(Missions Conference Shoals) - Part 3 — Paul Washer

God's Glory in Genuine Conversion

Let's open up our Bibles to Ezekiel chapter 36, Ezekiel chapter 36. I'm going to try to cover many different aspects of salvation and the working of God tonight in genuine conversion. We're going to begin here.

Ezekiel 36 verse 23. But before we read God's Word, let's pray. Father, I come before you in the name of your Son. And I know, Lord, that apart from him, I would have no part with you. It is upon his merit and his virtue that I stand.

And, Lord, I boldly come into your throne of grace, your throne room. And I ask, Lord, for these bones that they might live. Would you please grant my request for the sake of your own glory, to vindicate your own name, take out these hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh.

In Jesus' name, amen. We'll begin in verse 22 of chapter 36. He says, 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.

There are several things that can be said about this passage, but we don't have time to stay here and dwell on a passage that's worth weeks of preaching. But I will say a few things about this that are extremely important.

Salvation for the Sake of God's Name

First of all, everything that God does, He does for the sake of His own name. Everything that God does, He does for His own glory. And you say, Well, I don't like that. Men don't like that. Men will stand up and say, Well, I want God to do something for me.

I want God to do something because of me. And that is your greatest error. The one thing that we must understand that I have been hammering out this week and that your pastor has spoken about much is this.

The only thing that your character, your nature, your deeds could ever motivate a holy God to do would be to come with judgment and wrath. If God were to take a lantern and to search the world through every heart, every soul, every mind, He would not find one man among us worthy of saving.

And that is why we rejoice when we truly understand the sinfulness of man. We rejoice in the fact that God does what He does for His own glory and for His own namesake. To go out there and get a name for Himself among the nations.

He has done this work of salvation. Another thing that you need to understand about God when He is working salvation is what is said here in verse 23. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord. When God truly saves an individual or a nation, it is a testimony to His power and a testimony to the truth that He is definitely the God of the universe and the God of the nations.

Let's go back to Egypt for a moment. When you look at Egypt over and over, God could have brought the children of Israel out of Egypt with one swift move of His hand. And yet He brings plague after plague and demonstration of His power after demonstration of His power.

Why? So that in the salvation of Israel, the nations would know that Yahweh was the Lord of glory and the King of nations. Now let's take this for a moment and take it to modern day preaching and apply this to modern day preaching.

The Gospel Must Address Sin and God's Holiness

Because of the way that preachers are preaching today, because the gospel has been reduced down to four little laws that do not deal with the important factors of salvation, the sin of man, the holiness of God, and because we introduce people into the kingdom by getting them to repeat a little prayer and because the great majority of them are never changed, the world looks at our converts and never does it declare, Behold the power of God!

But instead we hear what we hear in the book of Romans because of you. The name of God is blasphemed among the nations. When a church is gathered together as a converted church, when every member in the church can walk up to this platform and give testimony with their life and their word to how God has changed their life, it is in that that we are a demonstration to the world.

Christianity in America today, many churches in America today, are nothing more than a six flags over Jesus, a machine that must keep going and going and going by organization, by management, by activities and by entertainment.

But when God is truly moving among a people, even the scoffers will turn to see the fire that burns. Even scoffers will turn to see the fire that burns. When God moves on behalf of a people, He does it for His own glory.

And when it is truly God, no one can deny that it is the work of God and not the manipulation of men. He goes on and He says in verse 24, and I want to read this and I want to put special emphasis on the personal pronoun I.

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 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. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes.

And you will be careful to observe my ordinances. Do you see even the smallest measure of doubt in these words? It is very popular today to teach a salvation in which God does all He can. But if you don't cooperate, well, the whole plan of God goes down the tubes.

Or God does all He can to get you saved and He so much wants you to be holy, He so much wants you to love Him, and He so much wants you to turn away from all your idols, but He can't make you do that.

