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The Altar Call By Erroll Hulse

Now our subject this evening, the article has, I notice, brought quite a lot of humour and the Irishmen have all indicated their willingness to come forward because they are very keen that I should not be discouraged.
Now we may laugh about this matter and there is a reason for it because if you are in a fairly big meeting it does give you an enormous sense of power to be able to work on people and manipulate them and though you may say a thousand times that you're not manipulating them indeed you are.
Now I haven't been a modern evangelist in that sense but soon after my conversion I've entered forth into the open air with others and soon began to make the altar call, it wasn't actually an altar but a response by raising their hands and then those who raised their hands were duly taken back to the church for counselling but the whole system broke down very soon because it was drawn to my attention that the same gentlemen were coming every week and in South Africa it is our black friends who are more humble and therefore much more willing to listen to preaching and more congenial to it and in fact I was informed that that was one of the chief motives that they didn't want me to be discouraged so they responded most readily.
In fact in some ways I think that I could beat Billy Graham and that is my percentage some nights were higher than his so it's not a bad record for a start however the Lord didn't destined me to be invitation system altar calling inquiry room penitent form evangelist but it was in fact at a Billy Graham crusade in London at Wembley that I really began to think seriously very seriously about it because my wife and I counselled 26 people all together and very quickly it was evident that none of them really understood what had happened and I don't think that that is unusual I was speaking to one of the brothers in Ireland in fact and he was in charge one time in one of the great crusades of the Anglican section or a considerable Anglican section of churches and he said that after six months they could no longer find one person who was now in regular attendance and I was speaking to another brother recently it wasn't a Billy Graham crusade this time but another crusade and very extravagant claims were made in that area of 500 that had responded and this minister was very careful to follow this up and go to the churches and make inquiries and he couldn't find one person that was in evidence following this campaign so it is a very relevant subject a very important subject and I would say at the outset it is a subject for those who evangelise it's not a subject for those who do not evangelise I have every sympathy with D.L. Moody not with his theology or his method but he said better the evangelism I do than what you do not do so if we're not evangelising then we're really not in a position to criticise those who are attempting evangelism even though they may be using methods that we would not agree with moreover we believe here very much in the sovereignty of God and nobody would question that the Lord in his sovereignty has produced some wonderful conversions some of us have come out of that system but then I hasten to add that in many parts of the world there is no other system it's absolutely prevalent but God in his sovereignty has produced wonderful conversions but so often they are held up and used then to endorse the whole system and that doesn't explain the huge number large percentage that never make it that never go further and as Dabney pointed out if you bring people forward and give them that assurance and Kingsley was telling us about coming to a false assurance saying well you know a Christian because you've come forward and then it doesn't work you go back on it then that creates in people a cynicism and a scepticism and they say well it was a delusion it didn't work nothing happened I'm no different to what I was before then says Dabney they begin to look at all the other Christians and say well poor deluded fellows I mean they're just carrying on with it they're pretending and they're absolutely convinced that we're all deluded that we're all suffering from delusions so I say that shows the importance of our subject and then we observe that in America the whole American continent North American continent probably in the South American scene as well this is entrenched as a system and it is possible to document that men have not been able to enter the ministry because they do not practice the invitation system and they have been debarred from the ministry on that account indeed it's so widespread in some parts of America that I liken it to a new sacramentalism just as in Luther's day if you didn't agree with salvation by the sacraments you were the odd man out and it became an absolutely universal practice to the point that it was exceedingly difficult to go against that tide and many of them said well even if they disagreed with Tetzl and the others they said well there's nothing we can do about it we'll just make the most of the system as it is and in the event there were very few who were like Luther who was strong enough and insistent enough and bold enough and empowered enough to overthrow it and he was right to overthrow but it was a tremendous struggle to do that and today in some parts there are those who regard the invitation system as the sacramentalism that is the way you get saved that is tantamount to evangelism you can't do evangelism without it and that's how God works and if you don't work that way well you can't evangelize you can't be interested in evangelism so I call it the new sacramentalism
it is the response that saves the soul it's human centered it's humanistic it's subjective and then
when they do reap a huge harvest of hypocrites of people who are not born again and they it's very
