We are here today to consider the great truth of the Reformation, which is sola scriptura. And I don't want I know all kinds of winds are blowing right now outside this building. In evangelicalism, in the so-called reform movement, there are winds blowing. A storm has arisen. But I'm not worried about that.

I'm not worried about the sin out there. The neglect of scripture out there. I'm worried about the neglect of scripture here. And with you. I don't ever want us to be a group that's inside looking out at the atrocities of others.

But I want us always to be to be looking at our own lives, because I can assure you that many of the people who are taking a different turn in their stances and in their ministries, they do so sincerely, thinking they're doing the right thing. And deception, self-deception was something that the Puritans often spoke about, and with good reason. All of us, to some degree, are deceived with regard to our own spirituality, our own adherence to the word. And every once in a while, at least in my life and other men I've talked to, we have these kind of bursts of insight into ourself and we see. I'm not even what I thought I was.

Those are painful, but they're also extremely healthy. They're absolutely necessary. Let's be honest. For the last 15, 20 years, there's been something of a, at least a lot of noise in America about the Reformation. A lot of Young people who I believe have sincerely sought to embrace it.

Many, many people have come to appreciate the doctrines of the Reformation. And I greatly applaud that. But I always kind of wondered why my older brethren, men who were reformed before it was cool, both here in the United States and especially in the United Kingdom. I always wondered why they looked at this movement in which I saw so much promise. They looked at it with a raised eyebrow, even sometimes with cynicism.

And now I understand why. As I'm going to maybe say over and over in this sermon, You are not reformed because you hold to some Calvinistic view of soteriology. That does not make you reformed. In fact, the Reformation was not about Calvinistic soteriology. That came out of the greater doctrine of the Reformation, which is sola scriptura.

To have an intellectual grasp and to be able to set yourself within the group of the Reformers by confession is a very easy thing. But to be truly Reformed is simply to be biblical. To desire to understand the simple commands, wisdom, precepts, history of the Scriptures, and apply them not just to your doctrine of soteriology when you're sitting around a table with other men at a conference, But to apply those truths to every aspect of your being, of your life, that is the Reformation. And that is why I've said many times, and angered people in saying it, I am thoroughly Calvinistic in my soteriology, but I have often said this to so-called Reformed brethren. I know Arminians who are far more Reformed than you are.

Because although I do not agree with their doctrine of what God did in eternity. I can see in their family life, in their devotion, in their piety, and other things, much more of the Reformation than I see in you. Do you see? That's what we want to get back to. The reformers didn't call themselves reformers.

They simply wanted to be biblical. You see, you can attach that label to yourself and not be biblical. And so that is our goal, But particularly here today, I want to talk about sola scriptura and the church. Now, I want you to look, first of all, at how the church is described. And this is very, very important.

And the purpose of this is so that you will fear. One of the things I'm always praying in our staff meetings and one of the things I pray quite frequently for myself is, Lord, increase your fear, the fear of you in me. After all, that is the beginning of wisdom, isn't it? We need to learn to fear God, especially with those things that are most precious to Him. So, when we look at verse 15, we see a description of the church.

It is the household of God. It belongs to God. It's His house. I want to just clarify that a little more with a passage from the book of Acts. Just listen.

Paul told the elders in Ephesus, Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with His own blood. Now there's two things here. There is ownership, and then how that ownership was required. Both of those things ought to cause immense holy fear in us. It's God's house.

And how did he acquire this house? With the blood of his own son. This should tell each and every one of you as ministers of the church, do not touch. Be very, very careful. Let me put it in a modern day vernacular.

My house, my rules. My house, my rules. That's the way it is in my home. If you came into my home, I would hope to practice biblical hospitality. I would hope to be kind to you.

And I would hope to act graciously, even if we discussed things we disagreed. Or even if I saw you do things that were out of place in my home, I would seek to be very gracious to you. But if all of a sudden you begin telling my wife what to do, and telling my children what to do, I would square you off quickly. I might even put my hand on you and put you against a wall and say, listen to me, and listen very carefully, my house, my rules. You have now entered into a place where you do not belong, and if you do not cease, I will deal with you.

