“Repentance series”
Andrew Hoseason
1998

This contains  messages which formed a series:

Who is this God bloke anyway?   13/12/1998
The Law of God  10/1/1999
Unity is evil  31/1/1999
ABCU   13/2/1999
If God gives  25/4/1999

Who is this God bloke anyway?
	Evangelicals know that all is not well in their churches and missions. Behind the facade of glowing missionary reports and massive statistics there is a profound awareness that the church has little power in evangelism. While bravely trying to produce an aura of joy and victory among their followers, church leaders are uneasy and deeply dissatisfied with their present experience and the results of their efforts.
The church is astir with questions about evangelism and hope for revival. Note that when I say the church, I am referring to anyone and any group that claims any allegiance or following of Jesus.
	Never have there been more missionaries.
Never have there been more evangelistic campaigns.
Never were more Christians studying to do personal evangelism. Never were there such enormous conferences to examine seriously the causes and cure of lameness in the Gospel ministry.
Yet the bewilderment is deepening among missionaries and local churches. After analysing, evaluating, praying and hoping, missions are not revitalised and sinners are not  turning to Christ in great numbers.
The questions are still being asked, “What’s wrong with our evangelism? What is needed to win the world for Christ? 
	“If only all Bible-believing people join together, the world will sit up and listen,” thinks the church. Let’s merge our mission boards to pool our funds and our personnel.
Let’s join giant evangelistic projects. If every evangelical joins in a common organisation, we can have greater depth of evangelism. So organisational unity becomes the aim.
	Having accepted the theory that unity is all-important for world evangelism, both the church and the individual must lower their estimate of the value of truth. In a large congress on evangelism you could not insist on a truth of God’s Word that would offend any other evangelical. So the lowest common denominator to which all  Christians hold must be found.
The rest of the Bible is labelled “unessential” for missions. 

	Evangelicals cherish their Reformation heritage, standing in the line of Luther and others who have broken the back of  superstitions from the Middle Ages. The Bible, God’s Holy Word, is our guide in all things. We bow to no human authority.

Such a claim flows from a right spirit of supreme allegiance to God    Yet this cry is often an indication of good intention rather than fact
The church is saturated with doctrine and practices which have no Biblical foundation
Many teachings and habits touching the Gospel are as much the products of human invention and tradition as were the indulgences of Catholics. And certain doctrines in our midst are quite as dangerous.
	What cult has not learned to use verses of the Bible and half truths to establish their lies?
That has been the Devil’s strategy from the beginning. By selling another gospel to our generation, Satan has been employing many sincere people in preaching a dethroned Christ. The glories of the Saviour are being hidden even from His servants because preachers will not give careful attention to the Gospel of God’s Word alone.

People converted through modern evangelism are often very sad examples of Christianity. They make a profession of faith, and then continue to live like the world.
You know some people like that, don’t you.

Paul could say to the Ephesian elders “I am innocent of the blood of all men”   Can we?
	How could Paul make such a claim? Not because he had asked each person four questions. That was not the New Testament method of evangelism. The next verse substantiates his claim.
	“I have not hesitated to declare to you all the will of God.”

	Today, ”Decisions for Christ” can mean very little. Only a small proportion of those who “make decisions” reflect the glory of God in a transformed life. 

	All of this is related to the use of a message in evangelism that is unbiblical
The truth necessary for life has been hidden in a smoke screen of human inventions.
On the shallow ground of man’s logic, large numbers have been led to assume they have a right to everlasting life and have been given an assurance which does not  belong to them. Evangelicals are swelling the ranks of the deluded with a perverted Gospel. Many who have  “made decisions” in modern churches and been told in the inquiry rooms that their sins have been forgiven, will be surprised as the Catholics of the middle ages to hear, “I never knew you; depart from me”.

	Have you considered the possibility that some of our converts were never evangelised at all? Have your preaching and methods led anyone to comfort apart from Christ?

	Unless our churches rethink the way of salvation by an honest search of God’s Word, evangelical Protestantism will be choked in the morass of human tradition, as was Rome years ago.
But the ensuing contrasts between Christ’s Gospel and today’s popularised “gospel” are a crucial, not peripheral.
In these contrasting messages may lie the difference between life and death for a soul, between vitality  and sterility for a church.
No sincere Christian intends to deceive sinners.
In love for souls, true Evangelicals invariably present some profound truths in their witnessing.
Yet by the unconscious omission of essential ingredients of the Gospel, many fail to communicate even that portion of God’s Word which they mean to convey. When a half truth is presented as the whole truth, it becomes an untruth.
	Mk 10:17-31
A glance at the rich young man who came to Jesus indicates that he was a person worthy of your esteem and confidence.
He greeted our Lord with abundant courtesy; kneeled to him and called him “Good Master”.
He had a deep interest in organised religion.
He came running to Jesus in enthusiastic pursuit of spiritual help.  So anxious was he to secure eternal life that he could not wait for a private conversation.  On the road he ignored the public’s attention to inquire after his soul’s welfare.  
	Further, he was a man of moral action.  When Jesus began to remind him of the Ten Commandments, he responded that he had observed all of them from his youth.
His life was visibly pure.  When Jesus said, “Do not commit adultery” he could sincerely report that he had been chaste.
To the command “Do not steal” he could say that he had been honest.  Such integrity was not occasional or newly acquired.  Rather, morality had been woven into his habits from his youth.
	You would be delighted to see this young man confess Jesus and join your church.
Here is an outstanding young man begging to know how he can get into heaven.
What would your reflex be to such a circumstance.
This is the evangelist’s dream.  Many would open their Bible and ask him essential questions.
“Do you believe you are a sinner?”  “Do you believe that Christ died for sinners?”  “Will you accept Jesus as your personal Saviour?” 
	He would answer in the affirmative to each question with very little instruction.  This rich man was ripe for evangelism.  The inquiry rooms of evangelical rallies would have elicited his “Decision for Christ” in a few moments, and given him the assurance of eternal life besides.  He would have been added to the statistic sheet.  

	Aren't you a little disappointed to see Jesus handling this tender soul so roughly?
How could our Lord use such obviously poor tactics with a sinner?  He began with a rebuke, went on to talk about the Ten Commandments, demanded immense sacrifice to enter having eternal life, and allowed the fish to get away!  Didn’t Jesus know anything about leading people to Christ?

	Jesus, however, turned the primary focus of the interview upon God and His glory.
His entire message was structured to  honour His Father.
Much of  modern preaching is anaemic, with the life-blood of God’s nature absent from the message. Evangelists centre their message on man.  Humanity has sinned and missed a great blessing.
If we want to retrieve our immense loss we must do such and such. 
	Don’t think that you do Him a favour by “accepting or believing Jesus”?
God has done you a great favour in commanding you to trust his Son.