evident that they not holy people they now have invented the carnal Christian theory so they say
well these people have made their decision and having made their decision they're Christians
but now later they'll come forward at another appeal to receive the Lord as Lord they've
received him as Savior so the Christians they forgiven all their sins are forgiven and later
they'll come and then they will receive him as Lord then they'll be really the first-class
Christians now of course they're in the twilight but they have made their decision they have come
forward they have signed the card or whatever so they're Christians but they carnal Christians
and some of them are exceedingly carnal Christians and so on so we have the carnal Christian theory
but not only that we have with the subject a tremendous amount of deception as far as gospel
success is concerned Ernest Riesinger in today's gospel says this unbiblical system has produced
the greatest record of false statistics ever compiled by church or business and I agree with
that R.T. Kendall in this book just put out by Hodder stand up and be counted he says in the
back here that 200,000 people in the United Kingdom have been converted through being converted his
words through Billy Graham well if you stop and think about that and analyze it it's absurd how
many Christians are there evangelical Christians in Britain anyway if only 1% in London only go to
church that's of all denominations well how many Christians are there and we are to believe the
200,000 were all through Billy Graham and in any case what about the agencies if they were if they
did go forward at that stage can we really say that is their conversion that that's the mark of
it at Westminster Chapel I understand that when Billy Graham preached there 70 went forward I
think it would be very embarrassing to ask how many of those are still going to Westminster
Chapel let alone were baptized or anything like that be very interesting to find out so by what
do we divide 200,000 do we divide it by 100 do we divide it by 50 do we divide it by 25 what do
we divide it by well in our instance it came to nothing but in others maybe they had more success
it's very difficult to say so you see you get the idea that something tremendous is happening but
the country goes on just as it was before as there is fundamentally no difference this is excitement
and who are the people that are reached well you see it isn't a revival where the the community is
reached society is reached it's the friends that are reached the families that are reached but what
about the nation and what we really need is a genuine awakening is a genuine revival that's
what we're looking for and that's what we should be praying for and that's what we should be working
for you may say well you don't work for revival but I think you do we are given a mandate to go
to every creature and to all people and we should be working at that and looking for God to bless it
that's what we should be doing anyway I trust that I've shown the relevance of the subject to
you and now I want to talk about the books that have been written on this and also go into a
little bit of the history of the subject that'll be our first point then I have a second point and
that is is this matter is this approach is this practice biblical very very orderly we've got two
points now and I'm going to have a third point the third point is this and this is some analysis that
I've been doing myself I believe the whole system is a misunderstanding of one doctrine and that is
it is a misunderstanding of the new birth now I came to that through reading dr. Martin Lloyd
Jones's book preaching and preachers he has about 12 pages on the subject from page two seven six
onwards and he has nine reasons and now I'm in that my first point so we now back to the first
point no my fourth point by the way was the application doesn't forget that application so
come to that at the end four points now we have the first point and dr. Lloyd Jones in 1972 was
invited to speak at Westminster seminary on preaching and I'm sure that he did a great deal
of good there and one of his addresses was on this very subject and he gave nine reasons why
he didn't call for decisions he didn't call people up for a public response now these reasons are
given in typical doctor fashion they run into each other one or two points you've got to really
winkle them out to sort them out but never mind there are nine points here and as I wrote all
these down and analyze the math suddenly clicks nearly all these points have to do with the new
birth it's going at it from different aspects different angles probably had to prepare this
the night before and he's under some pressure it's all excellent stuff excellent absolutely
first class but the order of it isn't very brilliant but nevertheless it all has to do
with the new birth so I thought well I'd have a go at really sorting it out and straightening it
out you can always be taller than another another man if you stand on his shoulders so I thought I'd
do it that way so you see it is a misunderstanding of the new birth but this material as far as I
know it's about the only material on this huge subject this vast subject from our standpoint now
may have missed some books or paperbacks on it you may have picked up some I haven't but our
brother Artie Kendall he's beaten us all to the whole book on stand up and be counted 126 pages
and in this book he gives his biblical reasons for it and also he goes into the history of the
subject of the altar call or the invitation system so we'll be looking at that again in a
moment then another book was lonely very helpfully by Tom Nettles and this book is written so that
you can make a more effective invitation and this book adulates the Billy Graham method absolutely
it's almost deified enormous almost you almost have to take your shoes from off your feet when
this matter is examined it says it's as though there's something miraculous about it that when
