 Dear friends, hear me. We cannot give up one fact of the gospel, for it's in the reality of those facts that our salvation is rooted. Now let me ask you, looking in the mirror again, what do you see in the mirror? Do you see a man, a woman, a boy or a girl who has become acutely aware of his own history?

47:31 Do you see a man, a woman, a boy or a girl who has become acutely aware of his own history? Do you see a man, a woman, a girl who has become acutely aware of his own history? Do you see a man, a woman, a girl who has become acutely aware of his own history? Do you see a man, a woman, a girl who has become acutely aware of his own history?

47:31 Do you see a man, a woman, a girl who has become acutely aware of his own history? Do you see a man, a woman, a girl who has become acutely aware of his own history? Do you see a man, a woman, a girl who has become acutely aware of his own history? Do you see a man, a woman, a girl who has become acutely aware of his own history?

47:31 Do you see a man, a girl who has become acutely aware of his own history? Do you see a man, a girl who has become acutely aware of his own history? deservingness before the living God? Is that who you see when you look at yourself?

47:38 Do you look in the mirror and say, yes, that's me, that's me? The sin that is mine in Adam, the sin that is mine from conception, the sin that is mine in my untold numberless breaches of God's law, and the breaking of His holy commandments in thought, in word, and deed, and desire, the sin is all mine. Yes, I see in the mirror someone who has heard and who accepts as true the facts about the only way of deliverance from sin, facts that center in a unique person. I believe Jesus is God. I believe He is man, and though I cannot understand how God in man can be in two distinct, separate, unmingled natures joined in one person, I believe it, because the Bible says it. And I believe that He died under the wrath of God. I believe He lived the perfect life in conformity to God's law, that God could say, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased, and that His obedience is my hope of a title to heaven, and in His death is my only, hope that my sins will be forgiven, and that heaven's

49:07 law and heaven's demand for my damnation can be righteously silenced. Is that who you see in the mirror? Someone who has heard and received without mental reservation those facts? Well, we go to the third aspect of what a biblical Christian is, because you can go this far and go to hell. Listen carefully. There's nothing I've said thus far that isn't true. Listen carefully. There's nothing I've said thus far that isn't true.

Proposition 3: Spirit-Wrought Repentance and Faith

49:36 The devil. He knows he is a doomed, damned spirit. So do all the demons. Remember in the days of our Lord's flesh? The demons that inhabited the pigs?

49:49 Don't torment us before our time! They know where they're going. And they called Him Son of God. What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Son of God, long before the disciples confessed it? So if you've come this far, you may have come no further than the devil and the demon. So hear me carefully as we look in the mirror. Here's the third aspect of a biblical Christian. It's this. A biblical Christian is one who has come to a spirit-wrought experience and state of repentance and faith. A biblical Christian is one who has come to a spirit-wrought experience and state of repentance and faith.

50:40 After the great indicatives of the gospel, you students now, you kids, you know what an indicative is. It's a statement of a fact. Something is. An imperative is an expression of a command. Well, the Bible sets before us the glorious gospel indicatives. Christ died for our sins. Christ was buried. Christ was raised. Those are the great indicatives. But then it follows with its imperative. In the light of what Christ has done, what are we to do? Well, listen to Jesus.

51:22 In Mark chapter 1, Jesus came preaching the gospel, proclaiming the good news that in His person salvation had come to men. The kingdom of God's grace and the rule of His forgiving mercy was present. Mark chapter 1, after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand.

51:52 Those are indicatives. Time is fulfilled. The kingdom is at hand. But now look at the imperatives that follow.

52:01 Repent ye and believe in the gospel. The indicatives and the imperatives. And what was true of our Lord in His own ministry, He said, had to be true of the disciples. Turn to Luke chapter 24. Here is the least known Great Commission passage. And I think it's significant that it's the least known because it's the only one that contains this element of doctrinal vigor given to us by Luke. Luke 24, 45. Then He opened their mind that they might understand the scriptures. And He said unto them, Thus it is written that the Christ must suffer and rise again from the dead the third day. Now notice. And that repentance unto remission of sin should be preached in His name among all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. It is not enough that they should go out and demonstrate Christ died according to the scriptures. Christ rose

53:06 from the dead according to the scriptures. They were then commanded to preach repentance in His name. That is repentance against the backdrop of the salvation of God's saving mercy in Jesus Christ. They were to herald the great indicatives of the gospel.

