I would direct you please in our closing
message to a defense from the Scripture for
evangelism as we know it today.
That is the type of evangelism that Jimmy
Graham practices, which Moody practices, Polly, Chapman, and
to some smaller, very much smaller ways, I
have practiced myself.
That is to speak for the world and
ask for a victorious confession on the behalf
of...
Now some people don't like that, they say
well it's emotionalism.
People go forward, move by the impulse of
the moment and then they go back afterwards.
It's just a passing day and it's a
disappointment to them.
Well I know that even in the days
of our Lord some went back and walked
no more rigid.
I know that in the days of Paul
he lamented that all them of Asia have
turned against me.
Though that that is always true, I'm scared
that the Scripture is true.
Christ does not give countenance to the open
confession of Christ.
You may have your feelings about it and
opinions and you may be right to them.
It's all right of mine because I've proved
the value of the open confession of Christ
not only in my ministry but in my
own personal experience of conversion.
But after all, doesn't matter much what I
say or what you say, it matters especially
what the Lord Jesus has to say about
open confession of himself.
Listen to two verses from the Gospel, Matthew
10, 32-33.
Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him
will I confess also before my Father which
is in heaven.
But whosoever shall deny me before men, him
will I also deny before my Father which
is in heaven.
And our Lord Jesus Christ never leaves us
in doubt when dealing with God's eternal truth.
I'm quite prepared to say he leaves us
in doubt concerning some minor matters in the
Christian world and works, but never in a
major matter.
Quite clearly and strictly he speaks about my
Father in heaven.
And then just as clearly he speaks about
our attitude to him and consequently to his
Father.
He takes up a wonderful word, I spoke
about it last Sunday night, Whosoever makes you
anointed and then hath pleasure his Father, for
it is.
Because you see, he was never obliged of
pleasure or criticism or condemnation.
He came to give his Father's message to
the world.
Shall confess me before men, him, that very
confessor will I confess also before my Father
which is in heaven.
That's an old order, my friends.
That's the order of sowing and then reaping
the harvest.
It's the order of investing and then drawing
the dividends.
I would say to you, sow and keep
on sowing confessions of Christ before men, and
you'll reap the great confession by Christ the
Father and the Holy Angel.
I would say invest confessions to Christ to
the uttermost, and you'll be reaping in, gathering
in the dividends, all down the corridor of
the determined.
Then our Lord turned to the negative side
because he was always fully balanced, not lost
either, perfectly balanced.
He turned to the negative side, Whosoever the
praise of his gracious word, like me, me,
like me, you, personally.
It certainly means everyone here and everywhere else,
right?
Whosoever shall deny me before men, him, that
very denier, will I also deny before my
Father which is in heaven.
So, any poor, puny, passing popularity, who I
may see today by denying Christ, may it
be perhaps a blasphemous denial, a blasphemous denial,
a silent denial, a violent denial.
It might even be a religious denial of
Christ.
Before men will be more than outweighed when
Christ denies you or me before the Father
in heaven.
The Father, the Lord Jesus Christ promises, and
his promises are all powerful.
He will confess every humble confession of sin
on earth before men, at last before the
Father and the angels in heaven.
And the Lord Jesus Christ warns, is warning
the waiting, that he will deny every denier
of him before me in the presence of
the Father and of the holy angels.
Am I right in saying that the real
evangelist, the true evangelist, has his utmost, or
should do his utmost, and
given him a name which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess.
Now great consequences, dear friends, hinge in hand
on the great confession.
You might say, well, preacher, what do you
mean by confession of Christ?
Thank you for that question.
That's what I wanted.
Truth is, truth is, I mean confession of
Christ is the completion of the soul's conversion
to God.
And our Lord once said, except ye be
converters and become as little children, you shall
not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
You may enter many other places, but except
ye be conned together, conned together with Christ
to God, you shall not enter heaven.
Or faithfully as they tell me, how am
I converted?
You are converted by two spiritual forces working
on your souls.
The word God is truth, not the opinions
of men, not my ideas.
The word of God sits terrible, sharper than
any two-edged sword.
It's truth and hope.
Hope cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God.
And as the word of God speaks into
the heart, with the heart, man believeth unto
righteousness.
That's what we read in Romans 10.
Note, man does not build himself into righteousness,
with one good work upon another good work,
one merit upon another, until he gets right
up at last to a righteousness.
