My Heavenly Father, as the sands of time
are sinking, on this last day and last
night of an old year, we beseech you,
be that thou would speak to our hearts
tonight, thou would take thy servant, weak as
he may be, and speak to him by
thy spirit, the word that our spirit can
make, and grant that in this great congregation
some hearts may be opened to receive the
Lord Jesus, that blessed shepherd, slave of friends,
and all God our Father, save dear friends
in this gathering tonight, from keeping a stubborn
resistance in the heart, when the times are
still at peril, plead on us, brethren of
God, and grant us the power of domination,
and of a new Holy Spirit, to boost
Christ the bread of life tonight.
To the listening people, we ask it through
Jesus Christ, our exalted Redeemer.
Amen.
One boy, one of England's greatest ministers, was
asked a question.
If you only had one sentence to speak
to your fellow ministers, in England and throughout
the world, what would be that sentence of
counsel for the men who ask to preach
to others?
And after they ate garrot, thought for a
moment or two, and answered, I would say,
fellow preachers, make it plain to the people
how they are saved.
That is my work tonight.
I could have given other messages that I
would have preferred to give, but I have
waited on the Lord, and this is the
message I believe He has commanded me to
give.
Are you anxious?
Or are you drifty?
Moment ten, verses nine and ten.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, or Jesus as Lord, and
believe in thine heart that God hath raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Or, with the heart, man comes to righteousness,
and with the mouth, confession is made, unto
salvation, full, pure, plain gospel, the like of
which, perhaps, you will not find again in
the official.
Though all through the New Testament you've got
the grand gospel in its simplicity, but how
plain, how clear are these words?
I want to take you back to 1805,
21st of October, and the great battle of
Trafalgar was almost over.
Lord Nelson has conquered the combined fleet of
France and Spain, and is down in the
cockpit of the Victory.
It's a great triumph, but at a cost.
At last, Admiral Nelson has spoken down to
death.
Captain Thomas Hardy, his flag captain, has been
down to see him once, and now it's
four o'clock in the afternoon, and Hardy
has returned to the cockpit of the Victory,
and he takes the fast, cooling hand of
Nelson, and congratulates him on a great victory.
And Admiral Golden has asked him on, because
he's a lost human mind, for the coming
storm.
Anchor, Hardy, anchor, he said.
Hardy sintered that when Nelson died, Admiral Custard
Collingwood would take command, and then the sinking
dying hero raised himself on his left arm,
but he had no right arm, no right
arm, raised himself on his left arm, and
said, not where I live, Hardy, give me
anchor.
If I live, I'll anchor.
If I live.
In half an hour's time, the hero of
Britain had passed over to eternity, and for
some reason, Admiral Collingwood did not answer.
Perhaps he never heard the Admiral's last command,
perhaps the flag captain never sent it on,
but that night the storm broke, and 40
of the prize ships out of 18 went
down in the storm.
Oh, my friend, I would say to you
tonight, young or old, man or woman, go,
go, be sure where you live, you anchor,
with the sheep anchors of God, be sure
you anchor.
Why, what a vivid story that was, that
demon story of the 27th chapter of the
Acts of the Apostles, that British ship suddenly
moving out from that sad, covered, shocked, near
-sleep, and meeting the stern.
You'll answer them what it means, East or
East, and it's a whirlwind of a storm,
the terror of sailors in those days.
I'm weak, jittered, dirty, has ripped my heart
for years, that ship's caught, and you'll answer
them.
Passed up and down on those boiling jitters,
with the lowering clouds above them, and 14
days without sun or star to guide them,
the ship bound about with ropes to hold
the tanks together, and the 276 prisoners and
passengers just waiting for that casualty death, that
the jaws of the sea seem to be
opening to bring them to, all hope that
Luke in his prophetic statement, all hope that
we should be saved was taken away, and
then the prisoner, the apostle, the man of
God, stood tall, and said, God, things that
have happened to me, I'm not a sailor
for the sea.
