This sermon emphasizes the importance of standing firm on the truth of God's Word, highlighting the need for discipleship, obedience, and faithfulness. It addresses the dangers of false teachings, the distortion of biblical truths by psychology, and the call for a true Reformation in the Church to uphold sound doctrine and unity in the faith.

Well, pardon me, it's a great privilege for me to be here, and I'm losing things right now already. We probably won't get to most of this, but I'm very grateful to you, Brother Swagger, for the opportunity to be here and to each one of you. Let me turn to John's Gospel, chapter 8, and I'm already violating. They asked me what scriptures I might turn to, and I tried to give them a few, but I don't think this was one of them. But our brother sang, Whom the Lord sets free is free indeed. And I couldn't help but think of this verse, John 8, verse 30, As he spake these words, many believed on him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, notice to whom he's speaking. You think this is tremendous revival. The Jews who have rejected their Messiah are now coming to him, they're coming to know who he is, they're believing on him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. It's the truth that sets us free. It's continuing in his word. It is discipleship, it is obedience, it is faithfulness. And there is such a thing as the truth and the lie. There's such a thing as error. And Jesus himself stood firm. And you notice, and I won't even get into the details of this scripture, but you know it well, you notice that very soon he has to say to those who believed on him, You are of your father the devil, and the works of your father you will do. Why go you about to kill me? And he says to them, because I, well let's look at it from the scriptures rather than me quoting it. He says in verse 45, Because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Think about that for a moment. They would believe anything else but the truth. It was the truth that they did not want to hear. And I think that the problem here was these people were willing to believe that he was the Messiah, and by the Messiah they meant one who would deliver them from their earthly enemies who would set them free from the yoke of the Roman rule, which they didn't even admit that they were, they said we have not been in bondage to any man. And they were under the Romans. They were blind to their own condition, but he was talking about sin that had bound them. But they wanted to accept a Messiah who would deliver them from the Roman yoke, who would give them prosperity, who would heal all their diseases, who would give them what they wanted. But they were not willing to submit to the truth that would correct their lives and that would make them disciples of Jesus Christ. And so he makes that incredible statement, Because I tell you the truth, you don't believe me. And you know, Paul said, Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth? Why is it that people don't want to hear the truth? And you have a verse that warns us in 2 Thessalonians 2. And again, I'm sorry to the television people, but they ask me what verses, I said I might quote a lot of verses, but I don't know what ones we will turn to as the Lord leads. But 2 Thessalonians 2, you know what it says there. It warns of one who is going to come with all power and signs and lying wonders and deceivableness of unrighteousness in those who believe not because, what? They receive not the love of the truth. And it says, For this cause God will give them a strong delusion to believe the lie because they receive not the love of the truth. We had better be lovers of truth. And one of the problems is we would rather have someone flatter us than tell us the truth. And we have to look into our own hearts and realize that very often we're not eager to know the truth. We're not lovers of truth as we ought to be. And so the Lord would speak to our hearts and challenge us this morning, Whom the Son sets free is free indeed, but we must be followers of Jesus Christ. We can profess Him with our lips and we can be in bondage to sin. And you know how prevalent this is in the Church of Jesus Christ today. Charismatic or non-charismatic, not just liberals but fundamentalists who preach the name of Jesus, but in their lives, in reality, they are in bondage to sin. And they have not really been set free as He wants to set us free. I just returned from Europe. I had some free tickets and they were going to expire. I really didn't have the time, but somehow I wanted to get away also. And my wife and I spent some time, three weeks, driving around in Europe. We had lived there. We had friends to visit. We had—I was visiting some pastors and Christian centers and so forth, trying to get a bit of a pulse and also trying to get away and be able to clear my head and just begin to think a little and pray and talk to the Lord, let Him talk to me. And it was in the providence of God I began to read about the Reformation once again. We were traveling in this area where the Reformation took place, in southern Germany and around in France and into Switzerland and over into Austria. This is where the Reformation took place, and I can tell you that my heart was moved. I had forgotten the Reformation. I had not read about it for years, and I began to think of what we owe to these men and women of God. And, you know, most of them were Catholic priests and monks and nuns who, when they saw this truth, they stood up for the truth against all the power of the kings and of the popes, and they paid for it with their lives. Think of the words of Hugh Latimer once again this morning. Hugh Latimer, as he and his friend were being burned at the stake, he said, Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man, for we shall light such a candle this day in England as, by God's grace, will never go out. I think that candle has almost gone out. I think if Hugh Latimer could come back today, he would be heartbroken. He would weep his eyes out if he could see what is happening in the Church of Jesus Christ today. I don't want to seem to be critical, and I may name a number of people, but I can tell you my heart is broken. I stood in Constance by that stone, some of you may have visited it, where John Huss was burned for his faith. And I thought there