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Guest (Male): Today on Key Life, we dive into part three of a sermon from Steve called Fresh Word from God. And this classic message comes to us courtesy of the Vault Project. The Vault Project is our effort to digitize and save vintage sermons from Steve, some going back as far as the 1970s. Support the project for as little as $5 a month. Learn more at keylife.org/vault. And now, here's Steve.

Steve Brown: One of the things that I've learned after a lot of years is that there's no limit to man's credulity in the face of superstition and shallowness and untruth. W.C. Fields was right, one is born every moment. But I want you to know when God's message is spoken people are drawn to it.

One time Beethoven was walking down the street with Goethe and people were nodding and greeting them as they went by. Goethe, the German poet, got really upset. He got irritated by the incessant attention of the crowd. And Beethoven said, "Your Excellency, I wouldn't let it bother you. Their greetings are probably for me anyway."

Listen, we need to have greetings. If we don't find people that are drawn to us as we proclaim the message, then the message maybe didn't come from God. In the current issue of Leadership Magazine, that's a great magazine. The cartoons are better than the articles, and the articles aren't half bad, and I'm on the board there so I can say that.

Anyway, Leadership Magazine has a cartoon in the one that just came yesterday and it shows the head of the Board of Deacons bringing the pastor into the sanctuary just before the morning worship service. There's one person sitting on the front row. And the caption under it, as the deacon speaks to the pastor, he said, "Pastor, look at the bright side. We've solved the parking problem in this place."

Listen, you don't want to solve the parking problem. If you don't draw people as you speak the message, whether you're witnessing to somebody, whether you're teaching somebody or giving a book, if that doesn't draw, then it's not from God.

A couple of years ago I was in Santa Barbara, California speaking at Westmont College and the Old Testament man there is Terry Ives. He got his PhD from Dropsie and he's just an absolute delight, Orthodox Presbyterian. He told me about a church out in Santa Barbara that used to have 360 members and then they got this new pastor and he worked it down to 60.

He said the thing that he teaches is that no layman or laywoman ought to ever share their faith. He said what they do is they may mention Jesus, but then they bring them to church and people come to know Christ under the proclamation of the Gospel and the teaching of the word from the pulpit. And he's gotten it down to 60 from 360.

Now, if you go to that pastor and you ask him, he's going to tell you that he proclaimed the word of God honestly and the people couldn't stand it. He's going to tell you that he was faithful, and because of his faithfulness he's being persecuted. He's going to tell you that he gave out the word of God line upon line and precept upon precept and some people just left. Now he's got it down to 60. Don't you listen, that's a lie. It comes from the pit of hell and so does his message.

How do I know? I know because the second sign of an authentic message from God is that it is attractive. And then thirdly, when God speaks through a man or a woman, that message is not only consistent and attractive, the message is convicting.

Look at Matthew 3:2. John said, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near." Now that's no big deal, but they repented. Matthew 3:5-6, that's a big deal. People went out to him from Jerusalem and from all of Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

Now I'm going to give you a couple of other verses of scripture. First is Isaiah 55:11 where God speaks: "My word that goes out from my mouth will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." Hebrews 4:12 says this: "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart."

What's repentance? The word is metanoia. It means a change of mind. But it doesn't stop there. It's a change of mind, the rabbis taught and the church fathers taught. It's a change of mind that institutes a change in your life. A change of mind that institutes a change in your life.

Bob Woods tells of a time a couple took their children to the Carlsbad Caverns. If you've ever been to any of those and there are lots of caverns around, the tour guide always takes you to the deepest part of the caverns and then turns off the lights so you can see what total blackness is all about.

There was a little boy, 11, and a little girl, 4, who had gone with this family. And the tour guide turned off the lights and the little girl started crying. And the little boy, 11, said, "Don't cry, Lucy. There's somebody here who knows how to turn on the lights." Let me tell you something, folks. That's where our business is, is going around turning on lights. And when you turn on lights, people change if it's truth.

One of the great things, and there are a lot of things I don't like about this job, I mean, I didn't say I wanted to do this, God said he wanted me to do it. And maybe someday he'll let me out of it. But I want you to know one of the things I do like is teaching and watching lights go on. To be perfectly honest with you, none are going on this morning. You are a dull bunch, I want you to know.

One hour can make a big difference. But I love to teach and see people go, "Hey, I got that. Got it. I understand." And you can see it in their eyes and you know that repentance is taking place and that there's going to be a change in life during the week. And that's what it's all about, turning on the light.

I got a great letter from Bill Chickering a few months ago. I was with Flo up in Tallahassee and she sends her love to all you guys. Bill is the editor of the InterVarsity magazine, grew up in this church. And he wrote me a letter and said that he's on our tape ministry.

He said, "I listened to one of your tapes where you said that you had not stood with an elderly pastor in a presbytery meeting and people had laughed at him. And you said when you went home and knelt down by the bed that the next time a brother stood, you were going to stand with him. If they laughed at a brother or sister, they were going to laugh at two of you and you made that commitment and said you'd live by it."