53:26 The good news that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. But then they were to tell men that they must repent if they were to receive the remission of their sins.

53:41 The Apostle Paul indicates that this is exactly how he preached the gospel. Turn to Acts chapter 20 and verse 21. He preached for some approximately three years at Ephesus. And here he is gathered with the church leaders reviewing his ministry.

54:02 And he says in verse 21, I testify both to Jews and to Greeks. This silly notion taught by so-called expert Bible teachers that the message of repentance was only for the Jews and the message for the Gentiles was simply believed is absolute heretical nonsense. That I preach to Jews and to Greeks one message.

54:32 Anyone claiming to believe the Bible could ever teach that and then even be around long enough to have his books be written I'll never know.

54:42 I declare to Jew and to Greek repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And what significant is this? Look at verse 24. I hold not my life of any account as dear to myself that I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

55:14 For Paul the preaching of the grace of God was not Jesus has died now nod your head if you're after Jesus and call that faith. The grace of God was not inconsistent with telling men you must repent towards God and believe not on Jesus but on the Lord Jesus Christ.

55:46 And any other preaching of the grace of God turns the grace of God into lessening. That was his preaching of grace.

55:56 And that he repeats in Acts chapter 26. And there he becomes even more emphatic looking back over the full length of his ministry coming toward the end of Luke's account of Paul's missionary endeavors we find him again giving a testimony of his conversion and his commission and his subsequent obedience to that commission verse 19 of Luke of Acts 26 Wherefore O King Agrippa I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision but declared both to them of the of Damascus first that's the place he went right after he was converted and at Jerusalem Acts 9 he went down became a church member and was with them going in and out preaching the gospel and throughout all the country of Judea and also to the Gentiles that they should repent and to God faith is implied for the only turning to God that God acknowledges is turning in faith without faith it is impossible to please him for he that cometh to God must believe that he is it's implied repent and turn to God doing works worthy of repentance and what did he base that preaching on verse 23 he said I didn't say anything but what Moses and the prophets did

57:24 say should come how that the Christ must suffer how that he first by the resurrection of the dead should proclaim light both to the people and to the Gentiles he preached the great indicatives Christ died Christ was buried Christ was raised Christ is offered to Jew and Gentile freely in the gospel then what did he say bow your head close your eyes don't want to embarrass anyone sneak your hand up say a little prayer the home you're fixed up no not on your life he said now if you see your sin in the light of God's law you see that God's law so holy the only way he could righteously save sinners was to send his own son the darling of his heart and send him to this pigsty called earth and here to live in humility in poverty live being called demon possessed an illegitimate child there was no way God could satisfy his law without sending his son to this earth and then allowing men by wickedness to take him and impale him upon a cross and then while there upon the cross God the father heaps upon him and credits to him the sins of every single person who will ever be saved from those that were saved in the garden if they were to the last one brought in until the return

58:52 of Christ and he bruises his son and he plunges him into the horrors of abandonment and dereliction Paul says that's what I preached that Christ must suffer and that having been raised from the dead salvation is now freely offered and on what terms trust Jesus accept Christ as your personal savior where's that terminology ever ever take hold of evangelicalism Paul said I preached that men must repent and then do works consistent with that now friends I didn't write that that's in my bible and you know when I discovered that as an 18 year old kid only two months out of the womb spiritually sitting in the Sunday afternoon around the table in my folks home in Stanford Connecticut with the first book I got after I got a bible after God saved me a strong concordance and I looked up every usage of the word repent and I never preached the gospel that didn't demand repentance you had to rip my bible out of my hands how in the world could two or three generations of evangelicalism preach a gospel with no repentance and then this notion that Christ can be received as savior and not as lord when Paul said I preach faith toward our lord Jesus

60:21 Christ and every one of those words is not just a name like Albert N. Martin or Mary L. Smith every one is an official title that tells us who he is he is the lord he is the incarnate Jehovah he is the ascended God man who is made messianic lord sitting upon the throne of David dispensing the sure mercies of David to penitent sinners he is Jesus the incarnate son of God given that name at his conception he is Christ the anointed one God's last and final and supreme prophet priest and king and to believe on him is to reckon with a sovereign a savior a prophet a priest and a king and faith is the whole heart taking the whole Christ as many as received him not a half of him not two thirds of him but him as many as received him to them he gave you the right to become the children of God even to them that believe on his what his name what is his name the lord Jesus Christ to receive him is to receive a sovereign a savior to receive the anointed one to be my prophet