He doesn't build himself to righteousness.
However kind he is to his neighbor, and
thoughtful of others, note that man, that's a
very good thing if you do give a
large donation to your church, and another donation
to the salvation of heaven, or to righteousness.
Thy money perish with thee, saith Simon Peter,
because thou hast sought the gift of God
to be prosperous with money.
You don't buy yourself to righteousness.
Nor can you beautify yourself to righteousness with
all the spiritual cosmetics in the world.
You can put on a papal countenance, you
can put on a pious garb, you can
put on all that's possible in the way
of a kind of ritual, and beautify your
life with every effort of piety possible, that
does not bring righteousness.
Because the word of God says, man with
the heart, feel not unto righteousness.
Abraham believed God, and it was counted that
way for righteousness.
I put my trust in Peter, I believe
the word of Jesus, I receive the faith,
it's counted to me to righteousness.
Then I say, Peter, I'm all right, I've
got a nice, quiet heart, believing Jesus Christ,
but I don't believe in all this putting
up your hand, and standing to your feet,
and going to the cross anymore.
After all, you see, I've got the quiet
heart to me, and that's the thing that
counts.
But you're cutting on my trust.
Wait till I finish my text, it's in
Romans 10.
With the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, and,
and I went to school there, I went
to St. Johnston, drawing two sentences together, and
I think it's still there, drawing two sentences
together, and, with the mouth, confession is made,
unto salvation, and what God hath drawn together,
let not man pull asunder.
And that's what thousands of people who profess
to be Christians try to do, they pull
asunder.
The heart believes from the mouth, confession.
Now, whatever a man believes to be with
his heart, he's glad enough to confess with
his mouth, or, in some other way, that
will permit it to be known.
I understand, I don't generally attend pictures, I
haven't for many, many years, but I understand
there's a picture that has been displayed lately
on Ross Bridge, in Missouri, Ross.
I studied that in the days of my
preparation for the army, I know that it
was at Ross Bridge, and I'm not saying
it isn't, but when Lord Chelmsford marched to
the relief of Ross Bridge, because he knew
that Ross Bridge was surrounded by thousands of
murderous humans and being held by a little
group of talented soldiers, when he marched to
their relief, early in the morning, they could
see in the distance the blazing fire of
the hospital that had brought fire from the
house, and he feared that he was fired
to death there, and the staff officers took
their binoculars to Ross Bridge, and suddenly one
of the officers called out, My Lord, the
British flag!
Now, he knew well enough that if the
Zulus had captured Ross Bridge, the first thing
that had been torn down would have been
the flag.
The flag contested the identity of the house,
the building, or the battleship, or the house
that Ross Bridge was.
When I walked out of Union Station, Washington,
D.C., for the first time, I stood
still for a moment to his flag, flag
poles, to the lovely stars and striped flag
flying in the sky.
They were confessing that Washington, D.C. belonged
to the United States in the violent riots.
And the flag contested the identity of the
place, the house, or perhaps the producer or
the battleship that we defended.
Once it's captured, the flag goes down.
God has given us a banner that it
might be displayed because of the truth.
It might be unfurled because of the truth.
I want to tell you this, that the
flag confesses the association.
Now my father used to wear the old
-fashioned kind of waistcoat with the old-fashioned
rock-coat, a drafty waistcoat.
And hanging from the waistcoat there was a
little bag with a square and a compass.
And as a little boy I used to
wonder what it was.
Later on I came to recognize it was
the bag from the Masonic Separatists.
And my father wasn't ashamed to have it
dangling from his waistcoat.
In the days of the Second World War
a number of women could be seen with
a little silver brooch and a red cross
right in the center of it.
They were members of the Red Cross Society
and a splendid society it is.
And numbers of men can be found in
the streets of your great city and elsewhere
just wearing one of those bags that are
termed Servicemen's Bag.
Soldiers, sailors, or airmen are out of hell
bags.
I out of hell just as a matter
of course because it's nice to meet an
ex-serviceman.
I remember once when my wife and I
were playing the whole of the local air
music away out in the wild west at
a little western township.
And a couple of fellows came down the
street.
We're across this business all right they said.
We're being dignified.
My wife trying a little all of them.
Myself standing there the only member of the
party.
And as they came down to his friends
they said get in, get in he's a
giver.
