True Source of Strength - Paul Washer

please open your Bibles to Daniel chapter 7. uh Daniel chapter 11 I'm sorry while you're turning there just so that you get a grasp of of how extraordinary it is what you just heard there's a veteran missionary that I know who has is still alive and still serving in Peru near 70 years and when I first went there he told me this he said young man if in 40 years if in 40 Years of ministry God enables you to plant for real churches then your life will have been an astounding miracle what you heard here just now from these two missionaries was astounding you can do so many things on the mission field you can you can evangelize you can You Can Count heads and hands but to plant a church is extraordinary it's an impossibility and it can only be done by the preaching of the Gospel and the power of God and so what you heard that many churches that many people it's beyond speech and you need to recognize that and you also need to recognize that if you were helping them you had a part in that Miracle those miracles now let's look at Daniel chapter 11. verse 32.

by smooth words he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the Covenant but the people who know their God will display strength and take action let's pray father thank you for what we have already heard what Grace you have given to your servants both men and women We Praise You O God but I pray now Lord for those in this congregation who are hearing oh God give them ears to hear and God's strengthen me help me for their sake for Christ's sake oh God so many words so many sermons but oh Lord a display of your power oh God please we need thee oh God please God do a work especially among the men the young men oh God do a work help us in Jesus name amen now the text that I I just read has a great deal to do with eschatology and there's a great deal of debate around what's going on here and I'll leave that to the scholars I want to touch on only one thing here we see a person of extraordinary evil that comes against the people of God in an extraordinary time of evil so regardless of how we take this text we can see its application to us today by smooth words he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the Covenant but the people who know their God will display strength and take action this is always the case the prophet lamented he said my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge the last few years I have seen things in this country I have seen things globally that I thought my eyes would never see there is an extraordinary evil there is an extraordinary Darkness you could imagine a a type of tsunami A Thousand Miles High and a thousand miles wide of just pitch black darkness that seems to be moving ever closer at an ever increasing speed a grotesque immorality an opposition to the gospel a hatred for our Lord and so we can identify with this text but here's what I want you to see God does not call for us in these times to circle the wagons and hide with fear and await some great event he calls us to go forward it doesn't say here that those who know their God Will Survive it says those who know their God will display strength and take action now I want you to know that here in the church in the Seminary tmai there are extraordinary men and women who are working men and women who know their God as a matter of fact many times if if I have a question or a problem I am prone to call some of them but I'm not talking to them tonight I'm talking to you I'm talking to you as a church I'm talking to you as a layperson I'm talking to you who's just been recently converted and what I want you if I could I would take your your face in my hands and I would pull you close and I would say listen to me these are troubled times these are terrible times but borrowing from Dickens I can say these are the worst of times these are the best of times in the midst of a first century Darkness you and I have the opportunity to live like first century Christians but only if we know our God only if we lay aside all those silly little distractions and even lay aside a multitude of activity that amounts to nothing and concentrate on the priorities and those priorities are this to know your God when we look through church history we see extraordinary men and extraordinary women of devotion and courage the willingness to give absolutely everything what makes them different why are they so strange why do they appear as an anomaly what is the reason were they born of better stock than us absolutely not they were born of Adam were they born again with a better Spirit no God does not show partiality with his children then what is the difference here is the difference if you look at them and you seek courage and you see passion and you see discipline it is only because they know more of God they know more of Christ they know more of the payment than the average believer and that came to them because they sought it they sought it in the scriptures they sought it in prayer they wanted to know him you see the weakest man in the world can become strong the most useless servant can become extraordinary but it is only to the degree that they know their God and principally they know their God in the person and work of Jesus Christ he is absolutely everything he cannot be sounded in his power and his Beauty And His glory and his love for his people the depth of what he suffered for us on that tree cannot be grasped by men or Angels only in the mind of God is it correctly understood there is a well for us of strength in that knowledge there is a wealth for us of motivation in that knowledge to know him to know him that is the great motivation of the Christian Life that is the Great motivation and yet there is another look over in chapter 12. look at verse 2. many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake these to everlasting life but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt those who have Insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven and those who lead the many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever if it wouldn't appear rude I would stomp my foot several times to get your attention I I need you to see this I don't care who you are your life as a Believer is extraordinary the things you claim to believe are fantastic but true we're not talking here about your best life now we're talking about heaven hell Life Death Eternal contempt or eternal glory and there's glory to be one there's glory to be had I want you to turn over just for a moment and look at Romans chapter 2.

