In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of understanding the judgment of God. He highlights that those who engage in sinful behavior are deserving of death and that God has the power to destroy them. The preacher also discusses the need for repentance and forgiveness, urging listeners to seek forgiveness from God and their parents. He addresses the issue of covenant breakers and the high divorce rate, attributing it to a lack of understanding and reverence for God. The sermon concludes with a call for revival and a reminder of the consequences of humanizing God.

As I start tonight's message, where does revival begin? I find that as a preacher, it's interesting to read other men's writings. And as you're reading that which God gave other men in the past, you know, we read other men's writings in songs. We read other, and we sing other people's testimonies of another generation. They've gone to be with the Lord, but they've left us a tremendous heritage of how God met them, even in the words they've written. And we sing their testimonies, and we read and we learn how God has met and spoken to other men. And as a preacher, we do much reading, and most pastors do and preachers do, and we thank the Lord for the opportunity to have time to do that. We read in other men's writings, sometimes there's one little statement that you read that automatically turns the light on. Just all at once turns the light on into a truth and on a theme. And you just thank the Lord for that. And this is that kind of a night. I was reading a statement in the light of revival that everybody's interested in, and everybody wants, and everybody's praying for. I read a statement that just sort of turned the switch on. I want to give it to you tonight. Here's the statement by John Roseberry. The need today is not for a transitory revival. Now that simply means we don't want an emotional upstart or a spurt. Not a transitory revival, not something that just comes and goes. Like I heard a man say one time, revival's like a bath. It makes you awfully clean. It's not permanent, but it makes you awfully clean on the spot, and you'll need another one another week from now. Well, I hope it's not that. Not transitory, but a revival is the kind that we need for the Eternal One to dwell with us forever. We don't need a transitory revival, he said, but for the Eternal One to come back to us. For God to come back to His people. For the Eternal One to dwell with us forever. If I could put it in other terms, I would say, for God to feel at home amongst His people. Amen? A revival when God feels at home with His people. Now here's the statement. A revival that begins. It's a good start. Speaking tonight on the subject, where does revival begin? Isn't it amazing? I'm going to give you the answer in the first statement, and you can go to sleep the rest of the night. I'll answer in the first statement. But I don't think you will sleep. But here it is. A revival that begins where? I want to know, where does it begin? Listen. In the character of God. Will be as a river ever increasing. That's the kind of revival we like. And ever widening until lost in the sea of God's great eternity. What a statement. Too profound for us to understand. A revival that begins. We don't want a transitory revival, just an emotional spurt. But a revival that can begin in the character of God will be as a river ever increasing and widening until lost in the sea of God's great eternity. Does that not get us back to last night's text of Psalm 85, verse 6, where the psalmist prayed, Will thou not revive us again? What's the cry for revival? That thy people, those are the recipients, may rejoice, that's the result, in thee, in the character of God. Now, tonight's emphasis is in thee, in the character of God. A revival that begins in the character of God will be as a river ever widening, increasing, increasing and widening until lost in the sea of God's great eternity. I think that verse is simply saying to us, and what that statement is saying to us, that knowing God and knowing His character will become our amazement, our enjoyment, and our rejoicing. Knowing God and knowing His character will become to us in the church our amazement, our enjoyment, and our rejoicing. Huh, we don't ever think about that. Well, let's see if we can put it together. Dr. Tozer in the book, The Knowledge of the Holy, he said some words like this, The greatest question before the church today is always God Himself. What a statement. That's always the gravest or the most serious question before the church in any day. It is always God Himself. It is my opinion, he writes, that the concept, the Christian concept of God that is current in these middle years of the 20th century. Now, he is talking about the middle years of the 20th century and how much further have we come since then. He said the current concept of God that is around in the middle years of the 20th century is so decadent as to be beneath, utterly beneath the dignity of the Most Holy God. And he says it actually consists for professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity. He is saying that the view of God and the average evangelical person in the middle of the 20th century, the church, is so decadent that it actually is consisting, it's utterly beneath the dignity of the Holy God and it's consisting in amounting to a moral calamity among the church. What a statement. Well, interesting verses along this line. You don't need to turn. I'll be done before you get there, but just listen with the ears of your heart. Listen. Psalm 211, it says, Serve the Lord, how? Two ways. With fear. Now listen. And rejoice with trembling. Have you ever heard a verse in the Bible that sounds like a paradox? Serve the Lord, how? With fear. And rejoice with trembling. Almost sounds like words that don't go together. What's God really saying? Well, I wonder if it's saying the same thing as Solomon said in Proverbs 28.14 where it said, Happy, that's enjoyment, is the man that feareth always. So, in the fear of God, there is rejoicing. Revive us again that we may rejoice in Thee. A revival that begins in the character of God. The character of God becomes our enjoyment, our rejoicing, and our amazement. Serve the Lord with fear. That's a high view of God's character. And rejoice. There's the joy and the rejoicing that comes with that view of God. With trembling, getting back to that high view of God. The verse starts out with a high view of God. It says that in the middle, it says that's the way to really rejoice. And gets back to the high view of God. Fear of God. What is this all saying to us? I'm believing with all my heart and as I go from place to place, I'm more convinced than ever that God is saying to us for us to have a joy that is full, a joy in rejoicing the reality of Christianity and