Good afternoon, brothers. It's such a blessing to hear my brothers exhort this afternoon. And do remember there is but one preacher, and that is the Holy Spirit of God. And the rest of us are vessels God uses in various capacities and different ways. And we share gifts in different ways as well.

Some of us perhaps a little bit more emphatic than others. Some of us have maybe a smoother presentation than others. But if there's anything I have learned, my brothers, is that we are not to despise prophesying. God has opened my eyes very much in the last year to, as one who himself has exhorted much and preached much around the country, I must be open to the humblest preacher who comes into my sphere and points out some important truth that the Spirit of God would direct my attention to. So despite not prophesying, I think one of the reasons why we have been so weakened in this country is that we have quenched the Spirit and have not respected the prophesying and the exhortations that God has given to us.

So our responsibility, the Spirit of God will preach, will point to, and will declare and glorify the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But our responsibility ourselves is to point to Jesus as well. Some perhaps may point in a better way than others or in a more unique way than others, but we are all those who point to Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God sees to it that he is glorified. That's his ministry. So wherever Christ is glorified, wherever he is worshiped, wherever he is magnified, wherever he is central in the hearts of God's people, you can know that the Spirit of God is active in the midst.

So I am appreciative of the diversity of gifts that God has given to his kingdom and I encourage you all to receive these gifts as well today. When it comes to the realness that our brother Jeff was exhorting us to. I believe, my brothers, that realness has to do with our spiritual sense as well. It has to do with our understanding of the spiritual warfare with which we are engaged. Those who live in the physical realm and those who live in the escape realm are those who miss the battle.

They don't understand what's going on. And those who are coveting others for their involvement in the battle or for their use in the spiritual battle, don't understand the spiritual battle either because we are in spiritual warfare, my brothers, we're not playing games. We are up against a real devil And he is really, really strong. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and against powers. We're not playing games here.

We are up against spiritual forces that are mortars of magnitude larger than we are. And if we understand that it is a bloody battle, it's a spiritual battle, we are engaging against a world, a flesh and a devil, that without the aid of Christ, without the realness of Christ in us working through us, without us believing in, trusting in our eye focused upon the real Christ, brothers, we will be destroyed by these enemies. So we are taken into a battle that is larger than us. And we will suffer in this battle. We will go through much suffering between here and heaven.

And it is important for us as leaders especially to know that we are in this great battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. And it doesn't make any sense whatsoever to turn to a brother who is in the midst of all of it, and he is taking the blows, and he is engaged against this gigantic enemy of the devil himself, and say, I covet your place. I covet your suffering. I covet your warfare. I covet your wounds.

I I don't think that makes it any sense at all we all have a place to to play in this this warfare and and God has given us different capacities in which to engage it. We will all carry different wounds, we will all suffer in different ways, but it makes no sense whatsoever for us to covet each other's position in this battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. Now I take your attention to Revelation chapter 3. I'd like to read just a couple of verses here. These passages, I do believe, apply very much so to the American church today, and I'd like to read from Revelation chapter 3, verses 1 and 2.

"'Unto the angel of the church in Sardis write, these things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know thy works that thou hast a name that thou livest and are dead. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die, for I have not found Thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how Thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent, if therefore Thou shalt not watch, I will come on Thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy he that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white raiment and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the church's spirit saith unto the churches.

Amen." Brothers, we are in a great apostasy in this country, not unlike the apostasy that Jews were experiencing in the first generation of Christians between AD 40 or AD 30 and AD 70. I think that's probably in history the most appropriate comparison to what's happening in England, Canada, and most of the western world since the 19th century. We're going through a significant apostasy, and yes, church attendance is fairly high in America, much like what it was in the 1920s in England, but we're going to, I think, experience what's happened in England here in America over the next 20 to 30 years. So it's important for us to know that this country is in full-fledged apostasy against God, and much of the lessons that we can take from the first century, certainly from the Acts of the Apostles all the way through the Epistles, the book of Hebrews and the book of Revelation we can apply to our own situation as well. So as we think about this apostasy, brothers, I think we can draw in from what the Lord Jesus Christ says to the churches in chapters 2 and chapter 3.

The book of… the leopard letter to the people, the church at Ephesus speaks to A church that is much like the Reformed church today in America, a church that is concerned about the deeds of the Nicolaitans. We have no idea what the deeds of the Nicolaitans was, but I don't think it's important for our purposes. I think it was the deeds of the antinomians, the deeds of the Armenians, the deeds of those who take something of a heterodoxy to the teaching within the church. And the church at Ephesus, the Reformed church, is very good at taking down the enemy, but not so good at loving the brethren. That's the challenge.

We have left our first love. There's not enough love of the brethren within the reformed denominations, within those serious denominations left in America that are still taking the Word of God seriously and bringing the Word of God to bear in the area of doctrine. So the loss of love is something that I think brings a strong exhortation to the Reformed church today. Also, the church at Sardis is a church that I think very well reflects the evangelical church in America. The evangelical church served as a halfway house for something of a reformed orthodoxy in the 1930s and 1940s, but it is dying or it is dead.

