"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." - Matthew 7:15-20

Mr Chairman and Christian friends, I regard it as a great honour once more to be asked to speak at this closing rally of the British Evangelical Council. I speak as all the aged, but I am very glad that still the message is the same, and I want particularly this evening to justify the British Evangelical Council, which stands as you heard just now from Mr Lamb, the General Secretary, for certain specific matters. I do this because I find that there is great misunderstanding in this country and in other countries with regard to this British Evangelical Council. There are those indeed, who regard it as almost a criminal institution and feel that some of us are guilty of dividing evangelical people. I was told by a man in America to whom I preached a few months back that an evangelist from this country who had preached in his church some six weeks or so before I arrived there - the evangelist had said unto him that he was sorry to have to say that I was the devil's instrument in Great Britain at the present time in dividing evangelical people. That means, you see, that there is some misunderstanding somewhere, isn't there?

I am not concerned, of course, about the personal aspect, but I am a little bit concerned about the mentality of an evangelist who charges a man with dividing evangelicals simply because that man appealed for evangelical unity. Very well, I see you are not in the same difficulty as I am. I don't understand such intellectual processes - even granting that they are intellectual.

I stand for evangelical unity. So does the British Evangelical Council. But you noticed from the statement that was read by Mr Lamb that there are "evangelicals" and "evangelicals".

Now we are all evangelicals for the purposes of this discussion, but there are those of us who feel that the World Council of Churches has introduced a new element and a new factor which calls for the definite stand on our part. And this is where the division comes. It's a division that has been created for us by this World Council of Churches and the Ecumenical Movement.

Now let me make this quite plain and clear. We honour and respect them who disagree with us. We do not criticise them as individuals. We don't impute wrong motives to them. We grant that they are as sincere as we are and as honest as we are, and that they believe the Gospel as we believe it.

Well then, where comes the difference? Well the difference arises at this point - that we interpret all that about which we are agreed with them as indicating that we should take a definite stand against the World Council and its teaching, for the simple reason that we believe that that Council and the great World Church that they are hoping to form eventually is going to be the greatest hindrance of all to the preaching of this Gospel and the salvation of the souls of men and women. Now let's be clear about that. Personalities shouldn't enter in. We are concerned about these principles, and we in the British Evangelical Council hold the view that not only can we do nothing to further and to aid the work of the World Council of Churches but that we are called upon to oppose it and to resist it with all the might and strength and power that God gives us.

Why do we feel this? I want to put that to you this evening. And I want to put it to you in tones of the well-known statement by the Apostle Paul in the First Epistle to the Corinthians chapter fourteen and verse eight.

"For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" - I Corinthians 14:8

Now I want to expand the position and the attitude of the British Evangelical Council to you in terms of that statement. This is why we are opposed to ecumenicity - this false ecumenicity that is represented by the World Council and the Ecumenical Movement. It is because we realise that we are in the midst of a very great battle and the greatest tragedy of the hour is the confusion of the Christian Church face-to-face with this GREAT battle.

If the trumpet is yielding uncertain sound, who shall prepare him to the BATTLE? And that is, I believe the precise position by which we are confronted. The trumpet is yielding an uncertain sound! And we are face-to-face with this, one of the greatest battles in the long history of the Church as I am hoping to show you, and indeed, in the long history of the entire human race. And I believe it is this very confusion that is paralyzing the activities of Christian people at this present time.

Well, let us look at the two aspects of this matter. Is there anybody, I wonder, in any doubt as to the confusion? Well nobody should be! The confusion is being admitted by people. There has been an interesting correspondence recently in The Times on this very matter. And if you are not clear about the confusion, listen to something that was written by the Bishop of Whitby. He says:

"Those of us in responsible positions in the Church must feel humbled that it is today in no condition to make any effective stand against the steady erosion of our moral standards."

He admits that - with shame. This he feels is largely due, first to the preoccupation of the Church with her own organisation, and secondly, he says, the clergy on whom the vitality of the Church depends are confused and shaken by the unceasing attacks on the basic truths of Christian belief, which seem to cut the ground from under their feet, and so blunt the cutting edge of their message and ministry. Isn't that absolutely right?

But you see, what he didn't say was this. That this attack which he says is coming - which is coming and attacking the very foundations of the faith of the Church - he didn't tell us that the attack is coming from some of the leaders of the Church. It isn't an attack that's only coming from the outside. It is an attack within the Church herself and by some of her leaders. There is a perfect statement of the confusion.