he calls for decisions he can get more out there than anybody else and it's amazing book whole
history it gives a history of of the subject and then biblical reasons for it he answers objections
to it and so on and here we have all some 240 pages on how to make an effective invitation or
better how to make it more effective because if you're not doing it why aren't you not doing it
you ought to be doing it and you make you feel as though you're a real dud if you're not doing it
so we have these books that are written now I suppose in America there may be others but I'm
very happy to have this book because it has the imprimatur imprimatur of dr. W a Chriswell and I
think he has 25,000 church members you may only have 25 but of course we're not over impressed by
the 25,000 because a lot of that would be on the paper I'm sure but nevertheless it's a very
formidable I think it covers five city blocks or something like it very formidable and I believe
that dr. W a Chriswell is a staff defender of inerrancy I think he is is that right yes he is
so he is a man to be respected in America as a as an evangelical now he is behind this book he agrees
with this book so it's not a book in the corner it is by one of their best men so I'm sure that
if I've got this with Chriswell's name on it that I've got the genuine statement and not only that
it's got Billy Graham's backing as well and incidentally so has Kendall got Billy Graham's
backing so both books have got the backing of Billy Graham so if I haven't got a lot of books
don't worry about it because both books have been endorsed by Billy Graham so we are on the right
track now let us look at the history of it now R. Allen Street the effective invitation this larger
book from America he believes that this system of calling people to make a response goes right back
to the beginning and goes right through the centuries and he gives the sort of potted
church history of people of the great preachers and he implies that they all in one way or another
called for a response but there's a difficulty because when you look at the back and he has got
footnotes is when you look at the back he's quoting other writers but no original sources
at all and quite honestly I don't believe a word of it not a word however one place I do believe
something because here he has Bernard of Clavo 1093 to what to 1153 and he says that Bernard of
Clavo actually asked for people to raise their hands 94 page 94 and that may well be so but
even if he did I don't see how the whole modern invitation system can be endorsed just because
Bernard these years ago did this however we when we come to Kendall we find something very
interesting that Kendall claims that we've all been wrong all of us have been wrong in quoting
Finney and Dr. Lloyd-Jones quotes Finney as the great originator and progenitor I suppose the
beginner the the starter of all this business of you know polishing the invitation system and so
on and building something out of it but RT tells us that that is not the case we've all been wrong
because there was a man by the name of Eliezer Wheelock and way back in 1741 an eyewitness gave
this report and I will read it as Eliezer Wheelock was delivering his discourse very pleasantly and
moderately the depth and strength of feeling increased till some began to cry out both above
and below in awful distress and anguish of soul upon which he raised his voice that he might be
heard above their outcries but the distress and outcry spreading and increasing his voice was at
length so drowned that he could not be heard wherefore not being able to finish his sermon
with great apparent serenity and calmness of soul he called to the distressed and desired them to
gather themselves together in the body of the seats below this he did that he might the more
conveniently converse with them counsel direct exhort them and so on but he ought not to have
done it he should have sent his hearers home to engage in solitary serious thought in reading now
that's just what the man said now let us make a comment on this because Kendall in page 48 the
next page after quoting this says the modern practice of calling people forward began in
real revival he says you could say that it had a spontaneous beginning see well let's analyze that
for a few minutes I reckon if I was Eliezer Wheelock I'd also asked them to the room to be
counseled what else could the man do the most sensible thing to do and if we have a revival
we want to talk to the people and counselors nothing wrong with that fine we mustn't give
the impression that we against being practical to counsel people our whole approach is to bring
people to repentance and if and we must counsel them personally of course we must but that's a
way way off from a system which they exercise every at every evangelistic meeting in the same
way always one of our daughters recently spent a year part of England where it was difficult to
find a reform Baptist Church and she went to a general Baptist Church and she told us how the
minister every Sunday made the altar call even though nothing happened every Sunday he felt
obliged to do this I cannot imagine why he needs to do it in an average size congregation you know
who's there you can see them at the door know exactly where they all stand so why why do that
every time every Sunday he felt he had to do this so a revival in which people are crying out does
another matter then you you have to deal with that situation according as the as the Holy Spirit is
working there may be 10 people may be 50 people may be 100 people or in the case of George
Whitfield at the Cambridge Langley maybe a thousands of people and they all have to be seen
some of them can't talk some of them can talk and you see how far they go that's all but they're no
pronouncements in a revival you read Whitfield Edwards and we nearly all of us do that they don't