He said, "I was on the New York subway recently." And he said, "The dirtiest, grungiest bum you've ever seen got on a subway and started passing out tracts and I was over in a corner thinking, 'Oh Lord, I don't believe this.'" And he said, "As if that weren't bad enough, he commenced to preaching." And I'm thinking, "Oh man, what is this guy doing?"

And then I remembered what you said. You said that I ought to stand with my brother and this wasn't exactly what I thought you meant, but I got up and I stood with my brother and it felt good. Lights going on, that's called repentance. That's called repentance and if that doesn't take place, if there isn't conviction, if there isn't change, fruit of repentance that takes place in your life, then the message didn't come from God.

Bill said, "I was glad you said what you said." I didn't say it, God said it. How do I know God said it? Because Bill did it. Buck Combs used to come to me, elder in our church, some of you remember him, they moved out to the West. And Buck was our old swabbie and he'd say, "Pastor, I love you like a brother. But you got to quit saying you're going to resign all the time and threatening us because you're acting like a child. Why don't you grow up?"

And he said, "I say this because I love you." And I knew he loved me, so I quit. I don't do that anymore. And you know the reason I know that what Buck said came from God? I'll tell you the reason I know, is because I did it. Because something happened into me as he spoke that message that convicted and changed my life.

Listen to your friends speak. Listen to your Bible teachers, me included. Listen to the television preachers. If the message stirs you inside to do something in the way of obedience, it came from God. And then fourthly, when God speaks through a man or a woman, that message is not only consistent, attractive, and convicting, the message is also divisive.

Look at Matthew 3:7-10. "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: 'You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, we have Abraham for our father. We have Calvin for our father. We have Wesley for our father. We have Brown for our father. We have Stevens for our father. I tell you, out of these stones, God can raise up children for Calvin and Wesley and Luther and Abraham and Stevens. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.'"

Matthew 3:12: "His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering the wheat into his barn and burning the chaff with unquenchable fire." When Louis Mayer died, he was not the most popular person in Hollywood and thousands of people came to his funeral. Goldwyn was commenting on the funeral later on and he said the reason that all those people came to his funeral was not because they loved him, they just wanted to make sure that he was dead.

Well, I want you to know Mayer was not faithful and thereby hated, but sometimes when you're faithful and proclaiming the message of God, there are people who simply won't like it. Jesus said, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets." Listen, a message that is universally received, listen, is not God's message. A message that is universally received is not God's message.

I was asked to speak for an organization that was controversial one time. They asked me to travel around the country and do evangelism and Bible teaching conferences for them. And one of my friends, in fact, a number of my friends came and said, "That's a divisive bunch of people. You shouldn't be a part of it." And I went to Ed Leech, who's now heaven, and I'm going to introduce him to you someday, one of the great Bible teachers. You know what Ed said? I said, "Ed, my friends say it's divisive." And Ed smiled and said, "Truth always is."

Guest (Male): Oh man, that is a mic drop moment. Thank you, Steve. All this week we're revisiting a classic sermon from Steve called Fresh Word from God and our text is Matthew 3:1-12. We'll finish up this sermon tomorrow and I know you don't want to miss that.

Well, I mentioned this on Monday, but Steve originally gave this sermon on April 27th, 1986. For context, the Chernobyl accident had just occurred the day before, and maybe the night before that you had watched an episode of Miami Vice on TV. Now, those current events details are more or less trivia, and that's kind of the point. That even though this sermon is nearly 40 years old, God's truth doesn't change. It's still relevant.

And that's the heart behind the Vault Project. Over the decades, we have preserved thousands of sermons from Steve that currently live on reel-to-reel and cassette tapes. But while we were able to protect these sermons from hurricanes and floods, we can't protect it from time. That's why we're currently digitizing them and curating them at keylife.org/vault.

It's a massive and frankly expensive undertaking, but once you learn the story, I think that you'll agree that it is worth it. Get all the details at keylife.org/vault. That's V-A-U-L-T. Well, I trust you're enjoying our special sermon week here on Key Life and next week we'll dive back into our Welcome to the Family series.

Of course, that series is based on an older book from Steve of the same name. And listen, if you're interested in something more recent, you should check out Steve's latest book. It's called Laughter and Lament. Have you read it? If you haven't, fear not. I have some good news. We took sections of that book and created a special booklet that we would love to send to you for free.

Claim your copy right now by calling us at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That's 1-800-539-5433. You can also email Steve at keylife.org to ask for that booklet. Or to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses for the US and Canada. Again, ask for your free copy of the Laughter and Lament booklet.

And before you go, if you value the work of Key Life, would you join us in that work through your financial support? You can charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope, or simply text Key Life to 28950. That's Key Life, one word or two, doesn't matter, just text that to 28950. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the states and 4C in Canada, and Key Life is a listener-supported production of Key Life Network.