True Source of Strength: Paul Washer Sermon (Transcript)

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You can evangelize, you can count heads and hands, but the plan of a church is extraordinary. It’s an impossibility and can only be done by the preaching of the gospel and the power of God. And so what you heard, that many churches, that many people, leaves one beyond speech. And you need to recognize that, and you also need to recognize that if you are helping them, you had a part in those miracles.

Reflecting on Daniel’s Words

Now, let’s look at Daniel, Chapter 11, Verse 32. “By smooth words, he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God will display strength and take action.”

Let’s pray. Father, thank You for what we have already heard. What grace You have given to Your servants, both men and women, we praise You, O God. But I pray now, Lord, for those in this congregation who are hearing. Oh, God, give them ears to hear. God, strengthen me, help me, for their sake, for Christ’s sake. Oh, God, so many words, so many sermons. But, oh, Lord, a display of Your power. Oh, God, please. We need Thee, oh, God. Please. God, do a work. Especially among the men, the young men. Oh, God, do a work. Help us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Now, the text that I just read has a great deal to do with eschatology. There’s a great deal of debate around what’s going on here, and I’ll leave that to the scholars. I want to touch on only one thing.

Here we see a person of extraordinary evil that comes against the people of God in an extraordinary time of evil. So, regardless of how we take this text, we can see its application to us today. “By smooth words, he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God will display strength and take action.” This is always the case. The prophet lamented, “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.”

Facing Extraordinary Evil

The last few years, I have seen things in this country, I have seen things globally that I thought my eyes would never see. There is an extraordinary evil, there is an extraordinary darkness. If you could imagine a type of tsunami, a thousand miles high and a thousand miles wide, of just pitch-black darkness that seems to be moving ever closer at an ever-increasing speed. A grotesque immorality, an opposition to the gospel, a hatred for our Lord.

And so, we can identify with this text, but here’s what I want you to see: God does not call for us in these times to circle the wagons and hide with fear and await some great events; He calls us to go forward. It doesn’t say here that those who know their God will survive. It says those who know their God will display strength and take action.

Empowerment Through Knowledge

Now, I want you to know that here in the church, in the seminary, TMAI, there are extraordinary men and women who are working. Men and women who know their God. As a matter of fact, many times if I have a question or a problem, I am prone to call some of them. But I’m not talking to them tonight. I’m talking to you. I’m talking to you as a church, I’m talking to you as a layperson, I’m talking to you who’s just been recently converted.

And what I want, if I could, I would take your face in my hands and I would pull you close, and I would say, “Listen to me. These are troubled times, these are terrible times, but borrowing from Dickens, ‘I can say these are the worst of times, these are the best of times.'” In the midst of first-century darkness, you and I have the opportunity to live like first-century Christians, but only if we know our God. Only if we lay aside all those silly little distractions and even lay aside a multitude of activity that amounts to nothing, and concentrate on the priorities, and those priorities are this: to know your God.

The Legacy of Faith

When we look through church history, we see extraordinary men and extraordinary women of devotion and courage, the willingness to give absolutely everything. What makes them different? Why are they so strange, why do they appear as an anomaly, what is the reason? Were they born of better stock than us? Absolutely not. They were born of Adam. Were they born again with a better Spirit? No, God does not show partiality with His children.

Then what is the difference? Here is the difference: if you look at them and you see courage and you see passion and you see discipline, it is only because they know more of God. They know more of Christ. They know more of the payment than the average believer, and that came to them because they sought it. They sought it in the scriptures, they sought it in prayer, they wanted to know Him. You see, the weakest man in the world can become strong, and the most useless servants can become extraordinary.

But it is only to the degree that they know their God, and principally they know their God in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He is absolutely everything. He cannot be founded in His power and His beauty and His glory and His love for His people. The depth of what He suffered for us on that tree cannot be grasped by men or angels. Only in the mind of God is it correctly understood. There is a well for us of strength in that knowledge. There is a wealth for us of motivation in that knowledge. To know Him, to know Him, that is the great motivation of the Christian life. That is the great motivation, and yet there is another.

Eternal Perspectives

Look over in chapter 12. Look at verse two. “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” If it wouldn’t appear rude, I would stomp my foot several times to get your attention. I need you to see this.

I don’t care who you are, your life as a believer is extraordinary. The things you claim to believe are fantastic, but true. We’re not talking here about your best life now. We’re talking about heaven, hell, life, death, eternal contempt, or eternal glory. And there’s glory to be won. There’s glory to be had.