where the Christian Life is described this is one of the most neglected passages I don't know why it's neglected it is it is extraordinarily powerful Romans chapter 2. in verse 6 speaking of God who will render to each person according to his deeds now he describes the Christian Life the Christian to those who by perseverance in doing good look what they seek for they seek for Glory and Honor and immortality that sounds Spartan it sounds like it should be written on a shield or a sword or a piece of armor but it's written for you Christ never says that we should not seek Glory he just focuses our attention not to ever seek Glory from men but to seek Glory the glory from God to one day hear your name called to drop your sword to lay aside your scars and your pain and all the battle wounds and cross that threshold to hear well done my good and faithful servant enter into the joy of your master you say well I'm not a missionary I'm not this I'm not that whoever said that mattered whoever told you that the Glass Family borrowing from William Carey I can say this and many other missionaries with tmai and with Grace and on and on they went down into the well for the sake of Christ you are called to hold the Rope for those who go down and either way whether you go down in the well as a missionary or you hold the Rope for those who go down there will be Scars On Your Hands Church show me your scars there should be scars scars to glory in at what it has cost you to follow him to serve him so that over every inch of this globe the flag of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ flies in Peru there's a statement the only reason you're alive is because air is free and the whole point with that statement is so many people live without any purpose you look at you Glory and Honor immortality the privilege to be able to invest your entire life in that which you can never lose for an Incorruptible King and an Incorruptible Kingdom there are Kings and warriors and noblemen and philosophers who never had the privilege that you possess to labor for a kingdom that will never end that they cannot take away from you that will not collapse with the next regime because there's no Changing of the Guard in this Kingdom I beg you what do I beg you let's go to Romans Chapter 2 chapter 12. verse 1.

therefore I urge you Brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship and do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is that which is good and acceptable and perfect he says therefore I urge you brethren there is one thing that I see over and over missing in all these expositors when I come to church I don't want to hear a new testament class I want to hear preaching I want to see a man who has life and death painted on his face I want to have the great matters of Eternity set before me I want to be urged I want to be begged I want to be pleaded with because the subject matter is worthy of it and this was the Apostle Paul he doesn't just lay truth before people and then walk off the platform patting himself on the back because he did a good job expositing a text no there should be no contentment in the preacher unless God is glorified and men and women are moved Paul says I urge you I beseech you I beg you brethren here is a man who whether in body or not in body saw Glory saw Paradise he knows what's at stake a vision of Christ knows the worth of him and he comes back to us who have clouded eyes and dull ears and passive hearts and he says stop it stop looking at all the things in this world stop being so troubled with so many things I urge you to do something what is that something he says to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice to present teneris tens here it's idea of it's not this every Sunday make a new pledge it's the prophetic call of how long will you limp between two opinions if Christ is Lord if Christ is Lord then once and for all for yourself once and for all especially you men stand I urge you he says to present your bodies why does he say bodies here I think it it's the wisdom of God it becomes so tiring after a while to hear everyone talk about their heart but you need to understand something you can talk all day about the inward workings of your heart but unless it manifests itself outwardly in your body in what you do it's meaningless it's meaningless what do you do Church listen to me we're not standing here at the end of an era oh it's time to go on and go on and go on there is so much right here so much more that can be done here so much work to be done to take the gospel to the Nations to take the gospel to this nation so much to be done in Bible translation there are so many things that can be done and that's the pain of it and you say yes we have great men and women to do it but those great men and women cannot do it without everyone that I'm looking at right now and everyone hearing my voice everyone has a place a work a task teeth that go down in the well or to hold the Rope for those who go down to serve Christ to serve Christ he goes present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice when I was a brand new convert one of my dear friends had was talking to Leonard Ravenhill the old English revivalist and said Brother Paul's really been struggling with some things I was a brand new believer just a year or two old Leonard Ravenhill sent me a track and the track said others can you cannot and what that truck basically said was this yes others can play with the world others can walk hand in hand with the world others can live trivial lives and play Trivial games but if you want to be an instrument of God you can not the Christian Life does not begin with what you do it begins with what you don't do because if you don't turn away from some things it doesn't matter what you do on the other side it doesn't matter if you take a shower five times a day if seven times a day you fall back into the cesspool we are a people called by God do you say that we have been called out of this world out of its moral filth out of its moral Decay we have been called out of its it's trivial the trivial that it does playing with marbles wasting its life until