all that God wants to mean to us, we are going to have to make a choice to walk in the light of God's character where there we will have the fear of God and the rejoicing in God coming together. There. Revival beginning in God's character. I'm suggesting if we're going to be candidates for reviving, this combination of rejoicing and fear in God must come together in thee. We're learning that important relationship. Now having said that, let me suggest to you that our problem in the church today, while Dr. Tozer said our view of God is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most Holy God, the tragedy in the church today is we have accepted the philosophy of this world as to its view of God. Are you hearing me? Now what is that? I'll tell you what this world's view of God is. This world's view of God is to get God down off of His throne, humanize Him, make a human being out of the holy dignity of God. Humanize Him. Pull Him down off His throne. Make Him just like a human being. Humanize God. And I'll tell you, we have succeeded in society to do that. Make Him far less than who He is and how much little than what He is. Once you do that, then there's another place you go. Then you're going to deify man. Here's what society is all about today. You read it in the newspapers. You deify man. Once you bring God down and humanize Him, make Him like a human, then because man is by nature idolatrous, He then will take man and lift man up to a God-size. And we've got a term for that in our world. It's called secular humanism. Isn't that amazing? Secular humanism is the deification. It's the deifying, the making God out of man, the deifying of man. And that's secular humanism. And that's what we're living in. If it feels good, do it. Man is the end of all. I'm the end of all. Whatever I want. And then once you do that, there's only one place to land, then you're going to minimize sin. There's a threefold sin of society out there that we read about in our newspapers every single day. Not in those terms, but you read about it article after article. It's a philosophy that's pervading this world. We have humanized God. Once we bring God down, then we lift man up to God-size and we make a God out of man. That's the deifying of man. And once we become our own gods, I'll tell you what, you'll become your own god, I'll become my god, and that brother will become his god, and that sister will become her own god, and they won't pick my brother to be their god. Once you get that god down, you're going to be your own god. And isn't that why they crucified Jesus? Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. That's the natural result when they said, We shall not have this man to rule over us. Every man does what's right in his own eyes. And that's when a society becomes a lawless society. And that's when it's too dangerous. Some of you folks up in years, nice for me to say that, you folks up in years, you remember a day when it was so safe to walk the streets at night in any large city of America? You never dreamed we would come to a day to read about the lawlessness that has crept across our lands. I'll tell you, every society that has moved into the lawlessness that North America is in tonight, it has followed the same pattern, and that is, it is a society that has made little of God and made much of man, and then when man becomes his own god, man does what's right in his own eyes, and every man becomes a law unto himself. There are no more absolutes in that society because every man, whatever he thinks is right, is right, and what she thinks is right, is right, and there are no more absolutes, and that society unravels at the seams. And that's where civilization after civilization has gone into the dust of ashes. No more standards of sin. No more right and wrong. It's all what you think about, how you feel about it. It's just how you view it because you're your own god. You call the shots, and you think, and you say what you think is right, and I'll tell you men and women, that's the sin of the church of our day. There are no more black and whites. There's a neutral color of gray. There's a neutral color of pink. New morality. Instead of calling it adultery and wickedness and immorality and new morality, nothing new about it. It's the same old immorality. It's been condemned since the beginning of man. Oh, how we put names on it. Change the names. That's a society that has made so little of God and made man the end of all, and then we change the names of everything. There are no more absolutes. That's society. Men and women, the problem is, the church of Jesus Christ is just about there. Now, I have told you about the problem, and I've talked to you now about the effect that comes out of the cause. The cause is bringing God down from His loftiest state. And once you do that, the effect is naturally the lifting of man to a God estate and then the minimizing of sin, making sin less than what it is because we've gotten rid of God and then we've gotten rid of His authority. We've become our own authority. So the last two points are the result. They are the effect of the cause. The cause. Forgetting God. Changing our view of God. Bringing Him down from His holiest state. You know, my brothers and sisters, we as Christians are guilty of the same. In the Old Testament, the children of Israel are so much like we are. And so sometimes, like I said last night, misery loves company. We can see ourselves in them. Listen to what it says in the book of Deuteronomy. It says, He lightly esteemed the rock of His salvation. He gave little thought to the rock of His salvation. Again, it says two to three verses later, of the rock that begat thee, thou art unmindful. Thou hast forgotten the God that formed thee. Now, God is saying to His people, you're forgetting Me. You're forgetting the God who formed you. You're doing little thinking or low thinking of who I am. In the Baptist Examiner a few years ago, a statement went something like this, Some Christians seem to look upon God as a kind of a spare tire. A spare tire is forgotten for months at a stretch, right folks? Hope it's in the trunk. Until suddenly, on the road, we have a flat, and then we want that spare tire to be in good condition, ready for use. Just so, many forget God in the time when all things go well, then in the emergency, they want God to be on hand, immediately ready to hear and answer their cry of distress. But we forget God. And God's people said, you have forgotten the God that formed thee. Little thinking and low thinking of God. Greg Cantillon, a pastor in the state of Michigan, said, no, excuse me, in Washington State, just below you said, although there are many misconceptions about God, many people have funny ideas about God, he says, the greatest problem with our thoughts about God is that they are so