It is about to die. Perhaps there is something left in the Evangelical Church today, but still there is much that is dying and much that will be dead in the next several decades. The fall of many of these leaders that we've talked about, we've heard about over the last several years, I think ties into the dying of the evangelical church in America. And that is what is happening today across this country. Now what can we take from this?

But the advice that our Lord leaves with the church at Sardis in Asia Minor in the first century, and that is brothers and sisters, or brothers today, let us strengthen the things that remain. This is so essential. This is such an important message. This is a message that we, as our ministries and our varying churches, need to focus upon. This is not the time to weaken.

This is not the time to compromise the message in any way. This is the time to strengthen the doctrine. If there's any temptation at all to back away from the message or water down the message in any way, friends, it's time to strengthen it. This is the time to continue to ratchet up the teaching of the Word of God. Let's bring it out in more seriousness.

Don't be ashamed of bringing out a message that might extend past 60 minutes on a Sunday morning. There's something to be said, and we need to say it. Let's say it. There's a lot to be said. There's much watchfulness I would draw you to.

I would exhort you, encourage you to much watchfulness because there is so much that is dying. There is so much heterodoxy. There is so much that is breaking down within the church. And if you have to hang around and preach for an extra hour or an hour and a half to address some of the weaknesses within the evangelical church or within your church community, go ahead and preach the Word of God. Strengthen the things that remain.

We need stronger preaching. We need stronger distinction between the thesis and antithesis. This is the time to draw up the battle lines between that which is of Christ and that which is opposed to Christ. And that includes the area of education. And I know I've addressed this before many times in these conferences.

But we are losing many of our young people. We have lost many of our young people. Ever since John Dewey and G. Stanley Hall and others went to the liberal seminaries in the 19th century and became the greatest apostates of the age and set the Western world towards the direction of apostasy, brothers. The same thing is happening today in our K-12 classical schools.

The same thing is happening in our home schools. The same thing is happening in our Christian colleges. When Ken Ham did his analysis on Christian colleges and found that twice as many liberal arts professors in Christian colleges believe in old earth evolution versus the science department heads, it wasn't because the liberal arts professors know more about science than the liberal arts department. It's because the liberal arts department is liberal, and they've proven themselves to be liberal. Generation after generation, these Christian colleges are preparing the next generation of liberal preachers.

The next generation of those who will be the next leaders in politics, in church, in state, even in families, in education, always guaranteeing that the next generation will apostatize at a higher percentage than the previous one and the Christian colleges I'm talking Harvard College talking Princeton I'm talking to Wheaton College these are the colleges that have set the direction by the liberal arts curriculum to guarantee a liberal direction for the nation, each successive generation. Therefore, as those who lead churches, I'd admonish you, I'd exhort you to draw the lines of antithesis, engage the enemy, point out that these great classic writers are supposed to be the teachers of the next generation. We're placing our children at the feet of these great literary giants in high school and college, and somehow expecting these children to reject this doctrine and become the next evangelical orthodox pastors to lead the next generation? It doesn't happen that way. Let's be sure that we're bringing a sharp edge of antithesis into liberal arts, into education.

And I'm sure there's many other areas in which pastors need to exhort their congregations. It is important, I believe, to warn our congregations about sending their kids to the public schools, or to set their children at the feet of teachers who do not see the fear of God as the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. I think we ought to be concerned about the science curriculum. I don't see much honor of the Lord Jesus Christ in our conservative homeschool Christian science curriculum. I just don't see much mention of Christ at all.

I thought that Christ was to be preeminent over all things. But here He's not preeminent in the area of biology and physics. I'm teaching my daughter these things lately. I'm just not finding much worship of the true and living God. And much lifting up of Christ as the one who holds all things together by the power of His Word in the physics textbooks.

It seems to me there ought to be regular reference of Jesus Christ in this curriculum. Again, this is the kind of way we need to bring the thesis antithesis to bear. We need to be sharper in our descriptions, in our presentations of Christian education as a means of strengthening the things that remain. We need a stronger sense of judgment in this nation. We need a stronger sense of judgment all the time.

In our education, in our churches, in the preaching, in our witness, do we understand that Jesus Christ will judge the sheep and the goats? He will be there at the end of time. Friends, we are closer to the judgment today than they were in the first century. Does that make sense? We are this much closer to brimstone and fire upon the wicked today.

Seems to me there ought to be a little bit more of a tinge of that in our preaching, even more than what Jonathan Edwards would use in his preaching sinners in the hands of an angry God, what, some 250 years ago. This nation is way closer to this angry God, to this judgment from the hands of this angry God today than this nation was some 250 years ago during the Great Awakening. That should be obvious. We rejected Him. Turned our face away from Him.

This nation is cruising for a bruising. The judgment of Jesus Christ Himself, especially after endorsing the neurotic agenda at the Supreme Court of the United States just two months ago. We are very much closer to judgment than ever, ever, ever before. It's time for the church at Sardis, the Evangelical Church in America, to strengthen a sense of judgment, strengthen the things that remain, Strengthen love for the brethren. Oh, there ought to be so much more love for the brethren.

