In this sermon, the speaker discusses the issue of deception and exaggeration. He emphasizes that both blatant guilt and being deceived are sins before God. The speaker also highlights the importance of being diligent and not using the Bible as an excuse for laziness. He encourages believers to be hungry for God's Word, humble, holy, and passionate in their discipleship. The speaker concludes by urging believers to be proactive in world evangelism and not to be complacent in their efforts.

Father, we would want to make our prayer just what we've just sang. Open my ears that I may hear voices of truth. Thou sendest clear, and while the wave notes fall on my ear, everything false will disappear. O Spirit of God, we pray that that which is wood, hay, and stubble will be burnt tonight. That which is sham and falsely motivated, that which is pseudo from A to Z, will find its place in the trash cans. O God, we pray. Lord, search our hearts. Lord, scorch our hearts with the heat of the love of Christ. God, we've got the theories. Lord, we've got all the knowledge in the head, or at least parts of it. But Lord, unless Thou dost give the anointing, and burn away that which is a hindrance, that which is pseudo, that which is false, we will become nothing, and be nothing more than sounding brass and tingling cymbal. O God, by Thy Word. Lord, not by emotion, not by anything but Thy Word, and by Thy Spirit. Work in every heart tonight. Lord, we would pray for those that are in our midst who have just been converted in these past days. We would ask special blessing and understanding for them, Lord, as in some ways this message perhaps will not be for them. But Lord, we pray that all might get their heavenly portion this night. We praise Thee, O Lamb of God, slain before the foundation of the world. We praise Thee because Thou art moving. Lord, we have sensed and we have known Thy moving in these days. As hearts have been broken, Lord, we thank Thee for the message of the cross, and of Christ, our all-sufficient coming King. We praise Thee that we are complete in Him, and in Him is all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. But Lord, might we not presume, might we not walk down dark alleys with Bible texts across our eyes? O God, we pray, open our eyes that we might see every impediment, every hindrance, everything that's false. And might it find its place tonight at the dust, at the foot of the cross. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. I want you to open your Bible to Acts, the book of Acts, in chapter 5. Reading from the word of God. But a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whilst it remaineth, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto man, but unto God. And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the Holy Ghost. And great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young man arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him. It was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me, whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. And Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of God, or the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost. And the young man came in, and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things. The subject I'm speaking about tonight isn't very pleasant for me, and perhaps for some of you. As I mentioned to some, God very clearly put it upon my heart to speak on this subject of pseudo-discipleship. You heard a lot of messages a few weeks ago at the Oval and at Bridewell Hall on the subject of discipleship. As we've come here at the conference, we've had various subjects presented to us. It's amazing how the Holy Spirit gives us such a wide coverage of his Word through different men of God with different burdens, different visions. And yet it's the same Lord, the same Holy Spirit, that is speaking and ministering unto us. I don't know what various thoughts you've developed in the last days, but I've begun to think a little bit of discipleship in terms of the five H's. And as I was just thinking about what a disciple is, I was just thinking of these five H's. And each H has been touched on. A disciple is hungry, a disciple is humble, a disciple is holy, and a disciple is hissing hot. Well, we're not going to speak about that tonight. But we've heard a lot about what a disciple is. But tonight I want to speak about a little bit of what a disciple isn't. And there's many that in our day would pretend to be disciples and always within our own ranks. There are those who either pretend to be disciples or who are deceived into thinking they are disciples. False disciples, phonies, pseudo-disciples. Could it be the ranks of a Christian group, the ranks of such a group as this, where they receive no salaries, where they go without any financial gain, where they go out to preach Christ supposedly because they love him. Could it be possible that there can be that which is false, that which is pseudo, that which is not real? I believe it is. And I believe that God's desire is to purge this work. To purge it, oh, to purge it of all those things that are false and phony. We have here the story of Ananias and Sapphira. They didn't have to give their lands. There's no rules, they didn't have to give their lands and their possessions. That wasn't the sin of Ananias and Sapphira, that they didn't give all. The sin of Ananias and Sapphira was that they were untruthful. The sin of Ananias and Sapphira is that they were pretending to be what they knew they were not. Pretending to go along with something when they didn't go along with it at all. Pretending that they had given all. Giving the impression that they were really sold out for Christ when they knew they weren't. This was the sin of Ananias and Sapphira. Pseudo-disciples, God took them as an example to the church in the 20th century and every other century. It doesn't work this way anymore. Or there'd be a lot of dead people through all the churches. And probably quite a few corpses in this room tonight. Maybe I'm wrong. The thing that impresses me here in verse 11 is that after this was done, great fear came upon the church. And this I've discovered is something that's almost void in our day. The fear of God. We had such a slap-happy generation that we almost would presume that God would never punish for sin. The age of grace. And we really push God right to the edge, seemingly, of his patience with some of our living. And I dare to say there is very little fear of God. Very little fear of what God might do to any of us if we continue in our hypocrisy. We've had cases of this, Anoen. Cases of young people that were with us for the summer, many cases there, of course. Young people that were with us for the year. And the whole year their life was nothing but a lie. The whole year. We praise God there's not been many such cases. But there have been cases. They told lies to their leader. They told lies to their squad leader. They told lies to me. They told lies to their parents. How could that ever be in any type of a Christian group? How could anyone go through a conference such as this? Hear the messages of Roy Heshin. Hear the messages of Leslie Lyle. Hear the messages of all these speakers that have come. And not go out from here a real true follower of Jesus Christ. I've asked myself that question a lot of times. How anyone could go through a conference like this and finish it and not understand the way of repentance and the way of brokenness is beyond me. But it happens. The Bible says in the Old Testament, The heart is deceitful. The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And I