Amen.
Okay, so we're in 2 Timothy chapter 4 there, and we're going to be there for the majority
of this, so we're going to flick about a bit though, but keep something in 2 Timothy 4.
But we're going to look down just at the first few verses there of 2 Timothy chapter 4.
So have a look at verse 1 again, where it reads, I charge thee therefore before God
and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and
his kingdom.
Preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all
longsuffering and doctrine.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own
lusts shall they heap to themselves, teachers, having itching ears.
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of evangelists, make foolproof
of thy ministry.
And the title of my sermon this evening is The Need for Hard Preaching Churches.
The Need for Hard Preaching Churches.
I'm going to pray before I continue with the message.
Father, I thank you for your word, thank you for this great chapter of the Bible, this
great passage here, just making it so clear how you want your word preached, Lord, in
churches.
Help me to preach this message just clearly, boldly and accurately.
Help me to just be fully in spirit, Lord, and everyone here to just have attentive ears
and to really take the message that I believe you've laid on my heart to their hearts, Lord,
and help all these things to be done, Jesus Christ, in the holy name, Amen.
Okay, what is a hard preaching church, if anyone's ever heard that term before?
What does it actually mean?
What is a hard preaching church?
Well, first off, we need to define what a church is.
Turn to Hebrews chapter 2 whilst I read Psalm 22 verse 22.
So you're turning to Hebrews 2, but I'm reading Psalm 22, 22, which is the psalmist David
referring to the Lord, and he said, I will declare thy name unto my brethren.
In the midst of the congregation will I praise you.
He said, in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
And the author of Hebrews, probably Paul, but some people wonder that, but the author
of Hebrews quotes this verse in Hebrews 2, the verse I've just read from Psalm 22, 22,
saying this in verse 11, for both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are
all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.
Verse 12 there, he says, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of
the church will I sing praise unto thee.
So he's quoting Psalm 22, 22, which used the word congregation and he swapped it for church.
The word church being used as an alternative to congregation because that's what a church
is.
A church is a congregation.
It's not a congregation of any old people, but of brethren, of saved people.
He just said in verse 11, for which cause he's not ashamed to call them brethren saying
I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church.
So it's a congregation of saved people from all walks of life, from all nations.
A church is a congregation of brethren.
It's a congregation of believers.
So it's not the building itself.
Okay.
It's not, it's not a place, you know, a lot of people have misconceptions about this.
They see a place with a big steeple and say, well, that's a church, isn't it?
Or maybe in their, their idea is something a bit different.
Maybe they see a place which is, you know, looks like the classic old Baptist churches
or whatever flavour it is, maybe it's the uncomfortable pews or the, or maybe it's just
a beautiful old building.
There's some lovely buildings, aren't there, which call themselves churches.
The stained glass windows sometimes are amazing, aren't they?
But none of that makes it a church.
Okay.
Now it might be a church in the world's eyes, but not in God's eyes.
See if there isn't a congregation of saved people, people that have put their faith in
the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, okay, paying for all their
past, present and future sins.
If it doesn't have a congregation of people who have their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
it ain't a church, okay?
It's not a church.
Now, now that disqualifies most groups that have the name church outside their meeting
place, doesn't it?
Because there are places all over, probably Exeter right now, with the word church outside
and with various things before and after it, but that doesn't mean they're a church in
God's eyes.
Okay.
And really that disqualifies most of them because most of them don't believe the gospel.
They don't have their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now turn to 1 Timothy 3, because there are a few other qualifications to a church.
There are a few, you know, for example, maybe there are a few seemingly saved people meeting
together.
Is that a church then?
Because now we've got a congregation of saved people.
Well, in 1 Timothy 3.15, the apostle Paul says this to the pastor Timothy.
In 1 Timothy 3.15, he says, but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest
to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar
and ground of the truth.
So when we meet together, we become the house of God.
We're the church of the living God, which is the pillar and ground of the truth, right?
So a church upholds, it's a pillar and ground.
It is built upon the truth.
That's the word of God, isn't it?
John 17.17 says, sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is truth.
The word of God is truth.
But if my Bible says something different to your Bible, they can't both be truth, can they?
See, if my watch says something different to your watch, at least one of them is wrong,
right?
And it's the same with the word of God.
There can only be one word of God, can't there?
If Jesus Christ said man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds
out of the mouth of God, we have to have a Bible that has every word that proceeds
out of the mouth of God, don't we?
That has to be one somewhere, right?
His word is truth.
That has to be his word.
And considering that not one of these new Bible of the month proponents would dare to
even suggest that they hold the preserved words of God, that for me kind of narrows
it down a little bit.
I mean, none of them will.
The NIV churches, the RSV church, the ESV, all these bizarre different so-called versions
of the Bible.
None of them would say to you, well, no, I hold the preserved, inspired, inerrant words
of God.
Not one of them.
But you know what King James Bible churches will tell you, and you know what?
Those who really have their faith in it will not just tell you, they'll promise you I have
the words of God in my hand here.
The preserved words of God, right?
So that does narrow it down a bit, doesn't it, to how many churches then are the pillar
and ground of the truth?
Because if they don't have the truth, they can't be the pillar and ground of the truth.
When I was born again, it was from the King James Bible.
And everyone here that's saved, I'll tell you what you heard.
You heard the King James Bible.
You heard the preserved word of God, because 1 Peter 1.23 says, being born again not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever.
Yeah, the word of God abides forever.
God promised to preserve his word, and if you're born again, you're born again of that
incorruptible seed.
Now, if a church is a pillar and ground of the truth, it had better therefore read Teach
Preach the Truth.
Otherwise, it's not the pillar and ground of the truth, right?
So it has to have the King James Bible.
Now turn to Ephesians chapter 1.
What's the foundation of that pillar, the cornerstone of that building?
Well, it's the gospel, isn't it?
It's the gospel, the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 1.13, talking of Christ says this, Ephesians 1.13 says, in whom ye also trusted,
after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
So if the so-called pastor, elder bishop, leader, whatever you want to call him, of
a church doesn't believe the gospel, how's it a church?
It can't be a church.
If it's the pillar and ground of the truth, and they don't believe the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, then it can't be a church, can it?
And look, when I say if they don't believe that, I don't mean if they, well, if they
pay lip service, if they believe that you have to do anything other than put your faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ and you're saved forever, that's not a church.
In God's eyes, it's not a church.
