The Reverend John G.
Ridley was given at the Central Baptist Church
in Toowoomba.
My final message is based on the last
verse of that brief scripture that I read.
I'm going to read the scripture in a
moment.
I'm going to tell you what I encourage
with the message.
Christ's challenge to courage and his warning of
the cost of cowardice.
Now you've got the scripture, 38th verse of
the 8th chapter of Mark, and remember these
words fell from sinless lips.
These words came from the ones who never
sinned.
Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and
of my words, in this adulterous and sinful
generation, of him also shall the Son of
Man be ashamed, when he cometh in the
glory of his Father with the Holy Angels.
Courage, wherever it is displayed, excites the praise
and the admiration of the best of the
human race.
The soldiers of Saul's army could never forget
that remarkable sight.
A little shepherd boy with a staff and
a sling and a few stones, running up
into the valley of Elah, to face that
heavily miled giant Goliath and to overthrow him.
Wonderful courage.
They were to talk of it and to
sing of it right down the centuries in
Israel.
Not only the shepherd boy, but many of
you all have shown courage too.
I'd like to remind you of a fearful
storm that burst upon the coast of Old
England, right up on the coast of Northumberland,
in 1838.
Royal, terrific night.
Flares went up from the ship in distress.
Nothing could be done.
The first thing in the brave Greek morning
was the billows gassing the shore.
The old lighthouse keeper looked out and saw,
on the distant rugged rock, part of a
ship's mast driven into the rock and seven
poor half-frozen people clinging to it.
I can't possibly go, he said to his
wife, I couldn't handle the lifeboat alone in
such a sea.
No dad, you mustn't go, she said.
It's impossible.
And suddenly his daughter, a girl of about
19, said father, I'll go with you and
handle the lifeboat.
Wait, said the mother, if your father is
down today, I'll hold you responsible for it.
Father, she said, we must go then.
I'll go with you and handle the lifeboat.
And William Darling was as great a hero
as his girl was a heroine.
And they pushed the heavy lifeboat down the
strip of sand, and in a few moments
they were in the boiling billows, handling it,
over wave after wave, as they plowed and
plowed out towards those broken rocks.
And when they got near the rocks, Grace
took charge of the boat.
And as the wave came, she swung it
round with the oars and drew it up
alongside of the rock, and William Darling jumped
out onto the rock.
And then time and again, she swung that
lifeboat round to the rock, heading for those
frozen people into the lifeboat.
And they brought the cabin back, and the
whole of the English speaking world rang with
the praise of Grace Darling.
Things that poorly adorned her.
She was feasted and feasted on every time.
But she died shortly afterwards.
But when I was a boy at school
at the beginning of this century, I used
to sing in my class, Grace has an
English heart, meaning a brave heart.
Oh, it was courage.
And you're a poor type of person if
you can't admire courage.
I'll never forget it.
Crouched down on my first day of terrific
fighting in France, when we were to go
over the breastworks against the hail of death.
I'll never forget the sight of that young
officer who picked up a trench coat and
threw it over his shoulder, and looked along
our line and said to me, I was
like a sergeant, I'll lead the line over
his wing.
And then he turned right and left, and
lifted the cigarette and touched the cigarette a
moment, and amidst the thunder of battle he
said, come on boys, and walked straight over
into that falling fire and fell.
I swore to cross on the very top
of the breastworks, but I never forgot the
courage of Lieutenant Briggs as we dashed on.
Remember this down the year.
Courage is no right thing, my friend.
And the Lord Jesus Christ, who inspires courage,
who calls it a virtue, who claims that
we could face up to the challenge of
courage, I love to think that.
Our blessed Savior was ever in demand.
He had to face the hardest of fighting
himself, and he faced it unflinchingly.
I like courage, don't you?
I admire it.
Courage, brother, do not stumble, though thy path
be dark at night.
There is far to guide the humble.
Trust in God, and do the right.
And here he brings us the challenge of
courage.
Prince, however, the circumference of the challenge.
Me and my words, the cause of the
challenge.
Ashamed in this adulterous sinful generation.
Ashamed when he cometh in the glory of
the Father with the Holy Angel.
And that's the very center of the challenge,
the very core of it.
Think for a moment of the circumference of
the challenge.