believe God wants to turn the hot spotlights on us tonight as a movement. Those of you who are guests tonight, if you'll pardon me, I'm speaking mainly to those motley ones who are in OM operation motley ones. Those who are trying to press on in the ranks of discipleship and who sometimes feel that perhaps they are disciples. And of course, that word is somewhat relative. When we say disciples, we don't mean people that have arrived at some point. We mean a people who are learning. And that's all we are. And so I want to ask that all of us be willing to let the spotlight of God come down upon us. Please forget, if you will, the man next to you. Husbands, please forget your wives tonight for a few minutes. The spotlight is not for you to shine upon your wife. Nor, wives, is it for you to shine upon your husband. Nor is it for you to shine upon the man next to you or the one who is your leader or the one who is working under you. Let's let the spotlight shine straight on us. And I pray with all my heart that the spotlight will shine right on me. And I'm not speaking to any particular individual more than I'm speaking to myself. Pseudo-discipleship. The man who thinks he's a learner, but he's really not. He thinks that he's learning at the feet of Jesus and he's miles from Jesus. He might read his Bible. I know one young man, Noah. He got into the Word of God. He got excited about memorizing. And in four months, he memorized, well, way over 500 verses. And I must confess, I'm just not sure what those verses did in his life from some recent, very heartbreaking reports. And so we might be in the Word of God every day and you might be getting into the Word and you might be getting it into your heart and even down into your heart. But still, something, something there. I pray God will get at it tonight. I've listed 21 pseudo-disciples. I don't know how long this is going to take. Maybe we won't get all of these men tonight. And I've listed 21 in no particular order just as the Lord put them on my heart. And I'll just give them to you. Mr. Liar. Might as well start there because that's what we saw in the case of Ananias and Sapphira. They were liars. She lied. Straightforward, she lied. Peter answered and said unto her, Mercy, tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yes, for so much. We see that it's possible for someone to be living as a Christian thinking he's a learner of Christ, thinking he's a follower of Christ, thinking he's going on with Christ, and yet he's a liar. He might have even told a lie on his application form for his questionnaire. We've had that? I had one girl come to me once and say, You know, I must admit, I lied about this. A lie maybe about your age. A lie maybe about something that you're scared might come out. You say, Well, I can't believe that's possible among Christians. Look, the longer you live among Christians, the more you realize it's possible. The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. I wonder, is there anyone that's in that category tonight? Living a lie, telling lies, small lies, convenient lies, but still lies, and the Bible says, All liars will have their part. Where? In the lake of fire. Well, I can't explain that. And I'll tell you, there's a great danger. If there's any untruth, any lies involving your coming to Christ and your following Christ, be very careful. Well, we'll jump off him because perhaps there's not too many guilty of that. Only the Lord knows. But then we go right to Mr. Liar's brother. Mr. Liar's older, more wiser brother is Mr. Deceiver. Mr. Deceiver is a specialist, not at lying. He doesn't engage in those straightforward, crusty lies. He likes the round-the-corner variety, deceiving, deceiving others, pretending to be what he knows he isn't, giving impressions to people that he knows are not true. He's often guilty of exaggeration. You know, psychologically, when you've never been loved very much, when you've never had very much, when you've never got much attention, and people don't pay much attention even now, you find a tendency to exaggerate things. And you find that when you exaggerate things, you get tremendous attention. People listen to you. Whereas before, when you used to tell the plain old truth, well, what's that? Now you put a little bit of glow on the story. You gave out a hundred tracts, and when you retold the story, it was a thousand. Wow, in an hour! Mr. Deceiver likes to exaggerate. He deceives those around him. We're all guilty of some of these things. And there's two kinds of people. There's those that are blatantly guilty before God, openly, and there are those of us that are being deceived. I'm guilty of it. Deception. I've seen it, how it can come in. We're in our room, and we're on our knees praying, and we fall asleep. There's a knock on the door. You ever done that? So many subtle ways that we can give the impression that really is very deceitful. Sitting at our desk, munching a nice chocolate bar, a knock on the door. We can laugh. God doesn't. Little ways of deceiving. Some think it's sharp. Some think it's shrewd. God says that deception is sin. God tells us that we are to walk honestly before men. And if there's anything God wants, it's sincerity. Sincerity. May God drive that home to our hearts. Another pseudo-disciple comes along very quickly. He's Mr. Fault Finder. He's always around. If he's around long enough, you can be sure he'll give you a good headache. He sees everything that's wrong. He feels that he's a real follower of Christ. He believes that he's following Christ. He feels that he's following Christ. And he feels that he's really doing a great job for Christ. And all the rest of these poor Joes, well, too bad he's so immature. Too bad that he's had this problem. Too bad he's this way. Too bad she does this. Too bad. You can always see everything that's wrong in the other. He thinks he's following Jesus, but he doesn't realize that his very attitude disqualifies him. Follow the Lord Jesus Christ. He sometimes has the nickname of Mr. Judge Others. Oh, he's so quick. He sees somebody doing something and immediately he's got 2 and 2 together and 4 and 4 together. But the trouble is, when he adds 2 and 2, he gets 40. It doesn't work that. Oh, I tell you the danger in Christian work of judging others. The biggest thing that has wanted me to make me quit this work and get out of OM is that I could preach the message that God has put on my heart and the sin of missions in our day, the backbiting, the judging one another, the feeling that we are the group. We are the ones who get all the truth. We've got the strategy. We've got the power. We've got the leader. We've got the numbers. We've got... Oh, God hates it. Might we realize that we are so unable to judge, especially when we don't have the facts and we don't know the whole case. We don't know the whole truth. And we see this little bit of truth and we see this little bit of truth. We try to put them together and all of it is a proof that we are a pseudo-disciple. The man who's judging others, the man who is a fault finder, this man is not following Jesus. This man can think he's a disciple. He can carry his discipleship manual in his back pocket. He can have all of the outward appearance, but he's not following Jesus. He's off on a wide tangent that leads to a deep ditch. Might God keep us from that? Might we learn the reality of what it says in Proverbs? Hatred stirreth up strife, but love covereth a multitude of sins. A tale bare revealeth secrets, but he that loveth concealeth a matter. Oh, might God keep us from the road of fault finding and judging? Might we learn to think the best? Another one that