If they say you've got to repent of your sins to be saved, it's not a church.
If they say you've got to repent of future sins to stay saved, it's not a church.
They say you've got to make Jesus Lord of your life to be saved, it's not a church.
Because they're not believing the gospel, they're believing in a work of salvation,
right?
Well, what's the point of a church then?
Because we kind of know what should make a church, but what is the point of a church?
Is it to meet up and tell each other how holy we are?
Is that the point of a church?
To talk about doctrine and nothing else?
Some churches do that.
Some so-called churches do that.
Well, turn to Revelation chapter 2.
The number one goal of a church is to preach the gospel to the lost.
Yes, we come to praise God.
We come to learn the Bible.
We come to fellowship together, to pray for each other, but we have a job to do, okay?
We've got a really important job to do.
2 Corinthians 5.20, 2 Corinthians 5.20, your turn in Revelation 2, says, now then, we are
ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us.
We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
So our job, we're ambassadors, we ask, we petition, we urge the lost to get saved, to
be reconciled through Jesus Christ's sacrifice, to receive the free gift.
We've been given the ministry of reconciliation, and a church is headquarters, but it's from
there that we go out to the lost, okay?
So the whole point of a church ultimately is to get people saved.
It's to send believers out to get people saved.
In fact, in Revelation 2, Jesus warns the church in Ephesus that they will cease being
a church if they're not doing that work.
It says in Revelation 2 and verse 1, unto the angel of the church in Ephesus write,
these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the
midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them
which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not,
and hast found them liars, and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake
hast labored, and hast not fainted.
Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember, therefore, from whence art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else
I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou
repent.
So the first works, the first love is a great commission.
The job given to all believers, the first job that he highlighted at the beginning to
his disciples, when he said in Matthew 4.19, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men,
that job that all four gospels record Jesus Christ giving to his disciples after his resurrection,
they're the first works.
That's the first love.
If a church isn't doing it, he will come, not slowly but quickly, quickly and remove
their candlestick, they will stop being a church in God's eyes.
So that's a church.
Okay, hopefully you have more of an understanding of what a biblical church is then.
That's a church, a congregation of believers with the word of God getting sent out to win
the loss.
That's pretty clear, don't you think?
It doesn't take up a big study of the Bible to understand what constitutes a church, I
believe.
Okay, so if that's a church, what's a hard preaching church then?
That's a church, what's a hard preaching church?
Well, this is a church which preaches the hard truths, that calls out sin, that calls
out false ways, that actually preaches a word instead of reading a sermon, for example.
That preaches instead of just reading verses of the Bible.
Hard preaching is sometimes loud, it's sometimes offensive to some, and it doesn't avoid uncomfortable
subjects when they need preaching.
That's what hard preaching is.
The title is The Need for Hard Preaching Churches.
And point number one tonight is that they're biblical.
Hard preaching churches are biblical.
And you're in, well, hopefully you can turn back quickly to 2 Timothy 4, and verse one
says this, it says, I charge thee, Paul said, I charge thee therefore before God and the
Lord Jesus Christ shall judge the quick and the dead that is appearing in his kingdom,
preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all
longsuffering and doctrine.
So Paul here is writing to Timothy, the pastor.
He's writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
So God is writing this, okay?
God is writing to him and saying, I charge thee.
He's saying, I command thee, Timothy.
This is an order, Timothy.
This is non-negotiable, Timothy.
I'm telling you what you need to do, Timothy.
This is a command.
He said, I charge thee, and then he then said, whisper the word.
He didn't say that.
He didn't say whisper the word, did he?
He didn't say embarrassingly mention the word, you know, in a sort of awkward way, hoping
not to offend the people in your church in case they leave and don't give you any more
tithes or offerings or you have an empty church, something else.
He didn't say give excuses for the word, did he?
He didn't say that.
Do you know, I'll say, oh, well, that was probably back then and that was a different
time and, you know, the culture's a bit different.
He did say that, didn't he?
He said, no, he said, preach the word, and he didn't just say preach the word, he said
preach the word with urgency.
He said to be instant, urgent with it.
You've got to preach it.
When you feel it needs preaching, you've got to preach it.
When you see it in the word of God, it needs preaching.
When you see it in the church, it needs preaching.
He said, be instant, and he said, in season, out of season, which basically is when it's
popular and when it's not popular.
The command for a pastor is to preach the word of God urgently, whether it's popular
or not, whether it's in fashion or not, whether the world has gone so far that way that preaching
the word of God is completely out of fashion, the command, the charge to a pastor is preaching.
Preached the word, he then said, be instant, in season, out of season, he said reprove.
What does reprove mean?
It means to tell off or to convince someone of a fault.
So if you're being reproved, you're being told off, you're being convinced that you
have fault.
He didn't just say reprove, he then said rebuke, which is basically a harder reprove.
Sometimes you know the word of God is going to reprove you from behind a pulpit or a funny
old lectern.
Sometimes it's going to rebuke you.
Sometimes you're going to basically get a right old telling off from behind a pulpit.
Sometimes though it's going to exhort you as well, which is to encourage you.
Sometimes either reproof and rebuke can exhort you, but sometimes the word of God will exhort
you.
And he said, with all long suffering and doctrine, it does need patience.
If you're preaching week in, week out, sometimes you need some patience.
Sometimes you'll preach something and you don't see the effect straight away.
Some things need preaching a lot.
Did you know that?
Some people are just a bit stubborn and a bit thick skinned to things.
Some people switch off when it comes to something that they're dealing with, but it's not just
wild random tellings off either.
It's not empty platitudes for the exhortation.
You can do it champ.
You can do it.
You can succeed.
It requires doctrine, which is sound teaching from the word of God.
Timothy was commanded to preach hard and it wasn't just him.
So in case you're going, well, that was just Timothy.
I have no doubt there will be so-called pastors out there that have stood behind pulpits and
said, well, the thing is, you've got to understand that at that time, in those days, the Ephesus
needed some harder preaching because they had a lot of sin there, you see.
They were very wicked.
I've got no doubt there'll be people trying to find a way to excuse them not preaching
the word, to excuse them tickling ears instead.
But it's not just Timothy that was told to do this.
It's a theme throughout the Bible because preaching hard is God's way of edifying his
people in one way or another, whether that's giving them a reproof and a rebuke and sometimes
giving them an encouragement as well and getting them to get on and do the work that God wants
them to do.