Now, son, be of good cheer, not a
man will be left, but the ship will
be lost.
What does he know about it?
Why, in this dreadful heating of the sea,
how can he foretell the future?
What is the policy for saying this?
There stood by me this night, the angel
of God, who I am, and whom I,
sir, shan't fear not for.
Thou must be brought before Cedar, and know
that it's given me, all men that sail
with you.
Therefore, sir, I believe that it shall be,
even as it was told me.
Oh, blessed word.
I believe, God, the answer of faith.
I believe, God, wherefore cause is terrible, as
it was told me, the witness of the
lips, the confession of his mouth.
Then, to his great answer, faith, reliance on
God, and confession, the two great answers of
the soul, cast into the waters of God's
word, cast into the faithfulness of God himself,
holding the soul to every shore, and bringing
at last to the blessed land of rest,
rest.
Of course, you must know that life is
somewhat like a voyage.
Sometimes it's a calm sea, and sometimes it's
cropping, and sometimes it's rough, and then finally
it's gone, you're out for them, lonely.
Soon when it is finished, bring a corpse
dead.
I'm hopeless.
I'm whole to fall to the unsaved.
All hope of being taken away.
Oh, how grand it is that boy, or
the girl, or the man, or the woman,
comes to the place of Christ, in the
Lord Jesus Christ.
So, that's the first thing that I want
to speak about.
And then, confession, that's all, the two great
answers of the soul.
Faith, what is faith?
Well, a little schoolboy raised his hand and
said, please miss, is there even word out?
All together wrong.
It's believing, what is?
God is.
A little water of them that diligently seek
him, believe that Jesus Christ rose from the
dead, with the heart to believe unto righteousness.
My, that's a great statement.
I want to tell you tonight, dear friends,
you can't build yourself into righteousness, with all
the blocks of your good work, one on
top of the other, building up your Bible
tower, that'll never reach heaven.
Because it is written, it is not of
work, that any man build.
You don't get right with God, by work.
Nor, can you buy righteousness.
No.
So, there are goals out there.
You can give your trust back to the
side of an army, you can drop money
in the price, you can give a gift
to the mission society, that you cannot buy
the gift of God.
The man in Turkey could, the apostle Peter
said, your money perish with you.
If you took the gift of God, it
would be purchased with money.
Nor, you can't buy yourself to righteousness, nor
can you justify yourself to righteousness.
With all the spiritual cosmetics in the world
to come to it, with all the assistance
of the worldly adornments to come to it,
you may have a sparkling personality, you may
have a grand education, you may have a
ready wrist, you may have a character that
seems to be fairly clear and good to
the average person.
If you cannot beautify yourself to righteousness, all
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
What can I do without righteousness?
I believe I'm to righteousness.
Abraham believed God, and it was time to
be him for righteousness.
And when you come to the place of
simple sincere faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
as your personal savior, and put to your
seal, God is true, confirming his son, and
I will put my seal to the testimony
that God is true, and I'll accept Christ
as my savior.
Righteousness, through implanted righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ, comes to you as a superlative, the
robe of righteousness.
Come on, the sinner, the garments of salvation
upon him.
What an answer, for all life's joys, accepted
in the beloved Lord Jesus.
Ah, you say, well, Peter, I think I
might prefer, all right, I'm not sure about
my faith being so antagonistic of faith, but
I think I might make it.
You'll put yourself to three little tests, will
you?
Test number one, whether you have real saving
faith.
Let us go to the little town of
Bethlehem.
Let us go with the shepherds of old
from the Judean fields to that little town
of Bethlehem, and let us join that worshipping
company around the little child that's been wrapped
in swaddling clothes, and as they go there
in worship, let us join them.
Why are you worshipping me so?
Why are you worshipping that baby child in
the manger bed?
Oh, they say, the angel of the Lord
appeared to us out in the Judean fields,
and said unto you from this day in
the city of David, a saviour, Jesus Christ
the Lord, and we hadn't heard of him,
and we're worshipping the saviour.
Oh, you believe he is the saviour?