What does he propose to do about it? Listen!

The challenge to the Church is clear but the time is short, and the call is, for what? For immediate action. What's the action? We must institute at once and as top priority at every level an urgent campaign of church-wide study of the liberty and meaning of our faith and of its relevance and application to the present state of society. Here is the chaos facing us. The Church, he says, is confused - what are we to do? We are to set up commissions to study what it is the real Christian faith and its validity to the present situation. Have you ever known such bankruptcy?

Another, writing in this same context, agreed that this was a correct diagnosis. And he said that what the Bishop of Whitby thought was right and he was happy to announce that a large and significant conference has already been arranged for 1970 to meet in York University to deal with these precise questions - namely, as to what the Christian faith is, and what its relevance is to the present issues.

Here are two prominent spokesmen for the Christian Church.

What are we to say with this?

Well, it's interesting you notice that they are beginning to see that their preoccupation with Church Unity and the Ecumenical Movement is paralyzing their message with regard to the moral state of this country.

But are we comforted by this? I am afraid I am not! You see, what is being proposed is that you set up a committee to inquire as to the message of the Church. But they had one just before the last World War. They called it Towards the Conversion of England. The are always setting up commissions to discover what the faith is - what our message is. And in the meantime the world goes from bad to worse.

My friends, let's be clear about this. A church that has to set up Commissions of Inquiry to discover what our faith is, is a travesty of the Christian Church. As we were told so movingly by Mr Leigh Samuel last night - that who has been endeavoured. It's here in front of us. You don't need to set up a commission which will only meet in 1970 sometime. It is here. It is available.

But the tragedy is that the Church has become uncertain of her own message. Well now, there is an admission of this very confusion. The Church in such a time as this is uncertain and confused with regard to her own message.

There are some, of course, who will go even further than that. I read this in a paper only last week. The heading was a bold one - CREDO FROM WESLEY'S PULPIT! This is what the preacher said. He gave his confession of faith. He said, "I believe in One Church, and that Church is Mankind." Everybody belongs to the Church - Mankind is the Church. And he went on to warn his people that they would not hear from him biblical or theological language. He then went on to tell them what he was going to say. And as far as I was concerned, I still am not aware of what he is going to say. He was quite right in saying that it wasn't biblical or theological. But what it was, I am unable to report to you.

But this, you see, is just typical of the present situation.

Well now, it's not surprising to us, is it, that non-evangelical people should be in that position. That is what we expect from them. That has always been their position. That is why evangelicals are evangelicals. And there have been evangelicals in the church for centuries - for this very reason. But what is amazing to us, and what we can not understand is how any evangelicals choose to remain in denominations, churches, institutions that are in that parlous position, and do not long to come together - all of us who are agreed upon the faith - and to declare it with a holy boldness. This is the problem. This is where we find it difficult to understand our brethren.

So let me show you of some of the ways in which evangelical people are guilty today of causing this confusion and are responsible for the trumpet yielding an uncertain sound. There are some who even glory in this and defend it. I read an article last year some time by an evangelical brother, and the title of the article was, In Defence of Ambiguity. He defended ambiguity! He said it was a good thing.

What was he talking about? Well, you see, he was talking about this. He was defending certain things that have happened in his denomination. What were these? Well, one of them was this. A new form of Communion Service had been introduced, known as Series Two. And people read this statement about the Communion Service and the bread. The Evangelicals read it to say that it does not mean that this is being offered to God. The Anglo-Catholics read it and say it does mean that. Now this, you see, is something that he was defending. Here is a formula, a statement, which two groups of people look at together and interpret in diametrically opposite ways - and he was glorying in this! This is marvellous! - that you have found a formula at last, and the two parties can agree with it.

The same thing was true about statements in the burial service. The Anglo-Catholics said this is prayers for the dead. The Evangelicals looking at the same statement said it is NOT praying for the dead. But they both rejoice in this - that at last they have found a formula that they can both agree on - yet their interpretations are diametrically opposed. But they glory in this ambiguity. Why? - it holds the Church together!

Uncertain! One says it is praying for the dead - the other says it isn't praying for the dead. "Marvelous!", say they both together because it keeps us together, and we are making a kind of sound. But if the trumpet yield an uncertain sound, who shall prepare him for the battle?