But the Gospel of Christ is very different. It begins with God and His glory. It tells me that I have offended a holy God, who will by no means pass by sin. It reminds sinners that the only hope of salvation is to be found in the grace and power of this same God. Christ’s Gospel sends men to beg pardon of the Holy One.
	Without a knowledge of God, a sinner does not know who has been offended, who threatens destruction, or who is able to save. Apart from some clear comprehensions of God, there can be no  personal approach to God, and “personal Saviour” becomes a hollow phrase.
	Jesus lifted the egocentric eyes of the wealthy ruler to One whose holiness caused the prophets to fall to their knees and hide their eyes.
The rich youth had come running because he understood that he might not inherit  eternal life.
But he didn’t understand why.  Whom had he offended? There was no remorse for having offended a holy God.
He was prepared to talk of religion; but he was ignorant of God
He was anxious to ask for the joys of salvation; but he could not confess as David, "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned; and done this evil in thy sight”. He was not acquainted with the Lord.
Although the inquirer was a Jew, Jesus did not assume that he knew who God was.

	Evangelists today are making the dreadful miscalculation that sinners know who God is.
The sad truth is that our age knows less than the Jews of our Lord’s day
Nevertheless, Evangelicals plunge right in with “five things God wants you to know.” They all centre upon the man’s eternal fortunes and utterly ignore the question, “Who is God?”.
The sinners  treated in this way never realise the gravity of their plight. They don’t know whom they have offended.
This is tragic.
	Today, some say that witnessing is to begin with this: 
	“God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life”
Love is set before sinners as the foremost characteristic of God
But Jesus didn’t begin that way.
And the Bible as a whole speaks more often of God’s holiness than of His love.
Yet people readily remember all attributes that might favour themselves and totally forget those which threaten or alarm them. 
	Thousands of sinners think of God as having only one attribute--”love”. Though that is part of the truth, when it is taken for the whole truth it becomes a lie.
When you tell a stranger, “God loves you,” their mind registers something like this: “Yes, He loves me and would never harm me. He  loves me with forgiving and merciful kindness; so, all is well with my soul.”

In the mind of the average Briton, there is no idea that God is holy; only a perverted concept that He has a gushy, all-embracing kindness. Modern evangelism is helping to foster this misconception of God by its silence and vagueness.
To say to a rebel, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,” is terribly misinforming.
People today will readily use the name of God as would the rich man. But it is disastrous to assume that men are speaking of the same person as we are.

	When we say “God” we mean “Creator”.
When the average Briton says “God” they are often speaking of one who has little to do with the world we see.
When we say “God” we mean “One who is sovereign in creation, providence, and in the redemption of His creature, man.”
When sinners say “God” they usually refer to one who has committed himself to honouring the sovereign will of man at any cost to himself. 		Above all, when we say “God” we speak of One who has unflinching holiness, “Who will by no means clear the guilty.” Sinners frequently think of “God” as flexible so that He will by no means punish wonderful men. 
You may lead someone to pray to God after you, and you will be praying to the God of glorious holiness. But when they repeat “God” in their prayer, they will be praying to another god, or at best to an “unknown god”.
	“What must I do to enter eternal life?” asked the religious youth.
You must apply to God for it.
But before you rush into His courts, let me tell you that
He is so holy
that if one ray of His glory
were to meet your eye, you would be cast at His feet
with a dreadful sense of uncleanness.

	This is a message we must evangelise.

Law of God
	Evangelists today are making the dreadful miscalculation that sinners know who God is.
The sad truth is that our age knows less than the Jews of our Lord’s day
Nevertheless, Evangelicals plunge right in with “five things God wants you to know.”
	They all centre upon the person’s eternal fortunes and utterly ignore the question,
								“Who is God?”.
The sinners treated in this way never realise the gravity of their plight. They don’t know whom they have offended.
When  talking today of “the church” I will be using the definition understood by those whom we are called to evangelise to, that is: anyone who professes any kind of faith in anything connected with Jesus.
	Today, some say that witnessing is to begin with this: 
	“God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life”
Love is set before sinners as the mopst important characteristic of God  But Jesus didn’t begin that way.
And the Bible as a whole speaks more often of God’s holiness and hatred for sin than of His love.
Yet people readily remember attributes that might favour them and forget those which threaten or alarm them. 
	Thousands of sinners think of God as having only one attribute- “love”. Though that is part of the truth, when it is taken for the whole truth it becomes a lie.
When you tell a stranger, “God loves you,”  or “God is love” their mind registers something like this:
	“Yes, He loves me and would never harm me. He  loves me with forgiving and merciful kindness; so, all is well with my soul.”
In the mind of the average Briton, there is no idea that God is holy; only a perverted concept that He has a gushy, all-embracing kindness. Modern evangelism is helping to foster this misconception of God by its silence and
vagueness.
	To say to a rebel, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,” is terribly misinforming.
People today will readily use the name of God as would the rich young man. But it is
disastrous to assume that they are speaking of the same person as we are.
Mark 10:17-25
	The more we analyse our Lord’s message to the rich sinner, the more striking becomes the contrast with much of modern evangelism.
	After mentioning the holiness of God, Jesus spent much of the remainder of the interview talking about God’s holy moral law, especially as summarised in the Ten Commandments in Ex 20.
	A distorted knowledge of the law had kept this inquirer from adequately worshipping
according to the first four commandments. 

Exod 20:1-17
1	"You shall have no other gods before Me.
2	"You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.  You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing
lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
3	"You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.
4	"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; {in it} you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.  For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
	Jesus went on with an explicit quotation of the next five commandments, although not in their exact order.  Doesn’t this seem an odd answer to, the question, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
	Surely Jesus didn’t imagine that this man could have eternal life by keeping the law.
Scripture says, “A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in the Christ, Jesus... for by the works of law shall no flesh be justified.”
	Why didn’t Jesus speak of the free gift
offered to all?
Why not offer himself as a personal saviour?  Why all this attention to the law?
	Again, we have to be reminded that Jesus is a better evangelist than any of us.  We must judge our message by his, and not the other way round.  God’s law is an essential ingredient of  Gospel preaching
Scripture says, “we know about sin because of the law”  Romans 3:20
	The rich youth had come running because he understood that he might not inherit eternal life. But he didn’t understand why.
He had led a good life, hadn’t he?
He had followed the law, hadn’t he?
	And yet he felt there was something wrong and he was righly concerned for the welfare of his spirit in eternity.
Whom had he offended?  And how?
Notice that there seems no remorse for having offended a holy God.  No tearing of his clothes, for instance.
He was prepared to talk of organised religion; but he was ignorant of God.  Although the
inquirer was a Jew, Jesus did not assume that he knew who God was.