He's quite glad to have a bag.
There's something for the...
The ex-serviceman considers this a holiday.
When I was a young man somewhere for
about 30 or 40 miles along the oil
that they had in those days was blasting
waste water every two yards.
Everybody dosed on them for Kobe's own.
Everybody dosed on them for Kobe's own for
about 30 miles.
He's been prattling and he's got an old
tin rug on and this old winter weather
and he's got a bit of soot in
his eyes because he looked out of the
window once and it's the old days when
those trains are made back.
They are in the teens of this century
and he's quite happy to see the stuff
in his eyes and Martin and the tears
falling down and the next he's actually when
he's done and the great dawn of life
comes the day's right as it's flashing on
the train past Pembroke up.
Everybody dosed on them for Kobe's own.
Everybody dosed on them every moment and
he hurries
in and has a walk and sits down
for breakfast and he puts down before him
a cup of tea and he looks at
the place and the tea and he says
well haven't you got anything else for breakfast?
And he said no.
What do you want?
Well I thought you might have some Uncle
Kobe's oats or something I don't feel for
breakfast whenever I have a cake over.
That's how he might have had such
a good occasion to
have breakfast.
And he says for breakfast whenever I have
a cake over.
such a good occasion to have And he
says well I don't feel for breakfast whenever
I have That's how he might such a
good breakfast.
And he says well I don't feel for
breakfast whenever I have a cake over.
And he
goes
and puts a cup of tea well I
don't feel for breakfast whenever I have Uncle
Kobe's or something That's how such a good
feel but to hide behind any excuse rather
than give Christ the glory.
When silent Peter joined up his heart and
his head and said, Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the Living God, Jesus said,
Merciful are Thou, Simon, son of Jonah.
Blessed, blessed will be it for you, but
you are merciful, my Father hath shown you.
Now I want the blessing of God.
I want it more than any gift anyone
can give me.
I want the blessing of God.
I know how to get it.
You honour the Son.
You honour the Son of God.
You pay tribute to God manifest in the
flesh.
You give humble, open confession to Jesus Christ
and one day you'll hear, Simon, ye messenger
of my Father, Simon.
It's from brilliant conversion.
And then the second point is that it's
the challenge of Jesus Christ himself.
Three mass remarks, Luke and John, with your
eye open for the challenge.
River, Jesus is speaking.
What speak ye of Christ?
Whom shall we see?
A baby.
Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
To it is all that I might believe
on him.
Thou hast both seen him and heard him.
Is it he that speakest to me?
Lord, it is he.
And he worships him.
Again.
Loveth thou me more than thee.
Yea, Lord.
Thou knowest the day that's due.
For us, I'm confident, Lord.
Be mighty.
Feed my land.
Feed my people.
Again.
Whom do men say that I am?
For us, I said, well, one said that
you're Eliza.
Why did another one say that he was
John the Baptist?
Well, that's funny.
He's the one who's a disciple.
I heard another say he was Jeremiah.
Well, I heard someone say, well, Lord, come.
Come back again.
It's in the future.
Isn't that true today?
You pick up a magazine and you read
an article.
Here, Professor Dole told me that Jesus Christ
was a philosopher.
And none of the people seldom follow his
philosophy to this day.
Why, he's just a philosopher.
The professor told me that.
Then, maybe, your boy at high school comes
in and says, the teacher gave us a
course about comparative religion today.
And he said, of course, we have to
recognize that Jesus Christ was just the leader
of Christianity at the time of Mohammedan.
Mohammed was the leader of the Mohammedans.
And Confucius.
Ah, the Confucius people.
Yes, he was one of the leaders of
religion.
Ah, see, Jesus Christ was just the leader
of religion.
That's all.
There's a boy back at the teacher at
school, and that's all.
Ah, well, that teacher has an opinion.
And we must respect opinions, that's all fine.
And I know something of this, because I
mingle with men, I've been in talks with
men, I've heard men talk.
Listen.
Jesus Christ, they say, in an article.
After all, he's only a socialist.
So I'm going to know he's a communist.
The only communists we ever really had.
Oh, Jesus Christ of Communism.
Anti-Christ Communism.
Being attributed to the Christ of God.
He's a Christ of socialism.
Being attributed as a socialism.
As a leader of religion.
As a philosopher.
Listen, says Jesus, whom do you say that
I am?