And take this question of the Anglo-Methodist union about which we have been hearing and reading so much during this year 1969. You remember that it came to nothing for the time being. And the trouble was over the Service of Reconciliation. What was the matter with that?

Well, here was the problem. That the Evangelicals said that this Service of Reconciliation meant that the Methodist ministers were being re-ordained. And they objected to that. The Anglo-Catholics also objected to it. But what was the reason of their objection? Well, that the statement wasn't making it sufficiently plain and clear that the Methodist ministers were being re-ordained. But, you see, the authorities who had drawn up the statement, and the leaders of both denominations who tried to put it through, were feeling that they had achieved something extraordinarily wonderful. Why? Well they got a formula about which everybody was supposed to agree, but concerning which you meant two diametrically opposed interpretations. They glory in this!

Some of them put it even like this - that here was a statement, a formula, and God alone knows what it means! One man can take one view - another man can take a diametrically opposed view. My friends, all I am here to assert is this - Is it surprising that the people are in a state of confusion?

If leaders of the church can glory in ambiguity, and boast of this kind of an uncertainty, what are we to expect from the people as we face this tremendous battle.

I can do nothing better at this point than to read to you some words uttered by a bishop in Australia, the Reverend W A Hardy, Bishop of Balarat in Australia. I can't improve on this.

"Most formularies framed as the basis of an act of reunion seem to have only one hope of acceptance by both parties, namely, deliberate ambiguity.

Each party agreed to the same words, but meant something different by it. Where imprecision of meaning is deliberately used so as to cover up real and important difference in order to give an appearance of agreement one can only call it downright dishonesty."

Isn't he right? It is because we think he is right that we belong to the British Evangelical Council. Ambiguity, deliberate uncertainty and ambiguity is in the last analysis nothing but sheer dishonesty.

But all don't glory in this. There are those brethren who regret this and yet, I suggest, that they are as guilty of causing this uncertainty and this imprecision quite as much as the others, though they do it unconsciously. Let me show you some of the ways in which good evangelical brethren are increasing this uncertainty at the present time.

Some of them do it, you know, by adopting what they call an attitude of neutrality to the World Council of Churches. They say we are not for - we are not against. They are neutral. This appears to be very Christian and very charitable, doesn't it? - until you begin to examine it! The World Council of Churches is based on doctrinal indifferentism - deliberately so. Their formula has to be such so as to include the Greek Orthodox Church on the one hand, and evangelicals on the other. It is deliberately vague. It is deliberately indefinite.

Now, surely to be neutral to such a position, and indeed, to a proposal that ultimately is out to produce one great world church including the Roman Catholic Church. I suggest that to be neutral to such a body is indeed ultimately to condone it.

There is no neutrality in the New Testament. Did you notice the reading just now? [Matthew 7:15-20]. Our Lord says that the tree is either good or bad! It's never half and half. The prophet is either a true prophet or else he is a false prophet! The fruit is either good or else it is bad!

There is no neutrality in the New Testament. The people noticed this in our Lord's preaching. They had this man speaking with authority and not as the scribes.

["And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." - Matthew 7:28-29].

What was the character of the scribes? Oh, they were the men who were arguing about minutiae. They could explain almost everything, and they had their modifications and qualifications and nobody could understand them, and you just had to follow your leaders blindly. Our Lord was clear. He was plain. He was definite. He spoke with authority.

A thing is either good or bad! You can't be neutral! It's impossible!

But then there are others, you see, who get into trouble, it seems to me, in this kind of way. And this is quite common at the present time. They say that their formularies - their statements and bases of faith - are right. And as long as they are right, that seems, in their opinion, to cover everything.

But here, I think, there is a very real confusion. What the Christian Church at any period is teaching is what is being proclaimed from her pulpits - not what is stated on paper.

I dealt with this in another connection at Liverpool last year. I have to come back to it again.

The ideas used to be that as long as the Confession of Faith is correct that it doesn't matter very much what is being said. But surely, the teaching of the church is what is being preached. That's what the people are hearing.

Here are the people waiting for the sound of the trumpet. Are they being called to battle? or are they not? Well it's no use saying to them that there is something written in a book somewhere. They don't read books - but they come and listen, and they listen to the preaching of the statement of the ministers. And they take that to be the teaching of the church.