	Evangelists today are making the dreadful miscalculation that sinners know who God is.
The sad truth is that sinners in our age knows less than those of our Lord’s day
	Nevertheless, witnesses plunge right in with “five things God wants you to know.”
They centre upon the man’s eternal fortunes and utterly ignore the question, “Who is God?”.
The sinners  treated in this way never realise the gravity of their plight. They don’t know whom they have offended.
This is tragic.

	The young man was a man of moral action.  When Jesus began to remind him of the Ten Commandments, he responded that he had observed all of them from his youth.
His life was visibly pure.  When Jesus said, “Do not commit adultery” he could sincerely report that he had been chaste.
To the command “Do not steal” he could say that he had been honest.  Such integrity was not occasional or newly acquired.
Rather, morality had been woven into his
habits from his youth.
	And so, it went on.
Jesus continued to press the law on him until his blinded eyes would begin to see, to really see, his sin.  Only by the light of the law can the scum of sin in the heart be exposed.
	After all, what is sin?  God’s word says this:
	“Whoever commits sin transgresses the law; for sin is the transgression of the law.”
	The word “sin” makes no sense apart from God’s righteous law.
How could the young ruler understand his
sinfulness if he completely misunderstood God’s law?
How can today’s sinners, who are totally
ignorant of God’s holy law and its demands upon them, look at themselves as condemned sinners? 
The idea of sin is strange to them
because God’s law is foreign to their minds.
	Within the church, the normal evangelistic practice is to swiftly run to the cross of Christ.  	But what does the cross mean if separated from the law?
This is a serious question because I know members of the church who have segregated the two in their understanding.
	On the cross Jesus was satisfying the just demands of God, as set out in the law, against sinners.  If sinners are unaware of the law’s
requirements for themselves, they will see no personal significance in the sacrifice of the Messiah.  Without a knowledge of their condemnation by God’s holy law, the cross may draw interest but not saving faith from sinners.  The Messiah was sent to be a appeasement: the alternate target for God’s wrath poured out against a violated law.
	What sense is there in offering someone salvation when they have only a vague awareness of danger?
What point is there in offering someone a completed sacrifice if they havn’t got a clue about the meaning of sacrifices?
	Though the rich young man had doubts that he would inherit eternal life, he certainly did not think of himself as a lawbreaker.
But “sin is the transgression of the law” [1 John 3:4] according to the word of God.  Until this man could see his soul in the light of God’s law, he was unprepared for the gospel.
	Much of present day preaching only pays lip service to the concept that we must recognise ourselves to be a sinner before we can genuinely embrace the Saviour.
	The average witnessing booklet asks the question,
	“Do you believe that everyone are sinners?” 
If there is any hesitation, the point is established with the scripture,
	“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God”  [Rom 3:23]
	But no definition of sin is included.
There is scarcely anyone alive who will deny that broad statement.
Anyone would answer, “Of course I am less holy than God.  No-one is perfect.”  The young ruler would have conceded as much.  But that is hardly an acknowledgement of sin.  He would still deny that he was a liar, an adulterer, a thief.
	Many churchgoers have a dreadful fear of God’s law, as though it was a useless relic from the past, the use of which in our day would keep sinners from the grace of God.  But our Saviour used the law as a primary tool of evangelism.  He knew that preaching the ten commandments was the only way to teach a sinner their guilt and thereby stir within them a desire for God’s grace to be poured over them.

	Every true saint would have to agree with Paul, who attributed his own conversion to the law.  He said, “I had not known sin, but by the law”
Until the condemnation of particular evils is forcefully pressed upon a sinner, they will not run to the Messiah for mercy.  At best they can only ask, “What is it that I need for eternal life?”
Someone who understands the law clearly knows that only God’s grace can help.  What the sinner must do is beg for mercy.
	The present moment of history finds more ignorance of God’s law than in any previous generations.  We dare not witness about God’s law bacause it is so different from the worldly conversations around us.  Of course it is: as different as heaven and hell.
Sermons tend to ignore Exodus 20.  Even church members despise the fourth commandment.
How can the world feel guilty in the neglect of worship?  Afraid of offending the supermarket theology that has no time for God’s law, many preachers are silent on the very element of truth that is needed in this hour.
	John very clearly says, “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments:  and his commandments are not grievous"  [1 John 5:3]
Love makes the law enjoyable.  Anyone who loves God delights in keeping his laws.
Those who love God cry, as David, “Make me go in the path of thy commandments; for I delight in them.”  [Ps 119.35]
To the earthly person, God’s laws are like chains, the harsh imposition of a ruler’s will.  Thus the law reveals in such a person an absence of love for God.  Were the heart loving, the law would not be grievous.

Just as love makes the law enjoyable, law makes love practical.  Love which is unexpressed will die.
	The truly loving soul asks, “How can I show my affection?” God’s holy commandments give the answer.  They are vents for devotion to God.  They are also guides to displaying love to others.  
	Jesus found the ruler’s knowledge of the commandments superficial.  Perhaps he did
recognise the stringent outward rule of the law.  But he failed to appreciate that the law made demands upon his thoughts and intents of the soul.  When Jesus said, “Sell whatever you have and give to the poor,” he was preaching the tenth commandment in an physical fashion.  He was using God’s word, “You shall not covet” as a knife to lance the festering sore of greed in the man’s soul.
The sin was invisible to the human eye.  It did not show itself on the surface of the ruler’s behaviour.  But it was there, and the law of God was used to pierce the conscience of this youth for the first time.  Had Jesus merely said, “Do not covet” the young man would have said, “I don’t desire anyone’s property or wealth.  I am satisfied with my position in life.”  It would not do to quote the commandments again.  Jesus translated the tenth of God’s commands into a practical test by
demanding that he abandon his riches.
The youth loved his riches more than he loved God, and he turned away from Jesus.
But when he went away, he had a clear consciousness that he was a covetous inner.
He was deficient in love for God by putting something else first in his soul.
	Do you see that Jesus, unlike modern evangelism, was not looking for agreement to the fact that the young man was less holy than God?
	The Saviour did not try to argue him into agreeing that  “all have sinned.”
He continued labouring with the law till the man’s soul was deeply impressed that he was a rebel against the holy God.  
	  Jesus went beyond the tenth commandment in demanding that the young man does not covet, or esteem his own possesions more than his relationship with God.
The greatest commandment says this: 
Deut 6:4-7
4	"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!
5	"And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
	The young man was being told that Jesus knew what stood between him and being with God eternally.  The young man was a Jew of some standing and would have known this scripture.
The trouble was, he knew it, but he did nothing to ensure that he was putting God at the forefront of his list.
In that way he was setting himself clearly on the road which would lead to an eternity burning in the fires of hell, separated from God forever.  Scriptures don’t mention wether he later followed the Saviour.  I hope he did.