Whosoever, that's a beautiful word, that includes you,
includes me, everyone here, that means anyone.
But wait a moment, does God ever use
that word?
Frequently.
For God so loved the world, that he
gave his only begotten son, that whosoever, believing
in him, would not perish, but hath everlasting
life.
For whosoever has everlasting life, go on to
Luke 7, and you'll find that whosoever of
faith Jesus said to some of those that
came from John the Baptist, Blessed is he
whosoever shall not be offended in me.
I've met a number of people that got
offended in God, and said to me only
a few days ago, I, I, I, I'm
not right, I'm not right with God.
I, I've got an injury, and the way
that I had to go through my youth,
and put up with so much, ah, offending
in Christ.
Here, tonight we read, for whosoever of discipleship,
whosoever will come after me, you're not forced
to.
You can go down to death without Christ
if you're determined to, and Christ went after
them.
But whosoever will come after me, let him
deny himself, take up his cross and follow
me.
Whosoever of discipleship, and then the whosoever of
courage for charity.
What does it mean, gracious?
Well, it means lads in their lightheartedness, and
girls in their gaiety, young men in their
strength, and young women in their beauty.
It means middle-aged men in their prime
and parenthood, middle-aged women in their motherhood
and maturity.
Why, it means old men in their supposed
wisdom, old women in their supposed weakness, whosoever.
It means the Queen, Wanda, in Buckingham Palace,
and every member of the far-flung Commonwealth
that she offends this Queen of.
It means the Governor General of this land
of Australia, and every citizen in Australia, whosoever.
It means the manager of Wanda Brisbane's farm
in his beautiful office, and every member of
his staff right down to the messenger boy.
It means the captain in Wanda's ship on
the bridge there, and every officer and member
of the ship's company, and every passenger aboard.
Whosoever.
Why, it means the headmaster of the school,
and every member of the staff, every scholar
in the school.
It means the mate from the hospital, every
nurse from the staff, every patient in the
hospital.
Whosoever.
Oh, I said, Wanda, I think you may
have to excuse me from this creature.
I'm not in a Jeshua state.
Whether you're white, or black, or rich, or
poor, or male, or female, or communist, or
capitalist, or liberalite, or laborite, you're in it.
You're a whosoever.
And the Lord Jesus Christ brings the great
sparkle out that the conference beyond now came,
and said, Whosoever.
What?
Thou be ashamed of me and my words.
The cause of the challenge.
Can you imagine for a moment two pillars
raised on this platform?
Try if you can to imagine a pillar
raised up there, and another one up here.
Look at that right-hand pillar, to you
it's the left-hand one, and on that
right-hand pillar, me, the man whose name
is wonderful.
On that left-hand pillar, the word, thy
testimonies are wonderful.
Jesus Christ, who was in the bosom of
the Father, who was with God, who was
God with my flesh, and dwelt among us
as a man.
What manner of man is this?
Does it say after he was, as though
it doesn't count a clip of the finger?
What manner of man is this?
The sinless man answers God.
Look to that right-hand pillar, who did
no sin?
Look to that left-hand pillar, neither was
Zion found in Israel.
You've never had a person like that.
Zion is just like the sin that comes
out so often from us, when we say
the thing that sins exactly sin.
The man, sinless, which of him convicted me
of sin, said Jesus.
Not a word came from him, not one
of them cast a sin in his face.
Then, if I say the truth, why do
you not believe me?
What do you say then?
Turn to the left-hand pillar.
I am the way, the truth, the life.
No man cometh to the Father, but by
me.
Now don't you think you can climb up
some other way, friend?
That came from the guileless lips of the
glorious Lord.
On that right-hand pillar, the sinless man.
On that left-hand pillar, the guileless word.
He's not deceiving you.
He's telling you he is the way to
God.
You are coming by him.
He is the truth of God, do you
believe him?
And he's the life of God.
Have you got him?
Or are you a servant of his sinless
life and his sinless word?
What manner of man is this?
There's a curious world in the light of
his miracles.
The greatest man answers God.
Look to that right-hand pillar for a
moment.
He shall be delighted and shall be called
the Son of the Highest.
The Lord God shall give unto him the
throne of his father David, so he will
in the near future.
The greatest man, the greatest word.
Never man quite like this man.