I wonder what we'd say about an orchestra .... We'd go to a concert, a symphony concert, and we sit in our seats, and we are expecting to hear something enjoyable and pleasurable. But what we actually hear is some terrible cacophony - clashes and discords, noise and clatter and banging. I wonder what we'd say if, when we'd made our protest the conductor stood before us at the end and said, "All the players have got the right score in front of them." But, you see, that doesn't help us, does it? We are not interested in the correctness of the score, we go there to enjoy the music. And it is no argument therefore to say that as long as your formularies are correct that all is well. It is what is being said. It is what is being uttered. This distinction between paper statements and what is literally preached and taught is one of the most specious and the most dangerous of the arguments at this present time.

And then another way in which our brethren are doing this is this. They believe and say the right things themselves - there is no question about this at all. But then, you see, the people see that they belong to denominations which, as a whole, deny the very things that they are teaching. And what do they make of this?

Here they hear a man standing for the Evangelical Faith - and then they find that he belongs to a church in which some of the leaders are always denying that Faith and denouncing it and ridiculing it. What are the people to say? What can they make of it? What is the sound that is coming to them from such a trumpet? But there are many who are doing this.

I met a man again this last summer, a Presbyterian minister in the United States, and he was a good evangelical man, and I said, "How do you justify this sort of thing? What about the 1967 Confession that they have brought in?"

" Ah, but," he said, "We don't believe that."

"But my dear friend," I said, "You are a Presbyterian, and your church has accepted this officially."

You see, you can't be a Presbyterian when it suits you, and then an Independent when it suits you. You are either a Presbyterian or you are not! But he was justifying his position in terms of Independency. Here is the kind of confusion in the minds of the ministers, and it leads to confusion in the minds of the people.

Another way in which people do this quite innocently is simply by marching with people who don't agree with our Evangelical doctrine. This is a new feature in the life of our churches, isn't it? Good Friday and other days they have these marches together. They will march together from Trafalgar Square to the Roman Catholic cathedral down here. And they all march together. And, you see, this is the kind of thing that happens. The man in the street stands and looks and he sees this great procession of all the religious denominations and the Roman Catholics included, and the Salvation Army band at the head of it. What is the ordinary man to make of this? Can he be anything but in a state of confusion?

I was so disturbed about this a year or two back when it happened here in Westminster, that I wrote to the then General of the Salvation Army and protested. And the reply I got from him was this, that they did that in order to bear their witness. And he used this argument. He said, what we do when we march in such a position with our band is exactly the same thing as we do when we go and sell copies of The Warcry in public houses.

Now you see the fallacy of that argument. I had to point it out to him - that when you go to a public house, you are dealing with unbelievers, but when you march in that procession, you are marching with Liberals, Modernists, Roman Catholics, Anglo-Catholics, men who deny the Gospel ultimately in their teaching. It was a CHURCH procession! - whereas the other is a form of evangelism to unbelievers. The public house is not a church, but when you march with these others, the CHURCH is marching, giving a public demonstration.

And what is a man to say as he looks at all this? What does the Church stand for? Is it the Salvation Army teaching - or is it the Roman Catholic teaching? Thus men cause their confusion. And they say that they want this church union. I can understand everybody else wanting this kind of union, but what I cannot understand is that Evangelical men should say that they LONG to be united with these liberal bodies, who deny the very essence of the Faith.

And then another way in which this is done - and I am coming to the end of this rather sorry list. There are those who are encouraging the confusion by just saying nothing. These are the people who claim to be ultra-spiritual. There claim is that they are always POSITIVE! They never denounce anything. They are much too nice for that. They are much too LOVING! They are always preaching a positive gospel. They never criticise wrong teaching. They never say that they are against anything at all. They are just doing their own work and preaching a positive gospel.

What is the answer to that? Well, this is how Luther answered them.

"He, therefore, is a faithful shepherd, who not only feeds, but also guards the sheep. This is done when he points out heresies and errors."

There are grievous wolves and dogs. Look at the apostle Paul warning the church at Ephesus when he gave that word of farewell to the elders at the seashore. He knew that these wolves were going to come in - these false teachers, and he warned them and he taught them and a shepherd who doesn't guard and protect his sheep is a hireling shepherd in the last analysis! You not only feed, you guard and protect and never was there greater need of such a ministry as at this present time.

