An Important Message for the End Time Church - Part 2

We're really seeing the older folk. And obviously that's one of our deep concerns is that for the next generation, that the message doesn't die out with this generation. Again, we're glad for those who join us from America and from Canada, from the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Norway. And I'm sorry if I've missed anyone else out, but I'm just looking at the pictures and those that I recognize. Yep, so we'll go about 45, 50, 60 minutes. We'll see how it goes. It's gonna be very different to yesterday. I want to present what I believe needs to be done. We've had a look at the picture yesterday. And if you look at the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, you remember that they went and they surveyed the damage, they surveyed the ruins. And then based on that, they were able to make a plan to get rid of the rubble. And that's part of the problem is getting rid of the rubble and getting back down to a solid foundation. So what I want to speak with you this morning, well, it's morning here on this side, but what I want to speak with you today is on restoration. And again, it's a word that is abused and bandied about, but it's simply a handle that I have seven points today, seven things that we need to restore. If we're going to restore the worship, if we're going to restore our relationship, if we're going to restore whatever form of church we have. We spoke about that yesterday. Some have two or three folks that they gather together with, others are in bigger churches. Some have influence, some don't have influence. But these are the things that generally need to happen in the church, I believe. So let's begin by reading from Colossians. I do believe that we need to begin with a scripture and end with a scripture. I was horrified. I watched a conference with a very similar title to ours, actually. And none of the speakers even opened the word. They let alone paid lip service to the word. None of them had a Bible. None of them opened the word. They just talked about whatever they wanted to talk about. And what they were talking about wasn't even based on the word. So that's one of the points. The second point I'm going to make today is we need to get back to the word. So Colossians chapter two, and I want to read verses one through 10. Colossians two, one through 10. For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and for those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged being knit together in love and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Now, this I say, lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, as you have been taught abounding in it with thanksgiving. But where lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ. For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power. And just verse eight again, but where lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ. There are obviously, Paul speaks about good traditions and bad traditions. The problem is that the longer we remain Christians and the older the church becomes 2,000 years now, the more traditions we build up. And many of these traditions are insidious and they are subtle and they are formed very, very, very quickly. It doesn't take years to establish a tradition and those traditions become entrenched in our thinking and become part of our faith. I remember many years ago being in a fellowship and we would break bread every week and the table would be in the middle and we would sit around the table. And one Sunday morning, I looked at the table and I noticed that there was bread and wine and the offering bag. And I immediately questioned this in my own mind, why is there bread and wine and an offering bag? And I then questioned it with the leaders. I said, brethren, why do we have the offering bag? Oh, well, that's the way we do it. It's always been that way. In fact, it hadn't always been that. It was about six months, I think that I figured out six months before somebody decided that it'd be a good place to put the offering bag is to put it on the table. Now, understand these things are symbolic. We're not hung up about whether you have one cup or many cups or whether it's leavened or unleavened bread or whether you have a doily over the stuff to keep the flies off. I mean, these are not important things, but they gain an importance. And in this case, it was important because the moment I questioned it, it became a major issue. You're questioning the basis of our whole fellowship. And the guys went away and they came back and they came back with various scriptures that connected the giving of an offering together with the bread and wine. And there were a couple of remote scriptures, but obviously it's nonsense because it's just a tradition. And yet within six months, we had established a tradition which we would fight for and that we would die for almost. And this is the problem is that we have so many traditions and not just traditions, but philosophies of men, Paul speaks about here and empty deceit and things that has just become part of Christianity. And the need is that we get back to the basics, that we get back to what really are the issues. There's all of this rubbish that is accumulated on the foundation. And we just simply build on top of that rubbish. And we wonder why the building doesn't stand. And so the purpose this morning really is for us to reestablish what are those fundamentals. And you may have one or two more or may delete one or two of mine or change some, this is not a definitive list, but these are the things that are heavy on my heart. And obviously the first point is to restore the Lord Jesus Christ to his proper place of supremacy. And obviously restoring God to a high view of God. We have a low view of God. God has become Father Christmas who blesses us and helps us when