Now leave the other people alone.
Whom do you say I am?
My friend in this building tonight, it doesn't
matter much what the philosopher or rather the
professor says.
It doesn't matter much what the man at
the street corner has said.
Or what the teacher has said.
Whom do you say that Christ is?
Thou art the Christ, says Jesus.
Thou art the Messiah.
Thou art the God anointed one.
Left the dark past.
I am.
God so loved.
Now if you've got to give that confession.
You've got to have the courage to give
it.
You've got to have the grace of God
to give it.
The Father must reveal it to you through
his word.
Look at that crowd of people going up
in the gates of our Lord's ministry.
Do you see them gathered round him?
Do you see his kindly way?
Do you notice how he touches one and
he's healed with delight?
Do you notice how he comforts another?
And his gladness comes to the face?
Do you notice how some of those who
are on cricket move in?
And take some notes of what he's saying
and thrust it back to him.
But look at that poor woman.
She's sweeping round and trying to push it
and they're pushing her back.
And she's coming round him.
They're pushing her back again.
Poor woman.
Well dear, the sufferer.
All our money spent on the position.
Still that awful grain of your blood.
Oh, if I could only wish him.
If I could only touch him.
A few of the garments have grown out.
The least of garments.
And he took her hand too.
And touched it, the fringe of his garment.
She doesn't.
Oh, she's cured.
The blood is strong.
She's ripped back.
That's all she wanted.
Right back into the crowd.
Who touched me?
Oh.
All I am.
And then suddenly Peter said.
Well, they're all pressing you.
The multitude is pressing you.
And you tell me who touched you.
Someone has touched me.
I can see the blood.
It's gone out of me.
Who touched me?
Oh, my friend.
I'd like to read it to you from
the word of God.
I wonder if you'd accept it any better
if I read it to you than repeated
it.
I'm so apt just to speak right off
this word at the moment.
But listen.
And Jesus said, somebody has touched me.
But I should see the blood too.
It's gone out of me.
And when the woman saw that she was
not healed.
She came trembling and falling down before him.
She declared unto him before all the people.
For what cause she had touched him.
And how she was healed immediately.
And he said unto her.
Daughter, be of good comfort.
Thy faith hath made thee whole.
Go in peace.
Oh, I'm listening.
Go in peace.
What did you do that for, Lord Jesus?
Why did you embarrass her like that?
She didn't want to come out in front
of all the people.
She didn't want to be so embarrassed and
upset as to move right to the front
and crawl at your feet like that.
That's emotionalism.
And the prayer.
It's a law for what reason she's touched
him.
And what blessing she's received.
Daughter, be of good comfort.
Go in peace.
Is that all you wanted?
She got all she wanted.
She got a cure.
She didn't want to say any more.
She wanted to go and get the concession.
Jesus wouldn't let her.
If you get the cure, then confess me.
If you get the concession, then confess me.
Give me the honor to, under thy name,
to die for thee.
I will wash thy cure at a place
called Calvary.
I will cure thy regression in the drops
of my secret sludge.
Art thou estranged with me?
Wilt thou not thank me before the fire?
And honor me before the world?
I don't mind when you're forsaken, Christian, or
a non-Christian.
I want to tell you, my brother, my
sister, wherever you go, you'll meet the challenge
of Jesus Christ.
The confession or the knowledge.
One or the other.
My doctor friend who treated me in my
first breakdown told me this.
He said, John, at the close of the
cricket season, we had a cricket banter.
And after we had a wonderful spread, the
congregation came over about to sing.
And I listened.
It was a parody.
I'm nearer, my God, to thee.
I rose from my chair.
I walked straight to the door.
I got outside the door and the chairman
was on my heels.
Doctor, he said, you're not leaving us like
this, are you?
Well, he said, I'm not going to decline
and hear my Savior insulted in that manner.
Yes, but only if you'll permit me to
carry me where I rest the time.
Oh, my God, I've got time to finish
a cricket banter.
All right, I am going.
Good night, Mr. Chairman.
That's grand loyalty to Christ.
That's what that noble man in old England,
who when he was converted, truly converted to
Christ, said, well, I'm not going to cut
out all the pleasures of life.
And being so fond of dancing, I shall
certainly take Christ to the dance hall.