Very well, my friends, there are some of the ways in which, I believe quite unconsciously, there are many good men today causing an increase in this confusion and this uncertain note and sound that is emitted by the trumpet. And what makes this so tragic, of course, is the battle in which we are engaged. If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare him for the battle? And the battle is hot and is strong! Don't we realise this?

What is this battle?

Well the great battle today is the battle for the whole of the Christain Faith. It's being questioned and queried and denied and being ridiculed almost as never before. Is this a time for neutrality? Is this a time for uncertainty? Is this a time for compromise?

What is the Christian Faith? This is the thing that's being queried. And the man in the street doesn't know. I have often said, I say it again, that I'm not surprised that the masses of the people are outside the Christian Church at this present time. How can they know what Christianity is if they get their impressions only from the television and the wireless and from their newspapers. Utter contradiction, and yet all in the name of Chrisitanity - all in the name of the Christian Church. This is the very essential cause of this whole trouble.

And then take the great battle for the Church. What is the Christian Church? Is their any need for a church? There are many today who are saying that we don't need the Christian Church any longer as an institution. There are those who are advocating a churchless Christianity. There are those who are telling us to do almost anything except come to church. We are to bear our witness in the world. We are to show love. We are to enter politics and so on and so forth. The whole being of the Church is being questioned at this present time. Does doctrine count? Does it matter what you believe? Does it matter what the church believes? These questions have got to be asked today. And the man in the street is asking them. The ordinary member of the church is asking them. Is Rome right after all?

You see, if you march with them, you are more or less saying that, aren't you? And that raises another question. Well then, was the Protestant Reformation a mistake? Shouldn't everybody have stayed in and tried to reform the Church? Was Luther wrong? Ah, but you see, he was thrown out! Yes, but if you do things that make it certain that you will be thrown out, you are really going out. And John Calvin was not thrown out, he went out. And so other great leaders throughout the centuries.

But these are the questions that we have to ask. "Can two walk together except they be agreed?" [Amos 3:3]

Now, let me read you a statement by a Roman Catholic - a prominent Roman Catholic in Northern Ireland. He seems to me to have put this very plainly and very clearly, as reported in a paper in this country on August 29^th - Cardinal William Conway, after speaking to Mr Callaghan, who had visited Northern Ireland. He put it like this, and surely we can agree a hundred per cent with it:

"Bible Protestants and Rome have no common meeting place and never will have."

Well then I ask each soul, how can you march with them? And how can you have a joint sevice with them? How can you go to their places and invite them into your pulpits? Here is a Roman Catholic stating it quite plainly.

Cardinal Heenan stated it quite plainly yesterday. There has been no change in Rome in a doctrinal sense - none whatsoever. And people don't seem to be aware of this at the present time. It is all because, of course, they have changed their tactics. They are more friendly. They don't denounce us now, they call us "separated brethren".

But you remember how our Lord dealt with that kind of situation. He said, they "come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." I preferred them when they came undisguised! But now they are coming in sheep's clothing and innocent, untaught evangelical people think there is a grave change in Rome.

Why, one of the greatest authorities on the Ecumenical Movement, Bishop Stephen Neill himself, has said recently, that in one respect, in a social respect, Rome is nearer to us than she has been, that is to say, in her friendliness, her approach and so on. But then he added, and again quite truly, that doctrinally she is actually further away from us now than she was before the Protestant Reformation! Now here is a man who believes in the Ecumenical Movement and the World Council, but he is an honest man and he says, she is actually further away from us!

So, you see, we are engaged in this great battle. And you have got to face this, my friends. Can you be neutral to this? Are you neutral on this question of Rome and the worship of Mary. The Pope has asked people during the month of October to pray to Mary in particular. Is that all right? Is this indifferent? This is the battle in which we are engaged. We don't want to be in the battle. We don't want to fight. We'd much prefer to go on with our work, but while these things are happening, and people are drifting in that direction, surely it behoves us to speak and to stand, and to let people know something of what they are doing. So we are in a great battle for the whole future life of the Christian Church.

And then there is this tremendous battle for the souls of men. Never was there such a fight. The need of evangelism. The need of bringing men to conversion. But how can this be done? If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, can anybody be converted? But the sound IS uncertain!

It's no use the evangelical saying, "But I preach the true Gospel". "Yes," says the man who is listening, "I know you say one thing, but I notice you belong to the same church as a man who says the exact opposite! I notice that the leaders of your church are almost all against you. Who am I to believe? Am I to believe you, my local minster, or am I to believe the great leaders of your denomination?"

