True Gospel - Pt3 - Conversion — Paul Washer

Ezekiel 36 and the Promise of a New Heart

The book of Ezekiel chapter 36, Ezekiel 36, before I read the text I'd like to also return with you to the Lord in prayer. Father, you know, Lord, I pray, dear God, that you would send revival, that you would pour out your Spirit upon your people, that you would send revival to this church and churches around, that you would send revival to the school here, Lord, that you would send revival to my own heart, that you would show yourself strong, Lord, and make your name great among the nations, in Jesus' name, Amen.

In Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 22, Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord, God, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went.

I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when I prove myself holy among you in their sight, for I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land.

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a heart, a new heart, and put a new spirit within you.

And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will be careful to observe my ordinances.

The True Gospel and the Church's False Assurance

There are many great problems in the evangelical community in the United States today. One of them is not understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ, replacing the true and the powerful gospel of Christ with some romantic, impish, impotent version that has no power to convert.

Forgetting that we were bought with a price and that price was the son of God hanging on a tree. Yes, but bearing the sins of his people and crushed under the weight of his own father's wrath, that he rose again on the third day and that we are saved only through what God has done on behalf of his people.

But another great problem that plagues the evangelical community in America is a very, very poor understanding of salvation and the power of it. And along with that misunderstanding of salvation and the power of salvation comes a misunderstanding of the church.

Now, I'm going to address these issues tonight. I want you to know that I'm doing so with every word begging that you hear, begging that you understand and begging God that he'll open up your heart and your mind to see some truths that can literally transform your life, truths that can give you life.

For many who profess Christ today are still dead in their sins, many church members today of conservative Bible believing churches are still dead in their sins, and if they die, they will die in their sins and spend an eternity in hell because of our awkward beliefs with regard to the gospel, because of our impotent view of salvation as a thing worked by man and not by God.

We're going to see this evening, that's not true. Now, I want to say something right now about the church we hear today in America. There are preachers who do not care about holiness to any degree, and to them, the church is just fine as long as it's growing in number.

But then there are others who do have a great concern for holiness, the impiety, the lack of devotion and everything else that is seen within the context of the church. And they cry out that these are terrible times, that the church is filled with sin, that there's just as much abortion in the church as there is outside of the church, that there is just as much adultery in the church as outside of the church, that there's just as much lying and immorality in the church as outside of the church.

And all the wicked things that you can find in the world, you can find to the same degree in the church. And they say that the church has turned its back on God and they say that the church has fallen.

Well, I want you to know they're wrong, too. They are very, very wrong, because what they are saying is that the gates of hell have prevailed against the church. Both views are not in accordance with Scripture.

The Visible Church and Genuine Conversion

Let me say something to you today, and it will sound shocking coming from someone like me. The Church of Jesus Christ in America is doing wonderfully today. The church all throughout the world is doing wonderfully, walking in holiness, walking in sanctity.

And when it stumbles, when it falls, it quickly repents and comes back to the path with even greater devotion and joy towards God. You say, Brother Paul, what world are you living in? That is not the church in America.

Yes, it is. The only problem is you're calling something the church that's not the church. That is one of the greatest false doctrines in America today. What you need to realize is that some church leaders of very large denominations have come to say of their own denomination that if they were to compare their membership by what the Scripture says a Christian is, they would have to declare that 75 percent of all the church members in their entire denomination are lost, dead in their sins and on their way to hell.

What you need to understand is we have reduced the gospel of Jesus Christ down to four little trifling laws. And if we can get someone to nod their head to those laws, we declare them born again. They hardly ever come back to church.

Or if they do come back to church, they come back as a twofold child, a hell that lives just like the world. And because of their profession of faith in Jesus Christ, the name of God is blasphemed among the unbelievers.

The majority of people who attend conservative Bible believing churches are lost. Many of your people over in that university right over there are lost, but they believe themselves saved. Why? Because many decades ago we decided that we would turn away from biblical doctrine, that truth and theology was no longer important.

I spent 11 years of my life in a country where the only thing you had to do to go to heaven was be baptized into the church. And many of you would scoff at that and say, how horrible, how ridiculous physician heal thyself, because in America, the only thing you have to do is repeat a magical little prayer.