few. That's our biggest problem about God. Our thoughts about God is that they're so few. Rarely do we think about God. And when we do, we are so often, what we think is so unworthy of God. What are they saying? They're simply saying, we need a revival that will begin in the character of God. The low thinking and the little thinking of the character of God Himself is the cause for so much of the situation where we find ourselves in tonight in the world, in the church. Now having said that, I want to show you what God says about the sin of deifying, of humanizing God. In the book of Job, Job 9, look at it. We'll move quickly through some verses. I want you to just see it. I don't know if you've ever noticed these words in the Bible. I didn't notice them. They were there for a long time, but I didn't see them in this light in the Bible. Look at Job 9, when he was in his torment and he had his tormentors around. And here's Bildad answering Job, one of his tormentors, answering Job. And even in some of their torment, they were speaking some truthful statements. Now look at it. Job 9, verse 32. Whatever was being discussed, and we won't take time for that, but here's the statement. Verse 32. It says, For He is not a man, Job, God is not a man, as I am, that I should answer Him and we should come together in judgment. It's a simple sentence. Job, you're making a mistake. God is not a man that I should answer Him. Don't humanize Him. Look in chapter 10, verse 4. Job is asking God, God, are You like a man? Hast Thou eyes of flesh? Or seest Thou as man seeth? Are Thy days as the days of man? Are Thy years as man's days? He's saying, Lord, are You like man? Look at it in Job chapter 33. Job chapter 33. The same theme. The danger and the possibility of humanizing God and the questions about the character of God. Job chapter 33, verse 12. Behold in this Thou art not just. Now they're scolding Job again. They say, Job, whatever you're saying, I'm going to tell you, you're not just in what you're saying. What is it? I will answer thee that God is greater than man. Job, do you realize what you're doing? They're saying, you are humanizing God, Job. You're bringing God down to man's size, Job. In this, Thou art not just. That's serious business. I tell you, God is greater than man. Why dost Thou strive against Him, for He giveth not account of any of His matters? Don't be guilty of humanizing God. Look at it in Psalm 50. Look at it in Psalm 50. Tremendous word, Psalm 50, verse 14. Psalm 50, verse 14. Let's not be guilty of the sin of humanizing God. Look at it. The warning from God to us. Psalm 50, verse 14. Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most High God. You know that's an interesting thing. In that verse you have two things coming together. You have the spirit of thanksgiving, and then you have the recognition of the character of God. Offer unto thy God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most High. That's a high, lofty view of God. Amen? But listen, what's the spirit of thanksgiving? You know the word thanksgiving comes from an Anglo-Saxon word which really means thinkfulness? Thinkfulness? Oh, a thankful heart is a thankful heart. It's thinking on the character of God. So a heart that will think on the character of God. You offer unto God thanksgiving, and in that same verse, pay thy vows unto the Most High. There's a high, lofty view of who God is. That's the thankful heart. And call upon Me in the day of trouble. You see end? See the word end? Now we have the right to call on God in the day of trouble. God doesn't want you to come along and just grab a verse out of the Bible and say, hey, that's my verse. I want that one. And call upon Me in the day of trouble. And He says, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me. God says, wait a minute, what's that end for? Because I want you to put what came before it with it. What is it? Oh, it's a spirit of recognition of who God really is. I will pay my vows to the Most High God. Great thinking about the character of God. And then when you come there with the spirit of thankfulness or who He is when you do that, then God says, and call on Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you. When you have that kind of a heart, you then have the right to call on God in the day of trouble. And God says, He'll deliver you. You know why He'll do it? Because it says, thou shalt glorify Me. That's a high lofty view of God again. You're going to give Him the credit. You're going to give praise to Him instead of man taking the credit, being his own God. See what I've done. That's what God is saying to us. But unto the wicked. What's the wicked's problem? Look at it. Unto the wicked God said, what hast thou to do to declare My statutes? How come you're using My terminology? Or that thou shouldest take My covenant in thy mouth? How come you make profession to believe? Got it? While you do that on one hand, seeing thou hatest instruction, thou castest My words behind thee, so I say, but you make profession. When thou sawest the thief, then thou consentest with him, and thou hast been partaker with adulterers. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother, thou givest thy mouth to evil, thy tongue frameth deceit, thou sittest and speakest against thy brother, thou slanderest thine own mother's son. What a way to have religion in one hand, profession in one hand, and live like the devil and the others were. That's society, isn't it folks? North American so-called Christian culture. Listen to what God says. These things hast thou done, and I have kept silence, because I haven't come and judged you quickly and immediately, because I haven't jumped on you right away, God says. Look what you did. Thou thoughtest. You had a thinking problem. God says, you've got a thinking problem. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such and one as thyself. Now if you haven't underlined that verse in your Bible, if you underline, I'll tell you, get it underlined quickly. There's the sin of society. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such and one as thyself. You thought I was a human being, God says. God says, watch out. But I will reprove thee, and I will set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this. Do some right thinking. Consider. Ye that forget God. See, that's the essence of forgetting God. When it says forgetting God, it doesn't mean that we don't think about Him. It means we don't think about Him in the right sense of who He is. We think He's a human being. That's the essence of forgetting God. We've brought Him down to human size. Thou that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. Whoso offereth praise glorifyeth Me. See, we're back to praise. That's the honor of God. And to Him that ordereth His conversation or manner of life aright will I show the salvation of God. Interesting. My brothers and sisters, in Psalm 62, verse 4, you don't need to turn. A little statement. They only consult to cast God down from His excellency. Speaking about the wicked. They get together. They consult to cast God down from His excellency. Let's bring God down from His holiest state. That's the mind of the wicked. Then God has to say to His people, we're just like the world. In Hosea 11, verse 9, He says, for I am God and I am not man. Now why did God have to tell His people He's not man? Because whatever they were doing, they were acting like He was a human. And God had to many times say to them, I'm God and not man. I am the Holy One in the midst of thee. God had to remind His people who He was. The Holy One in the midst of them. You know when that was said in one of Israel's great hours of ingratitude, the sin of ingratitude, you read that on the topic of the page where that is in Hosea 11, the sin of ingratitude, you see? An unthinking heart is an unthankful heart. Little thinking about God, low thinking about God becomes an unthankful heart. And God said in that kind of an hour of Israel's ingratitude or unthinkingness about who God was, He said to them, I'm not a man like you are, for I am God. You've forgotten it. I'm the Holy One in the midst of thee. Now I want to show you a picture of this truth expressed in today's modern society. Turn to Romans 1 in the Word of God. Now look at this. And maybe you've read this chapter many times. I wonder have you ever seen tomorrow's newspaper in the Bible like this? In this light? Romans 1. Look at it in verse 18. Romans 1, verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Now that shows us something about the character of God. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. What is the essence of their unrighteousness, folks? God tells us. Here it is. Who hold the truth in unrighteousness. If that isn't a picture of North America, I've never seen it. We hold the truth. We profess the truth. We pronounce to the world we are Christian America. But we hold it in unrighteousness. The wickedness and sinfulness. I have had the privilege of being in 20 countries of the world in the years that God has given us to minister. Ralph and I together. And I want to tell you something. How many times you go over to the Middle East, Beirut, Lebanon years ago, before it was destroyed as you know it today, to see that city being affected by the immorality of America coming across, about the perverted films of Hollywood coming across in a society that is wholesome and believes in family life and wholesomeness between boy and girl and on and on, and then to see the ways of the West coming in there with its pollution and perversion. And yet we're the Christian America and we're supposed to be sending missionaries and we export the filth. You know what's rushing into Europe today? What's rushing into Germany, East Germany, since the walls came down? Pornography! Like you cannot believe. Right out in the open on the street corners. Full vent. And yet we are a Christian America, right? Hold the truth in unrighteousness. Now look at what is the problem. Verse 21. Here's what God says about us. Because that when they knew God... See? We weren't without knowledge of God. Here's our problem. They glorified Him not as God. Oh, if you don't have that statement underlined, you're better. What is it? We're starting to humanize Him. We're changing the character of God. We didn't glorify Him as God. What do we do? Neither were thankful. You see? That's the first thing we're hit with. An unthankful spirit. What is it? Unthinking. An unthinking spirit. Who the character of God is. And we're the most unthankful nation in the world. Men, women, North America. We have so much and we're the gripingest people in the world. You go to other countries and see the gratefulness to God for nothing. They have nothing and how grateful they are. And we have so much and we're so ungrateful. Our view of God. Neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations. And their foolish heart was darkened. Here's the situation. Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools. We're reading the newspapers. What is the problem of the society that is going downhill? They changed the glory of the uncorruptible God. They're doing something to God. They're changing the glory of an uncorruptible God into an image. You talk about humanizing Him. That's giving Him size and form and dimension. That's putting limitations on God. A God who is eternal. Limiting Him into an image made like two corruptible men. There's the essence of the image. That is inhumanizing God. I've never seen it. And it gets so bad. God says they make Him like to birds and to far-footed beasts and creeping things. And that's the case in other parts of the world even. And God says once they come there, wherefore God also gave them up. That's the epitome of insult against the character of God. That's the bottom rung of laughing and spitting in the face of an almighty holy God by any society. Once we come there, God says wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. Before I make a remark on that verse, let me suggest to you that Voltaire the atheist or the agnostic, the French agnostic, Voltaire, it's said that he made the statement that God made man in His own image and then man turned around and then gave God the same favor. Made God in man's image. That's a picture of it, isn't it? And gave God the same favor. Made God in man's image. Now God says when a society comes there, He gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. I am talking to an older generation. Some of you dear young people, I've heard my brother say in front of a whole crowd, I've heard him say, he said I have told my teenage daughter when she was a teenager, now grown up, he said I told her, my daughter, I feel sorry for you because you have never had the privilege to live in a basically moral society. From the day you were born, you never knew what it was to breathe air in a moral society. Because by the time you were born, we had already gone into the realm where people talk about their immorality, men and women with each other. The lust of the flesh out in the open. I'll tell you, when I went to school, some of you young people might not think it could ever be possible. When I went to school, and it doesn't seem like too many years ago, but I'll tell you there were some boys in that class, that there were a few kids in that class and fellows basically, who would even dare to tell a filthy story. And if they would tell a filthy story, it would be another one of their kind, and it would be in a closet somewhere off in the corner. It was very hush hush, lest anybody would hear it. Because they were the scum of the class. They were looked down on in