pronounce that so many were infallibly converted they don't know and Wesley himself Arminian that
he was was hurtful he says I see people under deep conviction of sin and I have hurt for them
but he didn't pronounce and say oh well I now know that exactly so many have come but what they do
now and what Street does is very evident in the book I could document this he's talking one minute
about enquirers but you turn the page and now they converts you see in their minds they'll say
to us all only enquirers but in their statistics and and and their statements they convert you see
the whole system is when man responds hey presto the fires lit you gotta get them to respond and
that's it they come but if you tackle the system all of course they're any enquirers but not in
their minds really so coming back then to the history of it I find that it's that the men who
have said that it was Finney really that got this going they are correct now both Kendall and Alan
Street quote the camp meetings the Methodist camp meetings in America 1790 1810 and it is true that
they used the mourners bench or penitent form but again you know we have to analyze that that is
really a far way from getting people to make a decision and going through the formula of making
a decision and then pronouncing that we've had so many decisions tonight or so many converts
having people up at a counseling or at a penitent form to mourners bench to repent of something well
that's one thing now just recently I've been as you know brought into a new scene and I'm struck
by some some of the backsliders that we have men that that once were church members even church
officers and now they're alcoholics and how do they get back to the faith how do they get back
to Christ when the wind when it says that no drunkard will ever inherit the kingdom of heaven
but if you make appeals they'll be up there every time hell walk and they'll cry every time to get
over their addiction so a mourners bench is one thing it's a different thing altogether in my
mind to to a system invitation system that's working like a huge machine no matter what
there's two different things and now Billy Sunday he had them walking the shortest trail
been to Winona Lake and seen this tremendous place and he had him down there and I tell you
and then he had to shake his hand and so but I see in that and and and Billy Sunday is is criticized
by the more modern evangelist who refined it more but in Billy Sunday I see a lot of the idea of
getting men off booze and so on and the great effort to get them to do that but he in fact
Billy Sunday was in the invitation system mold absolutely and don't let me tell you that he
isn't but I'm trying to say that there is a difference between a penitent form and a
mourners bench where people are grappling with repentance which may take a year may take six
months or may never happen and hey presto you make your decision you sign your card and that's
it it's two different things so those who say that Finney was the one I think that they more
or less are right that they are correct in saying that because we are defining what we mean by the
system it is a system that has come to be and Finney was the one who made the system
well now we've covered the background and introduced it now let's come to a point number
two is it biblical that is the whole question is it the biblical is this in the Bible well again
Alan Street surveys the Bible and Kendall does partly so and both men quote Adam and Eve as the
proof of the system they say well there God came and he pulled them from behind the bushes
but what they don't say of course is that God didn't say well now I've got four points and I
want you to make your decision he condemned them that's what he did when he got them out of there
he condemned them the all of us in them as well we all got condemned by it and then a gospel was
held out and preached it was there there was a gospel there but it wasn't a matter of just
coming out from behind the bushes and then signing the court so I can't see that that has any
relevance whatsoever and then Kendall in his book makes a great business of this he says what is
needed is a public pledge and for this he quotes Genesis 14 the public pledge and this is his main
argument and it's about Abraham but Abraham said to the king of Sodom I have raised my hand to the
Lord God most high creator of heaven and earth and have taken an oath that I will accept nothing
belonging to you not even a thread or the thong of a sandal so that you will never be able to say I
made Abraham rich now he starts he's got a whole thing about this one point two points three five
six seven eight ten ten points he draws out of this to show that we should have a public pledge
and really the public pledge endorses the whole invitation system ultimately I can't imagine that
this can can really be valid imagine Abraham doing this well it was just an incident in his life and
I don't imagine he got all his soldiers around him and said now look fellas I'm gonna make a
pledge you know and in any case he wasn't making a decision it wasn't being converted it was just
an incident in his life and I don't think there was even any courage in it was just a pledge he
says I'm not gonna have your money I don't want to be made rich by you and that's the end of it I
don't see anything at I think he's read everything into that I don't think for one moment but it has
anything to do with the subject not for one moment I think it's totally irrelevant but then
of course we know that much is made of Joshua Joshua chapter 24 choose you this day who you
will say whether the gods of your forefathers or the gods of the Amorites but as for me and my
household we will serve the Lord there we are they say yeah he was asking them to choose who
they were going to serve and then the people the Spanish responded very nicely far be it from us
they said to forsake the Lord or to serve other gods as they responded audibly I suppose the