And that is wrong. I want you to know tonight that no one has ever been saved by praying a prayer and asking Jesus Christ into their heart. If you're saved, you're saved because you repented of your sins and you threw yourself on Christ by faith.

We have reduced it down. Evangelists traveling around like circus boys, TV preachers that cause Christianity to be mocked because of their lack of devotion and their lack of doctrine and their lack of truth.

And then men coming out of seminaries geared up to believe that the only way they can truly be successful is to have a 5000 member church, no matter how they arrive at that point. We need to understand something.

Salvation as the Supernatural Work of God

We need to understand salvation. Last night, I proclaimed to you that we need to understand the gospel tonight. We need to understand salvation, that it is not merely a tiny human decision, but it is a supernatural work of Almighty God.

And the work he does, he carries out to perfection and fails not in one of them. That's what we have to see. I would say that it is not farfetched to say, well, let me just give you an example before we even get started.

Genesis chapter one begins within the beginning. Isn't it quite unusual that John chapter one, verse one, begins within the beginning? Why? Because scripture here is talking about two new two creations.

Genesis, the creation of the earth, the book of John, the creation of a new people, the creation of new creatures, those born again, not by the power of men, but by the will and power of God. And I would submit to you that takes as much divine power to save a wretched man as it takes to create an entire universe.

I am so sick of our proclamation of the gospel that is nothing less than stupid. And I am so sick of our view of salvation that is damning more people to hell than every tavern and brothel and everything else of the world combined.

So we need to look, we need to look, we need to look at salvation. Now, I've made a lot of bold claims here tonight, and I'm only 41 years old. In men of God terms, that means I'm still a boy of God, teenager at best.

So where do I come off saying these things? First of all, I believe I can defend them in scripture. But secondly, I believe that you must always do your theology in the context of the church. You must do your study of scripture in the context of Christian history.

And I want you to know something. That the last century in America saw a major departure of American Christianity from historical Christianity and from the many movements and works of God down through creation.

Manipulative Evangelism and Regeneration

Let me tell you something that one seminary actually teaches. Now, listen to me. That when you witness to someone and you ask them, do you want to go to heaven when you die? Would you like to receive Jesus?

They are told that you should also start nodding your head up and down while you're asking that question so that the person listening to you will be drawn into it and it will be easier for them to accept Christ.

Whoever teaches that in seminary is lost. Mark it down. You've got a lost professor. Who knows not God, nor the way of God, nor the scriptures, nor the power of God. Now, here in Ezekiel chapter 36. We have a beautiful Old Testament illustration.

Of regeneration, you know, I don't have trouble with the word born again, I really don't. But I do have word trouble with words that are spoken by those who do not understand their meaning. I think that we need to bring back the other word that was used in ancient times for this.

Yes, it is born again. Yes, Jesus teaches that. But it might be more appropriate to use the word regeneration to be regenerated, to be made alive, because that's what has to happen when a man dead in his sins is saved.

He is made alive by the supernatural power of God. It is nothing less than when Lazarus was in that tomb and Jesus cried out, Lazarus, come forth. You and I could cry out to Lazarus all day in that tomb.

We could cut ourselves like the prophet of Baal. We could dance, we could mourn, we could do all kinds of things, shouting, Lazarus, come forth. But Lazarus is not coming forth. But when Jesus stepped up, he said, Lazarus, come forth.

And he came forth. Why? We have to understand something, something very, very important. Dead men can't hear. Did you know that? And dead men can't stand up and dead men can't obey commands. Dead men can't even hear God.

So not only did Jesus command Lazarus come forth, he gave him life to come forth. He gave him ears to hear. He gave him will to obey. He did absolutely everything. That's what you have to do when someone is more than sick, when they are dead.

So the preposterous thing, if someone dropped over right now in this church and I ran over them to them quickly and I said, quick, follow me. There's a hospital right over here. And when we get there, they'll put those things on you and shock you, it'll hurt, but it'll make you come back to life.

