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Amen. OK, so you're in 2 Timothy chapter 4 and the books of 1 Timothy, often known as the Pastoral Epistles in 2 Timothy, where we are. We're in 2 Timothy now. Paul is basically instructing Timothy, who's a young preacher. And 2 Timothy 4 is the last chapter of these two epistles, these two letters. And he gives this command at the beginning of chapter 4 that we've just read from verse 1. I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his 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 their own lush shall they heap themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. And the title of my sermon today is The UK Needs Hard Preaching. The UK needs hard preaching. Let's start with a quick word of prayer. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that you make it clear to us how you want us to preach your word. I pray that you just fill me with the spirit now, help me to preach accurately, help me to preach boldly, help people to just have attentive ears and help us to take what you want us to take from this message today. In Jesus' name, pray all of this. Amen. When I first got saved, this is now about seven and a half years ago and I was reading my Bible. Fortunately, right at the beginning, I was convicted about reading the Bible and I was reading the Bible and I was searching for churches. And I was, you know, I went to a few different types of churches. I was looking for some online. I was going along to these these church, trying to find what I considered to be the right church. But something was missing. So something was missing in these churches. Something was missing really in my life as a Christian. I was a new Christian. I had the word of God. I knew the King James was the word of God, but something was missing. And like I say, I listened to preaching in church. So I was listening to preaching online as well. And I remember through some wicked radio station called Premier Christian Radio. Unfortunately, I got put under some pretty bad preaching through that as well. And some of what I listened to were false prophets as well. And still something was missing. And eventually I stumbled across an old preacher called, he liked to be known as Brother Jack Hyles, Pastor Jack Hyles. And I stumbled across him through some website that was kind of promoting him. And wow, I knew I was listening to some preaching now. OK, and when I started listening to this preaching, I started I started making changes in my life and he was preaching on sin. He was preaching on many things. He's preaching on soul winning. I started soul winning. I wanted to preach the gospel. He convicted me about that and he really did make a difference to my life. Now, I was going to church, I was going to church, you know, from early on, me and my family were going to church. And we became part of a church for quite a while at the beginning, which was a pretty liberal, pretty weak church. But I was still having to listen online because nothing was like this preaching. OK, now I wanted soul winning advice a bit further down the line. And I was looking around and, you know, I'll be listening to Brother Hyles for a while. And then I stumbled across Pastor Steven Anderson and again, just straight away. And I'd actually been put off him by the pre-Tribbers. OK, early on. And oh, you don't want to go pre-Trib and all of this. Well, when I started listening to him, I thought, wow, OK. And this guy is preaching some truth. Yeah. And again, I carried on cleaning up my life. He carried on making changes in my life, carried on convicting me about obviously soul winning and many other parts of my life as well. And I continue to grow. I continue to grow as a Christian. Even I was in some some pretty terrible churches. Why is that? Was it because they were just such gifted orators? Was it that these men just had the gift of the gab? I don't think they do. In fact, they're very different to each other. If you've if you've listened to both those pre-Tribbers, they preach differently. They have different styles. They they preach very differently. And they actually believe some different stuff as well. And obviously not on the fundamentals, but they believe some different stuff on other doctrines as well. But it wasn't just Easter either. So, you know, with time I was listening to some lesser known preachers, preachers that people probably might not have heard of. Some that people do. People that don't don't have as much of a big name in real Christianity. I'm talking about here because I'm not comparing to televangelists and the rest of the false prophets. Again, I was listening to, like I said, I was listening to many people that, again, helped me to grow as a Christian. What did they all have in common? They were all preaching hard. OK, they were all hard preachers. And a preacher is commanded to preach hard, isn't he? OK, a preacher is commanded to preach hard. Now, why am I preaching this message today? Because the remaining churches in this country aren't doing this, are they? OK, they're not preaching hard because newer people in this church need to understand why I believe we're different to those churches. Because established people in this church need reminding why we're different and need reminding why why we preach how we preach here. Because the UK needs hard preaching. OK, the UK needs hard preaching. Now, number one on this topic is hard preaching is a command. OK, hard preaching is a command. Now, while you're sitting there and in case you're sitting there going, well, I don't know, I've heard some hard preaching, by the way, you're not hard. Well, let's let's try and understand what hard preaching actually is. Hard preaching, look, screaming about fags is needed sometimes. Yeah, OK, nothing wrong with that. OK, nothing wrong with screaming about the wickedness in this world. That's not necessarily what I'm talking about with hard preaching. OK, 2 Timothy 4 and verse one. Paul 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 doctrine. Now, God is speaking through Paul, I think everyone here probably understands that. If you don't look, you know, the Bible is written by people that are inspired by God, it's God speaking through men. OK, and he said, basically, God said, I charge thee. OK, that means I command you, I order you. OK, what did he charge or command or order the preacher to do? Well, look at verse two, to preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. So did he really mean to just quietly teach and make sure you don't offend anyone? Was that what he said to do? No, he said, I command you to preach the word, I command you to reprove and rebuke. Now, again, we're not going to turn there, but Isaiah was commanded to cry, which means to shout aloud and spare not. Jeremiah was commanded to go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem. Ezekiel was commanded to cry and howl. I haven't tried the howling bit yet, but I might do some further down the line when I get more confident. OK, but he was commanded to cry and howl. And when you rebuke, sometimes you shout, don't you? When you rebuke, sometimes you shout, you don't always shout. And it's not all about the shouting, is it? Because you can shout all you like. It doesn't mean it's hard