And these are the questions. These are the questions that have got to be answered before you can indulge in true evangelism.

What is the truth about the natural man? Is he fallen? - or is he rising? Is he just a reasoning animal? - or was he originally made in the image and likeness of God? What is man? Alas, there is this awful uncertainty and lack of clarity today with regard to this very question. And as I have show you, it isn't enough that you should say the right thing if you belong to the same church as a man who says the exact opposite! The note of the trumpet is uncertain. That's what the man in the pew is hearing.

And then you have to ask this question. Is there such as thing as the wrath of God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men? - or is this just a bit of Jewish Rabbinism - the apostle Paul and his teaching?

Then you have to ask the Christian, Is there hell? Is there such a place as hell? Ah, but I must be careful - be careful! I notice that the Lord Chancellor said this, last week. He said:

"Women ought to be warned to contact their doctor immediately if their husbands become suddenly depressed, and especially if they suddenly start talking about God and about hell." - The Lord Chancellor of England.

The moment you find your husband talking about God or about hell, SEND FOR THE DOCTOR! There are doctors and doctors!

But these are the questions, my friends.

Who is Christ? Is he just a man, as so many are saying, the majority? Just a man - Jesus - that's what they always call him. They don't refer to him as The Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus - is he only a man?

What has he done? What is the meaning of that death of his on the cross? Is he just a supreme pacifist? - or was he giving his life a ransom for many? Is there certainty about this? Is the trumpet giving a certain sound? Can we all but be converted in the midst of all this confusion?

What is salvation? Is regeneration a fact? - or is it some psychological, pathological condition?

Is there to be a Second Coming of the Lord of Glory? - in the midst of the confusion and the chaos of the hour. Can we look for that blessed hope, and the coming of our great God and Saviour? - or is it all idle fancy, the imagination, overwrought imagination of those primitive people of the first century.

My friends, it's not surprising that the world is as it is. The note has become uncertain! And we are increasing it by belonging to people who are denying what we know to be the truth and what we assert to be the truth.

The battle for the souls of men! But I want to go even further. The battle for the moral state of this country and of society.

We are living in what is called the permissive society. We read our newspapers, we look at the television, we listen to the wireless, and we see what's happening - what they are even proposing to teach to children of eight and nine and all the rest of this moral muddle.

Here's the battle. Yes, and remember increased by this, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, a few weeks ago, actually has pushed, that the legal changes with regard to homosexuals and divorce and abortion passed during the time of the Labour Government, are signs and proofs of increasing civilisation!! That's the position we are confronted with. The Chancellor of the Exchequer said that - and said it deliberately.

I've already quoted you the words of the Lord Chancellor, who solemnly advised women to send for the doctor if their husbands were suddenly converted and began to talk about God and about hell!

But least somebody might think that I belong to a particular political party, let me remind you that we are living in a country in which the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and his wife, state publicly that they are proud of their daughter when she gives birth to an illegitimate child - proud of her! Thank God they didn't turn her out. We'd all applaud them if they showed love to her, but we've reached the stage when men and women seem to be saying, Evil be thou my Good! They're proud of them! We are face to face with one the most terrible moral collapses that this country of ours has ever known. It's there before us. Here's the battle, and we are in the midst of it.

And you know, my friends, it is the Christian Church, and the Church alone, that has always dealt with this matter. I could prove this to you quite clearly historically, that the most moral periods in the history of this country have always been those that have followed Reformations and Revivals - the Elizabethan Era, the Puritan Era, the Era of ... Evangelical Awakening. This has been invariable and it has happened in other countries. So, as it were, the world outside can only look to the Church, waiting for a note, waiting for authority, and to me, it is more than deplorable that the head of the legal system in this country should speak in the way that he did.

We are confronted by lawlessness. We are confronted by these unofficial strikes, which may threaten the whole life and livelihood of this country. It is sheer lawlessness, when students, when children, trade union, in every realm and department of life, men are breaking the rules and justifying themselves.

And why is this taking place? The only answer is this - that men and women no longer believe in God! Whenever you cease to believe in God you always get lawlessness! There will never be a return to a belief in law, even in general, until men and women return to the Supreme Lawgiver. Surely a lawyer will start by saying that you must have an authority. It isn't every man doing what he wishes and chooses, he must have authority. And the ultimate authority is God!