He doeth all things well.
The greatest man doing the greatest word speaking.
What a privilege to have the Bible open
before you, to hear the greatest word ever
uttered in this world's history, or ever will
be uttered.
Ah, let me say, did he ever challenge
that greatest man?
He was indeed.
He was challenged by the elements.
In a little shift on Galilee, talks about
wildly illiterate form, his disciples came to him
and said, Master, we must tear this down
not that we tear it.
And Jesus arose out of his sleep and
said, Peace, be still.
And there was a great calm, an instant
calm.
And they worshipped him.
I never knew a form calmed on a
split second.
I've been in many, many storms of sea.
I feel myself a kind of a Jonah
when I go to sea.
I land into a storm almost invariably.
And I've never known a form that calms
on a split second.
It always drains itself out, something less and
less.
But this Master of the elements and powerful
literacy said, Peace, be still.
A great calm.
A fierce demon, out of a demonized person
who was trying to uphold him, challenged him.
Tell me fellow, what will you do with
me, Jesus of Nazareth?
How do you think he had come out
of it?
He came out the same way.
And they were amazed, saying, even the uncreed
spirits obeyed him.
We never saw him on this line.
Ah, my dear friend, he is conqueror over
the powers of hell, as well as the
elements of the storm.
Once, and the rest of those, that's the
little girl, out of his grip, just before
he came to heal her.
And when he arrived at the home of
Jairus, they were all weeping and wailing and
crying, because he was dead.
Jesus put them all out of the womb,
took the mother and the father and the
three faithless disciples, and taking the cold hand
of the little dead child, that little girl.
And they were all astonished, with a great
astonishment.
Haven't his great words ever astonished you?
How they astonished that religious dinner, Nicodemus, who
came along in a complimentary way, and said,
we know that you are the teacher come
from God, because you do these miracles.
And Jesus said, verily, verily, I say unto
thee, except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God.
Oh, how, said Nicodemus, how did it appear
to them?
And he placed his head to the cross.
How those words startled the poor adulterers, who
had been dragged before him, and they were
saying, Master, Moses says he could be stoned.
Jesus said, neither this without sin.
And the woman was left alone without God,
and he looked down and he said, hath
no man condemned He said, no man, nor.
Mark that word, she called him Lord.
Neither do I condemn thee.
He said, go and sin no more.
Keep your eyes and mind on the message
of God.
Teacher James, how wonderfully those words startled the
people of Jerusalem.
When he said, do you suppose the 18
on whom the power of their own parents
threw them were worse sinners than all men
in Jerusalem?
I tell you they would expect you, repent
you, all likewise perish.
The greatest man, the greatest word, are you
ashamed of them, my brother, my sister?
Or are you courageously on a side of
the greatest man, the greatest word?
What manner of this, of man is this,
that a wandering world at the foot of
a cross, on good pride and, what manner
of man is this?
The saving man answers God, and lo, Pilate
brought him forth, so that that like answerer,
bound, bleeding, that is it, bombarded with abuse.
Pilate brought him forth and said, behold the
man.
Look at him, poor fellow, bleeding, bound there
before them.
Behold the man.
Yes, but he's the saving man.
Turn to the left hand to the saving
word, and Pilate said to him, ask thou
a kingdom, as thou sayest to this answer,
I am a king.
To this end was I born, and to
this cause came I into the world, to
bear witness to the truth.
Every one that is of the truth, feareth
my word.
You can be of the lie, you can
be a friend to the great liar, you
know.
Satan's sent to lie against the truth, every
kind, but every one that is of the
truth, heareth his word and his answer.
Look to that right hand to the other
day, see him lifted up upon that painful
cross, have a good look at him with
the eye of faith for a moment.
You'll see that garland of cruel thorns pressed
into his blessed brow, so that the blood
is just slowly dropping down.
Guilty of faith, more and more than any
man to the suffering of death.
Can you see lips that have charred with
thorns in the agony of crucifixion?
Can you see hands and feet scarred by
Roman swipes?
And can you notice every bone is jarred
out of joy?
That's about the most awful agony you could
conceive as starving.
And when the darkness gathered round that blessed
figure, there came another anguish.
My God, my God, why hath thou forsaken
me?
And God's judgment telephoned him, the law has
to be fulfilled and described and striped.