We say to the shepherds, oh yes, they
say, that a way back some seven hundred
years before, the prophet Micah told us it
would be so.
Now Bethlehem, though thou be little amongst the
thousands of Judah, as did me, shall he
come first unto me, who shall be ruler
in Israel, who going forth shall be of
old, even from everlasting, to die to eternity.
Yes, they say, and the great prophet of
redemption, somewhere about the same time, said this
great thing to us, I will show you
a sign, God will show you a sign,
a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
bear a son and call his name Emmanuel.
God, Judah, also we're worshipping, we're worshipping God
in human form, the son that was given,
the child is born, the child, this shall
be the sign, the boat shall be wrapped
in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger, and
here it is, oh we worship God in
the flesh, God, Judah.
Do you, have you anchored there in the
deity of Christ, the divinity of Christ?
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God?
Do you believe that Jesus Christ manifested the
invisible Father gloriously in the name Emmanuel?
Have you anchored?
Ah, my dear friends, greater people than we
here tonight have anchored there.
William Gladstone, four-time prime minister of Old
England, and a wonderful Christian man, sent a
message to the governor of New York, who
had asked for some authority concerning the deity
of Jesus Christ, and he said, all I
write, all I think, all I am, is
based on the divinity of Jesus Christ, the
only hope that our poor way was right,
right from the deity of Christ.
Are you a believer?
Have you cast anchor into the deity of
Christ and believe that Christ is God?
Come with me, Father.
Oh, come to the place called Calvary.
Stand there for the moment on this hot
day, and listen to the noise.
Well, there's a mob gone wild in the
city.
Help, and abuse, and stormy wars.
Crucify him, crucify him, away with him, away
with him, and see him come under an
eastern star, bearing his cross, throughout that village
of a place, under an eastern sky, amid
a rod of fire.
This man went forth to die for me,
so I found his blood at home, blood
-stained his every thread.
Cross-laden arms, arms he spread for me,
pierced with his hands and feet, three hours
orphaned feet, three hours raised at noon by
the heat.
So move, so move, for I like to
sing that grand hymn by Charles Wesley that
we opened the Fathers with, but let us
come to Calvary.
Let us look up while the burning sun
looks down upon the blessed Lord of Glory.
Sing him there upon that cross of shame.
Why is he, Emmanuel, lifted up to die
on that cross?
Why?
That righteousness might come to you and me.
Look yonder on that cross for a moment.
Look to his garments.
They're gambling for his garments, his rapture underneath.
They've tainted his garments, they've put him to
an open shame.
Look at those hands and feet pierced, and
the blood trickling down from that crown of
thorns.
Look upon that blessed Saviour and think for
a moment about a thousand years before the
Son of Prophets spoke of the whole thing
in the 22nd Psalm.
He said, I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joy,
and my tongue cleavers to my jaw, and
I am poured into the dust of death.
All that see me last meets the storm.
They poke out the lips, they shake the
head.
Tell him he trusted in the Lord that
he would deliver him.
Let him deliver him if he will have
them.
What?
Did they say that at the time of
the crucifixion?
Did they not gamble for his rapture and
pass his garments?
Did they not see his bones out of
joy upon that cross?
Did they not know that the cross was
maddening beneath that burning sun?
Did they not realize that he was the
man of Nazareth, and Galilee, and the man
of Jerusalem?
Yet they had him crucified.
And they gazed upon his face, and they
could not recognize that face well, but they
shouted in their abuse, come down from the
cross, we believe you.
If you are the king of the Jews,
save yourself.
If you are the Christ, save yourself and
us also, said the two malice action.
Oh, wasn't he?
Like a pack of dogs round him, surrounding
his blessed form, all hearts full right back,
even for the purpose of redemption.
Many would have done it that day.
He finished with some more, and he earned
more than the sons of men.
Oh, how terrible the language.
But, if you want a little comment on
it, read the book of Isaiah.
A terrible word.
He ceased almost to look human in the
agony, and then the darkness shut him in.