of a man today, Robert Shuler. He's called for a new Reformation, the title of one of his books. He's recognized as a great evangelical leader. He's praised by evangelical leaders. He's praised by the Church leaders today. He's highly honored. His book was called Self-Esteem, the New Reformation. Let me just read a quote or two, if I can, from Beyond Seduction, on page 163, if you happen to have a copy and you want to look at it. Robert Shuler says, "...where the sixteenth century Reformation returned our focus to sacred scriptures as the only infallible rule for faith and practice, the new Reformation will return our focus to the sacred right of every person to self-esteem." I'm standing there where a man has been burned, he's died at the stake. Sola Scriptura was the cry, only the scriptures, the word of God. The word of God is our authority, and we're asked to have a new Reformation based on the sacred right of every man to self-esteem. Something has gone wrong that this book, look at the back cover, look at the flap, it's by great Christian leaders, seminary professors, and so forth. In that book, Robert Shuler says, you know why we need a new Reformation? He says we need a new Reformation because the church has erred for centuries. We have had a God-centered theology, he says, when what we need is a man-centered theology. He says we are not bad, we are simply badly informed about how good we are. He says it is an insult to the integrity of any human being to call him a sinner. Jesus would never call a man a sinner. Jesus said, I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Where do these ideas come from? They come right out of the pit of hell, that's right. But I want to give you some insights into how hell is making an entrance into the church. I'm quoting Bruce Naramore. He is the nephew of Clyde Naramore, and I may step on some of your toes. We're going to talk about some things that have broken my heart, that I do not comprehend how the church can accept these things. Bruce Naramore says, quote, under the influence of humanistic psychologists like Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, many of us Christians have begun to see our need for self-love and self-esteem. Did you hear what the man said? He said nobody in 1900 years, studying this book on their knees, ever got that idea out of here. But the godless atheists, the humanists, the psychologists, they gave us this idea. And we said, hey, it sounds great. Let's go back to the Bible and see if we can't massage around a few proof texts to make it seem like that's what Holy Writ has always been talking about. But it's being embraced, and I want to come back to it again as time permits and talk more about psychology, because it's in your assembly of God's seminaries, your Bible schools. It's in the best seminaries across America. It's in our Christian universities. Well, brother, you're a fanatic. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. That's what people always say to me, and I say, tell me about the baby. I have carefully strained the water, and I can't find the baby. And if there is a baby there, it's Rosemary's baby. I'm looking here at the last words of Anneke Jansz to her infant son on the eve of her execution in Rotterdam in 1539. She says, this is the legacy she leaves her little son. "'Where you hear of a poor, simple, cast-off little flock which is despised and rejected by the world, join them. For where you hear of the cross, there is Christ.'" This is what the Reformation was about. A. W. Tozer, I can find it here somewhere. Well, you would think I would know where things are in this book. Dr. Tozer said, "'If I see aright, the cross of popular evangelicalism is not the cross of the New Testament. It is rather a bright new ornament upon the bosom of a self-assured and carnal Christianity. The old cross slew men, the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned, the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh, the new cross encourages it. The flesh, smiling and confident, preaches and sings about the cross. Before that cross it bows, and toward that cross it points with carefully staged histrionics. But upon that cross it will not die, and the reproach of the cross it stubbornly refuses to bear.'" There is a reproach to the cross, but we have tried to make Christianity popular, Christianity today. It's that macho quarterback who threw that 63-yard pass in the last 15 seconds to win the Super Bowl, and wow, he's a Christian. Man, that's the kind of Christianity I want. It's that beautiful actress who's come to Jesus, who's been on the 700 Club and given her testimony. That's Christianity. That's not Christianity. And Robert Shuler again, and I don't want to seem to be picking on him, but Robert Shuler because there are a lot of others, but Robert Shuler says, listen to the contrast. Think of the words of Anneken Jansz to her infant son, and listen to this, the classical interpretation of this teaching of Christ on bearing our cross desperately needs reformation. This is the reformation he's calling for. "'The cross Christ calls us to bear will be offered as a dream, an inspiring idea that would incarnate itself in a form of ministry that helps the self-esteem impoverished persons to discover their self-worth.'" That's a teaching that is sweeping the church. Self-esteem. We have to know our value. Otherwise we couldn't believe that God would love us if we think we're nobodies. Jesus didn't die for somebodies, he died for nobodies, he died for sinners. If I can find it quickly here, because some of these people have said it so well. Charles Spurgeon said, Jesus did not die for our righteousness, he died for our sins. He did not come to save us because we were worth saving, but because we were utterly worthless, ruined, and undone. That message has been undermined in the church of Jesus Christ. He did not come to earth out of any reason that was in us, but solely and only because of reasons which he took from the depths of his own divine love. In due time he died for those whom he describes not as godly but as ungodly, applying to them as hopeless an adjective as he could have selected. Turn to 2 Timothy. Chapter 3, verse 1. This know also that in the last days dangerous times will come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves. A fulfillment