sometimes gets into O.M., a pseudo-disciple, Mr. Runaway. Mr. Runaway. He comes bursting into O.M. with a great pile of zeal and we let go of this zealot and he says, I'm called to China. Wow! We all stand back amazed. Really, he's not called to China at all. He's running away from something. Running away from a home situation. Running away from a job failure. Running away from a girl who dropped him. Running away from something. And he's running and he's running and when he runs into O.M., it seems like a great escape. It seems like an opportunity, an open door to get rid of his frustrations, his fears, his desire not to return home. He's running away. Not a disciple. Now, if he comes into O.M. and if you're in that category, it might be that God has used this to bring you there. It might be that God will want you to go back. It might be that God will want you to repent and go on with the true motivation. There's always a danger in a message like this that we throw the baby away with the bathwater. We see that something's dirty, something's wrong, our motives are wrong, the reason for being here is wrong and so we throw everything away and we go back home and sulk. We want to throw the sin away. We want to throw the motives away if they're wrong. But we don't want to throw the commission that Jesus Christ gave his church away. You know, I'll be very honest, I came to Jesus with false motivators, false motives when I was born again in 1955. When I went down the aisle in Madison Square Garden, I tell you, I wasn't going down the aisle because I loved God. I wasn't going down the aisle because I wanted to be a worshiper of God and I wanted to give him, in a sense, everything I had. I went down the aisle because I was broken and burdened by my sin and I wanted deliverance and I wanted forgiveness. Well, that's pretty selfish, isn't it? Most of us, I believe, have come to Christ with a selfish motive. How in the world else can he get us there? Before we're converted, we don't have any pure motives. So what motive is he going to bring us to the Lord with? The great thing is the sovereignty of God can bring us to himself. And these things that have happened in your life, maybe the thing that's caused you a home problem or something to run away, God has used this. But the thing is to make sure now that you don't allow that to continue to push you. You might have gone down the aisle to accept Christ by a false motive, but you should never go on and serve Christ with that same false motive. When you were a child, you spoke as a child. But now as you grow up, you begin to act as an adult. Make sure you're not running away. Running away from something. But make sure you're running toward the Lord Jesus Christ. The pseudo-disciple, he's got all the outward appearance. Why? He'll even sell all his possessions. They usually don't have many of these varieties. But I pray to God you'll see it'll never work. You cannot run away. You must run to him. Another disciple that's often found is Mr. Girl Hunter. What? And Miss Husband Hunter thinks she's a disciple. He thinks he's a disciple. He's following Jesus, but really he's following the tweeterings of his heart. He met a girl on O-M in the summer. She was pretty nice. And she said, I'm going on O-M for a year. And he said, my, isn't that funny? The Lord's been leading me that way too. He thinks he's following Jesus. Really he's following her. He's led astray by the deceitfulness of his own heart. And it happens vice versa. Young girl can start right back in the church meeting. The first time O-M's ever been in the church. And you sat there. And that fairly good looking young man got up and spoke. He said, come on O-M for a year. Follow Christ. Boy, it sounded terrific. Especially the way he said it. You thought for a minute, if not outwardly, inwardly. Well, maybe I'll never get an opportunity with him, but if there's one, there must be more. Of course, many times we don't recognize these things. Many times we outwardly, and as far as we can see, it's right. It's a pure motive. It's a good motive. But these things are working in the unconscious levels of our life. And that's why God wants to let the spotlight of his word go right down. That's why the Bible tells us to let the word of God go into our heart. That's why we believe in memorizing the word of God, meditating on it, and chewing it, and digesting it, that it might get down into the inner man, into the heart. Modern psychology calls it the unconscious mind. Well, that's alright. They call it what they want. I prefer Jesus. He said the heart. It's the heart. It's the real you. Make sure you're following Jesus and not some woman, some man. He will share his love with no one. No, he will not. He might work it out. He might give you a wife. Wonderful. He might give you a husband. Praise God. He that findeth a wife findeth a good thing. Of course, I like to balance that off with Proverbs 30. You can find a virtuous woman. Make sure your motives are pure on this point. And then, oh, he's always coming along, this guy. Every summer, we get a whole crop of the Mr. Shortcut. Oh, he's got a vision for the mission field. He wants to see the world exploding. He wants to see the gospel taking every creature. And he spots O.M. with his binoculars. He sees all his young people going off to evangelize. And he says, that's for me. He's thought about going to college, but, ooh, four years. He's thought about going to Bible school, ooh, two, three years. He's thought about a lot of things, but, oh, well, you can't waste that time. And he's got this idea that O.M. is a shortcut. Away he goes. Shortcut to discipleship. Shortcut to the world evangelization. You know, the shortcuts often end up as the longest road. Might we realize there's no shortcuts in accomplishing things for God. Leslie Lyle brought this home to us the other day. And it has been our belief from the beginning of this work, the Spirit of God showed us that this work was not a mission board, but this work was a training program to train men and to equip them to then go, after maybe a couple of years, maybe seven years, to then go forth as missionaries from their local assembly or from some other mission board. And those who really understand this vision who have come into this work, they're going back to college, many of them. Men like Henry Pachinowski converted through our work up in Atherton. He went to Israel. People almost fell over. Henry Pachinowski going to Israel. Just converted a year ago. But you see, he was going to Israel to be trained. He was going to Israel to get a vision. He was going to Israel to get something in his shoes beside wood and sand. And now he's back and he's finishing his GCEs in Bolton. And I can give you many, many... No, he's in Bolton. Oh, he changed. Well, praise the Lord, either one. Many of these young people that are going out that have gone on before you in previous crusades are now back in college or Bible school and they've discovered that one year with OM or two years gives them something to work for when they go back to school. They know now where they're going. That doesn't mean everyone has to go back to school after OM. Everybody's different. If we'd only realized this. All this trying to push everybody through the same pipe is the biggest load of lies the devil can ever give. Used to be that if you wanted to be a preacher, everybody's got to go to a cemetery if they're going to be a preacher. So everybody goes off to the cemetery and they come out what? Dead. Well, what else? Now we've got a new jingle. Everybody to Bible school. We all go off to Bible school like a bunch of tin soldiers where