That's what's being taught today, but that is not biblical. Let's look at this text. He says, I will take you from the nations. He doesn't say, I have a wonderful plan and I hope you will join with me.

And He doesn't sit up there on the throne twisting His hands and weeping, saying, there are so many wonderful things I want to do, but I just can't possibly do them because I can't get anyone to cooperate.

No, God says, He stands there at the edge of the universe, at the open door of heaven, and He swears by His own name, lifting up His own right hand, and saying, I will do a work of salvation in this world.

I will get glory for myself. I will call forth a people and they will come. He says, for I will take you from the nations. That means that God throughout the world is calling forth a people to give them to His Son for the glory and good pleasure of His Son.

That also means that when God has truly saved an individual, He also has the power to separate them from the world. This idea of the continuously carnal Christian, that a man can be born again and yet live in carnality for 30 years of his life and then go on into heaven is an absolute abomination theologically.

The God who has the power to create the world and the God who has the power to defeat His enemies and to bring about salvation, that same God has the power in conversion to change a man and to make him new and to change the desires of his heart because He has changed his heart.

And He brings that man out of the nations. He calls him out of the world and the man willingly follows. He says, for I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land.

Not only does God have the power to save, not only does God have the power to separate the true believer from the world and call him out, but God also has the power to introduce that new believer into the promised land, into a life of the Spirit, into the life of bearing fruit, into a life of a godly, godly, happy, joyful, full believer in Christ.

Jeremiah's Warning About Spiritual Emptiness

There's a scripture that I've been memorizing for a while. It takes me a long time to memorize scripture. It's in Jeremiah chapter 2. It says, what injustice did your fathers find in me that they went far from me and walked after emptiness and became empty?

If I were to describe the professing church, and I'm not saying the converted true church, but those who profess to be part of Christianity in America today, I would say that the great majority of them are empty, and I can prove it by all the books on emptiness in our Christian bookstores.

The great majority of them are empty, and why are they empty? Because they walk after emptiness. And why do they walk after emptiness? Because they have not truly been converted. Because the God who has the power to put away sin through the death of His Son, and the God who has the power to bring about repentance and faith in their heart, also has the power to remove them from these worldly, carnal things and bring them into a land of fruitfulness and blessing and wholeness.

Many people don't need counseling. They need conversion. Many people do not need discipleship. They need salvation. Now we go on in verse 25. Absolutely phenomenal promise of the new covenant. He says, then I will sprinkle clean water on you.

Now look at this. And you will be clean. He doesn't say, I will convert you and then I hope you cooperate with your sanctification. No, the Bible says, pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.

If God is not doing a work of sanctification in your life, it's because you are not born again. If you do not desire holiness, it's because your nature has not been changed. Because he says, then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean.

And he is not speaking simply of positional righteousness before God. So many people will say, well, you know, the true Christian positionally is righteous before God because of the blood of Jesus Christ, but in practice, they're not righteous.

And that's okay. That's the doctrine of the carnal Christian. But that's not what God says. Because he goes on to explain what he means by sprinkling and making clean with the next phrase. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

Do you know one of the greatest evidences that you have truly been born again? Now listen to me, young people. Listen to me, old people. One of the greatest evidences that you are truly born again is that you can see throughout your life, God faithfully working to cleanse you from all your filthiness and to tear all the idols out of your life.

I have been preaching now for over 20 years. I have been feebly walking with the Lord for over 21. If I were to describe my life, it would be a life of discipline. Not my own, but God's loving discipline on my behalf, constantly working in the life of Paul Washer to cleanse me from all my filthiness, my carnality, my worldliness, my self-centeredness, and to tear away all the idols in my life so that now I find myself, after 20 years, like Jacob coming back into the promised land, limping.

That God has wrestled me. Have you ever read, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated? Now that word hated there means hate. If it meant something else, they would have translated something else. Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated.

