A Return to the True Gospel — Miki Hardy

I suppose you all know the theme of our conference. If you visited the website of CTMI, you must have seen the advertisements and the theme of our conference. It is to separate what is precious from what is vile.

Vile means without value. Precious means a treasure. And everything that God brings, everything he teaches us, is precious. And everything man brings, by their own intelligence, is vile, has got no value.

The Church as God’s Precious Treasure

This is why the Church of Jesus Christ is the most precious thing in this world. The treasure of God is in the Church. All the treasure of God is found in the Church. And I pray that you might be able to understand, the same for me, the Church of Jesus Christ, which I believe, my conviction is, has been baffled.

Every year we meet here in this place, we hear from the Lord, we receive a direction from the Lord, he encourages us, he challenges us, he challenges us, we love the Gospel, because it is the power of God.

This is why we love the Gospel. I love the Gospel of Jesus. I love the Gospel of the first apostles. And I chose this theme, when I was fasting and praying with the elders some time ago, and the Lord revealed that verse to me.

Exposing Darkness and Restoring the Church

I've been struggling in my heart for a long time, with what's happening in the Church. And all those who work with me, in all the countries of the world, where CTMI is represented, they know that. And tonight and during this week, I'm going to share on a theme, it's not in a spirit of criticism, nor of judgment, but driven by a conviction,.

That it is the time of God.

To expose the works of darkness, to expose the works of the flesh, to allow the Lord to restore His Church, to bring back His people towards the truth of the Gospel. And at the same time, so that you can feel the heart of Jesus, the love of Jesus for His people.

If tonight, all of us could only feel the love of Jesus, and the heart of Jesus in what I want to share with you, we would be encouraged. This is in that state of heart that I want to share with you.

And I know, I'm convinced,.

That there will be reactions, positive reactions, negative ones as well, positive because I believe God is going to restore the heart of His people. He's going to bring a healing, and will show them the true road of life.

Negative reactions, there will be criticism, there will be judgments,.

But I'm confident that Jesus is building His Church. That Jesus is building His Church. We are living in the last days. There's no doubt. That's why I believe that God will bring restoration, healing, in the life of God's people that is suffering.

Testimonies of the Lost Apostolic Message

I'm going to start sharing with you three testimonies. The first one, you know, I travel a lot in Africa. I happen to speak to many pastors and servants of God, and God allows me to meet many people. I'm going to share with you a testimony of three pastors who have lived who have lived during the Pentecostal movement in the years 70 -75.

When we visited Benin, we met what they call in Africa, the Papas. And that man is called Papa Michel Dessou. He is the doyen of the pastors in Benin.

When we shared the Gospel, he was there.

And his testimony is as follows. It's the first time for 25 years at least that I heard the message preached by the early apostles in your conference of October 2014. We went to Cameroon some years ago and the testimony of another Papa, Father Binam is his name.

One of the only old pastors still alive in Cameroon. A strong message. He knew a strong church with the apostolic message of the years 75. A strong message.

His testimony. It's been a long time.

Since I heard the true message of the Gospel.

I give you one last testimony of Papa Joshua M. Gandu.

One of the last doyen of the Pentecostal movement in Lubumbashi.

When we were preaching the Gospel in his church, he was in his office upstairs and he was listening to his testimony.

I followed your messages from my office and that reminds me of the Gospel I used to hear when I got converted. I met him that day, a discouraged man because he could no longer fight against all these young pastors with the prosperity message.

He had no more strength to fight them and his heart was broken because he could remember what he himself used to preach and what he used to hear when he was converted in the years 70 -75.

The message. The apostolic message.

The true message of Jesus. He was sharing with me rather today. We are not hearing that same message in the churches.

All that we hear.

Is things that are not important. This is why the church has lost a lot of its riches.

If you read the story of the church.

In the years 70 -75, you would not recognize the church today. It's another spirit that is animating the church of Jesus today. I'm convinced that there's an emptiness in the hearts of Christians, of believers, that only the Lord can fill.

And the result is dissatisfaction, questions that do not have answers, fear, so many things that Christians live today in the world. There's an emptiness in the spirit. I don't know if you feel it. There's an emptiness in the spirit.

There's an emptiness in the church. In general. An emptiness that needs to be filled. And only the Lord can do it. My prayer is that God removes the veil from the eyes of Christians, of pastors, of servants of God, so they can see the shining of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.

The veil needs to be removed. And I pray that during this week.

That God will work miracles in the hearts of many Christians, so that they will understand and see what is real, what is true Christian life compared to the life the Christians are living today, to the gospel they are hearing.