Then the night fell at noon, and for
three mystic hours, the blessed one, the dear
Lord Jesus, was shut in and shut out
from the eyes of the stopping crowd.
But inside that gloom, he cried in the
night as well as in the day.
But there was no answer, and none to
care.
And at last, the mystery is hidden from
our eyes.
We may not know.
We cannot tell what pains he had to
bear.
But some believe it was for us he
hung and suffered there.
And in that darkness, there's the offering of
a soul for sin.
He made his soul the offering for our
sin.
And the way back over the centuries, we're
hearing the voice of the prophet.
Oh, we like sheep have gone astray.
He has turned everyone to his own way.
And the Lord has caused to meet on
him.
The judgment of us all.
All the sins of next day are, and
we're sinners, God judges.
For no wonder the cry went up.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me?
And then the clouds were broken.
And our Lord, knowing that all things were
now of concrete, landed back in his blessed
mind for the 69th time.
Remember there was one thing to be fulfilled
in the great prophecy.
I saw the Roman soldier dip the sponge
in vinegar and held it up to his
lips.
And then he had received the vinegar.
He said, it is finished.
It is done.
God is heard and dismissed his spirit.
Alexander White, the great minister of judges, was
holding a little service in his own home.
The usual day-by-day family worship.
And they came up against the cross.
And Alexander White turned to his young son
of four years of age and whispered to
him, my boy, do you know what a
cross is?
Oh yes, father, he said, is that the
ladder on which we shall march to heaven?
Ah, my son, said Alexander White, when you
are as old a sinner as your father
is, you will know experimentally the truth of
what has been.
Oh, safe and happy shelter.
Oh, refuge, pride and sweet.
Oh, trusting place where heaven's love and heaven's
justice meet.
As to the holy patriarch, that wondrous dream
was given.
So seems my Savior's cross to me, a
ladder up to heaven.
Do you believe in what Christ did upon
that cross that you might have righteousness?
I give you one verse from Paul's mastery
writings in 2nd Corinthians 5.
He who knew no sin was made sin
for us, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him.
I go anchored in the fact of the
fact, anchored in the truth of the gospel
of the cross.
Thank God, great things happen, ain't them?
Thank God that old Dr. Samuel Johnson, who
was a walking encyclopedia for his knowledge, people
were afraid to ask him too many questions
lest they get caught themselves.
He knew something about everything, and many things
about all spheres of life.
And then he came to die, as we'll
all have to come to what the Lord
tells.
And then he said to his doctor, Doctor,
believe a man dying, there is no salvation
save in the sacrifice of the Lamb of
God.
That's the truth.
I want to tell you young man at
the back, dear young lassie in the front,
dear friend in this gathering, there is no
salvation save in the sacrifice of the Lamb
given to you.
That's how it is to finish work, you
can't add to it.
It's righteousness, made the righteousness of God in
him.
Of course we must come to a third
test, and apparently they're going to a garden
with some women I meet today, and they're
dear women, and they're longing to announce the
body of the great prophet, whom they believe
must have been the Messiah, but he's been
killed at the cross, or he's died at
the cross, and they're wondering who will roll
away the stone they're saying to one another.
And I fancy possibly, you know, one said,
oh if only Peter was here, he'd be
able to push that stone away, and another
said, well of course if Peter and John
were both here, they might push it away,
it's a tremendous stone.
Whoever will push away that stone, I fear
women don't pray.
Look, it's rolled away.
The angels that were standing to attention from
the beginning of the crisis in Gethsemane, more
than 72,000 angels, they're in action now,
and the rock has been thrown aside, and
one has sat upon it in contempt.
And two angels are in the chapel there,
and they say to the women, why is
she still living amongst the dead?
She is not here, she has risen.
Don't you remember what he said when he
was with you?
That the Son of Man would suffer many
things and be killed as well?
The third goes, oh wonderful fruit of God,
that is risen from the dead to fulfill
the Old Testament scripture of long, long ago,
possibly a thousand years back, that the stone
that the builders refused has become the headstone
of the corner.