of this scripture in our day. People who are saying, well you've got to love yourself. I mean, you've got Assembly of God people who are teaching this. You've got Church of God people teaching this. You've got Pentecostals, Charismatics, Fundamentalists, Baptists, everybody. It is a lie from the pit of hell, as we already heard. But it is being embraced within the church today. But you say, I do hate myself. I'm so ugly, I just hate myself. You don't hate yourself. I do hate myself. Were you ever upset because somebody you hated was ugly? If you hated yourself, you would be glad you're ugly. Don't give me this nonsense about hating yourself. Some psychologist said it. But I'll hang in here with the Bible which says, No man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it. Now you may hate what you've done. You may hate what people do to you. You may hate your looks or the way people respond to you. But that's only because you love yourself. I was counseling with a man who said, I hate myself. He's a Christian. I'm convinced. But he's done some things for which perhaps he ought to go to prison. I don't know. He hints at it. He says, I hate myself. I'm going to kill myself. I say, come off of it. You don't hate yourself. I hate myself. I'm going to kill myself. Look. If you hated yourself, you would be only too happy to stand in front of a judge and confess all your crimes and see yourself embarrassed and see yourself go to prison and suffer. You're doing everything you can to avoid that. Don't tell me you hate yourself. It is Jesus who teaches us to hate ourselves. And Jesus said you must hate even your own life. And you must deny self and take up the cross and follow me. But we have Christians doing everything they can to pretend they hate themselves when they're not willing to give up all for Jesus Christ. Dangerous times will come. Men will be lovers of their own selves. Covetous, boasters, and so on. But let's jump down. Well, verse 8. We can't skip verse 8. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith. We have a lot of talk about faith today. Faith teachers, faith churches, faith ministries. And it is a perversion of faith. Talking about faith is some kind of a power that you can get a hold of in order to work miracles and get what you want from God. But the Bible talks about THE faith. THE faith. There are people who think that if when I'm praying I can only believe that what I'm praying for will happen, that's faith. That's not faith. Faith is believing that God will make it happen. Now we've introduced a new element. Now it depends upon whether it is His will or not. Now it depends upon whether I'm in a relationship with Him or He can bless me in this way. It depends upon His purpose and plan for my life. But if I can make it happen just by believing it will happen, that's mind power. That's not faith. It has nothing to do with God. And in fact, this is THE faith that Jude said we must earnestly contend for. Brother, you're very contentious. Yes, because I've been told to contend for the faith. I'm not going to be contentious in and of myself. But I must stand true to the Word of God. Why? Because I'm an argumentative type of person? Because souls are at stake. The eternal destiny of mankind is at stake. It's the truth of God. It's the honor of God. This is what it's all about. And therefore we must earnestly contend for THE faith once for all delivered to the saints. Who are the saints? Everyone who is in Christ Jesus, sanctified, set apart to holiness, to His service. Paul said it as he told those sailors aboard ship how the angel had appeared to him. What did he say? The angel of the Lord, whose I am and whom I serve. No, you are not your own. You are bought with a price. If you claim to be a Christian, then you must accept that you have been sanctified and set apart. And to you has been committed the sacred trust of contending for the faith. Keeping it unperverted and undiluted and unconfused and pure. And to present this to the people in your church, if you're a pastor, in your neighborhood, on radio or television, to this world. Because if not, then men will be lost. They can only be saved by the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Contend for THE faith. We will take time to return to it. 1 Timothy 4, verse 1. You know the scripture. It says in the last times, some people will no longer believe in miracles. And the thing that we've got to contend for in the last days is for signs and wonders and get everybody to believe in great miracles. Because if we only had miracles, then everybody would believe. That's not true. Nobody saw miracles like the Jews. Like the children of Israel. They saw the Red Sea open before their very eyes. And by the way, Moses did not go back, take them back every Sunday evening to make the Red Sea open up. Because God had something else in mind for them. You don't just go back and try to repeat some miracle service. But we must follow the leading of the Lord. They had manna every morning. They saw the pillar of fire by night. The pillar of cloud by day that literally led them step by step across the wilderness. Water from the rock. Nobody saw miracles. God speaking with an audible voice from Mount Sinai. It's on fire. It's shaking. And they heard him give the commandments. And they said, we will obey. And Moses hadn't even gotten down from the mount before they had broken the commandments. That's why he smashed the tables of law. They had already broken it. Jeremiah 31, 31. My covenant which they broke. The day is coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel. Not according to this covenant that they broke. They broke it before he even got down from the mount. Miracles do not change the heart. And I'm not against miracles. I've seen many miracles. I believe in miracles. But this is not the secret to the salvation or to the transformation of the human heart. It says of Jesus, though he did so many miracles, yet they believed not on him. And Jesus himself said of John the Baptist, There hath not arisen of men born of women a greater prophet. And what does it tell us about John the Baptist? He never did a miracle. It says in the last days some will depart from, not signs and wonders and believing in miracles, from the faith. Giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils and so forth. Acts 