Separating the Precious from the Vile

You know, if God says we must separate, there must be a mixture. Do you agree? If God says separate, there must be a mixture. Let's read in Jeremiah, chapter 15, verse 19, before we go any further. The Lord hath told Jeremiah, if you return, then I will bring you back, you shall stand before me.

If you take out the precious from the veil, you shall be as my mouth. But you must not return to them, let them return to you. If there is a separation that needs to happen, there must be a mixture. What's good and what's bad is mixed together.

And God has never loved the mixture of the good and the bad, what is precious from what is vile. Let's read in Matthew, chapter 3, verse 8, that we are the field of God.

The church. What grows in that field? One day Jesus said to his disciples, a parable. In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13, maybe we could read it. Very interesting. A very interesting parable.

As from verse 24. Another parable he put forth to them, saying the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.

But while man slept, his enemy came.

And sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. Have you seen what Jesus said? The kingdom of heaven is like.

While man slept,.

His enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field?

How then does it have tares? He said to them, An enemy has done that. The servants said to him, Do you want us then to go and gather them up? No, he said. Lest while you gather up the tares, you also uproot the wheat with them.

In other words, just wait. Let both grow together until the harvest. And at the time of harvest, I will set the reapers first gather together the tares in bundles to burn them. But gather the wheat in my barn.

Separation. Tares is a plant that is not profitable. And the Bible says that it is at the time of harvest that God allows.

To uproot the wheat and to burn it.

And to store the wheat in the barn. In other words, reject everything that is not good but keep what is good.

And Jesus says, This is the kingdom of God. This is what it is like. That is the kingdom of God.

This is why the heart of God is never to mix the truth and the false the precious and the vile. It's always.

Light, truth without compromise, without mixture. This is why the Bible speaks of the holy doctrine of Christ. The holy, the pure. The pure doctrine of Christ. The pure doctrine, the sound doctrine of Christ.

And this is what the Church needs. Unfortunately, in many churches today there are all kinds of manifestations, practices, doctrines, teachings. My question is, is that all true? Is that all good? There is so much happening in the Church today.

There is so much teaching that the people of God receive. You just have to open your television and you hear everything. Sometimes when you hear a Christian program, you just want to leave, to leave so much that I have no words, it's terrible.

Sometimes when you sit on your TV.

And you watch a Christian program, you've got only one idea in mind, it's to switch it off and run away because it's so terrible. You can't expect to see anything. But what is crazy is that people who watch those programs, they say, Hallelujah!

And they say, Amen! My question is tonight, is everything we're hearing from all these churches, is all that good? Is it because it is preached in a church that it is good? Unfortunately, my answer is no.

Maybe it's a bit cheeky of saying that, or daring, but it's the truth. The church has been polluted.

With all kinds of doctrines, of teachings, of manifestations.

That do not find their origin in the Word of God. Should we stay quiet, or should we blow the trumpet a little bit? Do we have the right and accept everything? Do we have the right to allow the Church of Jesus Christ to go deeper and deeper?

To go deeper and deeper in error? Do we have the right of doing nothing? I'm fixing my shirt. Can we close our eyes and ignore what our brothers and sisters, Christians, endure in churches? Let me say it again, they endure.

Do we have the right to stay quiet and say nothing? Are we going to stay insensitive to this migration of Christians who are going back to the world? I don't know if you realize,.

But there is a migration of Christians who leave the churches.

And go back to the world. Because they are fed by a false gospel. That is not true, that is false. That is false, that is deceiving, and that has no power to change them and transform them to the image of Jesus Christ.

This is why they are tired, they walk in defeat, and they have no other solution but to leave the church and go back in the world. The church is a migration. The church is being emptied. There are more Christians in the world than in the church.

Why? Did the Lord make mistakes? Isn't His gospel powerful enough to win the hearts of believers? I think it's time to warn the Christians that we must start denouncing, expose all false doctrines, all the extravagance, manifestations of the flesh,.

False teachings. I believe it's the time to denounce false ministries, false doctrines, and everything else. Perverse practices are the people of God. Brothers and sisters, that's the truth. You know, I love the church.

I love God's people. And I think that Jesus loves His people. He is the Good Shepherd. And I think He wants to bring back the sheep in the fold so that they can be again well fed. I think we must start exposing what is not of the Lord.

Paul’s Warning Against False Apostles

You know, in the early church there were also false doctrines and false ministries, false teachings,.

Perverse practices. In the early church we find that.

What did Paul do? What did Peter do?

They were true servants of God. They were concerned by the church and by the people of God. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Paul was a true man of God.

Let's read verse 13. He's speaking of these men, these false ministries that were there.

All around the church that penetrated the churches. These men are false apostles,.

