(Please note the following transcript was partly automated transcription and therefore has not been reviewed for errors.)

Brethren, if you have your Bibles, please open them to James chapter one. One more message, I believe. Before I went to Manchester, we dealt with the first part of James 1:27, and I would like us to take a look at the last part of that verse. James 1:27.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.  

I just want to bring out those Greek words, but it’s those three words that I want us to train in on: pure, undefiled, unstained. Now it’s true that pure and undefiled also modifies visiting orphans and widows in their affliction, but we already dealt with that. What I’m wanting us to focus on is that aspect of pure and undefiled religion before God: to keep oneself unstained or unspotted from the world.

Father, I pray that you be a help to us now. In Christ’s name, I ask. Amen.

I just want to do a bit of a theology of purity, because that’s what we’re dealing with, keeping oneself unstained. I recognize pure and undefiled is at the beginning, pure and undefiled religion. And it’s got these two aspects. You visit the orphan and the widow in their affliction, and you keep yourself unstained from the world. It’s the unstained aspect…

Let’s just think about visiting the widow and the orphan. That doesn’t really, in and of itself, have this purity aspect to it. It is pure and undefiled because that’s how God defines it for us. But the purity aspect doesn’t immediately jump out like it does in “unstained from the world.” Unstained, there’s a purity aspect. So what do you, what’s purity? What are we talking about there?

We see pure as gold. I’m trying to think what kind of colloquial expressions we get. Pure is gold? I thought. Not that I have any gold. Well, I guess I have this. I don’t think that’s very pure. Pure is the driven snow. But we don’t get snow very often. But the idea of, like, a virgin on her wedding day in a white dress, white.

You know what, Daniel? Daniel is looking to our day at people just like us. And here’s what he says. You’re going to get three terms here, just like James gives us three terms: pure, undefiled, unstained. Listen to Daniel. 

He sees us Christians. He says this in Daniel 12:10, “Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined.”

What I’m doing by going here is just collecting synonyms: purify, undefiled, unstained. Here you have white, you have refined. What’s refined? What do you do when you refine something? We refine gold or silver. What do you do with the impurities? Let the impurities out, slag. You basically heat it up until it becomes melted, and then impurities have a tendency to rise and they float on the surface and they can be skimmed off. And so if you refine it and you refine it and you refine it and you refine it, what you’re doing is you’re creating purity.

Now think about it. When you have pure gold, what do you have? What’s absent? You basically have anything that’s not gold, right? Here’s the thing. Now lay this down, just like Ryan gave us Stewart’s thing. One, two, one to two, three. Just get this: purity equals singularity. Now, that’s important as we seek, when we say undefiled from the world, we’re talking purity here, there is a singularity. Now singularity… You can probably start to imagine, undefiled from the world, you get unspotted from the world, you, your mind can grasp these things. Water’s pure if it’s singularly water and dirt; it’s not pure, it’s contaminated.

Here’s the thing. You take a woman, pure, a virgin. She gets married. We count her pure even when she loses her virginity to her husband, as long as she is a singular lady devoted to that man. See, this is the idea of purity. There is an aspect of singleness in it, singularity.

Now listen. Listen to this, because I’m going to introduce another word here, and it ought to make sense to you. We use this word, but do you recognize what it really has to do with, what the meaning is behind it? The Bauer, Arndt, and Gingrich lexicon defines purity this way: “Being clean or free of adulterated matter.” To catch that: adulterated. If something is impure, if a woman is impure, she’s an adulteress. She’s not singular in her affections. Or the sacred Greek lexicon: “Free from anything that soils, adulterates, or corrupts.”

Okay, you’re in James. Turn to chapter four, because this isn’t the only place in this letter where James is going to speak to us about the world and about the impurities associated with it. Notice James 4:4. So here’s the thing. When James says, how does he start it? What’s the first thing you heard? “You adulterous people.” Now, is he saying about these people that he’s writing to that they’re not being faithful to their spouse? Is that the issue? That is not the issue. You see what he’s saying? “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?”

Now, here’s the thing. James 1:27 says, “unstained from the world.” You think maybe friendship with the world and being stained by the world are the same thing? I think there’s a good chance that’s reality. It’s so, what happens when you get spotted by the world? It’s adultery. And you know, God uses the same kind of terminology in the Old Testament. I’ve been reading Jeremiah. When the words “adultery,” “adulterous,” or even “whore” and “whoredom” are used in the prophets, oftentimes, folks, it’s not because they were unfaithful to their spouses, they were unfaithful to their God. They were not singularly devoted to him. This is, brethren, this is spiritual adultery. It’s it’s called adultery. Why? Because it’s like giving to the world the sort of thing that a man detests, that his wife should give to somebody else. That’s the idea here.

Now check this out. Go to James 4:8, because James isn’t done talking about purity here in this context. And he’s going to bring out two purity realities in here in verse 8, 4:8. And you see them: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” And here we get our purity terms: “Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

Now here’s the thing. The first thing I want to draw out of this is, one, it’s a heart matter. In other words, you’ve got to look deep within for the purity on the level that God desires. And you remember how it was. What do you, scribes and Pharisees? And Jesus called them hypocrites, for they cleanse…what did they cleanse? The outside of the cup. And they neglected, they avoided the inside. That’s the issue. Jesus said it in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the pure in heart.”

Now it talks about cleansing hands, but you got to believe that that cleansing of the hands has to do with the cleansing of the actions. And, of course, everything in the actions and everything from the tongue, it all flows from the overflow of the heart. We recognize that at the deepest level.

So there’s the first truth from verse eight that I want to draw out. But there’s another one here. Do you see the word “double-minded”? And that’s called “purify your hearts, you double-minded.” But remember I said to you, purity has to do with single polarity. You know what this literally says? You double-headed. When you’re double-headed, you need to purify. There’s no purity in double-headedness.

And he’s talking to religious folks here. He’s not talking to the worldly guy out there. He’s very specifically writing to his brethren. And the thing is, he’s not talking to the guy out there in the world that is absolutely committed to the world, singularly devoted to the world. He’s talking about people like, right in here, in this context, we’ve got some double-headed people.

You know what double-headed is? It’s like a Siamese twin. You ever remember there was a classic, like, Guinness Book of World Records picture of the Siamese twins? You know, the one, it’s black and white, and he’s got these two guys, and they’re kind of joined like, right? And so you got heads going both ways. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine if you’re joined with somebody else? What’s the problem? What if one head wants to go that way? There’s only two sets or one set of legs. One head wants to go that way, one head wants to go that way. That’s the kind of double-headedness. When you’re double-headed, you’re not pure. And that’s the kind of thing that we have here: these double-headed religious people, torn between two opinions.

Can you think of somewhere in Scripture where religious people are torn between two opinions? It seems like we might have heard it referenced sometime today. Anybody think of it? Who is limping or halting between two opinions? Anybody know? Hey, if God is the Lord, if the Lord is God, if Baal is God, it’s like, stop limping, stop halting between two opinions. That’s being double-headed. And you know what? If the world is going where it’s going, go after it with your whole soul. Stop being lukewarm. Stop being halfway, half committed, half in, half out, stuck between two opinions. See? That’s impurity. This is the kind of thing the world affects us. It’s like the other woman, the world, limping. Limping.

How long do you halt? How long do you limp between two opinions? You see, the thing is, people that are stuck between two opinions end up doing nothing. Well, they don’t follow the world. Well, they don’t fit in exactly. And they don’t, they don’t do well among God’s people. They don’t do well in the church. These people that are trying to go both ways here, they’re said, faltering and stumbling.

Listen, the fight, get this. The fight to stay unstained from the world is mainly a matter of not being double-headed. That is the kind of thing it’s singular. It is a singularity that we’re fighting for.

Now let’s listen. Remember, Paul comes along and he looks at the Corinthians, and he says this. He said, this battle that we fight, we don’t use weapons of the flesh. We don’t. Our weapons are not carnal. The weapons of our warfare, they’re spiritual, and they have divine power. And you know how he says it? To pull down strongholds, to destroy. What are these strongholds? They are arguments. They are opinions. You know what they are? They’re mindsets.