you can't possibly serve Christ if you don't go to Bible school. You ever found that anywhere in the Bible? I praise God for Bible school. I praise God I went to one and graduated from one. But I don't believe every single boy that wants to serve Jesus Christ has to go to Bible school. I believe every boy that wants to serve Christ has got to go to God school wherever that might be. And that might be it might be in a mechanic shop. It might be in the literature department. It might be, it might be anywhere. It might be at the feet of a man of God because it seems to me that that's a little bit more scriptural than some of the things we're playing around with in our day. But of course where do you find those men? Sometimes the problem is, might God show us that we can't get any shortcuts to the kind of life that Jesus Christ was talking about. It's going to be rough. It's going to be tough. It's going to be long. And it's going to be hard. We're learners. We're in training. I think of these Roman Catholic priests. Takes them nine years before they come out ordained as priests. I think of a man who studies to be a medical doctor. Takes him seven years or more. But we have young people. They come. They think after one year out of ordination they ought to be throwing the world upside down with hardly getting out of bed on time. Might God show us there's no shortcut. Mr. Shortcut is a pseudo-disciple. He's not willing to pay the price. He's not willing to persevere. He's not willing to stick at it. He's not willing to learn the basics. He wants to jump from one place to the other and he finds that when he lands he makes no impact but crumbles in pieces and does little for the rest of his life. Never sacrifice the permanent on the altar of the temporary unless that temporary is going to begin a worldwide revival. We'd make that an exception. There we have Mr. Sluggard. Look in the book of Proverbs add a few verses if you will. All of you are supposed to read the whole book of Proverbs these days. I hope you're doing it. It's found right after Psalms chapter 26 verse 13. Billy Graham calls slothfulness one of the seven deadly sins. It is. It's one of the greatest sins I've seen in our day. Slothfulness. I think of old Nehemiah and those people and they had a mind to work. Where are those people in our day? That's what I want to know. Have a mind to work. I read about that woman we read in the girls' meeting this afternoon about that woman in the 30th chapter of Proverbs who rose up in the morning before everyone else and did her work and she was still going late at night under the light of her candle. Where are those kind of girls in 1965? I'd like to know. And here we have a picture of the sluggard. The slothful man says there's a lion in the way. It's pretty funny, isn't it? A lion is in the streets. In other words, the man who's lazy he's always seeing the obstacles. You say let's do this and he'll say but and if. No, can't be. He's got all these 99 negatives to tell you. But the main problem is he's lazy. Look what God says here in the book of Proverbs. These verses always stir my heart. Whenever I read them and how we need a fresh reading of all the Proverbs and all that God has to say. Look at chapter 20, verse 4. The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold. He, however, will not go door to door for reason of the cold. The leader says in a sub-zero day over in Austria, okay, let's go, troops. Out to the doors. Everybody starts shaking, quivering, well, don't you think we should have a little extra Bible study today? What a grievous thing when we use the Bible as a license for laziness. I've seen it all over the evangelical world. The man of the world, he gets up at 6.30 in the morning, 8 o'clock he's got to be on the job. Working hard. Evangelical. He gets up 7.30 or 8 whenever he wants. Especially some who are in full-time work. And he has a two-hour Bible study. Is this right? I say it's right if we are studying the Bible with intensity. But it's not right if we're sitting in our favorite armchair with our Bible in our hand, merely reading. You know what one secular man said? He said reading without taking notes is simply to open the way for going back to sleep. Might we learn what it is to study our Bibles, not slothfully, not as almost a subtle subconscious excuse not to work, not to get on the job, but might we study our Bibles intensely. I recommend some of you who are so sleepy to study your Bible walking around. Study it standing on your head, but don't study it in a way that you can go back to sleep reading the Bible. I believe it is a partial, maybe a full insult to God to fall asleep reading the Word of God. Can't you just imagine me sitting here having a discussion face-to-face with Jesus Christ and as He talks to me, as He pours His heart out to me, I say, isn't that tremendous, Lord? My! What mockery to God the way we have some of our devotional life. God has had to browbeat me and break me and show me that my devotional time must be with intensity or I'll be guilty of a pseudo-disciple in this realm of being a sluggard. Look at verse 13. Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty. Open thine eyes and thou shalt be satisfied with bread. This is one of the reasons I'm so convinced about getting out on the doors with these books. I've seen all over the world. We've seen it with our own teams. We say, now look, your job is personal work. And they go around all day long making contacts, sipping tea. Tremendous life. Tremendous life. Nothing I would like better. I believe that personal work must only be done after agonizing times with God on our knees. So that when we go out to do this more easy work, it's just clean up. The real work is done at our knees. The real work done in prayer and fasting. The real work is done when we get up at three with a burning on our hearts for the soul. Not when you go over to his house and sit down talking tea with him and giving him some verses. That's clean up. Now that can be hard too if your heart is really in it. So we've discovered with such a group of immature, neo, well I won't use the word, but such a group as us, that it's good to have to knock on doors and keep going and carry a heavy book bag and earn your daily keep. It's our technique. If the Apostle Paul wasn't ashamed to sell tents and make tents, dare any of us be ashamed to go out and sell some books to make at least a little bit of our support so that the few gifts that come our way can be channeled into more worthy people. Into these faithful Indians and Mexicans and Spaniards and Italians who can speak the language and let them go out and do the personal work. Might God give us a vision for tent making. And I believe this is the greatest tent making business you can ever be in. Might we have a mind to work. Might we go out with zeal and not be deceived into thinking we're a disciple when we're really a sluggard. Might God speak deeply about that. Mr. Sluggard has a very good friend and I'm not going to speak much about him, but he's called Mr. Little as Possible. Oh, these guys are all over the place. Mr. Little as Possible, he wants to do as little as possible. He drives his truck into the orange garage and he wants to do as little as possible. And that means nothing. Dump it on the mechanics and let them grind it out. Let them clean up the tracks in the back. Let them figure out this and figure out that and discover whether there's any gasoline in the tank or petrol in the tank or not. And you go up and have a chat about all you accomplished. Oh, might God deliver us from the pseudo-disciple Mr. Little as Possible. Might we become