You see, I'm putting the cart before the horse, aren't I? If he could do all that, he wouldn't need to do all that. He'd be alive. The fact of the matter is he's not alive, he's dead. So not only must I give him a command, I must give him life.

And the God who gives life and begins a work of life will finish that work of life. The problem is there's so many people that claim to have a work of life and yet show no evidence of spiritual life. Now, therefore, say to the house of Israel, this says the Lord God, it is not for your sake or house of Israel that I am about to act, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations.

God's Glory as the Ground of Salvation

Now, look at this. We are so human centered, so self-centered that this verse actually makes us quite uncomfortable, doesn't it? Oh, I thought God did everything for me. No, he says, Israel, I'm going to save you.

And it's not for your sake that I'm going to do it. You see, here's what you need to understand. God's motivation for saving you came forth from himself. God is love, but also God does all that he does for his own glory and to make his name great among the nations.

You see, God found his motivation for saving you in him, not in you, because if God had to look for motivation to save you in you, he would not save you because there is nothing in in you that would ever make him save you.

Never. Find one thing, one place where God could grab something that would motivate God to save you, if you find something, then you do not understand the doctrine of depravity. You do not understand the doctrine, the Christian doctrine of the sinfulness of man.

The only thing, the only motivation that comes forth from you, what it would motivate God, of course, to condemn you, to rid the earth of you, to throw you in the deepest part of hell. That's the only thing that comes forth out of you.

That's the only right that you could claim. The only thing you've truly earned is condemnation. So what could move a holy, just God to do something other than condemn you? It must come from him. It must come from him.

Everything must come from him. If you could just grasp that truth as a lost person, if you could grasp that truth as a Christian, everything must come from him. Everything must come from him. Now, what's my part in this?

Fall down on your face and acknowledge your need. That's your part in this. Stop striving. Cry out to God. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. God esteems the one who is humble and contrite, broken, trembles at his word.

He says, I'm doing it for my own name. Now, here's something you need to understand. Why did God create the world to demonstrate his greatness? Why did the world fall? Do you think that was an accident?

Oh, there was plenty of individual responsibility there. What the devil did, he did by his own fault and his own will. What man did, he did by his own will and his own fault. That is true. But I want you to know there was a higher plan behind it all.

And what was that higher plan? That God might get glory for himself. That God might get glory for himself. And he's right to do that. And why does God do the impossible in saving men that cannot be saved apart from him?

For his own glory. To demonstrate his power. That not only men and nations, but the principalities and powers and mights and dominions and everything that has been and will be and still is. Would bow down at his throne and acknowledge that he is God.

But we've got a problem here, don't we? He's going to save a people. To prove his greatness. To defend his reputation. And then we look. And what do we see in America today? A multitude of people who claim to be saved.

And if they are saved, then they demonstrate that God has no power. And the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. We have this idea, God wants to save you, but he can't. And after he saves you, he wants to make you holy, but he can't.

Then who's got the reins on God now in America? It's clearly man. But that's not Bible and that's not God. It's nothing more than foolish, foolish, foolish men preaching about things they do not know.

God saves you what? To demonstrate how great he is. Will he then fail? Will he then fail? No, he will not fail. If he saves you, he will transform you and he will bring you to glory. Why? Because you're worth it?

No, for his reputation. I don't start anything that I don't finish. Do you remember the great argument between Moses and God? Moses, stand out of the way, stand back. I'm going to kill them all, I'm going to wipe the earth clean of them, I'll make a nation out of you.

What does Moses say? No, no, you can't do that. And why can I not do that, Moses? Well, because the Egyptians will then say that you were not able to bring them into the land. I want you to know that's what most preachers in America are saying today.

God is not able to bring them into the land. God is not able to clean them. God is not able to make a people for himself. God does not have power to sanctify or transform. And therefore, the secular media treats us like a circus.

And we are pretty much a circus. The only problem is one day the trumpet's going to blow and God's true church is going to leap out of this circus. And so many are going to be left behind. Even many of you.

And many on your campus, many in your churches left behind. He says, I'm going to do it for my own glory. Verse 23, I will vindicate the holiness of my name, my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst.

Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when I prove myself holy among you in their sight. Why is God saving Israel? That the nations might know that he is God. When God pulled Israel out of Egypt, what was the purpose of all the plagues?

He could have pulled them out without a plague. He could have put all the Egyptians to sleep for 24 hours. He could have done anything he wanted to do. He could have. He could have stopped it at once.

Oh, the foolishness of a little Pharaoh. So why does God say he sends plague after plague that even the Egyptians might know that I am God? By the way I save my people, by the power that is demonstrated when I come forth and save my people.

Holiness as Evidence of God's Saving Power

Does the world look at what's called the church today and marvel and fear at the power of God because of the way he has transformed the lives of the professors, of those who profess Christ? No, it mocks.

It mocks. Why? Because there's no house cleaning among us because we preach to keep them instead of preaching to save them. Oh, many pastors should be extremely, extremely afraid, extremely afraid. These seeker friendly church growth, what are they doing?

They're turning the church of Jesus Christ into a six flags over Jesus just to get a bunch of people. They care not for the glory of God nor the power of God. They've made man an idol. But God says when he saves people, he will prove himself holy among them all.

Now in verse 24. Now, look, he begins to describe what happens when a man is saved, regeneration. If you look in the book of, so many people think born again came from John chapter three. My friend, born again comes from Ezekiel.

All over this book, a dead people, a dead army, dry bones. What will happen? Call on the wind. Hear a rumbling sound. Oh, my, my Lord, the only thing that's going to happen here tonight is that God sends the wind.

God sends the wind. Do you think words can save men? The words of men are dead. The spirit that gives life. I wish that everyone in this church tonight would just fall down and cry out that the Holy Spirit would come.

Not for one of those silly circus things on television, but for genuine repentance and life and power and godliness. Yes, but this is what happens when a man is saved. He says, for I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land.

Has God not the power to do this now? What happened to God? Has his power diminished? And if so, he is no longer perfect. And if so, he is no longer God. Where did his power to deliver go? It's there just that it's rarely seen because of false doctrine, the carnal Christian.

Oh, that's that's something of a contrivance. You know what that who that's preached by pastors who are too busy to study preachers and evangelists who are too busy promoting themselves and not studying, because I want you to know it's not a biblical doctrine and it wasn't taught in early Baptist history.

It wasn't taught in early evangelical history. It wasn't taught in the Reformation. It wasn't taught by the Puritans, wasn't taught by anybody until we came along and decided the greatest and most important thing was to have big churches.

The only way we can have big churches, if most of them are filled up with carnal people. And the only way to have carnal people saved is if we invent a doctrine called the carnal Christian. You know, the little throne illustrations in the tracts, you know, here's a spiritual Christian.

He's on the throne. He's not on the throne. Jesus is on the throne. But the carnal Christian, my, he has some kind of power to him. He pulled Jesus off the throne of his life and he sits on the throne because he's the carnal Christian.

And when the carnal Christian says, Jesus, get off the throne, he has to get off. And then, of course, if he lets Jesus back on, everything works just wonderfully. Who taught us to blaspheme that way?

From where did that come straight out of the pit of hell is from where it came. The Bible knows no such thing as a continuously carnal Christian. The Bible knows no such thing as a continuously immature Christian.

The Bible knows no such thing. The Bible only knows that when a man is saved, the one who began the good work in him will finish it. He says, I will take you from the nations. Let me ask you a question here tonight.

Perseverance, Repentance, and Separation from the World

Every one of you, has God taken you out of the world? This ungodly world system that opposes God in every direction, has God removed you from there? Do you now, are you now beginning and you young Christians to certain degrees, are you beginning more and more to hate the things that God hates and love the things that God loves?

Or do you still love the things of the world? And if you fall into the things of the world, does your heart, is it still filled with joy? There's no problem. There's no conviction. There's no working of the Holy Spirit.

If so, you're lost and you're going to hell because God has the power to pull his people from the nations. He has the power to take them out of the kingdom of darkness and introduce them into the kingdom of his dear son.