oldest they said we will be will follow the Lord and then Joshua said and they never quite this
I've no I've not found it anyway Joshua said but you can't he said you are unable then he said to
them throw away your foreign gods that are among you then yield your house to the Lord say ignored
their response entirely he didn't make anything of it well I've never seen a modern evangelist
say well you know where's the fruit of repentance I don't see a tear in in sight I don't believe a
word of it I don't think any of you are able to repent that's biblical it's quite biblical to say
you're unable you couldn't repent if you tried you give yourself a new heart what man here tonight can just change his heart and be what he ought to be you not one of you can do it and if it happens to you very very happy that your heart is moved I was hearing testimony of a new convert just a couple of days ago and she told me of how she was completely broken up by some preaching turned inside out when I said that's wonderful it's a wonderful thing to have I wish that it happened more but you can't just repent like that you can't you try well if Joshua's right he says I don't believe it if I see some of those gods being thrown out I might believe it you throw some of those gods out of your tents and then I might believe it he says don't tell me you can when you can't he says but they take that and then Elijah's another favorite you go to the passage in Kings and you see that Elijah said to the people come here to me and they came to him and then they watched the whole thing and then when they saw the fire fall they fell prostrate and cried the Lord he is God the Lord he is God but that doesn't mean to say for one moment that they were converted because they weren't they've seen the demonstration but seeing fire doesn't convert anybody so to try and construct the invitation system on Elijah because he said come to me and then the fire came down and they fell on their faces I don't think that that stands I'm totally unconvinced but then Alan Street has something else to say and that is he quotes Paige Patterson and Paige Patterson says that the Greek word parakallia translated to exhort that this endorses the invitation system and he may has a lot to say about this matter of this word parakallia because it means to call alongside and you have the use of this word in many places in the New Testament so because this word is used it means to call alongside so that endorses the system and at Pentecost when he exhorted them what he really said was you must come along suddenly and he actually claims this but that's what he was doing he was making the article well analyze that for a little while you exhort somebody like Joshua was exhorting somebody but Joshua wasn't saying well come alongside me that's you don't need to get in an era may have been eating curry so keep back he's exhorting him doesn't mean come alongside it doesn't mean that at all it means to exhort to persuade to try and turn them by speech to do it but it doesn't mean it doesn't mean you've got to walk there or do something come alongside not for one moment as Ernest Riesinger very aptly puts it he says conversion doesn't lie in any overt acts of the body there was never any overt act equated with coming to Christ you can never find anything concerned with the body to make a person converted I remember hearing story from Crawley of a minister who got a decision out of a young girl and she put her hand up and because her hand was I went up this minister pronounced that she was converted so one of the school teachers of teaching the school every day went to this minister and said well she's not converted there's nothing converted about her at all because I teach her every day she must be she put her hand which means that the regeneration lies in the elbow joints and Riesinger is saying that it's not in the knee joints it's not in the elbow joints it's not in the finger joints in writing or signing the card it is not in any overt action is not getting people to be to walk alongside all that Paige Patterson is doing is showing that he is a slave of the system that's all he's doing if that's what he thinks it it's got to be that you walk alongside that you've got to make this movement then he's a slave of the system so we see that we can go over many different parts of scripture Pentecost there were 3,000 but they were the ones that appealed what must we do and they surely couldn't have been baptized unless they'd had some counseling and in any case those 3,000 represented the best proselytes going the ones that had traveled hundreds of miles and spent all that time there well-taught people it wasn't just off the cuff people are totally ignorant and again in a revival time they will search for it anyway no matter what you do they will insist on counseling they will insist on light they will insist on assurance they will insist on the way of salvation they will do it whether you like it or not and that's the healthy way not that you are trying to manipulate people get them to do they will do it whether you like it or not they are going to come so I would say that it is not biblical and our Lord never did it our Lord always spoke personally and I think in most cases even discouraged people the rich young ruler came running and kneeling and the Lord says Lord system well what about the law don't you know the law and then he sends him home he says go and sell everything you've got and then come and be with me I didn't just say oh wonderful running and kneeling ah this is this is the decision of the day he told people I haven't got anywhere to live how can you follow me and then you read John 6 at the height of his ministry having fed the multitudes he tells them the hard truths and they all leave him in his disciples leave him the twelve are left this is you gonna go also he says and they say well I suppose we would but there's nobody else we can go