Mr. as Much as Possible. Might we be the extra mild man. Man says, well, when you do this and we do this plus. Oh, I tell you, these kind of people are the kind I want on my team. I tell you, they thrill my heart. And there are some in our midst and I praise God for every one of them. And in such a rebuke to my slothful life. And there we come to another pseudo-disciple. Here's Mr. Halfway. Let's go. Start the race. Boom. He's off. And he gets to the middle of the track. Just halfway. Who's this? For a long way to the end of the track. He stops. How many of you have begun something and never finished it? I can't think of how much money we lost last year with young people who got a great burst of zeal about Bible memory. We enrolled them in Navigators, paid our dough, and they're still not even halfway. And I can only say this. Count the cost before you start. I'm guilty. I can only speak on that. I've lost my packs between here and India. I got a letter today from the Navigators encouraging me on. We're all guilty. And I pray that we'll realize this isn't halfway. You know, we've had people head out to India and they got, you guessed it, halfway. Then it got too rough. Oh my God. Deliver us from halfwayism. A cult of halfwayism. You go to do a job, you get in the middle of it, and you get sidetracked. Sometimes it's food, sometimes it's this, sometimes that. Sidetracked. You never finish it. Is that the way we're going to evangelize the world? No. It never will be. Then of course comes along Mr. Self-Pity. Maybe you just jumped into that boat right now. Mr. Self-Pity. You always think you got the roughest end. Everybody else has got a good deal, you got a bad deal. Everybody else has got this, and you don't have it. Everybody else is going here, and you're not going anywhere. You're doing the most work. Oh yes, you volunteer to do the dishes all the time. And every time you go down, you wash the plates in the tears of self-pity. Oh, I've been down here five times this week, and I know very well that some of that dining hall hadn't been down here yet. You're the one that goes out and does that extra job, but as you do it, you grow it all the way. You're the one who asked after Mr. Little-As-Possible comes into the truck, you go out and look at the truck, you see the mess, and you clean it up and the whole while you're bathing the floor in tears of self-pity. You're the overworked one. You're always getting the hard deal. Oh my God, deliver us from self-pity. Look, I've been so guilty of this at times. Self-pity. I was the busiest, I know I am. There I was in my little office, all my letters, all my little status symbols that are piled up so high, and all my jobs and all the sermons I had to preach that were so busy, people always knocking on my door, and there they were. The tears of self-pity were just sobbing through the letters, and God hates it. And I want to tell you, I don't say this as a boast, but last night as I, two nights ago when I met with Jonathan McCroskey, God so broke me, I wept sore over the self-pity that I've discovered in my own rotten life. Might God deliver us from the road of self-pity, thinking we've got the hardest way, we're doing the most, everybody else is neglecting us, they're forgetting about what I told them to do, my leaders aren't following my instructions, all of this, it will never accomplish anything for the glory of God. We'll only waste your time and your voice, might there be repentance concerning it. And then of course we have right along there, we have Mr., well I can hardly say it, Mr. Faultzeal. He's a real zealot, he is. Oh my, he's a soul winner, he's a world evangelizer, he's a disciple, he's a Bible puncher, he's a street preacher, he's, you look at him and you just see, my, my, he's really a disciple. But when you get close, you live with him, you watch him, you discover something, Faultzeal. It can come from some of these other things we just talked about, but it's not that compassion spoken about in Matthew 9 that Jesus had moved by compassion, he was. But it's some faultzeal, maybe it's produced by, well, the sister of Mr. Faultzeal is Miss Successful. And her whole joy, of course, you know, we can put Miss and Mr. and Mrs. and Mr. and all these, I hope that you girls don't think you're being left out of this message, because I've been using Mr. But Miss Successful, she's very zealous on the job, because when she does the job and she hands it in, there's a great feeling that she's accomplishing. Ever had that feeling? Now, the psychologists in the world, they say, well, that's necessary, that's important, that's vital, why you'll go to a mental home if you don't have some feeling of accomplishing something. Well, it's true, God uses that motivation to carry us over the hill so many times. But you know, when the day of judgment comes, I'm afraid that's going to be included in the wood, hay, and stubble. Might God deliver us from being zealous, simply so we can say, I've finished the job, I've done something, I've done what I've assigned, I'm a faithful man. Faithful to what? The self-produced zeal of your own heart. It's so easy to be zealous, isn't it, when everybody's watching. Oh, my. When some of us are giving out literature and there's others watching, we really go at it. When some of us go out book-selling and somebody's there at the end of the day to take the money and see how well you did, wow, you really go at it. But when nobody's watching, you're not in any organization, you're just out on your own. It's a different story, isn't it? Fault-filled, pseudo-discipleship. God doesn't want it. It might be hard, but God doesn't want it. He wants real zeal that comes from a life that's linked up with Christ. Real zeal from a life that's linked up with the Holy Spirit of God that must be our zeal. Then, of course, we have Mr. Know-It-All. Mr. Know-It-All and his brother, Mr. Teach-Me-Not. You know, some of the older folk get into this pretty quickly. I don't know why. We've discovered on OM the problem of the older generation. Of course, the older generation feels that we're all a great problem, so I don't know where we end up as. But I know this, that God wants to bind our hearts with older people. And I believe it means we as young people are going to have to bend and break and repent. But I believe sometimes some older people are going to have to realize that even at 60 and 80 you can maybe learn one more lesson before you go to heaven. May God give older people a teachable spirit right to they arrive in glory. And then when you get to glory you can shout with all your heart, I know it all, because then when you're there and you see, you will. But not until then. Watch out. And yet young people are guilty of this too. The young person who really has it. He's had some experience. And from then on you can't tell him anything. Mister, teach me now. I don't want any of those on my team. If you're going to India and you're in that category, please, have mercy on me. And have mercy on our Indian brethren. Because we're going down there to work with Indians. And they're going to be our leaders. And I do what Indians tell me to do. Many, many times. And I pray, there'll be no mister teach me nuts, mister know-it-alls. It's a subtle thing, it is. I'll tell you, it is. Watch it. Watch it. Because it can quench the Holy Ghost in your life without any doubt. Then, of course, you have Mister Noisemaker. You can usually find him in a prayer meeting, at least in certain places, because he can make all kinds of noises. And by the noises he's making, you'd think Pentecost was back five times all at once. Now, there's nothing wrong at times