Do you think in those kinds of terms, when you think about pastoring God's people, when you think about ordering His church, And I want you to think about something. Not only does household of God mean ownership, it means intimacy. This is his bride. Many times in Peru, after I was married, I would have to travel into deep jungle or mountains where it was a red zone, where the Maoists were active, or you had to be worried about corrupt police or corrupt military men. So there were Many times we'd go into the jungle and it wasn't a very dangerous area, I'd take my wife.

Now my wife is stronger and bolder than most men. Can handle adversity better than most men today. But there were places when I had to go into the jungle where I would say, you'll not go this time. Why is that? Well, because if they pull me off the bus like they've done it before, scream in my face, push me around, throw me against the bus, search me and do all kinds of things to me, it's just another day.

But if one of them lays their finger on you, that changes everything. Now if I being evil, if I being unlike our Lord in compassion and love and zeal in so many ways. How much more does God, does Christ love His church with a phenomenal, even terrifying zeal? Now in order to bring this home, I want to give you an illustration. Imagine that you're a steward of a king, and that king has a wife, and he loves his wife More than all.

More than all he possesses. More than himself. He has imparted himself to her. But he has to go on a long journey. And so he tells you, he gives you the greatest honor that could possibly be given a man.

He says, I want you to be steward of my wife. And then he sets out a royal decree. I mean it is written precept upon precept. One, two, three. What you shall do and shall not do with my wife.

And then at the bottom it says, be very, very careful. Only what is written. Only what is written. He goes on a long journey. And after a while, you begin to notice that many of the subjects are no longer enamored with the Queen.

I mean, after all, she seems a bit old-fashioned, and she's rather plain. And well, the world has changed. It's different ideas of beauty. And so you become clever. You're going to save the king's kingdom.

You're going to do a work for him because obviously he doesn't know what's going on. So here's what you're going to do. You take off that beautiful white gown that she was wearing, plain, simple, and yet elegant. Beautiful in its own right. You take that off of her, and you dress her with the wardrobe of a whore.

You paint her face, and you give her extravagant hair, and then you do this. You parade her in front of sensual men, seeking to draw those sensual men back into the kingdom. When the king returns, what will he do with you? He will kill you. I want to submit to you that that's what the great majority of pastors in evangelicalism are doing today, and I will not back up on it at all.

I have not been extreme. I have not been overly emotional. It is a fact. It is a fact. And then I think about the pagan, hey guy who took care of Esther.

How careful he was. What did he do with her? All he could, he had a unique and careful knowledge of what the king desired. What did the king want in a woman? And he worked with Esther.

To do what? To modify? To be clever? To be shrewd? He had his finger on the pulse of the people, and therefore he made Esther conform to what they would want.

This is a king. You see, we understand nothing about authority. For us today, it's all about the voice of the people. The voice of the people. When you have a real king, the voice of the people means nothing.

And that pagan steward knew more than most pastors. The only one I have to please here is the king. If I do, reward. If I do, not my head rolls. My head rolls.

Now listen to what Paul said. In 2 Corinthians 11, he says, "...For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin." That's your job. It is a difficult job, but it is carried out, I can assure you, in far more simplicity than most of those ministerial books will tell you. Now, don't be afraid, sir, Don't be afraid for the secular man on the day of judgment. Don't be afraid for the atheist and the agnostic on the day of judgment.

I'll tell you for whom you should be afraid. Every man who has dared call himself a minister of the church. Be afraid for yourself. Now he goes on and he says this, he says in verse 15, not only the household of God, but he says the church of the living God. Now, I want to read to you Jeremiah 10.10.

The true God, He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earthquakes and the nations cannot endure His indignation. Now, why did I read that? Because you have there in Jeremiah something very important in the prophets. Go through the Old Testament and look at every time living is a modifier of God.

You say, oh yes, He's the living God as opposed to dead, worthless idols. No, you're missing the point. There's something more. Whenever it seems that the prophet is in the mode of announcing judgment, He uses the word living. And Paul is adopting this for both reasons.