I want you to turn over just for a moment and look at Romans chapter 2, where the Christian life is described. This is one of the most neglected passages. I don’t know why it’s neglected, but it is extraordinarily powerful. Romans chapter 2, verse 6, speaking of God who will render to each person according to his deeds. Now, he describes the Christian life. The Christian, to those who by perseverance in doing good, look what they seek for: they seek for glory and honor and immortality. That sounds Spartan. It sounds like it should be written on a shield or a sword or a piece of armor. But it’s written for you.

Christ never says that we should not seek glory. He just focuses our attention not to ever seek glory from men, but to seek glory, the glory from God. So one day, hear your name called, to drop your sword, to lay aside your scars and your pain and all the battle wounds, and cross that threshold to hear, “Well done, My good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.” You say, “Well, I’m not a missionary. I’m not this. I’m not that.” Whoever said that mattered? Whoever told you that?

Holding the Rope

The Glass family, borrowing from William Carey, I can say this, and many other missionaries with TMAI and with Grace and on and on. They went down into the well for the sake of Christ. You are called to hold the rope for those who go down. And either way, whether you go down in the well as a missionary or you hold the rope for those who go down, there will be scars on your hands. Church, show me your scars. There should be scars, scars to glory in at what it has cost you to follow Him, to serve Him, so that over every inch of this globe, the flag of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ flies.

In Peru, there’s a statement, “Tu vives porque el aire es gratis.” The only reason you’re alive is because air is free. And the whole point with that statement is so many people live without any purpose. But you, look at you! Glory and honor, immortality, the privilege to be able to invest your entire life in that which you can never lose, for an incorruptible King and an incorruptible kingdom.

There are kings and warriors and noblemen and philosophers who never had the privilege that you possess, to labor for a kingdom that will never end, that they cannot take away from you, that will not collapse with the next regime, because there’s no changing of the guard in this kingdom. I beg you. What do I beg you?

A Life of Worship

Let’s go to Romans chapter 12. Verse 1, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” He says, “Therefore I urge you, brethren.”

There is one thing that I see over and over missing in all these expositors. When I come to church, I don’t want to hear a New Testament class. I want to hear preaching. I want to see a man who has life and death painted on his face. I want to have the great matters of eternity set before me. I want to be urged. I want to be begged. I want to be pleaded with, because the subject matter is worthy of it. And this was the Apostle Paul. He doesn’t just lay truth before people and then walk off the platform, patting himself on the back, because he did a good job expositing a text. No!

There should be no contentment in the preacher unless God is glorified and men and women are moved. Paul says, “I urge you, I beseech you, I beg you, brethren.” Here is a man who, whether in body or not in body, saw glory, saw paradise. He knows what’s at stake. A vision of Christ. He knows the worth of Him. And he comes back to us, who have clouded eyes and dull ears and passive hearts, and he says, “Stop it! Stop looking at all the things in this world. Stop being so troubled with so many things. I urge you to do something.” What is that something? He says, “to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice.”

To present. It’s an [Aries Tampere’s] idea: It’s not this every Sunday make a new pledge; it’s the prophetic call of “how long will you limp between two opinions?” If Christ is Lord, if Christ is Lord, then once and for all, offer yourself. Once and for all, stand! Especially you men, stand! I urge you, he says, to present your bodies. Why does he say bodies here? I think it’s the wisdom of God.

Beyond Inner Transformation

It becomes so tiring after a while to hear everyone talk about their heart. But you need to understand something: you can talk all day about the inward workings of your heart, but unless it manifests itself outwardly in your body, in what you do, it’s meaningless. It’s meaningless. What do you do? Church, listen to me. We’re not standing here at the end of an era.

No. It’s time to go on and go on and go on. There is so much right here, so much more that can be done here. So much work to be done to take the Gospel to the nations, to take the Gospel to this nation. So much to be done in Bible translation. There are so many things that can be done, and that’s the pain of it.

And you say, yes, we have great men and women to do it, but those great men and women cannot do it without everyone that I’m looking at right now. And everyone hearing my voice. Everyone has a place, a work, a task. To either go down in the well, or to hold the rope for those who go down. To serve Christ. To serve Christ. He goes, present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice.

The Call to Separation

When I was a brand new convert, one of my dear friends was talking to Leonard Ravenhill, the old English revivalist, and said, “Brother Paul’s really been struggling with some things.” I’m a brand new believer, just a year or two old. Leonard Ravenhill sent me a tract. The tract said, “Others Can, You Cannot.” And what that tract basically said was this: Yes, others can play with the world. Others can walk hand in hand with the world. Others can live trivial lives and play trivial games. But if you want to be an instrument of God, you cannot.