Guide for sinners and guide for us in
the saving power of the Godhead.
Look to that left hand stiller and think
of the saving word, this is my body
which is broken for you.
This is my blood of the new testament
shed for you and for many for the
remission.
What's remission mean?
It's taking a while to write it out.
The remission of sins.
Man don't you want your sins covered?
Don't you want your sins remitted?
If I was in debt for ten thousand
pounds and some benefactor said, I'll write it
all off, John, I'll remit it.
Oh, thankful I'd be.
And you're in debt to God by being
a sinner.
You've piled up your sins down the years.
They are beyond number.
Jesus said my blood will remit them all.
Oh, see from his head, his hand, his
feet, sorrow and love flow mingle down.
Do there such love and sorrow meet?
Oh, thorn compose so rich a crown.
Are you ashamed of the saving man and
the saving word?
Or are you courageously unashamed of the crucified
one?
What man is this by the sharpest word
on Easter morning?
The deathless man answered God.
The deathless man took to the right hand
pillar, and he was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father, and showed
himself alive by many infallible proofs.
Proofs that you are infallible.
He showed himself alive with all the rest
of us.
There is more evidence that Jesus Christ rose
from the dead to the great bodily creature
than if Napoleon died at St. Helena, or
George Washington was the first president of the
United States.
And the left hand pillar, the deathless word,
I am he that liveth and was dead,
and behold, I'm alive forevermore, and have the
keys of death and of hell.
I hold the door keys of death and
of hell.
I'd advise you to be friends with that.
I'd advise you to be in good friendship
with Jesus Christ.
He's got the keys of the final place
of banishment, and the keys of death.
Pardon my friend, heaven and earth shall pass
away, said Jesus, because my word.
You'll make them a day when the books
are open, and you'll judge them, the things
written in the book.
They're deathless words.
Are you ashamed of the deathless man and
the deathless word, or courageously unashamed of them?
What manner of man is this, Christ of
bloody world in 1962?
What manner of man is this Christ?
The coming man, answers God, and the coming
word.
This same Jesus, which is so taken from
you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as your feet and go into heaven.
That's the hope of the world.
The coming words, Hereafter ye shall see the
Son of Man coming in the clouds of
heaven with great glory.
I once had the privilege of about an
hour's conversation with Billy Graham in his own
home in North Carolina, and I remember one
of the questions I asked the great evangelist
was this.
I said concerning a certain great statesman, whose
name I'll not mention, who was world famous
then, I said, Is it true that he
asked you about the Lord's second coming?
He said, Not exactly, Mr. Ridley.
He asked me, What is the hope of
the world, Dr. Graham?
And I said to him, The second coming
of Christ.
Then he said he sided me with about
nine questions, one after the other.
Because men are perplexed and worried and distressed,
leaders are trying to find a way out.
What is the hope of the world?
Why, this is the blessed hope of the
world.
Jesus is coming.
He's coming again.
King of glad tidings on mountains and plains.
Jesus is coming again, for with us is
revealed people.
So we meet him in the And then,
look out, for there's the hour of reckoning
for the world that's projected him.
Oh wondrous savior, sinless, righteous, saving, selfless, coming.
Is it possible anyone can be ashamed of
that blessed Lord?
But it takes courage to confess him, all
right.
There was a man named Edward Perenade, and
he was dying way back about in the
end of the 19th century, the end of
the 18th century, rather, and on his deathbed,
Edward Perenade is heard to say, Glory to
God in the height of his divinity.
Glory to God in the depth of his
humanity.
Glory to God in his all-proficiency.
Into thy hands I commit my spirit.
Wonderful testimony in a deathbed.
He didn't live until he died, though.
About 13 years before his death he wrote,
All hail the power of Jesus' name.
Let angels prostrate fall, ring forth the royal
diadem, and crown him, crown him, Lord of
all, we pray you, King tonight.
He didn't wait for you to die to
get right.
He prayed his tribute of thousands of tongues
down his ear and said, Ashamed of me
and my word.
And we close in for a few moments
at the end to the treasure of the
challenge.
Ashamed of me and my word.
In an adulterous, what that means, unjust, immoral
generation.
Ashamed.
The poor people who behind the scenes are
acting impurely often, and immorally.