we have problems. We spoke yesterday at great length somewhat about the fear of God. Those who do not fear God have a low view of God. They have made him into their own image. They've recreated, repackaged God to be what they want him to be. But we need to restore him to his first and his proper place. And as we read here, that in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Further down in Colossians, he says that he might in all things have the preeminence. Our faith today is a man-centered faith. It's all about me and I and myself. And Paul speaks about this in Timothy when he says that men will be lovers of themselves rather than lovers of God. And the only basis on which many people serve the Lord today is on the basis of what's in it for me. It reflects in our worship. It reflects in the songs that we sing, where it's me and I. It's about what I am getting out of it. It's what I can give to the Lord. It's not about him. He needs to be the center. He needs to be the focus. And it goes all the way down from the preacher again to the pew and back up again. I'm just horrified by preachers who are more interested in talking about themselves and then about the Lord Jesus. And I don't have a problem with illustrations. I've just used an illustration from my personal experience. But when you listen to preachers who just wanna tell you about, oh, when I was over there preaching and when I was over there doing this and I was over there doing the other thing and God used me here and God did this with me. But it's not about him, it's about us. And so we need to see Jesus and folk around us need to see Jesus and the world needs to see Jesus. And the only time they will see him is when we elevate him in our own thoughts, in our own estimation that he becomes everything and I become nothing. He must increase, I must decrease. Now we can speak obviously for a whole 45 minutes on this one point, but we need to move on. The second point, and I'm really just trying to sow the seeds and I trust that you can go back and fill in the blanks and flesh this out in more detail. And again, there's no order. I've more or less put an order to it, but it's not, all of these things need to happen at the same time. You can't say, well, I'm going to elevate Jesus, I'm gonna get him right in his right place and then once I've done that, I'm gonna do the next thing. We have to do all of these things at the same time. The next point I have is that we need to restore the word. We need to get back to the word. Now, the reason I put these first two points first is because that is the whole message of the prophets in the Old Testament. Remember, we spoke about the prophets yesterday and what they have to say concerning Israel and how that applies to the church. And the message, if you have to sum up the message of the prophets, and I understand that you search the scriptures and it is they that speak of me, but how do you sum up the message of the prophets? The message of the prophets is get back to God and get back to the Lord. Get back to the Lord and back to his word. And that must be the prophetic message today. I don't really fully understand the prophecies that speak about John the Baptist and that he will restore all things before the coming of the Lord. There's a whole depth of stuff there that I don't fully grasp. But what I do understand is that it seems to indicate that there will be a restoration before the coming of the Lord Jesus. And I'm not saying a revival, but a restoration. And what must be restored? The stuff of the Old Testament, the word and the Lord, those two things. And so we need to get back to the word. And it's not a matter of using the word as a prop, as some preachers do, waving it around and throwing it about. It's about believing, believing and living the word. And you say, well, we're all Christians. We believe the word. The problem is we don't believe the word. If we believe the word about anything, if we believe the word about the cross, we would be different people. And I'm not pointing fingers at you, I'm pointing fingers at myself. If I believe the judgment and the wrath of God, I would live a different life. If I believed in eminence, if I believe that Jesus is coming soon and he can come at any time, we would be living different lives. So we say we believe, but we don't really believe. And so we need to say, Lord, please help my unbelief. Help me to understand that when you say something, it is the infallible word of God and heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will endure forever. Help us to believe the word and help us to love the word. There is a massive disconnect today between what people believe or say they believe and what they live. And we can talk about all kinds of things. We can talk about holiness. We can talk about marriage and divorce and faithfulness in marriage. We can talk about all sorts of things. Covetousness, the list goes on and on and on. And we say we believe certain things, and yet when we come to practicing and living our lives, there's a, it's just a disconnect. There is just, there are two different compartments. I have one compartment for my faith and for what I believe, and I have another compartment for when I do business. And so my faith says that I need to be honest, but when it comes to business, well, now that's another compartment. I can cheat and I can cut corners and I can do things there that are not 100%. My faith says that I need to be honest and truthful, but when I come to completing my tax form, well, that's just another world. I'm now dealing with a world. I don't have to translate the integrity of my Christian faith into my tax form. And the list goes on and on and on and on. No, we need to be reflecting the word of God in every area of our lives, in our families, in our speech, in our behavior, in our affections, in our