preaching. You've probably heard preachers. You've heard people that have tried to just shout for the sake of shouting. But that ain't hard preaching, OK? What is the command? The command, he says first here in verse one, he says, sorry, in verse two, preach the word. And that's pretty much most churches, inverted commas, in this country disqualified, isn't it? OK, because they don't preach the word, because to preach the word, you've got to have the word, don't you? And if you're preaching out of any of the many false barbers, you're not preaching the word. OK, you're not preaching the word of God. There's only one word of God. If a church is a pillar and ground of the truth, then you've got to be preaching the truth, haven't you? You've got to have the truth in the first place. And there can only be one truth, can't there? There's only one truth. We have that one truth, the King James Bible. And it's pretty clear to anyone, isn't it? The King James Bible is the word of God. Yeah, that is the truth. Instead of saying, well, this translation said this and this one said that, they ain't preaching the word. They're not preaching the truth. Instead of saying, yea, hath God said, which is what they all pretty much say, don't they? The so-called churches, our sort of church says thus saith the Lord, right? OK, thus saith the Lord. In 2 Timothy 4.1, he said, I charge thee therefore. What's a therefore there for? Well, back up to the end of chapter three and verse 16. I remember when this was written, it didn't have chapters. It was one letter which just a couple of verses earlier said, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It 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. So not only do we believe God when he said it was inspired, but we also believe him when he said he would preserve it, don't we? Fancy that. We actually believe more than just that it was inspired, that it would actually be preserved like he promised to. In Matthew 24.35, Jesus said, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. He promised his words. Words, plural, shall not pass away, not just the general gist of them, didn't he? Psalm 12, verses six, seven say, the words of the Lord are pure words of silver tried in the furnace, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them for this generation forever. I believe God and I hope everyone here believes God as well. We have the words and we're commanded to preach the word, aren't we? We're commanded to preach them. And that means the whole counsel of God, though, doesn't it? OK, we're commanded to preach the whole counsel of God. That means the bits that people might not like, the bits that are going to offend people, the bits that are going to make people feel uncomfortable, the bits that might make a preacher feel uncomfortable, the bits that might make people listening. We're told to preach it all, aren't we? The bits that the world hates, we're commanded to preach the word. The whole counsel of God, not preach a few words at an hour of our own thoughts. OK, and many people do that, don't they? Use a verse and then just preach their own thoughts. Give a little worldly, you know, talk to everyone for an hour. Not preach someone else's commentary, because many do that, don't they? And how many churches are still preaching someone else's commentary? And just and whether it's their, you know, their teacher at Bible College or whether it's some, you know, Schofield or whoever it is, a lot of people are just preaching someone else's commentary. Poetry, sometimes they're just preaching poetry. I heard that before. These sermons, they just start reading your poems and got nothing to do with the word of God. And again, I've heard it, I've been there, I've listened to it. That's not what we're told to do, is it? How about preaching religious theme novels? OK, in England, they love C.S. Lewis, don't they? Oh, I would just quote C.S. Lewis, quote this about C.S. Lewis. The guy's a heretic. Yeah. Oh, but we sound so intelligent. C.S. Lewis, he's a heretic. Why are you quoting him behind a pulpit? He said, preach the word. Why? Why? Because all scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Is it profitable to make you slap each other on the back about how spiritual you are? Is that what it said? All scripture is profitable to make you feel really good about yourself and to go home saying how spiritual you are and what a good Christian you are. Profitable for feel good messages before singing Kumbaya together? No. Profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Now, all scripture, that means Old and New Testament, doesn't it? All scripture. That means that Leviticus 20 is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, right? Doesn't it? Hebrews 4-12 says, for the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints of marin is a discernment of the thoughts and intents of the heart. That's why. Yeah, because it's the word of God that does that. It's not something else that does that. It's not the poem that does that. It's not C.S. Lewis that does that. It's not whoever, you name it, whatever, intellectual. It's the word of God. It's not quotes by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. However intelligent it makes you feel. However well read it makes you feel quoting him. That's not what does it, is it? It's the word of God. But the command is to preach the word, isn't it? Not just read the word. Not just read the word. Turn to Nehemiah chapter eight. We should all be reading the word and there's nothing wrong with reading the word here together. Obviously before a service, before a sermon. So we'll read the word of God. But we need it taught and preached too, don't we? And listen, I've been at both ends of the spectrum. I've been at the one one verse springboard sermons. And I've also been in many sermons where they literally just read verse after verse after verse from the Bible with maybe a word if you're lucky in between. OK, that's not what a preacher's commanded to do. Nehemiah chapter eight and from verse one. The Bible reads, and all the people, Nehemiah eight one, and all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the Watergate, and they spake under Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. This is just a great example of how it was done. And Ezra the priest brought before, excuse me, the law before the congregation, both the men and women and all that could hear with understanding upon the first day of the seventh month. That's a saved, isn't it? All that could hear with understanding because church is a congregation of believers. OK, and the sermon is for believers. OK, that's why we don't preach the gospel here. Week in, week out in various different ways of preaching it, while the rest of you are just sitting there going, hundredth time. Well, thank you for that, because there's one person we think might be unsaved here. OK, here he's preaching all that could hear with understanding. That for me is the saved. That's why we preach messages to the saved. OK. Verse three, and he read therein before the street that was before the Watergate from the morning until midday, before the men and women and those that could understand the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattathiah and Shema and Aniah and Urijah and Hilkiah and Maasiah on his right hand, on his left hand, Padiah and Mishael and Malchiah and Haisham and Hashbadanah, Zechariah and Meshulam. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for it is above all the people, and when he opened it, all the people stood up. And some churches do that, by the way, they stand up when the Bible is read. Nothing wrong with that. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. Not so great when it's the longer chapters, but there you go. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Some reverence there, isn't there? Some reverence in prayer. How else are we told to bless and worship God, by the way? Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, right? Make your joyful noise. OK, just a point there. We should be reverent when we do that, guys. Just remember that. OK, it's not a big laugh, a joke. See how loud you can shout, kids. Yeah, OK. We should be singing. We're singing to God. We're bit in reverent worship of God. OK, everyone should remember that. OK, verse seven. And also Jeshua, Banai and Cherubiah, Jamin, Akub, Shabbathai, Hoduja, Maasiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hainan, Paliah and the Levites caused the people to understand the law and the people stood in their place. These were the guys invited to the Red Hot preaching conference that year. Yeah, but notice how they caused the people to understand the law. OK, so this is obviously like a big old preaching session here. A lot of guys preaching here. They caused the people to understand the law. So look at verse eight. So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. OK, distinctly, they focused in on paths. They gave the sense. They showed the application. That caused them to understand. OK, and that's what we try and do here. That's what that's what good churches should try and do, shouldn't they? OK, verse nine. And they admire which is the Ter-Shartha and Ezra, the priests, the scribe and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the Lord your God. Mourn not, nor weep, for all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. And that's what we would now call crying. They all wept. That was some hard preaching, right? That was some hard preaching. OK, and you know, it's hard preaching when you go out of there crying. OK, and that's what that's what every good preacher should be aiming for. Tears. OK, but look, go back to second Timothy four. That's a great example, though, there, isn't it? Of what was being done thousands of years ago. And two thousand years ago, God, through Paul, commanded Timothy, a preacher, knowing that that we would all be reading this many, many years down the line. He said, Preach the word. Be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. Now, what's this be instant in season, out of season? I think this literally means to be ready to preach, whether at a good or bad time. That's what I believe it means. I've also heard it described as in and out of fashion. You could, you know, nothing wrong with that as well. But I think it's just saying whether at a good or bad time, you need to be ready. You need to be urgently ready to preach. Preachers need to be prepared, whatever the weather, don't they? OK, whatever's going on, they need to be ready to preach. The sheep need feeding, don't they? Reprove, rebuke. Now, reprove is to blame or convince of a fault. Repuke is basically a harsher version of that. It's a telling off. A preacher is commanded to show you your faults, to tell you off. Doesn't sound like fun, does it? OK, a preacher is commanded to do that. That's his job. That's what he's commanded by God to do, isn't he? OK, and that's what I mean, why is he told to do that? Because it's good for us, OK, because it's good for you. But although he's commanded to tell you your faults, to tell you off, it's not just you that needs reprove from rebuke. Turn to Ephesians five. Obviously, keep a finger in secretivity for we're going to be going back there. But turn to Ephesians five, because the preacher's commanded to reprove and rebuke. And obviously that that includes the people that are there in the room. But Ephesians five, verse 11 says, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. That for me means reprove the rules of the darkness of this world as well. And we see examples of that throughout scripture. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done to them in secret. Ideally, we wouldn't have to speak about the things which go on. But verse 13, but all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. For whatsoever does make manifest is light. We're commanded to shine the light on these scumbags, aren't we? We're commanded as preachers to shine the light on these people. And that's not just saying, well, the world is bad. That's naming the wickedness, isn't it? Shining the light, naming the wickedness that goes on in the world, naming the filth. Now, what's the argument? Why don't preachers do this? Romans 13, Romans 13, isn't that to get out? Oh, but Romans 13 says that every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God, the powers that be are ordained of God. Yes, we should obey the government, shouldn't we? But not if it means disobeying God. OK, we should obey the government, but not if it's disobeying God. Because I don't know about you, pastor, I would obey Stalin. Pastor, I do what Pol Pot tells me to do. Yeah, but my highest power is the Lord. My highest power is God. And he said to approve darkness, didn't he? He said to approve and rebuke. So, yeah, we obey laws, sure, but we're told to approve, rebuke darkness. OK, because I've heard, I've heard, say, oh, well, they, you know, I remember them saying about Kent Hovind, I think, oh, yeah, I wouldn't listen to Kent Hovind. He once joked about Hillary Clinton and Mr Clinton. Wow. I mean, funny, because Jesus said, go tell Herod that fox, didn't he? Yeah. What was it he calling the Pharisees, the rulers, the leaders there? He was calling them parasites, wasn't he? He was calling them vipers, serpents. So how about we stop hiding behind Romans 13 in this country, right? How about that and say we ought to obey God rather than men? Yeah. God said, God said to preach the word, be innocent in season, out of season, approve, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. Right. That's the soft bit, isn't it? Is that the feel good message? Is that the preacher with his arm around you now and stroke you and say, come on, you can, you can do it, you can do it. Is that what it means? Well, exhort is to incite by words and actions to good deeds. Long suffering is patience, but also bearing provocation for a long time, and doctrine is something taught teaching, but specifically the truths of the Bible, right? What's the goal of hard preaching? To incite, to spur the listener onto good deeds, isn't it? So when we're told to reprove, rebuke, exhort, I would say the reprove and the rebuke is exalting you, is encouraging you and inciting you to good deeds. That's the idea, isn't it? That's the idea of hard preaching to incite you to soul win. Isn't it? Is that not the goal of hard preaching? To incite you to read your Bibles. To incite you to prayer, to incite you to being a good church member, to incite you to living