Turn to Hebrews 11 whilst I read Genesis 5.
You turn to Hebrews 11.
I'm going to read Genesis 5 just briefly about a famous man of old called Enoch.
Genesis 5 verse 21 says, And Enoch lived sixty and five years and begat Methuselah,
and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years and begat sons and daughters.
By the way, they used to live a long time back in days of old.
And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years, but they usually lived
a lot longer than that.
Why was it only three hundred sixty five years?
And Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him.
So God took Enoch early.
This Enoch was seven generations from the first man Adam.
He walked with God and instead of physically dying, he was taken early.
Why?
Well, Hebrews 11 five explains it like this.
You're in Hebrews 11 and verse five says, By faith Enoch was translated that he should
not see death and was not found because God had translated him.
For before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God.
So according to Hebrews 11 five, before he was translated, he was taken up to heaven
early without physically dying.
He had this testimony that he pleased God.
Agreed?
OK.
Well, turn to Jude.
What was it that pleased God about Enoch?
Shall I tell you what pleased God about Enoch?
Hard preaching.
That's what pleased God about Enoch.
He was a hard preacher.
You turn to Jude.
From as early as Enoch, men of God were preaching properly.
Jude is talking about wicked reprobates, children of the devil, what the world calls psychopaths.
OK, this is a hard chapter of the Bible.
Believe me.
OK, it preaches some hard truths about wicked people in life.
And it says in verse 14 of the Book of Jude, in verse 14, it says, An Enoch also, talking
about the same Enoch again, the seventh from Adam, definitely the same Enoch, prophesied
of these, talking about these wicked people, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand
of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among
them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard
speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
So around 6,000 years ago, Enoch was preaching about wicked people.
Enoch was preaching about these people, the type of people that resulted in God flooding
the whole earth three generations later.
Enoch was preaching on these people early.
He was telling them what's going to happen to them.
And then eventually the place got flooded, right?
This was a man preaching hard on the reprobates amongst us.
And he pleased God.
He pleased God so much that he didn't even see a physical death.
And that'd be nice, wouldn't it?
OK?
He pleased God a lot.
Turn to Isaiah 58, hard preaching is biblical, and it continued throughout the Old Testament,
by the way, with so many men, but just off the top of my head while I was making these
notes of men that I, you know, could just, I can, there are clear examples of the hard
preaching.
Men like Moses, who literally smashed things and told them, you know, and made them drink
things that he'd strawed upon water, their wicked idols that they'd made.
Samuel was a hard preacher.
People feared when Samuel came to town.
Nathan the prophet, who would even preach hard at the kings of the day.
Micaiah was a hard preacher.
OK?
Micah said, what the Lord says to me, that will I preach, right?
Jeremiah was a hard preacher.
Ezekiel was a hard preacher.
Haggai was a hard preacher.
Zechariah was a hard preacher.
They were preaching hard in their day.
And in Isaiah 58, we see the clear command to preach hard.
Isaiah 58, where you are, it says in verse one, this is Isaiah the preacher, is told,
cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression
and the house of Jacob their sins.
And you know what?
When you preach a verse like that, doesn't it make you realize how far away from God's
way of preaching most churches are in the world?
How far, in this nation, who is preaching like that?
Who's shouting, who's crying aloud?
Crying isn't boo-hooing, by the way.
OK?
He's talking about yelling, shouting.
He said, he said, cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people
their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins.
These gutless, spineless, sorry excuses for pastors out there.
There are so many of them are too busy trying to be popular.
That's what they're trying to do.
They're too busy trying to be popular, trying to be intellectual.
They're too busy trying to be what the world says a man of God should be like, basically.
They're so moronic that they've bought into the whole limp-wristed, very effeminate, wouldn't
say boo to a goose, priest type of man of God, where they start even talking and acting
like them.
We were talking about it the other day about a pastor, we're like, do you think he puts
it on or not?
When a guy literally sounds like just a complete effeminate joke.
But that's not the men of God from the Bible.
It's a sham.
These people most of the time aren't godly anyway.
They're a joke.
I reckon there are still men of God out there who actually are saved, who have somehow got
pulled into this whole, they should be there just going, well, when you go back to the
Greek and they're trying to point on whiteboards and everything else, it's nonsense.
That's not what God called us to do.
He did not call us to do that.
How about they read their Bibles and take a leaf out of the real men's books of the
Bible.
Sorry, a bit of a kind of play on words there, right?
Turn to Ezekiel chapter six.
You know what they're trying to do?
They're trying to exude this sort of fake holiness, aren't they?
They're trying to con you that they're somehow just so pious, so holy, they just, they wouldn't
even raise their voice because they're just so calm and so spiritual.
That's not the men of the Bible, though.
That's not preached to the Bible, they're fakes, they're frauds.
Real men of God in the Bible, men like John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness in
camel's fur and shouting at these fake holier than owls, oh, generation of vipers who has
warned you to flee from the wrath to come.
And that man was described as the greatest man born among women.
And he was calling people vipers.
How about how Ezekiel was told to behave in Ezekiel 6-11?
And by the way, who told him to behave like this?
The Lord.
The Lord Jesus Christ, God, told Ezekiel in Ezekiel 6-11, thus saith the Lord God, smite
with thine hand, that means whack with your hand and stamp with thy foot.
That means stamp your foot.
And say, alas, for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall
by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.
He's smiting things, he's stamping with his foot and saying, basically, you're going to
get a whooping, you're a wicked bunch.
That's how God wanted him to preach.
And I say that, turn to Matthew 23, because there's a lot of these guys out there.
I heard one say to me something like, or they'll say things like they're trying to be more
Christ-like, right?
And I heard this pastor once say, can you imagine Jesus Christ behaving like that behind
the pulpit?
This is what a pastor that I knew that I was at his church for a while, and when I say
pastor in hindsight afterwards, I found out, in fact, he was another one of these frauds.
But he said, can you imagine, and he was talking about hard preachers, he was talking about
men of God from the US preaching behind pulpits going, could you imagine Jesus Christ behaving
like that, is what he said.
Maybe he missed Jesus whipping the covetous traders out of the temple.
Maybe had he read his Bible, he might have noticed Jesus Christ getting a whip and whipping
people out of the temple, because they were covetous and they were trading in God's house.
He probably pictures a Catholic Jesus with long flowing locks and a dress, mincing around,
you know, just telling everyone in quiet, hushed tones things.