So you have this double-headed thing, and what is the contamination? It’s being spotted by the world. On the one hand, what do we have? On the one hand, we’ve got Scripture. On the one hand, we’ve got what Christ desires. We’ve got the will of God. On the other hand, we’ve got the what? The world is trying to sell us a bill of goods. And that’s where the spottedness comes from, is double-headedness, it’s double thinking. It’s it’s I’m thinking, I’m trying to think biblically, but I’m also thinking the way that the world thinks. And the great battle, folks, is that there are these, there are these strongholds. There are these embankments. There are, there are, it’s like these great fortresses, stone edifices. And what are they? Their mindsets, their worldviews, their ways of thinking. They’re psychologies. They’re ideologies that this world has. And they come at us, and it’s hitting us. It, brethren, this hits us through all the media out there, through all the mindsets, through the people you come across. The devil is the head of this whole thing, that the devil is guiding this.

But, brethren, listen, you can’t use human weapons here. Unspotted by the world is mainly a mind thing. Listen to what Paul says. “Do not be conformed to this world,” okay? I mean, that’s the issue. Don’t be swallowed by it. Don’t be conformed to it. But what? What’s the issue? “But be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” You see where the battle is, brethren, to be unspotted from the world. This is largely for us to be unspotted by the ways that this world thinks, its theories, its belief systems. We’re talking strongholds of thought.

And brethren, you know what? You had a world out there, and it’s like they have this fortification around their head, around their thoughts, around how they think, and they live in it, and they’re trapped in these things. And our, our responsibility is to seek to come and do these things. John MacArthur says, I’ve heard him say, that these things become their tombs. They die in their… Oh, they appear so lofty, scientific, intelligent, intellectual. They, these, this all seems good. And you know what it… You know what Paul said? Listen, you know what he said? “Every lofty opinion we destroy, arguments, every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.” It’s all against the knowledge of God.

You see what people are for? Define themselves with systems that are anti-God, anti-Christ. And if you listen, to the degree you imbibe this, the way the world thinks, you’re stained by it, you’re adulterated by it. This is what, folks, are we going to get the world’s ideologies out of our minds? Stop being double-headed, stop being adulterated in the mind.

You know what we’re striving after, Virginia? “Be of the mind…” I came across this in the past, but I just came across it again recently. That 0.0% of young people in Iceland, 25 years or younger, believe that God created the world. 0.0. According to, you know, Paul, verse 12, chapters of Genesis. Now, not just all Icelanders, apparently, but many here, many Americans. The idea that the first 12 chapters of Genesis are myth and superstition, not to be taken seriously.

Brethren, the thing is, you look around, what drives people? What are the viewpoints out there? I mean, come on, you’re good. You got guys, you’re going to the college campuses. Get out there. You got people going out on the streets on Friday night. You get out there, you get among people. You start having conversations with people, just at work, the places you go, get among people, find out what they’re saying, what they’re believing. I mean, they have viewpoints. They have viewpoints about evolution. They have viewpoints about how it all started.

They have viewpoints about gender, about sex. They have viewpoints about marriage, about what’s important in life, about what you ought to be striving after, living for, what the meaning of life is. I mean, you tell the world out there, they, they’ve got all sorts of ideas about politics and about what sin is, or sin isn’t, or who God is, or about abortion, or brethren, it’s all hostile to God and Christ and to the gospel, and to the truth, and to whatever is good.

And you know what? John comes along and he says this. He says, “Whatsoever is of the world, all that, all that is in the world, the desires or the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not from the Father but from the world.”

You see, it’s all dominated by lust. These mindsets that the world has, these great, these great embankments, these castles, these strongholds of thought, they’re, they’re driven by men’s lust. That’s what, that’s what Scripture says, by carnal ambition and by greed and by self-pleasure. The whole thing is just in rebellion against God. And the thing is, it’s this, it’s operated and energized by the devil himself.

Because you know how it says there in Ephesians chapter two, “You, if you’re following the course of this world,” how does it go? “Following the prince of the power of the air.” Don’t think you can go get stained by the world and the devil is not involved, or he’s got, he doesn’t have his fingers in this thing. He’s got his fingers right in there. And here’s a… remember, it’s how we think, it’s how we think.

And so Paul then comes out in the same Second Corinthian letter where he talks about what the nature of our battle is. You know what he says in chapter four? He says that the devil, “the god of this world,” he blinds the minds of unbelievers. What does he keep them from seeing? The truth. Do you remember what it is? Oh, glory, somebody said, glory. Keep them from seeing the glory, from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.

You just imagine. It’s like the devil, you imagine him out there and he’s pulling along this cartload of all these ideologies of the world. He pulls it along, making everybody think it’s so great and it’s so smart and intellectual and scholarly, and it’s, it’s really living. And this is the way the world thinks. And he’s, he’s got one primary mindset. And I’ll tell you what it is. It is to keep people thinking that the gospel of the glory of Christ is empty. It’s ugly. It’s devoid. It’s nothing. It’s undesirable. That’s what he’s seeking to do.

You know what? You know what the world’s telling you all the time? “You got to have looks. You got to be athletic. You got to be rich. You get to wear the right clothes. You got to have the right car. You have to be involved in sports and all the right hobbies and all the stuff. And you got to have that, you got to have that, because that stuff is glorious. That stuff is great. That stuff is beautiful.” Jesus? “What’s that?”

And you know what Paul says in that same Second Corinthian letter? “I’m afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts…” See, it’s a mind thing. It’s a thought thing. “Your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure…” This is how the ESV reads, “a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” Purity, purity. When it’s all for Christ. All. All. There’s a reason why I wanted to sing that, because that’s where the purity is. That’s where it’s found.

And you know what? The devil doesn’t want us to see the end of this. Recently, I came across a little snapshot of a video, and I was looking at it, and it was the words of all these atheists, famous atheists, on their deathbed, kind of stuff. The devil, the god of this world, who wants to shield you from seeing the glory, young people, listen to this. Some of the champions of this world’s ideas.

First one, I don’t know the guy, but Cesare Borgia, he was an atheist. Anybody know that name? Yeah, he’s an atheist. And listen, these are his last words: “While I lived, I provided for everything but death. Now I must die, and I’m unprepared to die.”

Sir Thomas Scott, some of you have heard that name undoubtedly. Taken suddenly ill, he cried out, “Until this moment, I thought there’s neither a god nor a hell. Now I know and feel there are both. And I’m doomed to perdition by the just judgment of the Almighty.”

Voltaire. Anybody recognize that name? On his deathbed, “I’ve swallowed nothing but smoke. I’ve intoxicated myself with the incense that turned my head. I’m abandoned by God and man.” To his physician, he said, “I’ll give you half of what I’m worth if you’ll give me six months of life.” The doctor told him it was impossible. He responded with, “Then I’ll die and go to hell.” Last words. Very last. I don’t know, but he said that on his deathbed.

David Hume, you may know that name, on his deathbed. “I’m in flames.” Period.

Sir Francis Newport, head of English atheist club.

“You need not tell me that there’s no God, for I know there’s one, and that I’m in His presence. You need not tell me there’s no hell. I feel myself already slipping. Wretches! Cease your idle talk about there being hope for me. I know I’m lost forever. Oh, that fire! Oh, the insufferable pangs of hell! Oh, that I could live for a thousand years upon the fire that’s never quenched, to purchase the favor of God.”

He’s wishing it could be purgatory, where he actually could pay for his sins and be united to God again. But it’s a fruitless wish. “Millions and millions of years will bring me no nearer the end of my torments than for one hour, poor, than for one poor hour. Oh, eternity, eternity! Forever, forever! All the insufferable pangs of hell.”

The French King Charles the Ninth massacred the Huguenots. He said, “Asleep or awake, I see the mangled forms of the Huguenots passing before me. How will all this end? And what shall I do? I’m lost forever.”

Anton LaVey. He’s the Satan worshipper. On his deathbed, “Oh my, oh my, what have I done? There’s something very wrong. There’s something very wrong.”