Because there was the religion of Ephesus, if you've ever been to that city, and I have, you'll find out that even now you can see that it was an extremely religious center with Princess Diana and all these different things, the goddess Diana. So he was definitely combating the idea of bringing paganism into the church, that's true. But he was also seeking to warn with this idea of living God. He's the God who acts. He's the God who judges.

Do you see how serious this is? Should you not every morning be praying, Oh God, increase my fear of Thee. Oh Lord, it is the best way to avoid being stupid. The fear of the Lord is the greatest wall of protection against stupidity and arrogance. Now, I want you to hold your place, and I want you to go there.

I want you to hold your place in 1 Timothy, and I want to give you an idea of what I mean with regard to the fear of the Lord in Hebrews eight, five. Look there for just a moment. This is obviously taken from Exodus 25, but it is so powerful. It is so powerful. In verse 5 it says of chapter 8 of Hebrews, who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned." Now look at this, Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle.

For see, he says. Now, this is kind of like a truly, truly. This is kind of like a thus saith the Lord. Everything that God said in the Old Testament is thus saith the Lord, but sometimes it is preceded with the words, or introduced by the words, thus saith the Lord. It's saying, pay careful attention.

Here, behold, see, perceive, give this great attention, he says, that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain. Now this is with regard to the tabernacle. Moses had no right to deviate from the pattern in any degree, brethren. Everything had to be exact. And this is one of the reasons why I believe in the Old Testament, when we're dealing with things like tabernacles and temples and arcs and everything, all the utensils, Why there is so much emphasis placed on exactitude of measurement.

It's not so that we just spend our lives studying these measurements and trying to figure out what things look like. For us, for whom the end of all the ages have come, it is to show us something, that we are to order the church of the living God with the most exact detail. That we are to be careful not to take away from or add to. It is only required of you to do what you're commanded. Nothing more and nothing less.

No invention required of you. No strategy. You do not have to be a mover and a shaker. You do not have to be an inventor. You do not have to be clever.

You only have to know what the plain and simple Scripture dictates and obey it. That's it. And this mentality is so far removed from the so-called young or reformed and restless, and even some of you old, reform and restless guys. This whole idea is a foreign concept. We must get back to it.

Now, I want you to look now at the character of the church. And let's go back to the first Timothy. He says. The pillar and support of the truth. When the world uses language that it learned from the church, Praise God, if it uses that language correctly.

But if the church uses the language of the world, what a state we are in. We are at this moment, anti-Christ. Anti-biblical and lost. D. Edmund Hebert, he writes this, this reminds us that the church holds up and supports the truth before the world and maintains the truth in opposition to all attacks upon it.

We are all about truth. Our rallying point is truth. One of the things I most have to combat in missions is this. Missions is our rallying point. Missions is our banner.

No it's not. And if it becomes that, you've destroyed the Great Commission. Truth is our rallying point. The fundamentals of the faith are our rallying point. And this is my argument that I always make with so-called mission experts.

I go, look, to diminish, first of all, go through Scripture, establish that the Great Commission is a theological endeavor. It is about the communication of truth. It is a theological endeavor. So to undermine theology, or to put theology to one side, in order to carry out a theological endeavor is suicide. It's irrational, it's an absurdity, it's a contradiction.

The church is about truth. So to lay aside truth in order to build the church is an absurdity. It's an absolute absurdity. We must always do the truth and we must always do what is right. I'll never forget years and years ago, I was called into a situation where a large church was just going, I mean it was about to implode, things going on with men involved, and they were angry, violent, intimidating.

I was a young man. I led the elders to do a certain thing. I got called by a lawyer, Benny Hinn's lawyer. It wasn't Benny Hinn at this time. But a lawyer who worked for Benny Hinn threatened me with a lawsuit for what I was doing.

And I called a man who's mentored me for years, and I said, look, brother, If I do this, this is going to happen. And if I do this, this is going to happen. What do I do?" And he said, Paul, you're already wrong. And I said, what do you mean? He goes, it doesn't matter if this happens, and it doesn't matter if this happens.