to now you think that if this system was right at the very height of the ministry with thousands are well fed and they're smiling and they're feeling good Oh get him in round them up get him to make their decision we have thousands of disciples then if it depends on being moved and and seizing the right moment of popularity this is it great stuff let's do it now he was they wanted to make him a king completely wrong matters not born again at all not repentant didn't do anything his miracles and this great feeding miracle didn't give them repentance and he knew it so I say I can find nothing to endorse this we must counsel people we must be urgent with people we must preach repentance and faith to all men and long for and look for and pray for conversions but let them be conversions and this makes nonsense of Judson and Carey eight years and no decisions nonsense but they were after the new birth something else something different well now that brings me on to point number three and that is that the invitation system is fundamentally a misunderstanding of the new birth to the mentality of these people coming forward whatever they say coming forward in their minds settles it Street quotes Billy Graham and that's it coming forward settles it coming forward is conversion Ian Murray is taken to task for misrepresenting them and he doesn't because where they may say it's inquirers the way they speak the way they act the way it hurt the whole thing works coming forward making the response you make the response that is what doesn't and they go all out for a response and Street again says that this can lead to a revival in equates Campbell Morgan he says if any everybody would do this it would lead to revival I remember Canadian coming some of you may remember it you may have been there in London a Canadian came to report on the revival so-called revival they had in Canada and as we listen during the day it was evident that it was the decision system so when question time came I got in first and I said I've never done this you know this calling for decisions if I had it would had done so would I had more converts oh yes he said he was finished because most the men there knew exactly what was going on there in other words they really believe that if you use the method you'll get converts use the method and you get that I've used it but are they condense it's a misunderstanding of the new birth now let me show you how this works in practice so that this is not an exaggeration but you can see that I'm actually being true to what this book says now streets on page 175 tells the story of dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones he says had an experience one Sunday evening as he was delivering his sermon he noticed the man weeping in the audience although Lloyd-Jones although Lloyd-Jones sensed an urge to speak to the man about his soul at the close of the sermon he held his peace the following evening the preacher happened to meet the same man along the roadway Lloyd-Jones then tells the story as follows he came across the road to me and said you know doctor if you had asked me to stay behind last night I would have done sir well I said I'm asking you now come with me now oh no replied the man but if you'd asked me last night I would have done sir now street quotes that to show what a miserable performance by the doctor now you come to the doctor's authorized version here we have the story the following evening I was walking to the prayer meeting in the church and going over a railway bridge I saw the same man coming to me he came across the road to me and said you know doctor if you had asked me to stay behind last night I would have done sir well I said I'm asking you now come with me now oh no he replied but if you had asked me last night I would have done sir my dear friend I said if what happened to you last night does not last for 24 hours I'm not interested in it if you are not as ready to come with me now as you were last night you have not got the right or true thing whatever affected you last night was only temporary and passing you still do not see your real need of Christ authorized version now as street again tells the story of a notorious criminal John Dillinger and this man when he was a boy went forward at one of the meetings and when he went up to the front nobody came to him well he waited a few moments moments went out and he said to his sister I'm never going to a church again now the street makes a great deal of this he says well there we are if he if they'd only been there they'd only helped him if he's only got the help at that moment whole different eternity he implies would have opened up to this man well isn't that bad but you see he doesn't understand but if a man is repentant really repentant he's not going to wait seconds or minutes he'll wait hours he'll wait days he'll wait weeks he'll wait months he'll wait here he will seek until he's till he finds if a man is convicted of his sin he's going to give God no peace or rest until he has salvation if it's repentance but if we're going to deal with have the idea that everything depends on the technique and this is how they work it's going to be absolutely right lights go down the music comes on handsome face the gist must be right because they really believe that the response comes for salvation and the new birth comes from man so I say it is a failure to see that the new birth is a new creation it's not just a response it's a new creation if the pentecostal friend says have you been baptized by the spirit I say I sure have triunely so I have been baptized by the spirit into Christ into the father into the spirit and that is my regeneration I have been baptized by the spirit and that is my conversion that is my new birth in the old testament it was it was marked by circumcision casting off the flesh with circumcision now baptism has taken the place of circumcision and baptism is the