Young people, where’s your mind? You see, the world and the devil, the god of this world, he wants your mind. He wants you to think that that religion of your parents is awful. It’s boring. Oh, Christianity… You know what the truth is? There is a glory that’ll blow your socks off. Honestly, there is a beauty. There is a ravishing of the soul. If you heard what I read that Mack Tomlinson has been experiencing in the middle of the night, brothers, just a foretaste of heaven.

What are you after? Young people, popularity? Is that what it is, escaping that stale religion? Is that what it’s all about? Money, sports? Is that it? Science? Oh, safety. Have we fallen into that as Christians? “Give us safety, Lord. Give us retirement. Help us to store up and and build up and be safe and secure. And we got to have all the right insurance in place. So, so we’re safe, our house is safe, and our car is safe, and our health is safe.” Safety is at it. Is that what Jesus said? Is that being fully devoted to him? Is that the way he said to go?

Brethren, we can become so much a part of this middle-class American sanity that we hardly even recognize how much of it is just the world. It invites us. It sucks us in. And brethren, I’ll tell you this. The thing is, the world’s opinions and their fantasies… They say Genesis is fantasy. It’s what they believe, its aims. What are the aims of this world? Are selfish, its pleasures. You think about it, they’re sinful, its influences. They adulterate us. It’s politics, brethren. It’s all a false hope. Trump is not your hope. He never will be. It’s advertising. Think about the advertising of this world. It’s just empty. It’s applause. We don’t applaud you for a moment, and then you’re done. It’s like, it’s just the world chews us up and spits you out.

Young ladies, you might be pretty right now. The world spits you out. You got to get old. It’s just the devil blinds the eyes from seeing what? From seeing this glory of Christ.

Now listen. When we talk unspotted from the world, we’re talking mindset. We’re not talking about initiating a list of rules. Listen to what Scripture says. “If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations?”  

Okay, you want to be stained by the world? Just live your life where it’s just a set of rules and regulations. To live by a set of rules and regulations is to be worldly. That’s, that’s how the world thinks about religion, is a set of rules. You don’t go down that path. That’s basically, you got to look what’s in here. Not, not the rules, not what, what’s mechanical, not what I do. It’s got to be, it’s got to do with what I love. What do I think about? What do I live for on the inside? What have I seen? What have I experienced?

I mean, look, look, the truth is, we know that a list of rules as to what’s proper when we walk into this place on Sunday, we all got that figured out. That’s not the issue when we’re talking mindsets here. We’re talking about what’s, what’s essential at the deepest level.

Brethren, I’m afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere… Keep your thoughts from a pure devotion to Christ.

Now here’s, here’s something worth considering. Listen to this. James 1:27, where we started. Notice the emphasis: “keep oneself unstained from the world,” oneself. Did you catch that? Keep oneself. You know what they call that? You know what that word is in the English? It is what is called a reflexive pronoun. You know what that means? You do it to yourself.

Listen to this. James 4:8, “Purify your hearts, you double-minded.” If you’re double-headed, who’s got the responsibility of purifying the heart? You do. I’m supposed to do certain things to myself so that I’m not double, but singular. That’s the idea.

Listen to this. Remember I read from Daniel? The ESV reads this way: “Many shall purify themselves.” There’s that reflexive pronoun again. Now, in other translations, you’re not going to find that. If you look at Young’s Literal, there’s something that Young saw and the translators of the ESV, and they, “and they make themselves white,” themselves. Got that reflexive there. Or you got Second Peter 3:14, “Be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish.” Or Revelation 22:14, “Blessed are those who washed their robes.”

Do you recognize how Scripture speaks? They washed their robes. They have a right to the tree of life. We don’t tend to talk this way, but our Bibles do. We like to think, “Well, Jesus washed us. Jesus cleansed us.” And when it comes to justification, that’s absolutely true. But we’re talking purity. We’re talking a practical cleansing, a practical reality in our lives.

Listen, we don’t talk this way, but we need to talk this way more. Second Timothy 2:20, “In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore,” catch these four words, “if anyone cleanses himself,” himself, there’s that pronoun again, reflexive. That’s an action you do to yourself, “from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”  

Now look. I recognize that our Heavenly Father often has used us when we felt dirty and unclean and unusable. And we’ve had a bad day. God is very gracious. But there’s a reality here, and you can’t get away from it. What’s the reality? God’s servants can remain shelved because of what? What is it? “If anyone cleanses himself, they’re a vessel fit for the master’s use.” So what makes us unusable? Dirt. We haven’t cleansed ourselves. There’s impurities.

Listen, what you’ve got to grasp is that… And we’re not talking activity here. Somebody can be very active but not being used of God. Activity isn’t the issue. A man can be very involved in the ministry, and God is not using him. What does it mean for God to use somebody? Well, the high God… God’s usefulness. What’s essential to that? Well, it’s God coming. It’s God helping. It’s God empowering. We need God’s empowerment to truly be used of Him.

You see, the idea is He’s not using us. We may be active, we may be up there on the shelf and bouncing around this way and that. But we got dirt and dust in our cup, and He’s not going to pull us off. We can bounce around up there and do all of our little activity.

Listen to this. I want you to turn to this one. Second Corinthians.

Turn to Second Corinthians seven. Brethren, “if any one cleanses himself…” Look at this. Second Corinthians 7:1 says, “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves.” Everybody see the pronoun again, that reflexive pronoun? “Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, inside and outside, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”

Ladies and gentlemen, you never want to read a verse like that that starts the way it does without backtracking. “Since we have these promises.” What promises? Because obviously, what Paul is saying is there’s a motive here. There’s a motive for you to want to cleanse yourself. What is it? Okay. Let’s backtrack. Go to Second Corinthians 6:16.

Here’s the promises. “We are the temple of the living God.” I heard my daughter praying this morning, “a living hope.” We have a living God, folks. Christianity is a living thing because our God, who inhabits this true Christian, true Christianity, he’s a living God. There it is. He’s living.

But notice this word, “the temple.” He lives… I mean it. Our God indwells this temple. As God said, “I will make my dwelling among them,” mine. There’s a possessiveness here, “my dwelling among them, and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be,” again possessive, “my people.” They will be my dwelling. They will be my people.

Notice this, verse 17: “Therefore go out from their midst,” who’s? “Be separate from them.” Who’s? Well, it’s the idea of that which is unclean, “touch no unclean thing.” Now notice this, “Then I will welcome you.”

Listen, what you’re going to see from this is that our relationship with God is based on your purity, not just your forgiveness. Let that sink in. There are Christians that run around like, “Well, I’m justified by faith, and so everything is good.” Listen, there is a truth being set forth right here.

Look, look, certainly impure sinners… God justifies the ungodly. You can come with all your dirt and all your filth and all your sin, and you can come to Christ to be saved, trusting Him. Certainly impure sinners can come to God through Christ, and they find that they’re going to be justified immediately. But listen to what Paul is saying here. “Then I will welcome you.” Then when we keep reading, verse 18, “I will be a father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”

“Since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves.” You see what the promises are made to? The clean. God dwells among us. He walks among us. He’s walking, He’s moving, He’s acting. It’s personal to God. My dwelling, my people, sons and daughters. To me, this is a personal God.

But what you want to watch are those words, “and I will welcome you,” brethren, because of that promise, “cleanse yourself from every defilement.” Do you recognize what this is saying? This is a promise that is conditional on… This is, we have a welcoming God.

Brethren, have you ever been there? You wake up at 3 a.m., and suddenly God is there. He’s on your mind. You wake up in that welcoming. God says, “Welcome.” You go to prayer, and there’s a sense that He’s there. There’s a welcoming God. You open your Bible, and He’s there. There’s a welcoming. You come into a place like this. Oh, brethren, the fact that our singing, the singing has produced some transformation over the years in people, you come in here, you come into the midst. We have a welcoming God.

Some of you, because of the dirt, because of the filth, I know we come back. We, we break that bread. We’re wanting to remember something. We want our faith to come back to something. But, brethren, it’s because of these promises right here that he says, “Therefore, you should cleanse yourself from every one of these defilements.”