relationships, in absolutely every area. The word needs to be made, and I'm using the scripture out of context, obviously, but the word needs to be made fresh. And I understand it means Jesus became flesh, but the word needs to be made fresh in us so that when people are able to see us, they are able to see the word. So Christ needs to be restored. The word needs to be restored. The cross needs to be restored. And I'm gonna touch on two areas of the cross. Obviously, the message of the cross, and I'm very resentful of a particular ministry who've taken this phrase, the message of the cross, and built it into some, I don't even know what to call it, but it's not the message of the cross. It's just a mantra. It means nothing. It's just a saying that they use. It's a byline, like Nike, just do it. Our byline is the message of the cross, but it is meaningless in the way that they practice their ministry, the way that they live their lives, and so on and so forth. So I don't want to get confused with that idea of the message of the cross, but the cross needs to become real to us. And I just spoke about the fact that if we really believe the word, we would be different people. And if we really understood the cross, we would be different people. If we understood the price that he paid, he who knew no sin became sin for us. When we can see our sin upon that cross, it must change the way that we act and behave. I'm gonna speak about the gospel in a moment. And one of the problems with the modern gospel is that it is a crossless gospel. And connected to that is that there is no more repentance. And repentance isn't one of the points I'm making this morning, but that is one of the things that needs to be restored is the idea of repentance. Now, immediately, those who are of a Calvinistic or a free grace or easy grace, and I'm not connecting those, but there are similarities, would say, well, you don't have to repent because repentance is works. It's something you do. And so we can do nothing. We're saved by grace. We're saved by faith. But here's the thing for me. And I know that this may be a little bit different to your understanding. But if I, in coming to salvation, understand the cross, and I mean, we will never fully understand the cross until we see him face to face. And then I will fully appreciate what the cross meant, what it cost him, as the hymn says, the holy one to bear away my sin. But I must have some understanding of the fact that Jesus died for my sins, because Paul defines this as the gospel. Now, I'm not dealing with the gospel. I'm just touched on the issue of repentance. But if that idea that Christ was crucified in my place, if that is real, how can I continue in sin? Surely it must bring about within me a revulsion of my former life and a change. So I'm not talking about me changing my life. I'm talking about the cross becoming real as we preach that gospel of the cross. And people understand a little bit about the cross. And that brings about a change and a different attitude towards sin. How can we continue? And again, I'm taking out of context the scripture from Romans, but how can we continue in sin when we understand that Jesus died for me, that he died for my sin, not just for the world, but for my sin. So we must restore the cross. Again, I would commend to you, and many, probably most of you have listened. I would encourage you to listen again to that famous, I guess, message by Harold Horton, the naked splendor of the cross. It's available on my YouTube. It's available on a couple of other places. The naked splendor of the cross. It's an underdorm cross. We cannot whitewash it. We cannot beautify it. It is a gruesome thing that Christ was nailed to that cross by the father for my sin, that it pleased the Lord to bruise him in order to save me. That reality, that message must be central in our thinking. It must be central in our worship. It must be central in our preaching. We need to get back to the cross. Now, there's a second aspect of the cross, and that is the cross in my life, and that is the part that we don't like to speak about. It's all good and well to speak about the fact that Jesus died 2,000 years ago, but I need to be crucified with Christ. If any man will follow me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, Luke says, daily, and follow me. A man who takes up his cross is going one way. He's going to die. As they say, and I don't think many states have the death sentence anymore here in the United States, but dead man walking. When the man walks his final walk from his cell to the place of execution, they turn away from him. Are we dead men walking? Have we been crucified with Christ? And folk, I'm concerned that we are not. I'm concerned for my own life that I'm not crucified to the degree I ought to be. Paul speaks about it in Galatians 6:14 that I have been crucified to the world and the world is crucified to me. In other words, I'm dead to the world and the world is dead to me. And we say, well, that deals with lust or it deals with greed. No, it deals with every area of my life. Now, here's something that I'm sure is gonna upset some of you, and I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't. But when you watch the news, what reaction does it bring about? Do you rise up in anger against this party or against the government or against these people or those people? Do you get sucked in emotionally? Is there an emotional response when you watch the news? Yes, and if there is, you're not dead to the world. Now, I'm not speaking about the fact that, you remember that Lot vexed his soul in the Old King James. I've forgotten what the new translation say, but he vexed his soul daily over the wickedness of that city in which he lived. I'm not talking about that kind of thing. I'm talking about a rising up and saying, we need to fight. We need to defend our