Well, rather than the Jesus that shouted the gospel, in John 7.37, where he said, in the
last day, that great day of the feast said, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man
thirsts, let him come unto me and drink.
Jesus was shouting.
Did you know that?
Jesus cried, he yelled, he shouted.
The Jesus that preached in the temple to those false prophets, in John 8.44, where he said,
ye are of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.
Did you turn to Matthew 23, the Jesus in Matthew 23 that preached hard on those same
false prophets, those same works salvationists, he said in Matthew 23.13, but woe unto you
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men,
for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye devour widows' houses and for a pretense
make long prayer, therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye compass, sea, and land to make one
proselyte and when he is made you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
Woe unto you ye blind guides which say, whosoever shall swear by the temple it is nothing, but
whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple he is a debtor, ye fools and blind, for whether
it's great the gold or the temple that sanctifieth the gold.
That's a different Jesus than the world would like you to think Jesus Christ was, right?
That's the Jesus Christ of the Bible, verse 27, he said, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but
are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness.
Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy
and iniquity.
And verse 33, he said, ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation
of hell?
That's some hard preaching, isn't it?
That's hard preaching.
You know why?
Because hard preaching is biblical.
Hard preaching is biblical.
Go back to 2 Timothy 4, where Timothy was charged to preach hard.
The title is The Need for Hard Preaching Churches.
Point number one, they're biblical and point number two, they get results.
They get results.
Look at verse one, it said, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall judge the quick and the dead it is appearing in his kingdom, preach the word,
be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering.
And doctor, he said, I command you, Timothy, in the sight of the Father and the Son, the
Son who is going to judge the quick or the alive and the dead.
Now you might be looking at it going, hold on, what judgment is this?
Didn't he suffer once for all our sins?
Yes, he did.
If you're saved, your sins are washed away.
Your eternal account is clean.
However, you'll still appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive rewards for what
you've done here.
And look, I want to receive some rewards.
I hope other people want to receive some rewards, right?
Paul here, for one, is reminding Timothy of those rewards that await all believers.
In the same breath as telling him what will help his flock ensure those rewards.
Now go back to 2 Timothy 3, where Paul shows us the results of hard preaching.
2 Timothy 3 and verse 14, 2 Timothy, just a chapter before, chapter 3 and verse 14 says,
But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and has been assured of, knowing
of whom thou hast learned them.
And that from a child there is known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise
unto salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ.
That's Old Testament scriptures, by the way, that are able to make you wise unto salvation,
by the way, because there's only ever been one way of salvation.
Verse 16 says, All scripture is given by inspiration of God.
Okay, that's talking about all holy scripture, the word of God, the Bible, all scriptures
given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished
unto all good works.
He didn't just say some scripture, did he said all scripture.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and all scripture is profitable.
What's the result of the doctrine, the reproof, the correction, the instruction in righteousness?
Well, verse 17 tells us that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto
all good works.
Perfect here is complete, the full package, the complete Christian.
No, they're not sinless, but they're the full package.
A complete Christian.
You know what?
All scripture is profitable for that.
That's why we don't preach the gospel every week, okay?
That's why we don't stand behind a pulpit and just find various ways of preaching the
gospel every single week, because we're preaching to the Savior that's congregation of believers.
And there's a lot of scripture here that isn't the gospel, right?
There's a lot of scripture here that people need to hear, because it's all scripture that's
given by inspiration, it's all scripture which is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness.
And that's why we don't avoid the unpopular bits.
That's why we don't avoid the out-of-season bits, the bits that aren't so fashionable
in the world anymore, the bits that the world doesn't like anymore.
We don't avoid the bits that we've now been told by our ever-so-wise society that now
we're actually wrong and the Word of God is a bit outdated.
No, the whole lot is profitable for instruction in righteousness, for correction, for reproof.
But according to verse 17, that doctrine, that reproof, that correction, that instruction
in righteousness, can make the man of God be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all
good works.
Now, you might look at that and say, well, isn't that about reading?
Doesn't reading it do the same?
So if you're saved, you can read and study the Bible as well as me or any other pastor
out there.
Believe me, you can.
You just need to keep reading and keep studying, okay?
There's nothing that I can find out that you can't in the Word of God, right?
And that's something else, by the way, you need to do.
You need to read it.
You need to study it.
You need to memorize it, okay?
There are other things you need to do with the Word of God, but there's a difference
when you're in church and when God's Word is reproving you from the pulpit.
There is a difference.
When God's Word is convicting you of a sin, it's one thing to read over and you can dwell
on it or you can not dwell on it.
You can read through the Bible and get to a point where you're like, that's kind of
talking to me, so I'm just going to speed through this bit a little bit and you're just
going to take maybe glance and carry on.
And there's a difference when that man of God stands behind a pulpit and dwells in that
bit that you didn't really want to focus on, dwells in that bit that's talking to you,
dwells that bit which is saying to you, you need to sort yourself out.
And then he gives you an example of maybe your sin and you're just sitting there getting
redder and redder and maybe feeling a little bit more awkward and more awkward.
But you know what?
That's how God, look, that's how God deals with you.
That's how God wants to deal with your sin through men who go preach it from behind a
pulpit.
You know why?
Well, a hard preacher gets results, gets results.
That's why Timothy was commanded to preach hard.
That's why Isaiah was told to preach hard.
That's why Ezekiel was told to preach hard.
Turn to Hebrews chapter 12.
You see, there's a power involved with hard preaching.
When a spirit-filled man of God gets up and preaches the word of God boldly, okay, there's
a power there.
There really is.
In 1 Corinthians 2, 4, you're turning to Hebrews 12, but 1 Corinthians 2, 4, the apostle Paul
said in my speech and my preacher is not with enticing words of man's wisdom, by the way.
The apostle Paul, no, it wasn't like that.
But in demonstration of the spirit and of power.
There's a power that comes from someone boldly preaching the word of God.
It's not about man's wisdom.
It's about the word of God.
Forget man's wisdom.
Forget Schofield, Larkin, Darby, all the other damnable heretics.
Forget your Bible college degrees.
Forget all your man's wisdom and get some power from the word of God.
We preach the power through the Holy Spirit, okay, of God's word.
That's how we do it.
It's because the Holy Spirit fills men of God to preach the word of God.
And let me tell you, it gets results in our church.