Ashamed to offend with some disowns.
Ashamed to offend the blokes at work, and
the boys down yonder, and the girls in
the scene.
Ashamed.
Indirect.
And sinful generation.
And not one of us but a sinner.
Alright, you mustn't hurt me, but don't, because
I'm talking about Christ.
He's a good fellow in his own way.
He's a sinner.
And we all are.
Yet ashamed to kiss with more sinful adulterous
people.
I want to tell you, dear friend, there's
no loophole here.
You are either ashamed of Christ, or you're
unashamed of him.
You are either a confessor of Christ before
men, or you're a denier of Christ before
men.
You are either on his side, or you
are not on his side.
Whether you like to say you're right, whether
you like to say you'll get there, I
wouldn't be in your place with 10,000
pounds in it.
You're ashamed.
Ashamed of God in his time.
Maker, redeemer, suspender, and spreader.
Ashamed.
When some was lifting back towards the end
of Paul's life, he said, all they of
Asa have turned away from me.
And then he adds a word to his
young son Timothy.
Timothy, he said, be not thou ashamed of
the testimony of our Lord.
That's it.
Doesn't matter if other people turn away, don't
you be ashamed of the testimony of Jesus
Christ, in his singleness and his greatness, and
his coping power, and his deathless power, and
his coming from.
Don't you be ashamed of him, whatever the
cost.
I went and visited the battlefield of Gettysburg
twice in America.
I've seen the great monuments to decorate that
field in all directions.
Travelled over, and I took a few friends
with me to one monument erected on Semetery
Hill.
It was a misty day on this second
visit, and I said to them, I want
to show you one of your great American
heroes that you might know much about.
And they didn't really, and we came up
to Semetery Hill, and there was the monument
of a mounted officer, who had his right
arm gone, and just the sleeve pinned up
to his jacket, his left hand holding the
reins of his horse.
And there was the great face of the
monument, on which was inscribed, General Oliver Otis
Howard, from the county of Maine.
And I raised this monument on Semetery Hill,
Gettysburg, and I said to the friends that
were with me, you know there's a wonderful
story behind Howard.
He was the Christian general of the Northern
Army in the Civil War, just a hundred
years ago.
And about five or six years before the
Civil War, he was just a lieutenant at
a place called Tampa, in Florida.
He was reading a book one night called
The Memorials of Captain Henry Vickers.
He came to Vickers' conversion, when Vickers read
the text, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleansed us from all sin.
And he got down and he said, I
shall live henceforth as a man should live,
who's been washed in the blood of Christ.
And young Howard got down by the side
of his own table, and opened his heart,
and received Christ, and claimed the cleansing blood
of the Lamb over his feet.
Next day in the garrison, he was met
by a senior officer, who said to Howard,
I hear you were consorted last night, old
fellow.
Get thee dead, and I'm not ashamed.
That's a good start, isn't it?
Howard, he said, I will show you any
amount of contradictions in your Bible.
Perhaps you could, said Howard, but you couldn't
show me that last night, I didn't surrender
to the Lord Jesus Christ, and I've been
so happy all night, I couldn't sleep to
have it.
I leave God's time for the contradictions, and
the whole thing's passed, as many things pass,
and would have died a natural death only
for something.
About two weeks after that, in a little
packed Methodist chapel at Tampa, old Mr. Lynn,
the primitive Methodist preacher, was presenting the gospel.
Howard in his uniform was dressed inside the
door, crowds of people in the chapel.
Mr. Lynn closed up both sides, come right
down to the front and meet with the
penitent warriors.
It will have humbled the penitent except Jesus
Christ as your Savior.
Come out and meet at the rail, and
a few people started to break out, and
amongst them was a poor woman that was
suffering from hip disease, and she went down
the aisle, wobbling, somewhat like a duck wobbling,
and Howard looked across to a company of
young fellows at the other side of the
church, whom he'd known in days of wilderness,
and he saw them laughing and sneering at
the poor woman going down.
And God said to his foe, Howard, on
which side do you want to be?
The side of the prophets, or the side
of those trying to do the will of
God?
And he broke himself up, stepped into the
aisle, and in striking contrast to the poor
wobbling woman, marched in his military stride down
to the penitent's hall, and knelt near the
woman.
