KINGSWOOD GRADUATION 2010

I would first like to say…

“Congratulations” to CHARLIE--CHARLES STEVEN DURST! Your hours of study and hard work have paid off.

“Commendations” to CHARLIE’S teachers! Your devoted teaching—pouring not only information but inspiration—into this life have brought us to this good hour.

“You Made It!” to CHARLIE’S parents!
Hours of driving – driving between Decatur and Urbana, and driving your son to do his best—represented a tremendous sacrifice for you, but will bring life-long blessings to your son.

As you leave Kingswood School and enter the University of Illinois, you will face the greatest challenges, and greatest opportunities of your life. Unlike Kingswood—a school that is Christian, Biblical, and Classical—the University will be Hostile to Christian Orthdoxy, Critical of Scriptural Authority, and dismissive of the great thoughts and thinkers of Western Civilization.

Your fellow university students will not have experienced the New Birth, they will not believe that Biblical Morality is inspired and inerrant, and they will be driven by the desires for pleasure and acceptance, more than discipleship and principled leadership.

They will have imbibed the spirit of this age. They will live as though morality is a myth, judgment is fiction, and eternity in heaven or hell is a fairy tale. In this they are not unlike their parents and professors. We are living in decadent days.


And yet, it is with great confidence that we face our times. With Winston Churchill we will “Never give in. Never, Never, Never, Never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in... Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

With FAITH IN THE FUTURE we face the challenge of this day.
Faith in the God who made heaven and earth!
Faith in the Savior who suffered, bled, died, and rose again!
Faith in the Spirit of Holiness who indwells, empowers, and directs God’s people!
Faith in the Word of God that is inerrant, inspired, and our sole authority!
Faith in the Church of Jesus Christ that will assault and prevail against the gates of hell!
Faith in the Cause of Right and Righteousness!


The Enemy has come in like a flood! In these last days he has unleashed every weapon in his arsenal to defeat Christ and Christ’s Church.

…He is still saying as he said to Eve, “Hath God said…” injecting doubt into the minds of men.
But my Grandmother Jones was right when she wrote to Dad, “Sin is just as black as it ever was, and must be declared as such. It takes the same remedy to cure this awful malady as it always did. When God says what is right and what is wrong, that is how it is! It has already been settled in heaven, centuries ago. (Psalm 119:89).

…He is still distracting God’s people from the place of prayer, from the study of God’s Word, and from Worship! Even innocent entertainments are numbing the minds and dulling the spiritual sensitivity of good people. And what’s worse, the Church herself has imbibed the spirit of the age, so that feasting has replaced fasting, playing has replaced praying, gaming has replaced going (to the lost), and happiness has replaced holiness as our first concern.

…He is placing into the media, the government, and the leadership of our nation, people who are anti-Christ. They are “enemies of the Cross” and they are determined to undermine Christian faith, the Christian Church, and the Christian nation that has secured liberty and done more good than any other nation in the history of mankind.

…And He still seeks to sabotage our faith, by strategically placing into our lives, compromising friends who will erode your determination to act right and be holy. Worldly friends are dangerous, but worldly professing Christian friends may pose the greatest threat to your soul.

Graduate, these are not dark days, but these are great days!
Never seek the favor or approval of men. Never thirst for the approval of this world. Never fear the loneliness of standing alone for the Savior—He stood alone for you one day!

Charlie, God knew you would come to the kingdom for such a time as this. God knew exactly what the world would be like when he gifted you with life. God knew what trials and temptations you would face. God knew what abilities He would give you!

There is only One whose approval you must seek. Let the Apostle Paul’s testimony be yours,
“2 Corinthians 5:9 …we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ”

On May 6, of 1985 my Father wrote to his fellow pastors. Remember:

“We are foundation men. It may be that in some future time others will be able to assemble the superstructure more rapidly, but we are truly unique in the marketplace of churches to be offering costly grace when cheap grace is the “in” thing. Yet it is for this very reason that we find our own efforts closely paralleling the New Testament example. Except for those disciples of John, and the Jews who converted, the work was not easy. "

"Progress was bought with life-shortening labor and persecution, and the loneliness of the whipping post and desertion of fellow “Christians” in Caesar’s Court."

"This is the precipice of glory! This is life with meaning! This is counting all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. Let us storm the gates of hell with with the confidence of men who have heard the Divine affirmation that those gates will not prevail.
Now go make a difference for Christ and for eternity!