It really does.
Now, you might sit there and go, well, how do I know that?
How do I know it gets results in our church?
Well, aside from the changed lives, and you see lives changing in front of you on a weekly,
monthly basis, aside from the changed lives, the success stories in our church, we have
a church full of regular soul winners.
We have a church full of people that go out every week, sometimes multiple times a week,
and preach the gospel to the lost.
And do you know what stops regular soul winning?
Sin.
Unrighteousness.
A lack of reproof, a lack of correction.
That's what stops soul winning.
Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1 says, wherefore, seeing we also encompassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset
us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
It's the sin that weighs us down and stops us serving God properly.
That's just the reality of it.
It's sin.
It stops us being a proper part of the race.
That weight is more likely to make you give up halfway through, isn't it?
That weight of sin will make you either give up to sit at the back of the pack getting
nowhere, because I don't know if anyone's ever tried running with a weighted vest or
a backpack or something else, it's not quite as easy as it, right?
Okay?
It will make you sit at the back maybe, and you're just not really doing much.
You're not really getting anywhere, right?
And let me tell you what stops you being a regular soul-winning Bible reading, praying
for others, three to five church member, sin like alcohol.
How about that one?
Booze.
Booze stops you being a regular church member, serving God, going out, preaching the gospel,
reading your Bible, doing the things of God.
Do you know what?
I'll give you another one.
Cannabis stops you doing the things of God.
All sorts of drugs stop you doing the things of God.
Fornication stops you doing the things of God.
Monography stops you doing the things of God.
Covetousness stops you doing the things of God.
Trash TV and all that junk on Netflix and those series and all that stuff that people
waste hours watching stops you doing the things of God.
Body sculpting and pride and all those different things and all that focusing on your appearance,
all that stuff stops doing the things of God, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, right?
And do you know what God's people need?
They need someone to preach about it.
They need someone to preach that stuff.
They need someone to preach, for example, you have to turn to Proverbs 23, 31, look
not now upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its colour in the cup, when it moveth
itself aright.
Don't even look at fermented alcohol.
Don't look at it.
Let alone drink it.
Let alone waste away your night drinking booze.
You've got to be an idiot.
In fact, you are an idiot because the Bible says clearly that wine is a mocker, strong
drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
And do you know what God's people need?
They need someone preaching it.
They need someone to preach 1 Peter 5.8 which says, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary
the devil is a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour.
How are you sober if you partake in drugs?
Oh, well, I just, oh, it's so natural.
Cannabis is just so natural.
It's wicked.
It'll ruin your life but waste your life.
They need someone to preach Ephesians 5.3 which says, but fornication at all uncleanness
or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as become a saints.
Get that filth out of your life.
Don't let it even be named amongst you.
They need someone to preach that, don't they?
God's people, we need that.
We need preaching.
To preach Psalm 101 in verse three which says, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes.
I hate the work of them that turn aside it shall not cleave to me.
And think about that when you're putting all these filthy hall mongers in front of your
face or your kid's face on TV.
And you're just shoving your kids in front of who knows what because it makes life easier.
They need someone to preach it, don't they?
You'll want that wicked stuff in front of your eyes.
To preach 1 John 2 16, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust
of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the father but is of the world.
All that stuff, all that pride, all that my career, my this, my that, me, me, me.
Self, self, self.
They need someone to preach it.
And you go, actually, let's get that junk out of our love, start focusing on serving
God.
He saved you.
If you're here, you're saved.
You're saved.
You didn't do a thing.
You just had to trust in Jesus Christ.
How about we do something for him?
How about we actually serve him and get some other people saved, right?
You know, you know, not only do God's people need someone to preach it, but you know what
they need?
They need someone to preach it hard.
They need someone to preach it hard, to preach it with some spine, right, with some backbone.
To not be afraid of the faces.
To not be worried about the people that are looking at you like they want to hate you.
They want to kill you because you dared to touch on their sin and they go, I'm just going
to preach it anyway.
I don't care because God tells me to preach the word, to be instant in season out of season,
to reprove, to rebuke, to exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
We're told we're commanded to do it, right?
And if they're not doing it, how's that a man of God?
Now look, every week we don't necessarily have to shout and yell and holler and bang
the pulpit and stamp with our feet and everything else.
But you know what, if you're never doing it, you ain't obeying God.
How do you expect your church to obey God?
Go back to 2 Timothy 4 where Timothy was not only reminded of rewards, but also of the
need for souls to be saved.
He said in verse 1, in 2 Timothy 4, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus
Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead.
You know, he's not just judging the alive, judging the alive when it comes to the judgment
seat of Christ, but he's going to judge the dead as well.
And he's judging the dead and he's appearing in his kingdom.
So we need to get out there and preach the gospel, right?
We need to get these people saved so they don't have to be judged.
They don't have to be judged for their sin because all that sin will be washed away by
faith in Jesus Christ.
He said preach the word, be instant in season out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all long suffering and doctrine.
The title is The Need for Hard Preached Churches.
Number one, they're biblical.
Number two, they get results.
And number three, they're continuously purging.
God preaching churches are continuously purging.
What do I mean by purging?
What is it?
What does it mean to purge?
I'm going to give you a good definition for Webster's 1828 dictionary, which is to cleanse
or purify by separating and carrying off whatever is impure, heterogeneous, foreign or superfluous.
So it's to clean and purify by removing the impure, the foreign matter, the excess.
In 2 Timothy 4, Timothy was told to preach hard.
He said in verse three, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.
But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves, teachers, having itching ears,
and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.
But watch thou in all things endure afflictions through the work of an evangelist, make foolproof
of thy ministry.
You know what he said?
He said, give them both barrels, he said give them both barrels because there's a time coming
when they won't endure it.
There's a time coming when they just won't deal with it, they won't hack it.
They will look for someone that pleases their ears, basically.
They'll look for someone to make them feel good.
They'll look for someone to say nice things to them from behind a pulpit.
They will avoid the truth, they'll listen to fables instead, fables, stories, myths.
Fables like the pre-trib rapture.
They'll go somewhere which is going to tell them, don't worry, you won't have to suffer
at all.
It's all going to be fine.
He might even come before the service is over.
That's a fable.
Fables like some special bloodline of chosen people that you're to worship and they're
just a special people and I'm talking about this absolute Zionist nonsense out there.
Fables like that.