There ought not to be any factions where we're splitting churches and we're developing more denominations. God forbid that should happen ever again in this nation. We should love the brethren, we should love the widow and orphan as well, taking much more care for the widow than we ever have. I know it's seldom we find widows under over 60 years of age put on any list. I don't know of a single widow who's cared for by the church today.

They're all cared for by their social security program for the government. But somehow we've got to wean ourselves from that over the next 10 or 20 years, because that social security program is going to be used to euthanize tens of millions of widows, of retirees, this country in the years to come. I can't imagine any other scenario but that, unless the Church of Jesus Christ awakens and abandons this statism, this socialism, and begins to take care of widows themselves, putting $40, 000, $60, 000, $80, 000 a year towards caring for six or seven or eight retirees in the years to come. Strengthen the things that remain. Let's strengthen our love.

Strengthen our preaching. Let's strengthen our call for repentance. Let's strengthen our fear for the living God. We need stronger music. Stronger worship.

See, if there's any temptation to compromise the music And bring in a Dionysian emotionalism within the music. I just caught a picture of a bunch of young people worshiping in a meeting place, and their eyes were all closed, they were swaying back and forth, and seven women had their arms raised. Not a single man. Interesting, isn't it? There's hardly any manliness left in the worship at all.

What does the Word of God say but that I would that men everywhere worship, pray with lifting up the holy hands without wrath and without doubting. Here's a manly worship. Here's an aggressive worship. It's not an emotional worship that's vacated any concept of truth. This is a worship, this is a singing with the understanding.

This is an aggressive thing, it's a bold thing. That's the whole idea of the lifting up of the holy hands. It's not an emotional hand-waving experience. It's mainly just a bold, understanding-filled, aggressive form of worship in the presence of Almighty God. We need a bolder worship.

We need a manly worship. We need stronger worship, stronger music, and of course, a stronger faith and a stronger sense of our need for the Lord Jesus Christ and a stronger sense of the value of Jesus Christ a stronger sense of the beauty of Christ the the perfection of Christ The the the redemption of Christ and the glory of it. Brothers, this is what we need, I believe, for the church in Sardis, and that is the Evangelical Church. We could say more about the church in Laodicea. I believe that's the picture of the entire church in America, not just the evangelical church, but the entire church in America, and that is we are rich, we are self-satisfied, we have no need of anything, including our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and the The antidote for that, brothers, is to mourn for our weakness, mourn for our brokenness, mourn for the sadness of our condition.

Our nation today is filled with the children walking away from the faith. I hear it all the time. I hear it from brothers here, pastors here in this group here. So many of our children, so many have abandoned faith. What is this but the judgment of God?

What is this but an indication of the weakness of the faith the weakness of our faith? We are broken brothers. We are a broken people We we don't know it either. We're to Laodicean to recognize our brokenness remember reading a story of a pastor in North Carolina who said if his son comes out of the closet and proclaims himself to be gay, he's going to celebrate. Well, see, this is the American church.

The American church is wounded full of pussy sores, And we have all these ministries, and we have the Supreme Court of the United States that have ministry of carving happy faces and open sores. That's what they're doing. Just turning it into a big gay event, a huge celebration. Well, that's the way that the American church looks at sin. And brothers, I think the the antidote has got to be more mourning.

I just mean more sackcloth and ashes. I'm tempted to bring a different church shirt to church every morning and just rip the church shirt. Every every every sermon, just rip it. Every sermon for an entire year. I think we just need more of a time of mourning because blessed are they who mourn for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are they who mourn for they shall be, We need weeping, we need sackcloth and ashes in this church. It is so broken down. Brothers, do we understand how broken we are? We've seen it. We've seen the extent of the apostasy in our children's lives, or our brothers' lives, our sisters, our mothers, our fathers, our families, our friends.

Have we seen the turning away from the faith that's occurred in this nation? Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted. And then finally, the Church of L eo to see us to buy gold. What does that mean to buy gold? Here's what it means to buy gold.

It means to buy gold is to take everything you've ever earned in your entire life, all $35, 000 of it, and buy a ticket to Saudi Arabia, a one-way ticket, and open up a street ministry on the streets of Saudi Arabia, until they take you, they arrest you, and they put you to death. Just one example. Take everything you own and buy gold from Jesus and suffer. We brothers, we need to suffer. We need to give our lives up.

We are rich. We are self-contented. We have immunized ourselves from suffering, persecution. It's time to get out there and get persecuted for Jesus' sake. And the trial of your faith will be more precious than gold.

That's the antidote for the American church and that's what's on my heart. Let me also encourage you to a book that we have put out with an attempt to accentuate the antithesis in education. It's called World Views in Conflict and we worked hard on this for a long time and took a tremendous amount of work and a lot of pushback. It was very difficult to get this published, but I'm thankful that we've got it available now for high school and early college years. I'm hoping God will use this product.

I'm thankful for working with Master's Book, AIG's, publishing arm to get it out. But our attempt is to bring a sharp line of division between the world and Christ when it comes to literature. Because brothers, I tell you, I'm just tired of losing each successive generation in our liberal arts education. So, thank you. God bless you.