6, verse 7. A great company of the priests was obedient to the faith. Obedient to the faith? Yes! The faith has moral content. It demands obedience. It changes lives. It makes new people. It transforms us. And it has a content for which we must contend. It's not some kind of a mystical feeling. But there is truth involved. There is doctrine involved. And Paul is telling Timothy here, in verse 8, As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses. Who were Jannes and Jambres? Well I think most of us would agree they were the magicians in Pharaoh's court. How did they withstand Moses? By claiming there's no such thing as miracles? No! By doing miracles! With the power of Satan, they duplicated seemingly up to a point, what God did through Moses and Aaron. And Paul is telling us, I believe in the last days, You want to know where the opposition is going to come from? The main problem that the church faces, the main enemy of the church, is not the skeptics and the atheists out there. It's the false teaching from within, that is perverting and corrupting the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he says, there will be people who are miracle workers. Oh, wait a minute, brother. Yes, Jesus talked about it. In Matthew 24, verse 24, he said there will be false prophets, and false messiahs, and they will do great signs and wonders, so convincing that if it were possible, even the elect would be deceived by this. And in Matthew 7, verses 22 and 23, you know these verses. Jesus said, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord. Oh, you can't call Jesus Lord, unless you're born of the Spirit. You can only call him Lord by the, yes, and really know him as Lord, and really mean it. But people can say anything with their lips. And there are a lot of people who are calling Jesus Lord, and they don't know him as Lord at all. And Jesus says, they will say, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name? In your name we cast out devils. In your name we did miracles. I will say, I never knew you. Never knew you. Solemn words from the lips of the one who said, I have seen his sheep, and am known of mine. They were never his sheep. Is it possible that there could be people on this earth today recognized as Christian leaders, miracle workers, who he has never known, and who are leading people astray? The opposition is going to come from miracle workers. As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith. Jannes, verse 10. Thou hast fully known my prosperity, my success. I'm sorry, I got the wrong translation here. Thou hast fully known my doctrine. Doctrine is important. That's what the Bible is mostly about, is sound doctrine. It's sound doctrine. And you jump over across the page, and you see that the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Paul puts doctrine first. Thou hast fully known my doctrine, my manner of life. I lived what I preached. He could say it to the Thessalonians. You know our manner of entering in unto you was not in vain. And you know how we were like a nurse gently nursing a child. And we lived irreproachably before you. And Paul could say to the Thessalonians, whatsoever you have seen and heard and received in me, you do that, and the God of peace will be with you. He could write to the Corinthians, Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ. And every one of you, we're winning people to Christ. Then we ought to be able to say, you follow me like I follow Christ. Watch the example of my life. And this is what we ought to be living. My doctrine, my manner of life, my purpose, faith, longsuffering and so forth, persecutions, afflictions. When did you last hear that preached on some of our popular Christian television shows? Go to, keep your finger there, but just quickly go to Hebrews 11, the great faith chapter. Verse 8, By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed. Faith is about obedience. He obeyed, he went out, not knowing whether he went, jumped down to verse 24, By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Choosing rather to suffer prosperity with, I'm sorry, that just kind of intrudes in there. Choosing, choosing rather to suffer affliction. I've traveled a bit behind the Iron Curtain. And I can tell you, some of those Christians back there, they wonder what's wrong with Christianity in America. They wonder, how come it's so popular? The Bible says, all they who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. It doesn't say, all they who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall enjoy prosperity. It doesn't teach that in the Bible. That's a false teaching. And he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God. Rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ. There is a reproach to Christ. I think it was Oswald Chambers who said, we have to be careful that in our zeal to get people to accept the gospel, we don't manufacture a gospel that is acceptable to people. That's what's happening today. Or we're going to sneak them into heaven. And one day they'll wake up in heaven and they'll wonder how they got there. Never repented. Never surrendered their lives. Were never crucified with Christ. But they believed. That's one of my concerns about television. That's why I'm grateful that Brother Swagger doesn't have 55 minutes of some kind of a news format and this and that and so forth in the last minute. We have to lead people to Jesus as the theme sounds in the background and we know that we're about to go off. And we lead people quickly in a prayer to a Jesus they don't even know who he is. All they have seen demonstrated is he will heal them. He will make them prosperous. He will bless them. He will give them what they want and they don't have a clue as to who this Jesus is in this world. to what shall I more say? The time would fail me to tell of Gideon, of Beric, of Samson, of Jephthah, of David also, Samuel, the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, women received their dead, raised to life again. You say, Preacher brother, that's victory! That's what we want to hear! Yeah, that's tremendous stuff! Yeah, but keep reading. Well now, brother, be careful and don't get into any negative stuff. We must always make a positive confession of the word of God. Now, how are you going to make a positive confession of Armageddon? How are