God blessed the young man, and Mr. Lynn,
God blessed him with a great confession.
The whole garrison shook with it, he'd gone
crazy, some of them getting mad, others saying,
he describes the uniform, others saying, that Howard
found a lifelong love in Christ, and before
he left Tampa, he fell witness to Jesus.
That's the type of conversion they want for
others, that's the type of courage they want.
At Gettysburg, he made a stand and played
the game on Cemetery Hill, and was thanked
by thousands of Congress, and they raised his
monument there.
Later, he helped G.
L.
Moody, the great evangelist, in his sweeping campaigns,
and at the age of seventy-four, he
wrote his last testimony, in Christ's name, of
toil and trade and work.
My religion has been a great comfort to
me.
On the side of those trying to do
the will of God.
That is the will of God, dear friends,
for any unshaved man or woman, or dead,
dead in this place tonight.
I know anyone who must be washed in
the blood of the Lamb, and have their
sins remitted.
A simplest day for Antipas, God, who will
have all men to be saved, and to
come to the knowledge of the truth.
And the Lord Jesus said, I am the
truth, to come to Jesus.
We will, but you all come to Jesus,
and you'll know the truth, and the truth
will set your end in shame.
What's the will of God from the back,
for the backslider, who once made a good
profession, but lost out in the fight of
life, picked up by the devil, picked?
God is not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance, and
he'll get forgiveness.
What's the will of God for the Christian?
God answers, this is the will of God,
even your sanctification, or your holiness, or you
might say, your full surrender to Christ, your
giving yourself back to Christ.
What is the will of God for all
men?
I'll just take up that Bible, I could
read it if I like to, open it
to the praise.
All men should honor the Son, said Jesus.
Even as they honor the Father, we must
honor not the Son.
Listen, you can talk all you like about
saying, I believe in almighty God, I honor
the great nation, so on, but I don't
say Jesus Christ, no, he's out in the
picture, then you've got to face up to
the one who never lost.
All men should honor the Son, even as
they honor the Father.
He that honors not the Son, I don't
care who you honor, brother, you're not honoring
God.
You're dishonoring God, who gave his son to
be the Savior of the world.
Understand, my help brought me to my feet
in 1915, a man who had a right
piece in my passion for the military life.
It was that kind of noble challenge that
William Lamb took over, and onto my feet
for Christ.
Because I believed with all my heart, a
man was a coward who could not stand
his crucified Savior, and the Lord gave grace
to make that stand.
Oh, my dear men and women, some of
us are badly ashamed of our dear Redeemer.
We're not trying to do the will of
God, you know.
The will of God is that we should
be contesting followers of the Lamb.
Do not be ashamed to own him, or
obey the Lord's command.
In your every word ask him, show the
world just where you stand.
Show the world just where you stand.
God will
give
you grace to do it tonight.
And you may feel a little nervous about
it, but he'll give you grace to confess
him unashamed and come to him.
And as you bow and pray, and I'm
going to ask in a moment's time, for
those who need God's power and grace to
be unashamed of Christ, as an unashamed man,
as a back-sider, as a Christian, just
ask me the prayer.
Let us bow in God's presence, our eyes
closed, our heads down.
Courage is the most difficult thing in the
Christian life, and unashamed confession of Christ is
one of the hardest things to perform.
Some of us know that we need God's
touch of power tonight.
God answers prayer.
Do you humble your heart enough to be
prayed for?
Just lift a hand for the moment and
then put it down, and I'd be so
glad to pray for you.
God bless you, my brother.
Just lift a hand and let me pray
for you.
God bless you, my brother.
Someone else, could you do that?
God bless you, brother.
Thank you.
Someone else, could you do that?
Just lift a hand.
God bless you, my brother, in the center.
Someone else, could you lift a hand?
Don't wait, friend.
Take it from any friend.
Hands lifted up.
God bless you, brother.
God bless you, my sister.
God bless you, another sister.
Another brother, another sister.
Thank you.
God bless you.
How cowardly you are, even to get a
hand up for Christ.
And some of you know how fearful and
ashamed you are, and you've got the faith,
and at last, in the same way, you're
unashamed.
Ah, the faith, it will help you tonight,
while we're down.
Just lift that hand up quietly.