with a good shout of praise. And we got plenty of people on the other end of the pendulum. They wouldn't open their mouth and praise God if they saw a man jump out of a grave. But I'll tell you, when you make noise for God, you better count the cost. He's going to take you at your word. And when you go shouting, Amen! Praise God! Hallelujah! You better count the cost. What do you mean by that? I tell you, the Spirit of God has had to deal very severely with me. And I pray to God we'll not be a bunch of noisemakers. Oh, our prayer meetings. Oh, they're such zeal. They're such enthusiasm. Why, you almost hear the crembling, rumbling in the background. And you can hear Mecca beginning to tremble. But then when we go out, one month later, two months later, it's a very different story. We haven't got a piano with us anymore. And there's no leader there sort of stirring us and challenging us and giving us fresh requests from the field. And Bible teachers coming in every day. We've been out on the field knocking on doors eight hours all day long. Slammed doors. People didn't want to listen. You have that young convert just backslid, told you you were up the creek and all these things. And then you meet together for your devotions. And all you hear is low groans. Watch out that your discipleship isn't just noise, words, songs. That it's real. It's burning in your heart. And by God's grace, you believe that when that day comes of trial and of problem and of tribulation, of difficulty, you'll be making the same noise. There's nothing wrong with a good shout. There's nothing wrong with a good praise. But I'll tell you, it's not just when you're on top you need to praise. It's when you're down. In the valleys, might God deliver us from noise making. Then of course, right along with Mr. Noisemaker, you have his good friend Mr. Doctrine Pusher. Oh, he's always in every group. And he stays quite hidden during the conferences usually. Especially when somebody's around who can talk him and stop him very quickly with the Word of God. So he stays quite hidden. Then as they go out on the team and the ones who know the Word of God a little more thoroughly aren't there, all of a sudden you start to see his nose come up. And all of a sudden this most interesting doctrine comes out that he believes. And pretty soon you discover you've got Mr. Doctrine Pusher as your number one headache for 1965-66. I pray to God there's no one here that has merely come to infiltrate another group with your favorite doctrine. And you feel that well all these young people are good and some of them, it seems that they might even be more more zealous in some ways than I am. You can't quite figure that out but you at least give it a possibility. But you have that hard core of truth that the whole world needs. I tell you I have seen people that are close to mentally ill on this point. I mean you cannot talk to them. You cannot reason with them. You cannot be logical with them. They think of everything in terms of this one thing. We've had them on OM. I tell you it's been heartbreaking. Guys that their lives were sham. Everybody saw it. Everybody knew it. But you came to reason with them about their life, about some problem and all they saw was this one thing. I tell you be careful. You're not a disciple. You're running out of some real deep psychological problem. Most people that get on this tangent are definitely people who have psychological, serious psychological problems. Not all. Those who get on it stick. You know the mental institutions all over the world are filled with religious people. I think they have all the truth. That's truth. You can take a survey on people who are mentally ill. Many of them are religious. When I think of the ranters in the southern part of our country and in the north and in our big cities we have more sects, cults, false religions than any most heathen country in all the world. In Chicago I could describe things that would knock you off your chair. They come over the radio. All basically people that think they've got all the truth. And they always use that word Bible, New Testament truth. We've got every possible type of primitive, apostolic, sub-apostolic, every possible thing you can think of. And they have all the truth. And those people I'm telling you many of them it's up here. It's not discipleship. They're not following Christ. They're following the instincts of their own deceived unconscious mind. Be careful. Then you have Mr. Sign Seeker. Oh, I tell you this guy is also very dangerous. He always wants to see a great sign. And he's running all around the world following everybody who promises to show a sign. What did Jesus say? What sign will I give you? I will give you the sign of Jonah. Might we beware of this tangent. Might we learn to seek Jesus. As A.B. Simpson once said this man was a mighty power for God. Not the blessing but the blessing. Not the blessing but the blessing. Why if you offer a blessing in a big convention the people will flock in from all over the world. They'll fly first class jet from California to come to your meetings. Any blessing. You promise to heal hard corns they'll fly in from Washington to get them healed. But I've always wondered what would happen if we had a convention and we put a sign up suffering for all. No offering taken all invite. I wonder how many would come. And yet isn't that what the word of God has promised in Philippians? It has been given you on behalf of Jesus Christ not only to believe on him but to suffer for his sake. Might God search our hearts concerning that. And then you have Mr. Worrywart an American expression I guess. He thinks he's a disciple. He seems to be pressing on. He seems to be going places. But really it's all a product of worry. He's worrying about this. He's worrying whether he's good enough for God. He's worrying whether he's accomplishing enough. He's worrying about whether the world will ever get evangelized if he didn't get in the battle quick enough and get going and do the mop up. And he's worrying day and night. And of course Miss Worrywart is even more vigorous and rigorous than Mr. Worrywart. She's got so much to worry about and if she doesn't have anything to worry about then she'll worry about the fact that she's not worrying. But worry is sin. And if it's just worry and fear that's pushing you along you're not following Christ. You're following the leadings of your own deceived heart. Time is passing quickly so we can't spend much time on each pseudo-disciple. He'll have to speak for himself as you review your notes. But then we have Mr. Adventurer. And he hears about this Operation Mobilization and boy this sounds like the juiciest steak he's ever come across. At twenty years of age you've got the possibilities of crossing continents for Christ. Here's the echo of the drums in the background. Now unfortunately or fortunately these people are never happy on OM. Most of them never get past the first few weeks. Because they suddenly discover that above everything else OM is a hard time. And that above everything else OM is sort of a pressure pot and although you might go from here to India it'll be in the back of a truck with no windows and you won't see anything all the way and it's far from an adventure. Be careful! I trust we don't have any more of those aboard. After reading these manuals after going through the tapes after hearing these messages if you still think this is an adventure well I don't know. Somebody's getting deceived somewhere. If you think it's an adventure to knock on doors six hours a day in 120 degree temperatures down by the Ganges well you've got another story coming. Because