the class. And they were the dishonored of the class. Now you can be the most popular. I mean, now to stand for righteousness, you're laughed at. Oh no, they stopped laughing now since AIDS came along. Somebody said, he who laughs last, laughs best. Praise the Lord for the kids who stood clean for God, or standing clean for God. The final chapter wasn't written for that other bunch yet. But I'll tell you, if our adults who are in the graves tonight would come back from the graves and turn over their graves, and look at the society with immorality so rampant on television, the leading stars and the talk show hosts and the whole bunch of them, there they are living that lifestyle and they can be so honored. And they're proud of it. I say, what's happened? How did we get there? It's a society that brought God down to a low level, and God says, I'll turn you over even to the lust of your own flesh. God gives up on a society like that to do the lust of their own hearts. No more holding back to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. And then God says, here's their problem. Who changed the truth of God into a lie? God keeps getting back to the problem. It's a thinking problem. They're doing something to God. That's the problem. They changed the truth of God into a lie. Made Him something less than who He is. And God says, they worship and serve the creature. We worship and serve the creature. What's the creature? Man becomes God. You worship a God, don't you? And we worship the idol of man. Self. Ego. Man, the end of all. And we worship and serve the creature more than the Creator. That's why our churches are half empty on Sunday nights. Because too busy worshiping and serving the creature more than the Creator. No time to worship the Creator who is blessed forevermore for this cause. Because we get there, God also gave them up unto vile affections. For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. God is teaching us one thing here, young people, listen to this, don't ever forget it. I don't care what society tells you. There is a natural use. And anything else but the natural use is an unnatural use. And if it's not natural, it didn't come from God. Because God made the natural use. And God says they changed the natural use into that which is against nature. Don't say there's a homosexual lifestyle. It's against nature. God made me this way. No such thing. And likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one toward another, men with men, working that which is unseemly. And God says they're going to receive in themselves the recompense, they're going to be paid for it, of their error which was meat. They're going to pay a high price for that lifestyle. Now my brothers and sisters, I haven't brought any notes to this pulpit tonight to speak to you about along these lines. Because what I could tell you about this would be too shameful for me to even say in public for the verses I've just read. For I could open my files and deliver what I know where the Bible says we shouldn't even talk about those things done in secret by the people of this lifestyle. But I want to tell you something. If you could ever see and know the depth of what I'm telling you about, we as the church of Jesus Christ would know the time is short. And if God doesn't come back to us, there's no hope in America. We are in a society that God three times says when you get to that place, I give that society up. And I'll tell you, if there's any hope, it's yet if God would save us through the church being the salt of the earth and the light of the world before is too late. But God likewise said they're going to receive the recompense of the reward. I don't know, but this AIDS problem seems to be some of the recompense of the reward. It's the tragic matter that the innocent always have to suffer with the guilty. But I'll tell you from everything I've studied, all the files tell us where this thing came from. And in that society, that homosexual, that lesbian society, they came right on and brought it to the rest of the world. Here it is. What's the problem? And we're back to it again. Verse 28, even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. Do you see it? Thinking problem about God. Thinking problem about God. God gave them over to a reprobate mind. Now you're going to read tomorrow morning's newspaper. Listen. God turns them over to a mind that's reprobate to do those things which are not convenient. Being filled with all unrighteousness. Saturated, drenched, baptized, overwhelmed in all kind of unrighteousness. Fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things. Brothers and sisters, when we think we've heard the last, hang on, they're going to invent some more. You say it can't get any worse, but it does. Invent some more evil. Inventors of evil things. Disobedient to parents. Hmm. There's that spirit. Some of you adults, I'll go easy on you now, because you don't want to say to your children, you don't know how to raise your children, right? You know, these grandkids. But you know what you say. You see these grandkids or great-grandchildren or other kids. No, none of yours. It's not yours. The other people's kids or grandkids. How they snap back at their parents and they lip off at their parents and they, you know, spout off at their parents. You know? You would never imagine it. Do you know if you ever said boo back to your parents, would you get cracked, right? But you wouldn't even think to say boo back, because there was an honor, there was a respect. There was a sense of authority. You were living under the umbrella of authority. I'll tell you this spirit of disobedience to parents is a society that has wrong thinking about God. And that's just one of the after effects. Lost the authority of God. Bring Him down from His holiest state. And once you bring Him down, then the authority of the parents goes with it. It's a society. It's a spirit of the age. And I would challenge my dear Christian young people in this meeting tonight, if you're wrapped up in the sinfulness of a disobedient, rebellious spirit to your parents, listen, recognize it's coming from the spirit of the age, a society that God has condemned. And it's because of low thinking about God, our view of God, brings us into that category. And get on your knees and get it forgiven before God and rush to your parents after a meeting like tonight and fall on their shoulder and ask forgiveness and pour your love on them like you've never done before. And submit, quote yourself, under their authority to be the greatest blessing in your life. That's the spirit of the age. Now look at this verse. Verse 31. Without understanding, covenant breakers, they go to the wedding altars and they say, till death do us part. And most people under their breath are saying, till death do us part. Or something