Preaching Up a Storm by Ian Paisley

Mr. Nicholson, one of our great preachers, said some churches, if you brought a bucket of milk through the door, it would be ice cream before you got it to the pulpit. They're so cold. That's the sort of Christian you are? You're only playing at it.

I have found in my Christian experience that if I'm going to do anything for God, or be anything for God, I've got to put my self, body, soul and spirit into it. Every bit of me, from a big toe to the top of my head, every bit on the altar for God, no reservations, totally, absolutely, unconditionally, the lot for God. To a church that's alive with the power of God.

God give us churches where sinners are scared. They're dead scared of getting saved. Couldn't go to that church where the window would get sealed.

Amen. That's the sort of churches we need today. Converting shops, where people are really and truly born again of the Holy Ghost.

Darkness. And we are confronted today, in our day, with darkness. And the darkness doesn't come so much from secular society as it comes from religious society.

The greatest darkness of our day comes from darkened men who are blind feeders of the blind. Darkness in the pulpits. Darkness in the colleges.

Darkness in the universities. Darkness in the assemblies. Darkness in the conventions.

Darkness in the council of churches. Ecclesiastical, religious, spiritual darkness. I like that word against.

There are things that you and I are against. Yes, we're against them. I'm against the Pope.

You remember that. I'm against the World Council of Churches. I'm against the National Council of Churches.

I'm against the great apostate denominations. Whether it be Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Baptist, or called by any other name. I'm absolutely and totally against them.

From the top of my head to my big toe, I'm against them. Every bit of me, against them. And I want to tell you, brethren, when you go to a little country town to start a church, you let people know you're against something.

You let them know you haven't come as a soft-voiced sissy to be another pulpit ornament two times on Sunday. That you're not a soft-peddling, fence-straddling, cream-puff-pie preacher. That you're a man of God with fire in your belly.

And you're going to preach the Word with power. The pulpit, brethren, is a throne. And kings sit upon the throne.

And every time you get into your pulpit, it may be a small little pulpit in a small little church. But, thank God, you're a king. And you're going to preach the King's Word.

Hallelujah. I want to say that to you today. Young man, there's only one way to build a church.

It's with that book. That's all I have got. I have no gimmicks.

I have nothing. But let me tell you, I have a book. And that book will build a church.

And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And you're not called, young man, let me say this to you. You are not called to be, first of all, an organizer.

And secondly, to be a manager. And thirdly, to be a promoter. You're called to be a preacher.

That's what you're called to be. A preacher. And you go and preach it.

Let any man preach any other gospel. Doesn't matter who he is. He may come with the best possible credentials.

He may have the best possible ecclesiastical standing. He may get the best possible rank up in this so-called evangelical press. But if he preaches any other gospel, God's curse is upon him.