Unity is evil
Last week, Martin shared with us a message about work and pay.  Eternal life is the spiritual pay for the follower of Jesus and this should give us something to be happy about as we wait for it.
So its not surpirising that we read in scripture that Paul encourages the Philippians to stand firm in the Lord and then, importantly, to rejoice in the Lord as he is near.

Unity among the Messiah’s disciples is of great importance.
In fact, it is premoted by scripture.
Ps 133:1-3Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!
It is like the precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard, {even} Aaron's beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes.
	This is an illustration of the pouring of precious oil upon the head of Aaron.  It was used, as a crown might be used in Britain, for the consecration of a high priest or king.
This scripture is saying to us that unity is a crowning glory.
That unity is the anointing given to the true church.  It is a verification that the church is of God.
So, unity and harmony in the church is something worthy of our efforts.

Paul says, “I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree, and there be no divisions among you, but you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment”.1 Corinthians 1:10
		There is a trend within the church toward unity.
All branches of the church are called to come together and profess and encourage together the common message of the good news about Jesus.
They are called to put aside their differences and come together in Jesus’ name.
	“If only all churchgoing people join together, the world will sit up and listen” thinks the church. “Let’s merge our mission boards to pool our funds and our personnel.  Let’s join giant evangelistic projects. If every evangelical joins in a common organisation, we can have greater depth of evangelism”.
So organisational unity becomes the aim.
	Having accepted the theory that unity is all-important for  evangelism, both the church and the individual must lower their estimate of the value of truth. In a large congress on evangelism you could not insist on a truth of God’s Word that would offend any other brother or sister. So the lowest common denominator to which all  Christians hold must be found.
The rest of the Bible is labelled “unessential” for missions. 

This call for unity in the church comes not from God, but from the Devil.  
	Central to this call for unity is the plea to forget differences.
To forget details.  What that means in practice is this: those who believe that Jesus came to earth in bodily form should unite with those who believe Jesus only appeared to come in bodily form.
It means that those churchgoers who believe stealing is Ok as long as you do it from the rich, should get on with those who follow God’s com-mandment not to steal.  It means those who follow what God says and baptise people by immersion in water and demand repentance should collaborate with those who dribble water over a baby’s forehead without a hope of the baby repenting.
This is what the common call to unity requires.
In all these cases, and more, the church calls on followers of Christ to unite under a common banner and forget anything over which they have detailed differences.  The trouble is, by the time you’ve forgotten everything you have to forget, there is precious little left of God’s word to remember.

All that is left is man-made unity, floating round on its own puffed up belly.  If you accept unity at the price of scripture, you have left the secure shore of God’s word and are floating freely on a sea of opinion.
	The trouble is, unity, as the church sees it, is based, at a foundational level on a rejection of God’s word, as having any authority or worth.
You can only agree to put issues aside, if you don’t believe in the authority of the Bible.
You can only forget about divisions,
if you put more faith in what people say about the worth of the Bible
than you do
in what the Bible says about people.

The Bible says that people are deceitful and that no-one truly loves God, and that is true.

2 Pet 1:20-2:3Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation.  For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you
They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them-- bringing swift destruction on themselves.  Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.  In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
(NIV)

The church has walked away from God’s building site.
He was building a majestic palace on top of a great foundation called scripture.
Instead, people have wandered over to a sandpit called opinion and have used that as a foundation for a new building.  We all know a song about that, don’t we.  The wise man built his house upon the rock.  Wise people build their church and their life on the firm foundation of God’s word.
1 Tim 6:3-4aListen to what God has said regarding the ideas of people.
If anyone advocates a different doctrine, and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, they are conceited {and} understand nothing; 

Let us look at a similar circumstance at the time of Jesus.
The scribes and the Pharisees were that time’s equivalent of much of today’s church.  They had access to the word of God  but had added and taken away from it, so that their sums did not work out the same as God’s.  What they believed and practised was not what God wanted.
They were supposed to be representing God but in reality they were leading people of course, away from the road to heaven.
Jesus did not approve of them, even though they worshipped in the Temple of God.  He did not applaud them for professing in God.
On the contrary, he cursed them to their faces.  They were teaching things which were not from God.
Matt 23: 13&15
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.
	Let me ask this question of the church:  If you profess faith in Jesus as the Saviour of humanity, is it best to believe what Jesus believed, or not.  
	Some would say, “Ah, this is the modern world and you can’t take any notice of things written all those years ago”
To that statement, I would reply, “You believe in Jesus and claim to follow him, Yes?  Why do that when Jesus lived all those years ago and the words written about him were written all those years ago?”  If you’re willing to believe anything about Jesus, then you’re willing to believe something from the past.
But if you refuse to believe something that Jesus believed, even though you claim to rely on him as your Saviour, what madness is that?
	The evil, man-made unity which I mention in the title in the order of service,  assumes the knowledge of people to be wise, opens the Bible and gets the scissors out.
	There is another, real, unity.   Rodney’s first message after returning from the States was on this real unity.
This is a unity which takes the Bible as its foundation and looks at the world from that perspective.
True Christian unity looks from the Bible to the world, and not from the world to the Bible.
True unity automatically assumes scripture to be the true instructions of the manufacturer of humanity.
Christian unity is centered around what the Bible says.
	How good and how pleasant it is for brothersand sisters to dwell together in unity.

In 2 Chronicles 30 we find an example of God’s people uniting in following his commands.
We see one of the highlights of the history of Israel. 
	Now King Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover to the LORD God of Israel.
The couriers went from town to town in Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun, but the people scorned and ridiculed them.  Nevertheless, some men of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and went to Jerusalem.  Also in Judah the hand of God was on the people to give them unity of mind to carry out what the king and his officials had ordered, following the word of the LORD.
	So, even while some were determined to continue in their ridiculous attempt to oppose God, some made it their business to follow the instructions of the scriptures.
And they had a great time!  