you going to make a positive confession of Jesus' prophecy? He says, the day is coming. You see this temple? There won't be one stone left upon another. Jerusalem will be encompassed by the armies. You're going to make a positive confession out of that? Robert Shuler has brought out a Bible, and it has all the positive verses highlighted. What are we going to do? Cut out the rest of it? I don't like those words, positive and negative. They make me angry. You won't find them in the Bible. I was being interviewed on a radio talk show, and the owner of the station who was interviewing me was very much into this sort of thing. And he said, well, brother, you know, you're down on positive mental attitude. Yeah, I wouldn't give you two cents for a positive mental attitude. He says, you're down on a positive mental attitude, and I wouldn't give you two cents for a negative mental attitude either, because it's not a mental attitude that does it. It's whether I'm in his hands. That's what counts. And he said, well, I consider the Bible to be the foremost positive mental attitude book in the world. What are you going to say about that? And I said, I don't want to embarrass you on radio. He said, go ahead. Well, I said, you get out your Strong's Exhaustive Concordance and look it up. You won't find the word positive. You won't find the word mental, and you won't find the word attitude. Now, doesn't it seem a bit strange that the foremost positive mental attitude book in the world doesn't even know this concept? Where did it come from? It came from out there, and we have accepted it. The issue is not is it positive or negative. I mean, that's great if you're into electricity or magnetism or chemical bonding. It has nothing to do with the issue. The issue is, is it true or is it false? Is it biblical or is it not biblical? I'm not trying to split hairs, but a confusion that perverts the truth comes into the church. And so people say, yes, the Bible does, too, teach positive mental attitude. Philippians 4.8, for example, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are honest and pure, and so forth and so on. You can have a very positive attitude towards free sex, and you are not pure. And you can be so positive as a judge that you wouldn't condemn a criminal, even though all the evidence is stacked against him, and you are not just. Do not equate positive with pure and holy and just and true. It is a perversion. But these are popular phrases that we have embraced without thinking. Millions of Christians, and they become smoke screens that obscure the real issue. Well, is this positive stuff that we're going to read here? Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with a sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. They didn't know how to make a positive confession. They should have confessed prosperity and so forth. That's not true. These all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise. These are the heroes and heroines of the faith. And they were tortured, they suffered, they were persecuted, they died for their faith. God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect. What is that better thing? Well, verse 15, and truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned, but now they desire a better country, that is, and heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God. For he hath prepared for them a city. That's our hope. Our hope is in heaven. The hope of the Church is the return of Jesus Christ. And you know that that is being maligned now. It's no longer pre-mid-post, but it's rapture or no rapture. And the pendulum is swinging very heavily, and the fastest growing movement in the Church today is a denial of the rapture of Jesus Christ, that Jesus will rapture us out of here. He's going to come back to reign over the kingdom that we've established in his name after we have taken over this world. Well, you don't have to be too bright to realize that if we really are a heavenly people, and what does the Bible say? Philippians chapter 3, our citizenship, our conversation, our way of life is in heaven. From whence also we wait for our Savior, the Lord Jesus, who will change these vile bodies. This is our hope. Jesus said, in my Father's house are many mansions. He said, don't lay up for yourselves treasures upon this earth, but treasures in heaven. He continually pointed people to heaven. Jesus said, I'm going away. Where was he going? It wasn't some secret hideout in the Himalayas or something like this, like the New Ages would try to tell you. He was going to heaven. I'm going to my Father's house, he said, where there are many mansions. I'm going to prepare a place for you, and if I go away, I will come again to receive you unto myself. This is the hope of the Church. Paul, when he wrote to the Thessalonians, he's demonstrating that they've become Christians, and he gives a number of reasons why they've become Christians. He says, your work of faith and labor of love, and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and the true God, and then what does he say? And to wait for his Son from heaven. That's the hope of the Church. And that was one of the marks that they were real Christians. Now, if you believe in a post-millennial return of Jesus, you can hardly be waiting and expecting him to return now. But that's the teaching of the New Testament, over and over and over, that they were expecting the return of Jesus Christ, and this is their hope. It's in heaven. Now, if Jesus is going to catch us up, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, the dead in Christ will rise first, then. And what does it say? We who are alive and remain shall not precede those who have died. It says it clearly. Earl Paul quotes the Scripture. We who are alive and remain, you want to know how he finishes it? Have been left here to manifest immortality, victory over death and disease, and not until we do that can Jesus return. And we're going to manifest this without the resurrection, without the return of Jesus Christ. It is a perversion of the Word of God. Now, if the real Jesus is going to catch us up and we're going to meet him in the air, and you're looking forward to meeting a Jesus who, when you meet him, your feet are planted on planet earth, and he has simply arrived to take over the kingdom you've established in his