Deceitful workers, disguised as apostles of Christ. And this is not surprising because Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light.

So it is not strange that these ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of justice. Their end will be according to their works. Verse 19.

For you put up gladly with fools.

These foolish ministries, you put up with them.

Since you yourselves are wise, if someone devours you, if someone is afraid of you, if someone is arrogant, if someone slaps you in the face,.

You put up with it.

It is extraordinary how Christians today are mistreated, abused, they are robbed. They are abused, they are robbed,.

They are cursed by servants of God because they are not doing what this servant of God is asking them to do. They speak a curse on God's people and we call that servants of God. Christians are mistreated, that is what Paul says.

They are really abused. And I repeat, if someone has served you, in other words, they make you a slave.

If someone devours you, if someone takes from you, if someone exalts himself, if he is arrogant,.

If he strikes you in the face, you put up with it. As if Christians.

Are glued to their chairs in churches and they swallow everything. They are robbed and they still say hallelujah. They are abused and they come back and they say hallelujah. They have been cursed the previous Sunday, they come back and they say hallelujah.

They've got eyes of veiled.

They don't see.

They accept everything. They swallow everything.

They are trampled on and they say hallelujah, amen.

Everything is taken from them, they are robbed and they still say amen. Their bank account is emptied and they still say hallelujah.

What did Paul do? He denounced.

All these outlaws because they didn't carry the people of God in their hearts. They were serving God for their own gain.

Jealousy for Christ Rather Than for Ministers

In the book of Galatians chapter 4, the apostle Paul speaks about how there were servants of God who wanted the people of God to be jealous for them, not for Christ but for themselves.

It's not the Lord anymore, it's them.

Jealous for them.

Everything must turn to them. Paul denounces that. He warns the Galatians. They are not true servants of God.

Jesus as the Good Shepherd

In the gospel of John chapter 10, Jesus says. In verse 11 Jesus says I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. He gives his life for the sheep. He doesn't rob or take them but he gives his life for them. It's exactly the contrary that we see in the church today. The servants of God instead of giving, they only want to receive.

They do everything to receive. Jesus calls these people mercenaries. But the mercenary who is not the shepherd and who does not own the sheep he sees the wolf coming. When he sees the wolf coming he abandons the sheep.

He abandons them. They flock. True harlings. They run away. They rob God's people without taking care of them. You know, we can ask ourselves how many Christians really receive care in the church today?

How many are really being taken care of?

People are giving their lives for them and looking after them.

How many? Why do you think so many Christians are leaving the church? If truly if they were really.

Cared for, they could feel the heart of the Lord, the love of the Lord for them,. Do you think they would leave? Today, Christians do not have any reason to stay in the church.

False Ministries in the Last Days

Apostle Peter says that in his second epistle, in chapter 2, that in the last days there will be a multiplication.

Of false ministries. Multiplication. It will come out from everywhere. They just get themselves titles from everywhere. It invents titles. Titles that you can't find in the Bible, but they add it to their name.

Just that it looks good. He is archbishop. When we don't have any more life, we invent.

We manufacture. When there is no more life of the Spirit,.

We depend on our title. We find our security and our value in our title. Our importance in our title. This is why we need to expose everything that is not from the true gospel. It is a strange fire. It is a foreign fire.

Strange Fire and Manufactured Spirituality

Let's open our Bibles in the book of Leviticus. It is a strange fire. You know, today there are many things happening in the church, in churches that look like the work of the Spirit. It looks like, it resembles the work of the Spirit, of the Holy Spirit.

We have time to speak about that. But everything that resembles can still not be true. Everything that resembles can still not be true, because there's a habit in the church to try to manufacture the presence of God, to make Christians believe that God is there.

You know, I also did that in the past, and it's very easy that God approves what's happening. But what is it if it's not the work of the Holy Spirit? Do you think it's possible that it's foreign spirits?

Did you ever think about that? It can be familiar spirits. When we give an access to the devil, it gets in. When what we do, when what we do is not founded on the Word of God, every door is open for the enemy.

We must accept it's either light or darkness, truth or false, or it's precious or it's a vial. We can't worship God and mammon at the same time. We can't walk in the light and the darkness at the same time.

It's not possible. It's sad that Christianity has become such a mixture, so much compromise, a mixture of the truth and the false. And we make people believe that that is the Spirit of God. It might be true that the Spirit of God is there, there are miracles, our lives changed.

The Fire of God and the Cross of Christ

But in most of churches today, not everything is of the Spirit. Chapter 9, Leviticus. We're going to read verse 22. Then Aaron lifted his hand towards the people and blessed them. And came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering and peace offerings.