Has God done that in your life? Now, I want you to know I've walked with the Lord for 20 years and that's not a great deal of time. And I don't want to pretend or be a hypocrite and say, I don't struggle with the world, that the Lord has pulled me out of the world completely and now I'm free.

No, that's not what I would say. That would be a lie. But I can say this. Since the day I was born again, my relationship with the world changed. And when I've turned my face towards the world, I have ended up with vomit in my heart, throat and mouth.

I could not stay there. And I beat my heart and would have ripped it from my chest, if possible. Why? We're going to see later, because that's what new creatures do. You see, you take a fish and put him in water.

He swims well, because that's what fish do. You change that fish into a man. And the first thing he's going to do is stick his head out of that water and run for the beach. Because that's what men do.

Men can't live in water. Christians can't live in sin, drinking it down like it was water, as most in America do. He says, I'll take you from the nations and bring you into your own land. Do you know what?

I know that to some of you, I sound angry and arrogant. And I suppose maybe I am. And I'm sorry for that. But look at this text. He will bring you into his own land. I sometimes go to very, very large churches and very important pastors.

And sometimes I meet some very godly men, but there are a lot of men I'll meet. And if you begin to talk to them about growing a big church, you've got their attention. Their eyes are fixed on you. But if you begin to talk about the beauty of God in the face of Jesus Christ, they're looking over your shoulder for something more necessary to speak about.

I fear for them that they have never tasted of the food in Jehovah's land. Have you ever tasted and seen that the Lord is good? If you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, then if you do return to the morsels of the world, it will make you vomit.

Have you never tasted? You see, true Christians aren't people who are struggling and writhing and fighting to like this kind of stuff. Yes, we once hated it. Now we love it. And we don't know why, except that God intervened.

Cleansing from Idolatry and the Work of Sanctification

Now, let's go to verse 25. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. Look at that. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Now, let's step back for a moment.

I want you just to look at something. Look at the first person, singular, pronoun, I. And look at, not clauses of hope, but clauses of certainty that are written in this passage. Look where he says, verse 24, I will take you from the nations.

Do we see God up there on a throne going, oh, I just hope someone will cooperate with me? Do we see that? No, we do not see that. But that is what's being preached. Not from Ezekiel, it's not. I will take you from the nations.

I will gather you from all the lands and I will bring you into your own land. Who will do it? God will do it. Will he do it? He says he will. There's no conditional clause. There's no ifs or maybes or hopeful suggestions.

Twenty five, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. The preacher one time was preaching, a dear old missionary down in Peru told me this. He said, I was a preacher out preaching and he was going, God wants to take you to heaven so bad, but he can't do it.

God wants to make you holy, but he can't do it. He wants you to go to heaven, but he just can't do it. And a man, a well-known reprobate, stood up in the middle of the congregation and turned around and said, well, if God can't make me go to heaven, he can't make me go to hell.

So I guess I'm pretty much OK. There's a lot of truth in what he said. I want you to know that the Bible teaches a God who does everything he determines himself to do. And we're talking about people when people are saved by God.

This is what he says to them. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. Just a small illustration of this. I have to speak to older people because young, younger parents don't seem to understand the need to discipline anymore or authority.

I would come in from fishing, seven years old, you know what it's like playing in the mud all day, doing all the things here in your arm. You could grow potatoes here in your wrist, around the neck, the ears.

If you never saw those things, you were not a boy. Come in filthy. Mom, I'm tired. I'm going to bed. Go take a bath. Mom, I don't feel like it. You will take a bath. You knew at that moment your party's over.

You're going to take a bath. There was no ifs, ands, maybes, buts. There was no one to run to, no one to help you. You're going to take a bath. God says, I will sprinkle clean water on you. You will be clean.

You will be clean. I will do it. Why? Yes, because he loves you. That's a correct theological statement. But there's a greater thing even behind it. I will do it because my reputation is at stake. I will do it for the greatness of my own name.

I will do it so that the nations know I do not fail. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I have spent over 20 years, and up until this moment, having idols ripped out of my life.