far less. Do you know that one out of two marriages end in divorce today? Do you know about 50 years ago, one out of 40 marriages end in divorce? Today, one out of two? Covenant breakers. Say, till death do us part. What a lie. Without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. Now listen to this. Here's the verse. Who knowing the judgment of God. You know, we know it in America. We know what the judgment of God is. The book has been here. The book has been here for years. We know what God is saying about this kind of lifestyle. Who knowing the judgment of God, we know it full blast. What do we do? They, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death. God has the right to destroy us. And we know that God can do that. It's been written clearly on the pages of our Bible. And the print on our Bible is just as black as it was on Grandma's Bible. And it's never changed. We know the judgment of God. God says, even though we know the judgment of God, when we become a society like this, even though we know the judgment of God, it says, they which do such things are worthy of death. Not only do the same, just not only do them, just keep right on going doing them. Like God didn't say anything. What's that? An awfully low view of God. God, you don't really mean that, do you? Change God. Pull Him down from His throne. Say He doesn't mean what He says, does He? Not only they that do the same. God says they're worthy of death. They that do the same. But listen to this one. But they that have pleasure in them that do them. Have you ever noticed that statement? God says He's going to judge the people who do the same. And they're worthy of death. But God says He will also put His judgment on them that have pleasure in those or them that do the same. What does that mean? Well, I went to a few other translations to see if I could understand it. And listen to what the statement says. In other versions, it says they receive a vicarious satisfaction in the sinful deeds of others. God says He'll judge those that live that lifestyle. But then He'll judge them that receive a vicarious satisfaction in the sinful deeds of others. Another. They that approve those who practice them. God says He'll judge them that do those things, but He also puts His condemnation on them that approve of those who practice them. Another interpretation. They that applaud others who are sinning. God says He'll judge them that sin. He'll judge those that applaud others who are sinning. Another. Those that give hearty approval to those who practice them. Oh, my dear brothers and sisters, I don't know how it strikes you, but there is a situation that has arisen in our day, in our world, and in our church when we have these rock stars that are in this world today and laughing at our God and laughing at everything we hold dear, and yet somehow, some way, the Christian world and many Christian young people have embraced these young men, and I wonder if they have ever recognized what God says about such actions. Almon Coney said, the thing that bothers me most about Christian young people is how they can admire rock stars who hate their God. Can't say it any better than that. It is no minor thing. It is no simple thing. It is no casual thing for any Christian young person to admire the rock stars of this world because my Bible says He's going to judge them that live the lifestyle that I've described, that God has described, of His judgment on a fallen society in Romans 1, and those fellows, they don't make any bones about it. It's right out in the open. They testify to the world the way they live, and God says they're going to stand under the judgment of God, and then God says He will judge them who applaud those that sin like that. I'll tell you, if I were a Christian young person and if I had any of those rock stars on my walls, I wouldn't wait until midnight to get those things down. I'd be in the prayer room tonight and ask God to forgive me for not even understanding this principle. But allow them room in your heart and in your life and go to bed with them on the walls all around you and their records and to pay for them and give them money to support them while they laugh at your God. My brothers and sisters, my dear young people, it's a serious thing. Well, how bad is it? Well, let me just tell you in the years of the Beatles, the press officer of the Beatles, the press officer way back in the days of the Beatles, Derek Taylor said about the Beatles, it's incredible, absolutely incredible. Hear these four boys from Liverpool. They're rude. They're profane. They're vulgar. They have taken over the world as if they founded a new religion. They are completely anti-Christ. Their press officer. I mean, I'm anti-Christ as well. But they are so anti-Christ, they shock me, which isn't an easy thing to do. Listen, that ought to settle the Beatles question for good for any Christian young person or adult. And any young person can listen to their music when they mock everything that God is all about in the standards of God. God help us. There's a rock group called the Dayglow Abortion, Dayglow Abortion out of Victoria, British Columbia. If you've never heard of them, they have a rock record and the record is titled Feet of the Fetus, the title of the rock record. Features songs about suicide, murder, bestiality, bondage, incest and uses lots of four-letter words as well as immoral words on the record. The picture on the cover of the record is President and Nancy Reagan sitting at a table eating these feet of the fetus. The Nepean Ontario Police Force laid charges in Toronto against the producers of these records as pornographic. It's the first time that recordings are being charged with pornography in legal forms. I'll tell you men and women, I could go on, I just wanted to tell you. There's where we are. And Christian kids think nothing of giving room to that world that is under the doom of God and is the epitome of everything I've read about in Romans 1. And they don't make any bones about it. They write about it in their writings. They sing about it in their music. And some of God's people have accepted them. God help us. I'm not scolding any young people. My heart reaches out to them, warning them. They're opening their heart for Satan to bring strongholds, build strongholds in their life that will be years and a lifetime shaking if they don't deal with it right now. What about the country western music that some adults listen to? Whew, got quiet in here all at once. Some of the lyrics of those are just as bad as the lyrics in the rock music. And we're Christians. Let me tell you what God says about it. Listen to this word. I don't know if it's in your Bible. Listen. 2 Chronicles 19, verse 2. And Jehu said to King Jehoshaphat, Jehu said to King Jehoshaphat, and here it is. What a warning to us. Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate evil and hate the Lord? That's what it says. Should you love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord, because you are aiding the ungodly and loving them that hate the Lord. God says, I'm going to put my wrath on you. Isn't that the same of Romans 1, verse 32? There it is in the Old Testament. I believe we're seeing it loudly and clearly. Archbishop Runcie. You know, the Archbishop of the Church of England a few years ago. He came to Toronto after the Pope came one year. The Archbishop has to come the next, right? And so he comes to Toronto. He's meeting the press at 6 o'clock news. It's on the 6 o'clock news. He's meeting the press corps of Toronto. The newspapers and the TV men, all the rest. Meeting the press. The year before the Pope came through, they asked him, what are the world's most serious problems? What are the big problems that we need to conquer? Air pollution, population explosion, nuclear energy. What are the serious problems facing the world? And the Pope gave them some answers. I don't know what that was. But I happened to be in the Toronto area when Archbishop Runcie was there. And I turned on the 6 o'clock news and I saw him giving his report. Here are all the reporters. How would you like to be a reporter there? And you're writing down the words from this world religious leader, a man who had so many, 3 or 4 million people under him, I don't know how many under him in the Church of England. Large group. And he's waiting. And they're waiting for him to answer the question, what is the world's most serious problem? Air pollution, population explosion. Listen to what he says. We are in danger of trivializing God. And we stand in danger of degrading God down to the size of a pal or buddy. Quote, unquote. How would you like to be a member of the press corps to get that for an answer as the world's most serious problem? I don't know a thing about Archbishop Runcie, anything about his theology, but I'll tell you he said something that time. We are in danger of trivializing God. Playing games with God. We stand in danger of degrading God, bringing Him down, humanizing Him. That's what we're saying. Bring Him down to a size of a pal or a buddy instead of the God Who He really is. My brothers and sisters, the reduction of God is a mental illusion. We can't bring Him down. There has never been a shrinkage in an unchanging God. Unfortunately, the only thing that has shrunk is our image of that God. The great need for the church today is a vision of the majestic God Who Is. If you haven't read the book The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer, I don't know if we have it on our book table, but if you can get it, you get it. And read it as soon as you can. Everybody needs to read it before you die. And you're not sure you'll be alive by tomorrow morning, so go out and buy it tonight and stay up all night and read it. The Knowledge of the Holy by Dr. Tozer. Over 200,000 in print around the world. Dr. Tozer in that book, he discusses the attributes of God. Every chapter, a different attribute of God. And he goes straight to the heart of the issue telling you what that different attribute of God means to you on your lifespan on this earth. It's not just pie in the sky. Not just some theory that that's the way God is. No, he tells you what that God being like that, what it means to you on this earth. God knows. We need to know it. He discusses in that book that God is incomprehensible. God is all truthfulness. God is holiness. God is self-sufficiency. God is eternity. God is omnipresent. All present everywhere at the same time. God is all wisdom and omnipotence. All powerful. God is divine transcendence. Nothing on this earth can trouble Him. God is faithfulness. God is goodness. God is mercy. God is grace. God is love. He is sovereignty. He is immutable. That means He will not change. God is infinitude. And God is omniscient. Oh, that we should know this about God. I am suggesting to you men and women that in our day, the greatest need is for the attributes of a holy God to become impressive and vivid to us in this twentieth century. We need to cry seriously with the psalmist, revive us again that we may rejoice in Thee. In Thee. Find our enjoyment and rejoicing in the very character of God Himself. Moses said, Describe ye greatness unto your God. Do ye thus requit the Lord, O ye foolish people and unwise? Is not He thy Father that bought thee? Hath He not established thee? Oh, think much. Make much of God. Ralph's wife Esther one time said it. I don't know if I forgot. It was in a prayer and I wrote it down quickly. But she said the tenor of our day today is that Jesus Christ is just like another man in our life as we bring Him down to our human level. We've taken Him down from His throne. We let Him live in our house next door. We play games with Him as we do with our neighbor. We wind Him up and we set Him to running anytime we want. We have our little bellboy Jesus to come running anytime we please. The eager bellhop. Somebody wrote about God. One of the pleasures of spending a night in an exclusive hotel is simply this. You enjoy the service of a bellhop. He's there when you need Him. Always by your side. He carries your baggage. He never argues with you because you're in charge. His only responsibility is there to make you happy. What does He get from it for all the work He does? A smile, a thank you, and if He's lucky, a tip. It is sad, but many Christians treat God of the universe just like a bellhop. They assume they need only to say a prayer and God is there to fulfill their wish. If God doesn't serve them in the manner they expect, they become frustrated, they become unhappy, and they withhold their tip. If you view God as a bellhop who exists to fulfill your every whim and you demean His character, you trample His sovereignty, the issue is never whose side the Lord is on. The issue is, are you on the Lord's side? We submit to Him, not try to get Him to submit to us. We serve God. If God will serve me, then I'll serve Him. And God needs to bring something back to us in this day and age, a philosophy of Job of old, even though God slay me, yet I will trust Him. That's a high, lofty view of God. And I want to close tonight with you and I turning together to Psalm 139. I just want to show you something in this tremendous, powerful psalm. Psalm 139. Psalm 139. Look how the psalmist starts the psalm. Psalm 139. Look what he says. O Lord, Thou hast searched me and hast known me. Isn't that amazing? He said, Lord, You have searched me and You have known me. Now, we all know that about God. He searched us. The God of the universe, He knows us. He searched us and He knows us. The psalmist reiterates that fact of matter. Look how he ends the psalm. Verse 23, Search me, O