And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting and came out and blessed the people. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. And fire came out from before the Lord. And consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar.

When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. When fire came from God, when the fire of God came down, that was the way for the sacrifices to be consumed. This is how it happened. The fire came down from God and consumed the burnt offering.

Why? What did the fire of God, what did it mean? We need to understand that today. There's a reason why. The sacrifices and the burnt offerings, when they were consumed, the fire had come from the Lord.

This is how it happened. That was an image of God's intervention, of what should have been the intervention of God when Jesus would come and die on the cross and that he would be the author of the redemption of our sin.

That demonstrated the truth of the cross of Jesus Christ. And if we read a little bit further, chapter 10, then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and put incense of it and offered profane fire before the Lord, which God didn't command them.

So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord. In other words, God was irritated. When fire came down from God, he was revealing from that time the cross of Jesus that it would be through the cross of Jesus that we would receive the redemption of our sin and that the cross of Jesus Christ would be the instrument of our salvation and of our spiritual growth for our Christian life.

This is why when the two sons came with a profane fire,.

God was irritated. It was as if salvation would come without God's intervention.

It was like buffering the cross of Jesus Christ. This is why God was irritated. It was like a profane fire. There was a truth that God wanted to show when the fire came down from him to consume the burnt offering.

Salvation doesn't come from the cross of Jesus Christ. Salvation comes from God. Forgiveness of our sin doesn't come from man, it comes from God. Everything that we want to happen in our life doesn't come from the hand of man, but from God.

So what was hidden when it was the profane fire that would come to consume the holocaust? It was the cross of Jesus. This is what was hidden. And this is what the devil wants to do today. Surround the cross of Jesus with darkness.

Remove the power of the cross of Jesus Christ from the midst of the church. The cross to save me and the cross to bring me to perfection. The cross to forgive me and the same cross to bring me to the image of Jesus Christ.

That is the message of Christ. And when we try to hide the cross of Jesus, there's nothing that's left. There's nothing. If you remove the cross from Christianity, there's nothing left. The cross of Jesus was the very thing that God was wanting always to put forward.

Because it was the only way for man to be saved. This is why profane fire in the church bothers, smothers everything. It brings to a Christianity that has no strength and no power. The two sons of Aaron died on the spot, were consumed.

Because it had irritated God.

The Cross as the Foundation of Christian Life

Today, we have the same problem. We remove the message of the cross of Jesus Christ and we replace it by false doctrines. We remove the true message of the cross of Jesus Christ to change one's life and Christianity dies.

If the message of the cross of Jesus Christ is removed from my life, I become a carnal man. I become a carnal man. If you remove the message of the cross of Jesus Christ in your life, you're going to backslide.

You'll never know what it is to die to yourself and to use your life for Christ. The message of the cross is the loss of our lives. This is why Christianity rests on the foundation of the message of the cross of Jesus Christ.

And as long as we come to church to pray and to try to get something out from God, we are running the wrong race. The message of the cross expresses the loss of one's life. This is why when we remove that message and we replace it with carnal and material messages, Christianity loses all its strength.

If I remove the message of the cross from my life, I will no longer know what it is to die to my desires. I will no longer know what it is to crucify my flesh with its passions and desires. What will stop me?

Law? Ordinances? Principles, techniques? No! The message of the cross of Jesus Christ is going to take my life. Show me the way of life. We remove the message of the cross and it becomes religion. There's nothing left.

There are only messages that are dry, that are dead. This is what Paul says, the letter kills, but the letter gives life. The letter kills. We only transmit the black which is on white. And that kills.

That is dead. If we remove the message of the cross from our life, we will put our eyes on material things.

We won't realize.

The importance of giving our life, to allow God to do the work that he needs to do in our lives. We're going to run towards things that are perishable. We're going to run after material things. Unfortunately, that is the history of the church today.

Materialism and the Enemies of the Cross

A race towards materialism. Why? Because they have taken the message of the cross of Jesus Christ and put it in a drawer. It's too hard. It's demanding too much from our lives. The church is hallelujah, glory to God.

That is the church of today. What can I get from God? What is the next promise I should get hold of? That is unfortunately Christianity today. Based on what we can get from God. Not on the life that we are giving him.

But on what he can give us. But Christianity is exactly the contrary. Exactly the contrary. It's a loss of one's life. The minute someone comes into the kingdom of God, that Christian must understand that his life doesn't belong to him anymore.

He's dead. He's dead to his life, to that life. That is Christianity. Unfortunately. Apostle Paul speaks in Philippians chapter 3 of the enemies of the cross. He doesn't speak of Gentiles, but he's speaking about Christians that are enemies of the cross.