Brethren, this is, this is how Scripture speaks. Promises, it’s all conditional. Or if there’s ever a verse that connects my purity with a welcoming God, it’s certainly this: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for what? They shall see God.” Is this? “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? He who has clean hands and a pure heart,” that’s what. “Oh Lord, show me your glory.”

I mean, brethren, seeing the glory of God, isn’t that the biggest? That’s the most momentous. That’s the most monumental. That’s the most tremendous thing. Isn’t that the biggest thing of all? We want to see God. We want God to welcome us. We want to see his face. The whole, that’s the whole object of Christianity. And who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Brethren, it’s those that have a pure heart.

The living God is the greatest imaginable reality of all. Brethren, man little realizes what he lost there in the garden. And God is not saying that my welcoming is just based on you being justified by faith, nor is he saying your usefulness is based just on that. You can’t escape this. You can’t. You just can’t. You can’t escape this.

Folks, listen to this. “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.” You see that drawing near there needs to… what a motivation to purify oneself.

You want another motive? Listen to this one. How many of you know this? This First John 3:2. “Beloved, we are God’s children now.” Don’t you like that? We’re God’s children now. “What we will be has not yet appeared.” Somebody comes telling you that they know what it’s going to be like, and they got all this picture and they do. They create this. They don’t know what they’re talking about because we don’t know yet. It’s, it’s not appeared yet.

But we do know this. “When Christ appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” Listen to this, “Everyone who thus hopes in him,” you know what it says? “Purifies himself as he is pure.”

When the kingdom of heaven is consummated and it’s all over, and there’s this new heaven and there’s this new earth, and we’re there, Christ appears in all of his glory. What’s going to happen? The Christian is going to behold that and become it. That’s the promise of Scripture, and that’s our hope. And you know how John is arguing here? He’s arguing from this stance, from this standpoint, that everyone who has that hope acts in that hope. That’s what he says. You can’t get around it. If you have no desire for purity, and you’re just entertaining the ways of the world and the thoughts of the world and the brethren, it says something about where your hope is. That’s what John says.

It’s: “My present effort at purity is consistent with my future hope.” That’s, that’s how he reasons. “Therefore, Christ, who looks forward to this, is already determined to prepare for it.”

Brethren, our time is short. You don’t have long to prepare. We await… what? An audience with the King, to stand before Him. And what is He looking for, brethren? He wants His people to be truly saints, not just in word, to be holy people, to be pure people, to be refined people. What an incentive! Are you living in anticipation of that? Are you preparing?

Well, brethren, the question now is, where are we at? How long I’ve been going? Brethren, you got to get to the place where it’s like, okay, I got to reach in the heart. How do I get there? I mean…

Brethren, we got to talk about, like, Daniel sees many making themselves white. “Blessed are those who washed their robes.” But remember, this is not a cleansing from guilt. In somewhat this is… this is a cleansing from the pollution of the world.

What helps me to think about how do I do this? How do I reach my heart? It’s a verse like this. “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.”

Brethren, when you take your Bible in your hand, when you lift this up, when you go into this word, brother, there is, there’s nothing more purifying. This is altogether the purest material. Do you recognize? Not a single verse, not a single verse in this book, not a single word in this book will taint you. This is pure. This is… Brethren, this is exactly what Paul was talking about when he says, “Christ loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.”  

For you see, this is a sanctifying cleansing. This is not the cleansing of justification.

This is a sanctifying cleansing. And he says, “The washing of water by the word.” Not a single verse here will lead you into any kind of filthiness or contamination or impurity or adultery. Nothing, nothing of that sort.

Brethren, we want, we tend to want this easy fix, you know, get up in the morning and give me this little, you know, this little devotional where there’s a verse at the top. We, we want, we want to move through this. How do I, how do I reach in here?

Listen, I’ll tell you this. The spiritually soft aren’t going to do well here. This is something that takes… This takes an effort. Remember, this is a battle for the mind. We are battling against cosmic powers, against following the course of the ruler of this world who is… brethren, this is no small thing. And it doesn’t… You can’t do this with carnal weapons. These are great battlements that are brought down through not fleshly weapons. It’s brought down through divine power. And if there’s anything, it is the sword of the Spirit that God divinely charges so that, so that there can be purity, the renewal of the mind. That’s what we’re after. Not conformed to this world, but there’s a renewal that takes place. The mind of Christ controls us. That’s what we’re after. When every thought is held captive to Christ.

Well, how does that happen? Where are Christ’s thoughts? Where are Christ’s ways? Where are Christ’s words? There, in this book. Brethren, this isn’t just some… This is some great battle.

You remember what? Behind the whole world is pride. The pride of life. You think, you think He killed pride in your life through seven easy steps? And, brethren, it’s like… It’s like, you know, we want to go to the moon, and we want it to be easy. It’s like, brethren, this, this… There’s a battle here. There’s a fight. Pride. Selfishness. Unbelief. Love of looseness. You want an easy fix for all that? I mean, brethren, and here’s the thing. You know the verse. The verse that says that as we behold the glory of the Lord, we are transformed from one degree of glory to… You know what? If you do not take the time to get into this book and meditate and chew on it to the point where you see the glory, you will not be changed. That is what Scripture tells us. You can’t get beyond that, brethren. You got to camp here. If you don’t behold the glory, you won’t become the glory. That’s what Scripture says. Beholding the glory of the Lord, you’re being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

This comes from the Lord. Who? Who’s the Spirit? Brethren, you got to soak in it. You got to bask in it like it’s liquid glory. We’re washed by the water of the word. This is an H2O. This is the glorious living water of a book. Imagine just glorious, glowing water that flows out of this.

But brethren, it’s a mind thing. Your mind has to engage the glory of this book. You’re not going to do that in five minutes. Brethren, it is not shocking that when you find people in the church that are double-headed, impure, and worldly, that they spend very little time, very little quality time in this book. That is not a surprise, folks.

So listen to this. Remember how Peter said, “If, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…” How do you escape the defilements of the world? It’s finding the knowledge of the Lord and Savior…

Brothers and sisters, never, never, never, never underestimate what is accomplished in your life when you take this book, this Word of God, in your hands, and with discipline and deliberateness, you put yourself in this book on a daily basis. Each time you dive into it, you’re getting into the spiritual bathtub full of glowing waters of glory, the glory of the Lord. The knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. It comes out of this book. It comes into your head, and the Spirit… This happens by the Spirit, who is the Lord. He sees to it. God Almighty sees to it that there is a purifying benefit.

And, brethren, we’ve experienced it. Remember, we’re destroying strongholds. Now, I’m just going to end with this. You got a, you got to recognize that surrender… And one of the things, if we’re not going to be spotted by this world, here is purity. It was what? The words from Bob Jennings, “All for Christ.” That is purity. That we not be led away from that pure devotion to Christ. All for Christ, brethren.

Jesus said in Scripture to be the treasure that we should sell all else for, to be valued above ease and above pleasure, comfort, safety, above friends and profit, my own life. Mary, you remember, she chose the best part.

You remember what Scripture says? “If, therefore, any of you who does not renounce all that he has, he cannot be my disciple.” You see, the idea of purity is singularity. When you abandon all for Christ, that is singular. Any protected area of your life, anything un-abandoned, anything unsubmitted, anything unsurrendered, you don’t have singularity.

I mean, you have to ask, “The world or Christ?” Safety. What does Jesus say? “I have no place to lay my head. They may kill you. They, they hated me. They’re going to hate you.” Does He promise security? Does He promise us it’s going to be comfortable? He doesn’t promise that. Retirement. The world likes to talk retirement. You got, you got that area of your life protected. How about your amusements? How about the, the, the ways you play, the ways you relax? Or do you protect that part of your, your life from the Lord?

All for Christ. Unless you forsake all, your money, how are you going to use that, brethren? You see, a singularity. Singularity?

Are you committed to this true biblical purity? I’m just going to… Brethren, I want you to say this. If you are committed to this, and you’re not going to allow the stains in your life, you’re going to go to battle against this. You’re going to go to battle against the mindsets of this world. The things that they think are important, the things that they value… Then say it: “All, Lord, I forsake all to follow you.”