Col 3:12-17And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;  bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone;
just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.
And beyond all these things {put on} love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
I Jn 4:7-12
7	Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8	Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9	This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10	This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11	Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12	No-one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
(NIV)
II Jn 1:6
6	And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.(NAS) And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms {and} hymns {and} spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do in word or deed, {do} all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. [NAS]
	If people ask you to unite in the name of Christ, unite in what Jesus believed.

As easy as ABCU
Evangelists must use the moral law to reveal the glory of the God we have offended.
The holy law must search the person’s life for particular sins.  It must be applied spiritually to reveal the inwardness of the crime.
Then, and only then, will the sinner know what in particular they are to turn from if they are to be saved.

The rich young man loved his riches more than he loved God, and he turned away from Jesus.
But when he went away, he had a clear consciousness that he was a covetous inner.
He was deficient in love for God by putting something else first in his soul.
	Unlike modern evangelism, Jesus was not looking for agreement to the fact that the young man was less holy than God
The Saviour did not try to argue him into agreeing that  “all have sinned.”  He continued labouring with the law till the man’s soul was deeply impressed that he was a rebel against the holy God.  
	  Jesus went beyond the tenth commandment in demanding that the young man did not covet, or esteem his own possessions more than his relationship with God.
The greatest commandment says this: 
Deut 6:4-7
	"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!
And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
	The young man was being told in a practical way that Jesus knew what stood between him and being with God eternally.  The young man was a Jew of some standing and would have known this scripture.
The trouble was, he knew it, but he did nothing to ensure that he was putting God at the forefront of his list.
Selah
In that way he was setting himself clearly on the road which would lead to an eternity burning in the fires of hell, separated from God forever.  Scriptures don’t mention whether he later followed the Saviour.  I hope he did.  He was honestly confronted with the gospel and its implications for his life.

He was not tricked into a confession by the high-pressure sales techniques of modern ministries.
When he went away he had been given a real answer to his question.  What must I do to enter eternal life.
	Today, in its evangelism, it is necessary that the church learns how to declare the spiritual law of God; for, until we learn how to wound people, we shall have no wounds to bind with gospel bandages.
In the twentieth century the church has tried to see how little it could say and still get converts.
The assumption has been that a minimal message will conserve our forces, spread the gospel further, and, of course, preserve unity among bretherin.  It has succeeded in spreading the truth so thinly that the world cannot see it.

	Paul could say, “I count all things dung that I may win Christ” [Phil 3:8]
What had been valued before conversion was despised by the apostle.  He had had a change of mind.
To the rich young man, Jesus was demanding that he reverse his priorities, revolutionise his philosophy of life, and turn away from the idol of his soul.  When he first hurried to Jesus, he wasn't able to understand what the gospel asks of sinners who want life.  But once he was aware of the holiness of God and his own breaking of the law, Jesus commanded the him to repent.

	The church’s ears have grown accustomed to hearing people told to “accept Jesus as your personal saviour”, a form of words which is not found in scripture.
It has become an empty phrase.  The words “personal saviour” may be precious to the follower of Jesus.  But they are completely inadequate to instruct a sinner in the way to eternal life.  They ignore an essential element of the gospel, namely repentance.  And that necessary ingredient of gospel is swiftly fading from pulpits, though the New Testament is filled with it.
	When Jesus began his public ministry, his message was, “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand:  Repent and believe the gospel”
Modern theology has moved so far away from this message.  It has reinterpreted it to suit the present-day thinking of people.  The church in its widest sense christens babies.  This act is meant to be dipping in water.  Do they expect the baby to repent?
I read in scripture “Repent and be immersed for the remission of your sins.”  NOT “be christened and then join a confirmation class when you are older.”  Strangely enough, the two are different!

As he met the woman at the well, Jesus’ gospel insisted that she turn from her adultery.
Meeting Zacchaeus, Jesus turned him from thievery to generosity.
Now the demand to the young ruler is, “Turn form your lust for riches.  Repent!”
	Today people are, properly, told to confess their sins and ask for forgiveness.
But evangelists and pastors are forgetting to tell sinners to repent.  Consequently people of this day and  age imagine they can continue in their old lifestyle while adding Jesus as a “personal Hell insurance” for the world to come.
Treasures on earth and treasures on heaven.  Who could turn down such a bargain!
Pleasures of sin and joys of eternity.  
Selah
Booklets given out by the church say that eternal salvation is as easy as ABC.
A - Accept God’s free gift.
B - Believe that Jesus is the son of God who died for sinners.
C - Confess your sinfulness.
	Sinners are not being saddened, as was the young man, to learn that they must turn from sin to have eternal life.  Yet it is the basis for the gospel promises.  Scripture always joins repentance and remission of sins.  Repentance is necessary for forgiveness.
	Now the word “repent” is one of those “church” words, unused anywhere else.  So the average person in the street will not be sure what we mean by it.  I prayed about this and the following illustration came to me:  repentance is a U-turn.
It is a complete turn about so you stop driving your life one way and start driving it another way.  Repentance is a handbrake turn right there in the highway of life.
	To get into heaven, confession of sin is not enough.  There must also be a full purpose of heart to turn from the former life of sin to a journey in righteousness.  No-one can drive on the road to worldly desires and the road to Godly desires at the same time.
No-one can serve both God and the world.
To confess, “I have sinned” while intending to pursue that same sin with continued relish is not repentance.  
	“Those who cover their sins shall not prosper: but those who confess and abandon them shall have mercy.” [Prov 28:13]
	Though sorrowful confession is an essential ingredient for repentance, it is not the whole of it.  The change of mind which calls in a definite turning away from sin, is the heart and soul of repentance.
	It is no wonder, however, that repentance is not being preached today.  How can someone turn to a God of whom they are ignorant?
The church is not preaching the character of God.
It is making up some other character to match the ideas of people.
	How can a sinner turn from a sin to which they are blind because God’s law is unknown to them?
The church is not preaching God’s law, it is making up its own rules to match society’s beliefs.
	You cannot ask people to turn from sins of which they are ignorant, to an unknown God.
	But that is what the church is doing.  Having considered the first part of Jesus’ message “irrelevant”, the church must overhaul the requirements made of sinners.  
	There is little doubt that the rich young man would have received today’s version of the gospel joyfully.  Without the requirement of repentance, he would have gladly accepted Jesus’ help to get to heaven.  Surely he would admit that he came short of God’s glory.  Surely he would accept the free gift of eternal life with no strings attached.
But he would not empty his hands and soul of that which defiled him.
The barrier was, “Sell everything you have and give to the poor.”
He was not ready to do that to get eternal life.  He was willing to have Christ.  But he was not willing to forsake the world and let the Christ have him.
	The church is being filled with professing Christians who have never heard that Jesus demands repentance of any who seek eternal life.  People flock to “accept Jesus as a personal saviour” without selling all.
Without making a Uturn.
They have never been told that there is a condition placed on having treasures in Heaven - that is, handbraking their lifestyle.  So, the converts to modern evangelism are often as worldly after their “conversions” as before; for they have made an adaption instead.  Sins still guide their life.
They are not walking down heaven’s road.
It is someone else’s road they travel down.
	Often, Jesus turned crowds away by insisting that, “Whoever does not forsake everything they have, cannot be my disciple.”
He demanded this turning from everything to himself as a condition of discipleship for everyone.  
	Christ has not invented a different gospel for the twentieth century.  But the twentieth century has invented a new gospel for the Christ.
The sad fact is that evangelical missionaries, churches and literature have unconsciously scrapped the doctrine of repentance to replace it with an easy, pitiful confession.  No wonder evangelism is being ineffective!  The church has great cause to be disturbed.  It isn’t preaching Jesus’ gospel.
	I mentioned when I began the first of these messages that I had found a booklet in our own library which I considered to be the work of false prophets.  This booklet tells us how to lead someone on the journey to God.  How to help them get eternal life for themselves.
But nowhere in the booklet does it mention turning once and for all from our sins.
Its very reminiscent of the Catholic’s habit of sinning, knowing you can go to confession.
With the message given by a booklet like this one, people would easily presume that you can carry on living a sinful life and just ask Jesus for forgiveness once in a while, rather like you pay your insurance premiums.
	It is time for the church to preach on the character of God, on God’s law, and on repentance.
People must be confronted with the Messiah’s ultimatum to the ruler: “repent or perish at the hands of a holy God whose law you have broken.  Jettison your sin or God will cast you out of sight forever.”