People will heap to themselves those teachers, they love listening to that stuff.
They love bloodlines and racism in one way or another.
People just love it.
They love some form of it.
Even tell themselves, there's all these different cults out there, tell themselves they're the
special bloodline.
I mean, what?
A load of old nonsense, right?
Fables.
Titus 1.14, you have to understand it says, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments
of men that turn from the truth.
Listen to these people, they're not even saved.
First Timothy 1.4 says, neither giving heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister
questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith, so do.
There are people that listen to, that give heed to all sorts of endless genealogies,
don't they?
And it's such a load of nonsense.
There's all sorts of stuff like that being preached right now in churches around this
country and it seems like the time has come, doesn't it?
That time has come, really, when they will not endure a sound doctrine.
They will after their own lust, heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.
They will turn their ears away from the, that's what's going on right now, isn't it?
So do we stop preaching hard?
No, we preach harder.
That's what we do.
We preach harder.
And the harder we preach, the more our church is purged.
The more we sought the wheat from the chaff, basically, it would be great, okay?
It would be great.
Don't get me wrong, okay?
It's not that I just want, I would love it, okay?
If every person that got saved became a regular church member, that'd be amazing, okay?
But only if they became a regular solid church member.
So it'd only be worth it if they became a good church member.
I've said this to people before.
Can you imagine if every single person you got saved over the last few weeks all came
along to church?
I mean, straight away, you'd suddenly have like a majority of people that don't want
to hear hard preaching, that don't know any doctrine, that don't understand all the things
you're doing would probably be complaining and all sorts of other things that would start
to destroy the church, wouldn't it?
You can't have everyone just keep piling in because, look, there are certain ways that
church needs to be done, right?
And you know what?
Leaven leavens the whole lump, right?
And you'll have all sorts of issues going and you wouldn't be able to keep on top of it.
Look, we want to build people up, okay?
We want to help them grow in the Lord.
We want to make them perfect.
We want to make them fully furnished unto all good works.
But the reality is that of the few that get saved, even fewer will go on to serve God.
That's a sad reality.
Of the few that get saved, of that straight gate and narrow way, even fewer will go on
to serve God.
You turn to John 15.
When Jesus healed 10 lepers, you turn to John 15.
When Jesus healed 10 lepers in Luke 17, only one came back to glorify God.
The healing is a picture of spiritual healing of salvation.
Of 10, only one came back to glorify God.
After constantly reading that many believed throughout the gospels, you just see it time
and time again, especially the Gospel of John, many believed, many believed, many believed,
many believed on him, many believed on him, many believed on him.
When we get to Acts 1 15, it says, and in those days Peter stood up in the midst of
the disciples and said the number of names together were about 120.
After all those many, many, many, many, many, only 120 were there in the upper room.
Why?
Well, do you know what often separates those elite few from the rest?
Do you know what it is?
It's hard preaching.
It's the hard truths.
The light of God's word shining on them.
Look, those same people will sit in fun club Baptist, they'll sit in liberal pat you on
the back Baptist, they'll sit in evangelical, you know, 15-minute sermon telling you how
great you are church, they've got no problem with those churches, you know what they have
a problem with is the hard preaching and the problem with being commanded to go out, they
have a problem with having the light of God's word shining on them.
That's what the problem is.
That's what separates the elite few from the rest.
I heard a great pastor say recently that rather than a church full of people, he'd prefer
a church with people that love the Lord.
So rather than a church full of 400, 500 people, I don't care if they're safe people, I'm not
talking about whether they're unsaved or not, he would prefer a church of a small percentage
of that of people that actually love the Lord.
Because there's a big difference, isn't there?
It's hard preaching that makes that separation, but it's not a bad thing, okay?
God does great things with the few, always, throughout the Bible, we just see him wanting
it to be a few to do great things with.
And it's hard preaching that makes that separation.
Because a little leaven leavens a whole lump.
But if the lump is pure, it can go on to do greater things.
In John 15, Jesus gives an illustration of purging, he says this, look at verse one,
John 15, verse one, he said, I am the true vine and my father is a husbandman.
Every branch of me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth
fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
So the non-bearing branches are useless, and the bearing ones need purging.
The dead wood clearing, the weak bits, if any of you are gardeners, you know, sometimes
you need to take off, you know, those nasty gnarly bits growing off of the branch, and
you need to take away those sort of dying leaves and things like that, right?
How are we purged?
Well, verse three says, now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken to you.
You get cleaned, you get purged through the word of God.
It's through the word of God, and it's through hard preaching more often than anything else.
It's a hard preaching that purges you.
Do you know there's a big difference between people that sit at home reading their Bibles,
they might even go out soul-winning now and again, and people that sit in church three
to five and listen to that hard preaching.
There's a big difference.
There's a purging that goes on, and it's not only those that can't hack it that won't positively
respond to reproof from God's word, and there is that, okay?
So the reality of it is there are people that, and we've had it in our church, we've had
a lot of people come in and out of our church even over a few years, and, you know, quite
a few of those.
It's not all just wicked people who won't come back.
It's really a lot of the time because they just can't hack the Christian life.
Now they'll find an excuse, they'll blame it on the church members, they'll blame it
on the pastor or, at the time, the church leader.
They'll blame it on one thing or another.
They'll blame it on, you know, a hundred different things, but the reality of it is they haven't
gone away and carried on serving God.
They haven't gone away and cleaned up their lives even more.
They've just started going back and sinking back into the mire because it's a reproof
from God's word.
It's a hard preaching that really, it draws a line, doesn't it?
Are you going to respond like you should do and say, yeah, that's how God wants me to,
God wants me to hear this and wants me to respond.
Or am I just going to find excuses and make, find ways of saying I'm not living for you,
God, and blame it on everyone else and blame it on all the sundry?
And the sad truth is we will continue to have people that do that over time in our church.
And that will happen the world over, it happens the world over.
But it's not just those.
The purging also cleans out the diseased parts, the parts that will only poison the rest of
the branch.
Turn to 2 Timothy 2.
See when a church is doing great things for God, when the salvations are coming thick
and fast, the lives are changing, the devil plants tares amongst the wheat.
God's enemies infiltrate, fake Christians, false prophets, this is how the Bible describes
them.
That's just life.
That's just church life.
Okay.
It has happened.
It will happen.
It will continue to happen.
That's just the way it is.
Okay.