Say it in your mind. “I am not going to follow the world. I’m going to fight it. I’m going to resist it where it comes at me through media, where it comes at me through the TV, through the computer, through my phone, where it comes at me through worldly people, where it comes at me by my neighbors, by the things I expose myself to, the music I listen to. I am all out for Christ. I surrender. I am submitted. I’m for that. That is purity. Lord, I’m following you. Yes, for you, I give up everything. Total, pure devotion to you.”

Paul feared lest you be pulled away from that pure and sincere devotion alone to Christ. “Accept my surrender to you in all things. I want to live for you, all out for you, and that you will find purity.”

Folks, give everything. You know what little quoted verse? “Give Him arms, those things that are within. And behold, everything is clean for you.” Do you know what that means? That means within everything is laid on the altar. And everything… There’s our word. Everything is clean. Everything is pure. But you hold back. It’s not pure. You adulterers and adulteresses. These are the ones protecting a part of your life from Him. Impurity, brethren.

“Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father.” This is His estimation. Is this… it is that you keep yourself unstained from this world. You have to do it. Those reflexive pronouns mean your responsibility. God doesn’t do it for you. You do it. The person sitting next to you, your spouse, doesn’t do it for you. Your friends don’t do it. You need to be determined and deliberate and intent. And this is a battle, and we are up against these great strongholds of thought that the world and the god of this world bombard us with. This is no easy thing.

And, brethren, be committed. Be determined. Say it, “All to you, Lord. All to you. Nothing held back.” And live in this book and wash in this book. Die reading this book.

Father, I pray. My desire is that Grace Community Church would be pure. Lord, help us to reach greater degrees of this glorious purity, greater degrees of a likeness to Christ, more and more. Help us, Lord, to advance, to be victorious. I pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

Standing against the doctrine of cheap grace, which dismisses the pursuit of holiness, is crucial. At the same time, we must be vigilant against the spirit of legalism. This discussion will delve into the formalism of self-righteousness and explore how to maintain a genuine faith while upholding a commitment to holiness.

There is something to live for! Eternal glory—and that’s what this prayer is all about. What you need to understand is that preaching, witnessing, preaching on the streets, and going into mission areas are all part of the cleanup—it’s all cleanup. The real battle is fought on your knees. The battle is fought on your knees. – Paul Washer

About the sermon: This sermon explores the deep significance of Jesus’ life as our ultimate example, focusing on His humility and total dependence on the Father. Even though Jesus was fully God, He chose to live as the “Second Adam,” perfectly obedient and reliant on God to undo the damage caused by the first Adam’s fall. The message emphasizes the vital importance of communion with God, showing that true strength and wisdom come from a life of prayer and intimacy with Him. It’s a call to believers to recognize their own weaknesses, lean on God for strength, and live each day seeking His glory and advancing His kingdom. Through this, we are reminded that our spiritual life thrives only when rooted in a deep, ongoing relationship with our Heavenly Father.

When Amos spoke, he was referring to David’s tabernacle as an example, highlighting that Christ’s original intention—the Gospel—was to reconcile both Jew and Gentile to Himself, putting to death the enmity between them.

Acts 15:13-18 – After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. And with this, the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, ‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.'”

“The joy of my salvation just doesn’t come. There are times when I don’t feel it, even though I repent and walk in purity. It seems that the joy of salvation in the Christian life remains elusive. I see Psalm 51 addressing this. What should I do when I have repented biblically, but the joy still doesn’t return? Is there some sin I’m unaware of that’s holding it back?”

This question comes from Luke. I’m going to deal with this because we just dealt a little bit with this at our Spanish speaking Grace Group, and I saw this and I thought, this is along the same line of what we were talking about the other day.

Hello. I’ve sent an email here before, and I’m thankful for the response that was given. Recently, I’ve been listening to more lectures and sermons, and it benefited in my knowledge from them greatly. In the past. I have searched for the answer to the following question for a very long time.

So if you’re being discerning, this is the last one, guys. So hang with me. We’re almost done. 20 more minutes. So you’re listening to this guy thus far. “I searched for the answer for in question for a very long time.” Nothing really take issue with. “I’ve researched and read the Bible and prayed about it, but I can never come to a solid conclusion on what the answer is.” Okay, here’s the question: “Does faith by itself save you? Does faith by itself save you?”

[Please note that the following transcript was auto generated and has not been proofed.]

Question: Hello, dear friends, and I’ll be honest. First off, thank you for your ministry. God has used your material wonderfully over the years in my life. Some of Pastor Tim, James’ brother Paul’s sermons were instrumental in my conversion. They have been a great help to me in my walk and in growing in holiness and desire for Christ. Why do we see healings, conversions, and other fruit and manifestations of power sometimes from ministries that present questionable teaching? I’m not speaking of the larger, more public word of faith or New Apostolic Reformation so-called ministries that are so popular these days. He says this, “I’ve noticed in my city in Canada, a good number of instances of what appear on the surface to be genuine miracles come out of churches whose leadership tends toward the direction of word of faith.”

Okay, let’s not just assume things. Somebody give me a good definition of the word of faith. What is that?

Given over to the prosperity gospel and name it claim, it, whatever you say will happen. They think that if they say it, it somehow is going to automatically make it happen. Anybody know about the New Apostolic Reformation? I mean, I know it’s a you know about that. I mean, it’s a Pentecostal/charismatic type group. I know they have like sevenfold, seven mountains of something. Anyway, what do you know about them? I just watched some stuff on the Urban Gospel TV network, and some people say it doesn’t even exist. Basically, it’s, there is not a base. People do things that there are modern apostles and that this Apostolic Reformation will be, just like the Protestant Reformation with New Apostolic teachings.

He says that I’ve noticed in my city in Canada, a good number of instances of what appear on the surface to be genuine miracles come out of churches whose leadership tends toward the direction of word of faith. Here’s his question: Are these instances of the Lord honoring faith? So he’s asking, are these instances of the Lord honoring faith even though their knowledge is flawed, or are they false miracles? Do they fall into the category of Matthew 7:21-23? And of course, that’s where people are doing many mighty works in his name. And he says, I never knew you. In the end, these people seem to have genuinely performed miracles in the name of Christ. How do we handle these cases?

The issue is admittedly of particular interest to me, as the young woman I’m pursuing with the hopes of future marriage gets pulled into these circles a lot because of close friends she has in them. Her uncle also pastors one of these churches. So obviously this guy is getting a perspective through this girl. She’s got an uncle in this. So things are being communicated back to him. He’s observing things, whether it’s through her eyes or however. She sees the issues and potential dangers in associating with them but is swayed by what appears to be the spirit moving in their midst in evangelism and healing, where many other churches here lack initiative.

I’m greatly appreciative of whatever insight you might have to give on the subject. One of the things that pop out at once is the girl is swayed by what appears to be the spirit moving in their midst in evangelism and healing. So what happens is you observe what you think is miraculous. You’re swayed to believe it’s genuine because of the miraculous. And then what happens is you embrace their theology as probably genuine, maybe slightly flawed, but as a whole, embraceable. Why? Because you’ve authenticated this thing by the fact that you observe the miraculous. Any problem with that sort of thinking? Like maybe it’s backwards? Does that occur to you that that’s backwards? Does it occur to you that if you think that way, or you’re swayed that way, that you’re playing right into the hands of the devil? Does that occur to you?

Because if I am swayed by what appears to me to be miraculous. Brethren, let’s just ask this question he’s posing. But, like, think about this. Why do we see healings, conversions, and other fruit and manifestations of power sometimes from ministries that present questionable teaching? Well, maybe they’re converted. Maybe they’re not. Maybe they’re healed. Maybe they’re not. Manifestations of power. The arm of the devil’s powerful God is more powerful. But the devil is pretty powerful. And the devil can do powerful things that, even if possible, might deceive the elect. Somebody said somewhere one time. And so my wife doesn’t like when I say that. She said, Tim, don’t say that. And they think that you don’t know what you’re talking about.