rights. We need to do this. We need to do that. And here's something that I just came to understand in the last week or so. If you cannot watch the news the same way as you watch the weather, then you have a problem. What do I mean by that? Nobody watches the weather forecast and gets emotional about it. It's just, yeah, it's gonna be hot. It's gonna be cold. Maybe I need to wear shorts or maybe I need to do this. I need to do that. But it's just a bunch of facts. Nobody, I guess sometimes we get excited, especially the poor guys who live in the cold North and it's snowing all the time. And then suddenly, it's gonna get, I understand, that's fine. I don't think that there's anything wrong with being happy that something good is happening in the country or whatever. But folks, when we get emotionally sucked into it, it's simply a sign that we are not dead to the world and the world is not dead to us. We need to be crucified to everything of the world. It's attractions, it's politics, it's money, it's fame, it's rejection, everything that the world throws at us needs to die. And we need to die to it. This is part of the message of the cross. It's not just that Christ died, but that we died with him and that we continue to die with him. We need to restore the fourth point. And it looks like I'm not staying ahead of time. The fourth point, we need to restore the fullness of the Holy Spirit, the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Now, I understand there are Pentecostals amongst us and there are charismatics and there are non-Pentecostals, non-charismatics. I'm not talking about a charismatic or a Pentecostal thing. I'm talking about a biblical thing. I'm talking about be he being filled with the Spirit. And I'm not even talking about the gifts of the Spirit at this point, that's not the burden I have right now. This is not about speaking in tongues or prophecy or any of that stuff. It is you will receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses. Not you will witness, you will be my witnesses. You will live lives that will testify to the death, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And folks, we have a powerless and we touched on this yesterday. We have a powerless form of Christianity. And in a sense, we have been emasculated by the need to be accepted in society, to be accepted by other churches, to be accepted by the world. And we don't have the zeal and the fire of the Holy Spirit. And I believe we need that. That was the promise of the Lord Jesus. And it's on that basis that they turned the world upside down in the book of Acts. And so may God help us that we may hunger and thirst, not just after righteousness, but if any man thirst, let him come to me and let him drink. And from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. I spoke yesterday about preachers who preach about the Holy Spirit and it's just dry, but it's not just about that. But preachers who, and folks, I'm not talking about sweating and spitting and shouting. The anointing, and that's a difficult word, but it's not measured in volume. I do get a little excited sometimes and I do raise my voice and I do become animated and, but that is not what we measure the anointing of God by. But those who are filled with the Spirit, those who are led by the Spirit, recognize when someone speaks, that this man is speaking as the oracles of God. Even if he is speaking quietly, he is not animated like I am. He doesn't wave his arms around. He doesn't pound the pulpit, but he's quietly, but you know, there is something spiritual about this. This is not just an academic thing. This is not just, he hasn't just read the books and written, worked out a sermon and he's delivered it. But we need, we desperately need men and women who can speak the word with the blessing and the anointing of God behind it. Because at the end of the day, as we said yesterday in answer to that question, we cannot change people's hearts. Only God can change their hearts. But if we're speaking in the flesh, in the sense that we, and I'm not speaking about being in some altered state of consciousness, but if we're simply delivering human wisdom, having learned certain things and reciting those things, it's pretty powerless. But when we are speaking by the spirit of God and the hearer recognizes God is speaking to me, that is when things begin to happen. And I'm not concerned about, and in a sense, I am concerned that I'm not a sleek speaker, but my greatest concern is that just sometimes when I speak, the audience will hear God speak. You know, those who come from South Africa will remember that in the Dutch Reformed churches, they always had those fancily embroidered banners in front of the pulpit. And the banner always translated into English, thus says the Lord. Now, most of those guys weren't even saved, nevermind. But folk, when we speak, there needs to be, the Holy Spirit really needs to be, and whether we're speaking one-on-one or one-to-two, or we're preaching, the Holy Spirit really needs to have a banner behind us saying, thus says the Lord. I can't claim that, but if we are speaking by the spirit of God, that will become evident to those who hear. So we need to restore the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We need to restore holiness and mission. Now, I connect those two things because of Isaiah chapter six. It's easy to see the problems with everyone else around us. Remember Isaiah chapter one through five, Isaiah pronounces woe on the princes and on the capitalists and on everybody else around him. But when he sees the Lord, woe is me. I am undone. And the Lord touches him, and he has changed. His lips are changed and purged, and he is commissioned to be sent out. Too many are going without having been sent, but that's a whole other story. But we need to see the Lord. If we restore him and his word, it will