symbol the portrayal of the baptism of the spirit in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit what has happened in the spirit now is portrayed in water that is my baptism and that portrays a new creation in Christ we are created in Christ by the father it is a creation only God can create we are not born of the will of men we are born of the will of God the new birth is a new creation it's not just a response it isn't an emotion it's a creation entirely of a new person I love that description by Edwards in the religious affections there's a proportion and symmetry there of a whole new person in the new birth outline of everything there like the babe when it's born it's got all the features and proportions all the organs hands feet everything in proportion well the new birth is nothing more or less than the new birth of a new creature we are new creations in Christ that's the new birth so they do not understand that the new birth is a new creation nor do they understand that it doesn't come from the flesh they seem to think that somehow or another you can provoke this or evoke it or wheedle it or persuade it you can somehow get it to come just recently I had three little boys waiting after the young people's meeting about 12 years old each and they said to me one was crying they said we've tried to be Christians time and time again as soon as we go back into the dingle go back to school and to our parents where there's no Christianity at all we don't get nowhere we're not getting anywhere we've tried we come to we come to hear the preaching we come to the services we come to young people and we've tried praying we've done this and that and we're still not Christians what must we do well I know what a decisionist would do bow your head say the prayer accept the Lord Jesus in your heart you're a Christian then Monday they go back and nothing no different they've done it so many times they haven't gone through the decisionist form there of course not but they've tried over and over and over and over again to be Christian and now they're still not Christian so what do we do well what did I do well I called my daughter she's 16 so I told her what had happened I said do counsel these boys you talk to them tell them how many times you thought you were a Christian and you weren't some five times every time we had a powerful preacher that was it she thought but one week of rough stuff at school and back to square one so I said you can't so I listened excellent job she's an edwardsian seek the Lord and go on seeking him until you find him and there's nothing else you can do you go on seeking that is edwardsian doctrine edwards worked out eight different stages of people on their way but I'll come to preparation in a minute and william perkins worked out seven different types of hearers that you preach into and decisionism isn't going to meet all seven needs by any stretch of the imagination seek the Lord and go on seeking him and there's no other way for you but to seek the Lord and Isaiah 55 read that over and over again and you will find him seek him with all your heart you keep on encourage them to seek it doesn't come from the flesh you don't say dig down into your heart dig deeper put in the put in the trowel go deeper somewhere down there somewhere in your heart is the new birth try again it's likely going back to the priests of balls scraping themselves and cutting themselves it's not in the heart of man it comes from above Jesus said john 3 it is the spirit that does this so then the new birth comes from God himself it's a new creation and it comes from him the spirit blows where he wants to blow and he blows as creator the holy spirit is the author of regeneration not man carnal natures at enmity is not subject to the law of God and cannot be God himself is the author of this thing now notice the next point and is the author true of the timing he does it when he wants to do it and not when we want to do it it's got nothing to do with our manipulation or our prayer or our doing this or that is like the wind he does it and sometimes we think we know when he did it and probably we're wrong he is the author of the new birth in his own timing I threw the other day to hear that church in london a reformed church and suddenly unexpectedly 20 conversions in one week jeff thomas called it sheer vertical sovereignty that's beautiful and god does it that way so he can have the glory my friend simo ralovich in uh ugoslavia has had some times of of the blessing of the holy spirit he has nothing to do he's vehemently opposed to this decision business but there have been times when numbers of people are being converted at the same time and we say last thing we're not interested in just professions we're only interested in what lasts we're not interested in anything else now when god does that it's unexpected we may have been praying and so on but we don't know when he's going to do it he does it in his time and the glory is his it's wonderful I can honestly say i've never seen anything more thrilling more wonderful than sudden powerful conversions that I never expected it it's just nothing like it there's nothing like it it's like seeing the creation of the world and god does it in his time I could never think ever that I had anything to do with it and sometimes it's happened when I thought the preaching was pathetic but if that's god's timing that's it that's the word he uses and then finally it fails to recognize the system fails to recognize that there is preparation to new birth we don't do the preparation god does it if we're going to be clear about preparationism we've got to remember that god doesn't now there is such a thing as preparationism because we know that there are some people who taste of the good will to come they are partakers of the holy ghost and they go far in the whole work of repentance and so on and then they fall away so there are categories