So I want to talk about the possibilities here. This guy has presented something. What are the possibilities? Obviously, one possibility is the whole thing is totally demonic. It’s a demonic false religion and anything apparently supernatural is either a deception, it isn’t really, or it’s a supernatural expression of some demonic activity in their midst. That’s one possibility. Two, it may be that the people he’s dealing with actually have the truth, even though he says that they’re off in some areas or, you know, they tend towards some certain direction. Maybe he’s wrong. Maybe they’re right. And maybe what he’s observing in them is altogether genuine. Maybe he’s right in that this is a situation where their doctrine is right in the core, but they’re kind of off in some other places, maybe some things we might say are more minor, and because they believe and they have faith, God does something there that he doesn’t do in a lot of reformed and Calvinistic groups, because Jesus doesn’t do many mighty works in certain places because of unbelief. Maybe there’s a whole lot of Calvinistic unbelief out there, and maybe some people that are in charismatic circles, maybe they have enough of the gospel where they’ve genuinely got saved, Pentecostal circles, and they have more faith than we have. Maybe there’s a possibility there.

Now, here’s the thing. We’re not there. One of the, what does Scripture tell us to do? What’s that? That’s to test the spirit. Where is that text found? First John 4. You should all know that we’re told to test the spirits. Okay, let me ask you this. What does that mean? Tell me what that means. Well, out doctrine and the devil’s way out there. Doctrine. Let me ask you this. If you came along and you found this church, and you found that, and you start looking around and it’s like, there’s sexual immorality, there’s fornication, there’s adultery here. And these brothers are suing each other. They’re off on the resurrection. You got people teaching weird doctrine here. And you guys over there, they’re speaking in tongues, and gays are prophesying. It’s like you look at it and they’re suing each other. And there’s obviously a problem with the women in the church, and there’s idolatry here, and there’s division. And the rich people aren’t waiting for the poor, and people are getting drunk at the Lord’s Supper. What do you think? They’re speaking in tongues. You think it’s genuine? You think it’s genuine? Test the spirits. What conclusion are you going to come to? Well, I didn’t know it was first Corinthians, I think it. You think it’s false? You might get. I was just getting a letter on the 13th. One, two, four. It says if there arises among you a prophet or dreamer of dreams who gives you a sign or a wonder and the sign of the wonder comes to pass, now which he spoke to you saying. This life. You are the God that you are not known. Let us serve him. We shall not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams, but the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.

So clearly, if somebody is trying to move us away from worshiping the God of Scripture, we would really need to know who the God of Scripture is. You know? Just watch. Just think with me. I find, without exception, the devil attacks two things always. He attacks the person and work of Jesus Christ, and he attacks the scriptures. Look at any movement. Look at any church. Look at whatever they profess to be or are. Look at what they say. Somebody comes along and says, what do you think about Seventh Day Adventists? What do you think about Seventh Day Baptists? What do you think about Church of Christ? What do you think about these different things? You know, all sorts of movements spring up in this group or that group, and just go right there every time. What do they believe about Jesus Christ? What do they believe about his work? His person? What do they believe about scriptures? You examine them at that level. You will expose the devil every single time. He attacks those two things. He can’t tolerate them. He hates them. You want to look for testing the spirits? What spirit is this of? And be very careful. In much of the false Pentecostal charismatic circles, the spirit in those religions exalts himself. The spirit of Scripture exalts Christ. Make no mistake about it. That’s what Jesus says. He will glorify me. And so then you want to look for that.

The devil in the garden attacked the word. You look at the error. Just think about like first John. What’s the error? It’s to say the wrong thing about Christ. If you’re looking for the Antichrist. So if we’re testing the spirits, listen. There is a large amount of unbelief in reformed circles. I believe it with my whole heart. You can tell how much people really believe by what they’re willing to trust God to do, how much they’re willing to step out in, trust in. I can

remember Brother Andy, a missionary that we support, and he was talking about people like Amy Carmichael. If you look carefully, Amy Carmichael, obviously a woman, she was in India. She rescued all sorts of children from these Hindu temples. She took over a thousand children in. She would preach to men. You see, I don’t like that. She’s a false prophet. Andy has made the point that there are certain people throughout church history that know 100 times less than us, but they do a thousand times more.

So be careful. Listen, if you test people at the level of what they believe about Christ and the level of what they believe about Scripture, they may be charismatic, they may be Arminian, but just be careful. Be careful, because sometimes people don’t agree with you in certain areas. Women in a mixed congregation of the church should not be. I mean, we don’t approve of women elders and women preaching to men, but historically things like that have happened. Is that a reason to cut them off? Like, you start looking at their life and you almost have to hang your head in shame at what they accomplished for the Lord. I know this. I quoted from a book at this last conference, the fellowship conference by John Nevins. John Nevins was actually a Presbyterian. He lived in the days of Hudson Taylor. He was working in China, and he began to have experiences with the demonic. So what he did was he reached out to all of these good, solid, doctrinally solid missionaries that were working in China. He wanted to hear their stories. You start reading, and I read today, and one of the missionaries that wrote to Nevins was relating his experiences. He said that what he found is when you had these brand new Chinese converts in simple faith, they opened up their Bibles and saw how demons were dealt with in Scripture, and they were just naive enough to turn around and simply apply what they found in Scripture to their own lives. And God blessed it.

Jeff was telling me he was recently reading a book put out by a Methodist from Asbury College who was writing on the miraculous. Jeff recounted situations in other countries where they would actually ask the American missionaries not to pray with them, and the Americans feel, why? Because you don’t believe in and. I think there’s something to that. And so, you know what? Sometimes you get things happening in Canada. It’s really none of our business. I mean, it doesn’t have anything to do with us. It has something to do with this guy, but it doesn’t have anything to do with us, and we’re not close enough to really be able to test the spirits. But we recognize that, you know what? I’ve had similar thoughts before that I have a feeling there are some groups out there where their faith is just simple enough, and they’re seeing God do things that we don’t get to see, because in simple faith, they have an expectation that God is going to do them. They may not cross every single T with us in God, every single I with us. But they have a simple faith in the Lord Jesus.

The thing is, he’s talking about in Canada and he’s observing. He’s observing not just one church or one person. He’s kind of being general. So I don’t know. You don’t know. I don’t know because we don’t know them. We’re not even, we don’t have the perspective to be able to test the spirits. But just because somebody disagrees on some peripheral things, you’ve got to look at the heart. You’ve got to look at the gospel. You’ve got to look at what is their take on Scripture. I mean, brethren, I can tell you this, that one of my great heroes is John Wesley. As Arminian as he was, and some of the perspectives he had on things like, you know, perfectionism or election. He probably had far more fruit than any of us will ever have. I know he was a hero of Spurgeon’s and sometimes we almost start by, you know, how perfect is somebody’s doctrine in aligning with what we think of Calvinistic Christianity. And brethren, sometimes there’s people out there with a whole lot less knowledge that have a whole lot more faith. So be careful that you don’t measure things by the wrong thing. You test in the spirit. Go to the heart of the matter. You can never get away from this. What do they say about Christ? What do they say about the Scriptures? If you’ve got them solid on those two points, be very careful that you dismiss them because the devil isn’t in the business of making people solid on those points. Any comments or questions with regards to that?

Brethren, you know what we don’t want? We don’t want to get to the end and have written off. I can remember one time calling one of these Reformed Baptist churches when I was down here at Community Baptist Church. I mean, they grilled me on what my position was on the Sabbath. And it’s almost, and you know, a lot of these guys from that group, they admit that they were swallowed up. They looked down their noses at everybody. They were hypercritical, hyperjudgmental. If you didn’t believe exactly how they believed with regards to the law, in regards to this, in regards to that. Brethren, as much as we do to one of the least of these children, we do it to him. I want to be very careful that we’re not dismissive of some of his genuine people, just because they don’t agree with us in every place. Be careful with that. Sometimes we can get this mindset, well, if you’re not of us, you know, should we call down fire on these people? Should we tell them to stop? Should we do this or whatever? And it’s like, don’t be of that spirit. Be careful. I tell you, one of the things they found when massive persecution came to Romania and they started throwing all these professing Christians into prison, you know, if you know about Richard Wurmbrand, you know, when you’re sitting in that dungeon, you care if the guy was a Methodist or a Lutheran, an Arminian? If you’re all sitting there and you’re in your chains and you’re breaking bread together, and your only hope is Christ, you don’t care if they were charismatic. God does save people in other circles than ours, folks.