impact on us and change us. I'm deeply concerned about the lack of holiness amongst Christians, even those who claim to be so-called remnant Christians and getting involved in things they just ought not to get involved in. I'm not gonna begin to go down trying to list things, but speaking like Christians ought not to speak, watching things that Christians ought not to be watching, thinking things that Christians ought not to be thinking. When you look at the Facebook of Christians, and yes, I use Facebook as a platform for ministry. If you go to my Facebook, you won't see anything else there except ministry-related stuff. But when you look at Christians' Facebooks, and you wonder, is this guy even saved? And yet he professes to be a Christian. I think Pastor Gary and I made references to an elder in the particular church, and I went to look at his Facebook, and it's filled with politics, with hunting, with fishing, with guns, but there's nothing of Jesus. Has he met with Jesus? Or is fishing more wonderful than Jesus? So God help us. I'm not talking about holiness in a legalistic sense. I grew up in a legalistic church. I know all about that kind of legalism, the length of your hair and what you do on a Sunday, and the kinds of books that you can read on a Sunday, and how far you can walk on a Sunday. I grew up in that environment. I'm not into that. But, folk, when Jesus has gripped my heart, it must impact on my behavior, and that is my concern. I'm not into... It's no good making all the rules. And Isaiah knew the rules, but when he saw the law, it changed him. And so we need a restoration of holiness. We need a sense of mission. And now, here's one of my concerns also, is that many of us, and I need to check my own heart regularly on this, and I struggle with this, because we find ourselves in such a time of apathy, of lukewarmness, that most of us are discouraged to some degree or the other. And maybe I should have brought a word of encouragement, but that wasn't what the Lord laid on my heart. And it's so easy to lay down and say, well, you know, it's not helping. We're not seeing people being saved. We're not baptizing people anymore. And I think I speak for all leaders in churches that are present here this morning. When last did you have a baptism? I remember the days when we baptized every Sunday, literally every Sunday, five, six people every Sunday. Now, it's not happening. And we say, well, you know, it's just... But let's just ask for no more. Let's close the door. We'll wait for Jesus. No, folk, we have a mission. Occupy until I come. And we need to restore that sense of mission that go into the world and preach the gospel. Not gather great numbers, but preach the gospel. Our job is to preach, make disciples by the grace of God. All right. Restore obedience. Now, I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this, but again, our licentious age doesn't like this word, obedience. You know, surely I must be able to do whatever I want to do, whatever I think is the right thing to do. No, we need to get back to this idea of obeying Him, obeying the word of God, obeying His word, and not every man doing what is right in his own eyes. And then my seventh point is that we need to restore the gospel. We need to restore the gospel. And I want to spend a few minutes on this one. We say, well, you know, what's the problem with restoring the gospel? We do preach the gospel. We're evangelical, and I don't like that term anymore, but, you know, we're a gospel-centered people. Well, the problem is that I think that many of us have forgotten what the gospel is all about. And, yeah, I've spoken about the cross, but, you know, the gospel has become a sales thing whereby we feel that we need to sell what they call in sales the features, advantages, and benefits of being a Christian. Just come to Jesus, and, you know, you can go to heaven. Come to Jesus, and He'll fix your marriage. Just come to Jesus, and, you know, He'll do this and that, and the other thing for you. But that's not the gospel. That's salesmanship. And we've not been called to sell the gospel. We've been called to proclaim the gospel, and the gospel is not about what Jesus can do for you. Now, that may be a shock to you if you've not been exposed to my thinking before. It's not about what Jesus can do for you. It's about what Jesus did for you. It's about what He did at the cross. And it's about sin. It's about forgiveness. It's about a restoration of a relationship with the Father. It's not about a nice life or about blessings or about anything else. Yes, there may be those things, and for some, they are there, and for others, they are not. Can you imagine going to Christians in North Korea, and I trust that you understand somewhat of the suffering of our brethren in North Korea? Can you imagine going to those Christians and saying, well, you know, I suppose you became a Christian because of the blessings of becoming a Christian, that Jesus is gonna make life good for you, and your friends are gonna like you, and everything's gonna be wonderful. It's gonna be, you know, they'll laugh at you. Those people are paying a tremendous price in every way for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of the Lord Jesus. That's not what it's all about. And in fact, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, which is obviously the chapter on the gospel, and obviously the resurrection, but he says if we believed in Christ for this life only, we would be of all men most miserable or pitiable. It's not about this life. It's not about your best life now, and I think we all understand that if this is your best life, well, then you're not gonna go to heaven because my best life is coming. My best life is in the presence of the Lord. But that's how far we've come from the gospel. We need to get back to the basics of the gospel. And, you