name, you have been under a heavy delusion. You have been working for the kingdom of the Antichrist, not for the true Christ. Now, I want to get back to the Reformation in the last few minutes here. What are we to do about this? We're not just going to applaud. We're going to do something about this. These people did something. I would like to call for a real Reformation in the church today. I would like to call for people who will stand up. If you have the tape or can get the tape, the week that I was last on with Brother Swigert, and I'm not pointing to myself, I'm pointing to him, the first day where I think I had hardly a word to say, and Brother Swigert laid it out. Brother, I appreciated that so powerfully. He said we're living in crucial times, climactic, historic times, when the line is being drawn. And the issue is not whether you're charismatic or not a charismatic, or a Baptist or a Methodist or what. The issue is, will you follow the word of God? I think that we have to stand up and say, thus far and no farther. As Martin Luther said, here stand I, God help me. I can do no other. I am captive, my conscience is captive to the word of God. Now Luther was not perfect. There are a lot of perversions that entered into the Reformation. We're not even going to get into that. But I want to make a couple of maybe startling statements, and I will give you my opinion. I believe today, the Catholic Church is in worse condition than it was at the time of the Reformation, and I will tell you why. And I believe that that candle, that Hugh Latimer and thousands of others, martyrs lit across Europe, has flickered out almost to die out, and that the Protestant movement has partaken not only of almost all of the evils that the Reformation originally stood against, but we have some even worse abominations in our midst. In the days of the Reformation, the last part of the 1400s, in the early 1500s, what were the problems? There was immorality like you couldn't imagine in the Catholic Church. Half of the popes in the last century had left illegitimate children. In Constance, where I stood two weeks ago at that stone where husk was burned at the stake by priests who were turning out 1,500 illegitimate children in that diocese every year, and they burned this man at the stake for standing for the truth of the Word of God. Immorality is in our midst today, too, and we don't have to even begin to talk about that. Luther didn't spend any time on the immorality. That was bad. But he was concerned with doctrinal error because you can clean up immorality and still you are far from God. There are a lot of self-righteous people living respectable lives who are not willing to acknowledge their sin and their need of the blood of Jesus Christ. There was the wealth of the Roman Church. There was the sale of indulgences. Yeah, that's one thing the Reformation did. They stopped selling indulgences, but they still peddled them. They still have indulgences. The Catholic Church today still teaches that the superabundance of the good deeds of the saints has built up a treasury of goodness that the Pope can dispense to the faithful when they say their Hail Marys and whatever and get so many days or weeks or years off of purgatory. It is an abomination. It is still in the Roman Catholic Church today. Now, this is one of the things that they stood against. And I want to tell you, if ever you go to Rome and you stand there, and I can tell you standing there in St. Peter's Square and in St. Peter's, St. Peter would be very upset about the whole thing, but they call it St. Peter's Basilica. I know what John was talking about when he said, when he looked at that woman on that beast. He, it was with great wonder. Incredible, the wealth that is there. You want to know where much of the money came from to build the Basilica of St. Peter's that stands there today? It came from the sale of indulgences all over Europe where they offered people remission of sins for money. Now, has the Roman Catholic Church renounced that? No, they have not. But you know, in the Catholic Church of that day there were thousands of monks and nuns who when their eyes were opened and they saw the truth of the Word of God they stood up for truth. They paid with their lives. They left the Church. But we have people today who say they're baptized in the Holy Spirit and they're more in love with Mary than ever before and we have a great ecumenical movement and you just had a conference in New Orleans not far from here where over half of the people were from the Catholic Church. There's no call for separation. There's no call. There's no speaking out against the errors that the Reformers died for. And we have forgotten this. But let's join with them, brethren. It doesn't matter, you know, don't quibble and don't quarrel and don't, above all, be negative about anyone. But let's agree not to disagree and we will all be unified around a lie. Unity around a lie is not unity. The unity that we're called to maintain not to create. We've never been asked to make unity. Ephesians chapter 4 says we are to keep the unity of the Spirit. Right? In the bond of love. Let's be loving, brethren. You're not loving at all. What does Jesus say? Whom I love, I rebuke and chasten. If you love someone, you are concerned enough to correct them. Real love speaks the truth. Speaking the truth in love. And it is not love. If I'm a medical doctor and you come to me with a ruptured appendix and I know that if you're not on the operating table within 30 minutes, you're dead. But I wouldn't want to upset you by telling you the truth. I wouldn't want to shatter your fragile self-image. And so I tell you that that glow of 105 degree fever in your cheeks is just the glow of health. And if you feel a little pain, you might try an aspirin. I am not your friend. That's not love. I'm killing you. And the unity of the Spirit. Who is the Spirit? The Holy Spirit. He will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, of judgment to come. Jesus said in John 16, and people who claim to be baptized in the Spirit are not preaching judgment and sin and repentance, but they're preaching a feel-good message. It has nothing to do with that ministry of the Holy Spirit which Jesus said he came to bring. And he is the Spirit of truth. We are unified by the truth that we have believed and to which we have committed ourselves. And then in verse 13 it says, till we all come in the unity of the faith. Unity is maintained by contending for the faith and by keeping the truth that we have committed ourselves to and the faith pure, undiluted, unperverted, uncorrupted. That's the only way we can maintain the unity. But there are people who talk about their motto is unity through signs and wonders. Unity by agreeing not to disagree with one another. That's not the unity that the Word of God talks about. That was the cry of the Catholic Church to the Reformers. Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, you're being negative. You're causing disunity. You're causing disruption. You're causing division. And the Reformers wanted unity. People have quoted verses at me. You know, you find out how people pervert the Scriptures. I couldn't tell you how many times it's been written and said about me, Romans 16 verse 17, Mark them which cause division among you and avoid them and so forth. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says, that's a misquote of Scripture. The Bible says, Mark them which cause division among you contrary to the doctrine you have received and avoid them. Doctrine is important. And we are unified around sound doctrine. But the day has come. We are in that day when they will not endure sound doctrine. And I believe we need to stand up with no uncertain voice. The Reformers, as I already said, cried, Sola Scriptura. The Bible is our authority. There is no class of men who can say what the Bible says. We don't have time. I would like to document so much for you. But I can't even find it now because I had a piece of paper stuck in here. Now it's gone. I'm reading from a book by Earl Polk, and he condemns what the Bereans did. He said that action. He said, speaking of me, he suggests that when a preacher finishes preaching, everyone should sit down with his Bible at home, read the Scripture passages, and then decide for himself whether or not the preaching he heard was truth from God. He says that action is private interpretation. God calls preachers and teachers in the church. When we take our Bibles home, get on our knees, and make our own decisions concerning the preacher's sermon, we decide the truth of God's anointing according to our own private interpretations. We disregard the anointing or the fruit of a ministry. He says there is a class of priests, of prophets, and they, because they have this special anointing, they will minister, they will teach you, and you cannot question what they say. That is exactly what the Roman Catholic Church said. Exactly the same thing. I have a letter here, if I can find it quickly. Somewhere in here. This is a letter from H. Newton Maloney. He is a professor at the Fuller Graduate School of Psychology. He is writing to Ron Enroth. What is it? Somebody help me. Over there on the west coast. Anyway, at Christian College. He says, I think. Listen to this. I don't know how to say it strongly enough. Listen to what this man, a Christian leader, professor at Fuller Seminary, he writes, and he says, I think public discussions of doctrinal purity are best left to trained scholars. That's one of the charges leveled against me. Who are you, brother, to question these great men of God? What are you, a self-appointed judge of the church? No, I'm just a Berean. And the Bereans searched the scriptures to see whether what Paul said was true. He says, I think public discussion of doctrinal purity are best left to trained scholars. Regretfully, I do not consider you, that is Enroth, a Christian writer and cult expert and so forth, that he's writing to, Duddy or the staff of SCP, Spiritual Counterfeits Project, who the Lord has raised up to deal with Eastern mysticism and so forth. He says, I do not consider any of you capable to engage in that type of dialogue. Although I have an MDiv degree plus a doctoral minor in theology, I do not think that this gives me warrant either for such public discussion, much less you or Duddy or SCP. This is elitism. This is saying that there's a class of people who are going to tell the rest of us what the Bible says, and it is an abomination to God. So the scripture was the cry of reformers. The Bible is our authority. That's being undermined, it's being denied among not just Protestants, Charismatics, Pentecostals, Evangelicals today. And I'll tell you another place that undermines it, and I better get to this fast. Wow. And that's psychology. I want to come back to that. You want to know what the situation is in the church today? Here's Pat Robertson interviewing Bruce Naramore, the granddaddy of Christian psychology, on the 700 Club. And he says, I'm sorry, Clyde Naramore, Bruce's uncle, he says, Clyde, what do you think about somebody like Jay Adams? Well, Jay Adams basically says, if you are mature in the faith, you're filled with the Spirit, you're walking with the Lord, you know the word of God, you are competent to counsel from the Bible. And Clyde gets a rather patronizing look on his face, and he says, well, you understand, of course, he doesn't have a degree. Now, he just threw out Paul. He threw out Peter and James and John. And he threw out A.B. Simpson and Spurgeon and Moody and all of the men and women of God down through history. He doesn't have a degree. Jay Adams has several degrees, and he is a teacher in a theological seminary, but he doesn't have a Ph.D. in psychology. Now, don't you understand, folks, you pastors out there, you're a pastor, you've got a theological degree or whatever, you are competent to teach or preach from this book. You are not competent to counsel from this book unless you have a Ph.D. in psychology, and pastors by the thousands have believed this lie and are going back to graduate schools of psychology to get that degree to make them competent to counsel from the Word of God. It's incredible! And yet, who is rising up? Your own denomination, the Assemblies of God, is involved in this thing, deeply. You've got your own psychologists. Well, now, wait a minute, brother. These are Christian psychologists. Well, let me just document it for you. I'm quoting two of the leading Christian psychologists, and they are speaking to a large seminar of CAPS, Christian Association for Psychological Studies, talking about the integration of psychology and theology. And this is what they say to their colleagues. We are often asked if we are Christian psychologists and find it difficult to answer since we don't know what the question implies. We are Christians who are psychologists, but at the present time, there is no acceptable Christian psychology that is markedly different from non-Christian psychology. Did you hear that? You have been ripped off! You've been told a lie! When people talk about Christian psychology, you thought they were referring to an identifiable body of knowledge that was specifically Christian, and it does not exist! It doesn't exist. Well, what is it? What is Christian psychology? Well, I already told you. Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers told us about self-esteem. It's an attempt to reach out and take what the godless atheists have said and incorporate it into the Bible and change the teaching of the Word of God and put on new spectacles and get a new interpretation of the Bible. I was having a debate with a Christian psychologist. And by the way, he's not one of the worst by any means. He's a good man, but he's a psychologist. And to whatever extent you have accepted the lies of psychology and allowed that to pervert the teaching of the Word of God, you've gone astray. And in this seminar, he stacked up his psychology books and he put the Bible on top. And he said, well, you know, we take the latest from chemistry, we take the latest from medicine, and the latest from physics, and so forth. Well, surely we ought to take the latest from psychology. One of the students in a question-and-answer period asked him a very pointed question. He said, Dr. So-and-so, would you please tell me what has psychology offered that the Bible hasn't already said better? Long silence. And then he, you know, wheels going around, he started, well, well, well, you know, we've had a lot of advancement in chemistry, and we've had a lot of advancement in medicine, and we're still ill. He wasn't helping himself. He was trying to think. Another long, embarrassed silence. And finally he said, well, I'll have to research that one. I am angry! I am angry! Here is a man who has devoted his life to Christian psychology. He teaches Christian psychology in a Christian university. And when you ask him, tell me one thing, one thing, he can't give you one thing. We ought to root it out of all of our Christian... Somebody says, but brother, we need professional help. You've heard that one. Professional help? The professionals met at the largest convention of psychologists ever, about two years ago in Phoenix, Arizona, if you're not aware of it. 7,000 psychologists, psychiatrists, all the great masters were there. They couldn't agree on where psychology had come from or where it was going. And Joseph Volpe, one of the great masters today, looking at this scene of confusion, he said, who would have imagined that psychology would come to this? I'm quoting him verbatim, a babel of conflicting voices. And the church has gone to babel. We have committed two evils, Jeremiah said. My people have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and they have dredged them out, broken cisterns that won't hold water. R.D. Laing, now don't applaud anymore because I'm running out of time, and let's just try to finish it up here. R.D. Laing, one of the living great masters of psychology today said, listen, this is not Dave Hunt, this guy that stepped off of another planet and sounds like some kind of an idiot who sees a demon under every bush. Listen to what these men themselves say. R.D. Laing said, I cannot think of one thing, one thing, in the entire history of psychology from Freud to the present day that psychology has offered that is of any benefit in the area of interpersonal relationships to the human race. Not one thing. And R.D. Laing, he said this at the conference. He said, during my current bout with depression, well, if you've got problems with depression, don't go to R.D. Laing, go to the Lord. But R.D. Laing said, during my current bout with depression, I've discovered something more beneficial than anything psychotherapy has to offer. Wow, you're sitting on the edge of your chair. What could it be? This is going to be fantastic. He says, you hum a favorite tune. He had to get a Ph.D. in psychology to learn that. And he says, you want to know what my tune is? Keep right on to the end of the road. Keep right on to the end of the road. Yes, there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, and the end thereof are the ways of death. And these people are leading millions and millions into a Christless eternity. And we honor these men in the Church of Jesus Christ. I can't believe it. I can't conceive of this. It's worse than the Catholic Church in that day because it's more seductive and deceptive. You need professional help. Well, they had a panel of professionals, the four leading experts on schizophrenia. Three of them said, it doesn't exist. R.D. Lange said, there was no such thing until somebody invented the word. Thomas Szasz. By the way, listen to Thomas Szasz. Here's a non-practicing Jewish psychiatrist. I mean, not a non-practicing psychiatrist, a non-practicing Jew. An agnostic, a psychiatrist. He says, do you want to know what we have done? We have turned the salvation of sinful souls into the cure of sick minds. And he says, you Christians have the answer. You ought to take it back into the church. We got nothing to offer. And Thomas Szasz was there that day and commenting about schizophrenia, Dr. Szasz said, it may make the Hinckleys feel good to have their son diagnosed as a schizophrenic. The guy is really just a bum. What has psychology done? It's made people feel good about their complexes. It's given them something to get a little therapy for, and so forth. The answer is in the blood of Jesus and in the cross of Jesus Christ. I want to just drive this home. Professional help you need. I'm quoting Bernie Zilbergeld. He's another Jewish, he's a clinical psychologist. He spent 15 years analyzing his profession. And this is what he said. One of the most consistent and important effects of counseling is a desire for more counseling. And it is no longer unusual to meet people who are looking for a therapist to resolve problems caused in a previous therapy. And then he says this. It's incredible.