of people who seem to be christian but they are not of god's planting as our lord said every plant that my father has not planted will be rooted up and then the parable of the sire I think is very eloquent and remember the main way of understanding parables you see the main point well what is the main point mark four of the parable of the sire and then the of the seed growing secretly what is the main point well that at the end of the day there are plants that produce 100 fold 60 fold 30 fold whatever but that is the work of god but this system comes in and always is pulling up the plants to see if they're growing how they're getting on it's making potato mash of the whole thing god will do that we do our work let us be as urgent as possible let us extend the universal invitations of the gospel let us preach the whole council of god let us do it with urgency and passion and so on let us be faithful god alone gives the increase here alone brings out the plants here alone raises the harvest we cannot do it nor do we always go in there to turn the nor do we always go in there to turn the plants upside down to look at the roots to see how this person's getting on and that one and so forth and they put the roots back in again this system fails to understand that god prepares souls to new birth and if we're always going to go in there well where is the preparation how can it go on how can this work proceed if we're always digging in there there is preparation to new birth now i've virtually given you my fourth point in that exhortation when we come under pressure to do this what are we to say okay well the apostles didn't do it and Jesus didn't do it we can't find it in the bible it has a very poor track record in church history nettleton was opposed to it the founding fathers of the southern baptists were very suspicious and some of them opposed it very strongly so when they saw it coming it's done a lot of harm multitudes are deceived by it i've come across people in house-to-house visiting they've told me everything is well they're not going to go to church they're not going near any church they made the decision that will see them through sheer deception we are to resist it and we are to be like the pioneer missionaries we are to labor for souls to establish them in Christ Jesus I think a great lesson that comes out of this is the importance of baptism repent believe repent and be baptized now we are to do that it doesn't say repent believe record a decision with your legs or hands or feet or whatever and then be baptized repent and believe they go together and be baptized and then the great commission we are to teach and so to teach that we can baptize so we are teaching and the next step when we see they're in Christ we baptize them but it's not one two three it's one two it's from repentance and faith into the waters so do we preach like the apostles preach do we preach baptism now there's the urgency there's the whole thing set before us that's what we're aiming at not just to make a response not just to make a decision we are preaching for people to be united to the trinity to be one with god to be ready for that great expression I baptize you in the name that stands for everything in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit we are preparing them for that we preaching for that we're counseling for that or you're working for that that's what we are working and we won't baptize even if it takes 50 years we will not baptize if the formula is going to be counterfeit and untrue if we know we can see it's not real but when we see there is evidence a credible profession of faith we see that there's life there the new birth we see the credible profession then we can baptize so I say if we're going to follow the new testament let us have the emphasis where they have the emphasis and then that isire 55 which was read in your hearing let us also be sure when we speak to our friends who are in the system that there's no stumbling block from us we do believe absolutely in preaching the gospel to every creature and having the universality of the gospel preaching that and preaching the endless riches of the gospel but we also say let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts we insist on repentance we will not proceed with anybody without repentance and when they see that we are earnest in our manner and powerful in our preaching we're not I love revelation 320 I don't think there's any limitation whatsoever in Revelation 320 if any man it says hear my voice anybody I stand at the door and knock if anybody hears I don't have any limitation at all I don't say that's just church members I say anybody in the church anybody if they hear the voice of Christ they must come we extend the invitations all the time and use the text our lord used the very words he used revelation 22 and 17 the spirit says come and the bride says come we call on them to come we are passionate we are urgent we have no limitations but we'll never baptize without repentance and faith and that is our vocabulary and we put nothing in between and I think these are the reasons why we do not want this system we don't want it coming back into our country we don't want it and we want to conquer america and free and liberate them from this dreadful system so let us brothers march on the jumbo jet or whatever let us try and help our american brothers it's not them coming to us we should be going to them and say look you men you've got all the talents in the world all the energies and gifts and everything you could evangelize the world more quickly than anybody else but use the right methods not all this quick stuff this superficial stuff get into the doctrines of grace see that the new birth is from heaven this is the as of god the spirit because I don't believe I really don't believe that they understand that well thank you very much.

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