know, I think we all understand 1 Corinthians 15, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, then he rose again on the third day according to the scriptures. It's a Christ-centered gospel. It's not a man-centered gospel. The only part I play in those three things, in fact, I really only hold to two of them in the sense that it's the death and resurrection, but that's a whole other story. I'm not denying the burial, obviously, but the burial doesn't save us. It's the death and resurrection that saves us, but let's move on. But, you know, the only part I play in all of that is for my sins. That's the only part. It's not, he has a wonderful plan for your life. We know those stories. No, he died for my sins. And so the gospel really has to come back to the fact that you are a rotten, miserable sinner, condemned, unclean, and damned forever. That is where it has to begin. But again, we cringe when we speak about those things because this is insulting. We don't want people to feel bad about themselves. But here's the problem. If we had a cure for COVID or for AIDS or for cancer, let's say cancer because it's maybe less controversial. If we had a sure cure for cancer, take this pill and it will fix your cancer. But if nobody believed that you can die from cancer and nobody believed that cancer was a big problem, you think anybody would want the pill? But when you understand that you have cancer and that you're under the sentence of death, and someone comes and says, here's the answer, obviously I'm going to grab that answer. So how can I present the gospel without me understanding, without someone understanding their lost estate, that they have sinned and that they are condemned? And then we're able to, now I'm getting sidetracked, but I think you get my point that we need to get back to the essentials of the gospel. It's not about the peripheral stuff. It's about the spiritual stuff. It's not about physical stuff or financial stuff or marriage or relational stuff. It's not even about heaven. You see, this is how far we've come from the gospel. Because if you ask the average Christian, what are you saved from? Because we use this term, are you saved? What are you saved from? And you know the answer. Oh, I'm saved from hell. Now, again, if you have not heard me before, here's another shocker. We're not saved from hell. Jesus didn't come to save us from hell. You will call him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. From their sins. That's what I need to be saved from. Yes, I'm saved from hell as a consequence of saved from my sins. But his primary purpose is not to save me from hell, but to save me from my sin. That's what I need salvation from. But we don't wanna speak about sin anymore. We don't wanna think that sin has become our master and it's controlling us. And Jesus is saying, I will save you out of, in fact, the Greek word there, out of your sins. I will save you out of your sins. I will set you free that you might be able to serve me. You are bound by these things. And I will bring you into a relationship with myself. Now, we can go on and on and on and speak about the gospel, but I trust you get the drift. That we need to redefine the gospel. And I'm not meaning redefine it in finding some new way. We need to get back to what the gospel really is. And so what I really believe we need to do is we need to set aside our traditions. Set aside the five, 10, 20, 30, 50 years you've been a Christian and come back to the word of God and say, Lord, is this the way it is? How many things are we doing that is just a tradition? That is just things that we've accumulated. And in fact, what they are doing is they're standing between us and the neat, and I mean neat in the sense of the undiluted word of God, the undiluted presence of the Lord Jesus, the undiluted blessing of the Holy Spirit. But there's so much in between. We need to get back to the foundation. We need to get rid of the rubble so that we can get back to a solid basis for ourselves and for us as for the church. Now, the wonderful promise in spite of this condition that the church finds itself in and that many of us feel that we're at is that the Lord promises us that a bruised reed I will not break and a smoking flax I will not quench. He has a remnant. He has reserved for himself 7,000 that have not bowed the knee before Baal. His church is not in ruin. The visible church is in ruin. The visible church is a mess, but his true church is still there. And the question is, am I part of that church? And am I helping to build and to work towards that church? And so let me close with a word of encouragement from Hebrews chapter 12, and again, a well-known passage. I'm just going to read this verse, and then I'm just gonna give a moment for someone who wants to pray. I'm not gonna nominate anyone. But Hebrews chapter 12, verse five, my son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you're rebuked by him. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and he scourges every son whom he receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom the father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we had human fathers who corrected us and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the father of spirits and live? For if they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. Now, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful nevertheless. Afterward, it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen the hands which hang down and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Let me read those two verses again. Therefore, strengthen the hands which hang down and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet so that that which is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Amen. Will someone lead us in prayer and then we'll go into the questions after the prayer.