Anything else on that point? I never heard your opinion on cessationism. Brother, if we’re going to cling to Scripture, then let’s cling to Scripture. I will say this. You will not find any verse in your Bible that says that anything given to the early church has ceased. It doesn’t exist. You may think certain things have ceased. You know what’s interesting? I was talking to Mac Tomlinson the other day. You know, Mac might preform with regards to this. Mac can’t sit. He hasn’t been able to sit for 50 days. He has told me again, God has been visiting him during this entire 50 days, and it has provided him an opportunity to really pour himself into his next book. You know what? He’s doing a book on the miraculous and the Scottish Covenanters. This is key for the Scottish Covenanters. Many of these guys were the Westminster divines. These are the guys that a lot of the reform movement in both Presbyterian and Baptist circles look up to. They, I mean, these are not guys that are easily dismissed. What Mac is doing is he’s researching all the supernatural that happened among these guys. How they freely spoke about prophesying and just, they were very persecuted. Sometimes they didn’t have Bibles. God was using them in all sorts of ways.

What’s the point? Well, these guys, the Scottish Covenanters, come along 15, 1600 years after the apostles, and they’re still seeing those things at that time. Brother Andy, some of you were here the last time he came here. One of our sisters said, can you tell us about things you’ve witnessed over there? He said, I could, but it would be sensationalized. So he chose not to. But I’ve sat with him in private and your mouth would hang open, and I’ll tell you, you hear some of Paul Washer’s stories about when he was in Peru. The same thing. Tozer said it and I, but you’ve probably often heard me say this, but Tozer said, you want to see the miraculous look on the front lines. You know, you can get a guy that comes along, one of these cessationist guys like John MacArthur, and say, well, where is it? I mean, if all this stuff is happening today, show me where. The problem is, when we are in our nice, air-conditioned building and there’s no real persecution, I mean, people aren’t busting in here and throwing us in jail. We basically have a very comfortable setting, and we have full Bibles and everything that we have. It probably ought not to surprise us. But, you know, when you get out there in the raw and you’re facing the devil, where, you know, in Hinduism and the rawness of Buddhism and Islam, and it’s right there in your face, you’re dealing with these things out there where the devil is not hiding behind the white shirt and the tie on Wall Street. It’s like this stuff is kind of in your face. There’s you get in environments where there’s persecution and there’s, what Andy said was, to the degree that you saw demonic activity, he said over and above, you saw God do things through the church supernaturally.

He cannot come here and talk among his supporters about the things he’s witnessed over there. Mac was telling me that Paul Washer was recently speaking in the context of something like the John MacArthur churches, and he was talking about the supernatural things, and he could tell a coldness was developing with his audience. Paul began to tell them about what God did in Spurgeon’s ministry and what God did through

the Scottish Covenanters. He said the guys were disarmed, because once you start talking about these guys that are your heroes and they experience these things, we’re always revisionist. Men love to revise history. So guess what? Banner of Truth comes along and they write a biography of Martin Lloyd-Jones. They don’t want to tell you about all the supernatural stuff that he experienced. Why? Because they don’t like it. So somebody comes along and writes their books on Spurgeon, and they’re not going to tell you about all the supernatural experiences. Yet they don’t like it. They’re not comfortable with it. They want to erase it. They don’t want to see. This is why it’s so great that Mac is actually keen in on these aspects of the Covenanters, because these guys are behind the Westminster Confession. It’s the staple confession of Calvinistic Presbyterianism today, from which the 1689 London Baptist Confession came. When you get the guys that make up some of the stalwart personalities that were behind these things and you find out that they’re out there having these kinds of experiences, well, you know what? There’s not a lot of people talking about it. Mac’s hoping to produce a whole book on it. He’s getting original resources. He’s been over to England and different libraries. He’s collecting all those together. And then God puts him in a situation where he’s got back problems and hip problems, and he’s out of commission, like on his back for 50 days. He feels like glory, and God’s meeting with him. He said, I have so much liberty to write this book. I told Mac, you’ve got to finish that before you die. We need that book.

He asked me just the other day, would you write all sorts down and just take an hour and the thoughts on prophesying and whatever your thoughts are on that. I just say be biblical because there is a text somewhere, and folks, this tells us not to despise prophesying. Now, you might have to figure out theologically how you define that term. The way to do it is to look at every place it’s used in your Bible, especially the New Testament. Look at every place that word is used in some form or another in the New Testament. Do an exhaustive study of every single place it’s used and get a good feel for what it was, what it was intended to do. Develop and derive your definition there because you’re not supposed to despise it. Answer me. Are you despising it if you write it off as something that doesn’t apply today? I would say so. It seems to me that would be the perfect example of despising it. Now we may have to define it. Is it broader than predicting the future? I think it is. If you study, I’ve studied probably not only every New Testament use but every use in the entire Bible. If you’re going to get a feel, you’re going to develop a feel. I want to be biblical. That’s where you’re going to be biblical. You do topical studies out of your Bible and you start looking. If we’re honest with Scripture, it’s like, where’s that verse that says all these things have stopped and ceased? Look, I recognize that when and we’re all safe and quite comfortable, well, is there a reason for certain things to happen?

Historically, you can look at times when tongues have been given, but you know what it’s like. The situation demanded it. What these charismatics are doing with it. For one, they don’t have interpreters. Get rid of tongues speaking with no interpretation, which the Bible says silence. If you don’t have an interpreter, get rid of all the non-interpreted tongues. You just got rid of 99% of all the tongues. Let’s just be biblical. The thing is, if we’re all sitting here and we all speak the same language, who needs tongues? You don’t. We don’t. But go read Richard Wurmbrand. You get thrown into a communist prison. Just read about the things that happen. I’ll tell you, if you were in prison, you were in a dungeon, you’d want those things to happen too. The situation demanded it, and Christ came and visited his people in wonderful ways.

One of the reasons we say a lot of the things we do is we don’t simply don’t know the history. We’re so much caught up in this revisionist thing. We’re so selective on who we’ll read and it’s all been tampered with. They give us their rendition of what history looks like. Sometimes we get a step out of that and go back. Anyway, brethren, you know what my prayer is on a regular basis. Lord, I don’t know what you’re willing to do right at this hour and in this place, but Lord, please, whatever the fullness of that is, give it to us. Please don’t. I mean, it was said of the Corinthians that they came behind a no gift. So I didn’t say, Lord, whatever gifts you’re giving today, please give them to us. Because there’s always purposes. It’s not just so you can sit back and say, well, I want to. That’s neat. There’s always spiritual purposes. There’s spiritual warfare. There’s encouragement. God gives these things for a reason to help his people. You read about what prophesying is. I mean, it’s to encourage the church. Anything else on that?

Tim Conway | James Series Part 10 | James 1:27 – Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

In the family-integrated movement, it is often taught to have no form of children’s Sunday school. Should the whole family be together the entire time on Sunday morning? Is it unbiblical to have a children’s Sunday school? What about the topic of “ragged schools” and outreaches to lost children? As a church, are you willing to reach out to lost kids in rundown neighborhoods and even bring them into the church, risking your kids getting lice from them in order to share the Gospel?

Sixteen years after the death of Mary Ann (mentioned in the preceding sketch), I was summoned to the sick-bed of her sister. She was a younger sister, whom I had never seen since she was a mere child, and of whose religious character I had no knowledge. She had married; and after many trying changes, she was now in the city of New York. A kind lady, one of my own friends who resided in that city, and who had formerly known something of her family in another State, had accidentally heard of her illness, had called upon her, and now did me the favor to bring me the sick woman’s request, that I “would go and see her.” She told me I should find her in a very destitute condition, very much unbefriended and alone, though she had herself done something for her, to make her a little more comfortable. I received this message in the evening, and early the next morning I made my way to the house, to which she had directed me.