And I would imagine that if I live 20 or 40 years more, the ripping will continue. As a matter of fact, to me, one of the greatest evidences that God has done a work in my life is all the smashing of idols.

Now, notice, I said all the smashing of idols, I want you to realize something, it wasn't really my smashing, it was his. I seem to grip those things with a fist of iron. The Lord cleansed me and is cleansing me from them.

And the same can be said of every child. God, I was preaching just recently and a young man came into the auditorium where I was preaching, a very striking young man. A very striking, handsome young man in college, and with muscle shirts on and shorts and everything, you could tell he was a bodybuilder.

He was a tremendous physical specimen, and the whole time I preached, my heart was, I mean, he was taking notes from my message. He was taking notes, he was looking at me intently, and he knew what I was doing.

I was looking right at him and I was pleading with him. Oh, dear boy, even though you have a Bible opened up, even though you're taking notes, do you know him? There's a tremendous idol you're carrying on your back.

Is he smashing it? Is he breaking through even now, telling you that you disgust him in your sensuality and that children of his do not act that way? You see, what you need to understand, God does not permit an idol.

My grandfather was a missionary in Brazil back in the 30s. Later on in life, when my father had a boy, my older brother, my father was not a believer as we know it. There's no evidence. But he literally, he would say, I worship the ground that that boy walks on.

I worship the ground he walks on. Last year, when my son was born to me, I happened to be looking through some old letters from my grandfather, and there was a letter in there that said this to my father.

Son, I have heard you make that statement one too many times. I want you to know that even though you may not know the Lord, he will not tolerate such idols in the life of anyone. Now, stop it. A few months later, my brother was struck down at six years old with a car and died.

Now, you say, my God wouldn't do that. Your God probably wouldn't, because your God looks more like Santa Claus than he does the God of the Bible. But I want you to know this God that we serve, if you would just read your Bible with your eyes open, you would see that he is as terrible as he is wonderful.

And that if you belong to him, he will spend all of your life taking from you those things that you use to replace him and that rob you of joy and rob you of pleasure and rob you of his presence and his peace.

Just ask Abraham if that's not true. There's a whole story about that, isn't there? That little gift he received that became more important than the giver. Is he cleansing you? My dear friend, I'm not preaching a theological message tonight just simply to hear myself preach.

I'm not talking like a scholar. I'm not doing all these things, but for one reason except to reach to your heart. Let me ask you something. Can you sit down with a diary and show me where God has been ripping idols out of your life and cleansing you from filthiness?

Is he taking you step by step, little by little, two steps forward, one step back? But is he taking you and ripping filth out of your life? Is he ripping moral filth out of your life? Is he taking away from you what your heart can take in?

Is he taking away from you what the eyes might take in? The filthiness that is all around you, that filthiness that's in your college. The filthiness that are in the churches, the filthiness on television, the filthiness everywhere.

The filthiness in the dress code, the filthiness everywhere. Is he taking it out of your life or do you look just like the world? And don't come to me with that Christian freedom stuff. It's just an excuse for license.

When he talks about Christian freedom, he's not talking about the freedom to live in total contradiction to the laws he has given. He's talking about things like food. Not whether you can watch pornography or not.

Or dress like a tramp. Or dress like a young man who's in love with himself. Or converse with people whose conversations are not at all pure. Is God tearing the filthiness out of your life? Is he? You would take a bath when my mother told you to take a bath.

Because you didn't want my mother to give you a bath. My mother's hands were so calloused from hauling hay and working on our ranch. That literally if she ever wanted to touch you in the water, she'd put a washcloth between her hands and your body.

When she would scrub you, you knew you had been scrubbed. Your friends knew you. My ears would glow. Are your ears glowing? Is God scrubbing you? I find that so much... Now don't misunderstand me on this.

Because many times I'm misquoted on this. So don't misunderstand me. It's on tape. I'm not against personal one-on-one discipleship. I personally disciple people one-on-one. But let me tell you something.

You know why discipleship is such a rage? Because we're trying to keep a bunch of lost people on the path. Because you know what I found out in my life? I have not necessarily been scrubbed by little 20-minute quiet times and reading this and reading that and saying my prayer.