	Consider this:  The prodigal son could not return to his father while in embrace of prostitutes.
	Repentance and faith are twins.  Where one is found, the other will not be absent.
True faith always involves repentance.
Christ demanded of the rich young man faith in himself as well as repentance.
	We must rip our intelligence, emotions and will away from earthly riches or we will posses no treasures in heaven.
	Yet the inquirer’s thoughts cannot remain in a vacuum.  When the soul is swept clean, it must not be kept unoccupied, or seven demons worse than the first will fill it [Mt 12:43]
A new doctrine must fill the mind.
Another object must posses the affections.  Some master must direct the will.  The rich young man must have faith in Jesus.  Thus we read the words, “Come, follow me”
To the lawbreaker the saviour calls, “Come, believe in me.  Give me your mind, your love, your obedience.”
	How was Jesus offering himself to the youth? 
As one to be followed.  He might have said this: “Learn from me, imitate me, obey me.
You call me Master.  Now act the part of a servant and follower.  I don’t just want you to say that I am Master.
I want you to believe it.  Come, follow me.”
This is what he meant when Jesus asked, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do the things which I say?”
	Jesus’ invitation flies in the face of modern evangelism.  More often than not, sermons imply that Jesus is a personal saviour to help people get out of trouble and danger.
He is pictured as standing anxious and ready to assist all who will simply sign a permission slip for him to be their saviour.
But there is low volume about his being a master to be followed, a Lord to be obeyed.
In God’s word the demand for following as a disciple is made plain at the outset.
The narrow gate is at the beginning of the narrow way to eternal life.
It is not an afterthought added for the benefit of enthusiastic believers.
	The altered message of today has deceived men and women by convincing them that Jesus will gladly be a saviour even to those who refuse to follow him as Lord.  It is simply not the truth!  Jesus’ invitation to salvation is, “Come, follow me!”
The rich young man sincerely wanted eternal life and would have cheerfully invited Jesus into his heart for that gift.  But Jesus was not waiting for the man’s invitation to enter his heart.  He was offering peace terms.
	“I will give you eternal life if you come and follow me.  You become my servant.
Submit your mind to my teachings; for I am the ultimate teacher.  Bow your will to my commandments; for I am your King.  Only on these terms do I offer any salvation or life.”
	If Jesus were satisfied to save the rich man because he made an intellectual admission that he was saviour, the New Testament would be a different book.  The young man would have gone away happy.
Had Jesus been willing to be the personal saviour of one over whom he was not Lord, John would not have written that “Those who say they know God, but don’t keep his commandments, are liars and the truth is not in them”
Faith is not the nod of a head to a series of facts.  It is following the Christ.
	Our Lord was fully honest with inquirers.  He plainly asserted that following would involve a cross, the instrument of pain.
The young ruler was being informed at the beginning that obedience to Jesus would call for discomfort and sacrifice.  In addition to giving up his chief worldly delights he would also find himself giving up much that is legitimate as far as God’s law is concerned: Friends would be lost.  Anguished hours of self examination and prayer were along the road.  Discipleship is costly.
	“Sit down and count the cost,”  Jesus was saying.
It isn’t surprising that many who “go forward” to try the modern gospel are never seen again.  Sometimes, the young “convert”, after a few days of professing Christ, wakes up to discover that troubles are worse.
The honeymoon with Jesus has ended so quickly.  The “convert” is never seen again.  This is familiar to me.  My friend Steve went through this seven years ago.  He professed his love for Jesus openly at work to an extent that had me cringing.  Then he stopped.
Now, in total disregard for the transient nature of his experience, he is recorded as a statistic to prove the success of an evangelistic effort.
He did not present himself for immersion into the body of Christ.
He does not teach at Sunday school, or even attend.  He isn’t serving in the church.  He witnesses no more, nor encourages believers.
If my convert-friend’s “acceptance of Christ” has enhanced the evangelist’s reputation, he has also given the church frustration and heartaches.  As the independent evangelistic agencies reap joy, the church plunges into pitiful confusion and distress.  Why are they not having great long term success?
	Integrity demands a more honest approach to teaching.
The modern inquirer deserves to be treated as the rich young man.  Inquirers must be told that the Lord to whom we are directing them will expect them to bear the cross.
To impress hearts with the gravity of the decision before them, we would do well to say, “Sit down and consider,” rather than “Stand up and come forward.”	