I found the sick woman in a boarding-house, among strangers, where nobody knew her except her husband, and manifestly nobody cared for her. She was in the garret, in a little room close under the roof of the house. The scanty furniture and the whole appearance of the room, showed me, at a glance, how unenviable was her condition. There was but one chair in the room, and this was used for a table (the only one she had), on which were placed some vials of medicine, a tea-cup and a saucer, which constituted all the furniture of the room, except her humble bed. But all was neat and clean. If there was scantiness, there was decency.

As I entered the room, I perceived at once her hopeless condition. She was emaciated, pale, tormented with a hollow cough, unable to speak but in a whisper, and her cheek was flushed with that round spot of peculiar red, with which I had become too familiar to mistake it for anything else than the fatal signal. I approached the bed on which she was lying, told her who I was, and offered her my hand.

“I am very happy to see you,” said she (speaking with effort and only in a whisper, and compelled to pause at almost every word). “I did not suppose you would remember me at all, and for a long time I could not have courage to send for you, or let you know that I was here. But I remembered you visited my sister, Mary Ann, when she died, and I had a great desire to see you.”

“I am very glad,” said I, “to be able to see you; but I am sorry to find you so ill. I wish I had known that you were here, sooner.”

“You are very kind, sir; but I was afraid to trouble you. I have not seen you before, since I was a little child; and I supposed you had forgotten, that there was such a person. I am very thankful to you for being so kind as to come to see me.”

“Have you been sick long?”

“Yes sir, a good many months. I have lately been growing much worse, and I want now to get home to my mother, this week, if I can. I think I should be better there for a little while, though I cannot tell.”

“Do you think you are well enough to go home?”

“I hope I could go in the boat and live to get there. The hottest of the summer is coming on soon and our place here is very uncomfortable; but most of all I want to see my mother, once more before I die.” And the big tears rolled fast over her fevered cheeks.

“I hope,” said I, “you may be able to see her; but you do not seem to have much strength just now.”

“Indeed, sir, my strength is all gone. I cannot stand on my feet any longer. Before I became so weak I used to work with my needle and help my husband earn something; and then, we had a more comfortable place. But I can do nothing now and so we came to this garret to save rent.”

“Have you much pain?”

“Yes sir I am in great pain now, the most of the time.”

“Do you expect ever to get well?”

“Oh, no sir, I shall never get well. I know I am to die before long; the consumption is a hopeless disease. This painful cough will soon end my days.”

“Are you afraid to die?”

“Oh, no sir,” said she with a smile, “Jesus is my hope. He will save me.”

“Trust Him,” said I, “you trust eternal rock. He has promised,”

Interrupting me, she replied, “What can anybody want more than the promises? It seems to me the promises are enough for everybody; so sweet they are so full. Why, God has promised to make an everlasting covenant with us poor sinners!” And tears of joy coursed down her smiling face.

I conversed with her as long as I thought it best for her. All her conversation was in the same happy strain. She appeared very much exhausted, and I had little hope that her desire to “see her mother once more,” would ever be gratified. Indeed I did not think she would live till sunset. I prayed with her, and promising to call again in the afternoon, I left her.

Some little arrangements were made for her comfort, and in the afternoon I called there again. She was evidently worse, but her joy was full. Said she, “I bless my God for all my pain for the disappointments of my past life, and the strange strange way in which he has led me on. I have had trials many trials. My husband did not prosper as he hoped to do, and sometimes we have been in distress. But my trials have done me good. Now we have few wants. You know I cannot eat anything now, and I hope his wages will keep him from suffering. I came to this little room when I could not work any longer, on purpose to relieve him. The rent is cheaper here in this little garret, and I want to be as little burdensome to him as possible. I used to think when I first made a profession of religion trials would overcome me; but God makes me happy in them. I find if one is not worldly trials are easy to bear; and if we look towards God and heaven they are nothing at all but mercies.”

“And does your husband feel as you do? Is he a pious man?”

She turned her languid head upon her pillow, glancing around the room, to see if the nurse who had been procured for her, had left the room, and perceiving she was not there, said she: “I suppose I may speak freely to you about my husband, since we are alone. He is not religious, and that is the trouble of my heart.”

She could say no more: she wept and sobbed aloud. After a little time, becoming more composed, evidently struggling to suppress her emotions, she continued, “I must leave that I can’t speak of him. Oh, it seems to me as if the careless, who neglect salvation, have never read God’s promises. If they had and knew what they meant they could not help trusting them. I am happier now than ever I was before. It is sweet to suffer this pain, when Christ puts such delights into my soul.”

She was now stronger than I had expected to find her. I prayed with her, and promising to see her again the next day, I left her.

I was prevented from calling to see her the next morning, as I had intended; and when I called in the afternoon, I perceived her end was very fast approaching. Her countenance was changed, her pulse more feeble and fluttering, her voice was now perfectly restored, and she could speak with strong, clear articulation. She mentioned her recovered voice as an instance of God’s goodness to her, and both she and her husband took it as an evidence that she might live to reach her home. To me it was only an evidence to the contrary. She did not appear to be at all aware how near she was to death, and still entertained the hope of starting the next day, “to go home to her mother.” I felt very reluctant to crush that hope; but I thought she ought to be made acquainted with the prospect before her. She was still very weak and in some pain, and when I mentioned her sufferings to her, and expressed my sorrow that she had so much to endure; her face lighted up with a glad smile: said she, “Oh, it is pleasant to suffer, when we know it is our God that brings us to it. He does not afflict me too much. My poor body is weak and almost gone; but my God fills me with the delights of his love. My heart is full of joy. I am perfectly happy. I shall soon be where Christ is, and love Him forever.”

“I suppose,” said I, “you are aware that you cannot now last but a little while; and are prepared to go, at any moment when God bids.”

“I have no desire, sir, to get well. Why should I have? There is nothing in this world for me. You see we have nothing. I have parted with all my little furniture and my clothes, to get bread and pay our debts; and I don’t want the world; it is nothing to me now, and I leave it willingly. I am happy. God makes me happy. Christ is enough for me. I love to trust God’s promises. I trust Him for all I want, and He makes me very happy. Death seems like nothing to me. It is my friend. I welcome it. Dying is only a step, and then

I shall be at home, at home!” and tears of joy coursed down her smiling face. The last word-home, which she had uttered, seemed to remind her of her earthly home, and she added, “To-morrow, I hope to go home to my mother, and see her and all my other friends once more; perhaps I may.”

“I am afraid not, my dear friend. You are very low, and I wish you to be ready to die at any moment.”

Turning her death-glazed eyes upon me, she asked, “Shall I die to-night? If you think so, tell me plainly. Don’t weep so for me. I thank you for all your kind sympathy; but I am perfectly happy. God fulfils to me all His promises. I leave all in His hands—gladly, joyfully. But I think I can live to get home. You think I shall die to-night. I thank you for letting me know it; and I am ready if God calls. But if I am alive, may I see you in the morning? God will reward you, I know, for all your kindness to me.”

“Yes, my child; you may expect me here in the morning; but if you have anything you wish to say to me, you had better say it now.”

“I have no more to say, but to thank you again. Your kind words have done me great good; and it has been sweet to me, very sweet, to join with you in prayer. Help me to praise God for the delights that fill my soul. Don’t weep so for me.”

I prayed with her, and praised God as she desired, and then bade her farewell. “Do not think I weep because I am sorry,” said she, “I weep because I am overcome with joy. Delights fill my happy soul. This is the dawn of heaven. My heaven is begun. Dying is sweet to me. I go to my blessed Lord. I thank you for coming to me. Farewell, farewell.”

Early the next morning I returned to that privileged garret. It was empty! Even her corpse was not there! She had died about four hours after I left her; her body had been placed in its coffin, conveyed on board the vessel, and on the very day in which she expected to see her “mother once more,” her mother received the lifeless corpse of her child.

It now lies buried in the grave-yard of her native valley. She and Mary Ann sleep side by side. And they shall rise together from the dead, in that coming day when our Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven, ‘to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.’

If grace is there, how instructive, how glorious is

The Death of the Poor

Stranger! however great,

Beneath that beggar’s roof,

That pavement, damp and cold,

No mingling voices sound—

Oh! change—Oh wondrous change—

Oh! change—stupendous change