61:49 to teach me to take my silly little head in hand and sort it out so I begin to think God's thoughts after him in every area of my life he is God's priest I will now look to no other object for forgiveness of sin I will trust only in his blood I will trust only in his blood I will trust only in his intercession to secure my acceptance with God he will be my only priest I will never again take away for and call it God I'll never again pray through a saint I'll never again pray to Mary he is my one my only my all sufficient high priest I take him as Christ God's only anointed prophet to teach me priest to forgive me and intercede for me for me and king to rule over me and to conquer all of my and his enemies and the last one of them is death when he'll call my dust out of the grave and then he's going to give me a body like unto his own glorious body in which with a perfected spirit that will love him with unbounded ardor will have a body that can respond to all the ardor of that spirit and serve him day and night without any need for sleep that's heaven to me sitting

63:14 half dozed on a cloud plucking a heart to me that would be hell but the thought that in a resurrected body with no seeds of death and a perfected spirit that will love God perfectly that I'll serve him with all the energy of that soul joined to the energy and dynamism of a resurrected body and that for the ages of the ages even so come Lord Jesus that's a heaven that gets me excited now my friend look in the mirror what is a biblical Christian is someone who's been made painfully aware he's a hell deserving sinner secondly he's heard and believed the facts of the one way of deliverance for sinners the facts that focus in a unique person and in the work he did as a substitute for others but thirdly a bible Christian is one who has by the spirit been brought to an experience and state of repentance and faith you say pastor why do you say a state because repentance and faith are not the acts of the moment they are the acquisition of a disposition and remembrance of the experience and the state andreturn into the preparation for the forgiveness and the restoration into the max Florida life manifests God will be a good formation velocity for you in мамani's heart you will bow down and you also 빠ên meditation none will bow down or noted here was an auto region in blaine's scientific history we read that God was appointed by the apple and by the cloud it Omron only in spreadsheets

64:42 that will last until faith becomes sight and repentance is no longer needed.

64:51 That's why in the book of John almost every reference to belief is a verb in the present form or a participle in the present form. He that believeth. When you see that eth in the old Elizabethan or in the new renderings, he that believes. It's a present tense.

65:11 And likewise with repentance, let everyone who names the name of Christ continually depart from iniquity. 2 Timothy 2 and verse 19. And you say, why do you say spirit wrought experience and state of repentance and faith? Because the Bible makes it plain that it's the Holy Spirit who gives repentance and faith.

65:36 In Philippians 1.29, Paul says, it has been granted unto you on the behalf of Christ not only to believe but to suffer. He says it's God's donation that brought you to faith. The Scripture says, by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.

65:56 It is the gift of God.

65:59 And as Paul is preaching to Lydia, it says, whose heart the Lord opened so that she attended to the things that were spoken by Paul. Acts 16 and verse 14. And repentance, we read, he has been exalted a prince and a savior to give repentance. Acts 5.31.

66:18 In 2 Timothy 2.26, Paul says, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth. Let me ask you, looking in the mirror tonight, do you see yourself in that picture of a real Christian? Is there anything about you that has no explanation but that the Holy Spirit has brought you to a position of repentance toward God?

66:45 You've turned from yourself to sin. You've turned from living your own life. You've turned from your cursed creature, independence. And you've embraced the living God to be your God and to live a life in dependence upon Him and under His government and under His rule.

67:05 Do you know anything of spirit-wrought faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ where without reservation you've taken a whole Christ with your whole heart? What did Jesus say? The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man seeking goodly pearls who when he found one pearl sold all that he had to obtain it. Christ is always received as the pearl of great price.

67:31 Never a cheap imitation pearl to be thrown in the jewelry box with all your other junk jewelry.

67:42 He said the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man who finds a treasure in a field and when he's found it, he sells all, all that he has to gain that field.

67:54 That's why Jesus said, if any man would come after me, let him say no to himself. That's just Jesus' way of calling men to repentance. He went right to the heart of it. He said, you want to be mine?