right, to incite you to getting sin out of your life. Look around hard preaching churches, churches which actually preach on this stuff, and you're going to see, you're going to see a difference, aren't you? I've seen that. I've seen that people that listen to hard preaching. There's a difference, isn't there? No, they're not perfect. Yes, they'll get many things wrong. Yes, they're still going to sin. Yes, we're all sinners, but there's a difference, isn't there? Yeah, there's a difference in churches which preach it. He said, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. And look, that could take long suffering from a preacher, can't it? And it can also take proper doctrine. It needs proper doctrine. If we were preaching, if someone was preaching a church like this. Yeah, I reckon that you should maybe try soul winning sometime. Probably a good thing to at least try and try and say something about Jesus. Would everyone be going out soul winning week in, week out? If I was shouting from the pulpit, God does the saving. God does the saving, not you. OK, do you think everyone would be going out soul winning? Everyone go, yeah, you really? Look, yeah, sure. Jesus Christ did the hard bit, but we still are told to go out and save people, aren't we? Yeah. You know, some have compassion, make a difference. Others save, yeah? Saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire. OK, we are told to save people, aren't we? OK. But when we preach Jesus saying, go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature, that should incite people to go out and preach, isn't it? To preach the gospel. That's the point, but it's with the right doctrine, isn't it? With true doctrine. It incites you, hopefully, to go and preach. If we said, if I said behind the pulpit, try and read a bit of Bible, if you can. Do a devotional, you know, once, maybe once a day, if you can. It would be good if you tried to read your Bible sometimes. Are people just going to, are they going to persevere through that? Some might, many won't. If I was just saying, yeah, well, it's a good translation. King James, it's a fine translation. It's a good translation. But those King James translators still got much wrong. Yeah, because my Greek is a bit better than them and my Hebrew. Yeah, is it? Would that encourage you to want to read your Bible? If you had, if I was just saying that, and I've been in churches, King James only churches that try and sow seeds of doubt about the word of God. But when we preach, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. Hopefully, that makes you want to go home and read every word. Yeah, read your every word Bible, because we have an every word Bible, don't we? It exhorts you to read that Bible. I hope it does. Now, preaching those messages time and time again. It takes long suffering. OK, it does take long suffering for a preacher. But that doctrine, that that reproof, that rebuking should exhort. OK, that's why we need hard preaching to encourage you, to incite you to do good things for God. That's why God commands hard preaching. And the UK needs hard preaching. So number one, hard preaching is a command. Number two, hard preaching isn't always fun. Hard preaching isn't always fun. Now, second Timothy, chapter four, verse one read, I charge thee. Therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead, it is appearing and his kingdom. He's charging or commanding Timothy, isn't he? Because contrary to popular belief, hard preaching isn't always a load of fun for the preacher, because people, I think, sit there, go, you just want to have a go. You're just enjoying telling people off, telling people about their sins. Look, it can be fun to rip on false religions. OK, of course. Who wouldn't enjoy that? Yeah. Ripping on the sodomites, ripping on the false prophets. Now, that's fun. OK, that bit's good. You can't do that every week, unfortunately. But most preachers, most probably aren't rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of having to preach some hard messages to their congregation. OK, to preach on some of those sins that you know it's going to affect people in the church. You know that that person's going to growl and grumble and probably go and have a little moan about you and everything else. It's not necessarily fun, but we're commanded to do it, aren't we? OK, Timothy was commanded to do it. That's why he's commanded and not told, look, just go and have a laugh and, you know, preach, preach and enjoy it. Preaching can be fun. Preaching can be enjoyable, but it's a command because it's not always easy. OK, those hard messages, hard messages telling you that you need to sort yourself out and be a better church member. OK, especially when you're in a room that's small. When you're in a room that's small, you know there are people there going, I know he's talking to me. I know he's talking to you. Sometimes you are, yeah, talking to someone. Yeah. But that's what preaching is about, isn't it? OK, that's what preaching is about. It's not always fun being there come rain or shine. That's why it needs long suffering, isn't it? OK. He's saying, I command you, Timothy. He said, I charge thee therefore before God. I command you, Timothy. Saying, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge and quicken the dead, it is appearing in his kingdom. Saying, you want rewards when you see Jesus, you better preach the word. You're put in a position here, preach the word. But at the time, it can also not be so fun for the listener, can it? OK, it's not just the preacher that sometimes has times where it's not so enjoyable. What about for the listener? Verse two said, Preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. The reprove, rebuke isn't necessarily enjoyable all the time, is it? Especially at the time, especially when you feel like, no, that's me. Actually, that's me getting nailed to the wall here. OK, that's me getting preached at. That's my sin getting preached at. It's not always enjoyable, but the results should be enjoyable, shouldn't they? The aim is the results, the goal is the results of the preaching. If your kids were enjoying every rebuke you gave them, do you think it would be effective? Do you expect your kids, when they're getting rebuked, to go away with a big grin on their face going, thank you so much for that. I really needed that telling off. No, yeah, probably be a bad rebuke. OK. That's not what the rebuke is doing, is it? At the time, it's not always nice. At the time, we talked about before, when you're getting that spiritual slap around the face, because the word of God does that, doesn't it? And by the way, not always. Not always is a preacher thinking, you. And sometimes you feel like they are. But a lot of the time, it's just the word of God. It's the Holy Spirit just whooping you. OK, just ripping your face off. Yeah, that happens. It's not nice when it happens. But the results, the results are what's important, aren't they? Yeah, that's the point in hard, hard preaching. Think about hard physical training. Anyone that's done any sort of sport or anything at the time when you're when you're lifting that weight and you can't get, you're not going, I'm just loving this. Well, you can't even lift it and you're crying out. You know, obviously, you