The only thing you're supposed to do is what is right. What a lesson that was. Because the deception of saying, well, you know, I've got to somehow go beyond God's wisdom and work out a solution to this problem. No, you don't. You have the responsibility to conform your character to that of Christ, and you have the responsibility to carry out your duties as a minister according to the Scriptures, and if that lands you in a lawsuit in the loss of your home, so be it.

If that leads to the division of the church, so be it. But you must do the right thing. Do you see that? So very important. Now Calvin, he says this about the church, she is called the pillar of truth because the office of administering doctrine, which God has placed in her hands, is the only instrument of preserving the truth, that it may not perish from the remembrance of men.

This is why Calvin is not only the greatest theologian, but in my opinion, the greatest commentary writer. If we don't preserve the truth, who? Who's going to do it? CNN? Fox News?

Who is going to speak truth to the world? And I'm not speaking harshly to either one of those groups. It's just not what they're called to do. Even if they were pure in their honesty, they cannot give truth to the world that has been given to the church to administrate. They simply cannot.

It's our job! It is our job, men! If not you, who? Who? Who's left?

Who's left? Who? Who's left? Who's left? Sometimes when I see political commentators on either side, Stand up and say what they believe while literally getting torn apart.

I think how weak and effeminate are the supposed men of God today. Never forget, the eternal problem of Deborah is not a problem at all. She was raised up by God as a rebuke to men. Where are our voices? I have to be very, very careful because I love to study, and I love to write, and I love to read.

And I've written thousands of pages, no one will ever see probably. About a year and a half ago I realized that part of this desire of mine is to sort of cloister myself in a room and be protected. Because to study the truth and write about the truth in a way that no one will see it, maybe, you just enjoy it, is an easy way to stay out of a most painful battle. We cannot do that. And men, again, you do not have to look for a battle.

You do not have to go on the internet for a fight. Just do what you're supposed to do, be what you're supposed to be, and preach what you're supposed to preach. The battle will come to you. The truth has been entrusted, the church has been entrusted with the greatest truth of Scripture, with the greatest truth of human history, that we go down in verse 16 and we find out what that is, the gospel. Men, listen to me.

If you have been gifted to know Scripture, You seem to have an inclination to study and understand. How can you devote yourself to any other thing? What is the great ailment of the world today, and the great ailment of the church? A lack of truth? And a lack of men who will clearly proclaim it?

What is the great need of the hour? That is always the great need of the hour. And I've tried to look back, You know, I look back in history and I realize that there are movements, there are providences of God, special providences. I realize that Calvin or any, Flaval, anyone could write a paragraph in maybe five minutes that I couldn't write in five days. I realize that.

But I also think that it's not just providence. We can't just blame our ignorance on the sovereignty of God giving grace to certain men and not to us. The fact is, that's all they did. Was either have truth entering in them through study, or communicating truth to others through preaching and counseling. And their pastoral visits wasn't talking about the weather or fishing.

Their pastoral visits were Scripture. Everything was Scripture. They lived, they breathed Scripture. And I would assume that although we're not gifted with maybe the mind of Laval or Calvin or the memory of Spurgeon and so on and so forth, that if we would adopt their practices, we would at least move toward them. To pray and study and pray and study so that when you stand before a group of men and open up your mouth, God's Word comes out.

Now, we've been entrusted with the truth, and we must speak the truth to our culture. That means, also, you must speak the truth in your church. Because of decades and decades of a lack of seeking a converted membership, because of decades and decades of a failure to practice biblical, compassionate church discipline. The culture is in most congregations. And it will not be weeded out by you declaring war next Sunday.

It will be weeding out by doing what the greatest did. Calvin's chased out, three years later Calvin comes back, and Calvin takes the very next passage he was going to preach three years ago. But it's preaching the Word of God. Now let me share something with you. Why most of this so-called reform movement now no longer exists.

In a matter of three or four months, it has dissipated into nothing, so that the only guys that are left are the ones that were here before it was cool. And our brothers in the United Kingdom are basically many of them, nodding their head and saying, we told you so. Do you want to know why? Because You look more like Roman Catholic priests than you look like Reformers. What is the difference between the Reformation and Roman Catholicism?