And he tells people to be a bit alarmed about the mental stability of people when they talk about God! The only hope of producing law and order and decent living in this country, he condemns, indeed he ridicules and rejects. That's the battle in which we are engaged.

But the supreme tragedy of all is this, that at a time when every thing else is failing, and men and women perhaps are beginning to look wistfully in the direction of the Christian Church, face to face with this moral chaos, what do they find? Well, they find leaders in the Christian Church supporting the change in the law with regard to homosexuality, and divorce, and abortion! They find a leader in one section of the Christian Church saying that all this is a sign of adolescence - that we are no longer babes as we have been in the past, with relics of Puritanism. We have reached adolescence now! I don't know whether you have realised that. This is adolescence we are passing through. We haven't yet reached maturity. What that is going to be like I can not imagine! But this is adolescence and we are advancing. And the same speaker publicly entered a witness box and gave evidence in favour of the publishers of Lady Chatterly's Lover. A LEADER OF THE CHURCH!

Is it surprising that the people say, what does it all matter? I can do what I like - what I want to do. When you get leaders speaking like this, what do you expect from the people?

Oh, let me show you another tragic aspect of this wrong condition to which our Evangelical brethren who don't belong to this Council, as I have shown you, are contributing. At a time like this, with this terrible battle that's going on round and about us, what is the Christian Church doing? She's preoccupied with trivialities!

What has she been arguing about during the last two years? The validity of orders! - minute changes in ritual and ceremonial! What is the Church arguing about? Oh, the Strict Invariability of Episcopacy. There has been a great conference in Rome recently, with the world on fire, and going to hell. What have they been arguing about? - The precise power of the Pope. My dear friends, you have heard about Nero fiddling while Rome was burning, haven't you? The Christian Church is doing something still more tragic at the present time - Episcopal Hands as Essential, Strict Invariability of Episcopacy, Power of the Pope, and all these utter trivialities - while the world is in agony and and men and women are dying round and about us without a hope to cheer the tomb!

And, I regret to have to go on to this last point, but it's true - the apparent moral duplicity of these ministers of the Christian Church is increasing the confusion. What is needed in this country, and most countries at the present time, is a return to honesty - to integrity, to truth, to your word meaning what it says without any ambiguity! And what is the Church revealing? - An appearance of unity which is not there in fact! The denominations today are not united - any one of them. They have all got their facts and factions. They hold together simply to keep the body together. It's a fraud! It's a sham! It isn't true, and the man outside knows this.

They recognise on paper the ancient creeds, but they are honest enough to tell us at times that they don't believe them! Well how can you recognise them and not believe at the same time? The people are looking on, and the see men taking solemn vows, but at the same time having mental reservations. Some of them even preaching at their own ordinations saying openly that they don't believe the things which they vowed to teach and to support. This moral duplicity is confusing the people.

It is doing something worse! - It is increasing this lawlessness that is on the increase in such a terrible manner. It is no use our saying that unity is the essential thing and that without it we are lost, and then to turn it down because of some triviality such as Episcopacy and Episcopal Ordination.

The world can see through this! It can see that there is no authority. How can a church that is guilty of ambiguity and duplicity give a call, a certain call to honesty, to verity, to truth, to righteousness, to a submission to law and to standards? How can she do it, when she herself in her life is a denial of her own message? How do you expect the world to listen if the Church at one and the same time is saying "Yes" and "No"?

Why do I belong to the British Evangelical Council? Why do my brethren?

It is for this reason - that I can not say "Yes" and "No" at the same time! Why not? Well, because I take my stand with the apostle Paul when he puts it like this:

"For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea AND nay, but in him was YEA. For ALL the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." - 2 Corinthians 1:19-20

No ambiguity! No uncertainty! The apostolic unity! The one proclamation! The one Faith delivered once and for ever to the saints!

What is the need at a time like this? What is the Church, - what is the world waiting for?

As I see it, it is this. This is the command that I find coming to me out of this book as I read it day by day and month by month and year by year. SOUND AN ALARM!

SOUND AN ALARM! - ere it be too late. Not compromise! Not ambiguity! Not equivocation! Not modifications! - qualifications! Not anything just to preserve an instituition! No, no, look at the people! Have a heart of compassion! See where they are going! SOUND AN ALARM!

"Lift up thy voice with strength, ...., be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!" - Isaiah 40:9

What's the call?

Call it out!