know, I think a lot about combat sports. Some of that training is hard. You're not there going, I'm just so enjoying this. When the padmans are screaming more, more, more, and you can't, you can barely even lift your hands up when you're. What about when you're spying with someone, when you're spying, you're tired and someone's just beating you about the place. But the results, you get better, you get stronger. Sometimes you need a whipping. Sometimes we need a whipping, don't we? We need a whipping in life. And you know what it does, what or what it needs. OK, it actually takes take something in you to be able to take that whipping and get back up and carry on and get stronger from it, doesn't it? Turn to Proverbs chapter nine. And unfortunately, some can't take a whipping. Some people just can't take a whipping. I've seen it in sport where, like I said, talking about the Thai boxing, they'll swerve the sparring. Yeah, they'll come up with an excuse every week. Brother Adam, hey, they come up with an excuse. They'll keep coming up with a reason why they can't spar or what. Oh, I've got a bit of a gammy leg today. You think it's funny you walked in here fine. Oh, I've got you know, I've got to get away this week. I forgot my gum shield. I forgot that people come up with the excuses. Maybe they blame the preacher when it comes to a spiritual whipping. Oh, well, you see, he's just he's just saying that because he doesn't understand. Oh, he's just getting at me. Maybe they shut their ears. Maybe they just shut their ears and think about something else or just convince themselves that it's got nothing to do with them, that that sin that's being called out doesn't affect them. Maybe that's why God said to Isaiah in Isaiah 58, verse one, cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression and the house of Jacob, their sins, because it's harder to ignore someone when they're shouting, isn't it? Yeah, when you're crying aloud, it's a bit hard to pretend you miss that bit, to convince yourself or maybe your family or whoever with you. Just pretend I didn't hear that bit. So he said, cry aloud, shout it. He said, show them, show my people their transgression, the house of Jacob, their sins. Show them their transgression, their sins. That's what a preacher's commanded to do, isn't he? Proverbs chapter nine, you turn to look at verse seven, says he that reproveth the scorn getteth to himself shame and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot. A blot is scorn or reproach. Reprove not a scorn, lest he hate thee. Rebuke a wise man and he will love thee. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser. Teach a just man and he will increase in learning. It's the improvement that's the goal, isn't it? Anything to improve, a lot of the time you have to go through maybe a bit of a whooping, a bit of a beating, a bit of a hard time sometimes, but it's the improvement, isn't it? Give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser. Teach a just man and he will increase in learning. And look, we can all learn from the word of God, can't we? OK, every single person here can learn from the word of God, can learn from it being preached to us. That's why Proverbs 27 five says, open rebuke is better than secret love. OK, open rebuke. That's that's what God calls for. That's what God commands a preacher to do. Why? Because it's better for everyone. Because it might be negative. It might be hard. You might feel like, you know, this preacher's getting at me. The word of God is getting at me. But the idea is that you improve from it. OK, that's why we're here. Are we not here to improve? Are we not here to live for God? Are we not here to become better people? Are we not here to serve God and go out and preach the gospel as well? OK, and all of this needs preaching, doesn't it? Second Timothy, chapter four. If you go back there, because some of the doctrine, some of the teachings of the Bible can be hard to swallow, can't they? Can't they? Some of the doctrine, some of the teachings. Look at verse three. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lustre they heap themselves, teachers having itching ears. Endure means to bear or sustain. OK, to bear or sustain, to endure it. You need endurance to deal with hard preaching. Don't you? You need it. It could be tough. You could probably be coming along on a Sunday going, what's it going to be this time? What's going to be preached this time? It's going to hurt. It's going to maybe kick me up the bum. Maybe it won't. But you need endurance if you're going to respond to it as well. You need endurance if you're going to listen, if you're going to listen to that preaching, you're going to want to make a difference in your life. And look, listening online is different to listening in a room. OK, listening online is so much different. Yeah, there are many people here that have listened to, probably still listen to good preaching. OK, and yeah, we've all learnt from it. And like I said earlier, it was a preacher online that was improving me. But there's something different when you're in the room and it's being preached at you, because when you're online, you could just switch off to certain bits. You could choose. It's different if someone's preaching a sin that you know is your sin and it's being preached at you that week. And then next week you come back and you're just carrying on with the same sin, carrying on with the same sin. That takes a front, doesn't it? OK, that actually that's harder to do. When it's online, you do it in your own time, can't you? And sometimes our own time is no time, isn't it? OK, but it's a different thing being in the room, listening to something being preached, which you know affects you with the Holy Spirit, with a preacher preaching the word of God to you. OK, but but it can be negative. It's not always fun. The sound doctrine, the true teachings can be hard sometimes, but they improve you, don't they? They improve you. Hard preaching isn't always fun, but it should get the results. It should get the results, but it still comes down to you, doesn't it? OK, it's not the preacher's fault. If you're sitting there and you're just turning off switch, you're like, I'm not doing any of it, I ain't a preacher, that's you. OK, because if the word of God is being preached, you need to clean your life up. That's that's what the result that God wants from it. Hard preaching isn't always fun. So the UK needs hard preaching. Hard preaching is a command. Hard preaching isn't always fun because it can be fun when you're listening to someone just shouting about stuff that's got that doesn't affect you. It can be fun when you could just, you know, put it over there. Well, it might affect me a little bit, but he's preaching to his church. It's different when you're in a room, isn't it? Number three, hard preaching isn't popular. Hard preaching, believe it or not, isn't actually popular. What you mean, some people don't like having their face ripped off by some preacher. I know it's crazy, isn't it? Isn't that crazy that actually people don't actually enjoy it? Some of us enjoy it, don't we? OK, but a lot of people don't. Verse three says, 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. Who's he talking about, the unsaved world? No