A - Accept 
B - Believe 
C - Confess 
U - U Turn

If god gives…

Scriptures: 			Eph 2:(4-)  8-10
				Ezekiel  37: 1-10
				John 11:38-44
Nostradamus says that in June 1999, space aliens or something of that sort will visit or invade the earth.  Perhaps he does.  Perhaps he doesn’t.  His writings are confusing and show nothing of the clear guiding hand of God.
Nevertheless, imagine if this vision of the future which Nostradamus claims to have seen, is really a hazy image of the return of the Christ.  What if we do have six months to wait to the judgment?
Six months of this hell before the Devil opens the gates to the real place.
	I have mixed feeling about this possibility.  Obviously, the return of the Christ is good news, but I hope that it doesn’t stop my wedding in October!
	When we read the scriptures about the return of Jesus, we find that it is not a particularly pleasant time.  
	What assurance do we have that we will be on the right side of God when the judgment comes at Jesus’ return?
Looking at Mark 10, we find that Jesus did not deal with the subject of assurance when he met the rich young man.  But that is informative in itself.  So many church workers feel compelled to do the Holy Spirit's work of giving assurance in their evangelism!
Surely, they say, when the sinner repeats the evangelist’s prayer with your own lips, they have earnestly called on God with their heart!  To perpetuate this delusion a sentence is added to the prayer, which is not so much addressed to God as to the sinner: 
	“Thank you for coming into my life and hearing my prayer as you promised.”

Having said this, the misguided counsellor assures the sinner with all the apparent authority of God that they have been saved.
A warning is given not to sin against God by ever doubting this salvation, for that would be to call God a liar.
	This heretical and soul-destroying practice is the logical conclusion of a system that thinks little of God, knows little of God, preaches no law, calls for no repentance, waters down faith to “accepting a gift” and never mentions bowing down to Jesus’ rule or bearing a cross.
	Some denominations often have their own version of man-given assurance.  Here there is a class or an inquiry room with catechism-answers or parrot-fashion prayer.  It is assumed that the routine words spoken in a membership class are adequate proof of  having trusted Jesus.
	Jesus was not seeking to end the interview with the young ruler making a parrot-fashion prayer or statement.  He loved the man’s soul and wanted it to be spiritually with its maker by inward repentance and faith.

No doubt, traditional evangelical techniques would have given the rich young man assurance of salvation before he left.  But.
	He went forward publicly, but was not saved.
He sincerely asked Jesus for eternal life, but was not given it.
He was visibly moved by the message of Christ, but was not converted.
	Anyone who would give this lover of riches assurance of salvation would be fighting God.
To tell him that his request for eternal life had been granted because God always grants salvation to those who ask, would be a lie.  Jesus did not operate that way.  It would contradict Jesus’ example and destroy the man’s soul by giving him false hope and peace of mind.  Giving false assurance to sinners is a scriptural sign of a false prophet.
Jer 6:14	They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace.(NIV)
	It is the Holy Spirit’s work to assure the souls of God’s children that they have eternal life.
Consider the scripture in Romans 8:16:
	The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,(NAS)
	God’s Spirit gives this blessed confidence of sins forgiven to those who examine themselves in the light of God’s word.
The promises of the Bible about assurance of salvation are not given indiscriminantly.
They never lead people to expect that they can be in a state of acceptance with God without their also being renewed in a moral character.  Of course this does not mean that we should look for outward morality as a certain sign that someone has eternal life - The rich man was exemplary from his youth in keeping the visible aspects of God’s law.  But if we cannot be in a state of acceptance with God without our also being renewed in a moral character this teaches us that self-examination must penetrate to the innermost chambers of the soul.  Has the gift of grace bent our heart to glad submission to God’s word? So that his will is our will?  Only when God is loved supremely and the spirit of the law is kept might a person any reason to believe that they have been truly born of God.

	Religious enthusiasm is also not a valid test of our acceptance by God.  This young man would put many Christians to shame in his openly sincere desire to prepare for the world to come.
But he wasn’t saved; because Christ did not hold his allegiance.  Only when a person finds such dedication to the Christ in their soul can they conclude that they are a disciple.  
	Sometimes the honest thing to do is to send inquirers home grieved and counting the cost.  The conditions of eternal life are not simply to come forward, confess sin and ask forgiveness.
Unless a sinner turns from sin and bows to Jesus as their own Master, they cannot have eternal life.
These requirements cannot be identified with any outward acts.  Faith and repentance are the inward movement of mind, emotion and will.

	Today few seem to understand the Bible’s doctrine of assurance.  Few seem to appreciate the doubts of professing Christians who question whether they have been born again.  Professing Christians have no doubt that God will keep his promises but they wonder whether they have been properly fulfilled the conditions for being heirs to those promises.  There is no question that God will give eternal life to all who repent and believe.  But some discerning Christians are discerning enough to know that walking forward at a mass rally or sitting in a class and saying a pre-prepared paragraph in prayer does not constitute faith.
	“What must I do to be saved?” is one question.  An altogether different one is, “How do I know I am saved?”  You can answer the first question confidently.  “What must I do to be saved?”  Only the Spirit may answer the last with certainty.  “How do I know I am saved?”

	When Abraham attempted to hasten the arrival of an heir, he produced Ishmael, a “wild man”.  An Earthly man.  He used fleshy means and secured a fleshy offspring.  But as God so plainly reminds us, “it is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.”  Rom 9:8-9 NIV
However much Abraham might declare to Ishmael that he was a beloved son, God would disown him.  Modern evangelism is filling the church with Ishmaels