Well, there are many. One is Christ, the other is Antichrist. But let's be more specific. As Rome went out into the world, what did it do? It sought to take the gospel, the scriptures, and everything, and conform those teachings to the paganism around them.

To adopt, to make it easier for someone to believe, make it easier for someone to understand. That is exactly what the church growth movement today is doing. That is exactly what all these silly mission methodologies and strategies are doing. The very same thing. It is spirit of the antichrist, if it is anything.

And that's not an exaggeration. Why was European culture transformed in the days of the Reformation? Because they made culture bow to Scripture instead of Scripture bowing to culture. That's why. That's why.

Someone told me one time, a so-called mission expert, he said, you're just trying to take Western principles and force them on cultures. I said, no I'm not. I would never want cultures to paint themselves blue and run around naked and eat one another. And they said, what are you talking about? I said, the dynasties, the Chinese dynasties in the east, even India, were far more sophisticated than most of Europe throughout human history.

I mean, our ancestors were running around with axes, chopping each other apart, painting themselves blue, dancing around fires to some pagan ram god. What changed it? What brought about the music and the literature, the literacy, Scripture, economics, Scripture, Scripture, Scripture, Scripture. But don't get me wrong, they weren't a group of men who were going to people, teaching them the principles of law, and teaching them the principles of economics and teaching them principles of culture. They weren't doing like a big part of the homeschooling movement tried to do.

They're not doing that. They're preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God is regenerating hearts, and then they're coming with Scripture and teaching Scripture. This is a supernatural recreating work. God is creating a new world, and it begins with an individual at regeneration, in which they move out of that sphere of Adam into that sphere of Christ. In the New Testament, in the English, it says, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, creation.

But many of those words are added, they're not there in the Greek. It's much bigger, much bigger in the Greek. If anyone in Christ knew creation, it doesn't just mean the Western individualistic idea that if someone believes in Christ, they ontologically change and become a new creature. What Paul is teaching, he's teaching that, but he's teaching something far bigger. When you are in Christ, you enter into this new realm of creation.

The new created order. Where there's no longer Jew or Greek or Scythian, barbarian. You're entering into what's the beginning of the new creation. And you're to live that way. Do you see that?

And so the church must know, we are called upon, not to be cultural warriors, We're called upon to be heralds of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and then teach the full counsel of God. I've got this in different pieces from different people. I can't claim it. I did, I suppose, refine it a little, I don't know. But the difference between the preacher and the teacher.

Imagine a group of slaves over here. And this has been used by different men. This illustration, I can't give a name to who invented this because I've heard so many men say it. But imagine a group of people in bondage, in slavery. And they have no idea that a king just fought a great war to liberate them.

And there they are in bondage and slavery. And all of a sudden they see this mighty steed. Aye, this just broad-chested stallion coming across the glade with a rider on it, crying out in a powerful voice. He's proclaiming, he's preaching, he's heralding, the King has won, the King has won, The king has won. You are liberated, you are liberated, you are liberated!

And everyone rejoices. And then a few minutes later you see a little speck coming over the hill. It's a little, kind of a little burro, a little donkey. A little wiry man sitting on top with spectacles and books and a writing kit. And he comes up and he says, Now, the good news has been heralded unto thee.

Now you have need of me, the Teacher. I'm going to explain to you what this emancipation means, how you enter into it, how it must change your life. I'm going to take you detail to detail what it means for the King to have won the battle. Who is He? I'll tell you.

What is His will in this new kingdom? I will inform you. In a way, both those things ought to be found in all of us, But we also have to admit that some men are more given to one, and some men are more given to another, and both are greatly needed. That's what we do to change culture. Now, Here's a very important question.

Hold your place in in First Timothy and just go over for a second to First Corinthians three. And after I read something, I'm going to ask you a very important question. Chapter 3 Verse 11, For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident. For the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire.

And the fire itself will test the quality of each man's works. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but He himself will be saved. It is so through fire. I have yet to meet an exegete, or read one, who can fully explain this passage to me.