And almost immediately after he'd been broken, he
went to one of the great halls of
those days, took his half-knot, walked round
a few times, and then said to her,
have you ever come to Christ as your
personal Savior?
She brushed away.
This is not the time.
You're pressed to talk that kind of thing,
she said.
He led her to the side, placed her
down at her feet and said, well, I
don't think this is the place for me.
And he left the ballroom forever.
And a certain man wrote this little verse
on him.
He died a shameful death on Calvary, that
I, a drinking sinner, might go free.
And yet you silence me and blushing face.
This is not the time nor place to
talk that way.
Again, sure, it's not the place for me.
And I tell you, you want me to
go to a place where you can't confess
Christ if you're a little thirsty.
But if you confess your Savior mentally, if
you confess your Savior heroically, you might be
used greatly in most difficult places.
When I go to a reunion of my
old battalion, my old comrades will bear me
witness that my pockets are generally full of
my tracks, and that I'm asked to give
a toast to the fallen comrades.
I must forget that my comrades need Christ,
the survivors of my battalion.
It's my opportunity because I love those men.
I've fought with them in the hardest places
of the field, and I'd give anything to
see them saved by Christ.
I was one of the fools of my
life when an officer came up only a
couple of years ago who had ordered me
out of the line when I had sprained
feet and dead drunk.
I've come to accept your cue after all
these years.
My wife and I have been foolish and
broke.
And we can see things now as you
told us years ago in the old days.
Who can tell what a faithful confessing will
do?
I want to say that the challenge of
the New Testament, the challenge of the Gospels
especially, and specifically of Christ, is to open
confession.
And I was wonderfully helped by a brother
Christian sleeping on a floor like this in
a hut at Liverpool at the beginning of
my soldier experience in the first area.
When he said, John, did you ever read
the last few verses of John 14?
I said, read them to me, boss.
And he read them to me, and he
came to the word, the peace of this
world cometh and hath nothing in me but
that the world that I love the Father.
And as the Father gave me commandment, even
so I...
Bob turned to me and he said, John,
don't you think it's Jesus?
For the world should know that He loves
the Father, that as a ministering world should
know that we love Him.
That was a good word, my friend.
I never forgot it.
That was a blushing of foolishness in my
mind.
All whosoever should be ashamed of me that
hath mine words in this adulterous and of
him also that hath the Son of man,
be ashamed, for he cometh in the glory
of his Father with the Holy Angel.
No wonder the great Lutheran commentator, Bengal, said,
all should be put to shame before God.
Angels and the spirits of the dust may
burn.
That'll be saying all right.
I want to gather up my message by
saying, what are the consequences of great possessions
or great denial?
Bear me a few minutes, please.
Whosoever confesses, I will confess.
Unconditionally, no.
Whosoever denies, I will deny.
On day night and as far as I
can read the New Testament, it's eternal.
How strong that is.
And I thank God for that hymn we
sang that night when I had kept my
feet because I thought I was a good
enough Christian, because I was a light bearer
of a Sunday school and was linked up
more or less with the church of God,
when that preacher said, hand your frequent and
fast quotes as a personal favor.
Rise up now.
And I put my head down and the
old enemy said, keep your feet.
Well, all right.
You don't need to stand.
You don't need to do it.
All that I want to know, I want
you to keep your feet.
And then by God's divine direction, he said,
we'll sing the last move.
612.
And I was standing up and I was
singing my condemnation.
Jesus.
And John of Abbotsworth.
A mortal man who breathed by the breath
of his mouth.
Ashamed to breathe.
Ashamed to be humane to stone.
Who slowly shrunk to endless death.
God's shadow has pierced my heart.
I was on my feet the next day
and by God.
And stood before Christ before the last one.
I want to say to you there are
people ashamed of Jesus, but they're not ashamed
of lesser people.
Oh, they're shut up.
The bonny baby there who's six months, but
he's a lovely boy with bright cheeks, lovely
smile.
And then meet an old friend who hasn't
seen the baby.
Nice man.
Oh, good man.
An old man, friendly man.
And he comes across and he says, is
this your new baby?
Yes, he says, let me see it.
Ready to steady the most lovely baby I've
seen.
Don't feed, don't feed, don't feed the sheep.
You must feed him well.
Oh, he said the same old thing, you
know.
But then you listen to this.
You notice, I think he's the nicest baby
I've seen for months and years.