The devil plants them in there and in 2 Timothy 2, he says it like this in verse 16.
He says, but shun profane and vain babblings for they will increase unto more ungodliness
and their word will eat as doth the canker of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus.
So he's naming these people by name, right?
Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already and
overthrow the faith of some.
These are false prophets.
Okay.
These are false prophets overthrowing people's faith with false doctrine.
That's what they're trying to do.
They're trying to basically, those who aren't saved, they're trying to poison them so they
don't get saved.
Those that are saved, they're just trying to weaken them and make them have doubt and
just make them find it hard to be in church and just don't know what to believe, et cetera.
Okay.
That's what they're trying to do.
Verse 19, nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure having to seal the Lord
knoweth them that are his and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from
iniquity.
But in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and
of earth and some to honor and some to dishonor.
So there are the legitimate vessels and then there are the ones like Hymenaeus and Philetus.
That's the context.
That's what he's talking about here.
He says in verse 21, if a man therefore purge himself of these, he's talking to the pastor
of the church.
If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified
and meet for the master's use and prepared unto every good work.
How do you purge from these?
Do you know one way, hard preaching.
Hard preaching purges these people.
You preach on the wickedness.
That's God's way of dealing.
I was told early on when I was training as a pastor, I was told early on, preach it.
You see it, preach it.
Preach on the weirdness, preach on the wickedness, preach on the crazy stuff and they'll either
respond if they're good over time or they're going to eventually just end up not being
able to deal with it because the light's just going to shine on them and shine on all their
wickedness and you're exposing them to the church, right?
He said you've got to purge yourself of these and that's God's way of dealing with them.
If they're genuine, they'll have to respond to the preaching, won't they?
If you're genuine and you want to live for God and you want to get sin out of your life,
you want to serve God, you want to do the things that God and you're hearing it preach,
preach, preach, well, you've got a couple of options, haven't you?
You either go, I don't want to live for God and you leave the church or you start getting
right and you don't go, oh, I just, you know, I can't believe he dared to preach on my sin.
Oh, well, yeah, we've all got sin.
You need to sort it out.
You need to try and get right, okay?
And that's what hard preaching does, it purges.
It cleans up the church.
It shines light on bad stuff, on wicked stuff, and it makes it harder for those types of
people to operate to the point where eventually they either get more and more desperate and
expose themselves or they leave.
And when they're not, like, that's what the light does.
The light will shine on the insects, the light will shine on all sorts.
The hard preaching protects the church and exposes the tactics of the devil's people.
That's what it does.
You know, when I was, when we started this church, you know, we had some real bad people
in our church, but you know what?
They just gave me so much material to preach on.
They got me preaching hard early.
I mean, I was like, you know, because at first it would have been tough if it had just been
all these people that, you know, you get, you know, they're like your friends, they're
your brothers and sisters in Christ and it's like, I've seen this sin, it's going to be
a bit uncomfortable preaching on it.
But you know what?
These people are so wicked, you're like, I've got to preach this stuff because they're just
poisoning, poisoning, poisoning.
So then you're preaching hard, you're preaching hard, you're preaching hard.
And you know what?
You quickly get used to preaching hard.
And eventually it just exposes, exposes, exposes, exposes to those that have got their eyes
open.
It helps open other people's eyes.
In hindsight, many people open their eyes afterwards.
And that's what hard preaching does.
The result of continuously purging church, bearing more and more fruit.
Because that's what ultimately happens.
You purge out the wickedness and more and more fruit is buried because you've got a
church of people who are more likely to be wanting to serve the Lord, right?
Turn back to 2 Timothy 4, the title is the need for hard preaching churches.
Number one, they're biblical.
Number two, they get results.
Number three, they're continuously purging.
And number four, they save nations.
Hard preaching churches save nations.
Believe me, 2 Timothy 4, he said in verse one, he said, I charge thee therefore before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ shall judge the quick and the dead that is appearing in
his kingdom.
Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all
longsuffering and doctrine for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but after all lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they shall
turn away their ears from the truth shall be turned unto fables.
But what thou in all things endure afflictions through the work of an evangelist, make full
proof of thy ministry.
He said, do the work of an evangelist.
He said, make full proof of thy ministry.
Doing the work of evangelists is one way that you'll make full proof of your ministry because
it will save the nation that you're in as well.
So not only will it keep you as a genuine church, but it also affect the nation you're
in.
It will make full proof of your ministry.
Turn to Genesis 18.
For a church to do the work of evangelists, it needs to be hard preaching.
We've just discussed that.
If we stopped hard preaching as a church, the evangelism will get less and less.
The sin will increase, will weigh people down.
One of the things we preach hard about is going out and preach the gospel, don't we?
And for good reason, because that's our job.
That's the job of a church.
No, it's not just some like, you know, NIFB thing.
Oh, it's, oh, well, yeah, you know, they just go on about soul winning.
Yeah, because the Bible tells to go out and soul win.
Okay, we're told to soul win.
We're commanded to soul win.
That's our job.
That's our ministry.
We're ambassadors for Christ.
We've been given a ministry of reconciliation.
Any church that's not encouraging you and trying to get you revved up and get you out
soul winning, they're not right with God.
Because that's the whole point.
How do people get saved?
By someone going to preach the gospel to them.
By someone bothering to open their Bible and preach the gospel to them.
And if we didn't preach that from behind this pulpit slowly, the soul winning will get less
and less and less and less.
We're just trying to be what God wants us to be, a genuine church.
And people can't hack that.
That's the reality of it.
And what they can't hack is a hard preaching, exhorting them to go out and preach the gospel.
But he said here, he said, he said to make foolproof of our ministry.
And like I said, it needs to be hard preaching it and soul winning therefore then will save
a nation.
Proverbs 14.34, you're turning to Genesis 18, but Proverbs 14.34 says, Righteousness
exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.
So righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.
Do you know what lifts up a nation?
Well that righteousness.
Do you know what makes someone righteous in God's eyes?
Salvation.
It's salvation.
It's Jesus Christ's perfect righteousness imputed unto them.
See when you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ's righteousness was imputed
unto you.
So the more people that get saved, the more righteousness there is in a nation.
Agreed?
Because God looks down and sees Jesus Christ's perfect righteousness on not just that one
person but that person they got saved and that person they got saved, that person they
got saved.
You know, God willing, maybe one of those will go out and get some people saved.
And the more people that get saved, the more righteousness there is in a nation, yeah?