This is the Lord's doing.
It's marvelous in our eyes.
This is the triageous, wonderful declaration of his
own power as God, and his own victory
through Calvary, alive and ascending to make intercession
for us according to the will of God.
The resurrection was a blessed truth, that you
got your anchor fast in faith, you believe
in the deity of Christ, you believe in
the redemptive sacrifice that he took your place,
bore your judgment on sin, and you receive
him as the righteousness of God, and he's
risen to perfect that salvation, yonder in the
glory, ever living to make intercession for his
own.
You believe it?
No!
You say you don't believe it?
You take God as lies in this matter?
Oh no, friend.
God save you from calling your creator a
liar.
This is God's gospel.
This is God's renewal, grand and glorious for
every heart, as by the donkey cross before
us the other day, grand and glorious, good
news.
We receive with gratitude indeed, faith.
Faith.
Well, here's something that will close the faith
story, and finish soon in a few quarters
of an hour about the message.
Captain Davis was an explorer, and he was
years away from England.
But when he came back, he was full
of joy.
He was going to meet his wife, Faith
Davis, and the four boys that he loved.
And he reached the outskirts of his town,
and met one of his townsfolk that he'd
known from times gone past, and shook hands
with him, and was welcomed by John.
He said, is it you boys?
Why, yes, you've changed so much, you've been
away so long.
He said, yes, I know, I know.
I said, have you heard the news?
I heard of you, John.
What he said, not my wife, Faith, taken
by the pestilence.
Good God, it was so, said the man.
A town girl named Millburn has been about
while you were away, and run away with
your faith, robbed you of your faith.
The poor captain gripped the hand of his
friend, stunned by the awful news, and then
he said, rob me of my faith.
No, God in heaven, Lord in heaven, I
have faith in thee, and I shall keep
faith in thee, blow what blows their will
in a naughty night.
I don't know what you understand by a
naughty night, but I can tell you we
may be facing a nice experience in this
world.
I tell you that lawlessness abounds.
I tell you that error is on every
side.
I tell you that tribulation might be near
at hand when some that love the Lord
and are entombed at the touch of the
firstborn are caught away.
Oh, my friend, there might be a naughty
night just round the corner in 1968.
Is your anchor holding, and will it hold
when the night comes?
And with faith, confession.
Confession.
Of course, no.
The right air you believe in your heart,
you must confess it with your mouth.
Didn't they all do it?
When the Lord met Nathanael, told him about
the fish-tree, where he'd seen him possibly
in prayer, Nathanael was astonished and said, Rabbi,
thou art the Son of God, thou art
the King of Israel.
When our Lord said to his disciples, who
say ye that I am?
Peter said, thou art the Queen, the Son
of the Living God.
Laughter thou now, Simon, by Jonah.
When Thomas saw the Prince of the Nails,
as we heard about this morning, and the
gas in the sight of our Lord, he
had one outburst of confession, and my Lord,
my God.
When the apostle Paul was gloriously in the
grace of God, what did he say?
Quiet is written, I believe, therefore have I
spoken.
We, having the same Spirit of Christ, we
also believe and therefore speak.
Do we?
Are we witnesses for him?
Are we confessors of Christ before a world
that despises the name and the sacrifice?
About twenty-odd years ago, twenty-two years
ago, I was in a boxing stadium, not
to see a boxing fight, but to hear
a magnificent hero give the story of the
defense of Malta in the Second World War.
Lieutenant General Sir William Darby, and he told
the story in his own way of the
grand defense and deliverance of God, and then
he said, now ladies and gentlemen, I want
to tell you of my own testimony.
I received Jesus Christ as my own personal
Savior when I was a boy of fifteen,
and I have served him all through my
army life.
No easy place to be a Christian there,
and though I cannot hope to describe to
you all that my Savior is to me,
but I would humbly and very earnestly commend
my Savior to each one of you.