it finally crawls into the grave no wiser than when it started you've been called out to serve him you've been called out for eternity you've been called out so come out the things in your life that are soiling you the things in your life that are holding you back the sins that are besetting you let them go you say well I'm in a holy church it doesn't matter if you're in a holy church if you're not a holy person you say I'm in a church that that is really really given to the Great Commission it doesn't matter if you're not given to the Great Commission just don't fight this war by proxy you you are so special you have a place you have a place come out not just leaving immorality behind but leaving the trivial behind so much wasted time so much looking and looking and looking no no that's not for you as wine is to be given for those who have no hope let those things be given to people who have no hope but you have hope of eternal life and eternal glory and of Eternal purpose awake sleeper and arise come out from among them he has called you to be sons and daughters you were born in Zion your name is inscribed in the book come out and join forces with those who labor with those who suffer with those who cry with those who fight present your body is a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God acceptable to God what do we care about whether or not we're acceptable to this world this Dark Twisted stinking filthy world that now the West turned over to apparent reprobation and apart from a Revival will run headlong into hell what do we care Let the dead speak to the Dead your only concern is to be acceptable to God and do what is pleasing in his sight that's your only only concern and again I'm not talking to a group of people I'm talking to you and you and you and you acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship the word can also mean rational remember one time dealing with there was an atheist that had been brought to me by a person who claimed to be a Christian but lived in continuous carnality wanted me to witness and I just stopped and I said you know what I have more problems with you than I have with atheists and they said how can you say that I said because he's consistent he's immoral and that's consistent with what he says he believes there is no God there is no absolute truth he can run on Instinct and at least I have to applaud his logic but you know you have no rationality to you you're a walking contradiction if Jesus Christ is Lord to you and he is but if you claim to be aware of it that he is your lord you acknowledge Him as Lord well there's an issue there it's called sovereignty Lords are sovereign and they reveal their Sovereign will through certain decrees this book the most rational thing you can do is give your life away Jim Elliott he is no fool to give up that which you cannot keep to gain that which she can never lose that's not just for missionaries that's for everyone everyone sitting here everyone hearing my voice please I urge you I beg you I plead with you now you say brother Paul I understand this I understand but the motivation the motivation brother Paul I understand I want to be more but the motivation Paul deals with that here in verse 1. therefore I urge you brethren by the mercies of God what is he saying he is telling the Romans that the most rational thing they can do is give themselves Lock Stock and Barrel to God he's telling them to give away the most precious thing they possess even Satan told the truth on this one when he when he destroyed every one of job's possessions and relations and everything else and job remains faithful and then Satan comes back and says let me touch his body here Paul is urging begging pleading entreating you to give your body your mind your heart your soul your future everything now what could be the motivation that would cause us to do that why would anyone do that the mercies of God what are the mercies of God first of all notice he says Mercies I think there's a little bit of Paul being a Jew in this because he went with the plural and when you do it's it's an idea of abundance multifaceted big so he says I'm telling you to do this most difficult thing and the motivation I give you is the mercy of God but what are those mercies Paul that's why the the word therefore is so important because it connects chapter 12 with the first 11 chapters and what did he do in the first 11 chapters he explained to the Romans and to us everything God has done for us in Christ everything God he says I have intricately gone through this theology with you of what God has done for you in his son do you think he did that just so you could be smart or make a good grade no he did that not only to save you but to motivate you from where does motivation come let's go back to Daniel remember those who know their God and what's the best place to know God in Christ and what's the best place to know Christ in his cross in his cross when I became a Christian I I was well aware of my inabilities that I would never become this Theologian who understood all these things so I thought I will do one thing even though I cannot give a lecture on eschatology and I I can't give a lecture on certain things and I I'm not very good at apologetics I will do one thing I will study the cross I will devote my life to one thing knowing what it means that Jesus Christ died from me and that knowledge is enough to take the weakest man and make him strong the most pliant man and make him defiant to make him run when he can't walk to make him lift when he is weary to go on and on and on there is enough motivation in that cross to propel you a thousand eternities of service I hear people all the time well Jesus died for me Jesus died for me the Puritans used to say there are some things you don't say without a trembling lip he died for me for this for what I was for what I am even now at my best moment would only earn me hell he died there's the motivation there it is the more you know about the cross about what he suffered there it will fracture you and remake you it will drive you and I want to close go to Second Corinthians chapter 5. look at verse 9.