68:05 Then say a great big resounding no to doing your own thing, running your own life, thinking your own thoughts, living by your own standards. Say no to yourself. Pick up a cross. And that meant one thing in the days of the Roman Empire.

68:20 Cross equals death.

68:24 It was never used as an ornament on top of a church, I'll clue you. It was an ugly symbol of a violent death of an outcast criminal. Jesus said, you want to be my follower? Pick up a cross.

68:38 And whatever the precise significance may have been to the disciples then, this much is clear. He was saying, if you would be mine, say no to yourself and live as a dead living man. A man dead to your own, a man despised by the world, outcast by the world, but in fellowship with me, the crucified one. That's what a Christian is, my folks.

Proposition 4: Validation by the Fruit of Life

69:07 I didn't make the standard. That's God's Word. But I want to close and touch this fourth aspect briefly in the remaining moments. And this is so critical.

69:18 Look in the mirror now. See if this is you. A biblical Christian is one who can validate his professed faith in repentance, by the fruit of his life. A biblical Christian is one who can validate his professed faith in repentance by the fruit of his life.

69:41 James says in James 2.19, Thou believest God is one. The demons also believe and they tremble. Verse 26, Wilt thou not know, O man, that as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead?

69:56 Titus 1.16 says, They professed, But in works they deny Him, being abominable and unto every good work reprobate. And Jesus said in Matthew 7.21, Many, many, many, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not this?

70:12 Did we not that? And He will say unto them, Depart from Me. I never knew you. No real repentance in faith will bring forth fruit.

70:20 That's why Paul said in Acts 26.20, I preach that men should repent, turn to God, doing works, works meet or answering to the professed repentance.

70:35 And what is the minimal measure of real saving fruit? And I wrestled with this today and yesterday. And I believe God's helped me to state it in a way that's not simplistic but simple. I believe if we reduce everything the Bible talks about the fruits of repentance and faith, we can reduce it down to two simple things.

70:55 Number one, there will be love to the person of Christ. Producing a pattern of obedience to the word of Christ. Now that's not complicated. I think we could say it together.

71:08 True repentance and faith will always produce love to the person of Christ. Producing a pattern of obedience to the word of Christ. Now on what scripture do I base that? Well remember what Peter said in 1 Peter 1.8, Speaking of these believers, notice what he says of them without exception. It's true of every true believer. He says, Whom having not seen, that is Christ, you love. On whom though you see him not, yet believing you rejoice.

71:50 The one on whom they believed, they now love. Saving faith always brings the heart into a relationship of love to itself. Saving faith never looks to Christ from him and then lives detached from his person. Saving faith is the marriage bond of the soul to Christ, the heavenly bridegroom.

72:24 Isn't the church called his bride?

72:27 How does one become part of that bride? When by the operation of the Holy Spirit we're brought to our spiritual wedding day. When we take him as our bride, when we take him as our bride, when we take him as our bride, when we take him to be our Savior, our Master, our Redeemer, our Teacher, our Prophet, our Priest, our King, from henceforth to live in bonds of love to him. So what is the fruit of repentance and faith?

72:55 Love to the person of Christ producing a pattern. I didn't say a perfect pattern, but a pattern of obedience to the Word of Christ. John 14, 21. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.

73:16 Verse 24. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings. He that loves me keeps my word. 1 John 2, 3, and 4.

73:25 If we say that we know him and keep not his commandments, we lie and we do not the truth.

73:34 Jesus said in describing his sheep in John 10, 27, My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give to them eternal life and they shall never perish and no man shall pluck them out of my hand. That's one of the most abused verses in all of the Bible. People use it to teach the antinomian soul-destructive hell-spawn doctrine of eternal security. Once saved, always saved, no matter how you live.

74:07 That's not the teaching of the Bible. The teaching of the Bible is once saved, always saved, and how you live proves you are saved. That's the teaching of the Bible. My sheep hear, present tense, my voice.

74:25 And they not only hear it, they follow me. They don't follow perfectly any more than they hear perfectly. But it's the pattern of their life. And he says, I give to them eternal life.

74:36 Christ is not giving eternal life to all these ghosts. That have a sign around their neck. I belong to Jesus because I made a decision. Those ghosts will be separated on the left hand and cast into outer darkness.