Now I say to her, Mrs, who do
you mean that?
She says, women, that's who.
Oh, I say, well I believe it too.
That's lovely.
Now God bless her.
And all he does is whine.
And she goes on about his baby.
Oh, she knew all the time.
She had the best baby in the world.
And now that's coming to be the text
of it.
Mother, you're just as proud of those guys
of Bethlehem.
Born to raise the sons of God.
Born to give them second birth.
You're just as proud, aren't you?
Father's the nicest.
Why, it's a great day for him.
He can hardly do any work.
Their only boy, their only child, Tom, had
got right through with his medical course when
he was a doctor.
And the father's so happy.
He goes from one thing to another in
the office.
And then suddenly a friend goes to see
him.
Oh, that's a new man too.
Oh, a very high man in the city.
He says, you excuse me for asking you,
but I've just heard the news.
And I want to congratulate you on Tom's
success.
You must be proud of that boy.
Well, a mighty
recognition from England.
A doctor Tom.
Let's thank him.
His father's waiting for the telephone.
Rings through to his wife.
Tells her about that meeting with the good
friend.
And his man knows what he said of
Tom.
And together they console each other.
He's our son, mate.
Father, mother, are you just as proud of
the son of God who came?
The one who was still a child?
Have you ever said anything?
Hallelujah!
What a jolly joy!
Oh, I am proud of Jesus.
My mother told me once that there's a
certain lady that used to do the washing
for her.
She was a poor woman, lived in a
poor part of the city.
The mother said she had one great outstanding,
she was a personal friend, to Victor Trumper,
when he was the champion batsman of Australia,
not of the world at that time.
And mother told me that when she got
to the wash plant on the Monday and
was washing the bikes, everything was in, and
mother was bringing some washed clothes in, she
said, oh, Mrs. Ridley, oh,
a personal friend of ours, a personal friend,
yes, lovely friend of ours, wearing a jacket,
and she said she saw Victor Trumper on
the wash plant, and she knew him so
well, she thought, oh, hang on, Jesus Christ,
that's not so.
Acutely, the conscience of Jesus Christ, or Wesley,
said, I condemn my faithlessness, do it then,
and see that you're proud, you're brave enough
to do it, you're down.
And on the Lord's side, without doubt, you're
a soldier of the cross, and you're going
to get a confession, a confession, a confess
of cruelty, of eternity, and the glad one
of heaven walking through your body.
Oh, yes, you will.
I will confess it before my father and
before the angels.
Isn't that wonderful?
Who so ever denies, I will confess it
before my father and the holy angels.
Oh, Lord, you know this, we're in the
cross, you know this, we'll head right to
you along the way, and then you'll write
to us, you know we've done so much
for you, and it's worked hard, Lord, Lord,
have every one of us said Lord, Lord,
to them for the kingdom, and prayed after
us the will of my father, which is
in heaven.
I will, your confession of me is passed
from me.
I never knew that the truth of the
world, that the cold of the blue day
to the death of the sun, that the
darkest paradise and fever denied by Jesus Christ
and my dearly apostle Paul long years after
Jesus had passed up into the clouds of
glory, that if we denied him, he will
deny us.
I've got an idea of the fact that
Lord, my dear friend, may I pray to
you as I pray to a fellow tonight,
if there's anything that counts in heaven, it's
a humble, honest confession of the Lord Jesus,
who once hung on that cross in agony
and pain and shame for you, once was
made a spectacle to men and angels, the
off-powering of all things, beneath the cross
that was symbolized in the crown of thorns,
but it was for your sake and mine,
he suffered the just for the unjust that
he might bring us to God, and it's
our opportunity now to stand for him, and
if we do stand for him on that
great day, he may stand for us.
I mentioned Gettysburg last week when I came
to propose a commission.
I do the same this week.
A year after Gettysburg, President Lincoln was dedicating
the field at a national memorial to the
United States.
At the close of that busy day, he
took the arm of the governor of Pennsylvania
and commenced the walk into the little church.
I've seen it and went right down the
pathway.
And behind Lincoln, there was an old soldier
of the Union Army who had fought a
whole day at Gettysburg and he followed the
mission ground like a little dog that follows
master all the day.
And as I started to enter the church,
one or two of the attendants pulled him
right out of the line and said, Get
back there.
Look at these faithful devils who come.