Now, in what way, I ask myself, in what way did God love Jacob and in what way did the hatred of God manifest itself towards Esau? Well, if you look at Esau, he was blessed by God. Tremendously blessed by God to such a point that when Jacob came back into the promised land and wanted to give Esau a gift, he needed no gift.

God had so prospered Esau that he needed no gift from the one upon whom the promise rested. So God took care of Esau. God blessed Esau. He protected him. He fulfilled the promises he made concerning Esau.

So how is it that God hated Esau and yet loved Jacob? They were both blessed. The only difference between the two is this. There is never even a sentence or a word in Scripture that indicates that God ever disciplined Esau.

He cut the rope on Esau and he let him run. He let Esau do whatever his wicked heart desired. God is faithful though all men be liars. God fulfilled his promises with the man but God touched him not. Well, how was the love of God manifested towards Jacob?

Every day of Jacob's life, God beat him. Every day of Jacob's life, God disciplined him. Every left turn Jacob made, God was there bringing discipline, bringing discipline, bringing discipline to the end that he wrestles with God and God touches his hip and he comes back into the promised land.

How limping and broken and contrite, no longer trying to manipulate his own fortune, no longer trying to manipulate God, no longer boasting of great things or trying to steal anything from any man but just recognizing that God is his God.

So many people today profess to know Jesus Christ as Lord and claim the Father of our Lord to be their own and yet when I look in their life, I see no working of God's discipline. I see not God breaking them.

I see not God molding them. I see not God hemming them in on every side, before and behind, beside, above, below. I see not God. They run unrestrained. They live in the world and they love it. They do the things of the world and then they practice their religion on certain days and God touches them not and yet I see saints of God who for one moment steps off the path of righteousness and God is there to meet them and to bring them back.

The one thing that a true Christian will say about himself is that he will often feel to be a prisoner of love, a prisoner of the concern of God, a prisoner of the concern of God. Now he says, and I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean.

He promises here in the New Covenant that there will be a work of sanctification and it will be successful. He who began a good work in you will finish it. If there is no finishing to the work that began, no work ever began.

The New Heart and Regeneration

He says in verse 26, now how will all this happen? What is the basis for all this great work that God will do? It's in verse 26. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh.

Now usually when we hear the word flesh in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, it is referring to carnality of men, but not so here. It's used in a positive manner. He's drawing a contrast between a heart of stone and a heart of flesh.

Now what's the meaning here? Take the strongest man among you here, the tallest, strongest, bravest man. Let's say that we make a statue of him. Make the statue out of stone and we place the statue right here, right here beside me in the pulpit.

This magnificent granite carved into the image of this man. And I reach over and I grab him by the sensitive part under the arm and I twist with all my might. What is that statue of stone going to do?

Absolutely nothing. I pull out a sharp blade and I poke him under the arm or I cut him deep. And what's he going to do? Absolutely nothing. Why? He is stone. He is an inanimate object. He cannot respond to stimuli.

There's the word. He cannot respond to stimuli. Why? He is inanimate. He is dead. And so no matter what you do, you can prod, cut, insult, no matter what you do to this man, nothing will happen because he's nothing more than a statue of stone, an inanimate object that cannot respond to stimuli.

But if you bring the man himself up here, the man of flesh, no matter how muscular, no matter how strong, no matter how enduring, if I grab him in the sensitive part under his arm and twist and pinch with all my might, you'll hear him scream.

Why? He is alive. He can respond to stimuli. You cut him and he bleeds. You poke him and he screams. There are so many people here today in our country that call themselves Christians, and yet they show no ability whatsoever to respond to divine stimuli.

They can hear a thousand sermons on holiness and yet live in sin as comfortably as a fish lives in water. They can continue attending church Sunday after Sunday. They can say all the right things, but they can go to their home and they can do all sorts and all manners of evil.

They can live with the wicked and enjoy their company more than the people of God. They can watch things they shouldn't watch. They can do things they shouldn't do. They can wear things they shouldn't wear.