Especially in light of the wide entrance we will all receive through the grace of Christ. I don't know how it works, but like so many other doctrines, the Trinity for example, I must simply hold on to the truths that are put before me and affirm them, even though I cannot enter into their midst and explain them. I am a Calvinist, so I suppose grace is a very big thing for me. And I know that if I die right now, I will go to heaven for one reason, Jesus Christ gave His life for sinners. That is all.

That is all. And every entrance, every crack in the door is because of grace. And yet, I also realize I will stand before God and I will give an account, and some things in my life will be lost. I also know according to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, that things about me will be revealed. I also know that the great apostle Paul said, knowing the fear of the Lord.

Many people take that passage wrong, thinking that Paul is saying, knowing that these lost men are going to be judged, I'm going to preach the truth to them. That's not what he's saying. He's saying, knowing I'm going to be judged, I'm going to preach the truth to them. Even if they think I'm out of my mind. Now here's a question.

If a man tarries over Scripture and spends any time at all in the night watch. My question is, how could he ever sleep? In light of these kinds of passages, if you take them seriously, and you must, How can we rest? How can our conscience be quiet? You say, through the blood of Christ, yes, I understand.

But I'm going a little beyond that. How can we know that what we're doing will remain? How can we do it? You know, so many people we can look around and so clearly see that so many people are deceived. They have 20, 000 people in their congregation.

They think because of that, that's an affirmation of God. And on the day of judgment, they'll stand there with the great ones. But we know better than that. But we also realize they look at their own lives and are deceived. How deceived are we?

How can we know? I'll give you two words. Regulative principle. And what does that mean? That we are going to do in the church, but not just the church, our own private lives, every aspect of those private lives, We are going to give ourselves to only that which is clearly taught in precept, in command, in illustration, demonstrated in history.

Those are the things we are going to do. And we are not going to turn away from what we know to be true, nor are we going to add to it. My dear friend, If a man truly has read his Bible correctly, he would be terrified to stray from the Regulative Principle. Now, here's the argument that I'm always faced with whenever I bring up the Regulative Principle. Yeah, yeah, I hear all about that regulative principle, but if you, you know, you're a reformed Baptist, you and the Presbyterians and a few of you other guys throw in some independence, who are always talking about the regulative principle, if you guys all get in a room, you won't agree either on some things.

That's true. But if I have to make my choice, I would rather be with a group of men who are striving with all their heart to do what they believe God commands in the fear of the Lord. And I would rather be there with those men who differ with me, but fear God as I do, to both teach them and instruct them in what I believe to be true, but also to open my ears and hear them when they point out the holes in my armor. If I've got to put myself in a group, I know that group is not perfect, but if they're living in the fear of the Lord and seeking with all their heart to know what God has commanded, and they're striving to do it in good conscience to the best of their ability, I can sleep at night in a group like that. But those who flagrantly take, I don't know what you would call it, an undefined gospel, and an undefined order for the church, and fill it full of their inventions, and then be applauded for the books they've written because their churches are so large, I don't want to be in that group.

I don't want to be in that group. Now, I want to go back to something, and that is, just because you have adopted some sort of Reformed soteriology does not mean you are a son of the Reformation. That is very, very important. Let me ask you a few questions. Are you reformed in the gospel that you preach?

No, brothers, don't assume you are, because I have gone into so many churches. I visit a lot of churches, and I'll go look at the pastor's library, and John Calvin is sitting on the desk. I'll go look in the church's library, see Puritans and everything, and I will hear in that church them dealing with souls worse than, just in the most superficial, unbiblical, unreformed manner. So just because you have all the books, and you can sit around and argue about certain details of salvation, doesn't mean that your gospel is reformed. I have heard reformed guys preach a gospel that was so pathetic.

Or it was right doctrinally, but it was just a lecture. I agree with Peter Masters. I totally and completely agree with Peter Masters, as though it mattered, but I do. In that he said, if you are not passionately calling men to repentance and faith, you have not preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you're just informing people about what the Gospel is and walking off the platform, you're not preaching.