74:51 The fruit of repentance and faith is love to the person of Christ. Producing a pattern of obedience to the word of Christ. And then the second great fruit of repentance and faith is this. A commitment of heart to the goal of the death of Christ.

75:10 Producing increasing likeness to Christ. A commitment of heart to the goal of the death of Christ which will produce increasing likeness to Christ. And on what verses do I base that? Well, listen.

75:30 Familiar verses. Ephesians 5.25 Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Why?

75:38 That he might make it happy, happy, happy all the time. Time, time, time. No! He gave himself for the church that he might sanctify it.

75:49 Having cleansed it with the washing of water by the word and presented to himself a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish before him. You see, the purpose of Christ in his death is exactly the same as the Father's purpose in election. Ephesians 1.4 We were chosen in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blemish.

76:19 If the Father chose us with that end in view, then the Son died with precisely the same end in view. And when the Holy Spirit applies to us the salvation purchased by Christ and purposed by the Father, he doesn't break the chain of command. The fruit of repentance in faith is a commitment to the goal of the death of Christ, which is to make me not just safe, but to make me holy.

76:53 A true Christian can say I wouldn't want to go to heaven if heaven were not the perfection of holiness. Heaven would be hell for me. I'm weary of sin. Sin in myself.

77:05 Sin in my wife. Sin in my children. Sin in the world. Sin all about me.

77:11 I long for that purpose to be realized. Titus 2.14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify to himself a peculiar people. That doesn't mean a bunch of oddballs.

77:26 It means a people uniquely his own. His peculiar possession. Zealous of good works. That's why he died.

77:34 Titus 2.14 Or Galatians 1.4 Who gave himself for us that he might deliver us out of this present evil age according to the will of the Father. Or 2 Corinthians 5.15 And that he died for all. That they who live should no longer henceforth live unto themselves but unto him who died for them and rose again. Friends, the purpose of the death of Christ is clear. That it might bring to an end living for myself.

78:03 That it might bring me to be zealous of works that please the Father. That it might give me a passion for holiness. And when from the heart I've embraced the purpose of the death of Christ, then I will increasingly as 1 John 2.6 says, he that abhors the will of God and abideth in him ought to walk even as he walked.

78:23 Every man that hath this hope in him, 1 John 3.3, purifies himself even as he is pure. Now look in the mirror and say, call yourself by name, John, Henry, Mary, Sally. Is this a picture of you?

78:39 Can you say looking in the mirror that by the grace of God, by the grace of God, my heart is attached in love to the person of Christ? And I'm conscious of a real, albeit at times stronger, other times weaker, sometimes barely discernible, but I'm conscious of a real desire to obey the word of Christ. And can you say that your heart is committed to the purpose of the death of Christ? That you should no longer live for yourself?

79:14 That you should be holy? That you should be zealous of good works? Can you say that that's the commitment of your heart? And that nothing pleases you more than when God helps you to conquer some aspect in your character and temperament and personality that is so unlike Christ?

79:33 And you're able to manifest something of likeness to Christ.

79:39 If you're without love to Christ, which constrains you to obey Christ, you're not a Christian. You hear me? If you're without love to Christ, that constrains you to obey Christ, you're not a Christian. If any man loved, not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.

79:58 1 Corinthians 16 and verse 22.

80:02 And if you have no desire to be like Christ, you won't be taken to be with Christ when he comes. For my Bible says, every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself without exception.

80:14 Without holiness, Hebrews 12, 14, no man shall see the Lord. Well, dear people, I've labored to be simple, as clear as I know how. It's grieved me not to turn to these passages just to question them. Quote them and give you the references.

Conclusion: The Urgency of True Christianity in a Wicked Generation

80:28 I see some of you taking notes. I like it better when you can get it through the eyeballs as well as the ear gate. But constrained to give you the whole picture, I had to do that. We're concerned with the Christian's role in a wicked society.

80:45 We've established that ours is a wicked society. And there's nobody who's going to have any significant role who's not a real Christian. What is a real Christian? Someone who has been made painfully aware of his sinfulness before God.

81:02 Is that you?

