Now, I know what you're saying tonight.
You're saying, I wish I could have lived
in those days when Jesus came.
In fact, we have a dear song in
our songbooks, and it's all right far as
it goes.
I think when I read that sweet story
of old, when Jesus was here among men,
how he called little children his lambs to
his fold.
I should like to have been with him
then.
Well, that's all right, but, may I remind
you tonight, if you're sitting back there saying,
wouldn't it have been wonderful to be somewhere
when Jesus was there, may I remind you
that he's here now?
Do you believe that?
If I could get one church full of
folks that actually believed that verse, where two
or three have gathered in my name, I
am there.
I don't know when we'd get out of
here tonight.
But we don't believe it.
We've heard it too much.
Now, some fellow across the ocean that hasn't
heard it, why, that'll keep him awake, puts
us to sleep.
We've heard it too much.
Evan Roberts of the Welsh Revival, my, how
God used him, but it got so the
people waited for him to come, they didn't
think you could have a revival until Evan
Roberts was there.
So one night he came, and a great
crowd was there, and he walked out on
the platform and said, How many of you
believe that where two or three are gathered,
the Lord is there?
Amen!
Well, he said, Do you believe he's here
tonight?
Amen!
Well, he said, Then you don't need me.
And he put on his hat and coat
and left.
That was a dramatic way of driving this
truth home.
I've quit a long time ago saying, Lord,
be with us in the meeting.
I hear somebody nearly every time say, Lord,
be with us.
Now, I think I know what they mean.
I think they mean make us aware of
thy presence and conscious of thy presence.
But he's here.
He's right here tonight.
And the thing that I hope you noticed
about these folks I've mentioned is that nearly
every one of them was desperate.
Now, we don't have many people today in
holy desperation to get through to God.
They get desperate and get drunk and take
drugs and kill themselves and everything else.
All the way through the Bible, Jacob at
Jabbok, Moses at the Red Sea, Gideon, David
and Goliath, the lepers in the gates of
Samaria, Balaam, Eustace, Araphanes, and the woman and
the judge in the parable, and the man
that had no bread at midnight for his
guests.
Every one of them desperate.
But there was one chap who stood head
and shoulders above all those folks who missed
his blessing while they got theirs.
He was the rich young ruler.
Now, the trouble with that boy was he
was not desperate.
He could take it or leave it.
And as long as you can take it
or leave it, you of old folks can
leave it every time.
He looked like he meant business, but he
didn't.