I totally and completely agree. Is the Gospel you preach, is it biblical? Is the way you deal with souls biblical? One of the things that I consider my greatest privilege here, I work with students. I go on both campuses to do evangelism.

And Just the other day, I had all kinds of problems to solve at HeartCry, but there was this little tiny girl, she looked like a precious moment, and she doesn't know if she's saved, and she's heard the gospel through our church's ministry on campus. Missionaries, everybody got laid aside, three hours with that girl, sitting out there in our public table, dealing with her soul. And what's sad is I know that many so-called young Reformed guys would have already had her with full assurance after praying a prayer, instead of actually dealing with her soul. Like we would see in Ichabod Spencer's pastoral sketches, or in many books about ministry. Is your gospel reformed?

Is your counseling of souls? You're dealing with souls. Is it reformed? Is it biblical? Now let's ask another question.

Is your prayer life reformed? Is your devotional life reformed? You can talk about David Brainerd. But is there a fellowship with Him? Is our study reformed?

Are we men of study? In Peru, they would call my wife La Carubina, the cherub. And it wasn't flattery. They called her the seraphim. They made up all kinds of names about my wife.

One pastor said, when I come at 9 o'clock unannounced to visit you, there's your wife in the door with a flaming sword, and her head turns this way and this way. How many times I've said, I need to see brother Paul? She said, oh wonderful, come back at 12. No, I have to. Two questions.

Has someone died? No. Has Jesus returned? No. Then you're not going to see Paul.

Why? He's studying. He's studying. You see that? And is your prayer life reformed?

Those nights you can't sleep? Is there a night watch? I live in the woods and I open up this window to pull the shades back, and I just love just there kneeling and looking out that window, thinking about Him. Just talking, communing. It's talking, communing.

Devotional life. J.C. Ryle, Goodwin, Robert Murray McShane, David Brainerd. It's not enough to read them or applaud them. They're calling us to join them.

Our character is our character reforms. There is a reason why there are non-negotiable character qualifications in the calling of an elder and the calling of a deacon. Let me ask you a question. Do you meditate on the law? There he goes again, that legalist.

I'm sorry, I just don't find anything except wonder in the law, because my Lord has satisfied its demands with regard to me. It's my friend now. The law, do you meditate on the law? Do you meditate on the beatitudes? The fruit of the Spirit being conformed to the character of Christ, cultivating the mind of Christ.

And then quickly, let's go on, our homes. Are we seeking to be reformed in our homes? And again, I'm just using that word as a synonym for biblical. Are we seeking to apply the Scriptures in our home? He's I.H.

Marshall. I was studying the other day, dealing with the passage, Jesus said, no greater love than to lay down one's life. I was just struck to the heart at something that Marshall said. Love is laying down our life in every aspect that it can be laid down, that others might live. And immediately, my mind raced to my wife, and I thought, how selfish, self-centered, ambitious I am.

Idolatry of unmet expectations. Paying her for when she doesn't live up to my expectations. You see what I'm saying? So in the home, it's not just ordering things properly. It's us being like Christ.

I had to teach in Samara on the family. Twenty-one sermons in like four days in Samara, Russia. I got to sermon 18, and one of the Russian brothers came up to me and said, Brother Paul, I have a question. I said, what? He goes, you're going to preach sermon 18 now?

Yes. On marriage is the whole theme, right? Yes. You haven't talked about marriage one time. When are we going to get to marriage?

And I said, brother, what have I talked about this whole time? The necessity of being full of the Holy Spirit and bearing the fruit of the Spirit. Yes. Now, brother, let me share with you something. Now, don't tell other people because you're going to ruin my whole plan here.

If a man knows every biblical principle about marriage and family, and follows them to the letter, but he's not bearing the fruit of the Spirit, his family will be a disaster. But a man who knows almost nothing about marriage, or children, or family, but his whole life is marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, he's going to do alright. Now that doesn't mean we shouldn't learn all the principles, but I think you're getting my point. So when I talk about reform, I was reading a book just recently about there was a correspondence between a captain, I suppose in the army, Puritan kind of captain, and his wife, and just looking at the tenderness and the respect that he showed her. So see, it's not just about the principles, guys.