They can go on and on and be just as much a part of the world as someone who claims to be a part of the world. And when they sit under preaching, they respond not at all. Why? Because God has never done a work of regeneration in their heart.

Never. They still have a heart of stone. And what must happen to them? God and God's supernatural power working out in salvation must remove that heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. And every person on the road to heaven, every person who is truly a believer, every one, every last one of them, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.

If any man, everyone who is truly a Christian has undergone this supernatural work of God that demonstrates more power than creation itself. Of taking out the heart of stone and giving them a brand new heart that responds to divine stimuli, is sensitive to the Word of God.

One of the tests in 1 John to true conversion is this, that a man will acknowledge his sin and confess it. That's one of the greatest evidences of conversion is a recognition of sin and the confession of that sin.

Now, all the pastors that are here tonight will nod their head and understand the truth of what I am saying. In every church I have ever been in where the Spirit of God has truly moved. It is amazing.

When we begin to speak about sin and holiness, it is amazing what happens every time. And what happens every time is this, the most devout, most holy, most dedicated, most Christ-like people in the church are the ones who come forward weeping over their sins, broken, and openly confessing their need of grace.

While the most wicked, carnal, worldly people in that congregation sit there as cold as a stone. That is frightening. Well, it is frightening for some because for some it's a sign of condemnation and death.

But for others it's a joy. If you're a Christian who breaks at the slightest crack of God's Word, if you're a Christian who mourns over their sin, if you're a Christian who finds yourself contrite and broken over your need of grace, then rejoice!

Not only are you not far from the kingdom of God, you are in the kingdom of God. And he says here, he says, Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.

The Indwelling Spirit and God's Sovereign Work

And then he says, I will put my spirit within you. Now look at this. I will put my spirit within you. How is it, as I'm going to share later on, how is it that so many people can claim to have had an encounter with God, and yet the God with whom they have had that encounter seems to have no power?

Salvation, as I said in the first sermon I preached in this church, is not simply you getting a ticket to heaven. Salvation is not simply you stepping out of the line going to hell and deciding to step into the line going to heaven.

Salvation is a supernatural work of God through which the very nature of a person is changed. And not only that, but the Spirit of Almighty God, the very same Spirit that hovered over the waters, is now hovering in your heart, dwelling there with the fullness of His power.

And yet He has not power to change you? That's not what Scripture says. It says, I will put my Spirit within you and now look closely at this word. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you. That word can be translated, make you.

These preachers that God can't make anybody do anything. Isn't that amazing? He's the only sovereign Lord of glory. Well, the only sovereign Lord anywhere who doesn't have power to rule over His subjects.

Isn't that amazing? The way He is preached today. He's Lord! The same preachers that will stand there and give you a discourse on the sovereign Lordship of Christ will turn right around and say, but He can't make anybody do anything.

Now you don't have to study the law of non-contradiction and classical logic to understand that's just simply not right. He is the Lord of glory. He has called forth a people, not for them, but primarily for Himself and for His own glory.

He has done such a work in them. He has put His Spirit in them and He says, I will cause them. I will cause them. I will exercise my sovereignty over them. You see, don't use words like sovereign if you're not going to bite the entire apple.

If you're not going to take the entire truth in, don't turn attributes of God into nothing more than clichés you sing about in contemporary Christian music or clichés that you write on the back of Christian t-shirts.

He says, I am sovereign and I will call forth a people and I will put My Spirit within them and I will cause them to do what? He says, I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes.

Now look at this next verse, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. He says, you will. The people I save will follow Me. The people that I save will be obedient to Me. And God says, I will see to it because I will have glory even out of the nations that hate Me and I will have glory when they see My people because in My true people the power, My power, will be manifest.

The Narrow Gate and the Evidence of True Discipleship

Now having said that, I want us to go to Matthew chapter 7. Enter through, verse 13, the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and there are many who enter through it for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and there are few who find it.