The Christian life does not begin with what you do. It begins with what you don’t do. Because if you don’t turn away from some things, it doesn’t matter what you do on the other side. It doesn’t matter if you take a shower five times a day; seven times a day you fall back into the cesspool. We are a people called by God. Do you see that? We have been called out of this world.

A Holy Calling

Out of its moral filth. Out of its moral decay. We have been called out of the trivial that it does, playing with marbles, wasting its life until it finally crawls into the grave, no wiser than when it started. You have been called out to serve Him. You have been called out for eternity. You have been called out. So come out.

The things in your life that are soiling you. The things in your life that are holding you back. The sins that are besetting you, let them go. You say, “well, I’m in a holy church.” It doesn’t matter if you’re in a holy church if you’re not a holy person. You say, “I’m in a church that is really, really given to the Great Commission.” It doesn’t matter if you’re not given to the Great Commission.

You don’t fight this war by proxy. You, you are so special. You have a place. You have a place. Come out. Not just leaving immorality behind, but leaving the trivial behind. So much wasted time. So much looking, and looking, and looking.

No. No. That’s not for you. As wine is to be given for those who have no hope, let those things be given to people who have no hope. But you have hope of eternal life, and eternal glory, and of eternal purpose. Awake, sleeper, and arise. Come out from among them. He has called you to be sons and daughters.

You were born in Zion. Your name is inscribed in the book. Come out, and join forces with those who labor. With those who suffer. With those who cry. With those who fight. Present your bodies, a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, acceptable to God. What do we care about whether or not we’re acceptable to this world?

This dark, twisted, stinking, filthy world? That now the West turned over to apparent reprobation, and apart from a revival, will run headlong into hell. What do we care? Let the dead speak to the dead. Your only concern is to be acceptable to God, and do what is pleasing in His sight. That’s your only, only concern.

And again, I’m not talking to a group of people. I’m talking to you, and you, and you, and you. Acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. The word can also mean rational. Remember one time dealing with, there was an atheist that had been brought to me by a person who claimed to be a Christian, but lived in continuous carnality, wanted me to witness.

Rationality in Faith

And I just stopped, and I said, “you know what? I have more problems with you than I have with the atheist.” And they said, “how can you say that?” I said, “because he’s consistent. He’s immoral.” And that’s consistent with what he says he believes. There is no God. There is no absolute truth. He can run on instinct. And at least I have to applaud his logic.

But you, you have no rationality to you. You’re a walking contradiction. And if Jesus Christ is Lord to you, and He is, but if you claim to be aware of it, that He is your Lord, you acknowledge Him as Lord, well, there’s an issue there. It’s called sovereignty. Lords are sovereign. And they reveal their sovereign will through certain decrees. This book.

The Rationality of Sacrifice

The most rational thing you can do is give your life away. Jim Elliot, “He is no fool to give up that which he cannot keep, to gain that which he can never lose.” That’s not just for missionaries. That’s for everyone. Everyone sitting here. Everyone hearing my voice. Please, I urge you, I beg you, I plead with you.

Now you say, “Brother Paul, I understand this. I understand. But the motivation. But the motivation.” The motivation, Brother Paul. I understand. I want to be more. But the motivation. Paul deals with that here in verse 1. “Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God.”

The Mercies of God as Motivation

What is he saying? He is telling the Romans that the most rational thing they can do is give themselves lock, stock, and barrel to God. He’s telling them to give away the most precious thing they possess. Even Satan told the truth on this one. When he destroyed every one of Job’s possessions and relations and everything else, and Job remains faithful. And then Satan comes back and says, “let me touch his body.”

Here Paul is urging, begging, pleading, entreating you to give your body, your mind, your heart, your soul, your future, everything. What could be the motivation that would cause us to do that? Why would anyone do that? The mercies of God. What are the mercies of God? First of all, notice he says mercies. I think there’s a little bit of Paul being a Jew in this because he went with the plural.

When you do, it’s an idea of abundance, multifaceted. It’s big. So he says, “I’m telling you to do this most difficult thing, and the motivation I give you is the mercy of God.” But what are those mercies, Paul? That’s why the word therefore is so important. Because it connects chapter 12 with the first 11 chapters. And what did he do in the first 11 chapters?