It's about the character. And in the power of the Holy Spirit cultivating the mind of Christ, we can reflect that character. Let me give you a great story. I have a friend, David Zadok, in Tel Aviv, Israel. He's a pastor, a Reformed Baptist pastor.

Just a wonderful, wonderful man. I just love him so dearly. And his daughter, of course, is in the army. She has to be. It's by law.

You have to be in the army. In the army, she teaches language. She teaches English and Hebrew and things like that for two years or whatever. And she's with all these unbelievers. And she witnesses to them and things like that and God's really used her.

But the point is, she had this one student that was with her for a long time and was not Christian at all or anything. But the student, on the last day I think of class, or right after class, wanted to do something, she thought, in appreciation to David's daughter because she'd been such a good teacher. And so she went online and she looked for something, some sort of thing she thought would describe everything she saw. Now this girl doesn't know the Bible, never read the Bible, never read the New Testament, nothing. Okay?

And so she's looking all around and she found this one thing and she thought, Man! That's my teacher! I mean that's my teacher! And sent it to her. It was the fruit of the Spirit out of Galatians.

My, what an honor. What a beautiful, beautiful honor. Now, lastly, And I have many other things, but this is the last we're going to look at. Our pastoral ministry, is it reformed? Is it biblical?

Brethren, how do I describe a pastoral ministry? There's a sense of expertise. But I think if I were to write a book, it would be the art of pastoring. Because it is so Beautiful. And because art requires expertise, it requires everything.

It kind of takes it all in. Brethren, there never has been a famous pastor. Do you realize that? You say, well, Charles Spurgeon, was he famous for pastoring or for preaching? Martyn Lloyd-Jones, was he famous for pastoring or preaching?

Now I believe both of them were dedicated pastors, but they didn't get famous that way. We live in a world where people think their ministry is affirmed when they become famous, when they preach on a big platform. That is a lie straight out of the pit of hell. The most important person on the planet is not the evangelist, not the missionary, not the conference speaker, not the seminary professor, the most important person on the planet, the one who is in a position to effect the most change for the kingdom of heaven, is the pastor. And it's not necessarily a pastor of a mega church.

I believe that sometimes, in the case of men like Spurgeon, Martin Lloyd-Jones, I believe that John MacArthur is an example, in which because of what they preach, because of the time in which they live, God will build, there will be a large community around them. And I don't have a problem with that at all. But that is not the norm. The New Testament norm is a few elders who literally give their life away for the flock, who visit the flock. They know their names.

I know that sounds unbelievable, But they know the names of the people in their church. They preach to them. They counsel them. They visit them in the home. They are true pastors.

And I would Really, really, I would encourage you. Let me see, I think... There's a list. Let me just look. Charles Bridges.

His work. There's Baxters, reformed pastor. There's so many other good things that are written that are old. And they were written at a time when pastors were the most esteemed people in the church. You see, I want you, if you're a pastor, to strive to learn how to be a pastor.

And to realize that one day there's going to be a big flip-flop. I made it a point years ago to do this, that when I was working in the jungle or the mountains, I would have little saints that couldn't even read, no teeth, come up to me and want to tell me something about the Bible, or correct me in a sermon, or just needed my help. And I always made it. I made a decision long ago based upon Scripture that when that happened, I would leave the big important people, the other missionaries, everybody, and I'd give all my attention to this person, because this is where I am being tested by Christ. This is where the quality of myself as a minister of Christ in the church is going to be demonstrated.

Will I listen to the rebuke of this person who doesn't even know Scripture and has just taken one out of context? Will I lovingly stand there for hours? Will I listen? Will I talk? Will I go visit?

Will I nurture? Will I do these types of things to the least of them? I have heard men say over and over, I love the church, I love the church, I love the church, I love the church. You want to know if you love the church? How much do you love the least important, most problematic person in the church?

That's how much you love the church. Maybe you don't love the church, maybe you love your ministry. You say, alright, well we've gone a little bit longer than we should have gone. I think we'll take a few minute break and then we'll come back and talk about prayer. God bless.