The vast congregation of some thirteen thousand stood
as the hero of Malta walked out, and
about three or four days later, about that
time, I was having a personal, private conversation
with Lieutenant General Sir William Darby, as I
knew him fairly well by correspondence during the
war, and I was a chaplain, and he
handed over to me, he said, read that,
Mr. Ridley.
That is from, and he named, a field
marshal of the British Army, and I read
something like this.
Memory, you know, fails with me often now,
but I think I'm nearly right, nearly at
the accurate word, who said, and Darby, now
you're going to retire from the active list.
I want to tell you that your stand
for Christ, and your witness for Christ, I
have admired tremendously.
You have stood for him so grandly, and
your witness has been such a testimony to
people in the Army.
Of course, Darby, you must recognize I'm reserved.
I expect, I believe what you do, but
I don't talk about it.
Well, field marshal, will that be an excuse
in the glory?
I'm reserved.
I don't like to talk about it.
I don't want to bring Christ to the
front.
Well did Dr. Corrie say, and I'm glad
to mention his name tonight, that worthy successor
to D.
L.
Moody, Dr. Reuben Corrie.
Well did he once say, and under that
same man, H.
P.
Smith, one time, secretly for many years of
this convention, was wonderfully converted, and from members
of his family.
Well did Dr. Corrie say, any supposed genuine
faith, that does not confess Jesus Christ, will
not be stuck to me.
And what is far more, will have no
stock with Jesus Christ.
For if you're going to be saved, said
Darby, or rather said Reuben Corrie, if you're
going to be saved, then you've got to
confess to the world that Savior, and you've
got to do it with your mouth.
Oh, but you say, preacher, I can live
a life that is a confession of Christ.
You have to never mention Christ, and you'll
be wonderfully praised, of course, by people, and
you'll get all the praise yourself, and the
Lord Jesus Christ won't get any praise at
all.
And your life's grand is at my feet,
because your mouth has been closed, and you
were not brave enough to confess.
For their great loss is not to your
soul, but certainly to your reward.
Because, here I want to give you just
reason, as I gather to the close, what
great expositors of the scripture have said.
The confession with the mouth here in view,
is surely nothing less than the believer's open
loyalty to Christ.
The loyalty of the whole man to Jesus
Christ.
Again, in some articulate way, we must confess
Him, or we are not treading the path.
Where the shepherd leads the sheep, Dr. Hanley
Mould of Durham, no mean expositor of the
Word of God, listens to another great teacher.
But secret beliefs will not suffice.
Within it must the profession of that belief
remain, as the indispensable condition to salvation.
As a wise translation of Romans 10 and
9, to his paraphrase, again, Dr. David Brown
said, this confession of Christ's name is an
indispensable test of discipleship.
As soon as we all might be ashamed,
come to Jesus Christ and say, too far
I don't want to hear what God has
said, or what David Brown said, or what
Corrie said.
I only want to know what the Bible
says, what Jesus said.
That's all I want to know in this
matter.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the
mouth spits it.
And once the heart has received Christ by
faith, there's a splash and the second dance
is in because you can't keep it back.
You must grip for Christ.
You must whip your sword.
Listen again to Jesus.
No man lights a candle and then puts
it under a vessel, or under a bed,
but on a candlestick for the most holy
light and glory in the house.
We are the light of the world, by
the light that's unvioled, that shines, again and
most definitely and gloriously.
Whomsoever shall confess me before men, him, him,
him, will I confess before my Father which
is in heaven, but whosoever will deny me
before men, and as Crosby rightly said, there's
practically no difference between denial and ignoring him.
Whosoever will deny me before men, him will
I also deny before my Father in heaven.
This is the challenge that brought a young
man of 18 to Christ, dropped on the
verge of sailing over to with the first
day IS, the challenge to stand up and
confess the Lord openly and be a witness
to Christ.
And when he heard it ring through to
the first time in grand preaching around the
coming of Christ, his own heart wanted to
confess that it failed in charity.