you'll be down by the Ganges the first week will be tremendous the second week will be good the third week will be interesting the fourth week will be the fifth week and pretty soon you'll be applying for a trip home and you know we just don't bring them back from India that quickly. My God! Drive from us the spirit of adventure back and give us seriousness this is war it's going to be hard it's going to be cross grain to your life before your way of thinking your culture your habits it's going to be hard from beginning to end. And if you're not finding these days hard then you're off on a wrong start. At least hard on you in some ways. Mr. Adventurer he needs to get off at the first stop. There we are Mr. Freeloader Hey, what do you mean they don't even charge you to come on over? Ten pounds for the summer? Like one of the Manchester papers said go to Europe for ten pounds with Operation Mobilization. That was several years ago. Sounded terrific. It's true we don't put especially now for the year program you're not required you're not forced to do anything by grace by grace but everyone here needs to know and I'll refresh your mind again you are responsible before God to believe Him to supply your needs firstly through the group secondly through yourself you might be little and weak in faith we don't believe in being a respecter of persons but we do believe God is going to teach you in this great area so that you won't be Mr. Freeloader and all the meals are always there and there's always at least a few square feet of floor to sleep on and well I mean after all you want to go back and have to work in a factory? They don't even give you a break in the morning to study your Bible. Oh, I pray that none of us have come into an easier life than we had before that none of us have come from a hard secular job where it's rough I'll tell you it's rough into sort of a spiritual sleeping sickness Oh God deliver us might we work as hard and harder than any man in a factory or the office that's getting ten thousand pounds a month salary or whatever it might be might God deliver us from freeloading might we exercise faith might we be like those kind and I believe there are some in our midst quite a few who if they knew there were a few hundred dollars five miles away they'd be happy to crawl on their knees to get it and I'll tell you I'm crazy enough to say I'd be one of them I believe God wants us to work for a living if a man not work then let him not eat might God deliver us from sponging off another man's faith those of you who are young in faith those of you who are just newcomers you in a sense can forget this to some extent we're willing to be patient we're willing to wait some of you have been banging around for years it's about time you got off the baby bottle and got down to business in exercising faith oh I know there's mountains oh I know that's a touchy subject but God will give it as you want it as you really want it and then there's Mr. Busybody oh boy he's got very little spiritual life he knows very little of real discipleship but he manages to cover it all up with a very busy life he's always telling you how busy he is can't possibly do that I'm so busy don't you see all I have to do don't you realize I'm the coordinator don't you realize that George has told me to do this and this and this and this why he's putting such a burden on me I can hardly walk Mr. Busybody to and fro he goes shh now don't get him confused sometimes there are men that are running to and fro and are accomplishing things don't judge everybody who's ever walking fast some of you need to learn to walk a little fast I discovered the average person walking in a Muslim conference from Deagam to Zaventem or Zaventem to Deagam it took them 35 or 40 minutes so one day I went and walked it took 17 and a half minutes we had a stopwatch some people need to learn to walk a little faster and don't think that because someone is rushing about and there seems to be a little bit of confusion that he might be Mr. Busy because actually I believe the spirit of God is desirous to move us along in world evangelism as something more than a snail's rate because let's remember that at the present rate beloved and I can prove this in paper in any way other way you want we are going rapidly backward in the job of world evangelism and if you can convince me that that's God's will that God wants us to sort of crawl along be careful now don't rush ahead of the Lord don't rush ahead of the Lord I heard that so much I wonder if the Lord is even walking anymore now I tell you I believe the Holy Ghost will give a holy go and I believe the disciples were in a hurry to get the job done they weren't hurried they weren't panicked they weren't in a rush but I tell you they were moving you read the book of Acts Oh my God deliver us from being a busy body you've all heard the expression we've heard at least 20 times it seems that when they come to speak to O.M. especially those that sort of have a a little wrong picture of what we are they always come and have to quote that verse beware of the barrenness of a busy life anyway praise the Lord he keeps knocking us out with it and that's good we need to be knocked out but it's true beware of the barrenness of a busy life and the busyness of the barren life and the last thing I don't know if you got 21 out of that but here's 21 Mr. Status Seeker oh you thought I'd close with that didn't you Mr. Status Seeker he's driven by this desire for position for importance evangelical importance evangelical position he wants to be known as a man of God he wants to be known as a great preacher he wants to be known as a great Bible student he wants to be known as a great organizer he wants to be known as this and that it's all a sham with God better to go into desert and die by a broken by an old bush oh my God deliver us from this it's a curse of the age it's everywhere it's so infiltrated evangelical circles it almost scares you I tell you every time God tells me I've got to go to America I don't like to go there except to go through to Mexico but every time I have to go there I get very very very scared I praise God that he's not leading me to go back anymore I'm just going out toward India a nation of status seekers and the whole world is following right behind it and we build our skyscrapers and we have our name plates and we have our letterheads and we have our organizations and we're caught up in the fanfare of Christian status seeking and oh when I come and preach in a church my, Vicar wants to have lunch with me and they give me the nicest bed and this is the coordinator of Operation Mobilization this is the director tremendous they lay the carpet on cups of tea until I'm drunk then you send the OMT well let's see now I don't know if we cleaned the basement in the last few years but I think there's some room over there we could stick a few of these team members and of course they could sleep maybe they could sleep in the church parlor maybe, well no that wouldn't be right well they could sleep back in that room how many of are of you? Oh I've seen it over and over again what people will do because you have a status what people will do because you have a name I've had people come and they talk to me and well they didn't pay me much attention because I never usually tell people what I am maybe that's perceiving maybe I better watch out but I just introduced myself my name is George they say that's very nice ten minutes later they come back you're George Ballard? you wonder why I want to go to India and get lost in the desert? I tell you the praise of men stinks with God and if you're seeking