The one thing that I can say about my denomination of those who in the denomination claim to be conservative and believe the Bible, the one thing I can say is that we have held up and been ridiculed for holding up the fact that we believe that Jesus Christ is the only way.

We have done that as Southern Baptists and we have paid for it through the media. We have done that. We say, it's not multiple choice and not all roads lead to Rome. Jesus Christ is the only gate. The only door through which a man may pass into eternal life.

We have done that. But my dear friend, to only teach half a truth is more dangerous than teaching an out and out lie and we have taught this as a half truth. Because Jesus not only says that the gate is small, but he says the way is narrow.

If I were to look at my own denomination today and many leaders would agree with me, I would have to say this. What would I have to say? If I were to rewrite this verse based on what I see in Southern Baptist life, evangelical life in America, I would say this.

The gate is small and the way is broad. Because most of the people claiming to go through that small gate are walking in the broad way. And why don't preachers say something? I'll tell you why. Because many of them are building their visions on the bones of unregenerate church members and if they were forced to start preaching the truth, they'd have a mass exodus from their congregation and all their little plans, hopes and dreams and little kingdoms would fall down in the dust.

I would like to say to those men, I'll show you whom you should fear. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and there are few who find it. Few who find it. That's terrifying. Few who find it.

Oh, if I could hire an angel that would fly from one side of this earth to another and I could give him one message, I think I would tell him to cry out, Few are those who find it. Few are those who find it.

Oh, that an angel or a demon would come to you tonight and scream out your name and say, Few are those who find it. Few are those who find it. Now, let's interpret this passage correctly lest we grow dull.

What do I mean? When this passage is taught, even the way I have taught it, for the most part, men will say this and believers or the church will think this. Yes, that's true. There are few who find it.

I mean, there's those of us who congregate in Jesus' name, those of us who call ourselves Christians, we're the few, and then we look outside at the world and those who do not profess faith in Jesus Christ and those who do not claim to know Him and there are so many of them and so few of us who profess to be disciples, that's what this text means, no, it most certainly does not mean that at all.

What does it mean? It means this in the context. Among those who claim to be my disciples, among those who profess me to be Lord, among those who call me Savior, few of those will find it. That's what the text means.

How do I know that? Just look in verse 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. You go on down. Verse 22, you see religious people, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord.

Verse 23, then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you worker of iniquity. Jesus is not setting the professing church over here and saying that it's a few in number and that all the world over here is going to hell and those who profess Him to be Lord are okay.

No, He's saying among those people who claim to be my disciples, who call me Lord, among them, among that group, few of them will find eternal life. That's what He is teaching, my dear friend. You see, when you truly get into the Word of God, it's frightening.

When you truly get into the Word of God, you're standing there with your feet hanging over the ledge, swinging out into eternity. It's a frightening place to be. But better now than when you stand before Him on that great day.

He says in verse 15, Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. As I told the young people yesterday at the school, your best friend is the one who tells you the most truth.

Your best friend is the one who tells you the most truth. Do you want truth? Because according to the Scriptures, Romans, the first three chapters, few are those who want truth. The great majority of even professing Christianity spends most of its time on purpose being so active and so busy that it will no longer have time to hear truth.

Now, he says, verse 16, Speaking of the false prophets in the immediate context, but in the wider context, this refers to anyone of the unregenerate. He says this, Anyone who is not truly a Christian yet professes to be a Christian, he says this, You will know them by their fruits.

Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? You will know them by their fruit. Have you ever heard someone say you can't tell a book by its cover? Jesus didn't say that.

As a matter of fact, I have to believe that it originated with Satan because it directly opposes what Jesus taught. And he's the father of lies and it's a lie, so it must have come from him. Usually when I get to this text, someone says, Judge not, lest ye be judged.

And I say, Twist not Scripture, lest ye be like Satan, because that's not what that text means. He said, You will know them by their fruit. You will know them by what they do. Not by what they say. Not by what they feel.