The more saved people in a nation and even in a city, the more exalted that place will
be in God's eyes.
So the more up here it will be compared with somewhere else down here that hasn't got anyone
saved in it, right?
And we see a great example of that in Genesis chapter 18 where God's about to destroy the
wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and others surrounding.
It says in verse 23 of Genesis 18, and Abraham drew near and said, will thou also destroy
the righteous with the wicked?
So Abraham's saying, well, you're about to destroy this place.
But he knew that he had his nephew Lot in there.
So Lot was a righteous man.
He's described as righteous Lot.
He was a saved guy.
Now he wasn't a guy that was very right with God in any other way, right?
He was living in Sodom, calling wicked Sodomites his brethren.
However, he was a saved man.
And Abraham's saying, look, he can like kill some righteous people as well, where you raise
this wicked place to the ground.
He said, peradventure, maybe there'd be 50 righteous within the city.
Will thou also destroy and not spare the place for the 50 righteous that are therein?
That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, and
that the righteous should be as the wicked?
Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?
And the Lord said, if I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city, then I will spare all the
place for their sake.
So God was willing to spare that wicked place for 50 righteous people, 50 saved people in
Sodom, and he wouldn't have destroyed it.
The judgment of God would not have come upon that place for 50 people.
Well, it wasn't just 50 people though.
Abraham keeps questioning him, and eventually God reveals that he would have spared it for
10 saved people.
No, and we talked about this when we studied through Genesis, he wasn't bartering with
him.
He was just trying to understand God's will, trying to understand God's ways, and eventually
finds out, no, he wouldn't have even destroyed it for 10 people.
Says in verse 32, and he said, oh, let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but
this once.
Peradventure, 10 shall be found there.
And he said, I will not destroy it for 10 sakes.
This is verse 32, sorry, by the way, and verse 33, and the Lord went his way as soon as he
had left communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned unto his place.
What do you think the ratios are needed here in England?
Anyone's got any ideas?
We don't know yet.
But what we do know is that we need soul winners going out and preach the gospel.
What are the ratios needed in Exeter, do you think?
And you know, you go, well, is God going to rain down fine brimstone?
Maybe it won't be fine brimstone.
Maybe he'll do what he's done to certain cities and certain towns throughout the UK, and look
literally, they get flooded by hordes of Muslims.
How about that?
And you go, oh, come on, you know, what's the problem?
Talk to some of the children.
Talk to some of the young girls in these towns and see what's happened with just floods of
Muslims coming into a town, into a city.
People that worship, whose number one prophet up there is an open paedophile.
I mean, it's completely messed up.
And that is a judgment upon places, isn't it?
Where you've got hordes of Muslim, you know, the equivalent would be maybe the Philistines
in the Bible or something, just coming in and invading and taking over whole places.
Who's to say that won't happen in Exeter?
Or maybe another way that that place might get judged.
You know what would stop that happening?
More righteous people, more saved people, soul winning.
The only way that's going to happen is people going out and preaching the gospel.
People getting saved.
How do we get people saved in Exeter?
We need hard preaching churches.
Because the work, it's really hard to maintain that work without the churches.
It's not happening.
You look at all those other churches, do you know, it doesn't matter.
The ones that are actually, that do have the word of God, that do believe the gospel, that
do do some form of outreach.
Do you know why they're not just tearing it up, preaching the gospel?
Week in, week out and have different times.
I'll tell you why, because there's no hard preaching.
And slowly it will peter out and peter out and peter out to the point where maybe the
pastor goes out and hands the tracts out.
And it gets, it gets that bad because there's no hard preaching.
And do you know what?
It will, sadly, it will peter out here.
Look, there's a few people here in the room tonight that are going out and preaching the
gospel a couple of times a week on average in Exeter.
And praise God for that, right?
And do you know what, the people of Exeter, if they really, if they really had spiritual
glasses on, they really knew the truth.
Those people should really just be saying, thank you, thank you.
You're changing this, you're changing this area, you're changing this city.
But that's really hard to maintain without a local church preaching to you three times
a week, preaching hard, preaching the whole council of God, encouraging you to do the
things of God.
We need hard preaching churches.
How'd you get that?
Well, you work for God.
You show God that your city is ready for a church.
You know, a church isn't, it's not, it's not like a prerequisite.
It's not something that people just deserve.
A church comes because there are people there willing and ready to serve God.
There needs to be the people or what's the church even doing?
Who's it going to send out?
People don't just come into, churches like ours, real legitimate churches, aren't just
going to fill up unless you start really compromising.
You know how they start slowly growing is by people doing the work, but to even have
that church in person, you've got people ready to do the work.
You need to show God that you're ready for a church here, right?
You need to keep doing the work.
The title is The Need for Hard Preaching Churches.
Number one, they're biblical.
Number two, they get results.
Number three, they're continuously purging.
Number four, they save nations.
And you know, you could add to that, they save areas.
And the more we have hard preaching churches in this nation, the more this nation, I think,
will be spared in one way or another.
The more this nation will improve with that righteousness that will exalt a nation up
here in God's eyes.
But we need the hard preaching churches to have those hard preaching churches, you know
what we need?
We need people out soul winning.
We need people saving, we need people going out and getting people saved, basically.
And you know what, we hope we're here because we're hoping that we can inspire something
to happen here.
If it doesn't happen here, then hopefully it'll happen somewhere else and we'll just
keep trying to find a place where we can get churches planted because this nation needs
hard preaching churches.
On that, we're going to finish up in a word of prayer.
Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for how clear you make it, how you just show us how you want us to be as preachers
of your word, as churches, Lord.
So we're not guessing, we're not wondering, well, how does God want it done?
Because we have the word of God which tells exactly how you want it done.
And help us to not have our heads turned by all these sorts of various compromises, liberal,
so-called churches out there trying to do it in weird and wacky ways, Lord.
Just help us to just be firm and strong in just the clear teachings of your word, how
to preach, how to get this nation exalted, Lord, by just hard preaching and soul winning,
Lord.
Help us to get many people saved.
Help us to inspire others to do the same.
Help us to have a great day tomorrow, Lord, and help us to get many people saved and extra
and encourage them to get involved with the work for you, Lord.
Try and just help them to get their hearts right and want to serve you.
Help us to just get home from this service safely this evening and obviously all back
to our homes safely on Saturday evening and just known for all this.
Amen.