"Cry aloud," - with no uncertainty! - "spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew the [should be 'my' - PFM] people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." - Isaiah 58:1

If ever their was a need for that, it is now! And it's no use your saying, I am an Evangelical, I am doing this, but you belong to a Church, my dear friend, that's denying it! - and the trumpet is yielding an uncertain sound, and nobody is preparing himself for any sort of battle!

We must say together! We need a voice that will wake the very dead! We need to cry aloud, and to sound this alarm. This was the glory of the apostles, wasn't it?

We read that Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost with the eleven and he "lifted up his voice and he said ...". He denounced them! - and then preached the glorious Gospel to them [Acts 2:14ff].

The apostle Paul did the same in Athens [Acts 17:16ff], and this country is so similar to it at the present time. He went before them and he said, "whom .... ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you." [Acts 17:22] And we must declare the whole counsel of God [Acts 22:27] without fear ...(?) without equivocation and without uncertainty!

I belong to the British Evangelical Council because it's trying to do this and stands for this.

But if you would like to know my final reason for belonging to it, it is this. I know that a day is coming in my history - some of you wondered whether it had come eighteen months ago - but a day is coming in my history and in your history, when the trumpet SHALL sound and the dead shall rise, and you and I will be amongst them. That won't be an uncertain sound. That will be the blast from God - from the Holy Angels - they'll take the trumpet the LAST trump shall sound, and the dead shall rise [I Corinthians 15:52] - and you and I will be amongst them. We must all appear before the judgment throne of Christ, and give an account of the deeds done in the body, whether good or bad, therefore, knowing the terror of the Lord ...

It isn't that I commute this, to modify it, or to join with others in something almost the exact opposite for the sake of peace and popularity and a little quiet. No, no. I shall have to appear before Him and give an account of the deeds done in the body, whether good or bad, therefore, knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men [II Corinthians 5:11].

My dear friends, if ever there was a need for a clear trumpet blast, it is now. Let us join together. Let us dedicate ourselves together to see that the trumpet gives a certain sound - a clarion call - to repentance, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the established, of New Testament churches - plain and clear and obvious to all men, standing for the truth of God, in the midst of this wicked and perverse generation.

What is the call?

As I see it, it is this.

Who is on the Lord's side? Let him declare it! Let him be ready to suffer for it! Who is on the Lord's side? Let it be seen where you are. "If the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him." [I Kings 18:21] If you believe in the Evangelical Church of the New Testament, belong to it, stand with it, plainly and clearly. But if you want just a territorial church, that includes everybody, or a church that is the whole of mankind, well I say, GO TO IT! - but let it be clear where you stand! Be a man! Quit yourselves as men. Be strong! Stand fast - in the faith!

If the trumpet yield an uncertain sound, who shall prepare for the battle?

But if we declare this Son of God, who is not yea AND nay, but the everlasting YEA of God, to all the needs of the individual soul, and the needs of the whole world, well then, men and women can be expected to turn to Him, and to fall down at his feet, and eventually, in Glory, to cast their crowns before Him lost in wonder, love and praise.

Let us pray.

Lord, our God, we come before thee, conscious of our own unworthiness, conscious of the imperfection of our service, conscious of our guilt in thy holy sight. Oh, God of wakeness, open our eyes to the battle. Help us to see things as they are. Teach us to think, O Lord. Deliver us from false traditions. Deliver us from sentimentality. Enable us to see the issues clearly and plainly. And so reveal thyself and thy Blessed Truth to us, that rather than equivocate concerning it or in any way compromise it, we would sooner die! Oh, Lord, give us this Blessd Power we have already prayed for, the power of thy Blessed Spirit, that we may proclaim to the whole world, the saving riches of thy Grace. Lord, hear us, and follow us to our homes and churches. Help us to help others to see these issues, and to pray for such power upon thy Word that others shall see it with us and join us in its proclamation. Bless thy servants in this British Evangelical Council, here in London and throughout the country, and use it to thy Glory and to thy praise. We ask it in the name of thy dear Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Roman Catholic Church
A sermon by Dr D Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Ephesians 6:11

Does God allow Man-made Traditions in the Church?

Does Roman Catholicism call God a Liar?
An Examination of the Doctrine of Purgatory

The Mass, the Priesthood and the Bible

The Papacy is the Antichrist

Arminianism: The Road to Rome!
by Augustus Toplady

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