believers. He's talking about believers here. I believe he's talking about believers. The time will come when they will not endure the hard truths. They'll go towards the feel good message, the fables. But did Paul say, oh, you better turn it down, you better tone it down, tone it down because they can't deal with the hard preaching. Did he say that? Did he say, look, they don't want to hear that, you better tone it down. For me, he's saying preach hard while they're with you. He's saying preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, approve, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering 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. He's saying you better preach it while you've got them in there. I mean, maybe we need to lock the door and just preach even harder because while you're here, you're going to have to hear it, OK? And he's saying, look, when they come in here, preach to them. That's what I think he's saying there. Because they'll go towards the feel good message, the fables. Verse two, sorry, 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, shall be turned unto fables. When they walk in a church, give them something to remember, give them something to remember, because many will turn away. Many will go to the fun centre. Many will go to the soft sounding preacher. Many will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears because the majority of Christians won't endure it in the long term. Yeah, it's not just that they're unsaved. It's not just if they leave churches like ours. It's because they're wicked. And some some are. It's not just that they were a problem. It's not just, no, sometimes they just can't take it. They can't take the preaching. It's not popular. They can't endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears? They will find the preacher that will say what they want to hear. You can find a preacher that will say what you want to hear, can't you? But you could just keep picky at choosing preachers. Listen to a bit of this, a bit of that and find what you want to hear, can't you? They're all out there. Oh, well, well, Jesus didn't mention this in the New Testament. Jesus didn't mention cross-dressing in the New Testament, so he must not have cared about it. He didn't mention a lot of things. OK, but if he didn't mention it still stands, right? OK, Jesus didn't mention, you know, that men can't dress up as women. Yeah, and act like complete twisted weirdos. So it must be OK. No, I think that went without saying, didn't it? Didn't that go without saying? Jesus didn't mention homosexuality in the New Testament. Yeah, but he did mention it in the Old Testament. He wrote it. He's the word. Yeah. Jesus Christ. Was it just that mean old God from the Old Testament? And by the way, he also didn't mention bestiality. He also didn't mention all sorts of incest. Does that mean that's all OK now as well? No, he didn't need mentioning again because it's clear as day, isn't it? Amen. Well, he might have said to not look at alcohol in the Old Testament, but he turned water into wine in the New Testament. So he must have just changed his mind there without saying anything. No, maybe he actually turned it into fruit juice. Ever thought about that? No, because you want to booze, because you want to find a teacher. You want to heat yourself a teacher to tickle your itching ears. Well, Dr Rabbi Blasphemestein, he really helps me to understand the culture and the nuances of the Bible. So I'll just sit and listen to Dr Rabbi Blasphemestein. Yeah, how about he's a blasphemous devil and you shouldn't listen to anything he has to say, because he's not going to shed any light on the Bible. How do they justify not enduring sound doctrine? I need a more intellectual teacher. I need someone that's going to, because I'm more intellectual, you see, I need someone who's going to appeal to my to my, you know, my wiser brain, my just just grand intellect. I need more preaching on love and sweet things. Yeah, it's just it's just too, too much hate. It's too much hate there. Have you read the Bible? Have you read the Bible? How much negativity is there in the Bible? A lot, isn't there? A lot. Why? Because reprove and rebuke will exhort people, won't it? I need someone with a Sunday school. I need somewhere with a Sunday school to get rid of the kids. No, you all need some hard preaching. Every single one of you needs hard preaching. Kids need hard preaching. Don't they? God, God, he prescribed hard preaching for his people. And if your children are his people, which I hope they are, they need hard preaching, don't they? They need to learn to listen to hard preaching. They need to learn to sit through hard preaching. Some of these compromises, these soppy little sellouts, yeah, and they are everywhere. They say that the hard preachers are carnal. Have you heard this stuff before? It's so carnal, they're so full of hate. They're hate teachers, hate preachers. They come out with that one, don't they? They talk about, I've heard this before, you ever heard about people talking about the abuse of the pulpit? Anyone heard that before? Yeah. Well, I'm not happy with the abuse of the pulpit. What are you doing worshipping the pulpit? The pulpit needs whacking! That the pulpit needs, doesn't it? That's what it's there for. Otherwise, you just have a stand there and you can just have your notes on the stand. No, the pulpit's there to be beaten. They abuse the pulpit. How do you abuse a pulpit? Absolutely ridiculous, isn't it? Because they're so holy, they're so full of love. Because they're so ultra spiritual that nothing fazes them. Nothing winds them up. But God said, be ye angry and sin not. Being angry isn't sinful. Being angry, for not a good reason, could be sinful. Sinning, when you're angry, is sinful. But look, there's something called a righteous anger, isn't there? Okay, and if you're preaching on sin and you're preaching on wickedness and you're not getting at least a little bit worked up, there's something wrong with you. There's something wrong with you. But they're so holy, aren't they? They're so calm, they're so softly spoken and mild-mannered while they preach the Bible, because isn't that how Jesus was? Because according to the old movies, that's how Jesus spoke. Is that how the men of God spoke? They were told to cry aloud. They were told to shout, they were told to howl, to howl. That's why we do it here. That's why we're just trying to do what God wants us to do. Said, they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they heap themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. Fables like the pre-tribulational rapture. They will turn away their ears from the truth and turn unto fables. Even though 2 Thessalonians 2, 3 don't have turn, it says, let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first. And that man of sin be revealed the son of perdition. I mean, how many, verse after verse after verse. They don't even have a verse. But they'll turn their ears to fables, won't they? Why do they turn away their ears from the sound doctrine? Because if they can't even endure sound doctrine, how are they going to endure a tribulation? Yeah, how are they going to endure any tribulation if they can't even endure some hard preaching? Fables like there