	Though he had come running, the rich young man went away grieved.  The most hopeful prospects often disappoint those of us who can only look at the outward appearance.  Many see the first signs of interest in the gospel coming from people; but similarly, many observe the sad scene of seekers turning away.  Our Master used this instance to instruct disciples who would often experience a similar let down.
	“How hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God!”  Christ might just as easily said, “How hard it is for those who are angry to enter eternity” or thieves, or adulterers.
“How hard it is for disobedient children to enter heaven.”
	It is difficult for anyone to enter the kingdom of heaven, Jesus was saying.
Through the efforts of human beings, it is impossible!
	But are evangelists daunted or dismayed by our Master’s astonishing statement?
On the contrary!  They propose three easy steps to heaven.  It’s as simple as ABC.  Just accept, believe and confess.  
A three-sentance prayer and you will be safe for eternity.  Christ’s statement alone should stop any drift to simplicity and brevity in evangelism.  The Lord had informed that he could enter God’s kingdom by repenting and believing.  Now Jesus was flatly telling his disciples that he had demanded the impossible!  It was impossible for the rich youth to sell all and follow.  He was a slave to Satan.
His mind was perverted, his emotions twisted, his will enslaved.  He could not obey the gospel commands to repent and believe.  His very nature opposed such action.
	Jeremiah remarked on this.  He said, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?  May those who are accustomed to doing evil, do good?”  Jer 13:23 Answers to the rhetorical question are plain.  Black people cannot make themselves go white.  Leopards cannot discard their spots at will.  “Well then” says God, “neither can you habitual sinners any capacity to turn to doing good.”
	The man was instructed to repent, but he had no ability to repent.  There was no pure or even neutral element in his character to respond favourably to this appeal of Christ.  There was no spark of goodness in him to influence his will to accept Christ’s invitation.  He was dead in trespasses and sins.  Not half-alive, or dangerously sick, but dead.
	Even while Jesus sincerely and compassionately said, “Come follow me,” he knew very well that “No-one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws them.” John 6:44  So incapable was this sinner of even a step of faith, that he must be born again to enter God’s kingdom.  Nor would his will ever select a new birth for himself.  All those who ever believed in Jesus “were born, not of the will of people, but of God"  John 1:13.
This hopeless sinner would be no exception.  With people it is impossible.
	Modern evangelism has been developed with the supposition that God has already done what he can to save us.  He is commonly pictured as standing idly by simply to observe what sinners will decide to do with his son and his salvation.  God is treated as if his Spirit were not in the world to convict of sin, reveal the Christ, and regenerate sinners.
Now, according to some, sinners must exercise the power of their natural wills.
The International Child Evangelism Fellowship has been so gross as to say this:  			“We must get the child to accept salvation ...It is not enough to tell the child that they should accept Jesus, we must get them to do it then and there.”
Modern evangelism blindly continues to assume that people have an ability to repent and believe, but, scripture says, “With people it is impossible”
	Who, then, can be saved? That’s still a pertinent question.  And Jesus gives a clear, positive response, “With God all things are possible.”  Though no-one can find in themselves the necessary resolve and ability to repent and believe, God can so change a sinner’s heart that they will sell all and follow the saviour.  The young man’s will could not drag him into the kingdom.  Nor could his intelligence and emotions.  But God could give him a new spiritual birth.
Only as God performed a work of re-creation upon his character could the youth repent and believe.
Faith is the act of a spirit resuscitated by the sovereign power of God.  As God created a new spirit in the rich man, he could follow Christ.  Though following was his responsibility, he never would choose to do so unless the Lord gave him a new inclination, that is, unless God in his mercy gave the youth a new spiritual birth.  Faith is the result of regeneration by God’s Spirit.
	Repentance too, is the act of a person who has received the gift of life.  Since this is true, repentance itself may be said to be a gift of God.
	“God has exalted Jesus... to be a prince and saviour, to give repentance and forgiveness of sins to his people.”  Acts5:31
The young man would receive forgiveness of sins only if he repented.  But repentance itself is a gift from the saviour.  For the sinner to exercise repentance a sovereign Lord give it.	The God of all power can transform the basic nature of his creatures.  He made us as a potter makes a vase.  He alone can make us anew in the image he wants.  He alone, the creator, the moulder, the artist, can remould the imperfection caused by sin.  This casts sinners completely on God’s power and grace.
They must seek the Lord for salvation.
Their only hope for life in eternity is to call on God to do for them what they cannot do themselves.

Implications of our saviour’s lesson are many.  He had been telling a dead man to breathe and walk.  The rich young man was dead in trespasses and sins.  Yet Jesus commanded him to come forth from the tomb of greed.  There was no Godly life, yet Jesus insisted that the sinner walk - away from his riches to serve the Messiah.  The gospel that we speak and live must make similar demands.
	Our evangelism must be based upon a dependence on the Lord.  Our hope of results must be in him, not in our will or in any faculty of our hearer.  But it pleases God to raise dead sinners through the simplicity of gospel preaching.
	When Jesus stood at the tomb and cried, “Lazarus, come out!” you might have asked,
“Why speak to dead bones?”  How could the lifeless corpse obey the command?
Would you invent the doctrine that all of Lazarus had died but his will?  Yes, that would do!
He was really dead, except that the will never dies.  So when Jesus says, “Come forth” the will of Lazarus can obey.
How absurd to suggest that the free will of a dead man decided to obey Jesus, and that was how the dead man was revived!  When he walked out of the tomb, Lazarus had indeed exercised his will in obeying Jesus’ voice.
But that could be done only as - God resuscitated the whole man to life.
God gave him new life!  His response to Jesus was the result and evidence of God’s sovereign act of resurrection.
	When Jesus spoke to the rich young man, he was speaking to a dead man whose will was as dead as his intellect and feelings - dead towards God and alive towards sin.
	We are called to preach to dead bones.
As Ezekiel, we are placed in the valley of this world which is parched and filled with the those dead to God.  And we are told, Prophesy to these bones.  
	Our confidence in spreading the word of God should not rest on organisational unity or marketing techniques.  Our focus should be on humble prayer for God’s saving power and grace.
Sinners, seeing their hopeless condition, will be forced to cast themselves on the Lord rather than rest on a personal act.  No meeting will bring flesh upon bones.  No merger of mission societies will raise up the army.  No four easy steps will make sinners live again.  Only God, working through a faithful messenger, can raise the dead to life.
	We are fenced into only one hope of success - If God gives repentance to sinners.
Clever speeches or techniques, not even precise theology will do anything in themselves.
But if God attends Biblical messages and means, the dead will rise.

This following is a reply to Joseph’s statement following ABCU that it sounded like I had said we were a cult.  It is to reaffirm repentance {u-turning} as a major force in the Christian life.

Rom 6:1-7:25

CHAPTER 6

1	What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?
2	May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3	Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4	Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5	For if we have become united with {Him} in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also {in the likeness} of His resurrection,
6	knowing this, that our old self was crucified with {Him,} that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;
7	for he who has died is freed from sin.
8	Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9	knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
10	For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11	Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12	Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts,
13	and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin {as} instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members {as} instruments of righteousness to God.
14	For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
15	What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
16	Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone {as} slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
17	But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,
18	and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
19	I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members {as} slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in {further} lawlessness, so now present your members {as} slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
20	For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21	Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.
22	But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
23	For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

CHAPTER 7

1	Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?
2	For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.
3	So then if, while her husband is living, she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man.
4	Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God.
5	For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were {aroused} by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.
6	But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
7	What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "You shall not covet."
8	But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin {is} dead.
9	And I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died;
10	and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me;
11	for sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.
12	So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13	Therefore did that which is good become {a cause of} death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
14	For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.
15	For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I {would} like to {do,} but I am doing the very thing I hate.
16	But if I do the very thing I do not wish {to do}  I agree with the Law, {confessing} that it is good.
17	So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me.
18	For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good {is} not.
19	For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish.
20	But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
21	I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good.
22	For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,
23	but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
24	Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
25	Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
(NAS)