You will know them by the activity of their life. Now, I'll give you an illustration that I give quite often. Let's say that I showed up for preaching looking like this. Hair combed. Clothes in order.

And I showed up an hour late. And I run up here to the pulpit and all of you are put out with me. What, don't you appreciate the opportunity to speak here? What, you just treat this as something vulgar, something common?

You don't realize it's a privilege? And I say, Oh, no, no. No, please, please. Don't take me wrong on this. When I was coming here, I had a flat tire. And as I was changing the tire, well, a lug nut rolled out into the highway.

And well, thoughtlessly, I ran out to grab the lug nut. And when I did, well, I looked up and there was a 30 ton logging truck going 120 miles an hour five feet in front of me. And well, it ran me over and that's why I'm late.

You would become more incensed and more angry with that explanation. You would conclude that I was either a liar or insane. And when I pressed you on the point, No, that really happened. You would finally get fed up with me and you would say, That can't happen.

I'd say, What do you mean it can't happen? It really happened? No, it cannot happen. You're either deranged or you're lying. Well, why not? I say to you, and you say, Well, it's impossible to have an encounter with something as large as a logging truck going 120 miles an hour and not somehow be changed.

Then why do you profess to have an encounter with God and you're not changed? Has God become smaller than a logging truck? Wake up, man. This is heaven and this is hell. Wake up. You claim that God has redeemed you.

You claim that He's converted you. You claim that He's regenerated you. You claim that He's come to live inside you. Is there evidence of such an encounter? Is there evidence of such a working? Jesus was a master.

He was a master debater. You want to learn how to debate? Study Jesus. He could catch men and He did catch men and He wants us to catch men. He looked at them and He said, Figs. You don't get figs from thorn trees, do you?

And they answered, Well, of course not, Jesus. I mean, you're a carpenter but everybody knows that. Well, then thorns. You're not going to find them on fig trees, are you? There you go, Jesus. You've got the logic.

You're right. That's true. Jesus, if anyone ever comes to you telling you they've got a fig tree and it's got thorns on it or they've got a thorn tree that bears figs, Jesus, they've got something to sell.

They're either lying to you or out of their mind. Don't listen to them. Then He looks back at them and He says, Well then, anyone who claims to be My disciple and doesn't bear the fruit of a disciple is either out of their mind or a liar.

Now, in verse 17 and 18 is probably some of the deepest theology in the entire Bible on soteriology, the doctrine of salvation. The deepest truths. So then, every good tree bears good fruit but the bad tree bears bad fruit.

Now, what is this simply, is He saying? You will know them by their fruit. If their fruit is bad, it's because they're a bad tree. What is He saying? If you do not have the fruit that is described in Scripture as Christian fruit, then you're not a Christian.

And He goes on in verse 18 and this is incredible. I mean, this is one of the most phenomenal texts in the Bible. A good tree cannot, can not produce bad fruit. Nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Now, as Southern Baptists, again, we teach half of this.

We will tell lost people, until you're saved, you can have no good fruit. We tell them that all the time and we're right in saying that. We're right in telling people, look, you can't work your way to heaven.

You can't produce good fruit. You can't change your life until you're saved. Because only a good tree can bear good fruit. But what we don't tell them is this. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit. Because we're calling people good trees and they're constantly producing bad fruit.

Dissension, envy, decision, dissension, carnality, worldliness, sensuality, fornication, adultery, pornography, all these different things. And we call them Christians struggling with ethical problems.

When Jesus would say that they should be afraid, that they should go and make their election sure, because there is a great possibility. They know not God and God knows not them. We go into verse 19. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Look at what he's saying. He doesn't say, everyone who does not profess me to be Lord is cut down and thrown into the fire. No, that's not the test. He says this, everyone who does not bear good fruit is cut down in the judgment of God and thrown into hell.

Then he says in verse 20, so then you will know them by their fruit. He repeats himself. He's built a parenthesis here. He begins by saying you will know them by their fruit. He ends by saying you will know them by their fruit.