are special names for Jesus. How about that one? Yeshua, Yahweh, are there any others? Anyone got any others? No? No, I think Yeshua and Yahweh are their favorite. I've got a special name for Jesus, yeah. Because I'm so, you know, I'm just in touch with the Hebrew and everything else. Even though Philippians 2, nine to 10 says, Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, the name of Jesus every niche about, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth. Not the name of Yeshua, not the name of Yahweh, not the name of any of your other nonsense to make you sound so spiritual, because that's what it's about, isn't it? Fables like some continuing special bloodline of so-called Jews that are gonna get themselves some sort of irresistible grace-style salvation because of what, 1% DNA? Well, I mean, how much DNA does it take to get that irresistible grace of salvation? Which by the way, they only get if you actually make it through to that time, you leave it at that time, because the rest of them obviously don't get the irresistible grace of salvation, do they? I mean, the whole thing is absolutely ridiculous, but it's a fable, isn't it? It's a complete fable, even though 1st Timothy 1.4 says, neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith, so do. But there are saved Christians all over this world, especially in this country, out of the Christian churches that are all washed up in this nonsense, that have turned their ears to fables. They turn their ears from the truth and they get turned by the deceivers onto fables, don't they? Why do they turn their ears in the first place? Because the truth is unpopular. The truth is never popular. I mean, in most areas of life, the truth isn't popular, is it? The truth is hard. But hard preaching preaches the truth regardless, doesn't it? Okay, hard preaching preaches the truth. And interestingly, when you actually look at the saved churches in this country, they're pretty much dead, aren't they? Because they're trying to be popular. They're thinking, well, I better not preach on this. I better not preach on that because I'm going to lose Mrs. Miggins and a couple of other people sitting at the back who still make it along and double my attendance. But really, really it's God that grows the church, isn't it? And it's God that's going to add people to it. And if you're not doing what God wants and you're a real church, you ain't going to grow it. Look, I'm not comparing. I'm not going to even bother comparing to the Pentecostal jokes, yeah? With, you know, a thousand unsafe people in there or maybe 999, okay? And I'm not going to compare to any of the, you know, the Catholic mass in the busy, popular area. I'm not comparing the false church. But real churches in this country are dead. They're dead. The few that are left with the right gospel, with the word of God are dead, okay? Why? Why are they dead? Because they're not doing it properly. It might be unpopular, but God will build your church if you preach, if you preach what he wants you to do, if you follow his command. The UK needs hard preaching. Number one, hard preaching is a command. Number two, hard preaching isn't always fun, sometimes, but it isn't always fun. Number three, hard preaching isn't popular, but hard preaching changes lives, okay? Hard preaching changes lives if you're going to let it change your life, okay? The word of God will change your life. The word of God being preached can and will change your life but you've got to let it change your life, don't you? You've got to want to change your life. You could turn up and sit in a church like this, week in, week out for years, grumble and groan in your head and get annoyed and find things to be irritated about and everything else. Yeah, you ain't going to grow just because you're here. You still have to apply it. But the hard preaching, it should spur you on to do that. And without it, turn to Micah chapter three, without hard preaching, this country is in big trouble. Without hard preaching, this country is in trouble. The UK is in trouble. Turn to Micah chapter three, if you're not already turning there. Micah three and from verse one. And I said, here I pray you, O heads of Jacob and ye princes of the house of Israel, is it not for you to know judgment? The leaders of God's people should know judgment, shouldn't they? Verse two, who hate the good and love the evil, who pluck off their skin from off them and their flesh from off their bones. I can think of many pastors like this. Verse three, who also eat the flesh of my people and flay their skin from off them and they break their bones and chop them in pieces as for the pot and as flesh within the cauldron. God's word can be pretty grim, can't it, sometimes? That's a pretty, pretty hard picture there. Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them. He will even hide his face from them at that time as they've behaved themselves ill in their doings. Maybe that's why they seem so out of the spirit, so in error, eh? Because God's not answering them. Verse five, thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth and cry peace, and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him. These are preachers that cause the people to err or be in error. They attack hard preaching, don't they? Sole winning churches whilst claiming to be so loving, so peaceful. And they almost wage war on Christians like us, don't they? Okay, the people that don't feed them, the people that aren't there for them to do that to. Verse six, therefore night shall be unto you, and ye shall not have a vision, and it shall be dark unto you, and ye shall not divine, and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded, yea, they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer of God. That's why these guys seem so confused when they preach, isn't it? Yeah, when they're not doing it God's way, night shall be unto them. They shall not have a vision, it shall be dark unto them, it says here. They shall not divine. That's why they, I mean the nonsense, you hear coming out of these, what seem to be saved men of God's mouth, they just don't have a clue. The day shall be dark over them, the seers shall be ashamed, going on about pre-Trib raptures. The diviners confounded, they're just confused. Yea, they shall all cover their lips, there's no answer of God. Verse eight, but truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin. That's the hard preaching man of God, Micah there, filled with the spirit, preaching on transgression and sin. That's what he's called to do, that's what a preacher's called to do. That's why a church, that's why a preacher in a church, should be talking about your sin. That's why he should be preaching on your sin, because he's told to. And here he's full of the spirit, full of power and spirit by the Lord, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin. Hear this, I pray ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for a ward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money, yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, is not the Lord among us? None evil can come upon us. That's what it often comes down to though, doesn't it? They worry about losing money. They worry about losing that tither. They worry about losing those last few tithers in the church. They're worried about the supporters from wherever it is, who maybe they won't send that support money anymore if we don't do it, if we don't preach a bit lighter on this. If I preach on the sodomites, imagine what's gonna happen. Someone might have a queer cousin, or a queer brother or sister, or whoever it is, and then they're not gonna come back. I'm gonna lose money. That's what it comes down to, doesn't it? I'm gonna get persecuted, and people are gonna stop coming to church, they're gonna stop paying money. Then I'm gonna have to tighten my belt. Then I might have to take another job. They say none evil can come upon us. Preacher of anyone? Verse 12. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high place of the forest. The result is a land with a bunch of weak churches filled with a bunch of weak Christians. Isn't it? That's the result in this nation. Anyone done a tour of the churches round here that still remain as churches? They're weak churches with weak Christians. And no, it's not because we're so much made, it's because we've all listed a hard preacher. I'm not talking about when you come here, even before that. Okay, but, but, but we wanna keep growing, don't we? We wanna keep growing. Oh, well, we're all right now. Look, you go to these churches, how many people, that's the truth, isn't it? These churches, how many people are even soul winning? How many people are going out and doing anything? How many people are trying to live for God? How many people, they're even reading their Bibles. It's appalling, isn't it? Isn't it sad? And look, I know it's easy to stand behind a pulpit and just start caning bad churches, okay? And look, I'm not just, well, that's an easy trick, yeah? Then you're all gonna think how great this place is. No, that's not what I'm trying to say. What I really, what I'd love, do you know what I would love? I would love the preachers around this country to actually watch something like this and get inspired and go, yeah, yeah, we should start preaching. Yeah, we should start preaching hard so people don't have to travel from four or five hours to come to this church. So that people won't have to move area to come to this church so that people can, so there's actually churches around the country. So when we go around the country and get people saved, they have somewhere to go. Because how hard is it? We've been, for years, before we had this church, a lot of people here were going out soul winning. You get someone saved and it's like, right, where to send them? Where to send them? And you kind of, well, maybe try this church. They've got the gospel, at least. It's that bad, isn't it? Because you know they're not getting built up. You know they're not going there and they're gonna be inspired to soul win. They're gonna be inspired to get sin out of their life. They're gonna be reading their Bibles. They're gonna be trying to live for God. Because you know they're gonna go there and they're just gonna basically just fade into, if they even go there. And if they can even last one service in there. And that's how bad it is, isn't it? And I would love it, I would love it if this country just, just, something changed. Something changed. Because if it doesn't, at least we have a backup plan, don't we? If it doesn't, we're gonna plant churches, aren't we? Yeah, and try and make a difference here. Oh, but the tribulation's coming in 2030. Look, no one knows. We don't know what's coming, do we? Okay, all you seers and prophets out there. Okay, we don't know. Okay, no one knows. What we do know is that we need to live for the now, don't we? Yeah, and boast not of the morrow, yeah? Because we know not what a day bringeth forth, do we? Okay, we need to, look, we need to just make sure we're going out there, we're preaching, preaching the gospel, doing what God wants us to do, living for God, and then with that, if the churches don't respond, we need to start, we need to start planting churches, don't we? But I think a church like this, and I think a church like this growing, and it is growing, isn't it? And a church like this getting bigger, and a church like this showing, showing to this country. People are gonna have to start taking note eventually, aren't they? They will have to take note. And these pastors, these old, these old pastors, these old IFB guys that are left in these few remaining churches, surely, you would hope, gonna have to think, what's the difference? What's the difference? Because we're preaching, because we're preaching the truth as well, okay? Because it's, because it comes from sound doctrine as well, doesn't it? Yeah. Okay, and look, that's what we need to do, that's what, and that will make a difference in this country. This country needs hard preaching because without it, said in verse 12, therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field in Jerusalem, shall become heaps in the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. Without it, what's to stop God destroying this land? What's to stop him doing that? Look, obviously getting a lot of righteous in this land would help, getting people saved, but you know what? Make a difference in the church would help as well, wouldn't it? Okay, and if not, planting churches. Churches around this country is gonna preach hard, preach on sin, not be worried about, oh, well they're not gonna like me if I preach, just preach it. Preach what you see, preach what you think needs preaching. Preach about soul winning, preach about the Bible, preach about the sins, the sins that so easily does beset us, yeah? Preach it all, and I think we're gonna see some differences in this nation, we'll see some differences at least across the Christians in this nation. The UK for me needs hard preaching, okay? It needs it, it demands hard preaching. A Christian, the world needs hard preaching, doesn't it? Okay, on that let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you, I thank you that you make it clear how you want your word preached. I thank you that you've made it clear to me, you've made it clear to others here, you've made it clear to other churches around the world as well that are still preaching how you want them to preach, not trying to change, to be more like the world, not compromising like the rest of these compromises out there, but that we're just doing what you tell us to do because your word is timeless, and what you wanted us to do 2,000 years ago, you want us doing now. And I thank you that you've made it clear, I thank you for this church, and I thank you that you're growing this church. I pray that you just help us all to continue to get right, to help us to wanna listen to hard preaching, not just our favourite preacher online, not just whoever it is that we think is the best preacher out there, but to just wanna listen to it live in the house of God, and to wanna respond to it, and to wanna change our lives and not make excuses. And Father, I thank you, I thank you that we're able to get out today and preach the gospel. Please just lead us, all of us to receptive ears and receptive hearts, and help us to just preach it clearly and get many people saved this afternoon, and help us to all return safely for the service this evening. In Jesus' name we pray all of this, amen.