81:04 Someone who has been brought to hear and to receive is true. God's one way of delivering sinners. It focuses on a person and on the work that he did for others. A real Christian is one who by the Spirit has been brought to true repentance and to faith, not only as an act, but as a spiritual state of the soul.

81:29 Is that true of you? And a true Christian is one who manifests the genuineness of his professed repentance and faith by love to the person of Christ, disposing him to obey the word of Christ, and by embracing the end of the death of Christ, leading to increasing conformity to the image of Christ. No wonder they called them little Christ at Antioch. They were real Christians.

81:58 They were real Christians. Christ was the beginning, middle, and end. The end of life, they could say with Paul, for to me, not just to go to heaven when I die as Christ, that's the creed of the average evangelical today. For me to go to heaven when I die as Christ and everything in between is career, money, things, popularity, pleasure, with a little sprinkling of Jesus just enough to keep my conscience quiet.

82:25 That's not Christianity, friends. That's a hellish, bogus Christianity. For me to live as Christ, only then will it be gained to die. If you can't say, for me to live as Christ, dying won't be gained to you.

82:38 It'll be eternal loss.

82:41 Every true Christian can say in principle, though not in degree, as would the apostle, for me to live as Christ more than my desire to have a husband and a wife, as strong as those desires are, as honorable as they are. If I must have a husband or wife at the expense of violating the standards of the Lord Jesus, I'll be single for the rest of my life. For to me to live is not marriage, but Christ.

83:08 For me to live is not a career and a nice home and a comfortable bank account. If God blesses my endeavors in the way of righteousness and gives me the stewardship of success, I'll accept it. But if I must compromise the standards of Christ, I'd sooner be in a bread line with a good conscience than live in a posh home with a bloody conscience because I violated the word of Christ.

83:36 Brethren, that's real Christianity. And that's the only kind of Christianity that's going to cut it in a wicked generation. It will have any bite and any credibility. That's why I've spent a whole night on it.

83:49 If we're not clear here, we're talking two different languages.

83:54 May God grant us with judgment day honesty to look into the mirror and say, Oh God, is that me? Is that my Christianity? And if it isn't, you go to God. I can't help you.

84:11 But I can help you. I know one who's mighty to save and ready and willing and able to receive any and every who come to Him. Without exception. Jesus is so confident of His power that nobody could come up and say, My case is beyond you, Lord.

84:26 That He could say, Come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden. Oh Lord, but you...

84:34 Yes, I do know. Yes, but you...

84:37 Yes, I do understand. And I dare to say to every generation of sinners, no matter what, their state, come and I will give you rest. But when He says come, He says take my yoke. You come to get your burden relieved while you bend over to take, having lit the burden of sin.

84:57 He'll place His gracious yoke upon you. His yoke is easy. His burden's light. But it's real and it's a yoke.

85:06 He dares to say, All that the Father gives me shall come to me and Him that comes. And He piles up the negatives. I will never under any circumstances ever cast them out. Oh dear, young men and women, boys, girls, gray-haired, older sinners, professing Christians perhaps, you've looked in the mirror tonight and you've said, if that's what a Christian is, that's not me.

85:33 You have to come up with a different description. I don't see myself in that mirror. And thank God He's shown you now while the door of mercy's still open. Run to Christ.

85:45 Cry to God.

85:48 Go to Him who alone is mighty to save. Willing to save. Able to save. And cast yourself upon Him.

85:57 Let us pray. Our Father, how we thank You for Your Word. We praise You for the clarity of its truth. We thank You You have not left us in doubt on this great and burning question, what must I do to be saved?

86:22 And on the equally burning, how may I know that I am saved? Lord, as we've addressed those questions tonight, as best we know how from Your Word, may the Holy Spirit overrule all human imperfection and shortcomings. And may He make that Word effectual in the heart of everyone who has sat here tonight. And, oh, God, may it yet please You in this generation to raise up a host of Biblical questions.

86:53 Come, Biblical Christians. Oh, Lord, hasten the day when all the shallow, let's-go-play-games mentality is done away with. And when those who name the name of Christ are jealous that Christ will have the full reward of His sufferings in them. Oh, Lord, bless Your Word to everyone who has come this night, young and old alike.

87:18 And may the final day reveal that this Word did not return unto us, did not return unto You void. Hear our cry and answer us, for Jesus' sake. Amen.