God does not call men to make Jesus Lord (as though they had such power), but to live in absolute submission to the Lord He has made.

When you refuse to teach on the radical depravity of men, it is an impossibility that you bring glory to God, His Christ, and His cross, because the cross of Jesus Christ and the glory thereof is most magnified when it's placed in front of the backdrop of our depravity!

Remember when you got into the word and it wasn’t because you had a sermon to prepare or you needed to learn some things or there were some doctrinal problems or you knew that to progress as a useful servant you had to continue on in the things of the word of God? Do you remember when you just got into the word because you wanted to hear something from God? You wanted to know something about Him. Do you remember when you just prayed because of Him? Is your heart burning for Him?

"But I got saved that way!" No, you got saved in spite of that way not because of that way.

If a Work of God does NOT Continue, it was NEVER a Work of God.

We have taken that truth, that if you truly believe and you confess Christ even if it costs you your life ... we have taken that beautiful truth and reduced it down to, "If you pray a little prayer before a bunch of people in a church in America, you can be guaranteed you were saved if you think you were sincere."

It is only against the pitch blackness of the night that we see the glory of the stars. And it is only against the pitch blackness of man's radical depravity that we can begin to see the glories of the gospel.