He explained to the Romans, and to us, everything God has done for us in Christ. “Everything God…” He says, “I have intricately gone through this theology with you, of what God has done for you in His Son. Do you think He did that just so you could be smart or make a good grade?” No, He did that not only to save you but to motivate you. From where does motivation come? Let’s go back to Daniel, remember?

Those who know their God, and what’s the best place to know God? In Christ. And what’s the best place to know Christ? In His cross. In His cross. When I became a Christian, I was well aware of my inabilities that I would never become this theologian who understood all these things. So I thought, I will do one thing.

Even though I cannot give a lecture on eschatology and I can’t give a lecture on certain things and I’m not very good at apologetics, I will do one thing. I will study the cross. I will devote my life to one thing: knowing what it means that Jesus Christ died for me. And that knowledge is enough to take the weakest man and make him strong, the most pliant man and make him defiant.

The Power of the Cross

To make him run when he can’t walk. To make him lift when he is weary. To go on and on and on. There is enough motivation in that cross to propel you a thousand eternities of service. I hear people all the time, “Jesus died for me, Jesus died for me.” The Puritans used to say, there are some things you don’t say without a trembling lip: “He died for me. For this. For what I was. For what I am.” Even now, that my best moment would only earn me hell. He died. There is the motivation. There it is. The more you know about the cross, about what He suffered there, it will fracture you and remake you.

It will drive you. I want to close. Go to 2 Corinthians 5. Look at verse 9: “Therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. To be pleasing to Him.” Christianity has an ethic, it’s not about an ethic. Christianity has a morality, but it is not about morality or principles. It is about a person. It is about Him. A person. The person. The most glorious person.

That if you and I were at this moment to catch a fraction of His glory, it would fracture us into a million pieces. The beauty of it would kill us. It is about that person who sacrificed Himself. That is what is to move you. If anything else moves you, it is idolatry. It is Him. It is Him. It is Him. And that is what captured the heart of Paul. That is what owned him. Destroyed his life. Took it away from him. Made it worth something.

Now I want you to see, he says, “therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.” And then he gives us two motivations. I call them the sun and the moon. The greater light and the lesser light. Let’s look at the lesser light.

The Judgment Seat of Christ

One of the reasons Paul took serious his walk with Christ is he says in verse 10, “for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” You will stand before Christ. You. Second person, singular. I don’t want you to find any comfort in me saying “we.” Or you, plural.

I want the spotlight to be on you, dear brother. The spotlight to be on you, dear sister. You. You. You! will give an account. And if I had to summarize it all in one thing, it would be you will have to give an account for the privilege.

For the privilege. Kings and noblemen longed to see what you see. Longed to possess what you possess. The fullness of the times that has come upon you. Abraham’s hope has fallen upon you. Of all the billions of people in the world, you, you, you have been brought out of darkness into light, translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His dear Son, inscribed in the heavenly Zion.

The Responsibility of Privilege

You. And you young men that are studying, know this. I used to tell my boys when they were growing up, “If we are strong, it’s to help those who are weak. If we are wealthy, and in America, we are wealthy, it is to help those who have no such benefit.” And if we have good minds, we use those minds for those who never had the privilege of study. Privilege drives us.

Knowing that we will give an account for that privilege. And so we seek to make ourselves the best men possible. The best women possible. To take every gift that has been given to us. To discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness. To heighten our intellect. To heighten our spiritual discernment. To do everything we can so that we can lay it at His feet. So that He can use it. So that He can wear us out. We go far beyond that woman with the alabaster vase.

Because we break open our own lives and pour it upon Him. He’s worthy. He’s worthy. Our only regret should be that we don’t have a thousand lives to pour out. So that’s Paul’s motivation. But it’s the lesser. It’s the lesser.

The Greater Light of Christ’s Love

Now let’s go to the greater light. Verse 13, “If we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us.” I believe that so many people get the genitive wrong here. The idea of, yes, Paul’s great love for Christ controlled him. No. It was Christ’s great love for Paul that controlled him. My love for Christ, when I look in the mirror, is so up and down. One day hot. The next day cold. Somewhere in between. Fickle I am. I find no motivation in the strength of my love for Christ.

There’s nothing to boast of. Oh, but Christ’s love for me is an eternal constant. It never changes. No blemish there. No wavering. As solid as the rock that He is. Do you know what you need more than anything else? Do you know what you need, believer, more than anything else? And it’s the pain of the preacher.