Christians that oppose and resist the message of the cross of Jesus. Let's read it. Philippians chapter 3. What does Paul say? Many walk as enemies of the cross. I've often said it to you and I speak to you about it as I cry.

They have Paul. For many walk of whom I've told you often and I tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose hand is destructions, whose God is their belly. Enemies of the cross.

Did you ever hear that somebody who preaches the message of the cross preaches false doctrine? Preaches false doctrine. Yeah. We don't want to preach that message today. This is why I gave you the testimony of these three old men in Africa.

This is the true message they used to hear when they got converted. And this is the message that they preached. Today? It has disappeared completely from the church. Where is the message of the cross?

It doesn't exist anywhere. Enemies of the cross. The message of the cross is no more found in preachings. It's a subject that no one wants to speak about. We speak about the cross when it comes to salvation.

Everybody believes that, that's fine. But we don't hear about our identification to Jesus in his sufferings and in his death. So we can reach life. We don't speak, we don't hear this kind of message in the churches.

And we ask ourselves, how will the Christian ever grow to maturity? It's impossible. So no wonder the church is losing ground. The moment we alter the Gospel, we bring a foreign fire in the church. The moment we compromise the Gospel, we bring a foreign fire in the church.

Paul’s Warning Against Altering the Gospel

In the book of Galatians, chapter 1, verse 6,.

Paul says, I am amazed that you turn away so promptly from the one who called you by the grace of Christ to pass to another Gospel. Not that there is another Gospel, but there are people who disturb you and who want to alter the Gospel of Christ.

Not that there are another Gospels, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the Gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.

That's tough as a statement from Paul. If we pervert the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he says let him be accursed. That's powerful. We cannot alter or pervert the truth of the Gospel. As it is proclaimed by the first apostles, we won't be able to change it, alter it, pervert it, or compromise it.

Chapter 3, verse 1, He says, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? Only I want to learn from you is did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? The life of the Spirit had disappeared.

The Galatians had gone back to religion. The religion had replaced the life of the Spirit. Unfortunately, this is somehow the church today. It's sad. When we think of the church of Jesus Christ, when we read the Acts of the Apostles, we see what the church was like.

When we read the Epistles of Paul and we see the message he was preaching, the expectation that was on the life of God's people, today we see God's people being driven to the material things of this world, that have nothing to do with the message of Jesus Christ.

It's so easy to twist the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let me give you a last verse, 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Sorry, 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 2. For I am jealous of you with a godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Lest somehow as a serpent deceive Eve by his craftiness, I fear that your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches you another Jesus, whom we have not preached, and if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or another Gospel, which the one you have not accepted, once again you may well put up with it.

Finally what happened? The Corinthians accepted another Gospel. Another Jesus. Another spirit. This is what happened. The true Gospel had disappeared. And the Corinthians once again had accepted. Brothers and sisters, we need to dwell in the sound doctrine.

Dwelling in the Sound Doctrine of Christ

Paul wanted to preserve the sound doctrine of Christ. Not only it was his life, but it was his message. And he defended that Gospel. My question tonight, the Bible, the Word of God, is it our only guide?

Is it our only guide? Do we have to go and dig somewhere else to live the true Christianity? Do we have to add the thought of man, the wisdom of man, the experience of man to the Word of God? The Word of God should be our assurance to dwell in the pure sound doctrine of Christ.

And the least we don't see and we don't find what we hear in the Word of God, we must beware. We must beware of anything we hear that does not find its origin in the Word of God. Otherwise, where do we start and where do we end?

My experience cannot become a doctrine. My experience cannot become a doctrine for the Church. It's impossible. We must beware. We need to dwell in the Word of God. Or just invent things. Let us just invent.

You know, for the last past 20, 25 years, how many inventions have happened to the Church? And it was put on the account of the Holy Spirit. My question is, where do you find these things in the Word?

Does the Gospel change? Does the Word of God change and evolve with time? Does the Word of God become modern? Or is it the same from the time it was written to the end? Paul says to Timothy, dwell in sound doctrine.

Don't get away from it. Dwell in sound doctrine. What are we going to invent now? If we don't see these things clearly in the Word of God, what are we going to do with these things? There were so many things.

So many things. So many winds of doctrine blew in the Church. It came, it went. It came, it was put as something from the Holy Spirit,.

And then it disappeared. And we saw all kinds of extravagance, all kinds of manifestations, all kinds of things that are not scriptural.

And because this is the flow, we keep it. I say no. I say no. Let me say something. This Church is called to grow. Called to grow. It's called to grow. And you better believe it. But there's one thing that's sure, is that us elders, we're going to watch that sound doctrine dwell in this place.