And he passed through the agony and an
awful conviction of corruption and cowardice and sin,
and returned to that place and sat underneath
the great priesthood again and heard the great
challenge and great truth.
Came right out, right to the front, took
the priesthood hand, and the burden of sin
rolled away, rolled away.
And the young man of 18 went overseas
and within a few months was on the
verge of eternity, with the battle wound and
the one thing that gave comfort, he had
accepted by faith the soldier into his heart
and he confessed him by the mouth and
by the open stand.
And God cannot lie.
And so he went on until tonight.
We once wrote these few words, great confession,
great confession, which the world detests to see,
but great confession, great confession, Jesus, I would
stand for thee, on the cross thou didst
confess me, I would never forget thy love,
great confession will I give thee, here on
earth, and then above, above in the glory.
You know, dear friends, that I believe I
would have broken through the first night I
heard the challenge of the gospel, if I'd
been asked by the preacher just to ask
for prayer.
So they didn't do it.
And my courage wilted.
I couldn't just make the open door.
And that's why in my own love of
evangelism, I tried to help people to come
to the place of great confession and heart
acceptance of Christ, through many struggles and battles
and failures and fights and victories, I tried
to help people to get from God the
Holy Spirit, the power, the power to confess
the failure, the renewal in the heart that
longs to own him constantly, and out of
the fullness of the heart that it knows
what it costs Jesus to make the sinner
whole.
He also will get back the good confession
of a faithful heart, even in a little
place dated time.
That's why I'm going to ask us to
battle in a few moments time in prayer.
And I'm going to ask those of you
who feel tonight that you've never really broken
through with the great confession, and you've not
really crossed the anchor of faith, and you'll
be able to stand and to hold fast
whatever happens till the day dawns and you'll
with Christ.
And also there'll be some Christians amongst us
who were once great witnesses for Christ, who
could talk about the confession they made five
years ago, ten years ago, we're not going
out to tell the world now of Jesus
Christ.
If I'd like you to pray for me,
Brother Vidley, please pray for me tonight, that
I might have the courage and the grace
of God given, not only to believe in
him, but also to boast in him, who
is the Savior of my soul.
May God bless you.
Let us bow together quietly in prayer, our
heads bowed, and just for a few moments,
it's a vast company, but God's eyes can
see in every direction.
Our Lord Jesus can see, and I'm going
to open my eyes after a few moments
of quietness, and I'm going to look for
those who would ask for prayer tonight, that
they may be anchored with the two-sheet
anchor of the soul, faith and confession.
We're bowed quietly in God's presence.
Would you lift your hand quietly, just where
you are, if you feel at this moment
you would like to be prayed for, that
God's gracious spirit might work in your heart.
Lift it up clearly that I may see
and commend you to God in a word
of prayer.
Just lift that hand up because I'm watching.
Thank God.
Thank you.
God bless you.
Yes, down in the corner, quite enough.
Thank you.
Several down here at the front.
Thank God.
Lift your hand up and then lower it,
but lift it up.
Thank you.
Up here.
Thank you, my brother.
Fine.
Someone up on the left here.
Thank you, sister.
God bless you.
Someone else, just before I pray.
Yes, thank you, my brother, on the right.
That's fine.
Out in the open, God's in tune.
The Lord is watching.
Lift your hand up quietly.
Thank you, that brother right at the back.
That's fine.
The Lord bless your heart.
Someone else that would say, well, I'm a
Christian, brother, but I've fallen down under witness
to Christ.
Oh, pray for me tonight, but I don't
do it right away from confessing Christ.
Thank you.
God bless your heart.
Thank you.
God bless you.
Thank you, those friends in the corner.
I'm watching.
One small up the side.
Thank you, Bessie.
Thank you, my lady.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mother Bessie.
God bless you.
Up on this other side, everyone.
Thank you, my dear friend.
God bless you.
I'm about to pray.
I might have missed you.
The Lord hasn't missed you.
I pray a brief prayer.
We're going to sing a hymn.
I'm going to ask those of you who've
asked for prayer to do something while we're
singing that hymn.