Because after every description of it, the preacher just wants to walk off the platform and never preach again. Because it’s beyond him. Spurgeon lamented, I don’t know how many times, saying if I had the tongues of angels, the mind of a principality, I could not begin to share with you this theme. And it is the love of Christ and the love of God in Christ for you. That’s what you need to understand.

I could come here thundering from Mount Sinai. I could condemn you all with the law. But that would just whip you like a beast. No, you need to be drawn with cords of love.

Understanding God’s Love

You need to see how much He loves you. The more you grow in your understanding of how much He loves you, the greater the motivation. Imagine two women, and both of them faithful in serving their husbands. And one does it with trepidation and fear and trembling and sadness and anxiety.

And the other one does it with power and joy and peace. What is the difference between these two women? This woman serves her husband so that he will love her. This woman serves her husband because he does. Because he does love her. He loves you.

There’s no poet. There’s no principality. There’s no way to even move you a fraction to understanding more of the love of God apart from the Scriptures and the illumination of the Scriptures by the Holy Spirit. Oh, that God would show you how much He loves you. Look to the cross. Look to the cross. Study it. Study it. Study it. I hear all these things today about we lack men, we lack men. There’s no masculinity. There’s no testosterone.

And so people seek to cure that in the church by, I don’t know, getting tattoos or something. You want to see a man strengthened? Then let him be strengthened by grace as he understands more and more of the love of God toward him. A love that cannot be altered.

The Love That Brought Us the Cross

A love that brought about the cross where our Savior hung, bearing our sin, shut up in a room as billow after billow after billow of the wrath of Almighty God poured down upon Him until justice was satisfied and wrath appeased and the love of God could be poured forth in the Gospel. Paul says, “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died.” That’s the thing that I just… You can’t…

He died. He died. He died for this. Where else can you go now? You’re a prisoner and a happy one. I hate my prior life, the atrocities, the sins. Unmentionable. Without number. But they do serve a purpose. He died for that. You see, that’s what… Paul was a man of like nature. I am sure there were times when it was throw down the scrolls. Become a New Testament Jonah. Just run. It’s just too much.

But every time he got near the doorway, it wasn’t an ethic or principle that halted him in his tracks. It was this: Jesus Christ died for me. How can it be? “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died.” And He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves. What a ludicrous thing to do! What a cheap way to spend a life! When it could be poured out on the one being that is infinitely worthy. For Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

On their behalf. Isn’t there power in those words? Do you feel it? Do you see it? Put you in there. On my behalf. When we were still sinners, when we were helpless, He died.

A New Creation in Christ

Therefore, from now on, we recognize no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh. Yet now, we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things come.

People interpret this text in an extremely truncated or limited way. Therefore, if anyone in Christ, he’s a new creature, in the West we’re constantly thinking about salvation as individuals, and that is extremely important. We are individuals. God saves individuals. But the text says that. But it goes so far beyond it.

Therefore, if anyone in Christ, new creation. Through Christ, you are the firstfruits. You are the beginning of a new creation. You know, we talk about the coming of Christ and the new heavens and the new earth. It started with you that day.

You’ve not only become a new creature in that your heart of stone has been taken out and a heart of living flesh has been put in its place, a heart that loves righteousness. No, but you’ve entered into a new sphere of existence. The beginning of the new creation in Christ. And in that, we have every opportunity to go from glory to glory.

And in that, we have every opportunity to lay down our lives and serve Him. Serve Him. Serve Him. Oh, church! Church! Serve Him! In the capacity that He has called you. In the giftings that He has given you. Serve Him! And then the one who sows and the one who reaps, the one who went down into the well, the one who held the rope, they will all rejoice together. They will all rejoice together. This is not some monkish type of pathetic giving your life away for nothing.

This is giving your life away for everything. For everything. I long for that celebration that’s coming. I long for the trumpet. I long for the gathering with the saints. Oh, please, I urge you, in your own capacity, in the providence of God, according to your gifts, according to His providence for your life, offer yourself as a living sacrifice. Please, for His sake, for your sake, for the sake of everyone, let’s pray.

Father, thank You for Your Word. Oh, God, please, by Your Spirit, dear God, please, please, Lord, get some eternal benefit out of this. Lay Your hand to it, Lord. Claim it. Save people who are not saved tonight. God. Believers who are discouraged and have taken their hand off the plow, give them strength to put it back on. Those who think they have nothing to offer, Lord, show them how counterfeit that idea is, how contrary it is to Your Word. That they should not bury their talent. Oh, God, animate this church to go on to greater things. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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