You get out of the way.
No, he said, I'm after old Lincoln's men.
You get out of the way.
And they said, and Lincoln's born.
One of the loftiest characters God ever gave
that great country.
And Lincoln said, Well, no.
Oh, that's my man.
He fought a whole day at Gettysburg.
He deserves to be honored by all of
us here.
You let him follow me.
I acknowledge him.
He's my man.
And the attendants fell back and lied aside.
The old soldier stepped in behind this big
man.
Lincoln with a stooped shoulder and he bowed
to the attendants either side and walked in
behind the president because the president was the
first man in the land and the president
had been honored.
I acknowledge him.
When the priest, the king of the earth
said, I will respect you with all my
heart.
All the powers of heaven, all the fears
of earth, all the truth that is undefined
will never, never because the priest of the
kings of the earth, the priest of glory
had said, I acknowledge him because he confessed
me before me.
Great confession.
This the world has had to see.
Great confession.
Jesus, I will stand for thee on the
cross thou didst confess me.
I will never forget thy love.
Great confession that I did do.
Here I am and then above.
Of course, you want to confess him, don't
you?
Now, some of you would like the parents
to do it.
Some of you know it's conversion if you
do it.
Some of you know it's full dedication or
consecration if you'll come up to it only
because you'll find it there more than anywhere
else in the realm of the Christian demise.
Some of you would like to be prayed
for tonight.
I'd love to do it if you'll humble
your hearts and just lift your hands wherever
I need prayer that I might confess thy.
God knows whether it is for your salvation
or whether it is for your restoration from
the far country or whether it's for your
consecration to the great cause of the gospel.
He's going to bless you if you're humble
enough to say that I might be a
hero of heaven.
I might be a true confessor of my
fear that we must start in the grace
to do that.
Let us bow together in prayer for a
few moments.
Now I beg you, bow up
there in the light in the gallery down
below here anywhere where you feel you want
prayer.
Just lift a hand up that I might
pray for you and God will bless you.
Someone else up there will you just say
yes Mr. Whitley, pray for me.
This has been a challenge in my heart
and I want to confess right tonight and
I want to give it God's good Lord
and I want to have it.
Someone else, let's give a nice prayer.
Thank you, God bless you.
Thank you.
Someone else, thank you.
Let us bow together.
Thank you.
Someone else in the body of the cross
would you put your hand up here.
Thank you brother down here.
God bless your name.
Thank you.
And I would ask you to just raise
your hand.
God bless you.
In the quietness.
Thank you Mr. Mill pointing out another one
up there.
Is there someone else?
Put your hand up clearly dear sister.
Good friend.
If you'll let me just praise you.
I thank you sister.
I thank you.
And God bless your heart as he will.
Others might be pleased to raise their hand
while I'm praying.
Just lower it.
God speed the lifted hand.
Our greatest God and Father give to these
friends who have made this request tonight that
wonderful quickening of thy Holy Spirit whatever the
cost or perhaps to renew their confession may
they realize what thou hast made stand for
time and eternity then thus honor me I
will ask they that describe me shall be
rightly esteemed grant confessing grace tonight for the
name and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Thank you.
We'll turn now to that great hymn number
eight.
Stand up.
Could Jesus be told to speak
please to the part.
Yes.
Three or four of us have done or
did a testimony.
Was I to sing this hymn he said
you know and so you who have come
out to the inquiry room before tonight get
on your feet.
Now I get to ask will some of
those who have raised their hands would you
roast your feet and confess for faith or
would you make that great confession just quietly
roast your feet.
You won't be asked to join in this
particular church or you won't return from your
own church.
It may be the first time but the
moment we start to sing come to your
feet.
There are a number of you here on
your feet now sitting down really on your
feet for faith as we sing the hymn.
Perhaps we'll regain attention perhaps open the blessings
of God.
Remember whosoever confesses our guilt and pain God
bless you.
This is the time to believe this hymn.
It will
be glad to make this pandemonium this way
so that you can come to your feet
while they're singing.
Thank you.
Can't amount to denial.
Don't deny Christ.
Never deny Christ.
Whatever it costs you make the great confession.
And you who've had blessing in the mission
renew your vows if God has spoken to
you so will you regain attention confession.
While we're singing this hymn we're so glad
to sing God's word over us.
While we're singing this hymn let us sing
this hymn.