status if you're seeking position if you feel bad because you haven't got any name by your or letters by your name if you feel a little out of place because you haven't got an official position you're not a secretary you're not a coordinator and you're not a treasurer and you're not a vice president or assistant vice president or if you're not you have no status you feel well maybe someday maybe if I press hard if I work hard then someday I'll have a status someday I'll have a position someday I won't just be a nobody oh my God show us the way of Jesus my God take us back to the word He became a non-application why He could have put a list of letters behind His name He could have put a list of titles that would have filled eternity He came down became a servant became a man and took a towel and washed the disciples feet we've missed that we've missed it my God deliver us from pseudo discipleship in all of its subtle realms you say well that ends me I'm going home I realize I'm a phony I realize that man who can live up to that that's what I say who can? nobody and so the answer is what brother Heshin has been trying to tell us these mornings the answer is what we've preached over and over again concerning the all sufficiency of Christ concerning brokenness concerning coming to the cross and realizing you are a failure realizing you can't do it in yourself realizing God must take over you must literally die to yourself and allow Christ's life to take over and you think after all this was said and after all these messages were preached that every one of us would know the way of the cross by now wouldn't you think that? wouldn't you think that we'd be going back to our friends to our wives and saying hey wife friend I've sinned against you I'm a phony I've said this and meant this I've gone here saying I was going for this reason and it wasn't that reason at all I've looked at this or I've said this or I've walked here and it's wrong I've sinned against you you'd think that would be going on all over the place wouldn't you? you'd think someone would be going to their group leaders and saying look I've got problems in my life will you pray with me? I've got a fault I've got a sin this thing is knocking me out will you pray with me? your leaders are there to counsel you they're there to pray with you they're there we're all here to help you we're all here to help you the few of us who are supposedly sort of permanent in this thing and of course we're going to help for help to one another and you know the one who's come to me for more help and prayer is my brother dear brother Jonathan the European director the name we know means nothing but some whose lives are obviously a sham they don't seem to understand guys come to me who I know are living for the Lord guides them I know are walking and although they might have some of these traits I know they're living it's of course they come in brokenness and in tears after the meeting when we poured our hearts out about the hunger for God who do I get a letter from from one of our leaders who's probably doing more than most absolutely broken to tears and repentance some of you who are new I don't know I don't know but I pray there'll be no that goes from here without knowing the reality of being broken and filled with the Holy Ghost and if you've offended some brother if you've sinned against some brother or your wife whether it's been an idle word or anything listed in the 21 if you've sinned in any way there's only one thing you should do tonight go in brokenness and say forgive me I've sinned against you in word in thought in deed forgive me because I don't believe we're going to have communion with God if we're not truly honest not anonymous and surpass honest with one another pretending to be pure when we're filled with impurities pretending to be strong when we're as weak as snails pretending to be ready when we're not ready pretending to love the word when we don't love the word pretending to be disciplined when you know you're not I pray surrender come to the cross and say Christ I'm offended be like Billy Bray when his last letter from Moody said dear fellow hypocrites you might be a leader you might be a pastor but I tell you the only place of grace the only place of blessing is when you'll take your place as a pharaoh before God and before men and ask him to cleanse you and he will to give you grace and he will to give you new life and he will and then as you go out in this newness of life whenever the spirit speaks to you whenever you find any one of these 21 little men moving into their life immediately you'll repent and turn to Christ and realize he cleanses from these things but don't hide it don't bury it because of some subtle pride because you're afraid you'll lose your own reputation because you're afraid that people won't think as much as they're thinking of you now because maybe your team won't respect you as a leader they'll respect you more as a broken and humble contrite servant than they will as a so-called mountain mover that's never moved a molehill I pray I beg that all of us that none of us will miss the reality of repentance brokenness and being filled with the Holy Spirit in tune with Christ at the foot of the cross with the blood of Christ cleansing from all sin let us pray now Father what have I to say all I can do Lord is seek those that I have wronged and yet I realize I've wronged probably everyone in this room Lord I do I sincerely all the utter sincerity of my heart which could be partly wrong but I just really repent Lord at times I know that I've been deceitful I've been a fault finder God I've been a status seeker a slugger a halfway boy a self pity man a fault zealot a know-it-all a teach-me-not a noise maker perhaps even a doctrine pusher Lord one I just noticed I forgot to mention a false repenter one that says he repents but doesn't really we don't want that to be our case to say we repent but we soon forget it all no tears no broken heart a weak whimper oh Lord I repent let's get on with the job oh God deliver us from cheap penance might there be tonight in this room oh God a turning about might there be confession might there be spirit led brokenness confession Lord we're not going to have an emotional prayer meeting and get people to confess but Lord I believe there's people that need to get right there's things that need to get leveled off there's untruths half-truths hypocrisies that are stinking from the camp Lord search my heart Lord you did the other night you broke me in half and I pray do it again and yet Lord I do thank thee for the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses from all sin might we not forget this morning's message thy grace might we not listen to the accuser but run to the cross might we not listen to the intensive bombardments of the evil one that will say to us right at this moment you liar you deceiver you judge you girl hunter you status seeker you runaway you shortcutter you sluggard you halfway man you self-pityer Lord might we not listen but might we even now just look at Jesus and realize you can cleanse it all and you have cleansed it you have forgiven us and yet Lord don't let us go out presuming and not getting right those things that must be right nor we pray for wives that they might be absolutely right with their husbands we pray for husbands they'll be right with their wives we pray God for brothers and sisters we pray for roommates we pray for teammates we pray God that we'll be right with one another and right with God at the foot of the cross plead plead plead because of Christ we pray there might not be one unbroken heart in Jesus name amen