God. Isn't that a contradiction in the way he started out? He said, O Lord, Thou hast searched me. Now he's saying, Search me, O God. And he said, And know my heart. Didn't he say, Thou hast known me? What's the matter, psalmist David? There's a contradiction here. He said, God's already done it. Why do you ask Him to do it in the end? Ah, let's see if we can figure it out. I want you to see. God, in between verse 1 and verse 24, the psalmist David has a high, lofty view of God. And that's why we have him saying what he does in the end of the psalm. What is it? I'll tell you. The first six verses of this psalm, look at it. It's a high, lofty view of God's omniscience, God's all-knowingness. You see, he's really telling God. He's saying, God, You know everything. He's saying in six verses. Thou hast known me. Thou hast searched me. Thou knowest my down sittings, my uprisings. Thou understandest my thoughts are far off. Thou compassed my path, my lying down. Thou art acquainted with all my ways. For there's not a word in my tongue, but, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether. That ought to shake every one of us. Thou hast beset me behind and before. Thou hast laid Thine hand upon me. And the psalmist says, Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. He's reveling in the character of God. It is high. I cannot attain unto it. He said, It's beyond me to understand. I'm reveling. I'm enjoying. I'm amazed in the omniscience of God. He knows all this. It blows my mind, says the psalmist. High, lofty view of the omniscience of God. All-knowing God. Now look at it in verse 7. There's a high, lofty view of the omnipresence of God. Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? Whither shall I flee from Your presence? Where can I get away from You, God? If I ascend into heaven, Thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me and Thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me. You know, I go out in the night. That'll cover me. Even the night shall be light about me. Yea, darkness hideth not from Thee, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to Thee. He said, God, I can't understand. You're everywhere. It blows me. My mind, as it were. He's reveling in the omniscience, omnipresence of God. For Thou hast possessed my reins, Thou hast covered me. In verse 12, he ends with the omniscience of God, the omnipresence of God. Excuse me, the omnipotence of God now starts in verse 12. He says, For Thou hast possessed my reins, Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise Thee. He's enjoying God. For I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. God, that you could make something like this. He's reveling in the omnipotence of God, the power of God. Marvelous are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from Thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect, and in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned. You made me for the purpose, O God, when as yet there was none of them. Even before I was even born, You put me together. That's what he's saying. How precious also are these thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with Thee. He's saying, I just can't take in that You are such a powerful God. I revel in it. This is what we've read. We have read 18 verses of the psalmist reveling in the character of God. Revive us again that we may rejoice in Thee. That's what David is doing, is rejoicing in the character and attributes of God. What does it do for him? Ah, I'll tell you what it does. He's not going to humanize. He refuses to humanize God. He's living in the character of God. And I'll tell you what, he's not going to deify man and neither is he going to minimize sin. Look at it in verse 19. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. You know what it has? Immediately, he has an awful hatred towards sin in the life of others round about. You see? The view of God, he doesn't minimize sin for what it is. He won't minimize it. He has a real view of what sin is because he's seen who God is. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. He says, I'm not going to run around with the wicked. For they speak against Thee wickedly. I'm not going to make them my bosom pals, those that speak against God wickedly. And Thine enemies take Thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee? He's taking His side with the character of God against the sin that God hates. He's hating the thing that God hates. And am not I grieve with those that rise up against Thee? He's not pulling them in to make them bosom buddies. He's not buying their records, those that hate God and spit in the face of God. He's not putting their posters on the wall. He said, I hate them and I grieve with those that rise up against Thee. I take my stand with a holy God, with an omniscient God who knows everything, an omnipresent God, a God who's present everywhere, and an omnipotent God, a God who's all-powerful. I'm on His side and I want to take a hard stand against the sin of the world round about me. And then He says, I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies. Now, I don't believe He's hating the individuals. He's hating that which they stand for because we're to love them unto Jesus. But He's hating everything about that which they stand for. He hates in them what God hates in them. Then, I'll tell you where He lands. He hates every bit of sin in His own heart. He's going to deal harshly with sin in His own heart. He's not going to minimize sin in His own heart. Not enough to say, I hate the sin of those out there. He says, now, search Me, O God, and try Me. Yes, Lord, I know because You're omniscient, You know everything, You have searched Me, and You have known Me in verse 1. But, O God, I want to tell You, I want to get into the booth with You. I want to get in conversation with You. Now, let's have a conversation. Now, Lord, in My presence, You search Me. Right here where we can talk about what You find. Let Me see it together with You. Show Me what I'm like, O God. Search Me and know Me and try Me and see if there be any wicked way in Me. Tell Me what You have already searched. Tell Me what You already know. Let Me in on it because I want to be led in the path everlasting. I want to see the way of life. I want to know it. I want to be clean. I've seen God for who He is. I want to be clean and I want to deal harshly with every known sin and not minimize sin in my own heart and in my own life. If I must stand alone, if a young person needs to stand alone, do it! Even in your own church, maybe. You've seen God for who He is. A revival that begins in the character of God will be as a river ever increasing and widening until lost in the sea of God's great eternity. I'm simply saying somebody has defined revival as when God is known as God. Let us pray.